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NATURE 


A WEEKLY 


we 


ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 


VOLUME Sox: 


NOVEMBER 188 to APRIL 1881 


“ To the solid ground 


Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”-—Worpdswortu 


Yondon and Aeto Pork: 
MACMVE LAN AND ‘Co; 


1881 


LONDON : 
R. CLAY, SUNS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C. 


Nature, Furic 9, S81} 


INDEX 


ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY, Duncan’s Herbarium presented to, 252 

Aberdeenshire Agricultural Association, 576 

Aberration of Instinct, Geo. J. Romanes, F.R.S., 4333 Rev. 
T. H. Waller, 484 

Acetous Fermentation, A. Herzen on, 86 

Ackroyd (Wm.), Lecture Representation of the Aurora Borealis, 
458 

Acoustical 
146 

Acoustics in China, John Fryer and Dr. W. H. Stone, 448 

Actinia, Crabs and, Col. H. Stuart-Wortley, 529 

Adams (Prof. W. Grylls, F.R.S.), Scientific Principles involved 
in Electric Lighting, 580, 605 

Aéronautical Society’s Annual Report, 20 

Aéronautics in Russia, 298 

Afghan Campaign, Geographical Results of, Capt. T. H. 
Holdich, 159 

Africa: Dr. Holub’s Proposed Journey across, 22; Rev. T. J. 
Comber’s New Map of, 22; Keith Johnston and J. Thomson’s 
Expedition, 38; Notes on the Geology of East Central, 
Joseph Thomson, 102; J. Thomson’s Report on the East 
‘African Expedition, 134; Geology of East Central, and the 
Subterranean Forest in Bombay, W. T. Blanford, 145; Pro- 
gress of Exploration in, 160; Exploration of the Ogowé and 
Congo, 323; Mitchinson’s ‘‘ Expiring Continent,” 399 ; Birds 
of, 467; E. G. Ravenstein’s Map of Eastern Africa, 518 

Agram, the Earthquakes at, 63, 83, 106, 156, 182, 253, 297, 
419, 439, 492, 516, 530 


« Agricultural Chemistry of Japan, Contributions to,” 456 

Agricultural Association, Aberdeenshire, 576 

Agricultural Communism in Greece, W. Mattieu Williams, 579 

“ Aide-Mémoire du Voyageur,” D, Kaltbrunner, 217 

Air, Analysis of the, at Montsouris, by M. Davy, 63 

Aitken (John), Dust, Fogs, and Clouds, 195, 204, 311, 384 

Albatross, Notes on the Mode of Flight of the, Arthur W. 
Bateman, 125; Howard Sargent, 362 

Alcoholic Liquids, Freezing Points of, M. Raout on, 85 

Algze, 359; of the Gulf of Finland, 494 

Algiers: Observatory, M. Tripier appointed Director of, 107; 
French Association for the Advancement of Science at, 319, 
491, 515, 541; G. F. Rodwell, 582, 606 

Algol in 1880, Minima of, 255, 517 

Alkali and Sulphuric Acid, Prof. Lunge, Prof. H. E. Roscoe, 
F.R.S., 73, 99, 215 

Allen (J. A.), North American Pinnipeds, 261 

Allman (Dr. Geo. J., F.R.S.), Hailstorm in Dorsetshire, 146 

ou (Prof. J. Charles d’), Death of, 63 ; Obituary Notice of, 
to 

Alpine Flowers, Francis Darwin, 333 

Alston (Edward Richard), Obituary Notice of, 485 

Amber, the Collecting of, 298 

American Naturalist, 161, 282, 378, 449, 499 

American Indian Languages, A. H, Keane, 503 

American Entomologist, 321 

American Journal of Science, 402 

Anabzena Living in Botrydium, 158 

Ancient Stone Implements, Modern Use of, D, Budde, 218 

Ancient Monuments, Sir John Lubbock’s Motion on, 467 

Ancient Astronomy, 493 

Anemone, Sir John Dalzell’s, 495 

Animal Reasoning, 219 . 


Constant, Note on an, W. J. Grey and J. T. Dunn, 


Animal Life, Natural Conditions and, Prof. EK. Ray Lankester, 
F.R.S., 405 

Animals, Mind in, Geo. J. Romanes, F.R.S., 501 

Animal Development, Albert Kolliker, 480 

Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 71, 187, 306, 449, 474, 545 

Antarctic Expedition, the Italian, 87 

Anthropolozy : Anthropological Institute, 96, 162, 212, 331, 
403, 450, 475, 499, 571, 620; Presentation of Drawings to, 
by Mr. B. H. Hodgson, F.R.S., 107 5 Prehistoric Anthropology 
of the Crimea, M. Merijkovsky on, 63, 107 ; the Washington 
Society of Anthropology, 84 

Ants, Bees, and Wasps, Observations on, 
F.R.S., 255 

Apprenticeship Schools in Paris, 321 

Appulse, near, of Jupiter to a Fixed Star, 
170. 

Archaeopteryx macrura, 

Archibald (E. Douglas), 


Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., 


158; J. Birmingham, 


276 
Average Height of Barometer in London, 
of Barometric Pressure in the 


243; Abnormal Variations 
Tropics, and their Relations to Sun-Spots, Rainfall, and 
Famines, 399; Abnormal Barometric Gradient between 


London and St. Petersburg in the Sun-Spot Cycle, 618 

Architects, Naval, 568 

Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 71, 235, 283, 
425, 594 z 

Arctic Exploration, Commander Cheyne’s Scheme, 134 

Arlberg Tunnel, 321 

Armstrong (Prof. Henry E.), Chemistry of the Future, Sir B. C. 
Brodie, Bart., F.R.S., 141 

Artificially Digested Food, on the Digestive Ferments, and on 
the Preparation of, Dr. Wm. Roberts, 169 

Aryan Village, An, Edward B. Tylor, F.R.S., 525 

Asparagine, the Function of, 277 

Astronomy: Astronomical Column, 21, 43, 65, 85, 114, 158, 
182, 206, 254, 276, 298, 321, 371, 396, 441, 493, 517, 542 
591; Astronomische Nachrichten, 372; Urania, 383 ; Ancient 
Astronomy, 493 

“ Atlas of Physiological Botany,” Dr. Dodel-Port’s, 157 

Atmospheric Pressure of the British Islands, 470 

“€ Atomic Theory,” Ad. Wurtz, Translated by E. Cleminshaw, 5 

Atoms, Prof. Dewar on, at the Royal Institution, 181 

Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 235, 474, 594 

Attwood’s (Geo.) ‘Practical Blowpipe Assaying,”’ Dr. 
Neve Foster, 191 

Aurora: Display of, 42; Height of the, H. T. H. Groneman, 
56; Aurora of November 3, J. Rand Capron, 476; Aurora 
observed at Ovoca, Co. Wicklow, November 3, G, H, Kinahan, 
100; the August Auroras, W. Stanley Jevons, F.R.S., 
148 ; Bottomley’s Experiments with Vacuum Tubes and the, 
Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, 289 ; Observations of Aurora 
Borealis, $4 ; Lecture Representation of the Aurora Borealis, 
Wm. Ackroyd, 458; Aurora of January 31, Prof. Osmond 
Fisher, John Harmer, R. W. Taylor, G. W. Prevost, 329 ; 
Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, W. H. Preece, 
George M. Seabrooke, G. M. Whipple, Rev. S. J. Perry. 
F.R.S., J. Rand Capron, E. J. Lowe, G. Henry Kinahan, 
Gerard A. Kinaha, F. Horner, W. J. Spratling, D. Traill, 
348 ; Aurora of January 31, Position of Auroral Rays, T. W. 
Backhouse, 410 ; Tacitus on Aurora, 459, 484 3 Sound of the 
Aurora, E. Alloway Paukhurst, J. Shaw, 484; George F. 
Burder, 529; M. L. Rouse, 556; Dr. John Rae, F.R.S., 


C, Le 


lv INDEX 


[Wature, Fune 9, 1881 


605 ; Auroral Phenomena, Dr. C. M. Ingleby, 363; Auroric 
Light, G. H. Kinahan, 410 

Australian Plants in India, Dr. G, Bidie, 555 

Austria, Earthquake Shock in, 42, 63 

Austrian Myriopod:, Dr. Robert Latzel, 167 

Avalanches from Mont Pourri, 396 

Awdry (Mrs. W.), ‘‘ Easy Lessons in Light,” 32 

Ayrton (Prof. W. E.), Wire Torsion, 355; Measuring the Index 
of Refraction of Ebonite, 519 


Backhouse (T.W.), Aurora of January 31, Position of Aurcral 
Rays, 410 

Baker (J. G.), Plants of Madagascar, 125; Eaton’s Ferns of 
North America, 479 

Balance, a New, 42 

Ball (V.), on the Identity of some Ancient Diamond Mines in 
India, especially those meutioned by Tavernier, 490 

Baller (Mr.), Opium Harve-t at Kweichow, 151 

Banjaluka (Bosnia), Earthquake Shock in, 182 

Banks of the Yang-tse at Hankow, H. B. Guppy, 507 

Barfoed’s (Dr. Chr. Th.), ‘Lehrbuch der Organischen Qualita- 
tiven Analyse,” 335 

Barometer, Average Height of, in London, E. Douglas Archi- 
bald, 243 

Barometric Cycles, Prof. Balfour Stewart, 237 

Barometric Pressure, Abnormal Variations of, in the Tropics, 
and their Relation to Sun-spots, Rainfall, and Fausines, Fred. 
Chambers, 88, 107; E, Douglas Archibald and Fred. 
Chambers, 399 

Barometric Pressure, 
Broun, 556 

Barometric and Solar Cycles, S. A. Hill, 

Stewart, F.R.S., 

Barometric Gradient, Abnormal, between London and St, 
Petersburg in the Sun-spot Cycle, E, Douglas Archibald, 618 

Batavia, Natural History Notes from, 275 

Bateman (Arthur W.), Notes on the Mode of Flight of the 
Albatross, 125 

Baynes (Robert E.), Critical Temperature of Ethylene, 186 

Becquerel (M.), Subscription for raising a Statue to, 156 

Bediord College, Physical Science at, 181 

Bees, Ants, and Wasps, Observations on, Sir, J. Lubbock, 
Bart., F.R.S., 255 

Beetles, Birds, and Fishes, Food of, 494 

Belgian Entomological Society, 62 

Belgium, Geological Survey of, 184 

Bell’s (Prof. Graham) Photophone, 15 

Bells, Vibration of, with Liquids in them, 278 

Bendery, Skeleton of a Mammoth discovered at, 371 

Bennett (Alfred W.), Natural Science for Women, 195 

Benzene, the Heat of Formation of, 207 

Bergs6 (Herr V.), on the Habits of the Tarentula, 84 

“Bericht iiber die Thiitigkeit der Bctanischen Section der 
Schlesischen Gesellschaft im Jahre 1877,” 264 

Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der naturf. Gessells. zu Frei- 
burg-im- Breisgau, 499 

Berlin: Geographical Society, 87, 188, 284, 399, 420 

Berne: Second International Conference at, 233; Earthquake 
at, 348, 396 

peooud Borel and Co., New Di covery in Practical Telegraphy 
¥, 85 

Beryllium, Atomic Weight of, 57, 374 

Bibliography, a New Medical Catalogue, 28 

Bibliothéque Belge, 64 

Bidie (Dr. G.), Australian Plants in India, 555 

Bidwell (Shelforc), the Photophone, 58; Tele-Photography, 


Periodic Oscillations of, Dr. J. Allan 


409; Prof, Balfour 


344 

Bigsby (Dr. J. J.), Death of, 389 

Biological Notes, 158, 276, 494, 543 

Biology of Plants, 310 

Bird ({sabella L.), ‘* Unteaten Tracks in Japan,” 12 

Birds : Soaring of, S. E. Peal, 10; W. Larden, 77; European and 
North American, 277; British Birds, Prof. A, Newton, F.R.S., 
287; Birds Laying in January, J. H. Willmore, 314; Migra- 
tion of Birds, 484 ; Food of Birds, Fishes, and keeiles, 494 

Birmingham (J.), the Appulse of Jupiter to a Fixed Star on 
November 20, 170; Probably New Variable Star, 555 

Birmingham; Endowment of Research in, 304; Mason Science 
College, 440 


Bismuth Compounds, 374 

Black Sheep, Chas. Darwin, F.R.S., 193 

Blaciheath Holes, 320; C. E, de Rance, 365 

Blaikie (W. Garden, D.D.), ‘‘ Life of David Livingstone,” &c., 
238 

lake Cruise, 494 

Blanford (W. T.), Geology of East Centre] Africa and the Sub- 
terranean Forest in Bombay, 145 

Blood-Vessels of Valves of the Heart, 159 

Blowpipe, Practical, Assaying, by Geo. Attwood, Dr, C, Le 
Neve Foster, 191 

Bombay, Subterranean Forest in, 105 ; Geology of East Central 
Africa and, W. T. Blanford, 145 

Boricky (Prof. Dr. Emanuel), Death of, 319 

Boron and Vanadium, 373 

Bosnia and Ierzeyovina, Geology of, Prof. Arch. Geikie, 
FPARSS:, 224 

Boston, Mass., U.S.A., American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
451 

Botanical Clubs, 107 

Botanical Society, Formation of a, for Northern Thuringia, 181 

Botanisches Centralblatt, 241 

Botanische Jahrbiicher fiir Systematik Pflanzengeschichte und 
Pilanzengeographie, 263 

Botany : Handbork of, Dr. N. J. C. Miiller, 142; Atlas of 
Physiological, Dr, Dodel-Port’s, 157; « Botany for Children,” 
Kev. Geo. Henslow, 241 

Botrydium, Anabena Living in, 158 

Bott (W.), Saits of Zine, 78 

Bottomley (J. T.), Experiments with Vacuum Tubes, 218, 243 ; 
Elasticity of Wires, 281 ; his Experiments with Vacuum Tubes 
and the Aurora, Prof. Silvanus P, Thompson, 289 

Bouch (Sir Thomas), Death of, 19 

Bcurnemouth and Vancouver I:land, Climates of, Alfred R, 
Wallace, 169 

Boys (C. V.), the Influence of a Tuning-Fork on a Garden 
Spider, 149 

Brain, Concealed Bridging Conyolutions in a Human, W. 
Carter, 556 

Brain- Wehr, 277 

Braun (Dr. C.), Measuring the Height of Clouds, 458 

Breath, Temperature of the, Dr. R. E, Dudgeon, 10, 76; Dr, 
Wm. Roberts, 55 ; Dr. C. J. McNally, 217, 244 ; Dr. William 
McLaurin, 244 

Bre-cia, Earthquake at, 205 

Bressa Prize, 540 

Brewster (Sir David), Centenary of the Birthday of, 614 

Brizgs (T. R. Archer), Flora of Plymouth, 74 

Brighton Aquarium, Death of the Male Sea-Lion in, 253 

Brine-Springs, Subsidence of Land caused by Natural, Thos, 
Ward, 388 

British Animals, Extinct, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 431 

British Association, Meeting at York, 1881, 275, 613 

British Birds, Prof, Alfred Newton, F.R.S., 287 

Briti-h butterflies, Colcurs of, J. Innes Rogers, 435; Rev. W. 
Clement Ley, 458 

British Columbia, Prof, Whitney on the Glaciation of, Geo. M. 
Dawson, 290 

British Earthquakes, 117; Prof. J. P. O'Reilly, 170 

British Islands, Atmospheric Pressure of the, 470 

“British Marine Polyzva,” T. Hincks, F.R.S., SI 

British Mecical Association, Annual Meeting for 1881 at Ryde, 
131 

Britch Museum, John Millar’s Botanical Drawings at, 83; the 
Catalogue of Birds, 439 ; the Catalogue of Printed Books, 440 

Brodhurst (B. E.), Phosphorescent Centipedes, 99 

Brodie (Sir Benjamin C,, F.R.S.), Death of, 106; Obituary 
Notice of, 126 

Brorsen’s Comet in 1842, 298 

Broun (Allan D ), Flying-Fish, 508 ‘ 

Broun (Dr, J, Allan, F,R.S.), Periodic Oscillations of Barometric 
Pressure, 556 sane 

Brown (Horace T.), Electrical Thermometer for Determining 
Temperatures at a Di-tance, 464 

Brownell (J. T.), a Case of Fascination, 314; Ice-Casts of 
Tracks, 484 

Bucharest, Curious Result since the Recent Earthquake at, 253 

Buckland (Frank), Obituary Notice of, 175; Museum of 
Economic Fish Culture, 232; Proposed Memorial to, 468, 
516; British Fishes, 576 


e 
1s 


© 


Nalure, Fure 9, 1881] 


INDEX Vv 


Buckley (Arabella B.), “‘ Life and her Children,” 123 

Budde (D.), Modern Use of Ancient Stone Implements, 218 

Bulletin de Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, 211, 
402, 474 

Bulletin de l’Académie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Péetersbourg, 


593 

Bunsen (Robert Wilhelm), ‘Scientific Worthies,” Prof. H. E. 
Roscoe, F.R.S., 597 

Burbidge (F. W.), ‘‘ Gardens of the Sun,” 143, 

Burder (George F’.), Sound of the Aurora, 529 

Burdo (Adolphe), the Niger and the Benueh ; Travels in Central 
Africa, 169 

Burmah, another Earthquake Shock at, 253 

Butler (S.), ‘* Unconscious Memory,” 285, 312, 335 

Butterflies; in Winter, Thomas W. Shore, 364; Colours of 
British Butterflies, J. Innes Rogers, 435 ; Rev. W. Clement 
Ley, 458 

Byeloukher Mountain, the Glacier of, 210 


Caird (Very Rev. Principal), Portrait of, presented to the 
Glasgow University, 320 

Calderon, Bi-Centenary of, Major F. F. J. Ricarde-Seaver, 457 

California, the former Indians of, 253 

Calves, Fluke in, 244 

Cambrian Sandstones near Loch Maree, Curious Impressions 
m, 93 

Cambridge Philosophical Society, 163 

Campbell (Sir Geo,), on Indian Agriculture, 541 

Canoe, Discovery of, in the Marshes of Corcellettes, 106 

Cape of Good Hope, Longitude of the, 21 

Cape Catalogue, the New, 276 

€apillarity, Volkmann’s Experiments in, 133 

Capron (J. Rand), Condition of Jupiter, 34 ; Aurora of November 
3, 76; Parhelion, 291 ; Aurora and I‘lectric Storm of January 
31, 348 

Carbon, on the Spectrum of, 313; Dr, W. M. Watts, 197, 265, 
361; Prof. G. D. Liveing, F.R.S., 265, 338 

Carbon, the Estimation of, 615 

Cardamoms, a New Work on, 347 

Carnelley’s (Dr.) Hot Ice, Dr. Olives J. Lodge, 264 ; Experi- 
ments on Ice under Low Pressures, 341 

Carnot (M.), proposed Statue to, 439 

Carpenter (W. Lant), Falls of Niagara in Winter, 511 

Carr (G. S.), ‘‘Syno;sis of Elementary Results in Pure and 
Applied Mathematics,” 603 

Carter (William), Chlorophyll, 388 ; Concealed Bridging Con- 
volutions ina Human Brain, 556 

Carvalho (S. N., jun.), Chalk, 193 

Casamicciola in the Island of Ischia, Earthquake at, 439, 468, 
492, 516 

Cassell’s Natural History, 317 

Cave, the Schipka, 296 

Cave Animals and Multiple Centres of Species, D. Wetterhap, 
458 

Census of 1881, 540 

Census of the Indian Empire, 419 

Centipedes, Phosphorescent, B. E. Brodhurst, 99 

Cephei, Ceraski’s Variable Star J, 21, 43, 255, 322 

Ceraski’s Cireumpolar Variable Star, 21, 43, 255, 322 

Cervus maral, 419 

Cetonia inda, 65 

Ceylon, the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, 65 

Chalk, 243; S. N. Carvalho, jun., 193 

Challenger, Volume I. of the Publications of the, Prof. T. H. 
Huxley, F.R.S., 1, 33, 43 

Chambers (Fred.), Abnormal Variations of Barometric Pressure 
in the Tropics, and their Relation to Sun-Spots, Rainfatl and 
Famines, 88, 107, 399 

Chambers’s Handbook of Astronomy, 418 

Charing Cress Station, Jablochkoff Light at, 64 

Charleville, Ireland, Shock of Earthquake at, 182 

Charts and Maps, Recent, of Curves of Equal Magnetic Varia- 
tion or Declination, 314 

Chasles (Michel), Death of, 174; Obituary Notice of, R. Tucker, 


22 

Chatel (M.), Dust, Fogs, and Smoke, 436 

Chemistry : Chemical Society, 47, 95, 161, 211, 306, 403, 425, 
474, 523, 547; 571, 619; \ hemucal Notes, 85, 207, 373, 399, 
469, 565, 615; Chemistry, M. Fremy on, at the laris Museum 
of Natural History, 83 ; Chemistry of the Future, Prof, Henry 


E, Armstrong, F.R.S., 141; Nature of the Chemical FEle- 

ments, Dr. Edmund J. Mills, F.R.S., 193 ; German Chemical 

Society, 436; Experimental Chemistry for Junior Students, 

456; the Effects of Frost on Chemicals, 347; Society of 

Chemical Industry, 516, 541 

Cheques, Bankers’, New Process for making, 373 

Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory, 279 

Cheshire Subsidences, Landslips, T. Mellard Reade, 219 

Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, Edward Whymper’s Ascents of, 323 

China, Exploration of, 45; Coal Mines in, 297; Acoustics ip, 
John Fryer and Dr, W. H. Stone, 448 

Chio, Earthquake at, 541, 564 

Chlorophyll in the Epidermis of Plants, 158 

Chlorophyll, William Carter, 388; Sydney H. Vines, 561 

Chronograph, Dent’s, 59 

“«Chrysanthemum,”” New Japanese Magazine, 371 

Ciamician (G.),; Influence of Pressure and ‘femperature on 
Vapours and Gases, 160 

Cinchona Bark, Importations of, from Jamaica, 132, 157 

Cincinnati Measures of Double Stars, 396 

Citania, Rev. R. Burton Leach, 363 

City and Guilds of London Institute, 473, 614 

Civilisation ? What is, 166 

Clairvoyance, an Article in Scribner’s Monthly on, 19 


| Clark (Edwin), Distance of Clouds, 244 


Classification of Statures, 494 

Claypole (Prof. E. W.), Minerya Ornaments at Troy, and Net- 
Sinkers, 292; Migration of the Wagtail, 387 

Climate of Vancouver Island, Capt. Edmund H. Verney, 147 ; 
Alfred R. Wallace, 169; William Pengelly, F.R.S., 267; 
Dr. Geo. M. Dawson, 385 


| Climates, Geological, Prof. Samuel Haughton, F.R.S., 8, 98, 


145, 290, 313, 3843 Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., 145 ; 
J. J. Murphy, 290; Alfred R, Wallace, 124, 217, 266; 
William Ingram, 169; J. Starkie Gardner, 193; Dr. Max_ 
well T. Masters, 266; Dr. John Rae, F.R.S,, 337; Dr. A 
Woeikoff, 362 a 

Clouds, on estimating the Height of, by Photography and the 
Stereoscope, John Harmer, 194 

Clouds, Distance of, Edwin Clark, 244 

Clouds, Measuring the Height of, Dr, C. Braun, 458 

Clouds, Fogs, Dusts, &c., John Aitken, 195, 384; W. H. 
Preece, Dr. H. J. H. Groneman, 336 

Coal-Dust, Colliery Explosions and, Hon. Rollo Russell, 193 

“Coal Fields of Great Britain,” Prof, Hull’s, 321 

Cod, on the Red Colour of Salt, 543 

Coffee, Cultivation of, in Gaboon, 299; Liberian, 541 ; Cofice- 
Leaf Disease, 354 

Collett (Col. H.), Occultation of 73 Piscium, 458 

Colliery Explosions, Mr. Plimsoll’s Cure for, W. Galloway, 170 

Colliery Explosions and Coal-dust, Hon. R. Russell, 193 

Colours of British Butterflies, J. Innes Rogers, 4353; Rey. W. 
Clement Ley, 458 

Colour, the Eye and Intensity of, 543 

Comets: of 1812 and 1815, 21, 542; Discovery of a Comet, 
43; Hartwiy’s Comet (1880 2), 43 ; Comet Finders, 82 ; the 
Third, of 1869, 85; Faye’s Comet, 115 ; Swift's Comet, IT5, 
182, 255, 322, 372, 4413; Comets of Hartwig and Swift, 158; 
a New Comet, 183; Comet 1873 VII., 206; Pechiile’s Comet, 
207 ; Winnecke’s Comet, 254 ; Brorsen’s Comet in 1842, 298 ; 
Encke’s Comet in 1881, 396 

Communism, Agricultural, in Greece, W. Mattien Williams, 579 

Compass-Bearing, Mode of Masking or Cutting off Sharply by 
the Light from Revolving Apparatus on any desired, by means 
of a Reciprocating Screen, Thomas Stevenson, 560 

Compressibility of Gases, Herr Roth, 43 

Congress of the French Learned Socictie,, 619 

Coniferze, a Chapter in the History of the, J. Starkie Gardner, 
251, 412 

Conifers, Dimorphic Leaves of, Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, 267 

Conscious Matter, Stewart Duncan, Geo. J. Romanes, iD) SPs 
553 eee f = 

Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, 294 

Constable (F.C.), Jelly Fish, 170 

Constant, Acoustical, Note on an, W. J. Grey and J. T. Dunp, 
146 

Contact Electricity, on a Method of Measuring, Prof. Sir 
-William Thomson, F7R.S., 567 

Continents always Continents, Prof. James D. Dana, 410 

Continuous Motion, Speed Governor for, Prof. J. Ewing, 473 

A2 


vi INDEX 


[Nature, Fune 9, 1881 


Convolutions in a Human Brain, Concealed Bridging, W. Carter, 
6 
Cp sikaer (Dr. R. W.), Rapidity of Growth in Corals, 53; 
Oceanic Phenomenon, 482 
Coral Reefs and Islands, Joseph Le Conte, 77 
Corals, Rapitity of Growth in, Dr. R. W. Coppinger, 53 
Corean Archipelago, Notes on the Geology of, H. B. Guppy, 


41 

cothtla’s (Prof.) Lectures on Health to Ladies, 231 

Corn, Feeding a Gull with, W. A. Forbes, 483 

Cornu (Maxime), Phylloxera in France, 127 

Cortambert (M. Eugéne), Death of, 439 

Cossa (Dr. Luigi), Political Economy, 97 

Crabs and Actinia, Col. Ht. Stuart-Wortley, 529 

Crannog, Submarine, at Ardmore, 42 

Crawford (Consul), at Oporto, on the Disease in the Port Wine 
District, 20 

Crimes, Prehistoric Anthropology of the, N. Mereshkovsky on, 
63, 107 

hoes, Phylloxera in the, 253 

Crinoids, Interesting New, 377 

Criterion of Reality, 144 

Crookes (W., F.R.S.), Heat Conduction in Highly Rarefied 
Air, 234; Viscosity of Gases at High Exhaustions, 421, 443 

Cure for Smoke, the New, J. A. C. Hay, 386 

Cutler’s Company’s Hall, Lectures at, 85 

Cycles, Barometric, Prof. Balfour Stewart, 237 


Dalzell’s (Sir John), Anemone, 495 

Dana (Prof. James D.), Continents always Continents, 410 

Dana’s (Edward S.), Text-book of Mechanics, 552 

Darwin (Charles F.R.S.), Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural 
Selection, 32; Homage to, 57, 393; Black Sheep, 193; 
Movement of Plants, 409 ; on Vivisection, 583 ; Movements 
of Leaves, 603 

Darwin (Irancis), Physiology of Plants, 178; Alpine Flowers, 


33. 

Daan (G. H., F.R.S.), on Tidal Friction in Connection with 
the History of the Solar System, 389 

Dawkins (Prof. W. Boyd, F.R.S.), Prehistoric Europe, 309, 
361, 482; Extinct British Animals, 431 

Dawson (Dr. Geo. M.), Prof. Whitney on the Glaciation of 
British Columbia, 290 ; Climate of Vancouver Island, 385 

Dawson (J. W., F.R.S.), Geological Relations of Gold in Nova 
Scotia, 578 

Davy (M.), Analysis of the Air at Montsouris, 63 

Day (Dr. Francis), Work on Fishes, 107; ‘‘ Fishes of Great 
Britain and Ireland,” 264 

Death, Signs of, 494 

Deep-Sea Exploration, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 300, 324 

Deep-Sea Ophiurans, 464 

Delesse (Achille), Death of, 516; Obituary Notice of, 535 

Dembowski (Baron), Death of, 322 

Dent’s Chronograph, 59 

Development of Human Intelligence, 617 

Dew and Fog, 398 

Dewar (Prof.), on Atoms, at the Royal Institution, 181 

Diamond Mines in India, on the identity of some, especially 
those mentioned by Tavernier, V. Ball, 490 

Dimorphie Leaves of Conifers, Dr, Maxwell T. Masters, 267 

Dimor) hism of Flowers, New Cases of, Errors Corrected, Dr. 
Herwann Miller, 337 

Disease in Italy, Statistics of, 543 

Disinfectant, a New, 374 

Distance of Clouds, Edwin Clark, 244 

Dobbie (James J.), Oxidation of Quinine, 243 

Dodel- Port’s (Dr.) ‘‘ Atlas of Physiological Botany,” 157 

Dor-etshire, Hailstorm in, Dr. Geo, J. Allman, F.R.S., 146 

Dortmund, Shock of Earthquake at, 106 

Double Stars, Cincinnati Measures of, 396 ; Herschel 3945, 591 

Dublin, Scientific Societies of, 316 

Dudgeon (Dr. R. E.), Temperature of the Breath, 10, 76 

Duncan (John), the Alford Weaver-Botanist, Wm. Jolly, 252, 
269; Fund for, 317, 491 

Duncan (Prof. P. Martin, F.R.S.), Geological Climates, 145 ; 
elected President of the Royal Microscopical Society, 418 

Duncan’s (Stewart) Conscious Matter, Geo. J. Romanes, F.R.S., 


553 
Dancombe (Cecil), Squirrels Crossing Water, 484 
Dondee Naturalists’ Society, Annual Conversazione, 370 
Dunes and Moving Sands, 569 


Dunn (J. T.), Note on an Acoustical Constant, 146 

Dust, Fogs, and Clouds, John Aitken, 195, 311, 384; W. H. 
Preece, Dr. H. J. H. Groneman, 336; Hon. Rollo Russell, 
267 ; M. Chatel, 436 

Dutch Arctic Cruisers, Zoological Results of, 205 

Duveyrier (M. Henri) on the Sources of the Niger, 184 

Dynamics of ‘‘ Radiant Matter,” on some Points relating to the, 
S. Tolver Preston, 461; Wm. Muir, 483 

Dynamite, Preparation of, 492 

Dynamite Mine, St. Petersburg, 531 

“Dytiscidee, Avis préliminaire d’une Nouvelle Classification de 
la Famille des,” Dr. Sharp, 98 


Earth Currents—Electric Tides, 424 

Earthquakes : at Valparaiso, 20; Shock, in Southern Austria, 
42; in Austria, 63; Shock in the Tyrol, $3; at Agram, 
63, 83, 106, 132, 156, 182, 253, 297, 419, 439, 492, 516; 
Prof. v. Hochstetter on the, 106; Prof. Szabo on, 530; 
in Scotland and North of Ireland, 106; at Dortmund, 106; 
British Earthquakes, 117; Prof. J. P. O'Reilly, 170; Dr. 
Novak on Earthquakes, 156; Prof. Rudolph Falb on, 156, 
205; in Germany, 156; at Wiesbaden, 156; in Banjaluka 
(Bosnia) and in Agram, 182; at Charleville, Ireland, 182; 
at Brescia, Schloss Trakostyan, and Smyrna, 205 ; in Rou- 
mania, Transylvania, Hungary, &c., 232; at Rousdorf, 253; 
at Bucharest, 253; Shock at Burmah, 253 ; at Peshawar, 275 ; 
in Switzerland, January 27, 320; in Bologna, Florence, 
Venice, Padua, Ferrara, &c., 320; at Berne, 348, 3963; in 
the Swiss Jura, information of, 369; at St. Petersburg, 370; 
at St. Michael’s in the Azores, 419 ; St. Ivan-Zelina, Agram, 
&c., 439; at Casamicciola in the Island of Ischia, 439, 468, 
492, 516; in Switzerland, 468; in Ischia, H. J. Jobnston- 
Lavis, 497; at Chio, 541, 564; Earthquake Warnings, 529 ; 
at San Cristobal, 564 ; Earthquake of November 28, 1880, in 
Scotland and Ireland, 591 

Eaton’s ‘‘ Ferns of North America,” J. G, Baker, 479 

Eaton (Rev. A. E.), the Oldest Fossil Insects, 507; Winter 
Gnats (Trichocera), 554 

Ebonite, Measuring the Index of Refraction of, Professors 
Ayrton and Perry, 519 

Echinodermata, the Locomotive System of, G. J. Romanes, 
F.R.S., 545. 

Eclipse, Solar, of December 31, 65 

Eclipses, Lunar, 1880-84, 114 

Edinburgh : Royal Society, 212, 45%, 475, 500, 571, 595 

Edison Electric Light in New York, 614 

Education in Science, Mr. Mundella on, 134 

Education, Introduction of Hypotheses in School, Dr. Hermann 
Miiller on, 157 

Egerton (Sir Philip de Malpas Grey), Death of, 541; Obituary 
Notice of, 579 

Eggs, Testing the Age of, 132 

Elasticity of Wires, J. T. Bottomley, 281 

Electricity: Electric Lighting at London Railway Stations, 64 ; 
Incandescent Electric Lights, 104 ; the Maxim Light, 131 ; 
and Navigation on the Khine, 132; Lighthouses illuminated 
by Eleciricity, 347 ; New Method of Dividing Electric Light, 
373; Electric Lighting in the City, 440; Scientific Principles 
involved in Electric Lighting, Prof. W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S., 
580, 605 ; Electric Light in New York, 614 ; New Discovery 
in Electric Induction, 85 ; Electric Dust Figures, 208 ; on the 
Thermic and Optic Behaviour of Gases under the Influence of 
the Electric Discharge, Dr. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., 258; a 
New Electric Motor, 278; Trial of Electric Railways at the 
Electrical Exhibition, Paris, 296; Electric Discharges in 
Gases, 397; Electric Tides in Telegraphic Circuits, 346; 
Electric Tides, Earth Currents, 424 ; Electrical Thermometer 
for Determining Temperatures at a Distance, Horace T. 
Brown, 464; Future Development of Electrical Appliances, 
Geo. Rayleigh Vicars, 528; Herr Hoorweg on Electricity, 
43; Behaviour of Electricity in Gases, Herr Narr, 43; 
Place du Carrousel to be Lighted with, 254; the Relation 
between Electricity and Light, Dr. O. J. Lodye, 302; Pro- 
posed International Exhibition of Electricity, $4, 320, 347 ; 
Seeing by Electricity, 423 ; a New Mode of obtaining Electri- 
city by Friction, 441; on a Method of Measuring Contact 
Electricity, Prof. Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., 567; Elec- 
tricity and Gas as Heating Agents, C. W. Siemens, F.R.S , 
326, 351; Molecular Electromagnetic Induction, Prof, D. E. 
Hughes, F.R.S., 519 


Nature, Fune 9, 1881] 


INDEX 


vil 


Ellis (William), Correspondence of Phenomena in Magnetic 
Storms, 33; Magnetic Storm of 1850, August, 482 

Elongation of Mimas, 255 

Elsden (J. Vincent), Microscopic Structure of Malleable Metals, 


391 
Encke’s Comet in 1881, 396 
“«Encyclopzedia Britannica,” Vols. X., Xj E19 
Endowment of Research in Birmingham, 304 
Entomological Collection, the late John Miers’, F.R.S., Pre- 
sentation of, to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, 41 
Entomological Society, 116, 162, 307, 494, 4755 620 
Entomological Society of Belgium, 62 
Epidermis of Plants, Chlorophyll in the, 15$ 
Epping Forest and County of Essex Naturalists’ Field Club, 20, 


276 

Equus Prjevalski, 494 

Erbium, Atomic Weight of, 86 

Erhard (M.), Death of, 19 

Ernst (Dr. A.), Some Remarks on Peripatus Edwardsit, Blanch, 
446 

Esparto Grass, Irish, 437 

“ Ethnographisch-Anthropologische Abtheilung des Museum 
Godeffroy in Hamburg. Ein Beitrag zur Kunde der Siidsee- 
Volker,” J. D. E. Schmeltz und Dr. med. R. Krause, 168 

Ethylene, Critical Temperature of, Robert E. Baynes, 186 

Et: a Observatory, 559 

Eucalyptus in Rangoon, 370 

Europe, Lava Fields of North-Western, Prof. Arch, Geikie, 
F.R.S., 

Europe, Pichistotic, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 309, 
361, 482; Dr. James Geikie, F.R.S., 336, 458; Dr. James 
Geikie, F.R.S., R. H. Tiddeman, 433, 528 

Europeans and North Anierican Birds, 277 

Everett (Prof. J. D., F.R.S.), a General Theorem in Kine- 
matics, 99 

Eyes (Florence), Girton and Newnham Colleges, 291 

Evolution, Formula of, Prof. Tait on, 78 

Evolution, Prof. Huxley on, 203, 227 

Ewing (Prof. J.), Speed Governor for Continuous Motion, 473 

Exner (Frank), on Thermo-Electricity, 44; a Correction, 170 

Exner and Young, Professors, Prof, C, A. Young, 312 

Exploration, Deep-Sea, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 300, 324 

Explosion, Recent Gas, Herbert McLeod, F.R.S., 8 

Explosions, Colliery, Mr. Plimsoll’s cure for, W. Galloway, 170 

Explosions, Coliiery, and Coal-Dust, Hon. R. Russell, 193 

Explosive Gas in a Lake, J. Shaw, 435 

*Exposé Historique concernant le Cours des Machines, dans 
Enseignement de I’E-cole Polytechnique,” 75 

Extinct British Animals, Prof. W,. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 


431 
Eye and Intensity of Colour, 543 


Falb (Prof. Rudolph) on Ear:hquakes, 156, 205 

Falls of Niagara in Winter, W. Lant Carpenter, 511 

Faraday Lecture, Prof. Helmholtz’s, 535 

Fascination, L. P. Gratacap, 56; Arthur Nicols, 77 ; Jaan. 
Brownell, 3143 Carl Ochsenius, 508 

Faye’s Comet, 115 

Feeding a Gull with Corn, W. A. Forbes, 483 

“Fer Bravais,” Experiments on, 86 

Ferns of North America, J. G. Baker, 479 

Fiji, Baron A. von Hugel’s proposed Work on, 45 

Finland, Baron Nordenskjold in, 340 

Finland, Algz of the Gulf of, 494 

Firth (Mark), Death of, 106 

Fish, Jelly, F. C. Constable, 170 

Fish, Flying-, Francis P. Pascoe, 312; R. 
Allan D. Broun, 508 

Fi: h-Culture in the United States, 532 

‘¢ Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland,” Dr. Francis Day, 107, 
264 

Fishes, Dr. Giinther, F.R.S., on, 213 

Fishes, Biras, and Beetles, Food of, 494 

Fishes, British, Frank Buckland, 576 

Fisheries, German, Union, Offer of a Prize by the, 205 

Fisheries Exhibition at Norwich, 564, 588 

Fishery Society, Khenish, foundation of, at Cologne, 158 

Fisher (Dr. Ferd.) appointed Editor of the Jahresbericht fiir die 
chemische Technologie, 106 


E. Taylor, 388 ; 


Fisher (Rev. Osmond), ‘‘ Physics of the Earth’s Crust,” 131 ; 
Aurora of January 31, 329 

Flame-Length, Note on, Lewis T. Wright, 527 

Flammarion (M.), a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur, 439 

Fletcher (Thos), Dr. Siemens’ New Cure for Smoke, 91 

Flight of the Albatross, Notes on the Mode of, Arthur W. 
Bateman, 125 

‘Flora of Plymouth,” T. R. Archer Briggs, 74 

Florence, Collection of Italian Vertebrates at, 41 

Flowers, New Cases of Dimorphism in—Errors Corrected, Dr. 
Hermann Miiller, 337 

Fluke in Calves, 244 

Fluor-spar, Hankel on, 133 

Flying-Fish, Francis P. Pascoe, 312; R. E. Taylor, 388; Allan 
D. Broun, 508 

Fog and Dew, 398 

Fogs, Dust, and Clouds, John Aitken, 195, 311, 384; W. H. 
Preece, Dr. H. T. H. Groneman, 336; M. Chatel, 436 ; Hon. 
Rol!o Russell, 267 

Fogs of London, 165 

Food of Birds, Fishes, and Beetles, 494 

Forest, Subterranean, in India, 105 

Formula of Evolution, Prof. Tait on, 78 

Fossil Insects, Oldest, Dr. H. A. Hagen, 483; Rev. A. E. 
Eaton, 507 

France, Phylloxera in, Maxime Cornu, 127 

Franz-Josef Land, Exploration of, 278 

Free Libraries in Scotland, 64 

Freezing Points of Alcoholic Liquids, M. Raout on, 85 

Fremy (M.), on Chemistry at the Paris Museum of Natural 
History, 83 

French Institute, Annual Meeting of, 19 

French Association, Meeting at Algiers, 319, 491, 515, 5415 G. 
F, Rodwell, 582, 606 

French Learned Societies, Congress of, 619 

Frere (Sir Bartle) at the Geographical Society’s Meeting, 87 

Fret, Greek, Alfred C. Haddon, 9 

Fritsch’s (Dr.) Method of taking Casts of Skeletons, 275 

Frost, Vibration of Telegraph Wires during, T. Mellard Reade, 
314; F. T. Mott, 338 

Frost, the Effects of, on Chemicals, 347 

Fryer (John), Acoustics in China, 448 

Fungal Growths in the Animal Body, 277 


Galloway (W.), Mr. Plimsoll’s Cure for Colliery Explosions, 
170 

“€ Gardens of the Sun,” F. W. Burbidge, 143 

Gardner (J. Starkie), Geological Climates, 53, 193; a Chapter 
in the History of the Coniferze, 251, 412; Geologising at 
Sheppey, 293 

Garrod (Prof. A. H.), Publication of his Scientific Papers, 491 

Gas-Burner, Regenerative, Herr F, Siemens’, 131 

Gas Explosion, Recent, Herbert McLeod, F.R.S., 8 

Gas, Explosive, ina Lake, J. Shaw, 435 

Gas-Grate, Dr. Siemens’s, Dr. R. Douglas Hale, 145 

Gases and Vapours, their Dissolving Power on one another, 86 

Gases and Vapours, Spectra of, Influence of Pressure and Tem- 
perature on, G. Ciamician, 160 

Gas and Electricity as Heating Agents, C. W. Siemens, F.R.S, 
326, 351 

Gases, on the Thermic and Optic Behaviour of, under the 
Electric Discharge, Dr. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., 258 

Gases, Viscosity of, at High Exhaustions, W. Crookes, F.R.S., 
421, 443 

Gaseous Matter, Action of an Intermittent Beam of Radiant 
Heat upon, Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S., 374. 

Geelong Vineyards, Phylloxera in the, 181 

Gegenbaur’s Morphologisches Jahrbuch, 283 

Geikie (Prof. Arch., F.R.S.), Lava Fields of North-Western 
Europe, 3; Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and 
Ireland, 150; Geology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 224; 
Murchison Medal awarded to, 346; Wallace’s ‘‘ Island Life,” 
357, 391 

Geikie (Dr. James, F.R.S.), ‘‘ Prehistoric Europe,” 336, 433 

Geography: Geographical Notes, 21, 44, 87, 134, 159, 184, 
210, 233, 255, 278, 299, 323, 398, 420, 443, 495, 518, 544, 
565; Geographical Results of the Afghan Campaign, Capt 
7. H. Holdich, 159 ; Geographical Societies of the World, 
299 , see also Royal Geographical Society 


Vill 


INDEX 


[Wature, Fane 9, 1831 


Geology : Geological Changes of Level, Sir C. Wyville Thomson, 
BSS 351 33/5 Geological Society, 71, 140, Y61, 211, 330, 403, 
426, 449, 523, 547, 595 ; Medals Awarded by, 394; Geological 
Notes, 184; Geological Age of the North Highlands of Scot: 
land, Prof, Edward Hull, F.R.S., 289 ; Geological Climates, 
Prof, Samuel Haughton, F.R:S., 8, 98, 145, 241, 290, 313, 
384; Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., 145; Dr. A. Woeikoff, 
241, 362; J. J. Murphy, 290; J. Starkie Gardner, 53, 193; 
Alfred R. Wallace, 124, 217, 266; Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, 
266; William Ingram, 169; Dr. John Rae, F.R.S., 337 ; 
Geology of East Central Africa and the Subterranean Forest 
in Bombay, W. T. Blanford, 145; Geological Survey of 
Belyium, 184; Geology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prof. 
Arch. Geikie, F.R.S., 224; Geologising at Sheppey, J. 
Starkie Gardner, 293; Geology of the Corean Archipelago, 
H. B. Guppy, 417; International Geological Congress, C. E. 
de Rance, 510 ; Geological Relations of Gold in Nova Sc atia, 
J. W. Dawson, FR. ae 578 

Geometrical Optics, W. G Logeman, 125 ; Phenomem of, 372 

Geometrical Teaching, 414 

German Rivers, the Quantities of Water in, 94 

‘German Fisheries Union, Offer of a Prize by the, 205 

German Chemical Society, 436 

Gifford (Lord) on Scientific Education, 64 

Giglioli (Prof. H. H.), Lophiomys Lmhausi, 291 

Gilmour (Rev. James), Mongol Doctors, 132 

Girton and Newnham Colleges, Florence Eves, 291 

Glaciers, Retrograde Motion of, Herr W, Gromer on, 181 

Glaciation of British Columbia, Prof. Whitney on, Geo. M. 
Dawson, 290 

Gladstone (Dr. J. H., F.R.S.), the Refraction Equivalents of 
Carbon, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen in Organic Compounds, 378 

Glisenip (M.), on Refraction, 373 

Glisgow, Naval and Marine Engineering Exhibition at, 41 

Gleanings, Nile, 526 

Gnat with Two Kinds of Wives, 277 

Gmats, Winter (Trichocera), Rev. A. E. Eaton, 554 

Godeffroy Museum at Hamburg, 320 

Godwin Austen (H. H.), Squirrel Crossing Water, 340 

Gold in Newfoundland, 472 

Gold in Nova Scotia, Geological Relations of, J. W. Dawson, 
E.R. S., 578 

Gore (J. .), Variable Stars, 362 

Gottingen Royal Society of Sciences, 356 

Gould (John, F.R.S.), Death of, 346; Obituary Notice of, 364 ; 
his Ornithological Collections, 491 

Grahame Medal, 19, 181 

“* Grallatores and Natatores of the Estuary of the Tay,” 516 

Grasshoppers in Russia, 157 

Gratacap (L. P,), Fascination, 56 

Greece, Agricultural Communism in, W. Mattieu Williams, 572 

Greek Fret, Alfred C. Haddon, 9 

Grey (W. J.) Note on an Acoustical Constant, 146 

Grigorieff (M.) , on Japanese Gardens, 205 

Grémer (Herr W.), Retrograde Motion of Glaciers, 181 

Groneman (Dr. H. T. H.), Height of the Aurora, 56; 
Fogs, and Clouds, 337 

Groves (Thos, B;), Phosphorescence of the Sea, 411 

“*Guaco” and Snake-bites, 182 

Cuannarus pulex, 419 

Guenée (Achille) Death of, 252 

Gull, Feeding a, with Corn, W. A. Forbes, 483 

Giinther (Dr., F.R.S.), on Fishes, 213 

Guppy (H. B.), the Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho, 
35, 99; Notes on the Geology of the Corean Archipelago, 
417; Banks of the Yang-tse at Hankow, 507; Oceanic Phe- 
nomenon, 507 

Gyrostat, a Liquid, 69 


Dust, 


Habich (E. J.), “ Etudes géométriques et cinématiques,” &c., Bes 
Haddon (Alfred C.), Greek Fret, 9 

Hagen (Dr. H. A,), Oldest Fossil Insects, 483 

Hailstones, Remarkable, Col. Foster Ward on, 233 
Hailstorm in Dorsetshire, Dr. George J. Allman, F.R.S., 146 
Hale (Dr. R. Douglas), Dr. Siemens’ Gas-Grate, 145 

Hampe (Prof. Ernst), Death of, 156 

Hand, Skin-furrows of the, Sir W. J. Herschel, 76 

Hankow, Banks of the Yang-tse at, H. B, Guppy, 507 
Hannay (J. B.), Hot Ice, 504 

‘* Harcourt and Madan’s Chemistry,” 181 


Harmer (John), on Estimating the Height of Clouds by Photo- 
graphy and the Stereoscope, 194 ; Aurora of January 31, 329 

Hartwig'’s Comet (1880 @), 43 

Hartwig and ‘Swift, Comets of, 158 

Harvard College, UaS., Observatory of, 321 

Haughton (Prof. Samuel, F.R.S.), Geological Climates, 8, 98, 
145, 241, 290, 384 

Hay (J. A. C.), New Cure for Smoke, 360, 386 

Hay (Col. Drummond), Birds of the Estuary of the Tay, 516 

Heart, Blood-Vessels of Valves of the, 159 

ee Heat, Easy Lessons in,” C. A. Martineau, 32 

Heat of Formation of a Compound, A. P. Laurie, 35 

Heat Conduction in Highly Rarefied Air, W. Crookes, F.R.S., 


234 

Heat of Stellar Masses, Samuel J. Wallace, 579 

Heintz (Dr. Wilhelm), Death of, 181; Obituary Notice of, 245 

Heller (Prof. Karl B.), Death of, 205 

Helmholtz’s (Prof.) Faraday Lecture, 535 

Henslow (Rev. George), Regelation, 11 ; ‘‘ Botany for Children,” 
241 

Herculaneum, Discovery by Prof. Giuseppe Novi of a Magnificent 
Bathing Establishment near, 182 

Herring, Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., 607 

Herschel (Sir W. J.), S\in- furrows of the Hand, 76 

Herschel’s First Observation of Uranus, 299 

Herschel (Sir William), J. R. Hind, F.R.S 

Herschel 3945, the Double Star, 591 

Herschel (Prof. A. 'S.), Infusible Ice, 383 

Herzegovina and Bosnia, Geology of, 
F.R.S., 224 

Herzen (Herr A.), Acetous Fermentation, 86 

Hewitt (William), ‘* Class-Book of Elementary Mechanics,” 53 

Highbury Microscopical and Scientific Society, 64 

Highlands, North, of Scotland, Geological Age of, Prof. Edward 
Hull, F.R.S., 289 

Hill (S. A.), Barometric and Solar Cycles, 409 ; Indian Winter 
Rains, 604 

Hincks (T., F.R.S.), ‘A History of British Marine Polyzoa,” 51 

Hind (J. R. + F.R.S.), Sir William Herschel, 429, 453, 573 

Histology, Atlas of, 382 

Hochstetter (Prof. v.) on the Agram Earthquake, 106 

Hodgson (Brian Houghton, F.R.S.), Presentation of Drawings 
to the Anthropological Institute, 107 

Holdich (Capt. T. H.), Geographical Results of the Afghan 
Campaign, 159 

Holub (Dr.), on the Art Faculty of the Australians, 20; Pro- 
posed Journey Across Africa, 22 

Hoorweg (Herr), on Electricity, 43 

Horner (F.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 348 

Hot Ice, see Ice 

Hubbard (Fred.), Squirrels Crossing Water, 484 

Hugel (Baron A. von), Proposed Work on Fiji, 45 

Hughes (Prof. McK.), Scientific Use of the Late Severe Weather, 


+» 429, 453, 573 


Prof. Archd, Geikie, 


346 
| Tlughes (Prof. D. E., F.R.S.), Molecular Electro-magnetic In- 


duction, 519; Permanent Molecular Torsion of Conducting 
Wires produced by the Passage of an Electric Current, 569 


Hull (Prof, Edward, F.R.S.), Geological Age of the North 


Highlands of Scotland, 289 

Hull’s (Prof.) ‘* Coal-Fields of Great Britain,” 321 

Human Brain, Concealed Bridging Convolutions in a, W. 
Carter, 556 

Human Intelligence, Development of, 617 

Humblot (M. Léon), Return to Paris from Madagascar, 41 

Humboldt Institution for Natural Research:and Travel, 371 

Hungary, Earthquake Shock in, 232 

Hunterian Lectures, the, 395 

can (F. Wollaston), ** Manual of the New Zealand Mol- 
usca,”” 7 

Huxley (Prof. T. H., F.R.S.), First Volume of the Publications 
of the Chailenger, 1; Challenger Publications, 33; on Evolu- 
tion, 203, 227; Appointed to. the Inspectorship of Fisheries, 
275; Herring, 607 

Hydrochloric Acid, the Influence of, on Metallic Chlorides, 397 

Hypotheses in School Education, Introduction of, Dr. Hermann 
Miiller, 157 


Ice, Hot, 34; Prof. John Perry, 288; Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, 
264, 504; J. B. Hannay, 504; Geo. B. Richmond, 504; Ice 
intrusive in Peat, T. Mellard Reade, 339 ; Experiments on Ice 


: 


Nature, Fune 9, 1882} 


INDEX 


1X 


under Low Pressures, Dr. Thos, Carnelley, 341; Infusible 
Tce, Prof. A. S. Herschel, 383; Ice-Casts of Tracks, J. T. 
Brownell, 484 

Incandescent Electric Lights, 104 

Index of Refraction of Ebonite, Measuring the, Professors 
Ayrton and Perry, 519 

India, Subterranean Forest in, 105; on the Identity of some 
Ancient Diamond Mines in, especially those mentioned by 
Tavernier, V. Ball, 490; Australian Plants in, Dr. G. Bidie, 
555 

Indian Empire, Census of the, 419 

Indian, American, Languages, A. H. Keane, 503 

Indian Winter Rains, S. A. Hill, 604 

Indians of Southern California, 253 

Indigo, 390 

Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races—Types and Affinities, A. I. 
Keane, 199, 220, 247, 271 

Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races, Classification of the, H. J. 
Murton, 508; A. H. Keane, 529 

Induction Current from Leyden-Jar Discharge, W. Larden, 529 

Infinity, Disturbing, in Lord Rayleigh’s Solution for Waves in a 
Plane Vortex Stratum, Sir William Thomson, 45, 70 

Infusible Ice, Prof. A. S, Herschel, 383 

Infusoria, a Manual of the, W. Saville Kent, 264 

Ingleby (Dr. C. M.), Auroral Phenomena, 363 

Ingram (William), Geologica! Climates, 169 

Inherited Memory, an Experiment on, W. Mattieu Williams, 
508 

‘*Tnjurious Insects, Notes of Observations of,” Eleanor A. 
Ormerod, 432 

Innes (Cosmo), Dr. Siemens’ New Cure for Smoke, 91 

Tansbruck, Inverted Rainbow seen at, 157 

-**Insects, Aid to the Identification of,” 98 

“Insects, Injurious, Notes of Observations of,” Eleanor A. 
Ormerod, 432 

Insects, Organs of Smell in, 440 

Insects, Oldest Fossil, Dr. H. A. Hagen, 483; Rev. A. E. 
Eaton, 507 

Instinct, Aberration of, Geo. J. Romanes, F.R.S., 4333; Rev. 
T. H. Waller, 484 

Institution of Civil Engineers, 162, 212, 308, 356, 380, 451, 
475) 524, 595 

Integral Calculus, Elementary Treatise on, B. Williamson, 
F.R.S., 241 

Intelligence, Development of Human, 617 

Intensity of Colour, the Eye and, 543 

International Medical Congress, 418 

International Geological Congress, C, E. de Ranee, 510 

lodide of Lead, Coefficients of Expansion of, 594 

Treland, North of, Earthquake Shocks felt in, 106 

Ireland and Scotland, Earthquake of November 28, 1880, in, 


591 
Irish Esparty Grass, 437 
Tron and Steel Institute, 49t ; Annual Meeting of the, 614 
Ischia, Earthquake in, H. J. Johnston-Lavis, 497 
Isoetes lacustris, 544 
“‘Tsland Life,” Correction of an Error in, Alfred R. Wallace, 


195 
“Island Life,” Prof. Arch. Geikie, F.R.S., 357, 391 
Isopods, Marine, of New England, 543 
Tsotherms of the North of Europe, 470 
Italy, Statistics of Disease in, 543 


Jablochkoff Light, Introduction of, by M. Hervé-Mangon, into 
the Conservatoire, Paris, 64; at Victoria and Charing Cross 
Stations, 64 

Jacob (F.), Improved Arrangement of Scale for Reflecting 
Instrume: ts, 527 

Jahrbiicher fiir wissenschaftliche Botanik, 288 

Jamaica Cinchona Barks, Superiority of, Mr. Morris, 157 

Jamaica Public Gardens, 614 

Janson’s Star of 1600, 276 

January, Birds laying in, J. H. Willmore, 314 

Japan, 600; Recent Works on, II., 12; Contributions to the 
Agricultural Chemistry of, 456; M. Grigorieff on Japanese 
Gardens, 205 

Jeffreys (Dr. J. Gwyn, F.R.S.), New Zealand Molluscs, 7 ; 
Deep-Sea Exploration, 300, 324 

Jelly-fish, F. C. Constable, 170 

Jentink (F. A.), Squirrels Crossing Water, 388 


Jevons (W. Stanley, F.R.S.), the August Auroras, 148 ; Recent 
Mathematico-Logicil Memoirs, 485 

Jochenstein, Discovery of Bronze Implements at, 157 

Johns Hopkins University Fellowships, 259 

Johnston, Keith, and Thomson’s African Expedition, 38 

Johnston-Lavis (H. J.), Earthquake in Ischia, 497 

Jolly (William), John Dancan, the Alford Weaver and Botanist, 
269 

Jones (Thomas Rymer, F.R,S.), Obituary Notice of, 174 

Journal of the Indian Archipelago, 42 

Journal de Physique, 47, 115, 235, 402, 449, 594 

Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, 95 

Journal of the Franklin Institute, 115, 211, 402, 449 

Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, Normal and Pathological, 
161, 378 

Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, 161, 259, 449 

Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South 
Wales, 401 

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 449 

Journal of Physiology, 449 

Jupiter, Condition of, J. Rand Capron, 34; Near Appulse of, 
to a Fixed Star, 158, 170; Occultation of 73 Piscium by, 
183; Red Spot upon Jupiter’s Disk, 517 

Jupp (H. B.), Localisation of Sound, 386 


Kaltbrunner (D.), f Aide-Mémoire du Voyageur,” 217 

Kant (Immanuel), Marble Bust of, 205 

Keane (A. H.), ‘*Max Miiller and the Philosophy of Lan- 
guage,” 30; “Philosophy of Language,” Ludwig Noiré, 124 ; 
Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races—Types and Affinities, 199, 
220, 247, 271; American-Indian Languages, 503; Classifica- 
tion of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic laces, 529 

Keene (’. H.), ‘‘ Practical Fisherman,” 603 

Kent (\W, Saville), ‘‘ A Manual of the Infusoria,” 264 

Kent's Cavern Committee, 296 

Kew Gardens Report, 22 

Kew Museums, Enlargement of, 564 

Kiew, Russo- Byzantine Antiquities found near, 321 

Kinahan (G. H.), Aurora Observed at Ovoca, co. Wicklow, 
November 3, 100; Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 
348 ; Auroric Light, 410 

Kinahan (Gerrard A.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 


4 

Teenatics, a General Theorem in, Geo. M. Minchin, 62, 170; 
Prof. J. D. Everett, F.R.S., 99; J. J. Walker, 125 

King (Capt. H., R.N.), Instances of Fascination, $4 

King (Clarence), Resignation of, 540 

Kingfisher, the Great, and Snakes, 298 

Knowles (W. J.), Minerva Ornaments, 411 

K6lliker (Albert), on Animal Development, 480 

Kosmos, 47, 211 

Krefft (Gerard), Death of, 589 

Krause (Dr. Ernst), ‘‘ Unconscious Memory,” Mr, Samuel Butler, 
288 ' 

Krause (Karl Christian Friedrich), Centenary of the Birth of, 371 

Kuhlmaan (Charles Frederick), Obituary Notice of, 316 

Kuntze (Dr. Otto), Sargassum, 70, 146 

Kweichow, Opium Harvest at, Mr. Baller op, 158 


Lake Leman, Warm Winter at, 254 

Lamp, Prize for the Invention of a New, 347 

Land, Subsidence of, Caused by Natural Brine Springs, Thos. 
Ward, 388 

Landslips: Thos, Ward, 144; the Cheshire Subsidences, T. 
Mellard Reade, 219 

Language, Philosophy of, Ludwig Noiré, A. H. Keane, 124 

Lankester (Prof. E, Ray, F.R.S.), Natural Conditions and 
Animal Life, 405 

Larden (W.), Soaring of Birds, 77; Induction-Current from 
Leyden-jar Discharge, 529 

Latzel (Dr. Robert), Austrian Myriopods, 167 

Laurie (A. P.), Heat of Formation of a Compound, 35 

Lava Fields of North-Western Europe, Prof. Arch. Geikie, 
BORTS 3 

Leaves, Movements of, M. L. Rouse, 195; Charles Darwin, 
F.R.S., 603 

Lécard (M.), Death of, 181 

Le Conte (Prof, Joseph), Coral Reefs and Islands, 77 ; on the 
Space Protected by Lightning-conductors, 386 

Leichhardt, Discovery of Relics of, 420, 443 


x INDEX 


[Aature, une 9, 1881 


Leipzig, Proposed Zoological Garden at, 253 

Level, Geolozical Changes of, Sir C. Wyville Thomson, 33 

Level of the Sea, on the Practicability of Living at Great Eleva- 
tions above the, Edward \Vhymper, 459 

Leverrier and his Theory of Saturn, 298 

Ley (Rey. W. Clement), Colours of British Butterflies, 458 

Leyden-jar Discharge, Induction Current from, W. Larden, 529 

Libya, the Languages of, 84 

Libyan Desert, Dr. Karl Zittel on, 19 

“fife and her Children: Glimpses of Animal Life from the 
Ameeba to the Insects,” Arabella B. Buckley, 125 

Light, Easy Lessons in, Mrs. W. Awdry, 32 

Livht and Electricity, the Kelation between, Dr. O. J. Lodge, 

O02 

Light and the Transpiration of Plants, 159 

Lighthouses, Lighting by Electricity, 296, 347 

Lightning Conductors: Richard Anderson on, 296; on the 
Space protected by, Prof. J. Le Conte, 386 

Linmat, Dredging the Bed of the, 297 

Lindsay (Dr. Lauder), Death of, 131 

‘Linnean Society, 71, 115, 330, 379, 426 

Liquids: the Rapidity of the Evaporation of, 86; Viscosity of, 


397 

Liquids and Solids at High Temperatures, John Aitken, 34 

Livadia, Russian Imperial Yacht, 27; the Accident to, 63 

Liveing (Prof. G. D., F.R.S.), on the Spectrum of Carbon, 
265, 338 

Liverpool College of Chemistry, Re-opening of, 468 

Living at Great Elevations above the Level of the Sea, on the 
Practicability of, Edward Whymper, 459 

Livingstone, Life of, by W. Garden Blaikie, D.D., 238 

Lizard, the Homed, of Australia, 402 

Lloyd (Rey. Huwphrey), Death of, 275; Obituary Notice of, 
2092 

Localisation of Sound, H. B. Jupp, 386 

Lockyer (J. Norman, F.R.S.), on the fron Lines Widened in 
Solar Spots, 425 

Locusts, the Natural Enemies of, 565 

Lodge (Dr. Oliver J.), Dr. Carnelley’s Hot Ice, 264, 504; the 
Relation between Light and Electricity, 302 

Logeman (W. G.), Geometrical Optics, 125 

Logic, Symbolical, Hugh MacColl, 578 

London, Smokeless, W. D. Scott Moncrieff, 151, 193; W. 
Mattiea Williams, 169; Average Height of Barometer in, 
184; Foss of, 165 

London Mathematical Society, 577 

Loomis (Prof.), Storm Centres in Tropical Regions, 322 

Lophiomys Imhaust, Prof. Hi. H. Giglioli, 291 

Lorenz (Prof.), on his Theory of ‘* Refraction-Constants,” 43 

Low Temperature, Rev. S. J. Perry, F.R.S., 268 

Lowe (FE. j.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 348 

Lowenberg’s ‘‘ Geschichte der geographischen Entdeckungsreisen 
im Alterthum und Mittelalter,” 481 

Lubbock (Sic J., Bart., F.R.S.), Observations on Ants, Bees, 
and Wasps, 255 

Lunar Eclipses, 1810-84, 114 

Lunge (Prof. George), ‘*Sulphuric Acid and Alkali,” Prof. 
Hi: Roscoe, F.R.S., 73 


MacColl (Hugh), Symbolical Logic, 578 

Mackay, the Town of, 492 

McLaurin (Dr. William), Temperature of the Breath, 244 

Maclay (Dr. Miklukho), his Travels, 44 

MacLennan (D.), Primitive Marriage Customs, 584 

McLeod (Herbert, F.R.S.), Recent Gas Explosion, 8 

McNally (Dr. C. J.), Temperature of the Breath, 217, 244 

MacOwan (Prof.) appointed Director of the Botanic Garden, 
Cape Town, 231 

Madagascar, Plants of, J. G. Baker, 125 

Magellan Straits, Post Office in, 254 

** Magic Mirrors,” French, 616 

Magnetic Storms, Correspondence of Phenomena in, W. Ellis, 
33 

Magnetic Storm of 1880, August, William Ellis, 482 

Magnetic Variation or Dec'ination, on some Recent Charts and 
Maps of Curves of Equal, 314 

Magnetic Survey of the Missouri, Prof, Francis E. Nipher, 583 

Magnetic Declination, Prof. Halfour Stewart, F.R.S., 592 

Ma.deren (M. van), Death of, 516 


Malleable Metals, Microscopic Structure of, J. Vincent Elsden, 
391 

Mammee Apples, Exportation of, 65 

Man, Palzolithic, Worthington G. Smith, 604 

Manchester: Literary and Philosophical Society, 236, 475 

Manchester Field Naturalists’ Society, 370 

Maps, United States Weather, 1878, 39 

Mariette (M.), ‘‘ Mariette Bey,’’ Death of, 320 

Marine Isopods of New England, 543 

Markham (Albert H.), a Polar Reconnaissance, 455 

Marriage Customs, Primitive, D. MacLeanan, 584 

Marsden’s ‘‘ List of British Birds,” 467 

Martineau (C. A.), Easy Lessons in Heat, 32 

Masters (Dr. Maxwell I’.), Geological Climates, 266 ; Dimorphic 
Leaves of Conifers, 267 

Mathematical Society, 71, 161, 283, 379, 474, 577, 594 

Mathematico-Logical Memoirs, Recent, Prof. W. Stanley Jevons, 
F.R.S., 485 

Maurit u-, Meteorological Observations at, for 1877, 322 

Mauritius, Zoological Results of Prof. K. Mébius’s Visit to, 
H. N. Moseley, F.R.S., 514 

Maxim Electric Light, 131 

Mechanics, Class-Book of Elementary, William Hewitt, 53 

Mechanics, Text-Book of, Edward S, Dana, 552 

Medical Catalogue, a, 28 

Medical Etiquette in Paris, a Case of, 64 

Medical Gymnasium, Paris, 297 

Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de 
Bordeaux, 433 

Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, 474 

Memory, Unconscious, Samuel Butler, Geo. J. Romanes, 
F.R.S., 285; S. Butler, Dr. Ernst Krause, 288; S. Butler, 
312; Butler’s, Geo. J. Romanes, F.R.S., T. R. R. Stebbing, 


reser: an Experiment on Inkerited, W. Mattieu Williams, 
508 

Memphis, Discovery of Two Pyramids to the North of, 297 

Mendeleef (Prof.), and the St. Petersburg Academy, 156, 205 

Mercadier’s Researches on the Photophone, 366 

Meredith (ILouisa Anne), ‘‘ Tasmanian Friinds and Foes: 
Feathered, Furred, and Finned,” 143 

Mereshkovsky (M.), Prehistoric Anthropology of the Crimea, 
63, 107 

Mesembrianthemum, not Mesembryanthemum, 158 

Messina, Tea Plantation Established near, 254 

Metallurgy, Introductory Lecture to the Course of, at the Royal 
School of Mines, Prof. W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., 65 

Metals, the Conduction of Electricity and Heat in, 44 

Metals, Microscopic Structure of Malleable, J. Vincent Elsden, 
391 

Meteorology : Meteorological Society, 96, 211, 307, 427, 500, 
620 ; Meteorological Notes, 183, 322, 470; State of Meteoro- 
logy in United States, 183 ; Average Height of Barometer in 
London, 184; E. Douglas Archibald, 243 ; Prof. Loomis on 
Storm Centres in Tropical Regions, 322; Dr. Meldrum’s 
Observations at Mauritius, 1877, 322; the Recent Severe 
Weather, 329, 363, 4113; Siberian Meteorology, Dr. A. 
Woeikof, 437 ; Meteorology in Mexico, 489 ; Meteorological 
Observatory at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 516, see a/so Barometer 

Meteors, 516; Rev. S. J. Perry, F.R.S.. 34; M. A. Veeder, 
147; November Meteors, 158 ; J. Parnell, 508 

Meteoric Stone, Fall of, at Wiener Neustadt, 297 

Metz Geological and Archeological Society, Details of the 
Roman Antiquities found near Metz, 321 

Mexico, Meteorology in, 489 

Miao-tze Tribes of China, 518 

Microphone, M. Boudet’s New, 278 

Microscopical Society, see Royal 

Microscopic Structure of Malleable Metals, J. Vincent El:den, 


391 

“* Midgets,” Abnormal Dentition of the, 419 s 

Migration of the Wagtail, 529; Prof. E. W. Claypole, 387 ; 
Dr. John Rae, F.R.S., 411 

Migration of Birds, 484 

Mills (Dr. Edmund J., F.R.S.), Nature of the Chemical Ele- 
ments, 193 

Milne-Edwards (M.), Medal presented to, 83, 564 

Mimas, Elongation of, 255 

Minchin (George M.), a General Theorem in Kinematics, 62, 170 

Mind in Animals, Geo. J. Komanes, F.R.S., 501 


a 


Nalure, Fune 9, 1881] 


INDEX 


Xi 


Mineral Resources of Newfoundland, Alex. Murray, 46 

Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Prof. Arch. 
Geikie, F.R.S., 150, 212 ; General Meeting, 182 

Minerva Ornaments at Troy, and Net-Sinkers, Prof. E. W. 
Claypole, 292; W. J. Knowles, 411 

Minerva Club, 297 

Mines, Cause of Accidents in, 320 

Mines, Venvilation of, 517 

Minimum Energy, on an Experimental Illustration of, Sir 
William Thomson, F.R.S., 69 

Minor Planets, 517; in 1881, 396 

Missouri, Magnetic Survey of, Prof, Francis E. Nipher, 583 

Mitchell (Arthur), “ Past in Present, What is Civilisation?” 166 

Mitchinson (A. W.), ‘‘ The Expiring Continent,” 399 

“Mock Sun,” J. E. H. Peyton, 314 

Moebius (Prof. K.), Zoological Results of his Visit to Mauritius, 
H. N. Moseley, F.R.S., 514 

Molecular Electromagnetic Induction, Prof. D. E. Hughes, 
F.R.S., 519 

Molison (A, R.), Photophone, 78 

Moll (M.), Death of, £56 

Molloy (Gerald), “‘ Outline of a Course of Natural Philosophy,” 
32 

Molluscs, New Zealand, Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 7 

Moncrieff (W. D. Scott), Smokeless London, 151 

Montsouris, Analysis of the Air at, by M. Davy, 63 

Montsouris Observatory Annuaire, 469 

Mont Cenis Tunnel, New Entrance to, 253 

Montgolfier (Mdlle. de), Death of, 181 

Mont Pourri, Avalanche from, 396 

Mook (Dr. Fr.), Death of, 234 

Morren’s (Prof. E.), Correspondance Botanique, 253 

Morris (Mr.), Superiority of Jamaica Cinchona Bark, 157 

Moseley (H. N., F.R.S.), Zoological Results of Prof, K. 
Moebius’ Visit to Mauritius, 514 

Mott (F. T.), Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost, 338 

Movements of Leaves, M. L. Rouse, 195 

Movements of Plants, Charles Darwin, F.R.S., 409 

Muir (Wiliam), Dynamic: of ‘‘ Radiant Matter,” 483 

Miiller’s (Dr. Fritz), ‘‘ Ueber die vonden Trichopterenlarven der 
Provinz Santa Catharina verfertigen Gehaiise,” 192 

Miiller (Dr. Hermann), Introduction of Hypotheses in School 
Education, 157; New Cases of Dimorphism in Flowers, 
Errors Corrected, 337 

Miller (Prof. Max), and the Philosophy of Language, A. H. 
Keane, 30; at University College, 381 

Malsant (Etienne), Death of, 107 

ee uple Centres of Species, Cave Animals and, D. Wetterhan, 
45 

Mundella (Right Hon. A. J.), on Education, 106, 134 

Marphy (Joseph John), Geological Climates, 290 

Murray (Alex.), Mineral Resources of Newfoundland, 46 

Murton (H. J.), Classification of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic 
Races, 505 

Museums, Opening of, on Sundays, 395 

Museum, New, of Natural History, 549, 577 

Music, Photophonic, 124 

Musk Deer, 36 

Myriopods, Austrian, Dr. Robert Latzel, 167 


Nageli (Carl von), the Works of, Sydney H. Vines, 78 

Naini Tal Landslip, 184 

Naphtha Region of the Apsheron Peninsula, 42 

Naples, Zoological Station at, 315, 418 

Narr (Herr), Electricity in Gases, 43 

Natural Conditions‘and Animal Life, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 
F.R.S., 405 

“Natural” Experiment in Polarised Light, Charles T, Whit- 
mell, 268 


Natural History, Cassell’s, 317 


Natural History, New Museum of, 549, 577 

Natural Philosophy, Outlines of a Course of, Gerald Molloy, 32 

Natural Science for Women, Alfred W. Bennett, 195 

Natural Selection, Sir Wyville Thomson and, Charles Darwin, 
BERS: 32, 53 

Naumann, Monument to, in the Schlossgarten at Kéthen, 205 

Naval Architects, 568 

Naval and Marine Engineering Exhibition at Glasgow, 41 

Navigation, Electric Light and, on the Rhine, 132 


Net-Sinkers; Minerva Ornaments at Troy v., Prof. i. W. Clay- 
pole, 292 

New England, Marine Isopods of, 543 

New Guinea, Alfred R. Wallace, 152, 175; 
Ornitholozy of, 243 

New Zealand Molluscs, Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 7 

New Zealand, the Forests of, 65 

Newcastle Libraries, Catalogue of, 262 

Newfoundland: Mineral Resources of, Alex. Murray, 46 ; Go!d 
in, 472 

Newton (Prof. Alfred, F.R.S.), British Birds, 287; 
Olde-t Picture in the World,” 555 

Niagara, Falls of, in Winter, W. Lant Carpenter, 511 

Niépce (Nicephore), Statue of, 295 

Nice Observatory, Information regarding, 156 

Nicols (Arthur), Fascination (?), 77 

Niger, the Discovery of the Sources of, $7 

“Niger and the Benueh: Travels in Central Africa,” Adolphe 
Burdo, 169 

Niger, Sources of the, M. Henri Duveyrier on, 184 

Nile Gleanings, 526 

Nipher (Prof. Francis E.),; Magnetic Survey of Missouri, 583 

Nordenskjold’s (Baron) Arrival at St. Petersburg, 231; at the 
Meeting of the Russian Geographical Society, 299 ; in Fin- 
land, 340 

Noiré (Ludwig), ‘‘Max Miiller and the Philosophy of Lan- 
guage,”’ A. H. Keane, 30; Philosophy of Language, A. H. 
Keane, 124 

North American Pinnipeds, J. A. Allen, 261 

North American and European Birds, 277 

North America, Ferns of, D. C. Eaton, J. G. Baker on, 479 

Northern Microscopist, 440 

Northern Thuringia, Formation of a Botanical Society for, 181 

Nova of 1600, the So-called, 371 

Nova Scotia, Geological Relations of Gold in, J. W. Dawson, 
F.R.S., 578 

Novak (Dr.), on Earthquakes, 156 

November Meteors, 158 


Salvadori’s 


‘©The 


Oberthiir’s “ Etudes d’Entomologie,” 84 

Observatories: M. Tripier appointed Director of the Algiers, 
107; Nice, 156; Harvard Collese, U.S., 321; Paris, 533; 
Etna Observatory, 559 

Occultation (?) of 73 Piscium by Jupiter, 183; Col. H. Collett, 

8 

Ceci Races, Indo-Chinese and, Types and Affinities, A. H. 
Keane, 199, 220, 247, 271 

Oceanic Races and Indo-Chinese, Classification of the, H. J. 
Murton, 508; A. H. Keane, 529 

Oceanic Phenomenon, Dr. R. W. Coppinger, 482; H, B. 
Guppy, 597 . 

Ochsenius (Carl), Fascination, 505 

Oeltzen, the Star 17681, Prof. Edward C, Pickering, 338 

“*Oldest Picture in the World,” Prof, Alfred Newton, F.R.S., 


5 

Oleomargarine, 469 

Oliver (Capt. S. P.), Les Lettres d’Outre-Mer, 434 

Ophiurans, Deep-Sea, 464 

Opium Harvest at Kweichow, Mr. Baller on, 158 

Optics, Geometrical, 125, 372 

Optical Telegraph, an, 372 

O’Reilly (Prof. J. P.), British Earthquakes, 170 

Ormerod (Eleanor A.), ‘‘Notes of Observation of Injurious 
Insects,” 432 

Omithology of New Guinea, Salvadori’s, 240 

Oscillations, Periodic, of Barometric Pressure, Dr. J. Allan 
Broun, F.R.S., 556 

Outre-Mer, Les Lettres d’, Capt. S. P. Oliver, 434 

Owen (Prof., F.R.S.), on the Horned Lizard of Australia, 402 

Oxford, Proposed New Statutes, 23, 115; Report of Oxford 
University Commission, 466, 471, 509 

Oxidation of Quinine, Dr. W. Kamsay and J. J. Dobbie, 243 

Oxygen and Ozone, 207 

Ozone, 125, 363; J. Rand Capron, 219 ; Liquefaction of, $6 ; 
Ozone and the Colour of the Sky, 373 


Palestine, Eastern, Exploration of, 495 
Palladium, the Elasticity of, 133 
Palz lithic Man, Worthington G, Smith, 604 


Xi 


INDEX 


[Wature, Fune 9, 1881 


Palliser (J. W.), ‘‘Complete Course of Problems in Practical 
Plane Geometry,” 264 

Paola, Earthquake at, 614 

Parallax, Solar, 441, 493, 591 

Parhelion, J. Kand Capron, 291 

Paris: Academy of Sciences, 24, 48, 72, 116, 140, 163, 187, 
236, 255, 260, 283, 308, 332, 356, 380, 428, 451, 466, 476, 
493, 518, 524, 548, 572, 596, 620; Museum d’Histoire Natu- 
relle, 63 ; M.-Fremy on Chemistry at, 83 ; a Case of Medical 
Etiquette in, 64 ; Paris Observatory, 533; the Object-glass of 
the New Telescope, 64; Annual Sovvee at, 346; Proposed 
International Congress of Electricians at, 84, 347, 369, 439; 
Medical Gymnasium in, 297 ; the Time of Day in, 367 

Parnell (J.), Meteors, 508 

Pascoe (Francis P.), the Thresher, 35 ; Flying-fish, 312 

‘* Past in the Present, What is Civilisation?” Arthur Mitchell, 
166 

Paukhurst (E. Alloway), Sound of the Aurora, 484 

Peal (S. E.), Soaring of Birds, 10; Pile Dwellings, 218 

Peat, Ice Intrusive in, T, Mellard Reade, 339 

Pechiile’s Comet, 207 

Pei-ho, the Yang-tse and the Yellow River, Dr, A. Woeikof, 
9; H. B. Guppy, 35,99 

Penygelly (Wiiliam, F.R.S.), Climate of Vancouver Island, 267 ; 
Proposed Portrait of, 540 

Periodic Oscillations of Barometric Pressure, Dr. J. Allan Broun, 
F.R.S., 556 

Peripatus Edwardsii, Blanch, some Remarks on, Dr. A, Ernst, 


446 

Pernitric Acid, 470 

Perry (Rev. S..J., F.R.S.), Meteor, 34; Low Temperature, 
268; Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 348 

Perry (Prof. John), Wire Torsicn, 35 ; Hot Ice, 288; Mea- 
suring the Index of Refraction of Evonite, 519 

Perseids in August, 1880, 372 

Peruvian Antiquities, W. Keiss and A. Stiibel, 75 

Peruvian Bark, 189 

Peshawur, Earthquake at, 275 

Petermann’s Mittheilungen, 87, 185, 279, 399, 566, 495 

Peyton (J. E. H.), Mock Sun, 3t4 

Phenomena in Magnetic Storms, Correspondence of, W. Ellis, 
33 

Phenomenon, Oceanic, Dr, R. W. Coppinger, 482 

Philippines, Report on the, 299 

Philosophy of Language, Max Miiller and, A, H, Keane, 30 

Philosophy of Language, Ludwig Noiré, 124; A. H. Keane, 124 

Phonograph, 2 New Kind of, 441 

Phonograph, Enlarged Impressions from, 373 

Phosphorescence of the Sea, Thos. Bb. Groves, 411 

Phosphorescent Centipedes, B. KE. Brodhurst, 99 

Photographic Society, 163, 235, 355, 428, 524 

Photography and the Stereoscope, on Estimating the Height of 
Clouds by, John Harmer, 194 

Photometer, Dr. Fuchs’ New, 278; a New Centigrade, 442 

Photophone: Prof. Graham Bell’s, 15 ; Shelford bidwell on, 58 ; 
Experiments with the, Prof. Graham Bell and M. Janssen, 
86 ; a Foreshadowed Photophone, 63 ; A. R. Molison on, 78; 
Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., on, 274 ; Prof. Silvanus P. Thomp:on 
on, 331; Photophone Experiments, 354; Mercadier’s Ke- 
searches on the Photophone, 366; Herbert Tomlinson on, 
457; Photophonic Music, 124 

Phylloxera in France, Maxime Cornu, 127; the Probability of 
Phylloxera Crossing the Tropics, 147; in the Geelong Vine- 
yards, 181 ; in the Crimea, 253 : 

Physical Notes, 43, 86, 133, 208, 278, 372, 397, 441, 517, 616 

Physical Society, 95, 162, 187, 331, 493, 450, 499, 547, 595 

Physical Science at Bedford College, 181 

Physical Nature of the Sun, Study of the, Prof. Piazzi Smyth, 


554 
“Paysics of the Earth’s Crust,” Rey. Osmond Fisher, 131 
Physiological Botany, Atlas of, Dr. Dodel-Port’s, 157 
Physiological Significance of Transpiration of Plants, 494 
Physiology of Plants, Francis Darwin, 178 
Piano, Stenographic, 440 
Pickering (Prof. Edward C.), the Star Oeltzen 17681, 338; 
Spectrum of the Star Ll. 13412, 604 
Picture, the Oldest, in the World, Prof. Alfred Newton, F.R.S., 


555 
Pile-Dwellings, S. E. Peal, 218 
Pinguicula Alpina, 159 


Pinnipeds, North American, J. A. Allen, 261 

pas (73), Occultation of, by Jupiter, 183; Col. H. Collett, 
45 

Planets, Minor, 396, 517 

Plants of Madagascar, J. G. Baker, 125 

Plants: Chlorophyll in the Epidermis of, 158; Light and the 
Transpiration of, 159; Physiology of, Francis Darwin, 178 

Plants, Biology of, 310 

Plants, Australian, in India, Dr, G. Bidie, 555 

Plants, Movement of, Charles Darwin, F.R.S., 409 

Plants, Physiological Significance of Transpiration of, 494 

Plimsoll’s (Mr.) Cure for Colliery Explo-ions, W. Galloway, 176 

Plymouth, Flora of, T. R. Archer Briggs, 74 

Poggendorff’s Biographical Dictionary, Supplement to, 231 

Polar Research, the Future «f, 49 

Polar Reconnaissance, Albert H. Markham, 455 

Polarisation of Light, Experiment in, 442 

Polarised Light, ‘‘ Natural’? Experiment in, Charles T, Whit- 
mell, 268 

Political Economy, Dr. Luigi Cossa, 97 
olyergus lucidus, the Shining Slave-Maker, 543 

Polyzoa, British Marine, T, Hincks, F.R.S., 51 

**Pompei,”” a New Journal, 232 

Pompeii, Discoveries at, 371 ; Excavations in the Ninth Region 
of, 440 

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Meteorological Observatory at, 516 

Portuguese Pompeii, a, 297 

Post Office in Magellan Straits, 254 

Practical Plane Geometry, Complete Course of Problems in, J. 
W. Palliser, 264 

Predicter, Tide, Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., 578; Edward 
Roberts, 555 

Preece (W. H.): On the Conversion of Radiant Energy into 
Sonorous Vibrations, 496; Dust, Fogs, and Clouds, 336; 
Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 345 

Prejevalsky (Col.) : his Travels in China, 21, 45, 173; Account 
of, 399; at St. Petersburg, 418 

Prehistoric Europe: Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 309, 
361, 482; Dr. James Geikie, F.R.S., 336, 433, 458; R. H. 
Tiddeman, 433, 528 

Prehistoric Man, Exploration of the Remains of, in Russia, 107 

Preston (S. Tolver), on some Points relating to the Dynamics of 
** Radiant Matter,” 461 

Prevost (G. W.), Aurora of January 31, 329 

Primitive Marriage Customs, D. MacLennan, 584 

Prism, the Passage of Light through a, 397 

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 401 

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 449, 
522 

Prussia, Education in, 115 

Pyramids, Discovery of, to the North of Memphis, 297 


Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 296, 378 

Quelkett Microscopical Club, 439, 451 : 

Quinine, Oxidation of, Dr. W. Ramsay and James J. Dobbie, 
243 


Radiant Heat, Action of an Intermittent Beam of, upon Gaseous 
Matter, Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S., 374 

“Radiant Matter,” on some Points Kelating to the Dynamics of, 
S. Tolver Preston, 461; William Muir, 483 

Radiant Energy, on the Conversion of, into Sonorous Vibrations, 
W. H. Preece, 496 

Radiophone, the, 209, 373 

Rae (Dr. John, F.R.S.), Geological Climates, 337 ; Migration 
of the Wagrail, 411 ; Sound of the Aurora, 605 

Rainbow, Inverted, seen at Innsbruck, 157 

Rains, Indian Winter, S. A. Hill, 604 

Ramsay (Dr. W.), Oxidation of Quinine, 243 

Rance (C. E. de), Blackheath Holes, 365 ; International Geo- 
logical Congress, 510 

Rankine’s (Macquorn, F.R.S.) Scientific Papers, Prof. Osborne 
Reynolds, F.R.S., 477 \ a 

Raout (M.), Experiments on the Freezing-Points of Acoholic 
Liquids, 85 

Rayleigh’s (Lord) Solution for Waves ina Plane Vortex Stratum‘ 
on a Disturbing Infinity in, Sir William Thomson, 45, 70; 
the Photophone, 274 

Reade (T. Mellard), Landslips—the Cheshire Subsidences, 219 ; 


— 


re Nalure, Fune 9, 1881] 


Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost, 314; Ice Intru- 
sive in Peat, 339 

Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere, 211, 235, 306, 
425, 474, 499, 5943 Prizes of, 231 

Reality, Criterion of, 144 

Red Colour of Salt Cod, 543 

Reed (Sir Charles), Death of, 516 

Reed (Sir E. J., F.R.S.), ‘‘ Japan; its History,” &e. y 12 

Reflecting Instruments, Improved Arrangement of Scale for, 
F. Jacob, 527 

Refraction, M. Glasenap on, 373 

Regelation, Rey. George Henslow, IE 

Reiss (W.) and A, Stiibel, Peruvian Antiquities, 75 

Research, Endowment of, in Birmingham, 304 

Revista of the Society of Instruction of Oporto, 298 

Revue d’Anthropologie, 83 

Revue des Sciences Naturelles, 47, 283 

Revue des Sciences, 515 

Revue Internationale des Sciences, 594 

Revue Internationale des Sciences biologiques, 95, 161, 306, 449 

Reynolds (Prof. O-borne, F.R.S.), Macquorn Rankine’s Scientific 
Papers, 477 

Rhenish Fishery Society, Foundation of a, at Cologne, 158 

Rhine, Electric Light and Navigation on the, 132 

Rhinoceros, Colossal, Discovery of in Siberia, 275 

Rhinoce os Merchii in Siberia, Recent Discovery of the Body of, 

66 

Reale: Seaver (Major F. J.), Bi-Centenary of Calderon, 457 

Richmond (Geo. B.), Hut Ice, 504 

Rivers, German, the Quantity of Water in, 94 

Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, 47, 115, 211, 402, 425, 474, 


594: 

Rebets (Dr. William), Temperature of the Breath, 55; ‘‘On 
the Digestive Ferments, and on the Preparation and Use of 
Artificially Digested Food,” 169 

Roberts (Prof. W. Chandler, F.R.S.), Introductory Lecture to 
the Course of Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines, 65 

Roberts (Edward), Tide Predicter, 467, 555 

Rodwell (G. F.), French Association for the Advancement of 
Science at Algiers, 582, 606 

Rogers (J. Banting), New Game, ‘‘A Voyage Round the 

+ World,” 134 
Rogers (J. Innes), Colours of British Butterflies, 435 

Rolleston (Prof.), His Lecture on the Modifications of the 
External Aspects of Organic Nature Produced by Man’s 
Interference, 19 

Romanes (George J., F.R.S.), Butler’s ‘ Unconscious Memory,” 
285, 335; Aberration of Instinct, 433; Mind in Animals, 
501 ; the Locomotive System of Echinodermata, 345 ; Conscious 

. Matter, 553 

Roscoe (Prof. H. F., F.R.S.), Prof. Lunge’s “‘ Sulphuric Acid 
and Alkali,” 73, 99, 215; ‘*Scientific Worthies,” Robert 
Wilhelm Bunsen, 597 

Roth (Herr), Compressibility of Gases, 43 

Roumania, Earthquake Shock in, 232 

Rousdorf, Shock of Earthquake felt at, 253 

Rouse (M. L.): Movements of Leaves, 195; Tacitus on the 
Aurora, 459; Sound of the Aurora, 556 

Routledge (Robert), ‘‘ Popular History of Science,” 52 

Royal School of Mines, Introductory Lecture to the Course of 
Metallurgy at the, Prof. W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., 65 

Royal Society, 283, 330, 355, 378, 402, 425, 474, 499, 545, 569, 
594; Officers and Council, 41; Medals awarded, 62, 138; 
Address of the President, Dr. William Spottiswoode, I11, 
1353; the Z%mes on Dr. Spottiswoode’s Address at, 130; pro- 
posed New Fellows, 563 

Royal Society of Literature, 163 

Royal Asiatic Society, 162, 332 

Royal Astronomical Society, Anniversary Meeting, 394 

Royal College of Science, Dublin, 297 

Royal Geographical Society, 21, 398, 420, 443, 495, 518, 544, 
565; Medals, 565 ; Sir Bartle Frere at, 87 

Royal Institution, Lecture Arrangements of, 19, 254; Friday 
Evening Lecture, 130; Prof. Dewar on Atoms at the, 181 

Royal Microscopical Society, 140, 162, 427, 500 


_ Ruchonnet’s (Charles), ‘ Exposition Géométrique des Propriétes 


penalise des Courbes,” ‘ Eléments de Calcul approximatif,” 

481 

Russell (Hon. Rollo), Colliery Explosions and Coal-Dust, 193 ; 
Dust and Fogs, 267 


INDEX 


Xili 


Russia ; Account of Communes, &c., 45; Exploration of the 
Remains of Prehistoric Man in, 107 

Ru‘sian Geographical Society, 44, 255, 443; and Universal 
Time, 255; Prof. Nordenskjold and, 299 

Russian Imperial Yacht Livadia, 27, 63 

Russo-Byzantine Antiquities found near Kiew, 321 

Ryde, Annual Meeting of the british Medical Association at, 131 


Sachs (E. T.), Natural History Notes from Batavia, 275 

St. Ivan-Zelina, Earthquake at, 439 

St. Michael’s in the Azores, Earthquake at, 419 

St. Petersburg Geological Society, Meeting of, 107 

St. Petersburg, Earthquake at, 370 

St. Petersburg Dynamite Mine, 531 

Salts of Zinc, S. W. Bott, 78 

Salvadori’s Ornithology of New Guinea, 240 

San Cristubal, Earthquake at, 564 

Sands, Moving, and Dunes, 569 

Sandstones, Cambrian, near Loch Maree, Curious Impressions 
In, 93 

Sanitary Assurance Association, 50 

Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, 320 

Santarein and Citania, 297 

Sargassum, Dr. Otto Kuntze, 70, 146 

Sargent (Howard), Mode of Flight of the Albatross, 362 

Saturn, Leverrier’s Theory of, 298 

Schipka Cave, 296; Animal Rewains in the, 446 

Schloss Trako-tyan, Earthquake at, 205 

Schmeltz (J. D. E.) und Dr. med, R. Krause, “‘ Die ethno- 
graphisch-anthropol gische Abtheilung des Museum Godeffroy 
in Hamburg. Ein Beitray zur Kunde der Siid-ee- Volker,” 168 

Schriften der physikalisch 6k onomischen Gesellschaft zu:Konigs- 
berg, 306, 402 

Schuster (Dr. Arthur), on the Thermic and Optic Behaviour of 
Gases under the Influence of the Electric Di charge, 258 

«Science, a Popular Histo y of,”’ Robert Routledge, 52 

Scientific Education, Lord Gifford on, 64; Mr. Mundella on, 
134 

Science, Natural, for Women, Alfred W. Bennett, 195 

Science at Alviers, French Association for the Advancement of, 
G. F. Rodwell, 582, 606 

Sciences, Songs of the—I. Zoology, 143 

Scientific Societies of Dublin, 316 

Screntiric WorTHIES, XVI1.—Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, Prof, 
H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., 597 

Scotch Fisheries Improvement Association, 232 

* Scotland, Free Librarie~ of,” 64 

Scotland, Slight Shocks of Earthquake in, 106, 591 


 Scott-Moncrieff (W. D.), Smokeless London, 193 


Sea, Phosphorescence of the, Thomas B. Grove-, 411 

Seabrooke (George M.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 
31, 348 

Sea-Lion, Death of, at the Brighton Aquarium, 253 

Seeing by Electricity, 423 

Selenium, 218, 412 

Semellé (Count de), Death of, 45 

Semper (Prof. Karl), ‘* Natural Conditions of Existence and 
Animal Life,” 405 

Shadows cast by Venus, Charles T, Whitmell, 579 

Sharp (Dr.), ‘* Avis prélimina’re d’une Nouvelle Classification 
de la Famille des Dytiscide,” 98 

Shaw (J.), Explosive Gas in a I.ake, 435 ; Sound of the Aurora, 
484 

Shaw-Lefevre’s Collections, 369 

Sheep, Black, Charles Darwin, F.R.S., 193 

Sheppey, Geologising at, J. Starkie Gardner, 293 

Shining Slave-Maker (/o/)e>,gus /ucidus), 543 

Siberia, Recent Discovery of the Body of RAtnoceros Merckit in, 
466 

Siberian Meteorology, Dr. A. Woeikof, 437 

Siemens’ (Dr. C. William, F.R.S ) New Cure for Smoke, 25, 
366; D. A. Stevenson, Cosmo Innes, Thomas Fletcher, Dr. 
C. W. Siemens, F.R.S , 91; Gas-Grate, Dr. R. Douglas 
Hale, 145 ; Gas and Electricity as heating Agents, 326, 351 

Siemens (Herr F.), on his ** Regenerative Gas- Burner,” 131 

Signs of Death, 494 

Sitka in Alaska, Cyclone accompanied by Earthquake Shocks 
at, 8 

Sitzungsberichte der Naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Isis 
in Dresden, 594 


xiv 


Skating, Statics and Dynamics of, Charles Alexander Stevenson, 
268 

Skeleton of a Mammoth discovered at Bendery, 371 

Skeletons, Dr. Fritsch’s Method of taking Casts of, 275 

Skin Furrows of the Hand, Sir W. J. Herschel, 76 

Sky, the Colour of, and Ozone, 373 

Small-pox, Dr, Richardson on, 589 

Smell, Organs of, in Insects, 440 

Smith (Worthington G.), Paleolithic Man, 604 

Smoke, New Cure for, Dr. C. William Siemens, F.R.S., 25, 
gt, 360; D. A. Stevenson, Cosmo Innes, Thomas Fletcher, 
J. A. C. Hay, 386 

Smoke in the Metropolis, Deputation to the Lord Mayor on, 131 

Smoke Abatement, 246 

Smoke, Dust, Fogs, &c., M. Chatel, 436 

Smokeless London, W. D. Scott-Moncrieff, 151, 198; W. Mattieu 
Williams, 169 

Smyrna, Earthquake at, 205 

Smyth (Prof, Piazzi), Study of the Physical Nature of the Sun, 


554 

Snake Bites and Guaco, 182 

Snakes and the Great Kingfisher, 298 

Soaring of Birds, S. E. Peal, 10; W. Larden, 77 

So-called Nova of 1600, 371 

Society of Arts, 20; Papers to be read at the, before Easter, 
232 

Society of Telegraph Engineers’ Soirée, 563 

Solar Cycles, Barometric and, S. A. Hill, 409 

Solar Cycles, Barometric and, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 


457 

Solar Eclipse of December 31, 65 

Solar Eclipse of 1878, 591 

Solar Parallax, 441, 493, 591 

Solar Physics, Course cf Lectures on, 491 

Solar Spots, on the Iron Lines widened in, J. Norman Lockyer, 
F.R.S., 425 

Solar Systems, Tidal Friction in Connection with the History of 
the, G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., 389 

Solids and Liquids at High Temperatures, John Aitken, 34 

Songs of the Sciences—I. Zoology, 148 

Sonorous Vibrations, on the Conversion of Radiant Energy into, 
W. H. Preece, 496 

Sound of the Aurora, E, Alloway Paukhurst, J. Shaw, 484; 
M. L. Rouse, 556; Dr. John Rae, F.R.S., 605 

Sound, Localisation of, H. B. Jupp, 386 

Spallanzani, Proposed Erection of a Monument to, 41 

Sparrow, the, and Division of Labour, G. C. Wallich, 579 

Species, Cave Animals and Multiple Centres of, D, Wetterhan, 


45 

Spectra of Vapours and Gases, Influence of Pressure and Tem- 
perature on, G, Ciamician, 160 

Spectroscopic Notes, 1879-80, Prof. C. A. Young, 281 

Spectrum of Carbon, 313; W. M. Watts, 197, 265, 361; Prof. 
G. D. Liveing, F.R.S., 265, 338 

Spectrum of the Star Ll. 13412, Prof. Edward C. Pickering, 
604 

Speed-Governor for Continuous Motion, Prof. J. Ewing, 473 

Spencer (Herbert) and Prof, Tait, 100, 123, 144 

Spherohedry in Crystallisation, 398 

Sphygmography, 438 

Spider, Garden, the Influence of a Tuning-Fork on a, C, V. 
Boys, 149 

Spinoza, Publication of the Complete W orks of, 156 

Spottiswoode (Dr. William, F.R.S.), Royal Society Address, 
III, 135 

Spratling (W. J.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 

$ 


34 

Squirrel Crossing Water, H. H. Godwin-Austen, 340; F. A. 
Jentink, 388; Frederick Hubbard, Cecil Duncombe, 484 ; 
T. V. Sladek, 459 

Standard Thermometers, 400 

Stars: Ceraski’s Circumpolar Variable, 21, 43, 322; Variable 
Stars U Cephei and U Geminorum, 542; a probable Variable 
Star, 115; J. Birmingham, 517 555,; Variable Stars, 206, 
493; J. E. Gore, 362; Star Lalande 1013-4, 85; Near 
Appulse of Jupiter to a Fixed Star, 158; J. Birmingham, 170; 
Janson’s Star of 1600, 276; Star Oeltzen 17681, Prof. 
Edward C, Pickering, 338 ; Spectrum of the Star Ll 13412, 
Prof. Edward C. Pickering, 604 ; Cincinnati Measures of 
Double Stars, 396; Double-Star Herschel 3945, 591 


INDEX 


[Wature, Fune 9, 1881 


Statistical Map of England, 399 

Statistical Society, 322, 428 

Statures, Classification of, 494 

Steam-Pressure Regulator, a New, 372 

Stebbing (T, R. R.), Butler’s ‘‘ Unconscious Memory,” 335 

Stellar Masses, Heat of, Samuel J. Wallace, 579 

Stenhouse (Dr. John, F.R.S.), Death of, 231 ; Obituary Notice 
of, 244 

Stenographic Machine, 468 

Stenographic Piano, 440 

Stephenson (George), Centenary of the Birth of, 515 

Stereoscope and Photography, on Estimating the Height of 
Clouds by the, John Harmer, 194 

Stevenson (Charles Alexander), Statics and Dynamics of Skating, 
268 

Stevenson (D. A.), Dr. Siemens’ New Cure for Smoke, 91 

Stevenson (Thomas), Mode of Masking or Cutting off Sharply 
the Light from Revolving Apparatus on a desired Compass- 
bearing by means of a Reciprocating Screen, 560 

Stewart (James), his Return from Livingstonia, Lake Nyassa, 22 

Stewart (Prof. Balfour, F.R.S.), Barometric Cycles, 237, 457 ; 
Magnetic Declination, 592 

Stone Implements, Ancient, Modern Use of, D. Budde, 218 

Stone (Dr. W. H.), Acoustics in China, 448 

Storm Centres in Tropical Regions, Prof. Loomis, 322 

Stiibel (A.) and W. Reiss, Peruvian Antiquities, 75 

Subsidence of Land caused by Natural Brine-Springs, Thomas 
Ward, 388 

Sugar, Cane, Inversion of, 85 

‘Sulphuric Acid and Alkali,” Prof. Lunge, Prof, H.E. Roscoe, 
F.R.S., 73, 99, 215 

Sunday Society, 156 

Sunday Lecture Society, 419 

Sunlight, the Chemical Intensity of, 86 

“‘Sun, Mock,” J. E. H. Peyton, 314 

Sun-spots, Liznar on, 133 

Sun-Spots, Rainfall, and Famines, Abnormal Variations of 
Barometric Pressure in the Tropics, and their Relations to, 
E. Douglas Archibald, Fred. Chambers, 399 

Sun-Spot Cycle, Abnormal Barometric Gradient between London 
and St. Petersburg in the, E. Douglas Archibald, 618 

Sun, Study of the Physical Nature of the, Prof, Piazzi Smyth, 


554 

Swan (J. W.), Incandescent Lights, 104 

Switzerland: Earthquake in, January 27, 320; Earthquakes in, 
468 

Swift’s Comet, 115, 158, 182, 255, 322, 441 

Sydney Botanical Gardens, Native Cucumbers and New Seeds 
at, 20 

Sydney, Zoological Gardens at, 371 

Symbolical Logic, Hugh MacColl, 578 

Szabo (Prof.), Earthquakes at Agram in 1880-81, 530 


Tacitus on the Aurora, M. L. Rouse, 459, 484 

Tait (Prof. P. G.), on the Formula of Evolution, 78; Mr, 
Spencer and, 100, 123, 144 

Tait (Mr. Lawson), Bedroom Ventilation, 157 

Tarentula, Zycosa tarentula, Latr., Herr V. Bergso on, 84 

Tashkent College, 44 

“Tasmanian Friends and Foes; Feathered, Furred, and Finned,” 
Louisa Anne Meredith, 143 : : 

Tavernier, on the Identity of some Ancient Diamond Mines in 
India, especially those mentioned by, V. Ball, 490 

Taylor (R. W.), Aurora of January 31, 329 

Taylor (R. E.), Flying-fish, 388 

Tea Plantation established near Messina, 254 

Telegraph, an Optical, 372 

Teleraph Wires, Vibration of, during Frost, T. Mellard Reade, 
314; F. T. Mott, 338 : 

Telegraphy, Berthoud Borel and Co.’s New Discovery in, 85 

Telegraphy without Wires, an Experiment in, 320 

Telephone in Paris, 63; and the Magnetic Receiver, 371; 
Telephonic Amenities, 599 

Tele-Photography, Shelford Bidwell, 344 

Telescope, Prof. C. A, Young’s New, 346 _ 

Tempel (Dr. Wilhelm), King Humbert’s Prize Awarded to, 252 

Temperature of the Breath, Dr, R. E. Dudgeon, 10, 76; Dr. 
William Roberts, 55; C. J. McNally, 217, 244; Dr. William 
McLaurin, 244 

Temperature, Critical, of Ethylene, Robert E. Baynes, 186 


Nature, Fune 9, 1851] 


INDEX 


XV 


—_— EE ———————————————— eS 


Temperature, on a Method of Determining the Critical, for any 
Liquid and its Vapour, without Mechanism, Sir William 
Thomson, F.R.S., 87 

Temperature, Low, Rev. S. J. Perry, F.R.S., 268 

Temperatures, Electrical Thermometer for Determining, at a 
Distance, Horace T. Brown, 464 

Tennant (Prof. James), Death of, 418 

Theorem, General, in Kinematics, J. J. Walker, 125; Geo. M. 
Minchin, 170 

‘Thermal Bar,’ M. Forel on, 86 

Thermic and Optic Behaviour of Gases under the Influence of 

the Electric Discharge, Dr. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., 258 

Thermo-electricity, Herr Exner on, 44 

Thermo-magnetic Thermoscope, a New, 372 

Thermometer, Electrical, for Determining Temperatures at a 
Distance, Horace T. Brown, 464 

Thermometers, Standard, 400 

Thompson (Prof. Silvanus P.), Bottomley’s Experiments with 
Vacuum Tubes and the Aurora, 289 

Thomson and Keith Johnston’s African Expedition, 38 

Thomson (Joseph), Notes on the Geology of East Central Africa, 
102 ; Report on His East African Expedition, 134 | 

Thomson (Sir William), on a Disturbing Infinity in Lord Ray- 
leigh’s Solution for Waves in a Plane Vortex Stratum, 45, 
70; on an Experimental Illustration of Miniumum Energy, 
69; on a Method of Determining the Critical Temperature | 
for any Liquid and its Vapour without Mechanism, 87; Tide | 
Predicter, 482, 578; on a Method of Measuring Contact | 
Electricity, 567 

Thomson (Sir Wyville, F.R.S.), Natural Selection, Charles 
Darwin, F.R.S., 32, 53; Geological Changes of Level, 33 

Thresher, the, Francis P. Pa:coe, 35 

Thulium, Se; aration of, 86 

Tidal Friction in Connection with the History of the Solar 
System, G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., 389 

Tide Predicter, Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., 482, 578; Ed- 
ward Roberts, 467, 555 

Tiddeman (R. H.), Prehistoric Europe, 433, 528 

Timbuctoo, Dr. Lenz on, 544 

Time, Universal, and the Russian Geographical Society, 255 

Time-Signal Apparatus, a New, 347 

Time of Day in Paris, 367 

Times, the, on Dr. Spottiswoode’s Address at the Royal Society, 
130 

Tomlinson (Herbert), the Photophone, 457 

Tonbridge School, Science at, 516 

Topler Air-Pump, Improved Form of, 616 

Torsion, Wire, Prof. John Perry and Prof, W. E, Ayrton, 35 | 

Total Solar Eclipse of 1878, 591 

Towson (John Thomas), Death of, 231 

Tracks, Ice Casts of, J. T. Brownell, 484 

Traill (D.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 348 

Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edin- | 
burgh, 522 

Transactions of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, 161 

Transit of Venus Commission, 231, 388, 467 

Transylvania, Earthquake Shock at, 232 

Trichocera, Winter Gnats, Rev. A. E. Eaton, 554 

Trichopterenlarven, Ueber die yon den, der Provinz Santa 
Catharina verfertigen Gehause, Dr. Fritz Miiller, 192 

Trimen’s Journal of Botany, 259 

Tripier (M.), appointed Director of the Algiers Observatory, 
107 

Tropics, Abnormal Variations of Barometric Pressure in the, 
and their Relation to Sun-Spots, Rainfall and Famines, Fred, 
Chambers, 88, 107, 399; E. Douglas Archibald, 399 

Tropics, the Probability of Phylloxera Cros-ing the, 147 

Troy, Minerva Ornaments at, v. Net-Sinkers, Prof. E. W. 
Claypole, 292 

Tucker (K.), Obituary Notice of Michael Chasles, 234 

Tuning-Fork, the Influence of, on a Garden Spider, C. V. 
Boys, 149 

Tunnel, the Arlberg, 321 

Tylor (Edward b., F.R.S.), the Aryan Village, 525 

Tyndall (Prof., F.K.S.), Action of an Intermittent Beam of 
Radiant Heat upon Gaseous Matter, 374 

Types and Affinities, Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races, A. H. 
Keane, 199, 220, 247, 271 


rette, the Tufted, 37 


| Vienna: Geographical Society, 22; 


“Unconscious Memory,” Samuel Butler, George J. Romanes, 


F.R.S., 285, 335; Samuel Butler, 288, 312; Dr. Ernst 
Krause, 288 ; T. R. R. Stebbing, 335 

Union Géographique du Nord de Ja France, 398 

United States Weather Maps, 39, 147 

United States, Meteorology in, 183 

U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 
1879-80, 481 

United States, Fish-Culture in the, 532 

University College, Prof. Max Miiller at, 381 

University Intelligence, 23, 47, 71, 87, 115, 139, 160, 186, 211, 
2595 282, 330, 354, 377, 491, 424, 473, 498, 544, 569, 593, 

19 - 

Urania, 383 

Uranium, New Compounds of, 86 

Uranus, Herschell’s First Observation of, 299 


Vacuum Tubes, Experiments with, J. T. Bottomley, 218, 243 > 
Bottomley’s Experiments with, andthe Aurora, Prof. Silvanus 
P, Thompson, 289; Experiments with, 442 

Valparaiso, Earthquake in, 20 

Vanadium, the Sulphides of, 208 

Vancouver Island, Climate of, Capt. Edmund H. Verney, 147 ; 
William Pengelly, F.R.S., 267; Dr. George M. Dawson, 
385 ; and Bournemouth, Climates of, Alfred R, Wallace, 169 

Vapours, Specific Volume of, 397 

Vapours and Gases : their Dis:olving Power on one another, 86 5 
Spectra of, Influence of Pressure and Temperature on, G. 
Ciamician, 160 

Variable Stars, 21, 115, 206, 362, 493, 517, 542, 555 

Vaucauson, Exhibition of his MS., &c., in Paris, 63 

Veeder (M. A.), Meteors, 147 

Vega Fund, the, 160 

Ventilation, Bedroom, Mr. Lawson Tait on, 157 

Venus: Transit of, Commission, 231, 388; Shadows Cast by, 
Chas, T. Whitmell, 579 ° 

Verglas in Italy, 517 

Verney (Capt. Edmund H.), Climate of Vancouver Island, 147 

Vertebrates, Italian, at Florence, 41 

Vesuvius : Flow of Lava from the Crater of, 20 ; the Eruption 
of, 43, 83, 440, 542 ; 

Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost, T. Mellard Reade, 
314; F. T. Mott, 338 


| Vicars (George Rayleigh), Vox Angelica, 34, 77; Future Deve- 


lopment of Electrical Appliances, 528 

Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, 236, 307, 356, 404, 500, 548 

Victoria, Royal Society of, 64 

Victoria University, 593 

Victoria Station, Jablochkoff Light at, 64 

Imperial Academy of 
Sciences, 48, 72, 96, 140, 164, 188, 284, 308, 356, 380, 404, 
476, 500, 548, 596 ; Imperial Institute of Geology, 164, 479, 
596; Observatory, the New Telescope, 469 

Vines (Sydney H.), the Works of Carl von Nageli, 78; Chloro- 
phyll, 561 

Viscosity of Gases at High Exhaustions, W. Crookes, F.R.S. 
421, 443 


| Vivisection, Charles Darwin, F.R.S., on, 583 


Volcanoes, Vesuvius, 20, 43, 83, 440, 542 
Voldifjord, appearance of a Colony of Beavers on the, $4 
Vox Angelica, George Rayleigh Vicars, 34, 77 


Wagner (Prof. Johannes Rudolf von), Obituary Notice of, II 

Wagtail, Migration of, 529; Prof. E. W. Claypole, 387; Dr, 
John Rae, F.R.S., 411 

Walker (J. J.), 2 General Theorem in Kinematics, 125 ka | 

Wallace (Alfred R.), Geological Climates, 124, 217, 266; New 
Guinea, 152, 175 ; Climates of Vancouver Island and Bourne- 
mouth, 169; Correction of an Error in ‘ Island Life,” 195; 
Pension Conferred upon, 275 

Wallace (Samuel J.), Heat of Stellar Masses, 579 

Wallich (G. C.), Sparrow and Division of Labour, 579 

Walsingham (Lord), Fertilisation of Yucca, 76 

Ward (Thomas), Landslips, 144; Subsidence of Land Caused 
by Natural Brine Springs, 388 

Ward (Col. Foster), on some Remarkable Hailstones, 233 

Warnings, Earthquake, 529 

Washington Society of Anthropology, 84 

Wasps, Bees, Ants, and, Observations on, Sir J, Lubbock, Bart., 
F.R.S., 255 


Xvi 


INDEX 


[Nature, Fune 9, 1881 


NT 


Water, Expansion of, in Freezing, 321 

Water, Squirrels Crossing, F. A. Jentink, 388 ; Frederick Hub- 
bard, Cecil Duncombe, 484 

Watson (Prof, J. C.), Obituary Notice of, 155 

Watson (Ellen), propo ed Memorial to, 474 

Watts (Dr. W. M.), Spectrum of Carbon, 197, 265, 361 

Weather Maps, United States, 39, 147 

Weather, Recent severe, 329, 363, 411 

Wetterhan (D.), Cave Animals and Multiple Centres of Species, 
458 

Weyprecht (Lieut. Karl), Death of, 544 

Wheat and Barley, Enzlish, in Cawnpore, 370 

Whipple (G. M.), Aurora and Eleciric Storm of January 31, 


34 

«* Whitaker’s Almanack,” Scientific Summary, 232; the Geo- 
graphy of, 232, 279 

White (William), Death of, 320 

Whitmell (Charles T.) ‘* Natural” Experiment in Polarised 
Light, 268; Shadows Cast 1y Venus, 579 

Whitney (Prof.), on the Glaciaiion of British Columbia, George 
M. Dawson, 290 

Whymper (Edward), on the Practicability of Living at Great 
Elevations above the Level of the Sea, 459 ; Ascents of Chim- 
borazo and Cotopaxi, 323 

Wiener Neustadt, Fall ot a Meteoric Stone at, 297 

Wiesbaden, Earthquake Shock at, 156 

Williams (W. Matticu), Smokeless Loidon, 169; Experiment 
on Inherited Memory, 508; Agricultural Communism in 
Greece, 579 

Williamson (B., F.R.S.), ‘‘ Elementary Treatise on the Integral 
Calculus,” 241 

Willmore (J. H.), Birds Laying in January, 314 

Winnecke’s Comet, 254 

Winter Rains, Indian, $. A. Hill, 604 

Wire Torsion, Profes-ors John Perry and W, E, Ayrton, 35 

Wires, Elasticity of, J. T. Bottomley, 281 

Woeikof (Dr. A.), the Yangy-tse, the Yellow River, and the 
Pei-ho, 9; Geoloyical Climates, 241, 362; Siberian Meteoro- 
logy, 437 

Wolf, the Japanese, 36 


Women: Natural Science for, Alfred W. Bennett, 195 ; Degrees 


to, 394 

Wood (Searles Valentine), Obituary Notice of, 40; Order 
Zeuglodontia, Owen, 54, 339 

Wood (E.), his Collection of Fossils, 275 

Wortley (Col. H. Stuart), Crabs and Actinia, 529 

Wright (Lewis T.), Note on Flame Length, 527 

Wurtz (Ad.), ‘‘ The Atomic Theory,” 5 


Xanthium strumarium, its Poisonous Effects on Cattle, 182 


Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho, Dr, A. Woeikof, 
9; H. B. Guppy, 35, 99, 507 

Yorkshire Vertebrata, Handbook of, 467 

Younz Men’s Society for Home Study, U.S., 254, 297 

Young (Prof. C. A.), Spectroscopic Notes, 1879-80, 281 

Young, Professors Exner and, Prof. C. A. Young, 312 

Young (Lamont), Mysterious Disappearance of, 346 

Yucca, Fertilisation of, Lord Walsingham, 76 


Zarafshan, the Glacier of the, M. Mushketoff’s Exploration of, 


44 

Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 161, 306, 545 

Zeuglodontia, Order, Owen Searles V. Wood, jun., 54, 388 

Zinc, Salts of, S., W. Bott, 78 

Zittel (Dr. Karl), on the Geology of the Libyan Desert, 19 

Zoological Record for 1878, 8 ; the Staff of, 63 

Zoological Gardens, Additions to, 21, 420, 441, 469, 493, 516, 
542, 565, 591, 615 

Zoological Garden, Proposed, at Leipzig, 253 

Zoological Gardens, Sydney, 371 

Zoological Society’s Living Collection, Illustrations of New or 
Rare Animals in, 35, 415, 487 

Zoological Society, 95, 161, 187, 259, 306, 355, 427, 499, 571 

Zoological Laboratory, Chesapeake, 279 

Zoological Station at Naples, 315 

Zoological Stations at Watson’s Bay, 589 

Zoological Results of the Visit of Prof. K. Mobius to Mauritius, 
H. N. Moseley, F.R.S., 514 

Zoology, Songs of the Sciences, I., 148 


batt 


A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 


‘© To the solid ground 
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”—WORDSWORTH 


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1880 


THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE PUBLICATIONS 
OF THE “CHALLENGER” 


OUR years have elapsed since the Challenger re- 
turned from her famous cruise, and the scientific 
world has been looking, of late perhaps somewhat impa- 
tiently, for the first instalment of the long series of 
volumes which is to embody the results of the investiga- 
tions of the best-equipped voyagers who ever left the 


shores of England for the purpose of enlarging the | 


bounds of natural knowledge. 

But this is one of the many cases in which impatience 
is more natural than justifiable.’ In the ‘‘ General Intro- 
duction” with which Sir Wyville Thomson prefaces the 
“Reports” which are to appear in the first volume of the 
great work for which he is responsible, he mentions 


that the zoological specimens collected and preserved 


ee 


in alcohol during the voyage filled 2270 large glass 


jars, 1749 smaller bottles, 1860 glass tubes, and 176 | 


tin cases; while 22 casks and 180 tin cases held objects 
preserved in other ways. 
In dealing with this vast mass of material, Sir Wyville 


Thomson justly considered it to be his duty to obtain, as | 


far as it was practicable so to do, the co-operation of the 
best specialists in every department, irrespective of 


nationality; and it is gratifying to find that, in reply | 


to his invitations, many foreign men of science of great 
distinction have willingly associated themselves with a 
strong corps of English workers. This matter being 
arranged, the specimens had to be distributed to their 
destinations ; and the several workers, rarely men of 
much leisure, found themselves embarked in months or 
years of critical and laborious investigation. Along 
with this went the slow process of writing out the 
results, and the still slower of executing the illustrations 
with due care, all of which had to be finished before the 
printer could begin his operations. 

To those who are familiar with the amount of expendi- 


ture of trouble and time which all these processes mean, 


it will seem no small matter tb..t seven treatises, illustrated 
by a large number of admirably executed plates, are now 
VOL. XXIII.—No. 575 


ready for distribution, and that three more volumes of no 
less magnitude are to be issued before the end of the 
year ; so that the fifteen or sixteen volumes of which the 
whole work is to consist may reasonably be expected to 
be in the hands of the public by 1884. 

The “Zoological Reports,” as these separate treatises 
upon each group of specimens are termed, are printed as 
they are completed, and are to beissued, without reference 
to the order which they will eventually occupy, as soon as 
sufficient matter to form a volumeisready. Each memoir 
will be separately paged, and will have its own legend for 
reference. This arrangement has been adopted in order that 
working naturalists may have access to the “ Reports” as 
early as practicable, and that the multiplication of synonyms 
by the simultaneous publication of species by different 
observers may be avoided. With this object in view, it 
would perhaps have been even better to have issued every 
“Report” as it was ready; but it may be that there are 
practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of this 
course. 

The present writer, though a fairly swift reader, does 
not profess to have perused the seven elaborate memoirs 
now presented on behalf of the Chad/enger ; nor if he had 


| does he lay claim to {that zoological omniscience which 


would justify him in criticising them in detail. But as 
Mr. Brady deals with the Ostracoda, Mr. Davidson with 
the Brachiopoda, Dr. Giinther with the Shore Fishes, Prof. 
Kolliker with the Pennatulide, Mr. Moseley with those 
groups of Corals which he has made his special study, 
Mr. Parker with the Development of the Chelonian 
Skull, and Prof. Turner with the Cetacea, it is question- 
able if any extant finite knowledge is likely to enable its 
possessor to say anything more or better than they have 
said on these respective topics. And,as has been already 
remarked, there can be no sort of doubt as to the artistic 
excellence of the 122 quarto plates which illustrate and 
adorn the text. 

Sir Wyville Thomson’s “ General Introduction,’”’ how- 
ever, is extremely readable both in size and in substance, 
and may be commended to that patient omnivore, the 
General Reader, who will find in its earlier pages a readily 
intelligible account of the fittings and appliances of the 
Challenger, and of the means by which the greatest 
depths of the sea have been made to yield some, at any 

B 


2 NATURE 


[WVov. 4, 1880 


rate, of the secrets of the busy life which, contrary to all 
the beliefs of the naturalists of a past generation, blindly 
toils and moils in the darkness and cold of the marine 
abysses. 

The latter half of the “ Introduction ” will be no less inter- 
esting to the biologist, since it embodies the general con- 
clusions at which the scientific director of the Expedition 
has arrived, in a dissertation on the nature’and distribution 
of the fauna of the deep sea. 

Sir W. Thomson considers that the most “ prominent 
and remarkable biological result” of the four years’ work 
of the Challenger is the final establishment of the fact 
“that the distribution of living beings has no depth-limit, 
but that animals of all the marine invertebrate classes, and 
probably fishes also, exist over the whole of the floor of the 
ocean.’”’ As to the exact nature of this deep-sea fauna at 
the greatest depths, he speaks with some hesitation; but, 
at about 2000 fathoms, the list given on pages 36 and 37 
proves that there is a large and a varied assemblage of 
forms of life. Upwards, this characteristic deep-sea 
fauna extends to about 600 fathoms, and is richest 
between this depth and 1000 or 1200 fathoms. Around 
all coasts, in temperate regions, the local shore forms, 
which occupy successive zones of depth as, on land, 
they characterise zones of height, gradually die out 
towards the 200-fathom line. Nor is there any close 
relation between the abyssal and the shore faunz of any 
given latitude or longitude—on the contrary, the abyssal 
fauna is singularly uniform and appears “to have been 
derived from a genetic source different from that of the 
shore fauna.’’ In fact, Sir Wyville Thomson appositely 
compares the abyssal ocean—that is the sea everywhere 
below 200 fathoms or thereabouts—to a world-wide lake 
of comparatively still water, which, in its deeper parts, is 
very cold, its temperature neither rising nor falling appre- 
ciably beyond the average of 35° F. 

Thus there is a certain parallel between land and sea 
distribution, inasmuch as all Alpine floree present marked 
analogies with circumpolar floree. The cold land is discon- 
tinuous, whence it presents, as it were, islands of analogous 
population all over the world; while the cold water being 
continuous, the continuity in its population is correspond- 
ingly unbroken. But the uniformity and invariability of 
conditions is far more complete in the abyssal lake than 
on the mountain-tops ; and the homogeneity of the popu- 
lation harmonises with that of the medium in which it 
lives. 

Sir Wyville Thomson draws attention to the fact that 
this widespread abyssal fauna 


«“.... has a relation to the deep-water fauna of the 


Oolite, the Chalk, and the Tertiary formations, so close 
that it is difficult to suppose it in the main other than the 
same fauna which has been subjected to a slow and con- 
tinuous change under slightly varying circumstances 
according to some law, of the nature of which we have 
not as yet the remotest knowledge” (p. 49). 

“There is every reason to believe that the existing 
physical conditions of this area date from a very remote 
period, and that the present fauna of the deep sea may 
be regarded as directly descended from faunz which have 
necessarily occupied the same deep sea. ... That the 
present abyssal fauna is the result of progressive change 
there can be no room for doubt; but it would seem that 
in this case, the progress has been extremely slow, and 
that it has been brought about almost in the absence of 


those causes—such as minor and local oscillations of the 
crust of the earth producing barriers and affecting climate— 
on which we are most inclined to depend for the modifi- 
cation of faunze. The discovery of the abyssal fauna, 
accordingly, seems to have given us an opportunity of 
studying a fauna of extreme antiquity, which has arrived 
at its present condition by a slow process of evolu- 
tion from which all causes of rapid change have been 
eliminated”? (p. 50). 

That the deep-sea fauna presents us with many forms 
which are the dried and but little modified descendants 
of Tertiary and Mesozoic species is a proposition which 
few who attend to the evidence will be disposed to deny. 
But I may venture to express some doubt, whether it 
may not be well to keep a conclusion of such gravity 
and so well founded, apart from views respecting the 
absence of “minor local oscillations of the crust of the 
earth” in the area of the present great ocean basins, 
which Sir Wyville Thomson expresses more fully else- 
where. 


“There seems to be sufficient evidence that all changes 
of level since the close of the Paleozoic period are in direct 
relation to the present coast lines. 

“There does not seem to be a shadow of reason for 
supposing that the gently undulating plains, extending for 
over a hundred million of square miles, at a depth of 
2500 fathoms beneath the surface of the sea, and pre- 
senting, like the land, their local areas of secular eleva- 
tion and depression, and their centres of more active 
volcanic disturbance were ever raised, at all events in 
mass, above the level of the sea; such an arrangement, 
indeed, is inconceivable”’ (p. 46). 


I must plead ignorance of the “sufficient evidence” to 
Pp 8 


which Sir Wyville Thomson refers ; in fact, I should have — 


thought that the sufficient evidence lay in the other 
direction. Surely there is evidence enough and to spare 
that the Cretaceous sea, inhabited by various forms, some 
of whose descendants Sir W. Thomson, as I believe 
justly, recognises in the present deep-sea fauna, once 
extended from Britain over the greater part of Central and 
Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia to the 
Himalayas. In what possible sense can the change of 
level which has made dry land and sometimes mountain 
masses of nine-tenths of this vast area be said to be 
“in direct relation to the present existing coast lines”? 

That the abyssal plains were ever all elevated, at once, 
is certainly so improbable that it may justly be termed 
inconceivable; but there is nothing, so far as I am aware, 
in the biological or geological evidence at present ac- 
cessible, to render untenable the hypothesis that an 
area of the mid-Atlantic or of the Pacific sea-bed as big 
as Europe should have been upheaved as high as Mont 
Blanc and have subsided again any time since the 
Palaeozoic epoch, if there were any grounds for enter- 
taining it. 

In concluding the “ Introduction” Sir Wyville Thomson 
expresses “a strong personal impression ” on two points. 
The one is that the study of the abyssal fauna lends a 
powerful support to the doctrine of evolution. The other 
is, that “ the character of the abyssal fauna refuses to give 


the least support to the theory which refers the evolution — 


of species to extreme variation guided only by natural 
selection.” But the grounds assigned for the latter opinion 
are hardly so cogent as might be desirable. 


“Species are just as distinctly marked in the abyssal 


~ Nov. 4, 1880] 


fauna as elsewhere, each species varying within its definite 
range as each species appears to have varied at all times 
past and present’’ (p. 50). 

Exactly so; the abyssal species are like species else- 
where. The difficulties in the way of the application of 
the evolution of species by variation and selection there- 
fore in this case cannot be greater than elewhere. In 


- fact, from the sentences which end the “ Introduction ” it 


seems doubtful whether they are not less than in many 
other cases. 

“Tyansition forms linking species so closely as to cause 
a doubt as to their limit are rarely met with. There is 
usually no difficulty in telling what a thing is” (p. 50). 

Hence it appears that the study of the abyssal fauna 
has satisfied Sir Wyville Thomson that transitional 
forms are sometimes met with ; and that, sometimes, he 
has found a difficulty in “telling what a thing is.” And 
this admission is all that the most ardent disciple of Mr. 
Darwin could desire. 

However, the value of the great work which is now 
being brought before the public does not lie in the specu- 
lations which may be based upon it, but in the mass and 
the solidity of the permanent additions which it makes to 
our knowledge of natural fact. Sir Wyville Thomson 
and his colleagues must be congratulated on having made 
an excellent beginning ; the looker-on may properly content 
himself with wishing them a speedy and a good ending. 

T. H. HUXLEY 


THE LAVA-FIELDS OF NORTH-WESTERN 
EUROPE 
ROM the earliest times of human tradition the basin 
of the Mediterranean has been the region from which 
our ideas of volcanoes and volcanic action have been 
derived. When the old classical mythology passed away 
and men began to form a more intelligent conception of 


a nether region of fire, it was from the burning moun- 


tains of that basin that the facts were derived which 
infant philosophy sought to explain. Pindar sang of the 
crimson floods of fire that rolled down from the summit 
of Etna to the sea as the buried Typhoeus struggled 
under his mountain load. Strabo, with matter-of-fact 
precision and praiseworthy accuracy, described the erup- 
tions of Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, and pointed out 
that Vesuvius, though it had never been known as an 
active volcano, yet bore unequivocal marks of having 
once been corroded by fires that had eventually died out 
from want of fuel. In later centuries, as the circle of 
human knowledge and experience has widened, it has 
still been by the Mediterranean type that the volcanic 
phenomena 6f other countries have been judged. Whena 
geologist thinks or writes of volcanoes and volcanic action, 
it is the structure and products of such mountains as Etna 
and Vesuvius that are present to his mind. Nowhere 
over the whole surface of the globe have eruptions been 
witnessed different in kind though varying in degree from 
those of the Mediterranean vents. And hence even among 
those who have specially devoted themselves to the study 
of volcanoes there has been a tacit assumption that from 


_ the earliest times and in all countries of the world where 


volcanic outbreaks have occurred, it has been from local 
vents like those of Etna, the Aeolian Islands, the Phleg- 
raean Fields, or the Greek Archipelago. 


NATURE 3 


If one were to assert that this assumption is probably 
erroneous, that the type of volcanic “ cones and craters ’’ 
has not been in every geological age and all over the 
earth’s surface the prevalent one, that, on the contrary, it 
is the less portentous, though possibly always the most 
frequent type of volcanic action, and belongs perhaps to 
a feebler or waning degree of volcanic excitement—these 
statements would be received by most European geologists 
with incredulity, if not with some more pronounced form 
of dissent. Yet I am convinced that they are well 
founded, and that a striking illustration of their truth is 
supplied by the greatest of all the episodes in the volcanic 
history of Europe—that of the basalt-plateaux of the 
north-west. 

It is now some twelve years since Richthofen pointed 
out that on the Pacific slope of North America there is 
evidence of the emission of vast floods of lava without 
the formation of cones and craters. Geologists interested 
in these matters may remember with what destructive 
energy Scrope reviewed his “ Natural System of Volcanic 
Rocks’’; how he likened it to the old crude ideas that 
had been in vogue in his younger days, and which a 
study of the classical district of Auvergne had done so 
much to dispel; and how he ridiculed what he regarded 
as “fanciful ideas” and “untenable distinctions,’’ which 
it was “a miserable thing”’ to find still taught in mining- 
schools abroad. My own reverence for the teaching of 
so eminent a master and so warm-hearted a friend led me 
to acquiesce without question in the dictum of the author 
of “ Considerations on Volcanoes.” Having rambled over 
Auvergne with his admirable sections and descriptions 
in my hand, I knew his contention as to the removal of 
cones and craters by denudation and the survival of more 
or less fragmentary plateaux once connected with true 
cones to be undoubtedly correct with respect at least to 
that region. Nevertheless there were features of former 
volcanic action on which the phenomena of modern volca- 
noes seemed to me to throw very little light. In particu- 
lar the vast number of fissures which in Britain had been 
filled with basalt and now formed the well-known and 
abundant ‘“‘dykes”? appeared hardly to connect them- 
selves with any known phase of volcanism. The area 
over which these dykes can be traced is probably not less 
than 100,000 square miles, for they occur from Yorkshire 
to Orkney, and from Donegal to the mouth of the Tay. 
As they pierce formations of every age, including the 
Chalk, as they traverse even the largest faults and cross 
from one group of rocks into another without interrup- 
tion or deflection, as they become more numerous towards 
the great basaltic plateaux of Antrim and the Inner 
Hebrides, and as they penetrate the older portions of 
these plateaux, I inferred that the dykes probably be- 
longed to the great volcanic period which witnessed the 
outburst of these western basalts. Further research has 
fully confirmed this inference. There can be no doubt that 
the outpouring of these great floods of lava of which the 
hills of Antrim, Mull, Morven, Skye, Faroe, and part of 
Iceland are merely surviving fragments and the extrava- 
sation of these thousands of dykes are connected mani- 
festations of volcanic energy during the Miocene period. 

But this association of thin nearly level sheets of basalt 
piled over each other to a depth of sometimes 3,000 feet, 
with lava-filled fissures sometimes 200 miles distant from 


4 | NATURE 


[Wov. 4, 1880 


them, presented difficulties which in the light of modern 
volcanic action remained insoluble. The wonderfully 
persistent course and horizontality of the basalts with the 
absence or paucity of interstratified tuffs, and the want of 
any satisfactory evidence of the thickening and uprise of 
the basalts towards what might be supposed to be the 
vents of eruption were problems which again and again I 
attempted vainly to solve. Nor so long as the incubus of 
“ cones and craters’’ lies upon one’s mind does the ques- 
tion. admit of an answer. A recent journey in Western 
America has at last lifted the mist from my geological 
vision. Having travelled for many leagues over some 
of the lava-fields of the Pacific slope, I have been 
enabled to realise the conditions of volcanism described 
by Richthofen and, without acquiescing in all his theore- 
tical conclusions, to judge of the reality of the distinction 
which he rightly drew between “ massive eruptions’’ 
and ordinary volcanoes with cones and craters. Never 
shall I forget an afternoon in the autumn of last year 
upon the great Snake River lava desert of Idaho. It 
_was the last day of a journey of several hundred miles 
through the volcanic region of the Yellowstone and 
Madison. We had been riding for two days over 
fields of basalt, level as lake bottoms, among the valleys, 
‘and on the morning of the last day, after an inter- 
view with an armed party of Indians (it was only a few 
days before the disastrous expedition of Major Thorn- 
burgh, and the surrounding tribes were said to be already 
in a ferment), we emerged from the mountains upon the 
sreat sea of black lava which seems to stretch illimitably 
westwards. With minds keenly excited by the incidents 
of,the journey, we rode for hours by the side of that appa- 
rently boundless plain. Here and there a trachytic spur 
projected from the hills, succeeded now and then by a 
valley up which the black flood of lava would stretch 
away into the high grounds. It was as if the great piain 
had been filled with molten rock which had kept its level 
and wound in and out along the bays and promontories 
of the mountain-slopes as a sheet of water would have 
done. Copious springs and streams which issue from the 
mountains are soon lost under the arid basalt. The 
Snake River itself, however, has cut ‘out a deep gorge 
through the basalt down into the trachytic lavas under- 
neath, but winds through the desert without watering 
it. The precipitous walls of the cafion show that the 
plain is covered-by a succession of parallel sheets of 
basalt to a depth of several hundred feet. Here and 
there, I was told, streams that have crossed from the 
hills and have flowed underneath the lava-desert issue 
at the base of the cafion-walls, and swell the Snake 
River on its way to the Pacific. The resemblance of 
the horizontal basalt-sheets of this region to those with 
which I was familiar at home brought again vividly 
before my mind the old problem of our Miocene dykes 
and Richthofen’s rejected type of ‘‘massive” or fissure 
eruptions. I looked round in vain for any central cone 
from which this great sea of basalt could have flowed. 
It assuredly had not come from the adjacent mountains, 
which consisted of older and very different lavas round 
the worn flanks of which the basalt had eddied. A few 
solitary cinder cones rose at wide intervals from the 
basalt plain, as piles of scoriz sometimes do from the 
vapour vents on the surface of a Vesuvian lava-stream, 


and were as unequivocally of secondary origin. Riding 
hour after hour among these arid wastes, I became con- 
vinced that all volcanic phenomena are not to be explained 
by the ordinary conception of volcanoes, but that there is 
another and grander type of volcanic action, where, in- 
stead of issuing from separate vents and piling up cones 
of lava and ashes around them, the molten rock has risen 
in fissures, sometimes accompanied by the discharge of 
little or no fragmentary material, and has welled forth so 


| as to flood the lower ground with successive horizontal 


sheets of basalt. Recent renewed examination of the 
basalt-plateaux -and associated dykes in the west of 
Scotland has assured me that this view of their origin 
and connection, which first suggested itself to my mind 
on the lava-plains of Idaho, furnishes the true key to 
their history. 

The date of these lava-floods of the Snake River is in 
a geological sense quite recent. They have been poured 
over the bottoms of the present valleys, sealing up be- 
neath their sheets of solid stone river-beds and lake-floors 
with their layers of gravel and silt. The surface of the 
lava is in many places black and bare as if it had cooled 
only a short while ago. Yet there has been time for the 
excavation of the Snake River cafion to a depth of 700 
feet through the basalt-floor of the plain. In so arid a 
climate, however, the denudation of this floor must be 
extremely slow. Much of the plain is a verdureless waste 
of loose sand and dust which has gathered into shifting 
dunes. Save in the gorges laid open by the main river 
and some of its tributaries hardly any sections have yet 
been cut into the volcanic floor. Dykes and other pro- 
trusions of basalt occur on the surrounding hills, but the 
chief fissures or vents of emission are still no doubt buried 
beneath the lava that escaped from them. 

In North-Western Europe, however, the basalt-sheets 
were erupted as far back as Miocene times. Since then, 
exposed to many vicissitudes of geological history—sub- 
terranean movement and changes of climate, with the 
whole epigene army of destructive agencies, air, rain, 
frost, streams, glaciers, and ice-sheets—the volcanic 
plateaux, trenched by valleys two or three thousand feet 
deep and a mile or more in breadth, and stripped bodily 
off many a square mile of ground over which they once 
spread, have been so scarped and cleft that their very 
roots have been laid bare. Viewed in the light of the 
much younger basalts of the Western Territories of North 
America, their history becomes at last intelligible and 
more than ever interesting. We are no longer under the 
supposed necessity of finding volcanic cones vast enough 
to have poured forth such wide-spread floods of basalt. 
The sources of the molten rock are to be sowght in those 
innumerable dykes which run across Britain from sea to 
sea, and which in this view of their relations at once fall 
into their place in the volcanic history of the time. 

No more stupendous series of volcanic phenomena 
has yet been discovered in any part of the globe. We 
are first presented with the fact that the crust of the 
earth over an area which in the British Islands alone 
amounted to probably not less than 100,000 square miles, 
but which was only part of the far more extensive region 
that included the Faroe Islands and Iceland, was rent by 
innumerable fissures in a prevalent east and west or south- 
east and north-west direction. These fissures, whether due 


——s 


ee 


ee eS ee ee ee 


Se 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


to sudden shocks or slow disruption, were produced with 


such irresistible force as to preserve their linear character. 


and parallelism through rocks of the most diverse nature, 
and even across old dislocations having a throw of many 
thousand feet. Yet so steadily and equably did the 
fissuring proceed over this enormous area, that compara- 
tively seldom was there any vertical displacement of the 
sides. We rarely meet with a fissure which has been 
made a true fault with an upthrow and downthrow side. 
The next feature is the rise of molten basalt up these 
thousands of fissures. The most voluminous streams of 
lava that have issued from any modern volcanic cone 
appear but as a minor manifestation of volcanic activity 
when compared with the filling of those countless rents 
over so wide a region. Mining operations in the Scottish 
coal-fields have shown that dykes do not always reach 
the surface. In all parts of the country, too, examples 
may be observed of breaks in the continuity of dykes. 
The same dyke vanishes for an interval and reap- 
pears on the same line, but is doubtless continuous 
underneath. What proportion of the dykes ever commu- 
nicated with the surface at the time of their extravasation 
is a question that may perhaps never be answered. It is 


difficult to believe that a considerable number of them | 


did not overflow above ground even far to the east of the 
main and existing outflows. But so extensive has been 


the subsequent denudation that all trace of such super- | 


ficial emission has been removed. The general surface of 
the country has been lowered by sub-aérial waste several 


hundred feet at least, and the dykes now protrude as hard | 


ribs of rock across the hills. 

Traced westwards the dykes increase in abundance, 
tillat last they reach the great basaltic plateaux. Mac- 
culloch long ago sketched them in Skye, rising through 
the Jurassic rocks and merging into the overlying sheets 
of basalt. Similar sections occur in the other islands 
and in the north of Ireland. The lofty mural escarp- 
ments presented by the basalt plateaux once extended 
far beyond the limits to which they have now been 
reduced. The platform from which they have been re- 
moved shows in its abundant dykes the fissures up which 
the successive discharges of lava rose to the surface, 
where they overflowed in wide level sheets like those still 
so fresh and little eroded in Western North America. 

That there were intervals between successive out- 
pourings of basalt is indicated by the occasional inter- 
stratification of seams of coal and shale between the 
different flows. These partings contain a fragmentary 
record of the vegetation which grew on the neighbouring 
hills and which may even have sometimes found a foot- 
hold on the crumbling surface of the basalt floor until 
overwhelmed by fresh floods of lava. Not a trace of 
marine organisms has anywhere been found among these 
interstratifications. There is every reason to believe that 
the volcanic eruptions were all subaérial. Sheet after 
sheet was poured forth over the wide valley between the 
mountains of Donegal and the Outer Hebrides on the 
one side and those of the north-east of Ireland and the 
west of Scotland on the other, until the original surface 
had been buried in some places 3000 feet beneath volcanic 
ejections. 

I believe that the most stupendous outpourings of lava 
in geological history have been effected not by the 


NATURE 5 


familiar type of conical volcano, but by these less known 
fissure-eruptions. Both types are of course only manifesta- 
tions in different degrees of the same volcanic energy. It 
is by no means certain that the “‘ massive” or fissure type 
belongs wholly to former geological periods. In particular 
one is disposed to inquire whether the great Icelandic 
lava-floods of 1783—the most voluminous on record—may 
not have been connected rather with the opening of wide- 
reaching fissures than with the emissions of a single 
volcanic cone. The reality and importance of the 
grander phase of volcanism marked by fissure-eruptions 
have been recognised by some of the able geologists 
who in recent years have explored the Western States and 
Territories of the American Union. But they have not 
yet received due acknowledgment on this side of the 
Atlantic, where the lesser type of cones and craters has 
been regarded as that by which all volcanic manifesta- 
tions must be judged. We are fortunate in possessing 
in the north-west of Europe so magnificent an example 
of fissure-eruptions, and one which has been so dissected 
by denudation that its whole structure can be interpreted. 
The grand examples on the Pacific slope of America 
have yet to be worked out in detail, and will no doubt 
cast much fresh light on the subject, more especially upon 
those phenomena of which in Europe the traces have been 
removed by denudation. But the other continents also 
are not without their illustrations. The basaltic plateaux 
of Abyssinia and the ‘‘ Deccan traps” of India probably 
mnark the sites of some of the great fissure-eruptions 
which have produced the lava-fields of the Old World. 
In their recent admirable veswmé of the “Geology of 
India,’ Messrs. Medlicott and Blanford describe the per- 
sistent horizontality of the vast basalt-sheets of the 
Deccan, the absence of any associated volcanic cones or 
the least trace of them in that region, and the abundance 
of dykes in the underlying platform of older rocks 
where it emerges from beneath the volcanic plateaux. 
They confess the difficulty of explaining the origin of such 
enormous outpourings of basalt by reference to any modern 
volcanic phenomena. Their descriptions of these Indian 
Cretaceous lava-floods might, however, be almost literally 
applied to the Miocene plateaux of North-western Europe 
and to the Pliocene or recent examples of Western North 


America. ARCH. GEIKIE 
THE ATOMIC THEORY 
The Atomic Theory. By Ad. Wurtz, Membre. de 


VInstitut, &c. Translated by E. Cleminshaw, M.A. 

(London: C. Kegan Paul and Co., 1880.) 

HE latest addition to the International Scientific 

Series is at once a scientific treatise and an artistic 
work. The translator has very fairly maintained the 
clearness and crispness of the French style, whereby the 
book is marked with a distinct individuality and self- 
completeness. 

The sharpness of the impression which this work pro- 
duces on the mind is gained without making any great 
sacrifice of accuracy, although it must be confessed there 
is, in some chapters, a lack of detailed facts, which is 
against the value of the work as a reference book for the 
advanced student; and in others there is too free a use 
of fancy, which faculty is not synonymous with that 


6 NATURE 


[Vov. 4, 1880 


other without which no great scientific work can be 
produced, viz., imagination. 

The work is divided into two books: the first, and 
most valuable, treating of “Atoms,’’ the second of 
*‘Atomicity.” The historical’ introduction is very full, 
and remarkable for the clear exposition of the work of 
Richter, which was of so much importance in the subse- 
quent development of the doctrine of atoms. The error, 
which is still fallen into in some books, of attributing the 
“law of proportionality” to Wenzel is pointed out and 
corrected. 

Full justice is not done to the work of Avogadro, on 
which, confirmed as it has been by physical evidence, 
rests the structure of modern chemistry. The distinction 
between ‘integral molecules’’ and “elementary mole- 
cules” was clearly stated by Avogadro in 1811, three 
years before the date of the publication of Ampére’s 
letter to the Comte Berthollet. Ampére’s attempt to 
extend the hypothesis to facts concerning crystalline 
bodies cannot be regarded as an improvement on the 
simpler conception of Avogadro. 

But throughout this work there is a manifest resolve to 
abate no jot nor tittle of that assertion, which, made with 
the plenary knowledge of a chemical Philistine, sounded 
the keynote of M. Wurtz’s well-known “ History of the 
Atomic Theory.” 

The statement on p. 42 of the reasons for adopting Hy, 
as the standard of molecular weights is neither clear nor 
satisfactory. The student might readily suppose that 
this standard is adopted simply for the sake of conveni- 
ence; he might also be led to regard the statement 
of Avogadro’s law, on this page, as a deduction from some 
vaguely-expressed relations between the number of atoms 
in elementary molecules and the volumes occupied by 
these atoms. 

Few text-books make clear the fundamental deficiency 
of the Daltonian theory, viz., the absence of any trust- 
worthy means for determining the weights of the “atoms” 
(or as we now say, molecules) of compound bodies. 
Dalton, and Berzelius after him, laid down rules for deter- 
mining these weight’, but the rules of both chemists were 
wholly empirical. ‘‘ The atomic weight of an element is 
the smallest amount of that element which combines with 
unit-weight of hydrogen to form an atom of a compound,” 
but so long as the “atom” of the compound was undefined, 
the atomic weight of the element could not be determined. 

Avogadro furnished chemists with a means of deter- 
mining the molecular weights of all gasifiable bodies ; and 
in modern chemistry determinations of molecular weights 
of many compounds of a given element, and analyses of 
these compounds, must precede the determination of the 
atomic weight of the element itself. 

The atomic weight of an element is the smallest amount 
of that element—referred to hydrogen as unity—contained 
in the molecule, that is in two gaseous volumes of any 
compound thereof. For lack of a clear differentiation 
between atom and molecule, and for lack of a definite 
statement of how atomic weights are determined, the full 
and valuable table, extending from p. 104 to 109, loses 
much of its meaning. This table, by the way, very closely 
resembles a table which occurs in Lothar Meyer’s ‘‘ Die 
modernen Theorieen”’ ; the alterations made by M. Wurtz 
certainly do not add to the value of the table. 


Dalton’s objections to the generalisation of Gay Lussac, 
that “equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of 
atoms,’’ was, as we now know, perfectly justifiable, but 
on p. 35 Dalton is said to have repudiated “the solid sup- 
port which the great French chemist gave to his ideas.’’ 

Gay Lussac’s generalisations could not be true, said 
Dalton, because of such a reaction as that between 
nitrogen and oxygen, wherein equal volumes of each 
combine, and the product, nitric oxide, measures twice 
the volume of either; that is, there are, according to Gay 
Lussac, twice as many atoms of nitric oxide as of oxygen 
or nitrogen; but as elementary atoms are chemically 
indivisible, this is impossible. Berzelius obviated, or 
rather shirked, the difficulty by applying Gay Lussac’s 
generalisations to elementary gases only, but a full 
reconciliation between the views of Dalton and those of 
Gay Lussac was only possible when Avogadro's fruitful 
idea of the existence of molecules as distinct from atoms 
was fully recognised in chemical science. 

In describing the physical methods for checking atomic 
weight determinations, the law of Dulong and Petit is 
stated in too absolute a manner; if the data concerning 
the specific heats of the elements are carefully considered, 
it is evident that in many cases the value varies very 
much with temperature, that in others no direct determi- 
nation of specific heat has yet been made, and that the 
law cannot be regarded as a final statement of the con- 
nection between the specific heats and atomic weights of 
the elements. 

The state of our knowledge with regard to the struc- 
ture of molecules, indeed, renders a full understanding of 
specific heat at present impossible. The dynamical theory 
of gases has not yet been fully worked out in this 
direction. 

Although the “law of Avogadro” is a deduction from 
the dynamical theory of gases, and as such is invested 
with an authority which no mere collection of empirical 
facts can bestow upon it, yet nowhere in M. Wurtz's 
book is this insisted upon. 

The compromise between an atomic and an equivalent 
system of notation, which was so long adopted by 
chemists, is well described and its evils fully laid bare. 

The objectors to Avogadro's law are more numerous 
and more important in France than in this country or in 
Germany, hence M. Wurtz devotes considerable space to 
the subject of dissociation, which he discusses with much 
clearness and wealth of illustration. 

The demonstration on pp. 121-123 of the monatomic 
character of the mercury molecule is admirable. 

In the list of names of those who have pointed out 
relations between the atomic weights of elements and 
properties of their compounds, there is a serious omission, 
viz. the name of A. R. Newlands. This subject of 
relation between atomic weights and properties of com- 
pounds is discussed on pp. 154-176. A better idea of 
Mendelejeff’s “ periodic law” may be obtained from these 
pages than probably from any other English text-book, 
but surely it would have been well had the author more 
explicitly acknowledged his indebtedness to Lothar 
Meyer’s work. The graphic representation of the rela- 
tions between the atomic weights and physical properties 
of the elements—taken from Meyer’s book—has not 
hitherto been in the hands of the English student. 


_ Nov. 4, 1880] 


The second part of M. Wurtz’s book, dealing with 
Valency, is not, in our opinion, of equal value with the 
first. 

After reading these chapters one finds it hard to find a 
reason for introducing into science the conception of 
valency, so variable and shifting is this property of atoms 
made to appear. 

On p. 229 it is stated that chlorine is monovalent in 
HCIO, pentavalent in HC1O,, and heptavalent in HClO; 

Scarcely a hint is given of the many objections to ex- 
tending considerations concerning valency, in any but a 
most tentative manner, to non-gasifiable bodies. The 
theory of molecular as distinct from atomic compounds is 
dismissed ; all are regarded as atomic, and the valencies 
of the atoms seem variable at pleasure. Where proof of 
the valency of atoms is not forthcoming, assertion is used 
in its place. 

The author’s treatment of affinity is not satisfactory. 
“ Affinity is the force of combination, chemical energy.”’ 
“ Atoms attract each other, and this atomic attraction is 
affinity.” ‘‘ Thus we know that while hydrogen is united 
to chlorine with extreme energy, oxygen combines with 
less force.” Surely the translator is to blame for some of 
these sentences. 

The theory of valency deserved a more rigorous and 
exact treatment than M. Wurtz has given it. 

We leave the book, feeling that it is the production of 
a brilliant author, not the work of a deep thinker. 

M. M. P. M. 


NEW ZEALAND MOLLUSCS 
Manual of the New Zealand Mollusca. By Frederick 

Wollaston Hutton, F.G.S. Published by command. 

(Wellington, 1880.) 

N an interesting article which appeared in NATURE, 

vol. xxii. p. 461, entitled ‘“‘ The New Zealand Insti- 
tute,’ attention was called to the publications of the 
Institute and to the excellent work in science achieved by 
the author of the manual above mentioned, and by many 
other naturalists, as well by geologists, chemists, astrono- 
mers, archzeologists, physicists, and philosophers. When 
the traditional New Zealander visits the ruins of the old 
country, it is to be feared that he will lament our igno- 
rance instead of expressing his admiration of our past 
eminence. 

Prof. Hutton seems to have contributed to the publi- 
cations of the Institute a number of valuable papers on 
“the various divisions of the fauna of New Zealand.” 
We are not quite sure that our knowledge of any one 
department of the fauna would be so much advanced by 
a multifarious zoologist as by a specialist who has de- 
voted himself to the study of that department. The 
division of labour is not less desirable in natural history 
than in other equally extensive fields of work. The 
material is so vast that a Linné, Buffon, or Cuvier would 
be now rather an anachronism than a marvel. 

The present work is called “‘ A Systematic and Descrip- 
tive Catalogue of the Marine and Land Shells, and of 
the soft Mollusks and Polyzoa of New Zealand and the 
adjacent Islands.’’? It belongs to the Colonial Museum 
and Geological Survey Department, of which Dr. Hector, 
the well-known geologist, is the director. Its scope is 


NATURE 7 


most useful; and, as the preface by Dr. Hector very 
properly states, “‘an accurate knowledge of the affinities 
and distribution of the recent shells of New Zealand is 
a very necessary element in the geological survey of the 
country, as it must form the basis of our Tertiary geology, 
upon the correct deciphering of which many questions of 
the highest interest depend.”’ And he adds, “ Shells 
afford the most reliable data for paleontologists; but 
before the extinct shell-fauna can be utilised, the recent 
shells of the area must be thoroughly determined.” This 
is quite true. We are disposed, however, to carry the 
process a step further. It is not enough to determine or 
make out the recent shells, but they must be critically 
compared with their fossil analogues. For want of such 
comparison the late Prof. Nyst, M. Vandenbroeck, and 
other Belgian paleontologists have unfortunately caused 
some confusion by a wrong identification of recent or 
living species with Tertiary species. 

The “Manual” contains 237 pages. There are no 
plates or illustrations. It appears to comprise all that is 
known of the subject, and to have been conscientiously 
and on the whole carefully written. But, like all other 
books, it is not faultless. Inthe Bibliography ‘‘ Linneus” 
is the name given as the author of the 12th edition of the 
“ Systema Nature.” It ought to be “ Linné,” according 
to the title-page and dedication. ‘‘Gastropoda’’ is 
now the usual, as well as correct, spelling of the class, 
not “Gasteropoda.” The shell of the family Padellide 
is not a simple cone, but is spiral in the young. The 
Bullide are not all eyeless. The sub-order “ Lucinacea” 
is described as having the gills, “one on each side” ; but 
in one of the families of this sub-order there are “two 
gills on each side.”’ The family “ Radulide” is stated to 
have the foot “ not byssiferous’’ ; Zz#zahzans with its foot 
spins a byssus and makes its curious nest. In the “ Arti- 
ficial Key to the Marine Shells” the remarkable class 
Solenoconchia (or as Prof. Hutton in another place prefers 
to call it, “Scaphopoda”) is omitted. The shell in “ Capz- 
lide” is described as “not spiral’? These and other 
less important errors can be corrected in a future edition. 
We regret, but are not surprised, to see the remark that 
“not much dependence can be placed on the localities in 
Mr. Cuming’s collection,” which was purchased for the 
British Museum at a large price. This is the case with 
all dealers, and it sadly disturbs our ideas of geographical 
distribution. We are inclined to question even such 
species as Ostrea edulis, Mytilus edulis and Lucina 
(Loripes) divaricata as indigenous to New Zealand. 
These are included in a list of sixty-four species believed 
by the author to be the only New Zealand species of 
which there is evidence that they are found anywhere 
else, although he admits that the identification has 
in most cases been made solely by descriptions and 
figures. The same remark applies to Cyfr@a europea, 
“ Philippia lutea” = Solarium hybridum, Littorina ceru- 
lescens = ueritoides, and Crepidula unguiformis. But, per 
contra, the Saxicava australis of Lamarck is scarcely a 
variety of S. »zgosa, Linné, The diagnosis of the soft parts, 
or “animal,” of Vitrina and Succinca, viz., “too large to 
enter the shell,” does not suit the European species of 
those genera. In the family Asszmzniide the eyes are 
placed not “on the middle of the tentacles,’’ but on their 
tips. “ Odostomia lactea”’ is not the Linnean species of 


8 NALTORE 


[Wov. 4, 1880 


Turbo, but another species so named by Mr. Angas. 
Nor is the Wucula sulcata of A. Adams the same as 
Bronn’s much older species of that name. But a serious 
defect of the work consists in the description of the 
shells. We give one instance among many. Lz¢torina 
nove szealandi@ is described as “somewhat globosely 
turbinated,” with the whorls “ spirally irregularly linearly 
grooved ;’’ and the characters of the several species are 
not arranged systematically or in any kind of sequence. 
Dog-Latin would be almost preferable to such English. 
Perhaps, however, the description of species made by 
the late Mr. Reeve may have been copied from his 
“Conchologia Iconica.” Prof. Hutton says that there 
are “between 300 and 4o0 species” of the New Zealand 
mollusca and polyzoa. This is considerably less than half 
the number of those species which have been recorded as 
inhabiting the British seas. J. GWYN JEFFREYS 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


The Zoological Record for 1878, being vol. xv. of the 
Record of Zoological Literature, edited by E. C. Rye. 
(London: John Van Voorst, 1880.) 


THIS publication seems to pursue the even tenor of its 
very useful way. The editor has to acknowledge grants 
of 250/. towards the expenses of the work from the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal 
Society, and the Zoological Society of London. The 
“Record of the Arachnida for 1878” has been unavoid- 
ably postponed until vol. xvi, and Mr. Kirby has for the 
future undertaken all of the groups of the Insecta with the 
exception of the Coleoptera, which the editor will still re- 
view. Entomologists will perceive with regret that they thus 
lose the services of Mr. McLachlan, who has reported on 
the Neuroptera and Orthoptera since 1869. A special 
committee has been appointed to endeavour to expedite 
the publication of the annual volume, and arrangements 
have been made, both as regards the contributors and 
printers, which it is hoped will have the eventual effect of 
bringing out the record of one year’s work during the 
succeeding year. This would be an immense boon, and 
though it is obvious that it cannot be effected at the first 
attempt, still the editor confidently expects that the 
Record of 1879 will be published in the beginning of 
1881, and let us hope that ere the end of that year we 
may also have the Record of that one now coming to a 
close. 


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. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. | 

[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible, The pressure on his space ts so great that it 
is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.| 


The Recent Gas Explosion 


ON my return after the vacation the experiments on the 
explosion of gases in tubes were continued. 

A tube was constructed by winding narrow strips of paper 
helically round a glass tube about 8 mm. in diameter ; two-thirds 
of the width of the paper being glued, it was so wound as to 
make a tube of thrée thicknesses of paper. The interior of the 
tube was afterwards varnished with shellac. At the ends short 
pieces of glass tube about 5 mm. in diameter were fixed, one 
being provided with platinum wires in order to inflame the 
gas ; the total length of the tube was 4360 mm. 

The tube was filled-with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, 
the end of the glass tube with the wires was plugged with wet 
cotton wool, the other tube being closed with an india rubber 


cap; a spark was then passed. Ata distance of 650 mm. from 
the open end, at which the ignition took place, the outer cover- 
ing of the tube was split ; at a distance of 1,900 mm. from the 
same point was a hole, at 3030-3040 another hole, and at 
3085-3100 a third hole. The india-rubber cap was blown off 
the end of the tube. At the third hole the interior coating of 
the tube was torn and blown back towards the opening, showing 
that the orifice had allowed the escape of gas from both direc- 
tions. Measuring the distances between the holes and the ends 
of the tube, we have the following numbers:—From end to 
first split, 650 mm. ; from split to first hole, 1250; from first 
hole to mean of second and third, 1200; from this point to 
end of tube, 1260, 

There seemed to be some doubt as to the uniformity of this 
tub2, so another was made by rolling a strip of paper helically 
along a glass tube in such a manner that the edges did not over- 
lap. A glued strip was wound over this so as to cover the 
joint ; and a third to cover the joint of the second, the edges not 
overlapping and yet touching one another throughout. The 
process was very tedious, and as the result showed, not successful. 
This tube was 7°5 mm. in diameter, and the glass ends 4'5, the 
total length being 8390 mm. The end of the tube farthest from 
the wires was firmly closed, after introducing the explosive 
mixture. When the gas was exploded in the tube 14 holes were 
made, in some places the tube giving way at joints, but without 
any great tear of the paper. Starting from the end of the tube 
the first hole was at 620 mm., the other holes being distant from 
one another 650, 530, 100, 475, 375, 320, 580, 455, 370, 885, 
2115, 365, 85, and the other end 465 from the last hole. 

A third tube was now constructed, but on a different principle. 
A sheet of glued paper was wound round a brass tube and at 
once removed; in this way a tube about 275 mm. long and 13°5 
wide, and consisting of about 5 layers of paper was obtained. 
Thirty-two of these were joined end to end by glueing narrow 
strips of paper round the joints. The tube was varnished inside 
and out, and when completed was 9000 mm. long. The experi- 
ment was made after dark, and it was not found out until after- 
wards that a small quantity of water had entered the tube from 
the gas-holder while introducing the gas. In this case the 
explosion made 10 holes, but the joints obviously considerably 
strengthened the tube in their neighbourhood. The distances 
between the holes were not more regular than in the previous case. 
From the end to first hole 757 mm. ; the other holes being distant 
660, 1595, 146, 484, 230, 295, 308, £325, 585, to end 2615. 
The end was not opened by the explosion. 

Although these experiments have not exhibited the regularity 
I anticipated, they show that a tube burst by an explosive 
mixture must not be expected to open along its whole length. 

Cooper’s Hill, October 25 HERBERT MCLEOD 


Geological Climates 


I wAs not surprised at reading Mr. Duncan’s letter in supposed 
reply to my communication to NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 532, as it fully 
proves my case against the slipshod logic of geologistsin general. 
He writes :—‘* Where I now write, on the Bagshot sands and 
gravels of Cooper’s Hill, facing the cold north with a touch of 
the east, there is a patch of bamboo canes in full leaf. They 
were in full leaf at this time last year. The plant survived out 
of doors the extreme frost and fogs of last winter and other 
evidences of a temperate climate, and it has been in beautiful 
leaf all this summer. 

“Now everybody knows that in torrid India the bamboo 
grows...” 
~ Mr. Duncan might as well have told your readers that where 
he now writes, ‘‘ facing the warm south with a touch of the 
west,” he beheld before his astonished eyes a tuft of grasses, 

He has not named the sfecies of the ‘‘ patch of bamboo canes” 
which delighted his eyes, and which ‘‘ everybody ” knows came 
from ‘‘ torrid India.” 

If Mr. Duncan does not know, at least ‘‘ everybody” does, 
that species of the bamboo canes flourish in every latitude from 
Northern China to Southern Chili, including ‘torrid India,” 
where in some places you may have a half-inch thick of ice, in 
consequence of the starlight radiation of a clear summer’s night. 

I have before me a list of twenty-four species of bamboo 
canes cultivated in most of the gardens of Europe, but they are 
all, with the exception of a species from the Himalayas (not 
‘torrid India”), imported from the severe climates of Northern 
Japan and China. 


ee eee 


. 


ee  — eee 


a 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


At Fota, in the Cove of Cork, at Bamboo Island, they have 
lived, fruited, and reproduced themselves for nearly thirty years, 
and will probably continue to do so in the future, although no 
Corcagian will be silly enough to believe in consequence thereof 
that he is living in the climate of ‘‘ torrid India.” 

In fact, I adduced the evidence of Avaucaria Cunninghami, 
a most delicate self-registering plant thermometer, in testimony of 
the Eocene climate of Bournemouth; and I find myself con- 
fronted with Mr. Duncan’s clumsy thermometer with o¢ a sizgle 
fixed point on its scale, in the shape of an unspecified ‘‘ clump of 
bamboo canes.” Let Mr. Duncan name the species included in 
his ‘‘ clump,” and I shall discuss the question fully with him. 

The facts stated in my letter, although by no means uncommon, 
prove most convincingly to those who can appreciate them the 
untenable nature of Lyell’s theory of the cause of change of 
geological climates, 

I must state my argument again :— 

1. In Eocene times groves of Moreton Bay pine lived, flourished, 
and held their ground at Bournemouth against all comers. 

2. At the present time groves or forests of Moreton Bay pine 
live, flourish, and hold their ground at Moreton Bay against all 
comers. 

3. Therefore the climate of Bournemouth in Eocene times was 
similar to that of Moreton Bay at the present time. 

Geologists often make use of syllogisms much less conclusive 
than the above, which is as good as any commonly used in 
biological reasoning, such as it is, 

The present mean temperature of Bournemouth is 20° F, 
below what it was in Eocene times, which is equivalent to a 
difference of latitude in the northern hemisphere between 31° N. 
and 51° N. 

Sir Charles Lyell' feebly attempts to get rid of scientific 
conclusions as to temperature in two ways :— 

1. By a denial of the specific identity of the former and recent 
species compared. 

2. By the unproved hypothesis of competing plants whose 
superior vigour and not climatal conditions, account for the 
absence of the species which formerly flourished. 

In the case of the Moreton Bay pine I shall leave Mr. Gardner 
to defend the asserted identity of species; and I meet Sir 
Charles Lyell’s second supposition (which is really romance 
writing, and not science) by the assertion that the Moreton Bay 
pine, even if protected by man, will perish im any locality whose 
mean winter temperature falls below 57° F. 

The present mean January temperature of Bournemouth is 
37°°4 F., a temperature which would destroy in a single night a 
whole forest of Moreton Bay pines. 

I was of course well aware that my argument from the former 
existence of Moreton Bay pines at Bournemouth was only one of 
many similar arguments that might be advanced from the former 
existence of plants or corals in localities in which they do not 
now live. 

I know nothing, except from books, of the water temperature 
necessary for the several species of corals, nor do I know 

_whether any species of the tertiary corals found in England are 

Specifically identical with corals now living elsewhere. If Mr. 
Duncan would give us precise information on this subject he 
would throw most valuable light on geological climates, 

The corals would give us more information upon the question 
than plants, because they would gauge for us the temperature of 
the water in England; that is to say, the temperature of the 
former Gulf streams of the tertiary period, from which we could 
calculate numerically the increase of solar radiation, necessary to 
produce such former Gulf streams; and possibly afterwards a 
measure of geological time. 

IT have elsewhere * shown that the fossil tertiary plant beds of 
the Arctic regions show a falling off af temperature similar to 
that which has been proved at Bournemouth, of which the fol- 
lowing is a summary :— 


Mean annual Reduction 


Lat. i 
. Miocene time, _@€ Present. 
Grinnell Land 81 PV tere 2 5 A 44°00 F. 
Spitzbergen ... 78°00 BIOu sy SEO ep 
PISCOMe a ees, 70:00 55 OMe 36°00,, 
Eocene. 
Bournemouth PeESO"SON Seen me Gavinies 20°35 55 


I again assert that it is not possible to explain these facts 


* “Principles,” vol. i. p. 173 (twelfth edition). 
* “Lectures of Physical Geography,” p. 344. 


NATURE 9 


without introducing causes differing in amount from those now 
acting on our planet. SAML. HAUGHTON 
Trinity College, Dublin, October 16 


The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho 


I READ with great interest the paper on the Yang-tse, &c., in 
NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 486. It seems to me that Mr. Guppy 
has underestimated the quantity of water and sediment in these 
rivers. As to the Yang-tse, this arises from the year 1877 being 
one of the driest in Western and Central China generally, and 
thus the summer flood must have been one of the lowest on 
record, Besides what we know of the character of the season, 
an indirect proof of this can be had by comparing the rate of 
discharge in April and at the time of highest flood, as given by 
Mr. Guppy, with what is said by Mr. Oxenham, in his paper on 
the inundations of the Yang-tse.t* According to the latter the 
rise of water in April is not very large, the river not yet inun- 
dating its banks, and being thirty feet below the summer 
level. Thus in an average year the discharge in April would by 
far not equal half of that of August, as found by Mr. Guppy, 
but more probably be even below one-fifth of that of flood-time. 

On this account the data given by Mr. Guppy for the Yang-tse 
are far below the average as to the discharge of water, and 
probably even more so as to the amount of sediment, as the 
proportion of sediment increases during high floods, In 1877 
the loess country of North-West China was subject to the severest 
drought, so that the Han river, which generally contributes so 
much to the sediment of the main river, must have been very 
low in summer, 

As to the estimation of the discharge of water in the Pei-ho, it 
is certainly much below the actual quantity, for Mr. Guppy has 
taken only the months of December to March, z.e. months of 
low water. The monsoon character of the rains, z.e. the great 
prevalence of summer over winter rains, is far more marked in 
Northern China than in the middle part of that country, so that 
the flood discharge of the rivers during and after the rains (Z¢., 
from July to October) must be enormously in excess over that of 
winter. If, as Mr. Guppy says, the Pei-ho rises only six feet at 
Tien-tsin, this must be due to the banks being very low, so that 
the river during flood-time inundates the plain to a very great 
extent, 

My conclusion is this:—Mr. Guppy having underestimated 
the discharge of water of the Yang-tse and Pei-ho in the mean 
of the year, this must have been even more the case as to the 
amount of sediment carried. Thus the relatively short time at 
which he estimates that the surrounding seas will be filled by the 
sediment carried by the great Chines: rivers has to be greatly 
shortened, and if he thinks 36,000 years enough for the work, I 
should estimate that 28,000 years would be sufficient. 

A, WOEIKOF 

Schpalernajo 8, St. Petersburg, October 15 


Greek Fret 


In Nature, vol. xxii. pp. 513-14, there is a very interesting 
account of the development of ornament as illustrated by General 
Pitt Rivers’ Anthropological Collection. I would venture to 
suggest that thoughin the majority of cases the Greek fret pattern 


yi 
Fic. 1.—Gateway at Labnah (Plate 19). 


was independently evolved in different countries from the 
‘double loop-coil,” yet a study of the plates in Mr. Cather- 
wood’s beautiful work, ‘f Views of Ancient Monuments in 
Central America” (1844), suggests to me the probability that 
the builders of those remarkable structures arrived at the “Greek 
pattern” through a degradation of the conventionalised human 


© Journ. R. Geog. Soc., 1875. 


10 NATURE 


[Vov. 4, 1880 


face. The accompanying tracings from Catherwood’s work will 
sufficiently explain my meaning. 

Fig. 1, from the gateway at Labnah, pl. xix. ; Fig. 2, from 
the gateway of the great Teocallis Uxmal, pl. xii. ; Fig. 3, from 


Fic. 2.—Gateway of the Great Teocallis Uxmal (Plate 12). 


Las Monjas Chichen Itza, pl. xxi., illustrate the development of 
the fret. Fig. 4, from Las Monjas Chichen Itza, pl. xxi., shows 
another modification of the human face. 

In his “‘ Grammar of Ornament” Owen Jones says (p. 35) : 
*‘In Mr. Catherwood’s illustrations of the architecture of Yucatan 


Fic, 3.—Las Monjas Chichen Itza (Plate 21). 


we have several varieties of the Greek fret : one especially is 
thoroughly Greek. But they are, in general, fragmentary like 
the Chinese.” The reason I would assign for this ‘fragmentary ” 
natvre of the design is that it was just passing from the disjointed 
ornament to the pattern stage. An examination of the plates 


Fic. 4.—Las Monjas Chichen Itza (Plate 21). 


will prove the profuse employment of the more or less grotesquely 
modified human face in mural decoration, 

The hypertrophy of one set of organs, with the atrophy of 
another, and modification of a third, are paralleled in the 
specialisations of all degraded forms. ALFRED C, HADDON 

Zoological Museum, Cambridge 


Temperature of the Breath 


I AM unable to see what bearing ‘‘I. J. M. P.’s” suggestion 
that I should try the effect of dipping my thermometer, enve- 
loped in a tightly-rolled handkerchief, in water at 108° has on 
this subject. Every one of course knows that a thermometer in 
such circumstances would eventually acquire the temperature of 
the water in which it is immersed. 

The state of the matter is simply this: On the one hand 
works on physiology agree in stating that the normal temperature 
of the breath is from 95° to 97°, and that of the interior of the 
body from 98°°5 to 99°°5. These are what Mr. McNally would 
call ‘‘ascertained physiological truths.” On the other hand I 
find that by breathing on the bulb of a thermometer enveloped 


in about twenty folds—more or less—of a silk, cotton, or woollen 
cloth for five minutes, the thermometer indicates temperatures 
varying—owing to conditions not yet precisely ascertained— 
from 102° to 108°, which, as every one knows, are temperatures 
vastly greater than the accepted temperature of the breath or 
interior of the body. 

There is no question of squeezing up the reading of a delicate 
thermometer by the tightness of the enveloping material, for the 
thermometer used in these experiments is an ordinary clinical 
thermometer, such as I use daily in practice, the bulb of which 
is made of such stout glass that no amount of pressure short of 
breaking the bulb will move the mercury in the slightest degree. 

The following variation in the mode of experimenting precludes 
the possibility of any pressure on the thermometer. I put the 
thermometer in a glass tube about three-fourths of an inch bore, 
open at both ends, packed the stem loosely with cotton wool, 
but left the bulb free at one end of the tube. I then enveloped 
the whole in a silk handkerchief and breathed through twelve 
folds of the material into the end of the tube where the bulb of 
the thermometer was, untouched by cotton wool, glass tube, or 
silk handkerchief. After five minutes the thermometer showed 
a temperature of 102°. In this case, and I believe also in my 
former experiments, the enveloping material merely acted as a 
bad conductor, retaining the heat produced by the breath. 

As any one can easily repeat these experiments for himself, I 
would suggest to your correspondents that they should do so- 
When the facts have been established by reiterated experiments 
—my own observations have been corroborated by several of my 
friends—the explanation or significance of them will-no doubt 
be speedily arrived at. Provisionally I suggest that these 
observations show respiration to be a powerful agent for getting 
rid of the superfluous caloric of the body. 

How is this heat communicated to the breath? If it had 
anything to do with the conversion of the carbon of the blood 
into carbonic acid, the quantity of carbonic acid passed off by 
the breath would be greater when the temperature of the latter 
is higher, less when it is lower. But Letellier’s experiments 
show that the amount of carbonic acid exhaled is greatly 
increased by external cold, and diminished by heat ; whereas my 
experiments apparently show that the temperature of the breath 
is lower in external cold, higher in heat. 

To solve the questions suggested by these experiments one 
would require the aid of a physiological laboratory, but as that 
is not at my command, and, moreover, as I could not devote 
the necessary time to them, I must leave their solution to others, 

October 20 ; R, E. DuDGEON 


Soaring of Birds 


I BEG to send you some data on the above subject, as I live 
where the phenomenon is of daily occurrence. Most of the 
large birds out here soar, z.e. can circle round and round without 
flapping the wings, and also can 7zsethus from 100 or 200 feet to 
some 8,000 by same means. The pelican, the adjutant, and several 
large birds allied to it, the vulture and the cyrus, rise thus. 

Firstly they rise by flapping the wings vigorously, and when 
up some 100 or 200 feet, zf there ts a breeze, begin to soar in 
large circular sweeps, rising 10 to 20 feet at each lap, the whole 
bird being otherwise quite motionless, and the wings extended 
rigidly, 

We have two steady winds here, from north-east and west- 
south-west, and in one of these the birds rise to great heights, 
and can be seen as small specks up in the blue, and watched 
with telescope, going round and round, motionless otherwise. 
The following data are trustworthy :—The birds weigh from 20. 
to 40 lbs. ; spread of wings, 10 to 12 feet ; stand 3 to 5 feet 
high ; speed flying or soaring, about 15 to 35 miles per hour 
(estimated), 


They rise by flapping the wings. If there is no wind they 


} one soar ; they generally begin to soar at 100 to 200 
feet elevation when above the level of the forest. In soaring they 


do not 

cannot 
that leans to /eeward. 

At each lap they can rise 10 to 20 feet, but lose position 
laterally of 20 to 50 feet to leeward. The soaring can go om 
without once flapping the wings, till the bird is almost out of 
sight. 

Tf near, the feather-tips make a loud musical ‘‘sing,” and 
the presence often first known by it. If watched, they come 


i go in aright line, but in large curves of a spiral 


| 
| 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


round again nearly to the same place. With gun or rifle agains’ 
a tree-stem, I have often been able to spot the intersection with 
my aim beforehand, lap by lap ; the drift is to leeward. 

I take it the explanation is, that in passing round wt% the 
wind, and by slightly falling, great impetus is gained, which is 
slowed down by turning to meet and rise on the wind “te a kite 
(if near, this is see). I have seen the albatross and gulls floating, 
but this case or these cases exemplify a major problem of rising 
as well steadily and without effort ; it is also.a clearer problem, 
the solution of which more or less solves the minor problems of 
mere flotation. 

The line of flight is thus :— 


Sapakati, Sibsagor, Asam 


Regelation 

Ir is stated in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 589, that Faraday gave 
the name of Regelation to the phenomenon of two pieces of ice 
freezing together, Surely this is an error? It wasin 1856 when 
Sir Joseph D. (then Dr.) Hooker, Professors Tyndall and Huxley, 
and the present writer were in Switzerland together. Prof. 
Tyndall asked us to suggest a suitable term for the process ; and 
it was Sir Joseph Hooker who said he could think of none 
better than Regelation. Prof. Tyndall instantly accepted it as 
exactly conveying the meaning he required. 

Agassiz, however, in writing upon the difficulties of ascertain- 
ing the temperatures of glaciers by introducing thermometers 
into borings, alludes amongst others to ‘‘la difficulté d’extraire 
les fragmens détachés qui se vegelaient constamment ” (‘Etudes 
sur les Glaciers,” p. 203). This shows that a similar expression 
had occurred to him as suitable for this phenomenon, as early as 
1840, in which year his ‘‘ Etudes ” were published. 

GEORGE HENSLOW 


JOHANNES RUDOLF VON WAGNER 


WE have already briefly alluded to the loss suffered by 

chemistry in the sudden death from heart-disease 
of Prof. von Wagner, which occurred at Wiirzburg, 
October 4. Johannes Rudolf Wagner was born February 
13, 1822, at Leipzig. As a student in the university of 
his native city he made choice of chemistry as a profes- 
sion, and supplemented the then somewhat limited advan- 
tages of the Leipzig laboratory by a course of study at 
Paris, whither students from numerous countries were 
attracted by the brilliant lectures and investigations of 
Dumas. His residence there was followed by a lengthy 
journey to the various centres of scientific interest in 
France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, after which he 
returned in 1846 to Leipzig to accept a position as assistant 
in the chemical laboratory of the university. In 1851 he 
was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Technical Che- 
mistry at the Niirnberg Polytechnic. In 1856 he accepted 
a call to the Chair of Technology at the University of 
Wurzburg, a position which he occupied until the time of 
his death. During this same time he also filled two 
important offices, that of Director of the Technological 
Conservatory at Wiirzburg, and (until 1868) that of Royal 
Examiner of the establishments for Technical Instruction 
in Bavaria. His peculiar abilities and wide range of 
experience led to his being frequently sent abroad by the 
Bavarian Government on scientific missions, notably in 
1858 to England and Holland, and in 1861 to Paris. 
The same reasons led to his being called upon to 
play an important 7vé/e in the International Exhibitions 
of the past twenty years. He was successively appointed 
on the juries for chemical products at the Exhibitions of 
London (1862), Paris (1867), and Amsterdam (1869). At 
Vienna (1873) he was the Chief Commissioner of Bavaria, 


NATURE 


LE 


and at Philadelphia (1876) he was a leading member of 
the German Commission. The marked services which 
he rendered in connection with the Vienna Exhibition 
were recognised by his sovereign, who raised him to the 
nobility, and decorated him with the Order of the Crown. 
Prof. von Wagner was the recipient likewise of numerous 
decorations from most of the European countries. 

The career of Wagner has been one of unusual and 
varied activity. Apart from the multifarious duties of an 
executive character which we have briefly enumerated, 
he found time to render to pure chemistry, and especially 
to applied chemistry, services of incalculable value. 
Like Poggendorff in physics and Kopp in pure che- 
mistry, his inclination led him towards the literary side 
of his favourite studies, and it is on his accomplishments 
as an author that his fame chiefly rests. Still, as an 
investigator Wagner possessed remarkable and many- 
sided aptitudes, and his name is associated with nume- 
rous researches, the majority of which aim at the practical 
application of scientific facts, or seek to ascertain the 
chemical nature of important industrial products. One 
of his first investigations (1847) was on yeast, and in- 
cluded a thorough study of its nature and growth, and 
especially of the influence exercised by the presence of 
foreign bodies on the phenomena of fermentation. In 
1849 he commenced a research on the oil of rue, which 
was carried on at various intervals, and to which we 
owe much of our knowledge of the constituents of this 
important essence. In 1850 he assigned to the alkaloid 
conine the structure of a dibutyryl-amine, a formula 
verified long after by Schiff’s synthesis (1871) of 
paraconine, and by Michael and Gundelach’s brilliant 
synthesis a few months since, of methyl-conine. Among 
other noteworthy theoretical results, mention may be 
made of his extensive monograph on polymeric isomor- 
phism (1851), and his experiments in the same year 
establishing the nature of mercur-ammonium compounds 
as substituted ammonias—mercury replacing hydrogen— 
by a distillation of the well-known “ white precipitate ’’ 
with amy!-mercaptan, which yielded sulphide of mercury 
and hydrochloride of amylamine. Shortly after he 
showed that the compounds imperatorin and peuce- 
donine obtained from the roots of sulphur-wort and 
allied plants were identical, and established their chemi- 
cal nature as angelate of the hydrate of peucedyle. One 
of Wagner’s most important researches, commenced in 
1850 and taken up several times since, had for an object 
the colouring-matters of fustic. In its course he dis- 
covered morin-tannic acid, which in company with morin 
gives to fustic wood its tinctorial properties. He studied 
carefully its reactions and its derivatives ; and among the 
latter discovered pyrocatechin, the product of the de- 
structive distillation of the acid. In 1853 he undertook 
a thorough examination of the oil of hops, separating 
the different chemical components, and finding amongst 
them quercitrin and morin-tannic acid. At this epoch 
he succeeded in obtaining the remarkable alloy formed 
by the union of four parts of potassium with 2} parts of 
sodium, which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, and 
resembles mercury in appearance. In 1867 he contri- 
buted an interesting research on the rapid increase of 
solubility of carbonates in water containing carbonic acid 
under various pressures. At the same time he broached 
a theory of the formation of deposits of a graphite, in 
which he attributed it to a decomposition of cyanides in 
nature analagous to that occurring in the manufacture of 
soda. Among his more important analytical researches 
were the determinations (1860) of the quantities of oil 
present in the nuts and seeds of many forest trees. As 
an able deviser of analytical methods Wagner exhibited 
numerous proofs. Among these mention may be made 
of the use of the iodine reaction for analysing chlorides 
of lime (1859), the use of iodine likewise for the deter- 
mination of the alkaloids (1861), the volumetric deter- 


12 NATURE 


mination of tannic acid by means of sulphate of cincho- | 


nine (1866), the test for wool in silk fabrics by using 
nitro-prusside of sodium to show the presence of the 


sulphur contained in wool (1867), the application of | 


ammonium vanadate to detect the presence of tannin in 
red wines (1877), and other tests for detecting methyl- 
eosine in the presence of eosine, nitrobenzene in the oil 
of bitter almonds, paraffine in bees-wax, stearic acid in 
paraffine, &c. Equally numerous were the improved 
methods of preparing chemical compounds and products 
introduced by him, including the preparation of pelar- 
gonate of ethyl, used extensively in perfumery, of finely- 
divided copper, of rufigallic acid, of calcium iodide, of 
precipitated alumina, of chloride of mercury, of arsenate 
of sodium, of benzoic acid, &c. 

Among Wagner's purely technical researches reference 
may be made to the application of pyrocatechin for photo- 
graphic purposes (1855), the determination of densities for 
technical use (1859), the method for purifying water for 
tinctorial purposes (1863), the use of paraffine for preserv- 
ing sodium, and his important research (1877) on the 


reactions of vanadium compounds with a large variety of | 


organic commercial products, in the course of which he 
obtained several important tinctorial results. 

Asan author Prof. von Wagner has manifested a degree 
of talent and a fertility surpassed by but few of his scien- 
tific contemporaries. An easy, lucid style, an intimate 
familiarity with the entire range of subjects touched upon, 
a fulness of detail united to a logical, systematic treat- 
ment of the matters in question, and a happy adaptation 
to the wants of even elementary knowledge, have rendered 
his works universal favourites. This is especially true of 
his ‘f Handbook of Chemical Technology,” which has sur- 
vived a twelfth edition in Germany, and has been rendered 
accessible to French and English-speaking students by 
the masterly translations of Gautier and Crookes. It is 
doubtful whether in any other branch of applied science a 
manual exists which is so widely disseminated and has 
met with such practically universal success. Among 
Wagner’s other works are : “ Die Chemie” (1860 ; sixth 
edition 1873), ‘‘ Theorie und Praxis der Gewerbe,” 5 vols. 
(1857-64), ‘‘ Die chemische Fabrikindustrie,” second edi- 
tion (1869), “ Regesten der Sodafabrikation”’ (1866), and 
“Studien auf der Pariser Ausstellung’’ (1868). The 
technical journals of the past thirty years contain nu- 
merous monographs from his pen on individual branches 
of chemical manufacture, full of valuable information and 
statistics obtained by Wagner from private sources, and 
replete with those fruitful suggestions natural to a mind 
familiar at once with the facts of science and with their 
widespread applications. Unquestionably Wagner’s chief 
literary achievement is his celebrated ‘“ Jahresbericht iiber 
die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie.” Started 
eight years after the appearance of Liebig and Kopp’s 
well-known ‘‘Jahresbericht” for chemistry in all its 
departments, this work of Wagner's has for a quarter of a 
century kept the industrial and scientific wo1ld promptly, 
thoroughly, and accurately informed of the progress 
made in every branch of applied chemistry. In its ful- 
ness and exactness it is an admirable type of the annual 
review, now regarded as indispensable for every branch 
of human activity by the German mind; and the vast 
influence which it has exercised upon the development of 
chemical industries is impossible to measure. The 
“Jahresbericht ” for 1879, recently issued, forms a portly 
volume of I,300 pages, with over one hundred woodcuts, 
and in its reviews evidences at every step a critical spirit 
able to cope with the scientific and practical questions 
constantly evoked. 

Personally Prof. von Wagner was of a most attractive 
disposition, admired by his students not only for his rare 
talents as a lecturer, but also for his amiable character. 
His loss is felt as severely in a widespread social circle 
as in the world of science. oT. TERNS 


[WVov. 4, 1880 


JAPAN? 
Il. 


ISS BIRD’S work on Japan, as we have said, is 
cast in quite a different mould from that of Sir 
Edward Reed. With the exception of one or two 
chapters, she devotes her two volumes entirely to a 
record of her own experiences, casting them as in her 
well-known books on the Sandwich Islands and the 
Rocky Mountains, into the form of a series of letters. 
These have evidently been written in the midst of the 
experiences which they record, and this gives them a 
reality and a freshness which they could not have other- 
wise had. Her ‘Unbeaten Tracks in Japan’’ has all 
the best characteristics of her book on the Sandwich 
Islands. Indeed it seems to us that for the majority of 
readers it will have far more of novelty and quite as. 
much interest as any of her previous works, while we 
doubt if any other book on Japan yet published gives so 
full and real an insight into the everyday life and the 
condition of the bulk of the people. Her work well 
deserves the title it bears. Many of the districts into 
which she, amidst all sorts of difficulties, succeeded in 
penetrating were certainly never before visited by a 
European woman, if indeed by a European of either sex. 
Sir E. Reed speaks of the people along parts of his route 
rushing out to see the “ Chinese”’ pass; but so strange 
and literally uncouth did Miss Bird’s appearance seem in 
some districts that the people could only set her down as 
an ‘‘Aino.’? She of course saw all the usual sights in the 
usual tracks, all that Sir Edward Reed saw; and for this. 
her intimacy with Sir Harry Parkes and his universally 
beloved lady procured her every facility. The result is 
not the almost unmixed admiration which we find in 
Sir Edward Reed’s volumes; but then it should be re- 
membered that she was not the guest of the Japanese 
Government, but practically of the representative of 
the English Government; and although Miss Bird is a 
thoroughly independent observer, still her opinions may 
have taken somewhat of their colour from her speciak 
surroundings. She states fully both sides of the question 
of Japanese progress, and while giving full credit to the 
Government for the best intentions, and admitting that 
vast progress has been made in recent years, still she has 
many drawbacks to point out. And no wonder ; we fear 
that she, like some others who write on Japan, look for 
too much, and expect to find a Europe in the East, instead 
of a country struggling out of the bonds that swaddled 
it till only fifteen years ago. Still her criticisms are 
wholesome, and charitable, and good-natured, and we 
trust that they will come under the notice of those to 
whom, if taken in good part, they might be greatly bene- 
ficial. Miss Bird has much to say on the work of mis- 
sionaries in Japan, but that is a subject into which we 
cannot enter here. She spent much of her time in the 
great centres among missionaries, and had ample oppor- 
tunities of seeing the nature of the work they are doing- 
And her observations are of the greatest interest, and 
must be instructive to those who are hoping that the 
Japanese will ultimately put on the religious habiliments. 
which have been shaped for centuries to the people of the 
West. One unfortunate result we may mention, and that 
is the deterioration of the manners of those who have 
been long under missionary influence. Surely this is not 
necessary. 

Of course the great interest of Miss Bird’s book is con- 
nected with her solitary journey, quite unhampered by 
official guidance, north through the centre of the Main 
Island, and most of all her sojourn in Yezo among the 
strange remnant of people known as Ainos. Her journey 

1 “ Japan: its History, Traditions, and Religions, with the Narrative of 
a Visit in 1879.’’ By Sir Edward J. Reed, K.C.B., F.R.S., M.P. Two 
vols. With Map and Illustrations. (London: John Murray, 1880.} 


“Unbeaten Tracks in Japan.’’ By Isabella L. Bird. Two vols. With 
Map and Illustrations. (Same Publisher.) Continued from vol. xxii. p. 614. 


eer Ts 


pon Wyre 


~~ 


cellent work. 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


NATURE 


13 


Spe eee ee ee 


through the Main Island gives us the other side of the 
picture to that seen in such well-known centres as Tokio, 
Yokohama, and Kioto—by far the finest city in Japan, the 
home of art and culture, according to Miss Bird. She gives 
very sad and sometimes very disgusting pictures of the 
condition of the people in some parts of the country 
through which she passed with her amusing and clever 
guide Ito. In one district the villages, she tells us, have 
reached the lowest abyss of filthiness; still she found the 
people here, as everywhere else, courteous, kindly, in- 
dustrious, and free from gross crimes. Indeed, although 
naturally an object of intense interest 

wherever she went, and the centre of 

hundreds and sometimes thousands of | 
eyes, she had rarely if ever to complain | 

of discourtesy. Everywhere everybody 
was courteous and obliging, and except 
in the open towns, rarely was an attempt 
at extortion made. While part of the 
centre of the island is dreary enough, 
much of it is of the rarest beauty, with its 
fine mountains, rich woods, and rapid 
deeply cutting rivers. At Niigata and 
other open ports she notes with satisfac- 
tion the rapid spread of European medical 
treatment under the care of the medical 
missionaries, some of whom are doing ex- 
At Niigata, especially Dr. 
Palm’s influence is wide-spread, and 
thousands of people have been weaned 
from the Chinese system of treatment to 
that offered by Dr. Palm and his numerous 
native assistants, most of them men of the 
best type, who have established among 
themselves a society similar to some of 
the medical societies which meet in London 
and elsewhere. At Niigata Miss Bird 
made the acquaintance of an interesting 
bookseller. ‘‘This bookseller, who was 
remarkably communicative, and seems 
very intelligent, tells me that there is not 
the same demand now as formerly for 
native works on the history, geography, 
and botany of Japan. He showed mea 
folio work on botany in four thick volumes, 
which gives root, stalk, leaf, flower, and 
seed of every plant delineated (and there 


is a capital carriage-road, but without carriages. In such 
civilised circumstances it was curious to see two or four 
brown-skinned men pulling the carts, and quite often a 
man and his wife—the man unclothed, and the woman 
unclothed to her waist—doing the same. Also it struck 
me as incongruous to see telegraph wires above, and 
below, men whose only clothing consisted of a sun-hat 
and fan; while children with books and slates were 
returning from school, conning their lessons.” 

As far north as Kubota, quite 200 miles north of 
Niigata, Miss Bird found a normal school established, with 


are 400), drawn with the most painstaking 


botanical accuracy, and admirable fidelity 


to colour. This is a book of very great 


value and interest. He has translations 
of some of the works of Huxley, Darwin, 


and , Herbert Spencer, which, he says, are 
bought by the young men attending the 
higher school. The ‘Origin of Species’ 
has the largest sale. This man asked me 
many questions about the publishing and 
bookselling trade in England, and Ito 
acquitted himself admirably as an inter- 
preter. He had not a single book on any 
subject connected with religion.” 


In a letter from Kaminoyama, to the north-east of | 


Niigata, she gives a graphic picture of the incongruities 
to be met with in the present transition state of the 
country:—“We rode for four hours through these 
beautiful villages on a road four feet wide, and then, to 
my surprise, after ferrying a river, emerged at Tsukuno 
upon what appears on the map as a secondary road, but 
which is in reality a main road twenty-five feet wide, well 
kept, trenched on both sides, and with a line of telegraph 
poles along it. It was a new world at once. The road 
for many miles was thronged with well-dressed foot- 
passengers, fwrumas, pack-horses, and waggons either 
with solid-wheels, or wheels with spokes but no tires. It 


2 pe 


Fig. 1.—Ainos: of Yezo. 


twenty-five teachers and 700 pupils between the ages of six 
and twenty. “They teach reading, writing, arithmetic, 
geography, history, political economy after John Stuart 
Mill, chemistry, botany, a course of natural science, 
geometry, and mensuration.” Indeed she found evidence 
everywhere of the schoolmaster being abroad all over the 
country, and of the purpose of the Government to make 
education, after the models of Europe and America, uni- 
versal and compulsory; and among the educated classes, 
the familiarity with the works of the most advanced 
English scientific writers —Huxley, Darwin, and Spencer 
especially—struck her greatly. ? 

To the ethnologist Miss Bird’s notes on the Ainos, the 


14 


NATURE 


| Nov. 4, 1880 


aborigines of the Island of Yezo, and possibly of all | 


and seeing and sharing the daily life of complete savages’ 


Japan, will prove of special interest. We already know | who go on with their ordinary occupations just as if I 


much about the physique and the habits of these strange 


were not among them. I found yesterday a most 


people; but Miss Bird’s notes of what she saw and heard | fatiguing and over-exciting day, as everything was new 
during the weeks she lived in their houses, saw their daily | and interesting, even the extracting from men who have 


life, heard what they had to say of themselves, their his- 


few if any ideas in common with me, all I could extract 


tory, and their superstitions, are a real addition to our! concerning their religions and customs, and that through 


an interpreter. I got up at six this morning to 
write out my notes, and have been writing for five 
hours, and there is shortly the prospect of another 
savage séance. The distractions, as you imagine, 


are many. .At this moment a savage is taking a 


Fic. 2,—Aino Houses. 


existing knowledge of them. As usual all sorts of things 
were said by people in Hakodaté te prevent her from 
trusting herself alone among these uncivilised people, but 
Miss Bird took her own womanly way, and was rewarded. 
These Ainos she found of fierce outer aspect, with their 
long shaggy hair and beards, broad faces, and rough 


cup of saké by the fire in the centre of the floor. 
He salutes me by extending his hands and waving 
them towards his face, and then dips a rod in the 
Saké, and makes six libations to the god—an 
upright piece of wood with a fringe of shavings 
planted in the floor of the room. Then he waves 
the cup several times towards himself, makes other 
libations to the fire, and drinks. Ten other men 
and women are sitting along each side of the fire- 
hole, the chief’s wife is cooking, the men are 
apathetically contemplating the preparation of their 
food; and the other women, who are never idle, 
are splitting the bark of which they make their 
clothes. I occupy the guest seat—a raised plat- 
form at one end of the fire, with the skin of a black 
bear thrown over it.’’ 

These Ainos drink enormous quantities of saké, 
the national liquor of Japan; they can drink three 


times as much as a Japanese without being affected by — 


it, and the drinking of it is with them the chief act of 


worship to the rude gods, if gods they be, which are ~ 


stuck up in various parts of their huts. Here is another 
picture :— 


“About nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled 


bodies, but in speech and manner gentler than the 


hi 


it into lacquer bowls with wooden spoons. The men were 
served first, but all ate together. Afterwards 


and across each bowl a finely-carved ‘ saké-stick’ 
was laid. These sticks are very highly prized. 
The bowls were waved several time with an 
inward motion, then each man took his stick 
and, dipping it into the sa#é, made six libations 


Zeer 


— 


a 


post, with a quantity of spiral white shavings 
falling from near the top.” 

The intense fondness of the Ainos for their 
children is a marked feature in their character, 
and the instantaneous and implicit obedience of 
the latter to their parents is as great as with 
the Japanese themselves. Their hospitality is 
genuine, universal, and almost profuse. ‘‘In 


guest. This seems a savage virtue which is not 
civilisation. Before I entered one lodge the 
woman brought several of the finer mats, and 
> arranged them as a pathway for me to walk to 
the fire upon. They will not accept anything 
for lodging or for anything that they give, so I 
was anxious to help them by buying some of 
their handiwork, but found even this a difficult 
matter. 


wish to part with their things. I wanted what 
a ; ey: they had in actual use, such as a tobacco-box 
gentlest Hawaiian. Their soft and feminine speech | and pipe-sheath, and knives with carved handles and 
constantly struck her, and in genuine politeness they are | scabbards, and for three of these I offered 2} dollars. 
not surpassed by the Japanese. Here is a picture of | They said they did not care to sell them, but in the 
Aino domestic life :— : evening they came saying they were not worth more than 

“T am in the lonely Aino land, and I think that the | ; dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that; 
most interesting of my travelling experiences has been | and I could not get them to take more. They said it 
the living for three days and two nights in an Aino hut, rang CaMyeanar anaionm. © 


Fic. 3.—Ainos at home (From a Japanese sketch). 


every house the same honour was paid to a~ 


saké, their curse, was poured into lacquer bowls, — 


to the fire, and several to the ‘god,’ a wooden © 


strong enough to survive much contact with — 


They were very anxious to give, but — 
when I desired to buy they said they did not — 


Nov. 4, 1880] 
All that Miss Bird tells us of her visit to the Ainos is 

well worth quoting ; but we have space for only one more 

quotation, and that with reference to their physique :— 

“€ After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble 
eyelids, the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat 
“noses, the sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the 

puny physique, the shaky walk of the men, the restricted 
‘totter of the women, and the general impression of de- 
generacy conveyed by the appearance of the Japanese, the 
Ainos make a very singular impression. AJl but two or 
three that I have seen are the most ferocious-looking of 
savages, with a physique vigorous enough for carrying 
out the most ferocious intentions, but as soon as they 
speak the countenance brightens into a smile as gentle as 
that of a woman, something which can never be for- 
gotten. Themen are about the middle height, broad- 
chested, broad-shouldered, ‘thick-set,’ very strongly built, 
the arms and legs short, thick, and muscular, the hands 
and feet large. The bodies, and specially the limbs, of 
many are covered with short bristly hair. I have seen 
two boys whose backs are covered with fur as fine and 
| soft as that of a cat. The heads and faces are very 
striking. The foreheads are very high, broad, and pro- 
minent, and at first sight give one the impression of an 
| unusual capacity for intellectual development ; the ears 
| are small and set low; the noses are straight, but short, 
and broad at the nostrils; the mouths are wide, but well 
formed ; and the lips rarely show a tendency to fulness. 
The neck is short, the cranium rounded, the cheek-bones 
low, and the lower part of the face is small as compared 
with the upper, the peculiarity called a ‘jowl’ being un- 
known. The eyebrows are full, and form a straight line 
nearly across the face. The eyes are large, tolerably 
deeply set, and very beautiful, the colour a rich liquid 
brown, the expression singularly soft, and the eyelashes 
long, silky, and abundant. The skin hzs the Italian 
olive tint, but in most cases is thin, and light enough 
to show the changes of colour in the cheek. The teeth 
are small, regular, and very white; the incisors and 
‘eye teeth’ are not disproportionately large, as is usually 
the case among the Japanese; there is no tendency 
towards prognathism ; and the fold of integument which 
conceals the upper eyelids of the Japanese is never to be 
met with. The features, expression, and aspect are 
European rather than Asiatic. 

“The ‘ferocious savagery’ of the appearance of the 
men is produced by a profusion of thick soft black hair, 
divided in the middle, and falling in heavy masses nearly 
to the shoulders. Out of doors it is kept from falling 
over the face by a fillet round the brow. ‘The beards are 
equally profuse, quite magnificent, and generally wavy, 
and in the case of the old men they give a truly patri- 
archal and venerable aspect, in spite of the yellow tinge 

_ produced by smoke and want of cleanliness. The savage 
jook produced by the masses of hair and beard, and the 
thick eyebrows, is mitigated by the softness in the dreamy 
brown eyes, and is altogether obliterated by the exceeding 
sweetness of the smile, which belongs in greater or less 
degree to all the rougher sex. 

**T have measured the height of thirty of the adult men 
of this village, and it ranges from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 
63 inches. The circumference of the heads averages 22°1 

- inches, and the arc, from ear to ear, 13 inches. According 
to Mr. Davies the average weight of the Aino adult 
masculine brain, ascertained by measurement of Aino 
skulls, is 45°90 ounces avoirdupois, a brain weight said to 
exceed that of all the races, Hindoo and Mussulman, on 
the Indian plains, and that of the aboriginal races of 
India and Ceylon, and is only paralleled by that of the 

_ races of the Himalayas, the Siamese, and the Chinese 

_ Burmese. Mr. Davies says, further, that it exceeds the 

mean brain weight of Asiatic races in general. Yet with 
all this the Ainos are a stupid people !” 
The coast Ainos, Miss Bird tells us, she found had 


NATURE 


15 


more hair on their bodies than those in the interior, and 
in some other respects differed inappearance, a difference 
probably to be accounted for by their mode of life and 
their surroundings. The Aino garments are often exceed- 
ingly handsome, being decorated with “geometrical” 
patterns in which the Greek fret takes part, in coarse 
blue cotton, braided most dexterously with scarlet and 
white thread. The modesty of the women is very remark- 
able, sometimes almost excessive even to European 
notions; nor do they seem to be the unmitigated drudges 
that most savage women are. The great hero of the 
Ainos is Yoshitsuné, who is also the most popular hero 
of Japanese history; the Ainos worship him, and Miss 
Bird was permitted to visit his shrine on a hill near 
Biratori, the Aino village at which she spent most of her 
time. He lived in the twelfth century, and was the 
brother of the Shégun of the time, whose jealousy, accord- 
ing to some, compelled him to take refuge in Yezo. 
““None believe this more firmly than the Ainos them- 
selves, who assert that he taught their fathers the arts of 
civilisation, with letters and numbers, and gave them 
righteous laws, and he is worshipped by many of them 
under a name which signifies Master of the Law. I have 
been told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebungé, that 
a later Japanese conqueror carried away the books in 
which the arts were written, and that since his time the 
arts themselves have been lost, and the Ainos have fallen 
into their present condition! On asking why the Ainos 
do not make vessels of iron and clay as well as knives 
and spears, the invariable answer is, ‘The Japanese took 
away the books.’” This, combined with some other 
things which Miss Bird tells us of these Ainos, makes it 
seem quite possible that they are now a degenerate 
remnant of a people who formerly were comparatively 
cultured, and who may possibly have had “‘ books” which 
the Japanese, their conquerors and masters, “ took 
away.” These strange people are certainly worthy of 
further study. The illustrations we are able to give, by 
the kindness of Mr. Murray, will give the reader some 
idea of their appearance and habits. Westrongly recom- 
mend the reader to go to Miss Bird’s volumes for further 
information of what she saw and heard while. sojourning 
among them. 

Again we commend these two works to all who desire 
to get, in comparatively short space, a very complete view 
of the past history and present condition of Japan. 


BELL’S PHOTOPHONE 


BY the courtesy of Prof. Graham Bell we are at length 

able to do somewhat ampler justice to his latest 
discovery than has hitherto been possible. He has 
supplied us with certain details not hitherto published, 
and has also furnished us with drawings of his apparatus 
and experiments. Prof. Bell is at present in Paris, and, 
as was mentioned in our columns last week, has there 
repeated some of his experiments. : 

Our readers are already aware that the object of the 
photophone is the transmission of sounds both musical 
and vocal to a distance by the agency of a beam of light 
of varying intensity ; and that the first successful attempts 
made by Prof. Bell and his co-labourer, Mr. Sumner 
Tainter, were based upon the known property of the 
element selenium, the electric resistance of which varies 
with the degree of illumination to which it is exposed. 
Hence, given a transmitting instrument such as a flexible 
mirror by which the vibrations of a sound could throw into 
vibration a beam of light,a receiver consisting of sensitive 
selenium forming part of an electric circuit with a battery 
and a telephone shouid suffice to translate the varying 
intensities of light into corresponding varying intensities 
of electric current, and finally into vibrations of the tele- 
phone disk audible once more as sound. This funda- 


16 NATURE [Vov. 4, 1880 


mental conception dates from 1878, when in lecturing | phone, however, outgrew the particular electrical combi- 4 


before the Royal Institution Prof. Bell announced the | nation that suggested it ; for not the least of the remarkable ~ 


possibility of hearing a shadow fall upon a piece of | points in this research is the discovery that audible vibra- 


selenium included in a telephone circuit. The photo-| tions are set up in thin disks of almost every kind of 


< 


LU 


hig 


| == 


Fic. 1.—The Musical Telephone. 


material by merely throwing upon them an intermittent ; rapid abrupt interruptions of the electric current ; while | 
light. Hence in theory, if not in practice, the receiver | the articulating telephone of Graham Bell was able to 
may be reduced to the divine simplicity of a mere disk of | transmit speech, since by its essential construction it was 


able to send undulating currents to the distant — 


receiving station. t 

We may in like manner classify the forms — 

of photophone under two heads, as (1) articu- ~ 

Receiver lating photophones, ‘and (2) musical photo- 
phones; the former being able to transmit 
speech because they work by beams of light — 
whose intensity can vary in undulatory fluc- 


being able to transmit simple musical tones — 


of a fixed beam of light. 


us, the simple receiving disk of ebonite or 
hard rubber has only served for a musical — 
photophone : the reproduction of the tones of 
the voice by its means has not yet been demon- 
strated in practice—at least to his satisfaction. For 
while it produces unmistakable musical tones by the 
direct action of an intermittent light, in the experiments 
made hitherto with articulate speech the instru- 
ments have by necessity been so near to one 
another that the voice of the speaker was audible 


Fic. 2.—Theoretical Diagram of the Articulating Photophone. 


vulcanite or of zinc, on one side of which the vibrating 
beam of light falls, and at the other side of which the 
) through the air. Under these circumstances 


hearer listens. 
DRA 
al \ 
SSS - it is extremely difficult to say whether the 
Pre ; sounds that are heard proceed from the dia- 
ME phragm, or whether they merely came through 
the air to the ear, and if they come from the 
diaphragm, whether they are really the result 
of the varying light, and not mere sound vibra- 
tions taken up by the disk from the speaker’s 
voice crossing the air. Prof. Bell hopes soon 
to settle this point, however, by an appeal to 
experiment on a larger scale with the receiving 
i { and transmitting instruments at greater dis- 
LLL LL eee .. tances apart, and with glass windows in between 
SS to shut off all sounds. 
In Fig. 1 we illustrate the simple musical 


a 
na 


Hi! 


H 


N 


perhaps be described without injustice as an 
optical siren, producing sounds from inter- 
2 : mittent beams of light, as the s¢vev of Cagniard 

With the photophone, however, as with the telephone, | de Latour produces them from intermittent puffs of air. 
there are instruments of different degrees of perfection. | A beam of light from the sun or from a powerful artificial 
The original imperfect musical telephone of Philip Reis | source, such as an electric lamp, falls upon a mirror M, 
could oniy transmit musical tones, because it worked by | and is reflected through a large lens L, which concentrates 


Fic. 3.—Section of the Selenium Receiver, shown at s in Fig. 2, 


tuations, like those of vocal tones; the latter 
only, since they work by mere interruptions — 


Up to the present time, Prof. Bell informs — 


photophone of Bell and Tainter. It might — 


—— 


ee 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


NATURE 


17 


the rays toa focus. Just at the focus is interposed a disk 
pierced with holes—forty or so in number arranged ina 
circle. This disk can be rotated so that the light is inter- 
rupted from one to five or six hundred times per second. 
The intermittent beam thus produced is received by a 
lens T, or a pair of lenses upon a common support, whose 
function is to render the beam once more parallel, or to 
concentrate it upon the disk of ebonite placed immediately 
behind, but not quite touching them. From the disk a 
tube conveys the sounds to the ear. We may remind 
our readers here that this apparent direct conversion of 
light into sound takes place, as Prof. Bell found, in disks 
of all kinds of substances—hard rubber, zinc, antimony, 
selenium, ivory, parchment, wood, and that he has lately 
found that disks of carbon and of thin glass, which he for- 
merly thought exceptions to this property, do also behave 
in the same way. We may perhaps remark without im- 
propriety that it is extremely improbable that the apparent 
conversion of light into sound is by any means a direct 
process. It is well known that luminiferous rays, when 
absorbed at the surface of a medium, warm that surface 
slightly, and must therefore produce physical and mole- 
cular actions in its structure. If it can be shown that 
this warming effect and an intermediate cooling by con- 
duction can go on with such excessive rapidity that 
beams of light falling on the surface at intervals less 
than the hundredth of a second apart produce a discon- 
tinuous molecular action of alternate expansion and con- 
traction, then the inysterious property of matter revealed 
by these experiments is accounted for. 

However this may be, the musical photophone, as 
represented in Fig. 1, produces very distinct sounds, of 
whose existence and dependence for their production on 
the light the listener may satisfy himself by cutting off 
the light at any moment with the little opaque disk fixed 
on the end of the little lever just in front of the holes in 
disk R, and which can be worked by a Morse key like a 
telegraph instrument, thus producing at will alternate 
sounds and silences. With this musical photophone 
sounds have been carried by an interrupted beam of light 
for a distance exceeding a mile; there appears, indeed, 
no reason why a much greater range might not be 
attained. 

The articulating photophone is that to which hitherto 
public attention has been most largely directed, and in 
which a selenium receiver plays a part. Fig. 2 gives in 
diagram form the essential parts of this arrangement. A 
mirror M reflects a beam of light as before through a lens 
L, and (if desired for the purpose of experimentally cutting 
off the heat-rays) through a cell A containing alum-water, 
and casts it upon the transmitter B. This transmitter, 
shown again in Fig. 5, consists of_a little disk of thin 
glass, silvered on the front, of about the size of the disk 
of an ordinary telephone, and mounted in a frame, with 
a flexible india-rubber tube about sixteen inches long 
leading to a mouthpiece. A second lens R, interposed in 
the beam of light after reflection at the little mirror, 
renders the rays approximately parallel. The general view 
of the transmitting apparatus given in Fig. 5 enables the 
relative sizes and positions of the various parts (minus 
the alum-cell which is omitted) to be seen. The screw 
adjustments of the support serve to direct the beam of 
light in the desired direction. 

It may be well to explain once for all iow the vibra- 
tions of the voice can affect the intensity of the reflected 
beam far away. The lenses are so adjusted that when 
the mirror B is flat (ze. when not vibrating) the beam 
projected from the apparatus to the distant station shall 
be nearly focussed on the receiving instrument. Owing 
to the optical difficulties of the problem it is impossible 
that the focussing can be more than approximate. Now, 
matters being thus arranged, when the speaker’s voice is 
thrown against the disk B it is set into vibration, becomes 
alternately bulged out and in, and made slightly convex 


or concave, the degree of its alteration in form varying 
with every vibration of the voice. Suppose at any instant 
—say by a sudden displacement suchas takes place when 
the letter “Tt” is sounded—the disk becomes considerably 
convex; the beam of light will no longer be concentrated 
upon the receiving instrument, but will cover a much 
wider area. Of the whole beam, therefore, only a rela- 
tively small portion will fall upon the receiving instru- 
ment; and it is therefore possible to conceive that, if 
perfectly adjusted, the illumination should be propor- 
tional to the displacement of the disk, and vary therefore 
with every vibration with the utmost fidelity. 

The receiver of the articulating photophone is shown 
on the right-hand side of the diagram (Fig. 2) sketched 
by Prof. Bell. A mirror of parabolic curve C C serves to 
concentrate the beam and to reflect it down upon the 
selenium cell s, which is included in the circuit of a 
battery P along with a pair of telephones Tand T. Here 
again a general view like that given in Fig. 6 facilitates 
the comprehension of the principal parts of the apparatus. 
The sensitive selenium cell is seen in the hollow of the 
parabolic mirror which is mounted so as to be turned in any 
desired direction. The battery standing upon the ground 
furnishes a current which flows through the selenium cell 
and through the telephones. When aray of light falls on 
the selenium—be it for ever so short an instant—the 
selenium increases in conductivity, and instantly transmits 
a larger amount of electricity, and the observer with the 
telephones hears the ray, or the succession of them ;—hears 


a 


n_ 


LU 
= aa 


Fic. 4.—Diagran to show the action of the Selenium Receiver. 


indeed their every fluctuation in a series of sounds which, 
since each vibration corresponds toa vibration of the voice 
of the distant speaker, reproduce the speaker’s tones. 
The great difficulty to be overcome in the use of 
selenium as a working substance arose from its very 
high resistance. To reduce this to the smallest possible 
quantity, and at the same time to use a sufficiently large 
surface whereon to receive the beam of light, was the 
problem to be solved before any practical result could be 
arrived at. After many preliminary trials with gratings 
and perforated disks of various kinds, Prof. Bell and Mr. 
Tainter finally settled upon the ingenious device to be 
described. A number of round brass disks, about two 
inches in diameter, and a number of mica disks of a 
diameter slightly less, were piled upon one another so as 
to form a cylinder about two and a half inches in length. 
They were clamped together from end to end, the clamp- 
ing rods also serving to unite the disks of brass electrically 
in two sets, alternate disks being joined, the Ist, 3rd, 5th, 
&c., being united together, and the 2nd, 4th, 6th, &c., 
being united in another series. This done, the edges 
between the brass disks were next filled with seleninum, 
which was rubbed in at a temperature sufficiently high 
to reach the melting-point of selenium. After this the 
selenium was carefully annealed to bring it into the 
sensitive crystalline state. Then the cell is placed in a 
lathe and the superfluous selenium is turned off, until the 
edges of the brass disks are bared. Fig. 3 shows, in section, 
the construction of such a cell. Prof. Bell has also used 
cells in which the selenium filled only the @//ernaze spaces 
between disks, the intermediate spaces being occupied by 


18 NATURE [Wov. 4, 1880 


mica disks of equal diameter with the brass disks. But | this arrangement was in no way preferable, for in practice 


wi a if | 


l 


oe he. 


AAA 


pdt 


Fic. 5.—The Articulating Photophone, The Transmitter. 


Fig. 4 is a diagram which simply illustrates the action 


it was found that moisture was apt to penetrate at the 
of the selenium receiver, and shows, firstly, the way of 


surface of the bare mica, spoiling the ef'e:t. 


Fic. 6.—The Articulating Photophone. The Selenium Receiver. 
connecting the alternate disks; and secondly, that the | current from the battery P cannot go round the telephone 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


NATURE 


Le) 


circuit without passing somewhere through selenium 
from one brass disk to the next. The special advantages 
of the “cell” devised by Prof. Bell are that in the first 
place the thickness of the selenium that the current 
must traverse is nowhere very great; that in the second, 
this photo-electrical action of light on selenium being 
almost entirely a surface action, the arrangement by 
which all the selenium used is a thin surface film could 
hardly be improved upon; and that thirdly, the symmetry 
of the cylindrical cell specially adapts it for use in the 
parabolic mirror. These details will be of great interest 
especially to those who desire to repeat for themselves the 
experimental transmission of sound by light. The greatest 
distance to which articulate speech has yet been trans- 
mitted by the selenium-cell-photophone is 213 metres, or 
233 yards. 

When sunlight is not available recourse must be had 
to an artificial source of sufficient power. During the 
recent experiments made by Prof. Bell in Paris the 
weather has been adverse, and the electric light has been 
called into requisition in the aée/zers of M. Bregnet 
(Fig. 7, which is kindly supplied us by Prof. Bell). The 
distance in these experiments between the transmitting 
diaphragm B and the parabolic reflector C C of the receiver 
was fifteen metres, the entire length of the room in which 


Fic. 7.—The Photophone with Electric Light. 


the experiments were made. Since at this distance the 
spoken words were themselves perfectly audible across 
the air, the telephones connected with the selenium-cell 
were placed in another apartment, where the voices were 
heard without difficulty and without doubt as to the 
-means of transmission. 

Of the earlier and less perfect forms of the photophone 
little need be said. One device, which in Prof. Bell’s 
hands worked very successfully over a distance of eighty- 
six yards, consisted in letting the beam of light pass 
through a double grating of parallel slits lying close to 
one another, one of which was fixed, the other movable 
and attached to a vibrating diaphragm. When these 
were placed exactly one in front of the other the light 
could traverse the apparatus, but as the movable grating 
slid more or less in front of the fixed one more or less of 

_ the light was cut off. Speaking to the diaphragm there- 
fore caused vibrations which shut or opened, as it were, 
a door for the beam of light, and altered its intensity. 
The mirror transmitter of thin glass silvered was however 
found superior to all others ; and it is hard to see how it 
could be improved upon, unless possibly by the use of a 

thin disk of silver itself accurately surfaced and polished. 

Whatever be the future before the photophone, it 
assuredly deserves to rank in estimation beside the now 
familiar names of the telephone and the phonograph. 


NOTES . 

THE Triennial Gold Medal of the Chemical Section of the Philo- 
sophical Society of Glasgow, founded in commemoration of the 
work of Thomas Graham, F.R.S., late Master of the Mint, will 
be awarded, at the end of the present session, for the best paper 
on any subject in pure or applied chemistry. Authors are 
requested to send in their papers not later than February 1, 1881, 
addressed to the Secretary of the Section, Dr. J. J. Dobbie, 
Chemical Laboratory, Univétsity of Glasgow. 


. THE annual meeting of the five academies which constitute 
the French Institute was held on Monday last week, when M. 
E, Levasseur gave an address on the Ethnography of France, 
and Col. Perrier described the operation he undertook to connect 
geodetically Algeria and Spain. 


THE Royal Institution Lecture arrangements (not yet complete) 
for the ensuing season (before Easter) will include the Christmas 
course by Prof. Dewar ; and courses by Professors Tyndall and 
Schafer, the Rev. William Haughton, the Rev. H. R. Haweis, 
Mr. H. H. Statham, Mr. Reginald S. Poole, and others. 
Friday Evening Discourses will probably be given by Mr. 
Warren De La Rue, Prof. Tyndall, Sir John Lubbock, Sir 
William Thomson, Dr. J. Burdon Sanderson, Dr. Andrew 
Wilson, Dr. Arthur Schuster, Mr. Alexander Buchan, Dr. 
W. H. Stone, Dr. W. J. Russell. 


THE death is announced of Sir Thomas Bouch, the engineer 
of the Tay Bridge. It is believed that his system received a 
severe shock on account of the Tay Bridge disaster and the 
proceedings consequent on it, 


M. ERHARD, the well-known French cartographer, died on 
October 23. M. Erhard was a naturalised Frenchman, having 
been born at Freiburg-im-Breisgau. 


Amonc Mr, Stanford’s announcements of forthcoming works 
are the following :—‘“‘ Prehistoric Europe: a Geological Sketch,” 
by Dr. James Geikie, F.R.S. ; a fourth edition of ‘‘ The Coal- 
Fields of Great Britain,” by Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S. ; 
‘Life and her Children: Glimpses of Animal Life from the 
Amceba to the Insects,” by Arabella B. Buckley ; ‘‘ Index Geo- 
graphicus Indicus: a Gazetteer of India,” by J. F. Barness ; 
“The Flora of Algeria, considered in Relation to the Physical 
History of the Mediterranean Region and Supposed Submergence 
of the Sahara,’’ by W. Mathews; ‘‘ Water Supply of England 
and Wales: its Geology, Underground Circulation, Surface 
Distribution, and Statistics,” by C. E, de Rance. 


In the November number of Scridner’s Monthly is a curious 
article on Second Sight or Clairvoyance, by an “ Ex-Conjuror” 
(Mr. Henry Hatton), in which it is shown that the whole thing 
is an elaborate system of mnemonics. The article has all the 
appearance of being genuine. 


In reference to the notice in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 587, on 
the address of Dr. Karl Zittel on the subject of the geology of 
the Libyan Desert, we should state that while the paper contains 
Zittel’s opinions of the observations and collections of other 
travellers, it is mainly derived from the Professor’s personal 
examination of the physiography of that country, and of the 
fossils which he there collected, when, as a member of the expe- 
dition under the leadership of Dr, Rohlfs, he visited the Libyan 
Desert in the winter of 1873-74. 


Tue lecture on ‘* The Modifications of the External Aspects 
of Organic Nature produced by Man’s Interference,” delivered 
by Prof. Rolleston to the Royal Geographical Society in 1879, 
has just been published in that Society’s Yournal. Amongst 
other interesting matters Prof. Rolleston rectifies an error into 


| which all or most translators of Czesar ‘have fallen respecting 
i 


20 


the Scotch fir. Czsar (‘‘De Bello Gallico,” y. 12) says of 
Britain, ‘‘ Materia cujusque generis, ut in Gallia, est preter 
fagum atque abietem,” which words have been generally taken to 
mean, ‘‘ There is wood of all kinds to be found in Britain, as in 
Gaul, except the beech and the fir.” The word refer however 
does not always mean ‘‘ except,” but sometimes ‘‘ besides,” as 
quotations from Cicero and Plautus aptly illustrate. Prof. 
Rolleston further “remarks that ‘‘an historian who was or 
was not a professed botanist, might without any sensible man 
blaming him, speak nowadays of all the common pines ‘Scotch,’ 
‘umbrella,’ ‘cluster,’ &c., as ‘pines’; my present belief is that 
Julius would similarly have spoken of them all as adzetes, and 
would probably have included the ‘ firs’ proper under the same 
name as these ‘pines.’” 


AT the last meeting of the Epping Forest and County of 
Essex Naturalists’ Field Club, held Saturday, October 30, it 
was announced that H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, Ranger, 
had consented to become the Patron of the Club, Arrangements 
are being made to get up.a course of winter science lectures in 
connection with the Club, the first of these being fixed for 
November ro, by Mr. J. E. Harting, who will lecture on 
*¢ Forest Animals.” It was further announced that a lecture 
had been promised during the session by Mr, A. R. Wallace. 


Pror. BoypD DAWKINS has lately shown in his “ Early Man 
in Britain” that ‘‘although the Neolithic men were immeasur- 
ably above the Cave-men in culture, they were far below them 
in the arts of design;” and further that the Cave-man ‘‘ pos- 
sessed a singular talent for representing the animals he hunted, 
and his sketches reveal to us that he had a capacity for seeing 
the beauty and grace of natural form not much inferior to that 
which is the result of long-continued civilisation in ourselves, and 
very much higher than that of his successors in Europe in the 
Neolithic age.” That this faculty of design or artistic aptitude 
is still independent of adyanced or adyancing civilisation is 
shown by Dr. Holub in a paper ‘‘ On the Central South African 
Tribes,” just published in the Yowrnal of the Anthropological 
Institute. Mr. Holub remarks in connection with the Bushmen, 
that these people ‘‘regarded as the lowest types of Africans, in 
one thing excel all the other South African tribes whose acquaint 
ance I made between the south coast and 10° south latitude. I 
have in my possession about 200 sketches on wood and stone 
and ostrich shells, by various tribes, but every one who knows 
anything about drawing must acknowledge that those which were 
done by Bushmen are superior to any of the others.” 


Ir is stated that some samples of a new seed and also of the 
native cucumber, collected in Central Australia by Mr. Vesey 
Brown, have been received at the Sydney Botanical Gardens. The 
former is a small black pea, which grows in pods similar to 
those of the ordinary pea; it is supposed to be edible, and 
resembles the nardoo. The cucumbers are about the size of 
walnuts, and are said to make an excellent pickle. 


A RECENT report to the Foreign Office by Mr, Consul 
Crawford at Oporto on matters connected with the wine trade 
contains observations:on the ravages of the parasitic insect, 
Phylloxera vastatrix, in the port wine district, and the means 
taken to avert them, and is illustrated by a sketch map of 
Northern Portugal, showing the progress of the disease. 


AT the opening meeting of the Eastbourne Natural History 
Society on October 15, Mr. F. C. S. Roper read a paper on the 
additions to the fauna and flora of the Cuckmere district during 
the past year. 


In the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Aéronautical Society 
of Great Britain are papers on Aéronautics, by Mr. T. Moy, the 
“Mechanical Action of the Air,” by Mr. Phillips; ‘‘ Artificial 


NATURE 


[Vov, 4, 1880 


Flight,” by Mr. F. W. Brearey ; ‘* Aérial Propellers,” by Mr. 
R:C. Jay. 


VALPARAISO advices to August 21 give particulars of the — 


earthquake of August 14. The Chilian Times says:—‘‘The 
duration of the shock was nearly ninety seconds. No serious 
damage was done to buildings in Valparaiso. At Vina del Mar, 


one of the towers of the church fell and another was shaken out — 


The @ 
roof of the Quillota parish church fell in. At Llaillai eighteen or — 
Illapel suffered very severely. © 


of its level, and will probably have to be pulled down. 


twenty houses were destroyed. 
One strange item reported is the occurrence of ‘huracane de 
agua,’ whatever they may be. 
first telegram stated that three of these had burst in the Cor- 
dillera. Now it is stated that there were thirty observed. One 
paper spoke of them as ‘water volcanoes.’ From Coquimbo it 
is reported that high columns of water were thrown up from the 
bay. An employé of the Transandine Telegraph Company felt 
the shock while crossing the highest parts of the Andes. 
states that it was the strongest earthquake he has ever felt.” 


A NapLes telegram of November 2 states that Vesuvius is 
now very active; lava continues to flow from the crater, and 
present indications point to the probability of increased eruptive 
energy. 

THE first meeting of the Society of Arts is announced for 
November 17, when the opening address will be delivered by 
F, J. Bramwell, F.R.S., Chairman of the Council. Before 
Christmas the following papers will be read :—November 24— 
“*Barry’s Influence on Engli-h Art,” by J. Comyns Carr. De- 
cember 1—‘* The Photophone,” by W. H. Preece. 
—‘‘London Fogs,” by Dr, A. Carpenter. December 15— 
‘‘The Use of Sound for Signals,” by E. Price Edwards. The 
following papers are down on the list for reading after Christ- 
mas :—‘‘ Buying and Selling: its Nature and its Tools,” by 
Prof. Bonamy Price. ‘‘ The Participation of Labour in the 
Profits of Enterprise,” by Sedley Taylor, M.A., late Fellow of 
Trinity College, Cambridge. ‘The Gold Fields of India,” by 
Hyde Clarke. ‘‘ Flashing Signals for Lighthouses,” by Sir 
William Thomson, F.R.S. 
Art of Wood-earving ia England,” by J. Hungerford Pollen, 
**Ten Years’ Experience of the Working of the Trade Maric 
Act,” by E. C. Johnson, 
Bourne. ‘‘ The Manufacture of Aérated Waters,” by T. B. Bruce 
Warren. ‘‘The Compound Air Engine,” by Col. IF. Beau- 
mont, R.E. ‘‘Improyements in the Treatment of Espar‘o 
for the Manufacture of Paper,” by William Arnot, F.C.S. 
“Deep Sea Investigation, and the Apparatus used in it,’’ by J. 
Y. Buchanan. ‘The Discrimination and Artistic Use of 
Precious Stones,” by Prof. A, H. Church. ‘‘ Indian Agricul- 
ture,” by W. R. Robertson, Five courses of lectures are an- 
nounced under the Cantor bequest : First course—Five lectures 
on ‘*Some Points of Contact between the Scientific and Artistic 
Aspects of Pottery and Porcelain,” 
Second Course—Three lectures on ‘‘ Watchmaking,” by Edward 
Rigg, M.A. Third course—Four lectures on ‘‘ The Scientific 
Principles involved in Electric Lighting,” by Prof. W. G- 
Adams, F.R.S. Fourth course—Three lectures on ‘* The Art 
of Lace-making,” by Alan S. Cole. Fifth course—Three Jec- 
tures on ‘Colour Blindness and its Influence upon Various 
Industries,” by R. Brudenell Carter. The two Juvenile Lectures, 
for childrén of Members, during the Christmas holidays, will be 


by G. J. Romanes, F.R.S., on ‘‘ Animal Intelligence.” The — 


arrangements for the ‘‘ Indian,” ‘‘ Foreign and Colonial,” and 
“‘Chemical and Physical” Sections will be announced after 
Christmas, 

Tue following is the title of the essay to which the “ Howard 
Medal” of the Stati-tical Society will be awarded in November, 


eee ee ee ee eee ee 


The Governor of Illapel in his — 


He 


December 8 ~ 


“Trade Prospects,” by Stephen ~ 


by Prof. A. C. Church, ~ 


= 


ooo An auet oem e edeers se sana a henne = 


Pei 


“The Present Condition of the — 


' 
a. 
i, 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


NATURE 


21 


1881 :—‘‘On the Jail Fever, from the earliest Black Assize to 
the last recorded outbreak in recent times.” The essays to be 
sent in on or before June 30, 1881. The Council have decided 
to grant the sum of 20/. to the writer who may gain the 
*¢ Howard Medal” in November, 1881. 


THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Sykes’s Monkey (Cercopithecus albigularis) 
from West Africa, presented by the Officers of the Royal Yacht ; 
a Green Monkey (Cercopithecus callitrichus) from West Africa, 
presented by Mr. “A. Haynes; a Rhesus Monkey (Aacacus 
erythreus) from India, presented by the Rev. J. Saunders, B.A.; 
a Iwo-toed Sloth (Cholopus didactylus) from Demerara, pre- 
sented by Mr. G. H. Hawtayne, C.M.Z.S.; an Egyptian 
Jerboa (Dipus egyptius) from Egypt, presented by Major Money ; 
a Common Trumpeter (Psophia crepitans) from Demerara, pre- 
sented by Mr. J, Stovell; two Silver Pheasants (Azplocamus 
nycthemerus) from China, presented by Miss C. Hallett; an 
Indian Gazelle (Gazel/la bennetti) from India, deposited; an 
Ursine Dasyure (Dasyurus wrsinus) from Tasmania, a Common 
Wigeon (Aareca penelope), a Grey Plover (Sguatarcola helvetica), 
a Knot (Zyinga canutus), a Greenshank (Zotanus cadidris), 
British, a Horned Ceratophrys (Ceratophrys cornuta) from Santa 
Marta, purchased. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE COMETS OF 1812 AND 1815.—We learn from M. 
Schulhof, of the Bureau des Longitudes, Paris, that in con- 
junction with M. Bossert he has undertaken a rigorous investi- 
gation of the orbit of the comet of 1812, which Encke showed 
to have a period of about seventy years, and which will con- 
sequently be again approaching its perihelion. M. Schulhof 
hopes to complete the calculations early in the ensuing year, 
He has discoyered a series of original observations by Blanpain 
at Marseilles, which he considers to be amongst the best, if not 
the best series that are available; the original observations by 
Lindenau have also been received, but unfortunately nothing is 
to be found of the long series by Zach and Triesnecker. From 
the manuscripts preserved at Paris some corrections have been 
applicable to the results as printed. To this we may add that 
Flaugergues’ differences of right ascension and declination from 
his comparison stars are published in the fifth volume of Zach’s 
Correspondance astronomigue. These observations of Flaugergues’ 
at Viviers, and those made at Paris as they appear in the first 
folio volume, were reduced several years since by Mr. W. E. 
Piummer, now of the University observatory, Oxford, and from 
three very carefully formed normals he deduced a period of 
revolution about a year and a half shorter than that assigned by 
Encke in Zeitschrift fiir Astronomie, t. ii., so that the comet 
may now be expected at any time. At the instance of Prof, 
Winnecke sweeping ephemerides have been prepared by M. 
Mahn of Strassburg. It is however M. Schulhof’s intention, 
on the completion of his investigation of the orbit, to furnish 
observers with ephemerides similar to those which have led to 
the re-discovery of several lost planets. 

An able calculator at Vienna has nearly finished a new discus- 
sion of the observations of the comet of 1815 (Olbers’ comet), 
which, according to Bessel’s researches, is due at perihelion in 
February, 1887. This result may be materially changed by the 
more complete reduction of such series of observations as we 
possess in their original form, and a recomputation of the 
perturbations, with more accurate values of the planetary masses 
than were available at the date of Bessel’s work. 


CERASKI’S CIRCUMPOLAR VARIABLE STAR.—From the esti- 
mated magnitudes of Schwerd and Carrington, and Mr. Knott’s 
epoch of minimum given in Nature last week, the most 
probable period appears to be 2'49085d., to be reckoned from 
1880, October 23°4672 Greenwich mean time. While the 


‘telescope is turned towards Ceraski’s star, it may be suggested 


that Lalande 1013-4 in Cassiopeia should receive attention ; at 
present we have the discordant estimates 1om. and 5m. of 
Lalande, 1790 September 29, and 1797 November Io respec- 
tively, and 7°7 in the Durchmusterung, the star is 6m, on 
Harding’s Atlas, and is not found in Fedorenko’s catalogue, oO. 


in Argelander’s zones ; its position for 1880 is in R.A. oh. 33m. 
22s., N.P.D. 38° 46°38’. 

THE LONGITUDE or THE CApE.—We understand that 
arrangements are being made for the telegraphic connection of 
the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, with Aden, which 
has already been connected with Greenwich, Mr. Gill taking an 
active part in the operation, The next desirable work of this 
kind will be the connection of an Australian observatory with 
the observatory at Madras, which is well-determined with refer- 
ence to Greenwich, 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


Cou. PREJEVALSKY writes from ‘‘ Houi-de-Tin, plateau of 
the Hoang-ho, May, 1880,” Having packed up and sent off all 
his collections to Alashan, he left his camp, 25 versts from the 
town of Donkyr, on March 20, to reach the Hoang-ho, 83 versts 
from Donkyr, Here the Yellow River turns abruptly from 
north-east to east, at the small valley of Gomi, inhabited by 
Tungut cultivators, and forming the extreme point of the habit- 
able lands of the Hoang-ho, The river here is pretty wide, and 
has a very rapid current. The banks are wooded, with here and 
there pretty clumps of poplars and weeping willows. The river 
here is 8,coo feet above sea-level. After ten days at Gomi, 
Prejevalsky’s party resumed their route. From Gomi the journey 
along the Hoang-ho was very difficult, the banks being deeply 
cut by steep ravines, which can only be noticed when close upon 
them. A stream usually flows at the bottom of these ravines, 
which are bordered by trees and wild arbutus. As soon as ever 
the party touched the Si-Fan territory a horseman appeared and, 
telling them they would soon be murdered, disappeared—a 
threat happily not realised. Indeed the Si-Fan became so recon- 
ciled to the presence of the intruders as to sell them butter and 
sheep. At 130 versts from Gomi they found in the ravines bor- 
dering the river vast forests frequented by innumerable birds, 
especially blue pheasants. The second local rarity was rhubarb, 
which was met with in prodigious quantities. The old roots of 
this plant reach colossal proportions. One of these roots, taken 
at hazard, weighed 261b. The mouth of the Churmysh, an 
affluent of the Hoang-ho, was reached 130 versts below Gomi, 
by the course of the river. Having examined the country for a 
distance of 40 versts, Prejevalsky was convinced that it was im- 
possible to cross the enormous chain of mountains which extends 
along the Yellow River, the summits of which are lost in the 
clouds. Gaping ravines are met with at every verst, and there 
is not the least trace of vegetation, and therefore no forage for 
animals, He decided to return to Gomi, Thence he went to 
Houi-De, 60 versts on the south bank of the river, and sent his 
interpreter to Sinin to inform the local authorities that Preje- 
valsky wished to reach the mountain regions of eternal snow. 
The Amban of Sinin informed Prejevalsky that it was impossible 
to allow him to proceed to the Koko-nor, or to penetrate further 
into Houi-De, where there was a revolt of the Tunguts. Preje- 
valsky decided to spend the month of June where he was, ex- 
ploring the fauna and flora, rand afterwards go north towards 
Cheibsen, where he would remain during July, and complete his 
explorations in the mountains. The weather, he says, was de- 
testable, cold and wet, with the thermometer sometimes 12° 
below zero C. He had collected 250 specimens of plants, 500 
species of birds, and many of fish. The geography of the country 
traversed had, moreover, been observed and noted, astronomical, 
barometrical, and thermometrical observations made, and sketches 
taken of the various types of natives. He doubts much whether 
the Hoang-ho makes the enormous curve represented in maps ; 
he did not observe any such curve in the 250 versts explored by 
him. He expected to reach Alashan about August 20. 


In the Geographical Society’s Proceedings for November Mr. 
C, R. Markham supplies a brief but lucid account of Lieut. 
Schwatka’s expedition to King William Land, and of the previous 
state of our knowledge respecting the remains, &c., of the 
Franklin Expedition, and he arrives at the conclusion that we 
have gained but little by this last attempt to obtain information 
beyond that gathered by Sir L. McClintock. Lieut. Schwatka’s 
journey, however, he considers to have been a most remarkable 
one, and in some respects without a parallel. Dr. Christison 
follows with a paper descriptive of a journey made some twelve 
years ago to Central Uruguay. The geographical motes are 
numerous this month, and furnish much useful information, 
especially in regard to Africa. Under the head of ‘‘Corre- 


22 


spondence” we find letters by Adm. Rk. C. Mayne on a possible 
communication between Skyring Water, Straits of Magellan, 
and Smyth’s Channel, and by Capt. Alexanderson on the subject 
of some observations made during a recent voyage along the 
Loango Coast of West Africa. The maps given this month are 
of King William Land and the Estancia de San Jorge, Uruguay, 
with a small inset map of the whole republic. 


As we announced last week, the Vienna Geographical Society 
has issued an appeal for subscriptions for an Austrian expedition, 
which Dr. Emil Holub has decided on undertaking. Dr. Holub 
intends crossing the whole length of Africa from south to north, 
He will start from the Cape of Good Hope and penetrate to 
the Zambesi, thence explore the Maruthemambunda territory, 
the watershed district between the Zambesi and the Congo, visit 
the lake sources of the Congo, and from there through Darfur 
he will try to reach Egypt. Dr. Holub expects the journey to 
extend over three years. The expenses, he reckons, will amount 
to about 50,000 florins, 5000 of which he can himself supply. 


Lorp ABERDARE will preside at the first meeting of the 
Geographical Society next Monday evening, when Mr. Jos. 
Thomson, the Commander of the East African Expedition, who 
has lately returned from Zanzibar, will give an account of his 
journey to the Lukuga outlet of Lake Tanganyika, a7d the head 
of Lake Nyassa. Mr. Thomson’s paper promises to be unusually 
interesting, as the country traversed by him was for the most part 
previously unexplored. 


ANOTHER African traveller, Mr. James Stewart, C.E., has 
just returned to England from Livingstonia, Lake Nyassa. Mr. 
Stewart, it will be remembered, also crossed the unknown belt 
of country between Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika by a different 
route, for the most part, from Mr. Thomson’s, and arrived at the 
south end of the latter lake only a day or two after him. 


In the November number of their Chronicle the London Mis- 
sionary Society publish a full account of Dr. Southon’s interview 
with Mirambo on the subject of the murder of Messrs, Carter and 
Cadenhead, and the main facts elicited by him appear to exone- 
rate that chief from any direct share in the unfortunate occur- 
rence. Mohammed, Capt. Carter’s servant, succeeded in saving 
the journals of both Carter and Cadenhead, and all the most 
important manuscripts and letters of the former, 


THE Baptist Missionary Society hope to publish in the 
December number of their /erva/d an admirable map which 
they have just received from the Rey. T. J. Comber of their 
Congo Mission, who has been for some time stationed at San 
Salvador. Itisstated to be very carefully drawn to scale, and to 
exhibit the many and important discoveries made by the mission- 
aries in their various journeys towards Stanley Pool ; it will also 
show the relative positions of the various towns to Banana, 
Mboma, San Salvador, Makuta, and other important centres. 


THE new Bulletin of the Antwerp Geographical Society con- 
tains papers by M. Bernardin on the Fiji Islands, their resources, 
progress, &c., and by Dr, L. Delgeur, vice-president of the 
Society, on cartography among the ancients. 


WE have received from Danzig an excellent little guide-book 
to that city, with special reference to the scientific and medicinal 
points of interest of the town and district, compiled from the 
recent meeting of the German Association, It is a model of its 
kind, and contains an admirable series of special maps. 


Doctors ROHLFs AND STECKER have left Suez for Massowah 
and Abyssinia. 


In the North American Review are appearing M. Desire 
Chamay’s notes of his exploring work in Mexico. The 
November number contains the third instalment. 


KEW GARDENS REPORT 


PROM the just-issued ‘‘ Report on the Progress and Condition 
of the Royal Gardens at Kew” for 1879 we take the 
following items :— 

Some idea of the magnitude of the destruction caused by the 
hailstorm of August 3, 1879, may be obtained from the fact that 
the number of panes broken was 38,649, and the weight of 
broken glass eighteen tons. The plantations along the Grass 
Avenue skirting the river have all been greatly improved, very 
poor specimens remoyed and replaced by Holm oaks, which will 


NATURE 


[Mov. 4, 1880 


eventually render the avenue practically an evergreen one, ‘This 
portion of the grounds suffers greatly from the unconsumed 
smoke of the gas-works and manufactories at Brentford, which 
is not only most prejudicial to the plants, but so blackens the 
labels that they become illegible in a few years. Some interest- 
ing notes are given on the cultivation of the various kinds of 
india-rubber. According to Hecht, Levis, and Kahn’s Report 
for 1879, Para rubber (//evea) is still the largest source of supply. 
The total import into England during the year was 4651 tons. 
Liverpool received 25 tons of Ceara Scrap rubber and goo tons 
of African (Laxdolphia), while London imported 350 tons from 
Assam (Ficus elastica), 250 tons from Borneo (Wil/ughbeia), and 
550 from Mozambique (Zando/phia). Considerable attention 
has been paid at Kew during the past year to the examination of 
the African Landolphias and Malayan rubber-yielding Willugh- 
beias, and the results will be given in the next report. Addi- 
tional facts to those contained in the previous Report are given 
on the introduction of South American species into the Old 
World. From Singapore Mr. Murton reports :—‘‘ The plants 
of Hevea and Castilloa in the gardens are now large plants, 
but hitherto propagation from the strong growths they are 
making seems rather difficult, whereas they used to propa- 
gate freely from the weak wood produced while in pots,’ 
Preparations are being made in Burma‘for the cultivation of 
Ceara Scrap (Manthot glaztovit), while Dr. King reports that the 
Ceara rubber promises to grow well in Calcutta; seeds have 
been distributed to various parts of India, and the plant seems to 
thrive well in Upper India. Singapore does not seem to suit 
Ceara Scrap, according to Mr. Murton, while at Zanzibar it 
yields seed most abundantly, but the seeds are slow to germinate. 
At Zanzibar the Para rubber is a less quick grower than the 
Ceara and does not branch. At Mergui eight Para trees, the 
survivors of a batch of seedlings received from Dr. King in 1877, 
continue to do well in the office compound. At Calentta, 
according to Dr. King, Para rubber continues to be as disap- 
pointing as ever; he believes it is useless to try it anywhere 
except in the south of Burma or the Andamans, and perhaps in 
Malabar. Mr. Jenman reports that the atmospheric conditions 
in Jamaica appear favourably adapted to the Para rubber. 
Equally important information is given as to the cultivation of 
mahogany in the Old World. On this the Report says: “This may 
now be regarded as an accepted success. The tree grows well in 
many parts of India and in Ceylon, and in the former there isa 
local demand for the wood. In this country new uses are found for 
it, one of the most recent being for the linings and panellings of 
railway carriages instead of teak, which is now exclusively used 
for ship-building, It is not easy to see any valid arguments 
against the cultivation of a tree the timber of which is of admitted 
excellence for a variety of purposes and the growth of which is 
apparently attended with little difficulty. As late as 1876 the 
Government of Bengal was adverse to mahogany planting. ‘This 
policy has now, however, been modified, and in his report for 
1878-79 Dr. Brandis, the Inspector-General of Forests, reports : 
‘Of the exotic trees which are cultivated by way of experiment 
mahogany is the most important, and its success seems not im- 
probable, though it is too early yet to form final conclusions upon 
the subject.’ Mahogany is also cultivated as an experiment in 
Burma and the Chittagong district of Bengal. The tree is known 
to thrive well near Calcutta, and every effort should be made to 
cultivate it in those forest districts where climate and other cir- 
cumstances are favourable.” Experiments are being made in 
Queensland, and favourable reports come from Saharunpore 
and Singapore. Some curious notes are contained in the Report 
on Chestnut Flour: ‘f We are indebted to Mr. D. E. Colnaghi, 
H.b.M.’s Consul at Florence, for specimens of the dried chest- 
nuts, flours, and zeccé (the cakes made from them), which are so 
important an article of subsistence in the Apennines, The col- 
lection of the specimens for Kew was due to the kindness of Dr. 
L. Bacci of Castigliano, in the mountains of Pistoja. The fresh 
chestnuts are dried, or rather roasted, for three days and rights 
in a seccatoio, or drying room, on a latticed floor covering a 
chamber in which a fire is lighted. The husk is then easily re- 
movable, and the kernel is ready to be ground into flour, which 
is of a pinkish colour. This is mixed to the consistence of cream 
with water, and poured on fresh chestnut leaves to be baked into 
small circular cakes, zecci, between heated stones. The collec- 
tion having been divided between the museum of the Royal 
Gardens and the Food Collection, Bethnal Green, Prof, Church, 
who has charge of the latter, has obligingly |furnished us with 
the following analysis of the flour :— 


Nov. 4, 1880] 


NATURE 


a2 
ba 0 


Moisture ... 14'0 

Oil or fat 2°0 

Proteids ... : 85 
Searchers esc) fap seer oes 29'2 

fie: Dextrin and soluble starch ... 22°9 
NSUIDAGINNS eoenl feco ecto ncay alae Mines 17°5 
Cellulose, &c. ge 3°3 

ASD eeatra cee osama 2°6 

100°0 


The cakes were found to contain only 6°7 per cent. of proteids, 
with 3°4 per cent. of flour. The large amount of dextrin is 
due to the high temperature to which the chestnuts are subjected 
in the process of drying. Prof. Church thinks that chestnut- 
flour ought to be of easy digestibility, and a suitable children’s 
food, considering that it contains over 40 per cent. of nutritious 
matters soluble in pure water. The Museum of the Royal 
Gardens is indebted to Mr. George Maw for a specimen of a 
product used, according to the Rev. Wentworth Webster, who 
procured it, as tea in the Basses Pyrenées in France, and on the 
Spanish side of the Pyrenées in Navarre, It was found 
to consist of the dried shoots of a species of Lithospermum, 
which was identified with probability as Z. officinale.” Mr. 
Noble advocates the cultivation of rye-straw (Secale cereale) asa 
paper material, not inferior to esparto. Mr. W. L. Booker, 
H.M.’s Consul at San Francisco, sent some specimens of a 
scented wood from the highlands of Mexico, known as Lin-a- 
Loa, and which has been identified with.a wood already in the 
Kew Museum, and which appears to be yielded by a species of 
Bursera. Further material in the shape of dried specimens, 
with both fruit and flowers, is much to be desired for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining definitely the tree which produces it. The 
name Lin-a-Loa is clearly a corruption of Lign Aloés, which 
has been identified with Aguzlaria agallocha, otherwise known as 
eaglewood (Kew Report, 1878, p. 36). This is however a tree 
confined to the Old World, and the Mexican one has no connec- 
tion with it. The wood of the latter is imported into this 
country for manufacture into perfumery, a fragrant oil known 
as otto of linaloe being distilled from it. On the interesting 
Chinese timber-tree known as the Nan-mu-tree, and referred to 
in the Report for 1877, some information has been obtained from 
Mr. Baber :—‘‘ Two days’ journey south-east of Chungking in 
Szechuen I found several specimens of about a foot in diameter, 
one of them having a straight branchless trunk of 100 feet in 
height, with the branches and foliage rising 25 feet above that ; 
another had 70 feet of bare straight stem, and go feet of total 
altitude. Although the trunks are branchless, yet in many cases 
they send out shoots resembling saplings, which rise parallel 
with the trunk. The wood is white and close-grained, and I do 
not believe that the pillars at the Ming tombs near Peking are 
of this wood. They look more like true teak. I have seen 
some much larger trees than the above, some two feet and more 
in diameter, straight and of great altitude. They are used in 
Szechuen for bridge work.” Eventually, through the instru- 
mentality of Pére Vincot, who resides at Chungking, flowering 
specimens were transmitted to the Kew Herbarium. From these 
a figure has been prepared, and they entirely confirm the pre- 
vious identification of the tree by Prof. Oliver (from the leaves 
alone) as a near ally of Phade pallida (one of the laurel family). 
The genus Pele is now merged in Persea, and Prof, Oliver has 
described the Nan-mu under the name of Persea nan-mu, dis- 
tinsuishing it from Persea (Pharbe) pallida ‘‘ chiefly in stature, in 
the form of the acumen of the leaves and the character of the 
indumentum.” Ona block of Pai-chai wood sent by Mr. W. 
M. Cooper, H.B.M.’s Consul at Ningpo, Mr. R. J. Scott 
reports :—‘‘ The most striking quality I have observed in this 
wood is its capacity for retaining water and the facility with which 
it surrenders it. This section, which represents one-tenth of the 
original piece, weighed 3 lbs. 45 ozs. At the end of twenty-one 
days it had lost 1 lb. 6} ozs. in an unheated chamber. At the 
end of another fourteen days, in a much elevated temperature, 
it only lost } oz. In its present state of reduced bulk its weight 
is 1 lb. 10 ozs. It is not at all likely to supersede box ; but it 
may be fit for coarser work than that for which box is necessary.” 
The principal researches conducted in the laboratory during the 
past year have been those of Mr. Marshall Ward, on the deve- 
lopment of the embryo-sac, published in the Youwrnal of the 
Linnean Society, vol. xvii. pp. 519-546; Prof. Church, con- 
tinued investigation on albinism in leaves, published in the 
Fournal of the Chemical Society, January, 1880, The labora- 


tory has also been employed for the experimental demonstrations 
given to the emloyés of the Royal Gardens, and for the examina- 
tion of the University of London for the degree of Doctor of 
Science in the subject of physiological botany. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


OxFrorD.—The examinations for the degree of Bachelor of 
Medicine will commence in the medical department of the 
Museum as follows :— 

The First (Scientific) Examination) November 29. 

The Second (Final) Examination, December 6. 
Candidates for either of these examinations, and candidates for 
the certificate in Preventive Medicine and Public Health are 
requested to send in their names on or before November 15 to 
the Regius Professor of Medicine at the Museum. 

The University of Oxford Commissioners have given notice 
that all new scholarships and exhibitions granted by the Colleges 
shall be subject to the provisions of any new statutes which may 
be made by the Commissioners in relation to the length of tenure 
and emoluments of such scholarships and exhibitions. 

The University Commissioners at present sitting have for- 
warded to the Hebdomadal Council six proposed statutes which 
they contemplate making, subject to any representation which 
they may receive from the Council on the appointment and duties 
of University Professors and Readers. ‘The proposed statutes 
include certain general regulations applicable to the whole Pro- 
fessoriate. Each Professor must reside six months in each year 
between October 1 and the ensuing July 1. Each Professor, 
besides his regular course of lectures, must give one public 
lecture every year. Each Professor must give private instruction 
to students in matters relevant to the subject of his lectures, and 
must examine the students who have attended his lectures at the 
end of each course. 

The following are the particular regulations applicable to the 
Savilian Professor of Astronomy, the Professor of Experimental 
Philosophy, the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry, the Linacre 
Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy, the Waynflete 
Professor of Physiology, and the Wykeham Professor of Physics. 
Secticn 7 relates to the three proposed new professorships. 

(1) The Professor shall deliver one course of fourteen lectures 
at least in each of two out of the three University terms (Easter 
and Trinity Terms being counted as one); every course shall 
extend over seven weeks at least, and not fewer than two lectures 
shall be delivered in each week. 

(2) He shall be ready to give the private instruction required 
by the General Regulations on two days in each week in which 
he lectures, and during one hour at least on each of such days. 

(3) The laboratory under the charge of each Professor, and, 
in the case of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, the Uni- 
versity Observatory, shall be open for eight weeks in each term 
(Easter and Trinity Terms being counted as one), and at such 
other times, and for such hours, as the University may by statute 
determine. 

Students shall be admitted to the University Observatory and 
to the laboratory under the charge of each Professor, upon such 
conditions as the University shall from time to time by statute 
determine, and upon the terms of paying such fees, not exceeding 
such amount as may be fixed by any statute of the University in 
force for the time being, as the Professor may from time to time 
require. 

(4) Except for some grave reason to be approved by the Vice- 
Chancellor, the Professor shall, for seven weeks in each term 
(Easter and Trinity Terms being counted as one), and during 
some part of three days in each week, be ready to give instruc- 
tion in the subjects of his Chair to such students as shall have 
been admitted to the laboratory under his charve (or, in the case 
of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, to the University Observa- 
tory) ; and such instruction shall be given in the laboratory or 
observatory (as the case may be) or in some class-room connected 
therewith. 

(5) The Professor shall also, at the close of each term, inform 
any college which may request him to do so as to the regularity 
of attendance and the proficiency of the students belonging to 
such college who have been admitted into the laboratory or 
observatory under his charge, and shall give like information, if 
requested, to the delegates of students not attached to any college 
or hall. 

The Particular Regulations next following shall be applic- 


24 


able to the several Professors named in them respectively (that is 


to say): 
(1) The Savilian Professor 


of Astronomy shall have the 
charge of the University Observatory, and shall undertake the 
personal and regular supervision of the same, and of the several 
demonstrators and other assistants employed therein, and shall 
be responsible for all the work carried on there. 

(2) The Professor of Experimental Philosophy shall have the 
charge of the Clarendon Laboratory, and shall undertake the 
personal and regular supervision of the same, and of the several 
demonstrators and other assistants employed therein, and shall 
be responsible for all the work carried on there. 

(3) The Waynflete Professor of Chemistry shall have the 
charge of the Chemical Laboratories in the University Museum, 
or such part thereof as the University may by statute assign to 
him, and shall undertake the personal and regular supervision of 
the same, and of the several demonstrators and other assistants 
employed therein, and shall be responsible for all the work 
carried on there. 

(4) The Linacre Professor of Human and Comparative Ana- 
tomy shall have the charge of the Anatomical and Ethnological 
Collections and the Anatomical Laboratories in the University 
Museum, or such part thereof as the University may by statute 
assign to him; and shall undertake the personal and regular 
supervision of the same, and of the several demonstrators and 
other assistants employed therein, and shall be responsible for all 
the work carried on there. 

(5) The Professor of Botany and Rural Economy shall have 
the charge and supervision of the Botanical Gardens and 
Botanical Collections belonging to the University ; and it shall 
be part of his duty to make such Gardens and Collections 
accessible to, and available for, the instruction of students 
attending his lectures. 

(6) The Professors of Geology and Mineralogy respectively 
shall have the charge and supervision of the Geological and 
Palzontological Collections, and of the Mineralogical Collection, 
belonging to the University; and it shall be part of their duties 
to make such collections respectively accessible to, and available 
for the instruction of, students attending their lectures. 

The Professor of Classical Archzeology, 

(7) 4 The Wykeham Professor of Physics, and 

The Waynflete Professor of Physiology, 
shall, in like manner, if the University by Statute shall think fit 
to charge them therewith, undertake the charge of any collec- 
tions or laboratories connected with the subjects of their re- 
spective Chairs, which the University may from time to time 
assign to them, and shall have similar duties in respect thereof. 

(8) The ‘several Professors named in the foregoing particular 
regulations shall in the performance of the duties committed to 
them by such regulations be subject to the statutes of the 
University for the time being in force in that behalf. 

This Statute is proposed to be made by the University of 
Oxford Commissioners under the Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge Act, 1877, for the University. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
PARIS 

Academy of Sciences, October 26.—M. Wurtz in the chair. 
—The following papers were read :—On attenuation of the virus 
of chicken-cholera, by M. Pasteur. If the most virulent virus 
(to be got from a fowl which has died of the chronic form of 
the disease) be taken and successive cultivations made of it in 
the pure state, in bouillon of fowl’s muscles, the interval of time 
between one sowing and another is found to affect the virulence. 
With intervals up to one month, six weeks, or two months, no 
change of virulence is noted, but as the interval is enlarged the 
virus is found to become weaker. The attenuation does not 
take place with mathematical regularity. No change can be 
detected in the microscopic organisms to account for the changes 
in its power. But M. Pasteur shows by experiments (in which 
some bouillon, to whicha little strong virus had been added, was 
inclosed and kept some time in sealed tubes) that it is probably 
the oxygen of the air that attenuates the virulence. May it not 
then also affect other kinds of virus?—Experimental study of 
the action of the organism of sheep, more or less refrac- 
tory to splenic fever, on the infectious agent ; what becomes 
of specific microbia introduced directly into the circulation by 
large transfusions of anthracoid blood, by M. Chauveau. After 
such transfusion into animals whose resistance to the disease is 
considerable and strengthenec by preventive inoculation, the 


NATURE 


| 


[ Nov. 4, 1880 


bacterian rods soon disappear from the blood (in a few hours 
one cannot find them), They are not destroyed, however, 
but are arrested in the cspillary system of the lungs and 
of other parenchymatous organs, where they may be found 
with retained vitality when the transfusion has been rapidly 
fatal. When the animal survives more than three days the bac- 
teria disappear from the lung and the spleen (as well as the 
blood), and health may be regained. One region alone proves 
favourable to maintenance and development of the bacterian 
life, viz., the surface of the brain (pia mater), and the develop- 
ment there has quite special characters (elongation and inflexion 
of the rods and appearance of spores), resembling those which 
belong to artificial cultivations. ‘The infectious activity of these 
bacteria of the pia mater is considerable.—On linear differential 
eqvations, by M. Appell.—The Secretary announced the opening 
of a subscription for erection of a monument to the memory of 
Spallanzani in his native town.—On the class of linear differential 
equations, with rational coefficients, the solution of which de- 
pends on the quadrature of an algebraic product which contains 
no other irrationality than the square root of an entire and rational 
polynone, by M. Dillner.—Photography of the nebula of Orion, 
by Prof. Draper.—Application of selenium to the construction 
of a photo-electric regulator of heat for the burning in of stained 
glass windows, by M. Germain, As far as possible from the 
muffle furnace is placed a dark chamber closed by a parabolic 
reflector, the focus of which is in the axial line of the telescope 
commonly used, At this focus is a ball of selenium between 
two cups of brass, leaving a zone of selenium visible. 
One cup is connected by German silver wire to a thermo- 
electric pile (of thirty elements), adapted for strong heat and 
exposed to that of the muffle, and the pile is connected (by the 
other poles of its elements) to the side of a stoppered porous 
vessel filled with water, ensuring a sensibly constant temperature 
on that side. The thermo-electric current increases with the 
temperature, and while the part of the muffle covered by the 
telescope remains dark, the selenium does not effectively alter in 
resistance, but when a cherry-red tint is reached (indicating time 
to stop), the resistance of the selenium is reduced about a fourth. 
The current gains strength and sounds a bell, or affects a system 
whereby the fuel is diverted. (With the pile is connected a 
galvanometer, a condenser, and other secondary arrangements.) 
~-On some modifications undergone by glass, by M. Salleron. 
He calls attention to the corrosion, deformation, and fracture of 
areometers used in sugar-works which treat molasses by osmose ; 
where the instruments are kept several days in a liquid at 95°, of 
density, 1014 (2° B), and containing sugar 115 gr., ash QI gr. ; total 
206 gr. per litre. The ash consists of chloride of potassium and 
organic salts of potash. The cracks are all more or less spiral in 
form,—Influence of light on germination, by M. Panchon, He 
measured the quantities of oxygen absorbed during germination 
by identical lots of seeds, Light (he finds) accelerates the 
absorption in a constant manner ; the advantage in favour of 
light being from a fourth to a third of the quantity absorbed in 
darkness. The degree of illumination is relative to the quantity 
absorbed. ‘The respiratory acceleration in seeds illuminated by 
day persists for several hours in the darkness. The accelerative 
influence of light is more intense at low temperatures, 


CONTENTS PaGE 

Tue First VoLuME oF THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE ‘“‘ CHALLENGER.” 
By Prof. T. H. Huxiey, F-R'S. 2 <0. + 2 = = 5 sessile) is 
Tue Lava Frecps or NorruH-WesTerN Eurore. By Prof. Arcu. 


I 


SociETIES AND ACADEMIES « + * + © ® 


GEIKIn» ERIS: eee) cise ie) cae-auen= er To Sietda: me ukletteserer cake Ms) 
Tim A TOMICULHEORY!< ,o.) oltielie 0 (ole) fm (elle) Jo)y cele an le) Ole iam eam 
New ZEALAND Mouuuscs. By Dr. J. Gwyn JerFreys, F.R.S. . . 7 
Our Book SHELF :— 

“The Zoological Record for 1878". . . « «+ + +e eee 8 
LEtrers TO THE EDITOR :— 
The Recent Gas Explosion.—Hersert McLrop, F.R.S.... . 8&8 
Geological Climates.—Prof. Sami. HAuGuTon, F.R Shi ateeee 5 
The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho.—Dr. A. WoEIKOrF 9 
Greek Fret.—ALFrep C Happon (With Iidustrations) » » + + 9 
Temperature of the Breath.—Dr. R. E. DupGEON, . + + « + + 10 
Soaring of Birds.—S, E. Peau (With_Diagram) .. + + «+ + ro 
Regelation—Rev. GEorGE HENSLOW. + + + + «© © «© © « © GI 
Jowannes RupoLF VON WAGNER « + + + © © . qt yo 
Japan, IL. (With Illustrations) » «+ =» © © © © © & ® hee 
BELL’s PHOTOPHONE (With Illustrations) ». + + © « + # « + 6 35 
NOb) rh oc oO coloeop OP ONO oo odo 
Our AsTRoNoMICAL CoLUMN :— 
The Comets of 1812 and 1215. + «+ * me iene “522 
Ceraski’s Circumpolar Variable Star - saeltic CHeigeneae 
The Longitude of the Cape . + + * fee OD wits 
GzoGrarHIcaL NOTES «+ «+ + © «© * «+ & © & ene 
Kew Garpens REPORT . + + + © © © = © © & el cee tae 
UNIVERSITY AND EpUCATIONALINTELLIGENCE « + oie md 


i 
1 


fea 


~s 


a oe ins, 


— 


NATURE 


25 


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1880 


DR. SIEMENS’S NEW CURE FOR SMOKE 


.HE growing obscurity which distinguishes the winter 
‘I atmosphere of London has disposed men to con- 
sider whether it is an indispensable evil connected with 
the use of coal in great centres of population, or whether 
means can be found of providing the warmth and 
comfort which the copious use of mineral fuel affords 
us without having to pay the penalty of dispensing 
with the solar ray, of finding ourselves and everything 
we touch covered with soot, and of occasionally having, 
even at midday, to grope our way with a feeling akin to 
suffocation. 

I am decidedly of opinion that the evil is one which 
not only admits of remedy, but that its cure would result 
from a closer attention to the principles of economy in 
the use of fuel. 

Until within recent years wasteful expenditure was the 
rule both in the application of fuel to our large manu- 
facturing operations and for domestic purposes, but great 
strides have been made within the last twenty years to 
improve our mode of burning fuel both under our steam 
boilers and in the metallurgical furnace. The Regene- 
rative Gas Furnace, which was the subject of Faraday’s 
last discourse at the Royal Institution in 1862 has contri- 
buted its share to this result, combining as it does con- 
siderable economy, with the entire absence of smoke from 
the chimney. 

Since by the employment of gaseous fuel results such as 
these are realised, there seems no @ #7%orv7 reason why 
analogous results should not attend its application on a 
smaller scale, even down to the means of heating our 
apartments, which, although a small application in each 
individual instance, amounts, in the aggregate, to the 
largest of all the uses of mineral fuel. 

Gas-grates have been tried by individuals desiring 
progress, but I know several instances in which on 
account of the great comparative expense incurred, and 
objections raised to the smell, and dry heat, as it is called, 
in the room, the time-honoured smoky but cheerful coal- 
fires were reinstated. 

A gas-grate that was arranged in my billiard-room in 
the usual fashion, consisting of three air-gas-pipes with 
apertures distributed over the fire-grate, and covered 
with pumice-stone, presented certainly a cheerless appear- 
ance, and filled the room (notwithstanding a fair chimney- 
draught) with fumes, rendering the benefit of the fire a 
doubtful one. These fumes could not have passed into 
the room from the upper surface of the pumice-stone 
owing to its proximity to the chimney; but a little con- 
sideration made me come to the conclusion that these 
gases really proceeded from the ash-pan into the room. 
The products of combustion set up by the gas flames 
ascend no doubt so long as they are intensely hot, but in 
giving off their heat to the inert pumice-stone they rapidly 
cool, and being heavier than atmospheric air, descend 
through the grate between the lines of gas flames, and 
thus reach the apartment. Moreover the gas burnt 
towards the back of the fireplace takes scarcely any part 
in providing a red radiating surface in front of the grate, 

VoL. Xx111.—No. 576 


serving only to baffle the draught passing towards the 
chimney from the room. 

The first condition to be realised in an efficient gas- 
grate consists in suppressing all gas orifices except imme- 
diately behind the bottom front bar, and in substituting 
for the grate a solid dead plate. Instead of using inert 
matter such as pumice-stone, I consider it far more 
economical and efficacious to transfer the heat of the gas 
flames to gas coke or anthracite, which when once heated 
helps the gas to increase and maintain a sufficient tempe- 
rature for radiation through its own slow combustion. 
The gas should not be mixed in the pipe with atmospheric 
air to produce a Bunsen flame, as is frequently done, 
because by using the unmixed gas a rich flame is set up 
between the pieces of coke near the front of the grate, 
producing to the eye an appearance similar to a well- 
ignited ordinary coal fire, and the hot carbonaceous 
matter through which it percolates ensures its entire 
combustion before reaching the chimney. Heat will 
however gradually accumulate towards the back of the 
fire, notwithstanding the suppression of the grate bars, 
and in order to obtain the utmost economy this heat 
should be utilised to increase the temperature of the gas 
flames and of the coke in front of the grate. 

To accomplish this I have constructed a grate accord- 
ing to the annexed sketch. The iron dead plate c is 
riveted to a stout copper plate @ facing the back of the 
fire-grate, and extending five inches both upwards and 
downwards from the point of junction. The dead plate 
¢ stops short about an inch behind the bottom bar of the 
grate to make room for a half-inch gas-pipe f, which is 
perforated with holes of about one-twentieth of an inch in 
diameter placed zig-zag at distances of three-quarters of an 
inch along its upper surface. This pipe rests upona lower 
plate ¢, which is bent downwards towards the back so as 
to provide a vertical and horizontal channel of about one 
inch in breadth between the two plates. A trap-door ¢, 
held up by a spring, is provided for the discharge of ashes 
falling into this channel. The vertical portion of this 
channel is occupied by a strip of sheet copper about four 
inches deep, bent in and out like a lady’s frill and riveted 
to the copper back piece. Copper being an excellent 
conductor of heat, and this piece presenting (if not less 
than a quarter of an inch thick) a considerable sectional 
conductive area, transfers the heat from the back of the 
grate to the frill-work in the vertical channel. An air 
current is set up by this heat, which, in passing along the 
horizontal channel, impinges on the line of gas flames 
and greatly increases their brilliancy. So great is the 
heat imparted to the air by this simple arrangement that 
a piece of lead of about half a pound in weight introduced 
through the trap-door into this channel melted in five 
minutes, proving a temperature to exist exceeding 619° F. 
or 326°C. The abstraction of heat from the back has 
moreover the advantage of retarding the combustion of 
the coke there while promoting it at the front of the 
grate. 

The sketch represents a fireplace at my office, in a 
room of 7,200 cubic feet capacity facing the north. I 
always found it difficult during cold weather to keep this 
room at 60° F. with a coal fire, but it has been easily 
maintained at that temperature since the grate has been 
altered to the gas-coke grate just described. 

Cc 


26 


NATURE 


[Mov. 11, 1880 


This heating arrangement is not however essentially 
necessary ; in several of the grates which I have 
altered for gas I have simply closed up the space below 
the bottom bar by means of a close-fitting ash-pan, 
and introduced the gaspipe behind the lower bar, an 
alteration which can be effected at very trifling expense, 
and presents the advantage of great cleanliness, the ash- 
pan being withdrawn only at intervals of several days for 
emptying. The appearance of the fire however is in that 
case much less brilliant than when the hot-air arrangement 
is added. 


N 
VJ 
VY 
S 
VY 
Y 
N 
\ 
N 
NW 
\ 
N 
\ 
\ L 
J 


\ 


Wee 


Z 


N 


In order to test the question of economy I have passed 
the gas consumed in the grate through a Parkinson’s 10- 
| light dry gas-meter supplied to me by the Woolwich, 
| Plumstead, and Charlton Consumer’s Gas Company ; the 
| coke used is also carefully weighed. 


consumption of 62 cubic feet of gas and 22 Ib. of coke (the 


| debit of the following day). Taking the gas at the average 
| London price of 3s. 6d. per 1000 cubic feet and the coke 
at 18s, a ton, the account stands thus for nine hours :— 


Y 


WC WN 
\\\\ 


WSS 


NS 


(a ee 


ANNAN Y 


S 


S 


“iy 


S GG 


a, Copper plate } inch thick and ro inches wide at back of grate; 4, frill of copper py inch thick; c, iron dead plate riveted to plate a; d, angle plate with 


trap-door e for removing ashes ;_/, gas-pipe a 


da. 
62 cubic feet of gas at 3s. 6d. per thousand 2°604. 
221b, coke at 18s. a ton ar paths 2°21 
Total 4°725 


or at the rate of 0°524d. perhour. In its former condition 
as a coal-grate the consumption exceeded generally two 
and a half large scuttles a day, weighing 19 lb. each, or 
47 lb. of coal, which at 23s. a ton equals 57d. for nine 
hours, being 0°633@. per hour. This result shows that the 
coxe-gas fire, as here described, is not only a warmer but 


bout 4 inch diameter with holes 3 inch apart. 


a cheaper fire than its predecessor, with the advantages in 
its favour that it is thoroughly smokeless, that it can be 
put off or on at any moment (which in most cases means 
considerable economy), that it is lit without the trouble of 
laying the fire, as it is called, and keeps alight without 
requiring to be stirred. 


rated coke and gas to produce a given effect should be 
fully as cheap as using the raw material combining the 
two constituents, but the solution may be found in the 


It may appear strange at first that the use of the sepa- 


| coke remaining in the grate being in each case put to the © 


The result of one day’s campaign of nine hours is a 


{ 


= 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


NATURE 


27 


circumstance that in the case of the coke-gas fire no heat 
flashes up the chimney, but is utilised entirely for raising 

the coke in front of the grate to the condition most 
favourable to radiation into the room. 

I hold that it is almost barbarous to use raw coal for 
any purpose, and that the time will come when all our fuel 
will be separated into its two constituents before reaching 
our factories or our domestic hearths. Such a measure 
would not only furnish us with the complete solution of 
the smoke question, but would be of great value also as 
a money saving. In conclusion I may observe that I 
have taken up this question without the idea of profit, 
and shall be happy to furnish builders and others desirous 
to introduce the grate here described with the necessary 
indications to insure success. C. WILLIAM SIEMENS 


THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL YACHT, “LIVADIA” 


N NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 270, we gave an account of 
this remarkable ship, and stated that we should 
report the results of her trials to our readers. We there 
said “it cannot be doubted that her speed will surpass 
14 knots,” and we pretty plainly intimated that it would, 
in our judgment, fall substantially short of 17 knots ; in 
point of fact it has fallen between these limits, and nearer 
the higher than the lower, the average mean speed at the 
measured distance being 15°864 knots. The details of 
the several runs, which have not previously been published 
in London, we believe, are as follows :— 


No. of Run. Indicated H.P. Speed in Knots, 
I ae 12,267 15°69 
2 11,704 15°53 
3 12,387 15°83 
4 12,437 15°65 
5 12,857 15°92 
6 12,472 15°65 
Average 12,354 15°725 


The trials of the Zzvadia were greatly hurried, the 
vessel going down the river on a Wednesday, making a 
preliminary run under steam on the following day, 
Thursday; on Friday she made a run at full speed for 
six hours, giving an average of 15 knots; and on Saturday 
she made her measured mile trials. Those who under- 
stand the conditions under which these steam trials were 
made will see at once that it was not possible to obtain 
the best results with a ship thus put under steam day 
after day, her boiler tubes getting doubtless more or less 
foul, and her machinery also falling somewhat out of 
perfect condition, especially where there were three 
separate sets of engines to be cared for. The bottom was 
also foul from having been three months in the wet dock 
at Fairfield. The effect of haste in making the trials is 
visible in the variations of horse-power developed upon 
the runs, there being a difference of more than 1000 h.p. 
between the power developed, for example, on the second 

run as compared with that of the fifth. The speeds given 
above show less discrepancies than the horse-powers, but 
it can hardly be doubted that the Zzvadia as she is can 
be driven at over 16 knots under fair conditions, without 
any alteration whatever. It is, as has been said else- 
_where, highly probable that some improvements might 
be made in the screw propellers, as it is not to be 
expected that the best conditions were secured at the 
first attempt. In fact we have evidence that the central 


screw was set at a pitch different from that of the side- 
screws, and runs at a different speed; it now appears 
likely that the pitch should have been the same in all 
cases, and when the opportunity offers this change will 
probably be made, and the speed again taken. Other 
slight modifications will doubtless also be tried, and 
those of our own naval architects, who have well con- 
sidered all the facts, have formed the opinion that if all 
minor causes of interference with the best performance 
are removed, a speed approaching 17 knots may be 
reached in the Zzvadia. It needs no words of ours to 
convince the scientific world that whether any great 
increase of speed be obtained with this vessel or not, 
the Russian Government has rendered a vast service to 
naval science by demonstrating on a large scale and in a 
public and unquestionable manner, the fact that a vessel 
whose breadth is enormous, and whose length is but one 
and a half times her breadth, may withno very inordinate 
expenditure of power be made to take a high place 
among the few fastest ships of the world. 

But the interest in the Zzvadza, while it is greatest as 
regards her high-speed trials, by no means ends there. 
Her steaming performances with diminished steam power 
are also very interesting. In considering these the reader 
should remember that in this case as in all cases of fast 
ships going with reduced power and at reduced speed, 
the performances are subject to a double disadvantage : 
first the wezght of the machinery carried is of course in 
excess of what is needed to produce the reduced power ; 
and secondly, the friction and other losses are likewise in 
corresponding excess. For example, when the Lzvadia 
is steaming say at 11 to 12 knots, she is employing less 
power than any one of her three sets of engines produces ; 
and if she had not to go beyond such a speed she might 
dispense with the other two sets of engines and boilers, 
and thus be relieved of nearly 1000 tons of weight, and of 
two-thirds of the frictional and other losses which she is 
obliged to undergo when steaming at 11 or 12 knots with 
all her engines working at a reduced speed. Bearing 
these facts in mind, we may now state that the reduced 
steaming of the Zzvadia is reported officially to have 
given the following results :— 


Aggregate 


Ind HP. Speed. ese Gee 

2969 ~«... ~+XII knots With. Slightly 

4779 ve 13 , ” bytes 

S040) =... 15 fe Against Slightly against 
10,037 Mire hs oa 65 Against 


The indicated horse-powers above given were calculated 
from diagrams, and the speed was taken by log. The 
results were reported, we know, in perfect good faith, and 
are a correct indication, in the main, of the relation 
between power and speed in the Z7vadia with her present 
screws, &c. They nevertheless appear to us to exhibit 
on the face of them some slight discrepancy, which is 
amply accounted for by the fact that the speeds were, as 
we have said, taken by the log, which does not admit of 
that minute accuracy which may and ought to charac- 
terise measured mile-trial results. The above figures are 
borne out by the sea-passages of the yacht. She steamed 
continuously in fair and moderate weather at an average 
speed of somewhat more than 12 knots with an average 
expenditure of about 4000 Ind. H.P. 

With all the above facts and figures before us we see 


28 


clearly how vain have been the prejudices, and how 
baseless the predictions, which condemned ships of this 
type as incompatible with even moderately good speeds, 
and as ridiculous when the attainment of high speed was 
contemplated. It is with no small feelings of vanity, but 
with a genuine pride in a great scientific triumph which 
we ventured to predict beforehand, that we have witnessed 
the Zzvadia’s success. It is a success which England 
may well envy, and of which the Russian Government 
may well be proud. Its bearing upon the future of steam 
navigation cannot fail to be considerable even in the 
mercantile marine, while it is quite impossible for the 
war navies of the world to escape its influence. Our long- 
standing objections to the Zflerib/e and Jtalia types of 
ship are well known to our readers, the construction of 
such ships under the name of first-class ironclads being 
most trying even to the common sense, and much more to 
the scientific sense, of the country. With the Zivadia in 
existence, and with the facilities which such great breadth 
as hers offers to the production of armoured ships worthy 
of the name, the exposure of our first-class ships to the 
destructive effects both of shells and of torpedoes, will 
not be endured. We congratulate Admiral Popoff upon 
the established success of the great idea which he was the 
first to propound, and as the idea would still have remained 
a mere idea but for the powerful patronage of the Grand 
Duke Constantine, we gladly recognise again the scientific 
acumen and that ‘courage of his opinions’’ which 
distinguish His Imperial Highness. By consenting to the 
trial of so great a naval experiment in a yacht of his own, 
the Emperor of Russia has secured a sea-palace of great 
speed, of unexampled accommodation, and of a freedom 
from rolling and pitching such as no other ship in the 
world enjoys. 

On the last-named points—those of pitching and rolling 
—we have to record very remarkable results. We are 
informed on the best authority that in the gale in the 
Bay of Biscay, with waves running over twenty feet 
high, when ordinary vessels were seen rolling and 
pitching heavily, and even when the gale and the 
sea were at their highest, the greatest roll to leeward 
was 5 degrees, and that to windward 4 degrees, while 
the greatest pitch was 4 degrees and the greatest “’scend” 
3 degrees. This extreme limitation of motion was most 
extraordinary, excluding almost all the usual incidents of 
sea-life. Nothing was secured on board, and nothing fell 
throughout the storm. There were occasionally heavy 
blows of the sea under the flat shallow bow, and these 
caused much vibration at times; but nothing was dis- 
turbed, and even the paint is nowhere cracked throughout 
the wood-built cabins and palaces of the ship. 

In the accident which the Zzvadia met with on her 
voyage from Brest to Ferrol, by striking heavily down- 
wards upon some floating object or objects during a heavy 
gale in the Bay of Biscay, with a high and confused sea 
running, the value of water-tight subdivision has been 
strikingly demonstrated. The injuries done by the blows 
were extended by the heavy strokes of the sea under the 
bluff bow, and several of the forward compartments were 
filled. A scientific friend who inspected the bow after 
the compartments were pumped out in the harbour of 
Ferrol, informs us that in two or three places the bulk- 
head divisions had evidently been badly struck and made 


NATURE 


1 


| 


[Vov. 11, 1880 


<a 


leaky at the bottom, and in one compartment the sea was 
plainly visible through the broken plating. And yet 
nothing was known on board of these injuries when at sea 
beyond the fact (ascertained by “sounding’’) that a for- 
ward compartment of the double bottom had been some- 
how filled, so effectually was the ship proper preserved — 
from all injury within the double bottom, and so little 
effect had the filling of the forward spaces upon the trim _ 
and behaviour of the ship! The Zzvadia is constructed of 
steel, and is as lightly built as our own fast steel ships of the, } 
latest date; and as a similar accident to the recent one © 
might occur again, as it may to any ship of light draught 
and great buoyancy, it would no doubt be prudent to add 
something to the strength of the outer bottom where 
most exposed to strains and blows ; but this is a matter of 
detail which we leave the naval architect to discuss. The 
great lesson to be derived from the incident is the 
immeasurable value of double bottoms and of great — 
compartmental subdivision in sea-going structures. An — 
ordinary large steam yacht not so subdivided might have — 
been lost under like circumstances, and certainly would — 
have been more or less jeopordised and more or less injured 4 
internally ; in the present case not a particle of injury to t 
the interior of the ship or to her costly fittings was sus- | 
tained, and hours after the accident, with a very high and — 
confused sea still running, the Lord High Admiral of 
Russia and his guests dined as safely, as easily, and 
almost as quietly as if he had been ashore in his summer 
palace of Orianda. 


S 
‘| 
; 
dl 
7 


ales: 


A MEDICAL CATALOGUE a 


Index Catalogue of the Lib» ‘ary of the Surgeon-Generals — 
Office, U.S. Army. Vol. i., A—Berlitiski. 4to, pp. 
888. (Washington : Government Printing Office.) 

HE saying of Hippocrates, that art is long and time — 

is short, is so true, not merely of medical art, but — 

of work in general, that most working men find their — 
lives gliding so quickly away that they do not attempt — 
great works, and very probably would not succeed if they — 

did so. But every now and then we come across men — 

whose energy is so marvellous, and whose power of — 

getting through work is so enormous, that we are struck ~ 
with amazement at it. Such a man is Dr. Billings, to © 
whose extraordinary energy and perseverance we owe the 
present work. This purports to be only a catalogue of 
the Library of the Office of the Surgeon-General of the 

United States Army, and Dr. Billings takes care to call 

attention to the fact that it is not a complete medical — 

bibliography, and that any one who relies upon it as such 
will commit a serious error. ‘It is,” he says, “a cata- 

logue of what is to be found in a single collection; a_ 

collection so large, and of such a character, that there 

are few subjects in medicine with regard to which some- — 
thing may not be found in it, but whichis by no means 
complete.’’ It is not, however, a mere catalogue in the 
ordinary sense of the word, inasmuch as its contents are 
not confined to the names and titles of books and their 
authors. It is also a catalogue of subjects, so that any 
one wishing to read up a particular subject will find 
under the appropriate heading a list of the chief works 
bearing upon it. Nor is this all. There are other cata- 
logues in which a similar arrangement has not only been 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


j 


attempted but successfully carried out. But this catalogue 
differs from all others inasmuch as it is the only compila- 
tion in which the herculean task of arranging in proper 
order the contents, not only of books, but of medical 
“periodicals, has ever been essayed. To any person who 
is aware of the enormous extent of medical periodical 
literature, and who has had personal experience of the 
time and labour involved in looking up a few references; 
it seems almost incredible that any man should have had 
_the courage to venture upon the task which Dr. Billings 
has successfully accomplished. To give the faintest idea 
of the work, we take a single heading—Amputation, and 
we find, besides a large number of works and references 
under this title itself, several other headings on the treat- 
ment of amputation, cases and statistics of amputation, 
double amputation, history of amputation, intra-uterine 
‘amputation, methods of amputation, multiple amputation, 
sequelz and after treatment of amputation, spontaneous 
amputation, amputation in the course of disease, amputa- 
tion in gunshot wounds, amputation in infants, amputation 
‘in joints, amputation in pregnancy, carpal and meta- 
carpal amputations, tarsal and meta-tarsal amputation, 
amputations at ankle-joint, amputations of arm, amputa- 
tions of breast, amputations at elbow-joint, amputations 
of fingers and toes, amputations of foot, amputations of 
‘fore-arm, amputations of hip-joint, amputations of knee- 
joint, amputations of leg, amputations at shoulder-joint, 
‘amputations of thigh, amputations of toes, amputations 
at wrist-joint, besides cross references to Amputation con- 
sidered under other heads, such as Gangrene, Hospitals, 
Surgery, Umbilical Cord, Arteries, Limbs, Osteomyelitis, 
“Spinal Cord, Stumps, Frost-bite, Pregnancy, Pyamia, 
_Elbow-joint, Breast, Tibia, Ankle-joint, Astragalus, Aneur- 
‘isms, Arm, Artery, Humerus, &c. On taking a single one of 
these headings, we find under it nineteen books, and on then 
attempting to count the references to periodical literature 
we go along until we come to the end of the letter C, and 
then stop in despair, for we have already got a hundred 
references, and find that to proceed to the end of the 
alphabet will be a work of both time and labour. The 
wearisomeness of counting the number of references in a 
small fraction of one sub-head may give the reader some 
notion of the labour involved in hunting out and writing 
down the materials, and yet, after all, such idea would 
be very imperfect, for the labours of Dr. Billings and his 
assistants have not consisted merely in giving these 
references. A much greater amount of time and trouble 
‘has probably been consumed in the consideration of what 
should be left out than by the labour of arranging and 
compiling what should be put in, for in indexing journals 
and transactions the general rule which they have followed 
has been that only original articles should be taken, 
though occasionally important papers in several periodi- 
cals, and reprints when the originals have not been in the 
library, have been indexed. In describing the arrange- 
ment of the book we cannot do better than quote Dr. 
Billings’ own words :— 


_ “This catalogue includes both authors and subjects— 
the names being arranged in dictionary order in a single 
alphabet. Under the subject-headings are included the 
titles of original articles in the medical journals and 
transactions contained in the Library, for which reason 


the Catalogue is commonly spoken of by those who are 


NATURE 


29 


familiar with it as the ‘Index-Catalogue, and the name 
has been adopted as being brief and at the same time 
distinctive. 

“The form adopted is essentially that shown in the 
‘Specimen Fasciculus’ published in 1876, and it has 
been selected after a careful consideration of the criticisms 
and suggestions brought out by that fasciculus. 

“The great majority of physicians, and especially of 
American physicians, who have given their opinion, have 
expressed a decided preference for this form; and 
although a librarian might find a complete separation of 
the catalogue of authors from that of subjects a little 
more convenient, the demand on the part of those who 
are to use it is very decidedly for the combination here 
given. 

“The following points have been kept in view in the 
selection and arrangement of the subject-headings :— 

“J. Those titles have been selected for subjects for 
which it is presumed that the majority of educated 
English-speaking physicians would look in an alphabetical 
arrangement. 

“TI, Where there is doubt as between two or more 
subject-headings, cross-references are given. 

*€TII. Where both an English and a Latin or Greek 
word are in common use to designate the same subject, 
the English word is preferred, and references are given 
from the others. 

“TV. Asa rule, substantives rather than adjectives are 
selected for subject-headings. Exceptions occur to this 
in anatomical nomenclature, as ‘ Lachrymal duct’; 
‘Thyroid gland,’ ; 

“V. In names of subjects derived from personal names, 
the latter precede, as ‘ Addison’s disease’ ; ‘ Eustachian 
tube.’ 

“VI. Local diseases or injuries are as a rule placed 
under the name of the organ or locality affected, as 
‘Kidney (Adscess of)’; ‘Neck (Wound of).’? There are 
exceptions to this, in accordance with Rule IL, ¢..:, 
“Abscess (Pervinephritic).’ 

“WII. Cases in which one disease is complicated with 
or immediately followed by another are placed under the 
name of the first disease with the sub-heading ‘ Complica- 
tions and Sequelae? 

“VIII. When the main subject of an article is the 
action of a given remedy in general, or its action in 
several diseases, it is indexed under the name of the 
remedy ; but if it relate to its action in but one disease, it 
is indexed under the name of the disease. 

“TX. The amount of sub-division made under the 
principal subject-heads depends very greatly upon the 
number of references to be classed. 

“X. Asa rule, the references are given from general 
to more special heads, but not the reverse. It is pre- 
sumed, for instance, that those who wish to consult the 
literature on ‘ Aphasia’ will turn to ‘ Brain (Déseases of)’ 
and ‘Nervous System (Diseases of),? as well as to 
‘ Aphasia,’ without being directed to do so by a cross; 
reference under the latter title. 

“XI. Under the name of an organ will be found the 
books and papers relating to the anatomy and physiology 
of that organ. Following this usually come the abnormi- 
ties and malformations of the organ, then its diseases, 
then its tumours, and lastly, its wounds and injuries. 

“ Anonymous works or papers are entered in regular 
order under the first word of the title not an article or 
preposition. Russian and Japanese titles are translite- 
rated, and a translation is usually appended. Greek 
mwames are transliterated for the sake of uniformity in 
type. 
“Tn indexing journals and transactions, the general 
rule has been that only original articles should be taken, 
but occasionally important papers are indexed in several 
periodicals ; and sometimes a reprint is indexed when the 
original is not in the Library. 


30 


NATURE 


2% 


[Vov. 11, 1880 | 


“‘The List of Abbreviations of Titles of Periodicals 
prefixed to this volume shows the journals and transac- 
tions which have been indexed to the present time, The 
right-hand column exhibits the volumes or numbers 
possessed by the Library, and, negatively, the deficiencies, 
which it is my earnest desire to fill. The List of Abbre- 
viations is separately paged in order that it may be bound 
by itself, if desired, for use with succeeding volumes. 

“Some of the abbreviations of names of places, 
especially in the United States, might have been still 
further shortened if the Catalogue had been intended for 
use only in this country. But an analysis, by subjects, of 
so large a collection of medical periodicals is, necessarily, 
useful in St. Petersburg, for example, as well as in 
Washington, its measure of utility in any locality being 
the extent of the collection of medical periodical literature 
therein. Intelligibility to foreigners, therefore, has been 
regarded as a quality essential to the abbreviations in 
question. 

“In indicating pagination, the rule is that where the 
article does not exceed two pages in extent the first page 
only is given. Ifit exceed two pages, both the first and 
last pages are noted. 

“ The work of preparing this Catalogue began in 1873, 
and has been carried on persistently, and as rapidly as 
the amount of clerical aid available and the nature of the 
work would permit. 

“The present volume includes gogo author-titles, 
representing 8031 volumes and 6398 pamphlets. It also 
includes go000 subject-titles of separate books and 
pamphlets, and 34,604 titles of articles in periodicals.’ 


The rapid progress of every branch of science, medical 
and otherwise, and the proportionate, or perhaps we 
ought almost to say disproportionate, increase of medical 
and scientific periodical literature, render it exceedingly 
difficult for the student to keep himself az courant with 
the newest discoveries. The Royal Society's Catalogue 
of scientific papers conferred an inestimable boon upon 
scientific men, but it left much to be desired, inasmuch as 
it gave only the names of authors, and contained no index 
of subjects. Sometimes, too, its strict confinement to 
periodical literature is felt as an imperfection, for in cases 
where discoveries have been published in the form of 
pamphlets of a few pages, one searches through the 
Catalogue in the vain expectation of finding them. How- 
eyer, we have hitherto had nothing at all resembling it in 
medical literature, but now we possess the first volume of 
a work which greatly excels it both in scope and size. 
Such defects as the volume possesses are due to the 
imperfections of the library of which it is a catalogue, 
and it is to be hoped that all those (and their name must 
be legion) who profit by the use of this remarkable pro- 
duction, will do their best to enable Dr. Billings to make 
good the deficiencies. 

It is clear that, however complete any catalogue may 
be at the time of its publication, the constant appearance 
of new books and pamphlets day by day and month by 
month must render it more and more defective. In order 
to supplement this catalogue, and prevent this gradually 
increasing deficiency from being felt as an evil, Dr. 
Billings and Dr. Fletcher are now publishing the /xdex 
Medicus, a monthly classified record of the current 
medical literature of the world. This is published by 
F. Leypoldt in New York, and by Tribner and Co. in 
London. The great labour and expense involved in 
getting out this monthly index require for it a large cir- 
culation. At present, we believe, it is published at a 


loss, and an increased number of subscribers is urgently — 
requested in order to permit its continuance. We there- — 
fore trust that every one who finds his time and labour — 
saved by this Index-Catalogue will show his gratitude — 
to Dr. Billings and those who have assisted him, not | 
only by helping to supply the wants of the library at — 
Washington, but by subscribing regularly to the Zzdex 
Medicus. ¢ 

We cannot conclude this brief notice without congra- 
tulating the United States Government on having in its” 
service such men as Dr. Billings and his able assistants, 
Doctors Fletcher, Yarrow, and Chadwick, nor without 
expressing the thankfulness which every medical ae | 
owes to them for the great boon they have conferred on | 
medicine in printing and issuing the present Index- 
Catalogue. rf 


oe 


She 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE p 
Max Miller and the Philosophy of Language. By 
Ludwig Noiré. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 
1879.) 
HE substance of this work has already appeared in 
the German periodical Nord und Siid, and the 
author here tells us that he has reproduced it in an 
enlarged form and in an English dress in order to do full 
justice to Max Miiller’s great merits in clearing the way 
“for future investigators.’’ He considers that eminent — 
services have been rendered to the cause of linguistic 
studies by the writings of the illustrious Oxford professor, — 
and four out of the five chapters comprising this treatise » 
are mainly occupied in putting this somewhat obvious — 
fact in the clearest light. But he holds, in common 
probably with Max Miiller himself, that the problem of © 
the ultimate origin of articulate speech has not been 
solved in the brilliant and deservedly popular “ Lectures 
on the Science of Language.” Many difficulties are there ~ 
removed, much light is thrown upon a great number of © 
obscure points, several abstruse questions are treated with 
an amazing wealth of illustration, bringing them home to > 
the meanest capacity, and sundry popular views, notably ~ 
those stigmatised as the “ Pooh-pooh”’ and “ Bow-wow’? 
theories, are either exploded, or reduced to their proper 
value. But the mystery of origin, the inexplicable ultisg 
mate residuum of roots, forming the constituent elements — 
of all speech, remains almost unassailed, though distinct — 
service has undoubtedly been done by narrowing down 
the question to this one issue. A still greater service is) 
done when the gifted writer emphatically declares that 
these roots ‘‘are not, as is commonly maintained, merely 
scientific abstractions, but they were used originally as | 
real words.” This gave the death-blow to the Platonic” 
“types,” ideas, metaphysical entities and concepts which | 
had still continued to obscure the subject, and block the 
way like so much médieval rubbish. Herr Noiré aptly 
compares them to the ova, whence all animal and vegetable 
life. ‘By their development and uninterrupted growth 
all the known languages of the world have reached their 
marvellous structure, and become the body of reason and 
the instrument of mind” (p. 55). 
In the last chapter, which will doubtless be read with 
the greatest curiosity, the authcr takes up the subject 
where Max Miiller had left it, and develops the theory on 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


NATURE m 


the origin of language, which he had already broached in 
his “Ursprung der Sprache,” specially devoted to that 
question. The essential peculiarity of the view here 
advocated is contained in the following passage :—“ Lan- 
guage is the CHILD OF WILL, of anactive, not ofa passive 
state ; the roots of words contain the proper activity of 
men, and receive their significance from the e/écrs of this 
activity in so far as it is phenomenal, z.e. visible. Human 
thought arises from a double root, the subjective activity, 
or the will, and the objective phenomencn which is acces- 
sible to the senses.” 

Language is further represented as ‘‘a product of 
association and of the community of feeling which is 
developed, intensified, and finally carried to perfection by 
community of life” (p. 81). Great stress is laid on the 
fact that human thought has a double root, the subject or 
individual activity, and its effect in the action, whence it 
follows that “the life of language stands in an indissoluble 
relation to the development of human action”’ (p. 83), 
The earliest meanings of verbal roots are all said to be 
“yeferred to human action,” such notions as to dig, 
strike, scrape, scratch, tear, lying at the root of endless 
derived and secondary concepts. 

Human thought is conceived as “an active process, a 
self-conscious, self-confident activity, not as a crude 
materialism imagines, the accidental play of unconscious 
atoms”’ (p. 88). This active process is traced to common 
action, and language itself becomes ‘‘the voice of the 
community” (p. 88). The essence of language consists in 
the naming of things, while the power of forming a notion 
of a thing, that is, of a group of phenomena grasped and 
conceived as one, constitutes the essential difference 
between man and the brute creation. At the same time 
man can conceive of things only “because he has the 
gift of speech, because he can give them a name” (p. go). 

The power of giving names flowed from the power of 
using signs. ‘‘He used signs and thereby attained to 
the power of using names also; or, in other words, of 
betokening again by a sound what he had noted before.’’ 
The transition from one process to the other, attributed 
to the active will, is stated to be “the most important 
part of the theory’’ (p. 92). : 

Then the power of giving signs to things grows out of 
the habit of modifying them for his own use. “ Men dug 
caves, plaited twigs, stripped the beasts of their skin, the 
trees of their bark. Hence was developed the marvellous 
hitherto unexplained gift of abstraction, and this in the 
most natural way. Man learnt to conceive a thing as he 
learnt to create things. His own creations were the first 
things for him” (p, 92). So that language conceives 
objects only “in so far as human action has touched, 
modified, reconstructed them; in a word, in so far as they 
have received form.’’ Even such things as exist inde- 
pendently of the human will, or lie beyond the sphere 
of human action, are nevertheless brought within the 
sphere of human speech. ‘‘They become objects of 
human thought in the same way as the rest, that is to say, 
they are named as they would be, if the human hand had 
formed them”’ (p. 98). 

Such is the line of argument pursued in the attempt to 
build up a new theory of articulate speech, which is here 
conceived by an evident disciple of Schopenhauer and 
the Monistic school, as an emanation of the self-conscious 


human will, flowing from the power of forming abstract 
ideas, and dealing primarily and exclusively with such 
things only as are either the direct creation, or brought 
under the direct control and modifying influence of man. 
But this seems to be a complete perversion of the natural 
sequence of events in the evolution of man and all his 
faculties. Of these the very highest, next at all events to 
the moral sense, consequently the latest to be developed, 
was the conscious will. In the lowest savage tribes it is 
still often so feeble as scarcely to be distinguished from 
mere sensation and animal impulse. Yet the speech even 
of the rudest tribes is almost invariably found to be of a 
very intricate mechanism, subject to definite laws of 
structure and harmony, possessed at times of a copious 
vocabulary, embracing a variety of objects entirely beyond 
the influence or control of man himself, objects whose 
names cannot by the most violent straining be traced to 
those of things created or modified by human action. It 
is very easy to quote a few instances in support of such a 
theory as this, especially from such highly imaginative 
languages as those of the Aryan family, in which analogy 
and metaphor have had such free play during a long 
period of comparative culture. But hundreds of such ex- 
amples would bring us no nearer than we were before to 
the starting point, to the faculty of naming things and 
actions, to the reason of certain sounds being selected 
in preference to others wherewith to name them. 

The question still remains unanswered, whence came 
the “limited store of sounds with which man accompanied 
his action,” and which are said to have in some mysterious 
way “associated themselves with the objects produced or 
modified by the action.” The difficulty does not lie in 
the derivation of ca@/um or hole from a primitive root skz 
or £w, but in tracing the origin of this root itself, and, in 
general, of all roots, whether they have to do with human 
action or not. For it is not for a moment to be supposed 
that all the roots even of the Aryan family can be identi- 
fied with the names of things subject to human influence. 
Such are, for instance, as expressive of mere existence, 
hence passive rather than active, 7d, zxa@h, to burn, whence 
aid, aidnp, estus, heat, &c., words all applicable primarily 
rather to the powers of nature than of man; zd, umd, to 
flow, whence vdos, wd, undo, Goth. wato, water, &c., a 
purely natural object named directly from a purely natural 
conception; svav, to resound, whence sov¢s, sounds 
svanitam, sonitus, all words expressive of natural noise, 
and if Eichhoff is right in connecting the Gothic saxgws 
and English sozg with this root, then these human actions 
can be conceived only as secondary derivatives from the 
primary idea of natural sound. This is the logical order 
of sequence, but it is as subversive of the author’s theory 
as are many other Aryan roots which need not here be 
quoted. Enough has been said to show that this theory, 
while leaving the real question of origin untouched, will 
apply in any case to a part only of the original stock of 
roots in the Aryan family. Nor, as stated, will it help us 
in the least towards an explanation even of these. 

On the whole it is to be feared that our author leaves 
the matter much where Max Miiller left it at the end of 
his “ Science of Language”; for the theory here advocated 
assuredly does not answer the questions: How do mere 
cries become phonetic types? How can sensations be 
changed into concepts? These questions can be answered 


32 


NATURE 


only by divesting the mind of all metaphysical vagaries, 
and approaching the discussion in a spirit of strict loyalty 
to the established principles of evolution. The universe 
is not “a mental phenomenon,” as Schopenhauer would 
call it, nor is speech the deliberate product of conscious 
will. It is an organism which, like all other organisms, 
had its origin in a germ, and its slow growth and silent 
development in suitable surroundings, independently of 
all conscious action. Yet in dealing with a subject of this 
sort one still feels how much easier it is to refute error 
than to establish truth. “ U#inam tam facile vera invenire 
possim quam falsa convincere.” A. H. KEANE 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Easy Lessons in Science. Edited by Prof. F. W. Barrett. 
I. Easy Lessons in Heat. By C. A. Martineau, II. Zasy 
Lessons in Light. By Mrs. W. Awdry. (London: 
Macmillan and Co., 1880,) 


THESE excellent little lesson books deserve a wide circu- 
lation. Well and clearly written, they are at the same 
time strictly of the “‘scientific” rather than of the so- 
called “ popular” style of exposition; there being none 
of the objectionable sensational element with which 
certain French works in light science have too greatly 
familiarised us. The cuts with which the volumes 
before us are illustrated are numerous, appropriate, and 
many of them original. In each case the reader is in- 
structed in the simple apparatus needed to repeat the 
experiments described ; so that a teacher who desires to 
give to young pupils a few elementary lessons in the 
sciences of heat and light will find here the very text- 
books most suited to his requirements, Miss C. A. 
Martineau’s “ Lessons in Heat” follows the usual order 
of text-books in that science. The first lesson deals with 
expansions, the second with notions of temperature, the 
third tells ‘‘how heat spreads,’’ and so forth, and in the 
concluding chapters some of the fundamental facts of the 
relation between heat and mechanical work are made 
known. One experiment which we do not remember 
meeting with before in the shape in which it is given 
deserves to be cited. It is a variation on Davy’s old 
experiment with flame andgauze. “ Put a bit of camphor 
ow the wire gauze, and hold a light zder it. The vapour 
of the camphor passes freely through the gauze, catches 
fire, and burns with a blue flame till the whole of the 
camphor has been turned into vapour and burned. But 
the flame does not pass through the gauze to set fire to 
the solid camphor.’ 

Mrs. Awdry’s “Lessons on Light” are no less felicitous 
in their treatment of the subject. The usual popular text- 
book on Optics abounds in descriptions of different optical 
instruments, telescopes, microscopes, kaleidoscopes, and 
the like, without much trouble being expended upon first 
principles. But in these lessons first principles claim 
the prominent place: the first point explained is the law 
of inverse squares, and the second the geometrical laws of 
refraction and reflection—and the explanations are ad- 
mirably yet quite simply done. A most interesting feature 
is that the latter half of these easy lessons is devoted to 
physical optics. One chapter on the wave-theory, and 
two entitled “ Measurings” prepare the way for a capital 
lesson on Diffraction. A lesson on the Spectrum and 
one on the Rainbow close the series. 

We do not say that there is no room for criticism in 
judging these little volumes. A professed teacher of 
Natural Philosophy might grumble at the omission of 
certain things that claim. prominence in all the older text- 
books and in many of the syllabuses of contemporary 
examinations. Yet we would challenge such critics to 
produce a more useful, or suggestive, or accurate set of 


[Vov. 11, 1880, 


lessons, or one more entirely free from the two besetting — 
faults of sensational popularisation and educational cram. 4 

It is to be hoped that Prof. Barrett will continue his 
labours in adding to the series he has so ably edited. 


Outline of a Course of Natural Philosophy, with Speci 
men Examination Papers. By Gerald Molloy, D.D. 
(London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1880.) 


THIS work of 114 pages contains a syllabus-outline of 
the course of lectures in Natural Philosophy by Dr. 
Molloy, at the Catholic University of Ireland, and is _ 
reprinted chiefly to meet the wants of teachers in inter- 
mediate schools. To the syllabus, which is remarkably 
full and complete, is appended an extensive series of 
examination papers on all branches of physics except — 
light, electricity, and magnetism, which are promised to 
follow. ‘These questions, ‘though chiefly elementary, have ~ 
been carefully prepared, and are a valuable part of the 
work. In an appendix Dr. Molloy reprints a paper — 
giving an account of his particular form of bichromate 
battery, which appears to be peculiarly suited to the needs — 
of schools and colleges, where a powerful battery of 
convenient form is required to be in readiness for occa- 
sional use. 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. | ; 

[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 
2s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural Selection 


I AM sorry to find that Sir Wyville Thomson does not under-~ 
stand the principle of natural selection, as explained by Mr. 
Wallace and myself. If he had done so, he could not have 
written the following sentence in the Introduction to the Voyage 
of the Challenger :—‘‘ The character of the abyssal fauna refuses 
to give the least support to the theory which refers the evolution 
of species to extreme variation guided only by natural selection.” 
This is a standard of criticism not uncommonly reached by theo- 
logians and metaphysicians, when they write on scientifie subjects, 
but is something new as coming from a naturalist. Prof. Huxley 
demurs to it in the last number of NATURE; but he does not 
touch on the expression of extreme variation, nor on that of 
evolution being guided only by natural selection. Can Sir 
Wyville Thomson name any one who has said that the evolution 
of species depends only on natural selection? As far as concerns 
myself, I believe that no one has brought forward so many observa- 
tions on the éffects of the use and disuse of parts, as I have done” 
inmy “‘ Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication” ; 
and these observations were made for this special object. | 
have likewise there adduced a considerable body of facts, showing 
the direct action of external conditions on organisms ; though no 
doubt since my books were published much has been jlearnt on 
this head. If Sir Wyville Thomson were to visit the yard of a 
breeder, and saw all his cattle or sheep almost absolutely true, 
that is, closely similar, he would exclaim: ‘‘Sir, I see here no 
extreme variation; nor can I find any support to the belief that 
you have followed the principle of selection in the breeding of 
your animals.” From what I formerly saw of breeders, I have 
no doubt that the man thus rebuked would have smiled and said 
not a word. If he had afterwards told the story to other 
breeders, I greatly fear that they would have used emphatic but 
irreverent language about naturalists. CHARLES DARWIN 

Down, Beckenham, Kent, November 5 | 


a 
& 


Peet 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


Geological Changes of Level 


In a most friendly notice in your last issue of the AZemorrs 
forming the first volume of the official Report of the 
Challenger Expedition, Prof. Huxley takes exception to a 
sentence in my short Introduction. ‘‘There seems to be 
sufficient evidence that all chances of level since the close of 
the Palzozoic period are in direct relation to the present coast 
lines,” and he asks in what possible sense this can be the case. 

I fully admit the criticism, and that the sentence as it stands 
does not explain itself. 

That it is not a relation of ordinary parallelism Lyell’s and 
D’Orbigny’s maps of old coast-lines, a map published by myself 
in ‘‘ The Depths of the Sea,” and particularly the beautiful later 
maps of Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary France by M. Delesse, 
abundantly show. ~I have explained my idea of the relation in 
position between the recent deposits and those of the Tertiary 
and Secondary periods in “The Depths of the Sea” (pp. 472-476) 
at some length. I believe that the Jurassic, the Cretaceous, and 
the Tertiary formations are essentially margina/ deposits, and that 
their belts of deposition form approximately a series of contour 
bands upon an elevation which has persisted throughout a long 
series of local and general oscillations, the sum of which has 
raised the whole through a small vertical range. Such oscilla- 
tions have also, doubtless, affected the bottom of the sea, but no- 
where to such an extent as to modify in any important degree 
the conditions of the abyssal region. 

Prof. Huxley says, ‘‘ There is nothing, so far as I amaware, in 
the biological or geological evidence at present accessible, to 
render untenable the hypothesis that an area of the mid-Atlantic 
or of the Pacific sea-bed as big as Europe should have been 
upheaved as high as Mont Blanc and have subsided again any 
time since the Palzeozoic epoch, if there were any grounds for 
entertaining it.” I think however he will admit that the follow- 
ing Challenger data, if they can be established, afford at least a 
presumption against an oscillation of such a kind, at all events in 
post-Triassic times, beyond which it is difficult to stretch even the 
imagination. 

The careful researches of my colleagues, Mr. Murray and the 
Abbé Renard, with which I have had the advantage of being 
familiar during their progress, have led us to the belief that (1) 
the chalk of the Cretaceous period was not laid down in what we 
now consider deep-water, and that its fauna, consisting mainly 
of shallow-water forms, merely touches the upper limit of the 
abyssal fauna ; and (2) that no beds exist in the series of known 
sedimentary rocks which correspond in composition and in 
structure with the beds now in process of formation in the abyssal 
sea (‘‘ The Atlantic,” vol. il. p. 299). 

The hypothesis of the elevation of a mass of land equal to 
Europe and as high as Mont Blanc in the middle of one of the 
great ocean basins could in our present state of knowledge be 
defensible only on the supposition that it was a phenomenon of 
the same order as the elevation of some portion of our existing 
continental land, and there is now, to say the least, grave reason 
for doubting that any rock which is due to accumulations formed 
at depths over 2500 fathoms, the average depth of the basins to 
which Prof. Huxley refers, enters into the composition of any 
existing continent. The present land consists of a set of erystal- 
line rock-axes of various ages, with a long succession of sedi- 
mentary deposits, all of which give evidence of having been laid 
down in water of moderate depth, piled up upon and against 
them. Such a hypothesis therefore, besides being without a 
single fact in its support, would be met by a strong adverse 
argument from analogy, and would be, so far, in a worse 
case than the hypothesis of the origin of species by natural 
selection. 

I thoroughly agree, however, with my friend Prof, Huxley 
that ‘‘the value of the great work which is now being brought 
before the public does not lie in the speculations which may be 
based upon it, but in the mass and the solidity of the permanent 
additions which it makes to our knowledge of natural facts,” 
and I imagine that all of us who are engaged in that work look 
upon it as our first and paramount duty to present these natural 
facts which haye been acquired as simply and as effectively as we 
can, Still the generalisations or impressions, or whatever they 


-may be, of the few men selected to observe these facts are as 


much a part of the result of the Expedition as anything else, and 


_ I think it is also our duty to offer them to our fellow-workers for 


what they are worth. 
Bonsyde, Linlithgow, November 6 


C. WYVILLE THOMSON 


NATURE 


33 


““The First Volume of the Publications of the 
‘Challenger’”—A Correction 


THERE is a typographical error in my notice of the Challenger 
publications, published in last week’s NaTuRE, for which I 
should, of course, be disposed to blame the printer, had it not 
been hinted to me that my handwriting is sometimes not so clear 
as might be wished. 

I appear (p. 2) to agree with the proposition that ‘* the deep-sea 
fauna presents us with many forms which are the dyzed and but 
little modified descendants of Tertiary and Mesozoic species.” 

As few things can be much wetter than the inhabitants of the 
ocean abysses, this opinion seems to be, to say the least, eccentric. 

But ‘‘dried”’ should have been printed ‘‘direct,” which was 
the word denoted by my graphic symbols. | T. H. Huxtey 

4, Marlborough Place, Abbey Road, N.W., November 7 ~ 


Correspondence of Phenomena in Magnetic Storms 


Tue Astronomer-Royal having lately received from the 
Observatory of Zi-ka-wei, in China (latitude 31° 12’ north, 
longitude, from Greenwich, 8h. 6m. east), lithographed copies 
of the photographic traces of the declination and horizontal force 
magnets, extending from August 11 to 14, and from August 17 
to 20 of the present year, has placed them in my hands for 
comparison with the Greenwich records. Some particulars of 
this comparison are herewith annexed. Greenwich time is used 
throughout. 

A general examination of the two sets of curves shows that 
the disturbances were usually greater in magnitude at Greenwich 
than at Zi-ka-wei. Comparing the curves in detail, it is found 
that on August 11, at 10.20! a.m., after a quiet period, the 
declination and horizontal foree magnets at Greenwich both 
made a sudden start, which was the commencement of a magnetic 
disturbance, lasting until midnight. An apparently equally 
sudden start (from a quiescent state), in both declination and 
horizontal force, is shown on the Zi-ka-wei curves, occurring in 
declination at 10.12 a.m., and in horizontal force at 10.20 a.m. 
(as nearly as the small scale on which the curves are drawn will 
allow measures to be made). This first motion was to decrease 
the west declination and increase the horizontal force at both 
places. A bold motion in the two Zi-ka-wei curves at 11.30 
a.m. (increase of declination, decrease of horizontal force) has 
corresponding decrease of horizontal force at Greenwich, not 
accompanied, however, by much motion in declination. And of 
numerous fluctuations occurring at Greenwich between noon and 
midnight of the same day, some appear to correspond with 
motions at Zi-ka-wei, whilst others do not. 

A calm state follows at both places, until near noon of August 
12. On this day at about 11.40 a.m. the magnets at Greenwich 
made a further start, and until 4 p.m. the movements were large. 
A corresponding start is also shown in both the Zi-ka-wei curves 
(commencing, according to the register, some minutes sooner 
than at Greenwich), the movements following being similarly 
large, Afterwards, until 6 a.m, of August 13, considerable 
oscillation was nearly continually shown at Greenwich, there 
being especially a large change of declination between 7 and 9 
p-m. (August 12); but there is no strongly-marked motion at the 
latter time at Zi-ka-wei, and the changes are throughout much 
smaller than at Greenwich. Later on August 13 further oscil- 
lations occur at both places, but the separate motions are in no 
particular accordance. The period of disturbance seems defi- 
nitely to come to an end at both places at 6 a.m. on August 14. 

A period of quiet is broken at Greenwich on August 18, at 
1.45 p.m., by a sharp though small movement both in declina- 
tion and horizontal force (increase of both), There is a corre- 
sponding sharp increase (after quietude) of horizontal force at 
Zi-ka-wei, but no change of declination, A bold increase of 
declination and decrease of horizontal force at Greenwich at 7 
a.m. of August 19 is accompanied by a similar decrease of hori- 
zontal force at Zi-ka-wei, but with little change of declination. 
Bolder changes occur at the latter place at noon, but wijh com- 
paratively small change at Greenwich. The magnets become 
quiet at both places at or near midnight of August 19. ‘ 

The general result of this comparison of Greenwich and Zi- 
ka-wei curves appears to be that, after a quiet period, the first 
indication of disturbance, if sudden (it need not be large) occurs 
simultaneously or nearly so at both places, but that during the 

Approximately stated to be ro.30 in my previous letter (NATURE, vol. 
xxii. p. 361), and so quoted by Mr. Whipple (p. 558)- The time above given 
is more exact. 


34 


NATURE 


[Vov. 11, 1880 


continuance of disturbance the oscillations of the magnets seem 
to be so locally modified that it becomes difficult to trace corre- 
spondence: some movements appear to correspond, and some 
not. <A strongly-marked bend in the trace at one place may 
appear, as it were, stunted in that at the other place, or may not 
be perceptible at all. The disturbances appear to die out at 
pretty much the same time at both places, All this confirms 
very much what Mr. Whipple has already pointed out as regards 
Melbourne (NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 558). 

M. Dechevrens, in some remarks which accompany the sheet 
of curves, notes that the disturbance of August 11-14 is the 
greatest experienced since the establishment of photographic 
registration at Zi-ka-wei in the year 1877, and he considers that 
the changes then observed (those of vertical force included, of 
which he gives no curves) are similar to such as would be pro- 
duced by a powerful magnet placed in a certain defined position. 
It may perhaps be here pointed out that the results given by the 
Astronomer-Royal in his paper, ‘‘ First Analysis of One Hun- 
dred and Seventy-seven Magnetic Storms” (PAi/. Trans. for 
1863) appear to give no support to a theory of this kind, and 
indeed seem conclusively to show that at Greenwich the ob- 
served disturbances cannot be accounted for in any such way, 

It should be added that M, Dechevrens reports also that strong 
earth currents were experienced on August II and 12 on the 
submarine telegraph lines connecting Shanghai, with Nagasaki 
and with.Hong-Kong, as well as on the land lines in Japan, so 
much so that correspondence was frequently interrupted, but 
that no interruption appears to have been experienced on the 
occasion of the generally smaller magnetic disturbance of 
August 18. WILLIAM ELLIS 

Royal Observatory, Greenwich, November 6 


Meteor 


A very large and brilliant meteor was observed here at 6h. 
41m. p.m. G.M.T., on November 8. Its size was at least equal 
to one-fourth of that of the full moon, and it lit up the whole 
garden for about a second and a half. It was pear-shaped. The 
colour was white, and left behind it a pale red train, Its path 
was from a point half-way between a and 6 Persei to 3° above 
y Urs Majoris. The sky was rather hazy at the time. 

Stonyhurst Observatory, November 9 S. J. Perry 


Condition of Jupiter 


ON the evening of the 2nd I had a fine view of Jupiter with 
my 6-inch Cook’s equatorial. The general appearance of the 
planet was remarkable for the bright colouring of the belts and 
of the red spot, a circumstance strongly noted by a gentleman 
who was observing with me, and who had not seen the planet 
for some time. 

I could not however trace the usual white ring round the red 
spot. Below the red equatorial belt was a row of four or five 
small irregularly-shaped spots, nearly black in tint, and resem- 
bling sun-spots seen under a low power. 

These dark spots seem now affecting Jupiter’s surface in 
several parts, and are certainly not usual to it. About gh. 26m. 
Satellite I. was occulted. I watched it gradually coming to 
contact, and at last it seemed to advance on the face of the 
planet, at least one-half of its diameter appearing to project 
thereon. It then faded out gradually. 

September 3, 1879, at 9h. 8m., with the same instrument 
Satellite IIT. reappearing after occultation, was slightly (but 
certainly) projected on to the disk of the planet. It will be 
interesting to notice whether the present condition of Jupiter 
will be accompanied by more than ordinary displays of aurorz, 
of which symptoms have already appeared. 


Guildown, November 6 J. RanD CAPRON 


P.S.—Since writing the above accounts reach me of aurorze 
at Brighton on the 3rd and in the Orkneys on the 4th instant. 


Vox Angelica 


Many of your readers may be acquainted with the nature of 
the Vox Angelica stop on a good organ. It consists of two 
ranks of pipes of small scale and delicate quality of tone, one of 
which is tuned slightly sharp, so that a wavy (hence called Unda 
Maris) sound is produced. Now itis possible to obtain very similar 
effects on an ordinary Estey American organ, Giyen the viola 
and violetta stops to be drawn out, wrap a band of india-rubber 


(an ordinary elastic band does very well) round the neck of the 
viola stop so that it cannot return completely home, on moderate 
pressure, and allowing a fraction of an inch to intervene between 
its true final position when inactive; beats will be heard of 
intensity depending upon the deviation from complete occlusion 
of this stop. The nearer the viola stop is to occlusion the more 
rapid the beats; but it is undesirable to obtain rapidity, as the 
lower notes are too prominently out of tune in this case. Any- 
body can, by experiment, determine the proper amount of devia- 
tion to be employed, and having done this the effect is remark- 
ably good. Onan Estey, the two stops mentioned are the only 
admissible ones for such an experiment, from consideration of 
overtones. No doubt some of your readers may adopt a more 
elaborate and convenient method of regulating the deviation than. 
by elastic bands, after some experiments. It may seem a paradox 
to obtain beautiful concordant effects by the use of discordant 
vibrational relations, but it is undeniable that on a first-class 
organ the Voix Celeste, or Vox Angelica, or Unda Maris, isa most 
beautiful stop, and is capable of producing perfect con sordint 
effects. GrorGE RAYLEIGH VICARS 
Woodville House, Rugby, November 3 


Solids and Liquids at High Temperatures 


SOME years ago I made an investigation much simpler but 
somewhat similar to that referred to by Prof. Carnelley in 
NATURE, vol, xxii. p. 435. An account of the experiments 
then made was communicated to the Royal Scottish Society of 
Arts, 1874-75. One of the results of that investigation was 
that while we do know something about the temperatures at 
which different forms of matter change from one state to another 
when a “‘ free surface” is present, yet we are utterly ignorant 
of the temperature at which that change will take place when 
no ‘‘ free surface” is present. It will be necessary here to. ex- 
plain that a ‘‘ free surface” is any surface of the body under 
examination at which it is free to change its state. A surface of 
water, for instance, in contact with its own vapour is a “‘free 
surface” for the water passing into the gaseous state. The sur- 
face of a piece of ice in water, again, is a ‘‘/ree surface” at 
which the water may freeze or the ice may melt. And what are 
known as the freezing, melting, and boiling points of water are 
the temperatures at which these changes take place when such 
“free surfaces” are present. As to what the freezing, melting, 
and boiling points are when these ‘‘/ree surfaces” are absent, 
we have at present no knowledge whatever. All we know is that 
the freezing point is lower, and the ‘‘ melting” and ‘* boiling 
points” are higher, than when ‘‘/ce surfaces” are present. 

The first of these points is too well known to be referred to 
here. The last point was illustrated in the paper referred to by 
an experiment in which water was heated in a metal vessel under 
atmospheric pressure to a temperature far above the ‘‘ boiling 
point,” when the water exploded and violently ejected itself 
from the vessel. The superheating of the water was accom- 
plished by carefully excluding all ‘‘free surfaces” by bringing 
the water into as perfect contact with the metal of the vessel as 
possible. 

Many experiments were also made to get direct and thermo- 
metric experimental illustration of the existence of ice at a 
temperature above the ‘‘melting point,” but no satisfactory 
illustrations were got, on account of the great difficulty of 
getting quit of ‘‘/ree surfaces.” Of course so long as there 
existed a ‘‘/ree surface” at the surface of contact of the ice with 
the thermometer, the temperature at that part could not rive 
above the ‘‘ melting point.” It was however shown by indirect 
evidence that ice may exist at a temperature above the *‘ freezing 
point” by referring to the well-known and beautiful experiment 
of passing a beam of light through a block of ice. When this 
is done with the aid of proper apparatus it is seen that the heat 
of the ray is absorbed by the ice, and that melting takes place at 
different points inside the block. Now the presumption is that 
the heat is absorbed at all points inside the block, but as the 
melting only takes place at certain points the heat absorbed 
where there is no melting must raise the temperature of the ice at 
those points above the ‘‘ melting point,” and the heat there ab- 
sorbed by the ice will be conducted to the ‘‘/vee surfaces,’ where 
it is spent in melting the ice. 

Now though I was perfectly prepared to find that Prof. Car- 
nelley had succeeded in heating the zvzside of a block of ice to a 
temperature above the ‘‘melting-point,’’ I certainly did not 
expect so high a temperature as his experiments indicate to be 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


NATURE 


o) 


possible. But what is still more puzzling is how Prof, Carnelley 
succeeded in burning his fingers with the ice. Our previous 
knowledge would lead us to suppose that the outside surface of 
the block of ice was a five surface, and that therefore it would be 
impossible, however high the temperature of the inside of the 
block, to heat the outside above the ‘melting point,” as we 
should expect the ice to melt or to sublime at the outside, and 
keep the temperature at 0° C, 

These expectations being disappointed, we naturally look to 
the decreased pressure under which Prof. Carnelley’s experiments 
were made for an explanation of this most unexpected state of 
matters. Now it is very evident that when dealing with pressures 
of about one atmosphere, and with temperatures of 120° and 
180° C,, that pressure, as pressure, has nothing whatever directly 
to do with the ‘melting point” of the ice. While this is the 
case, it is equally evident that it has a most important influence 
on the surroundings of the ice. At the pressure of 4°6 mm.,, at 
which the experiments were made, no water would be present, 
there would be nothing but ice and water-vapour. Here then 
appears to be the great teaching of Prof. Carnelley’s experiments. 
They show that the surface of ice bounded by its own vapour ts not 
a “free surface.’ This result is so very unexpected that much 
consideration will be necessary before we can re arrange our 
ideas to meet the new facts. 

We might imagine that nothing could be more free than the 
surface of a body bounded by nothing but its own vapour, yet 
Prof, Carnelley’s experiments seem to say it really is not so, and 
not being a ‘‘ free serface,” we of course know nothing whatever 
of how high the temperature will require to be before the ice 
will melt under these conditions. 

These experiments of Prof. Carnelley’s are so interesting that 
we wait with impatience a full description of them. THis results 
indicate something new with regard to the influence of a liquid 
on its melting solid. I observe that Prof. Carnelley’s results are 
doubted by most of your correspondents, but for the present we 
must accept them when Prof. Carnelley distinctly states that 
the temperature of the ice was taken by means of a thermometer 
in contact with the ice. JOHN AITKEN 

Darroch, Falkirk, N.B., October 3 


Wire Torsion 


In the letter in NATURE, vol. xxii. p.604, which we wrote at the 
request of Major Herschel, who asked for information regarding the 
connection between tensional and torsional strains of a brass wire, 
we mentioned that there were many papers scattered through the 
Proceedings of learned societies dealing with the fluidity of metals. 
There is one communication to which we might specially have 
referred, as it deals in particular with the torsional yielding of 
wires under tension, and this is a paper on “ Torsion,” by Prof. 
G. Wiedemann, in the Axnalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 4, 
vol. vi., 1879, pp. 485-520, and of which a translation is given 
in the Philosophical Magazine, vol. ix., January 1880, pp. 1-15, 
and February, pp. 97-109. ‘The first part of this paper gives a 
detailed account of experiments which show :—(1) That a brass 
wire often subjected to a particular torsion, either in one or in 
both directions, becomes ‘‘ killed ” for any less torsions, that is, 
follows Hooke’s law for its temporary torsions; (2) that a wire 
under tension acquires greater torsional set from a given torsional 
couple than when the wire is inextended ; (3) that a wire under 
even considerable tension may be killed by torsion in alternately 
opposite directions, that is, it will obey Hooke’s law for any tension 
or torsion less than the stresses actually applied originally. Prof. 
Wiedemann in the second part of his paper considers the well- 
known “‘ agitation effects,” and enters on an explanation of the 
phenomenon based upon molecular allineations referring to the 
magnetisation theory of Weber and Kolrausch which is based on 
the same idea. 

The strains in Prof. Wiedemann’s wires were however much 
ess than in those used in Major Herschel’s experiments. 

JouHn PERRY 
W. E. Ayrton 


London, November 8 


Heat of Formation of a Compound 


In NATURE, vol, xxii. p. 608, there is a paper on ‘‘ Recent 
Chemical Research,” in which under the head of work by 
Thomsen the following law is enunciated :— 

“‘The heat of formation of a compound substance is the differ- 
ence between the sum of the heats of combustion of the constituent 
elements of the compound and the heat of combustion of the 


compound itself.” After that itis shown that this is not the 
true heat of formation of the compound, as many important 
corrections have to be made. On referring to Berthelot’s “Essai 
de Mécanique Chimique” I find the following :—‘‘ The heat 
of formation of an organic compound from its elements is the 
difference between the sum of the heats of total combustion of 
its elements and the heat of combustion of the compound with 
formation of identical products.” 

Can any of your readers inform me whether Thomsen or 
Berthelot first enunciated this law ? 

Another point is, that Berthelot apparently makes no refer- 
ence to the corrections for the heat absorbed in dissociating the 
molecules of the elements, &c. A. P. LAuRIE 

Edinburgh, November 1 


The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho 


IN replying to the letter of your correspondent (NATURE, 
vol, xxii. p. 559) on the subject of my recent paper on these 
three rivers, 1 have to thank him for his very probable explana- 
tion of the excessive estimate made by Sir George Staunton of 
the amount of sediment discharged by the Yellow River. 

The estimate given in my paper of the water-discharge of the 
River Plate is zfso facto an assumption made by Mr, George 
Higgin from Mr, Bateman’s calculation of the minimum flow of 
that river, which he found to be 670,000 cubic feet per second. 
It might have been better, however, if I had added Mr. Higgin’s 
qualifying remark that such an estimate of the mean volume of 
water was ‘‘very much under the mark” (NATURE, vol. xix. 
P- 555)- 

The anomaly of the surface current varying in velocity with 
the same average depth of water has not been unnoticed by 
myself, though I am unable to give a satisfactory explanation of 
the difficulty. H. B. Gurry 

Woodlane, Falmouth, November 6 


The Thresher 


Wuat is the ‘‘thresher”? It is generally assumed to be the 
fox-shark (A/ofias vulpes), but ina recent number of Land and 
Water—which I have only just seen—Mr. Frank Buckland says 
that he believes it to be ‘‘the gladiator dolphin or sword 
grampus” (Orca gladiator), This he infers from a drawing of 
Lord A. Campbell’s, of which he gives a copy. ‘The tail, he 
says, is not that of the fox-shark, But as it is heterocercal it 
cannot be that of a grampus or any other Cetacean. Whatever 
it is I suppose that there is no doubt that it throws itself out of 
the water (‘‘high as the masthead” [of a trawler] one of Mr. 
Buckland’s correspondents avers). Does it do so more than 
once ? Once, many years ago, between Sydney and New Zealand, 
I saw, what they said was a fight between a thresher and a 
whale, but there was nothing to be seen beyond a splashing of 
the water. Last year off Lisbon I witnessed a similar event. 
Does the sword-fish also attack the whale? Lord A. Campbell, 
in the letter accompanying his drawing, estimated the length of 
his thresher at ‘‘ upwards of thirty feet ;”’ this is twice the length 
given by Yarrell. FRANCIS P, PAscor 

Cctober 30 

Since the above was written I see that Dr. Giinther, in his 
new work on I’ishes, says: ‘‘ Statements that it (the fox-shark) 
has been seen to attack whales and other Jarge cetaceans rest 
upon erroneous observations” (p. 322). 

“SrupEnt” should refer to Newcomb’s ‘Popular Astro- 
nomy ” with respect to the larger telescopes. For results he must 
refer to the publications of the Royal and Astronomical Societies, 
the Washington Observatory, &c. 

PAUL LAFARGUE.—We regret we have no further details on 
the labours of the U.S. Fish Commission in increasing the food 
supply of the country. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEW OR RARE ANIMALS 
IN THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S LIVING 
COLLECTION 

1 


HE sagacious founders of the Zoological Society of 
London made it a special rule that no dividends or 
gifts of any kind should be distributed amongst the 


36 WA TOLLE, [Nov. 11, 1880 


members. On the contrary, every Fellow has to contribute | of liors, tigers, elephants, and other well-known animals 
an annual sum towards the maintenance of the Society’s | must always be kept up for the delectation of the ordinary 
establishment, unless he prefers to pay a life-composition | public, and for the maintenance of the best possible living 
in lieu thereof. Moreover, the Society are so fortunate | series of animals, it is also thus in their power to acquire 
animals of specially scientific value, in which the 
casual observer would take little interest, and 
which would, therefore, be quite ineligible except 
in a scientific point of view. This course of action 
has been adopted for many years, more especially 
since the foundation of the office of “‘ Prosector’’ 
to the Society. For these special acquisitions not 
only delight the eyes of the intellectual observer 
while they live, but furnish the prosector with 
subjects for his studies when dead. Those who 
are acquainted with the Proceedings and Transac- 
tions of the Zoological Society of London will be 
— well aware of the amount of work that has thus 
been accomplished as regards the anatomy of 
many of the rarer birds and mammals. 

It is, however, by no means by purchase only 
that rare animals are added to the Zoological 
Society’s collection. Numerous friends and cor- 
respondents in almost every corner of the earth 
are in constant communication with the Secretary 
of the Society, and are ever endeavouring to obtain 
specimens that may be acceptable to the collec- 
tion. In fact the donations have of late years 
become so numerous that they have not unfre- 
. quently rivalled in number and interest the objects 
; acquired by purchase. Taking the acquisitions 
from these two sources together, there are always 
a considerable number of objects in the Society’s 
collection that specially invite the attention of 
the observant naturalist. Amongst these rarities 
there are at the present moment the following, 
of which illustrations are given, drawn upon 
wood by Mr. J. Smit, an artist constantly em- 
ployed by the Zoological Society. 
as to be unencumbered by borrowed capital. They| 1. The musk-deer (Joschus moschiferus) was well 
have consequently no burden in the shape of interest | known to the older writers on zoology as the animal that 
to be provided for. It follows that after putting aside | has from long periods of time supplied the “musk” of 

commerce. This scent is still much in 

\ j : | S24 |s=.3, vogue in the East, but in Western 

S Europe has been long superseded by 

more refined perfumes, though it may 

be remarked that one of the fashionable 

dealers in Bond Street still keeps a 

stuffed musk-deer in his window, and 

is doubtless ready to supply the product 
in question. 

The musk-deer was until recently 
usually associated with another group of 
mammals to which it has really very 
little affinity. Dr. Gray and other syste- 
matists united it with the Chevrotains 
(Tragulus) of India and tropical Africa 
—a group of ruminants remarkable for 
their small size and hornless heads, and 
presenting somewhat of the appearance 
of diminutive antelopes. M. Alphonse 
Milne-Edwards of Paris was, we believe, 
the first naturalist to show that this 
allocation was unnatural. In his excel- 
lent essay on the Chevrotains, published 
in 1864, M. Milne-Edwards proved con- 
clusively that these little-understood 
animals constitute a peculiar family of 
ungulates quite distinct from either the 
: Bovidee or Cervidz, and in fact in some 

Fic. 2.—The Japanese Wolf (Canis hodophylax). respects approaching more nearly to the 

ee pigs (Suide). The correctness of these 

rom their income a sum sufficient to meet the annual | observations has been since fully demonstrated by Prof. 
expenditure, they are able to devote the surplus to new | Flower, Mr. Garrod, and other systematists. 

buildings in the Gardens, and to the acquisition of new The musk-deer therefore remains unique in its own 

and rare subjects for the menagerie. While the supply | group, and constitutes a special division of the Cervide 


= 


Fic. 1.—The Musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus), (From a drawing by Mr. J. 
Wolf from nature.) 


ay: 


i 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


NATURE 


37 


a_i nnn nnnnEEELEnEIEEnrineerannmesnmmescrsestaneeeeneeeEEE EEE 


or deer-family, remarkable for its absence of antlers’ in 
both sexes, the extraordinary prominence of the canine 
teeth (well shown in the illustration), the musk-producing 
organ, and other peculiarities. 

tt is to the Area exertions of Sir Richard Pollock, 
K.C.S.1., lately Commissioner at Peshawur, that the 
Zoological Society are indebted for their living examples 
of the musk-deer, the only specimens, it is believed, that 
have ever been brought to Europein captivity. A female 
of this animal was first received from Sir Richard Pollock 
in 1869. Although it did not live long in the Gardens, it 
gave Prof. Flower an opportunity of preparing a most 
valuable paper on its anatomy.' The same generous 
donor presented in 1877 a pair of this scarce animal, 
obtained from the Cashmere Hills, of which the male, 
now in excellent condition and fully adult, still survives, 
and is the subject of the accompanying illustration. 

The musk-deer is found throughout the mountainous 
districts of Central and Eastern Asia, 
ranging, as the recent Russian explorers 
have shown, into Amoorland. South- 
wards it extends into the Himalayas, 
but is here, as Jerdon tells us, only met 
with at great elevations, rarely descend- 
ing in summer below a height of 8000 
feet, and extending as high as the upper 
limits of the forests. 

Hodgson says that the musk-deer is 
“solitary, living in retired spots near 
rocks or in the depths of the forests : 
they leap well, but cannot climb nor 
descend slopes well. They rut in winter, 
and produce one or two young, usually 
in the cleft of arock. In six weeks the 
young can shift for themselves, and are 
driven off by the mother.” 

The musk-deer, as stated by Jerdon, 
is wonderfully sure-footed, and over 
rocky and precipitous ground perhaps 
has no equal. It appears to eat chiefly 
grasses and lichens. If twins are pro- 
duced the two are kept apart, it being 
very solitary in its habits, even in in- 


known in Europe except from the specimens in the 
Leyden Museum, and as it is altogether omitted in Dr. 
Gray’s Catalogue of the Carnivores, appears to be not 
even represented in the well-stored galleries of the British 
Museum. It is to an active correspondent in Japan— 
Mr. H. Heywood Jones—that the Zoological Society are 
indebted for their unique specimens of this scarce car- 
nivore, which is now very difficult to be procured, haying 
been driven into the recesses of the wooded mountains. 

In general form and proportions the Japanese wolf 
much resembles its well-known congener of Europe, but 
is of inferior size and more slender make, According to 
Siebold its native name is “ Jamainu.” 

3. The Tufted Umbrette (Scopus umbyretta) or “ Ham- 
merkop” of the Cape Colonists, is a well-known bird both 
to natives and travellers all over Central and Southern 
Africa, but in Europe has only hitherto been recognised 
as a somewhat scarce object to be found in the principal 


fancy. The musk is milky for the first 


year or two, afterwards granular. The 


dung of the males smells of musk, but 


the body does not, and females do not 
smell of it in the slightest degree. The 
flesh is dark red, and the young is 
considered to afford the best venison in 
India. 

The musk-deer is much sought after 
by the hunter for its musk, many being : 
shot and snared annually. A good 
musk-pod is valued at from ten to fifteen rupees. The 
musk as sold is often much adulterated with blood, liver, 
&c. One ounce is about the average produce of the pod. 

2. The species of the genus Cavzs known as wolves—that 
is Canis lupus and its representative forms—are widely 
spread over the northern hemisphere, extending in the 
Old World as far south as Abyssinia (Camzs sémensis) and 
India (Canis pallipes). In North America the larger 
Canzs occrdentalzs take their place in the Arctic regions and 
Rocky Mountains, but as it goes south, gradually gives 
place to the very distinct prairie-wolf (Cans /atrans), 
which seems to range as far down as the Central 
American Isthmus. 

The existence of a true wolf in Japan has been known 
to us since 1847 from its description and figure in Tem- 
minck and Siebold’s “ Fauna Japonica,” under the name 
Canis hodophylax. But this animal has been very little 


arate On the Structure cand Affinities of the Musk-Deer (J/oschus moschi- 
Yerus, Linn.),”” by William Henry Flower, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S.—P.Z.S., 1875, 
159. 


Fic. 3.—The Tufted Umbrette (Scopus umbretta). 


museums. The example now in the Zoological Society’s 
Gardens, which was acquired a few weeks ago by purchase 
from a dealer in Liverpool, is, it is believed, the only 
living specimen yet brought to Europe. The umbrette 
has been usually placed by systematists among the storks, 
and by Prof, Reinhardt was supposed to be the nearest 
ally of the Baleniceps rex (without doubt a Ciconiine 
form). But those who have studied its nimble gait and 
active habits, as shown in life, will not readily agree to 
this opinion. Nothing can well be more different from 
the staid, stolid demeanour of the stork than the lively 
action of the umbrette, which rather reminds one of a 
curlew or sand-piper. It is probable, however, that its 
real place will be found to be amongst the spoonbills 
and ibises (Plataleide), a group usually associated with 
the storks, although it must be recollected that the late 
Prof. Garrod maintained that (as “Schizorhine”) the 
Plataleidze would be better placed with the Limicole. 
When the present specimen dies the question of its posi- 
tion will be quickly decided by the Society's prosector, 


SS 


NATURE 


[WVov. 11, 1880 


but long may we wait, it is to be hoped, before this 
event shall happen. 

Of the curious nesting habits of Scopus we have 
excellent accounts from Brehm, Heuglin, and other 
naturalists who have visited the Upper Nile. But one of 
our own countrymen, a not less active or experienced 
observer—has likewise written a most interesting account 
of this bird’s economy, and we cannot do better than 
transcribe a part of it. 

“The Hammerkop (literally hammerhead),” says Mr. 
Layard in “The Birds of South Africa,” “is found 
throughout the Colony and all the way to the Zambezi, 
frequenting ponds, marshes, rivers, and lakes. It is a 
strange, weird bird, flitting about with great activity in 
the dusk of the evening, and preying upon frogs, small 
fishes, &c. At times, when two or three are feeding in 
the same small pool, they will execute a singular dance, 
skipping round one another, opening and closing their 
wings, and performing strange antics. 

“‘ They breed on trees and on rocky ledges, forming a 
huge structure of sticks, some of them of considerable 
thickness. These nests are so solid that they will bear 
the weight of a large, heavy man on the domed roof with- 
out collapsing. The entrance is a small hole, generally 
placed in the most inaccessible side. The eggs, three to 
five in number, are of a pure white, axis 1” 9”; diam. 
Doe 

“On my late friend Jackson’s farm, at Nel’s Poort, 
there is a singular rocky glen between two hiils. In this 
spot a beautiful permanent spring called ‘ Jackalsfontein ’ 
takes its rise. Of course, in consequence, there are a few 
wild almond and other trees, and the place is a little oasis 
amid the barren mountains. It is a favourite resort of 
wild animals, hyznas, leopards, jackals, &c., and here 
Mr. Jackson has constructed one of his most successful 
hyzena-traps. On the ledges of the rocks in this secluded 
spot a colony of Hammerkops have built for years. Some 
of the nests are quite inaccessible, while others can be 
reached with a little trouble. I counted six or eight 
within fifty yards, and some of them contained at least a 
large cartload of sticks. Mr. Jackson told me they 
occupied the same nest year after year, and added to it 
or repaired it as required. About some that I visited I 
found brass and bone buttons, bits of crockery, bleached 
bones, &c. Mr. Jackson said if a ‘Tottie’ lost his knife 
or tinder-box on the farm, or within some miles of the 
place, he made a point of examining the hammerkops’ 
nests, and frequently with success, the birds, like the 
“Bowerbird’ of Australia, embellishing theic dwellings 
with any glittering or bright-coloured thing they can 
pick up.” 


A SUCCESSFUL AFRICAN EXPEDITION 


Pe RICA is overrun with explorers of all nationalities. 

Too often of late have we had to read of failures, of 
abortive attempts on the part of expensively-equipped 
expeditions to reach the field of their work, or of deaths 
by fever or assassination after the first difficulties were 
overcome. In spite of all, however, the unprecedented 
activity of recent years in this favourite field of explora- 
tion has pretty well filled up, with the leading features at 
least, that great blank space in the heart of the continent 
which in the rude maps of our schoolboy days was 
marked “unexplored.” In the very centre of that space 
there is still however a blank, giving ample scope for 
work for the numerous Belgian expeditions that have 
hitherto done so little. It was to fill up this blank to 
some extent that the Geographical Society, about two 
years ago, obtained subscriptions to send out an expedi- 
tion under young Keith Johnston, who had _ inherited 
an enthusiasm for geographical work quite worthy of the 
name he bore. As his subordinate and as geologist to 
the expedition, the Society appointed another young 


Scotchman, Mr. Joseph Thomson, a pupil of Prof. Geikie, 
who recommended him to the Geographical Society. To 
him, we grieve to say, it has been left to tell the story of the 
expedition, which he did, and did well, on Monday night at 
the opening meeting of the Geographical Society. This 
expedition is remarkable in many respects, in some points 
more remarkable than any other African expedition that we 
know of. The outline of its story is soon told. With 150 
of the best men that could be found in and around Zanzi- 
bar Keith Johnston left that place in May, 1879, and 
striking at once to the south-west, made for the north 
end of Lake Nyassa, which was the real starting-point 
for fresh work. Little more than a month after the start, 
young Johnston, who seemed to have the nerve and 
stamina of an athlete, succumbed to the malarious in- 
fluences of the coast region, and was buried by his com- 
panion at Behobeho, to the north of the Lufiji river. Mr. 
Thomson, inexperienced youth of twenty-two though he 
was, was equal to the emergency. With admirable tact and 
nerve he took his place as the sole leader of the expedition, 
and accomplished even more than the work which the So- 
ciety had chalked out for it. By an unexplored route, through 
barren wastes and over lofty mountains, through the 
sneaking Wakhutu and the warlike Mahenge, he and his 
followers made their way till their eyes were gladdened 
and their weary spirits refreshed by the sight of the 
waters of Nyassa. Thence, after brief rest, they re- 
sumed their march over the lofty and undulating plateau, 
which they found occupied the region between the 
north end of Nyassa and the south shore of Tanganyika. 
Leaving here the bulk of his followers, Mr. Thomson, with 
a handful of men, trudged his way over the rugged 
western shores of Lake Tanganyika, to visit the Lukuga 
and settle the question whether it was an outlet or an 
affluent of the lake, a question, which, one would think, 
could be easily solved, but on which Stanley and Cameron 
published diarnetrically opposite statements. After visit- 
ing the missionary station near the mouth of the river, 
and running across to Ujiji, Mr. Thomson returned to the 
Lukuga and traced it for some miles of its downward 
course. ‘After barely escaping from the murderous Warua 
with their lives, the party sailed down the lake, and 
rejoining their companions made the return journey to 
Zanzibar along the usual caravan route with unprecedented 
rapidity, in about a year after the expedition set out under 
their late chief. Mr. Thomson declared with just pride that 
all this was accomplished without the shedding ofa drop of 
blood for either offensive or defensive purposes ; with one 
exception he brought all his men back “in the best of health 
and condition” ; he has collected certain information about 
a considerable region which no white man had previously 
visited; he has solved one of the few remaining great 
problems of African geography; and he has located with 
certainty a great salt lake (Hikwa) whose existence pre- 
viously had only been based on native rumour. Mr. 
Thomson is a trained geologist, and as such he has 
doubtless seen more than almost any previous explorer. 
He tells us of the metamorphic schists and gneiss which 
compose the mountains of the great central plateau ; of 
the many extinct volcanic cones that lie around the 
north-west end of Lake Nyassa, and of the metamorphic 
clay slates, felspathic rocks and volcanic porphyries 
and tuffs that look down on the lake from the north and 
north-east. His further geological insight may dispel 
some of the illusions that seem to be abroad as to the 
abounding wealth of the African interior. Much of the 
country between the coast and Nyassa is barren waste ; 
and the chief characteristic of the region between Nyassa 
and Tanganyika he found to be “utter barrenness and 
the absence of anything worth trading for.” Instead of 
the mountains of iron and the miles of surface coal, 
nowhere did he see a single metal in a form which a 
white man would for a moment look at as a profitable or 
workable speculation; there is very little more iron, he 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


NATURE 


39 


eee 
maintains, than is sufficient to supply the simple wants of high pressures for these regions and the season prevailed, 


the natives. Coal he saw none, and he does not believe 
that such a thing exists over the wide area embraced in 
his route. This may be discouraging, but it is whole- 
some, and may prove a check to the wild schemes some- 
times broached by speculators for opening up the African 
interior. From the Chimboya Mountains to the south- 
east of Tanganyika Mr. Thomson found numerous stream- 
lets flowing southwards, doubtless to join the Chambeze, 
which, after passing through many a lake and levying 
tribute from a region one million square miles in extent, 
pours its almost Amazonian volume, as the Congo, 3000 
miles below, into the bosom of the broad Atlantic. The 
much-debated Lukuga he found, as Mr. Hore had found 
shortly before him, to be a broad and rapid river, flowing 
westwards from the Tanganyika Lake to the Lualaba, as 
the Congo here is called ; and Lake Hikwa he saw was a 
fine sheet of water with no outlet, lying among ‘the lofty 
mountains, which stretch away east from Southern Tan- 
ganyika. What may be the extent and value of the purely 
geographical observations obtained by Mr. Thomson we 
have no means of knowing; doubtless in this respect the 
expedition suffered in the death of Mr. Johnston, who was 
a trained geographer. But in other respects, in informa- 
tion as to the structure of the country, the nature of its 
products, and the character of its varied peoples, the 
expedition under Mr. Thomson has been fruitful toa high 
degree ; altogether it is one of the best pieces of original 
work which our not too energetic Geographical Society 
has ever done. Mr. Thomson’s well-written and well- 
read paper was received with enthusiasm by an unusually 
distinguished audience. We trust to be able very shortly 
to give details concerning both the geography and geology 
of the Central Plateau from Mr. Thomson’s own hands. 


UNITED STATES WEATHER MAPS, 
DECEMBER, 1878 


oe changes took place this month in the 

distribution of the earth’s atmosphere as compared 
with what obtained during the previous month, and these 
were accompanied with at least equally important changes 
in the geographical distribution of the temperature. 

If a line be drawn from Texas to Newfoundland across 
the Atlantic, the north of France and Germany, thence 
curving round to south-eastward through the Black Sea, 
the Caucasus, India, the East India Islands, and Aus- 
tralia to the south island of New Zealand, it is found 
to pass through a broad and extended region where 
atmospheric pressure was throughout considerably below 
the average of December, and this low pressure was still 
further deepened at various points along the line. Again, 
another line passing from Australia through the Philip- 
pine Islands, Japan, Mantchooria, Behring’s Straits, and 
Alaska, also marks out an extensive region where pressure 
was uninterruptedly below the mean. 

On the other hand atmospheric pressure was above the 
average, and generally largely so, over the United States 
to west of long. 90°, over Greenland, Iceland, Fard, 
Shetland, and over a large portion of the Old Continent 
bounded by a line drawn from Lapland round by Lake 
Balkhash, Canton, Pekin, to at least the upper waters of 
the Lena. Another area of high pressure extended from 
Syria, through Egypt and East Atrica to the Cape; and 
part of a third area of high pressure appeared in the north 
island of New Zealand. 

As regards North America, the greatest excess of 
pressure, 0°196 inch above the average, occurred in the 
Columbia Valley, from which it gradually fell on pro- 
ceeding eastward to a defect from the average of 0°146 
inch about Lake Champlain and to northward, rising 
again to near the average on the north of Nova Scotia. 
To the north-east and north of this region exceedingly 


cases very greatly so, 


being 0°635 inch above the average in the north-west of 
Iceland, 0°500 inch in the south of Greenland, and at the 
three stations in West Greenland, proceeding northwards, 
0°445, 0402, and 0°346 inch. 

West Greenland being thus on the west side of the 
region of high pressure which occupied the northern part 
of the Atlantic, and on the north-east side of the area of 
low pressure in the States and Canada, strong southerly 
winds set in over the country, and the temperature rose 
at the four Greenland stations proceeding from south to 
north to 1°1, 8°°8, 12%1, and 144, above the averages. 
As the centre of lowest pressure was in the valley of the 
St. Lawrence about Montreal, strong northerly and 
westerly winds predominated to southward and westward, 
and there consequently the temperature was below the 
average, the deficiency at Chicago and St. Louis being 
g°'5 ; and winds being easterly and northerly in California, 
temperature there was also under the average. On the 
other hand, in the New England States, the greater part 
of the Dominion of Canada, a considerable portion of 
British America, and in West Greenland, as already 
stated, temperature was above the average. Pressure 
was much higher at St. Michael’s, Alaska, than it was to 
south-westward at St. Paul’s, Behring Straits, and in’ con- 
nection therewith and with the prevailing winds, the tem- 
perature at St. Paul’s was 2°'9 below the average, whereas 
at St. Michael’s, where strong southerly winds prevailed, 
the temperature rose to 12”0 about the normal. Hence 
whilst the continent of America presented striking con- 
trasts in the distribution of pressure in December, 1878, 
it presented still more striking contrasts in the distribu- 
tion of the temperature. Along Baffin’s Bay the excess 
of the temperature above the normal was 14°°4, and at 
Behring Straits 120, but in the south of Lake Michigan 
it was 9°'4 below it. In this last case the change of tem- 
perature from November to December was probably 
unprecedented, the mean for November having been IBe7; 
above the average (NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 516), whilst the 
December temperature was 975 below it, the difference 
being 23°'2 ! 

Turning now to Europe, it is seen that Iceland lay on 
the east side of the patch of high pressure which over- 
spread that region, northerly winds consequently pre- 
vailed, and with them a lowering of the temperature to 
7°2 below the average. The contrast this offers to West 
Greenland is very instructive. In both localities pressure 
was unusually high, but they occupied different positions, 
the one on the east and the other on the west of the same 
area of high pressure, with the inevitable result, of 
opposite prevailing winds, accompanied in the one case 
with a temperature 14°°4 above the average, and in the 
other 7°2 below it. Hence as regards the temperature at 
the surface of the earth, it is not the height of the baro- 
meter which rules, but the situation of the locality with 
respect to areas of high and low pressure ; or to put it 
more popularly, it is the winds which are chiefly con- 
cerned in the distribution of the temperature. 

In Europe the area of lowest pressure occupied the 
southern shores of the North Sea, extending thence, 
though in a less pronounced form, to south-eastward. 
Hence over the whole of Western Europe winds were 
north-easterly, northerly, and in the south-west of Europe 
westerly; thus everywhere, from the North Cape to the 
north of Italy, temperature was below the normal, in some 
the deficiency being 10°'4 in the 
south of Norway, and 12°2 in the scuth of Scotland. 
This is {the lowest monthly mean temperature known to 
have been recorded in Scotland since thermometric 
observations began to be made. 

On the other hand, to the east of this area of low 
pressure, winds were southerly, and consequently tempe- 
ratures were high. In some localities in Russia an excess 
of about 15%0 occurred, and even over a large proportion 


40 


NATURE 


[WVov. 11, 1880 


of European Russia the excess rose to 9°o. This region 
of high temperature extended eastward into Siberia, as 
far as the Irtish, or to where the centre of the greatest 
excess of pressure prevailed. To the eastward of this 
area of highest pressure winds were northerly, and low 
temperature prevailed over the whole of the eastern part 
of Asia, the deficiency at Nertchinsk, on the Upper 
Amoor, being 6°°8 belowthenormal. Here, again, just as 
happened in America, places having the atmospheric 
pressure equally high above their average presented the 
strongest contrasts of temperature. Thus at Nertchinsk 
pressure was 0°154 inch, and at Bogoslovsk 0211 inch 
above their respective averages ; but at Bogoslovsk, on the 
west side of the anticyclonic patch of high pressure, 
temperature was 15°°0 above, whereas at Nertchinsk on 
the east side it was 6°'8 below the average. 

This time of the year being the summer of the southern 
hemisphere, pressure falls to the annual minimum in 
Australia, but during December, 1878, this annual low 
pressure was still further diminished. Pressure at this 
season also falls to the annual minimum in the North 
Pacific and North Atlantic, and we have seen that the 
low pressure of these regions was likewise still further 
diminished. But in the case of the Atlantic it was 
accompanied with a vitally important difference. The 
centre of lowest pressure of the North Atlantic in 
winter, which is commonly located about Iceland, was 
removed many hundreds of miles to southward, and an 
unwonted development of extraordinarily high pressure 
appeared to northward, overspreading the extensive 
region of, at least, Baffin’s Bay, Greenland, Iceland, 
Far6é, and Shetland. 

It was to this region of high pressure that the extreme 
severity of our British weather at the time was due. This 
high-pressure region was intimately connected with, and 
in all likelihood occasioned directly by the atmospheric 
movements resulting from the enormous extent of low 
pressure to southward, with its large centres of still lower 
pressures in the United States, mid-Atlantic, and the 
North Sea, where pressures were respectively 0°146 inch, 
0°322 inch, and 0307 inch below the normals. If future 
inquiry establish such a direct connection between the 
areas of low and high pressure, it is evident that when 
we come to attempt, on scientific grounds, to forecast the 
weather of the coming season for the British Islands, 
we must look to the Atlantic for the data on which the 
forecast is to be based. 

In the winter months pressure rises to the annual maxi- 
mum over Central Asia, and in America about the region 
of the Rocky Mountains. In December 1878, however, 
pressure rose in both regions greatly above its usually 
very high average, the excess being nearly a quarter of 
an inch in the valleys of the Yenisei, Obi, Irtish, and 
Tobal, about lat. 60°, and o’200 in America in the Colum- 
bia Valley. It follows therefore that with the singular 
outstanding exception of the high-pressure area of Green- 
land, the meteorological peculiarities which make Decem- 
ber, 1878, so memorable, arose out of a distribution of the 
earth’s atmosphere, essentially the same that commonly 
obtains at this time of the year, but the usual irregulari- 
ties in the distribution of the pressure appeared in more 
pronounced characters. 


We have now had the pleasure, through the courtesy 
of the late General Myer, of presenting our readers with 
a series of Twelve of these unique Weather Maps, which 
open out a new future to meteorology. The map for 
December, 1878, closes the series which appears in 
NATURE. The questions which a perusal of these 
maps raises are of first importance, whether we consider 
the atmospheric changes they disclose, these being re- 
peatedly so vast as to stretch across four continents at 
one time, besides being often profoundly interesting 
from their influence both on the food supplies and 


the commercial intercourse of nations; or the large 
problems hereby presented, with hints toward their solu- 
tion, which underlie physical geography, climatology, and 
other branches of atmospheric physics. We have thus 
had shown us from month to month, in a way not hitherto 
possible, the great atmospheric changes as influenced by 
oceans and continents, including the important parts 
played in bringing about these changes, by mountain 
ranges, extensive plateaux, and physically well defined 
river basins. Much yet, however, remains to be done, 
principally by extending the network of observation in 
order that the Weather Maps may show, in an approxi- 
mately adequate manner, the meteorology also of the 
North Pacific and the southern hemisphere. Till this be 
done many fundamental questions cannot be discussed, 
such as the inter-relations of the different continents 
and oceans of the globe in their bearings on success- _ 
ive meteorological changes; and the important inquiry 
as to whether the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere 
be practically a constant from month to month, and, 
if not, what are the conditions or forces on which the 
observed differences depend. For the bringing of this 
great international work to so happy a consummation, ~ 
we look with confidence to the War Department of the 
United States, since this implies no more than a con- 
tinuance of the same energy and enlightened liberality 
that have won for the Americans their high position in 
meteorology. 


SEARLES VALENTINE WOOD 


ALAZONTOLOGY has sustained a severe loss in the 
death of the veteran explorer of the English Plio- 
cene deposits. Born towards the close of the last century, 
the late Mr. Wood was from an early age an ardent col- 
lector and student of the fossils so abundantly found in 
the crag-pits of East Anglia. At this period the facilities 
for collecting the fossils of the English Pliocene strata 
were much greater than at present. Fresh pits for the 
purpose of obtaining the shelly marls and sands, which 
were then extensively used for manure, were continually 
being opened in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, 
while at the present time the new chemical manures have 
caused the crag to be quite neglected by agriculturists. 
The geologist who visits the Eastern Counties at the pre- 
sent day to study the Pliocene has to content himself 
with such exposures as he can find in old pits, now often 
overgrown with vegetation and which are used as sheep- 
folds or stackyards. ah 
Mr. Searles Wood, as he himself said, was born within 
sight of one crag-pit ; he resided for a great part of his 
life in the crag country, and hoped to be buried within 
sight of a crag-pit. 7 
In the year 1839 Mr. Searles Wood joined the Geologi- 
cal Society of London. The following year was marked 
by the establishment of the London Clay Club by seven 
earnest students of fossils, of whom we believe only 
Prof. John Morris, formerly of University College, Lon- 
don, still survives. The object which the members of 
the London-Clay Club set before themselves was the 
figuring and describing of the British Tertiary fossils. 
The London-Clay Club was the forerunner of, and 
became merged in, the Paleontographical Society of 
London. This Society has published between thirty and 
forty volumes, which have appeared annually, and has 
accomplished a most valuable work in the illustration of 
our British fossils. Py ths 
At a very early date Mr. Searles Wood and his friend 
the late Mr. Frederick Edwards agreed to divide between 
them the work of describing the mollusca of the English 
Tertiary formations. The absence of marine Miocene 
formations in this country divides our British Tertiaries 
into two great groups, the Older Tertiaries, in which the 
great majority of the mollusca belong to extinct species 


) 


’ guished. 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


and the Newer Tertiaries, or crags, in which a large pro- 
portion of the forms belong to species still living in the 
seas of some portion of the globe. Mr. Searles Wood 
naturally chose the latter group for his study, and Mr. 
Edwards the former. , 

Upon the great task he had set before himself Mr. 
Searles Wood appears to have entered with characteristic 
energy, and in 1847 the Paleontographical Society was 
able to issue its first volume, which was entirely from the 
pen of Mr. Wood, and consisted of a description of the Crag 
Univalves, illustrated by twenty-one plates. In the years 
1850, 1853, and 1855 Mr. Searles Wood was able to 
publish the parts of his descriptions of the Crag Bivalves, 
illustrated by thirty-one plates. 

It soon became evident however that Mr. Edwards had 
taken upon his shoulders a lion’s share of the work, and 
his friend Mr. Wood, having completed his own task, had 
to come to the aid of his fellow-student of the Tertiary 
fauna. It was then agreed that Edwards should complete 
his description of the Older Tertiary Univalves and that 
Wood should take up the description of the Bivalves. 
Between the years 1859 and 1877 Mr. Searles Wood 
published his descriptions of the Eocene Bivalves, illus- 
trated by twenty-seven plates. 

Additional discoveries of fossils having afforded 
Mr. Wood fresh materials, a supplement to the ‘Crag 
Mollusca ’’ was published by him between the years 1871 
and 1873. This work was illustrated by twelve plates, 
and included a very valuable memoir on the strata from 
which the fossils were obtained, written by his son, Mr. 
Searles V. Wood, jun., and Mr. Harmer of Norwich, who 
have both done so much good work in unravelling the 
complicated problems connected with the geology of East 
Anglia. 

Nor did the zeal of Mr. Wood allow him to rest even 
here; for in 1877, in spite of his advanced age, we find 
him commencing a supplement to his own and Edwards’s 
work on the Eocene mollusca. 

In the year 1860 the Geological Society recognised the 
great services rendered to science by Mr. Searles Wood 
by presenting him with the blue-riband of geology, the 
Wollaston Medal. Prof. Phillips, who, as president of 
the year, handed the medal to Mr. Searles Wood, spoke 
in terms of well-merited praise of the important works 
which were the result of his patient, persevering, and 
successful labours. 

Mr. Searles Wood and his friend Mr. Edwards were re- 
markable examples ofa type of scientific man which, happily 
for us,is far more common in this country than in any other. 
They were both engaged in the legal profession, but found 
time in their leisure hours to accomplish most excellent 
and useful scientific work. In the volumes of the Pale- 
ontographical Society the work of amateurs like Searles 
Wood, Edwards, and Davidson appears side by side with 
that of Richard Owen, Edward Forbes, and John Phillips. 
The subscriptions of the members cover the cost of 
engraving and printing, but all other charges are defrayed 
by the authors, who expect and receive no kind of pay- 
ment for their important labours. 

The valuable collection of Tertiary fossils made by 
Edwards and Searles Wood have fortunately been secured 
by the authorities of the British Museum for our National 
Collection. They will in the New Natural History 
Museum at South Kensington be more accessible for study 
than at Bloomsbury, and as they contain great numbers 
of type specimens, will be invaluable for purposes of 
reference to both British and foreign paleontologists. 

Mr. Searles Wood, as Treasurer of the Palaonto- 
graphical Society, took the heartiest interest in its success, 
to which his own labours have to such a great extent 
contributed. Those who had the pleasure of a personal 
acquaintance with Mr. Searles Wood will ever remember 
the kindly and genial manners by which he was distin- 
J. W. J. 


NATURE 


Al 


NOTES 


THE following is the list of officers and council of the 


Royal Society nominated for the year ensuing. The elec- 
tion will take place as usual on St. Andrew’s Day, 
November 30:—President — William Spottiswoode, M.A., 


D.C.L., LL.D.; Treasurer—John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D.; 
Secretaries—Prof. George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., 
LL.D. ; Prof. Thomas Henry Huxley, LL.D. ; Foreign Secre- 
tary—Prof. Alexander William Williamson, Ph.D.; other 
members of the Council—William Henry Barlow, Pres. Inst. 
C.E.; Rev. Prof. Thomas George Bonney, M.A.; George 
Busk, F.L.S. ; Right Hon. Sir Richard Assheton Cross ; Edwin 
Dunkin, V.P.R.A.S.; Alexander Jobn Ellis, B.A.; Thomas 
Archer Hirst, Ph.D; William Huggins, D.C.L., LL.D. ; Prof. 
John Marshall, F.R.C.S.; Prof. Daniel Oliver, F.L.S.; Prof. 
Alfred Newton, M.A., Pres. C.P.S.; Prof. William Odling, 
M.B., V.P.C.S.; Henry Tibbats Stainton, F.G.S.; Sir James 
Paget, D.C.L.; William Henry Perkin, Sec. C.S. ; Lieut.- 
General Richard Strachey, R.E., C.S.I. 

Ir is proposed to erect a monument to Spallanzani in Scan- 
diano, where the distinguished naturalist was born in 1729. A 
committee for the promotion of the scheme has been formed there, 
and at Reggio and Modena. A monument in marble is contem- 


. plated, more or less splendid according to the sum provided, 


and it will be inaugurated on August 21, 1885 (if circumstances 
do not allow of an earlier inauguration). The committee mean- 
while propose (if practicable) to publish a new and accurate 
edition of the writings of Spallanzani, including some which 
have not hitherto appeared. Contributions are hoped for not 
only from Italians, but from foreigners generally among whom 
the work and principles of Spallanzani are honoured. 


M. Leon Hume ot, a well-known xaturaliste-voyageur, has 
just returned to Paris from Madagascar with large and valuable 
collections, Amongst the living specimens (destined for the 
Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes) are two examples of the 
aye-aye (Chiromys madagascariensis), which, M. Humblot main- 
tains, it is now more difficult to procure in Madagascar than in 
Europe ; a pair of the rare carnivore Cryptoprocta ferox, and 
specimens of several of the smaller lemuroids. M. Humblot 
has also brought a valuable series of mammals and birds in skin 
and a large collection of orchids. 


No naturalist who visits Florence should omit to inspect the 
series of Italian vertebrates which has been brought together in 
the Reale Istituto degli Studii superiori, by the ‘exertions of 
Prof. H. H. Giglioli. The collection embraces a series of 
authenticated specimens of mammals, birds, reptiles, batra- 
chians, and fishes from every part of Italy and the adjoining 
districts which belong essentially to the same fauna, arranged in 
systematic order, and is far more complete than any other 
Italian collection of the same sort. Prof. Giglioli is preparing 
a catalogue of this collection as a basis for a new ‘‘ Fauna 
Ttalica.” 


ON the Ist inst. a very fine Naval and Marine Engineering 
Exhibition was opened in the Corporation Galleries, Glasgow, 
altogether probably the finest exhibition of the kind we have 
had in this country. It is divided into five sections :—1. Naval 
architecture, including war vessels, sailing ships, paddle and 
screw steamers, yachts, dredges, and miscellaneous craft, boats 
and life-boats ; (2) Marine engineering, including engines and 
parts of engines, boilers and boiler appliances, &c., governors ; 
(3) Equipment, including anchors, boat-lowering apparatus, 
pumps and hydraulic machinery, steering-gear, telegraphs, wind- 
lasses, &c., machines and tools; (4) Navigation and harbour 
works ; (5) Miscellaneous. The first section is of special interest, 
containing models of vessels of all ages and of all kinds, from 


42 


NALURE 


| Nov. 11, 1880 


the Henry Grace de Dieu (A.D. 1514) down to the 'Zivadia, 
many of these models having been lent by the Admiralty. 
Prefixed to the carefully compiled catalogue is a sketch of the 
rise and progress of steam navigation, more especially on the 
River Clyde, by Mr. W. J. Miller, C.E. The success of this 
exhibiticn is largely due to the energy and tact of the Curator of 
the Glasgow Industrial Museum, Mr. James Paton. 


‘©THE Journal of the Indian Archipelago,” founded and 
edited by the late J. R. Logan, which was published at Singa- 
pore, and ceased to appear some years since, has always been 
accepted by ethnologists as a valuable contribution to Malayan 
literature. Some of the early volumes, especially the first, have 
long been out of print, but Mr. David Logan, the son of the late 
editor, who was recently in England, has reprinted the scarce 
ones, thus enabling complete sets of the work to be obtained, 
Messrs. Triibner are, we believe, the agents in London, 


THE very large and extensive entomological collection made 
by the late Jno. Miers, F.R.S., has been presented to the 
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and is now being studied and 
incorporated by Prof. Westwood. This collection is particularly 
rich in Brazilian insects, and thus becomes peculiarly valuable 
for the Oxford collection, which was, compared with other 
regions, poor in the neotropical fauna. 


TuE British Museum will shortly acquire the splendid ccllec- 
tion of Heteromerous Coleoptera formed by Mr. Frederick 
Bates. 


SoME unbelievers insisted that the submarine crannog described 
by Mr. Ussher at Ardmore, Co, Waterford, was only the remains 
of an old salmon weir ; the late storms however seem to have set 
this theory at rest; as they have cut out the peat to seaward 
of the crannog and exposed the ancient kitchen midden, also 
additional piling not previously known, 


AT the last meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Natu- 
ralists Prof. Wagner exhibited the hydroids and medusz of the 
White Sea he has brought home, giving a detailed description of 
ten species of medusze he has discovered in that sea. 


AT the last meeting of the St. Petersburg Horticultural Society 
M. Wolkenstein exhibited a new variety of vine which grows 
and fruits at Warsaw and Riga. M. Wolkenstein thinks it 
might fruit even at St. Petersburg. We notice also a communi- 
cation by Prof. Regel on apples. 


PROF. SILVANUS THOMPSON has an interesting article in the 
current number of Sraiz on ‘ Optical Illusions of Motion.” 


WE learn from a paper published by M. Goulishambaroff in 
the Yournal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, vol. 
xii. fase. 5, that the whole of the naphtha region of the Apsheron 
Peninsula has an area of 4°3 square miles, which may be 
divided into two parts: that of Balakhany, which has given 
naphtha since the oldest times; and that of Sabountchi, which 
was explored only in 1873. The first part contains forty-seven 
naphtha-wells, of which only twenty-eight are productive, and 
yield together 6,192,000 Ib. of naphtha daily. The density of 
this naphtha varies from 0°855 to o°885, the average density 
being 078675 ; whilst the naphtha of the Sabountchi region has 
a density of from 0°820 to 0860, and is extracted to an average 
quantity of 6,622,000 Ib, The density varies from the most 
different causes : it varies in different wells, and usually it might 


be said that in the same bore the density diminishes with the | 


depth ; however, heavy naphtha is received also from very near 
to the surface ; usually it becomes heavier when the evaporation 
of volatile gases is rendered easy by local circumstances. Con- 
trary to established opinion, M. Goulishambaroff proves that the 
naphtha of the Apsheron Peninsula contains volatile products of 


| 


a density of 0°62, but no use is made of them because of the 
imperfect means of purifying. The amount of photogene received 
varies very much, namely, from 15 to 85 per cent., the naphtha 
which has a density of 0°890 to 0°g00 giving the lowest, and that 
of a density of 0°820 giving the highest, percentage ; the most 
usual kinds of naphtha (density 0°863 to 0°870) usually give from 
35 to 40 per cent. of photogene. It shows, he stated, however, 
that thorough measurements of the coefficient of dilatation of 
naphtha having not as yet been made, there remains a certain 
want of precision in the determinations of its specific weights. 


ON the night of the 3rd inst. a magnificent display of aurora 
was seen from various parts of the country. We have received 
several communications on the subject. Mr. E. W. Prevost 
writes from Cirencester that the display was visible there from 
6 p.m. up to about midnight. ‘‘ The glow, which extended over 
an angle of about 100°, rose upwards to a height of 20°, leaving 
the central portion comparatively dark. Faint streamers occa- 
sionally showed themselves, reaching 35° in height. A shifting 
of the streamers from east to west was noticeable, the illuminated 
are being at times extinguished on the eastern side, this extinc- 
tion progressing slowly towards the centre of the arc, when the 
light would reappear at the eastern side. At no time, as far as 
I observed, did the light disappear on the western side; the 
colour was of a greenish-yellow and the wind due north.” 
From Bootham, York, November 3, Mr. J. Edmund Clarke 
writes: ‘‘There is quite a brilliant aurora this evening, first 
noticed about 6.30 as a diffused light shifting from north-east to 
south-west, with occasional streamers. Now (7.30-8.45 p.m.) 
it forms a low bright arch of considerable intensity. I said 
‘first seen about 6.30,’ but at 4.40 I called the attention of a 
friend to some sharply-defined red streamers in the north-east, 
which I then took to be sunlight. On August 12 last, about 4 
to 3 hour after sunset, my attention was called to streamers pres 
cisely similar, in every respect like those fof the aurora, But 
careful observation showed that these were certainly radiating 
from the sun, and not converging ¢owards the magnetic pole. It 
is certainly my impression that such was the case to-night, but 
being busy I did not take any special pains to ascertain. Of 
course this double coincidence may be a pure accident, but is it 
not possible that the minute substances reflecting the solar rays 
are actually modified by the electric field, so as to produce this 
remarkably distinct variety of rays? P.S.—8 p.m. Brilliant 
streamers from the bright arch, with some corruscations.” 
Prof. Reilly, of the Royal College of Science for Ireland, 
writes that in Dublin the display was very fine. ‘* The principal 
beam appeared as if slowly moving from west to east, and had a 
direction quite parallel to the pointers of the Great Bear. It 
reached at the time when seen quite up to the Polar Star, The 
lights were observed at earlier hours, one person haying men- 
tioned to me 6 o’clock p.m.” In Orkney it showed itself as one 
of the most brilliant displays of aurora borealis seen for a long 
time. The whole northern horizon was one dark mass of clouds 
with a sharply-defined edge, and from these the aurora shot up 


| in beautiful coloured streams to nearly the zenith, covering the 


clear sky above the clouds from north-east round to north-west. 
Occasionally the aurora took the form of a gigantic rainbow, 
and the light was as bright as moonlight. 


A sMART shock of earthquake occurred on the gth inst. through- 
out Southern Austria, from Vienna to the Adriatic and the fron- 
tiers of Bosnia. In the capital a rather violent shock was felt at a 
quarter to eight. Numerous telegrams have been received by the 
Meteorological Bureau at Vienna stating that shocks were felt at 
Serajevo, Derwenta, Brod, Pola, Trieste, Zilli, Klagenfurt, 
Fiinfkirchen, Odenburg, Marburg, Laibach, and Gross-Kanischa. 
In Agram, the capital of Croatia, three shocks of earthquake 
occurred, a period of an hour intervening between the second 


cea ail 3 


Nov. 11, 1880] 


NATURE 


43 


and third. One‘of them, which lasted ten seconds, was so 
powerful that not a single house remained uninjured. A general 
panic reigns in the town. Many of the ivhabitants, including 
the Cardinal-Archbishop, have taken to flight. It is impossible 
to estimate the whole extent of the damage. The number of 
persons injured is at present estimated at thirty. 

THE eruption of Vesuvius continues to increase in activity. 
Two large streams of lava are at present (November 8) flowing 
from the crater to the base of the cone. 

In Prof. Huxley’s article on the Challenger Publications last 
week, line 11 from top of p. 2, col. 2, should read ‘‘ direct and 
but little modified descendants,”’ instead of ‘‘a7zed,” &c. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


Hartwic’s Comet (1880 @).—In a circular issued by Prof, 
Winnecke from the Observatory of Strasburg on the Ist inst., 
he gives reasons for assuming that the comet detected by Dr, 
Hartwig on September 29 may have a much shorter period than 
was conjectured in his first circular. On calculating parabolic 
elements from the Strasburg observations of September 29 and 
October 8, and one by Prof. Auwers at Berlin on October 17, 
MM. Ambronn and Wislicenus, students in the University of 
Strasburg, found the middle observation could not be more 
closely represented than with an error of something over two 
minutes of arc. Prof. Winnecke, as was stated in our previous 
notice, considered he had reason for suspecting the identity of 
Hartwig’s comet with that of 1506, and a further examination 
of the historical descriptions has led him to direct attention to 
the comets of 1382, 1444, and 1569, and with the perihelion 
passage fixed to July 13, 1444, and October 15, 1569, he finds 
geocentric positions which he regards as in sufficient agreement 
with the records. A period of revolution of about 623 years is 
therefore obtained, and an ellipse with this period has been 
adapted by Dr. Schur and Dr. Hartwig to the observations on 
September 29 and October 14 and 24. ‘The resulting elements 
are as follow :— 

Perihelion Passage, 1880, September 6°58949 M.T. at Berlin. 


Longitude of perihelion 83 33 28 t 
ap ascending node 44 33 30 M. Eq. 188070. 

NCMMAHOM ss ces eee ee eee) 30) 15) HO 

Log. excentricity ... 9'990180 

Log. semi-axis major pac 1°196457 

Log. mean diurnal motion ... 1°755321 


The error of the place deduced from this ellipse on October 
14 is + 28” in longitude and the same in latitude, and it is 
remarked that the error in longitude does not admit of being 
destroyed without an increase of error in latitude. This, how- 
ever, Prof. Winnecke suggests, may arise from the assumed 
period of 62} years being really a multiple of the true one. 
The comet approaches near to the orbit of Mercury at the 
ascending node, though at the present time not sufficiently close 
to occasion any change in the character of the orbit. Still at 
some past epoch the effect of perturbation may have brought 
the orbits into coincidence or nearly so, and Prof. Winnecke 
hints that the planet Mercury might have been the means of 
impressing an elliptical form on the comet’s orbit. 

It is clearly a case in which those observers who are in the 
possession of very powerful instruments may render most material 
service towards deciding whether we have to do with a comet of 
comparatively short period. If it is practicable to secure good 
observations for position after the next period of moonlight, it 
may then be possible to obtain evidence fro or con, by direct 
computation of the orbit, though unfortunately observations did 
not commence until the comet had reached the extremity of the 
parameter, or in other words had attained an angular distance of 
go” past the perihelion point. 


DISCOVERY OF A COMET.—Lord Lindsay notifies the discovery 
of a comet at his observatory, Dunecht, during the night of the 
7th inst., by Mr. Lohse in the constellation Lacerta ; the position 
at 15h. 30m. in R.A. 22h. 45m. 54s., Declination 42° 33'°7; 
daily motion in R,A. + 6m. 58s., in Decl. + 1° 8’. This is far 
from any position which the expected comet of 1812 could occupy 
on the above date. 


CERASKI’s VARIABLE STAR.—Mr. Knott obtained a very 


of this newly-detected variable on November 2; the minimum 


appears to have occurred about 11h, G.M.T. The period will 
be somewhat less than 2} days. 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


Pror, LorENz has given in Wied. Ann., No. 9, a develop- 
ment of his theory of ‘‘refraction-constants” (published before 
in Danish), and described experiments bearing on it, The 
problem contemplated was to find that function of the re- 
fractive index, freed from dispersion, and of the density of a 
body, which is constant with varying density of the body, 
supposing the molecules themselves unchanged. It is assumed 
that bodies consist of molecules in whose intervals light is 
propagated with the same velocity as in vacuous space ; further, 
that the bodies are isotropic, and their molecules of spherical 
form. Herr Lorenz arrives at a simple expression for the re- 
fraction-constant, the constancy of which, as also the correctness 
of the assumption as to liglit moving with the same velocity in 
the intervals of molecules as in vacuo, had to be proved. He 
determined the refraction constants of several bodies in the 
liquid and the vaporous states, viz., ethylic ether, ethylic alcohol, 
water, chloroform, ethylic iodide, ethylic acetate, and sulphide 
of carbon. The refraction was determined with sodium and 
lithium light, and at temperatures of 10°, 20°, and 100°. He 
found that in passage of the substances from the liquid to the 
vaporous state the refraction-constant varies very little (only 
about 5 per cent. at most). Dispersion also showed great 
constancy. Another Danish physicist, K. Prytz, has extended 
the inquiry to some ten other substances (/oc. cz¢.), and confirmed 
the assumption of refraction constants. 


WITH regard to electricity, Herr Hoorweg (Wied. Ann., No. 9) 
divides all bodies into two groups, (a) those in which the conduc- 
tivity rises with the temperature (dielectrics), and (4) those in 
which it decreases with rise of temperature (adielectrics). He 
endeavours to prove by experiment (1) that both dielectric bodies 
with adielectric, and adelectric with each other, yield contact 
electricity ; (2) that this electricity has always the same sign as 
that which arises with gentle friction or pressure. (The some- 
times different action of strong friction is ascribed to the influence 
of the raising of temperature.) Not only does electricity arise 
through the different heat-motion at the places of contact of two 
heterogeneous substances, but this cause is fully sufficient to 
explain all development of electricity. 


Herr Narr has lately obtained some interesting results in 
experimenting further on the behaviour of electricity in gases, 
and especially zz vacuo (Wied. Ann., No. 9). In the middle of 
a hollow brass sphere ona glass support was suspended a metallic 
ball by means of a platinum wire passing (insulated) through a 
metallic stopper to an electrometer. Vacua could be produced 
in the sphere. A charge of electricity imparted to the con- 
ducting system underwent the same process of dispersion zx 
vacuo as where the space was full of gas. The outer surface of the 
hollow sphere, one minute and also one hour after the charging, 
had the same electricity as the conducting system. Herr Narr 
further finds that the process of dispersion in gas-filled space is 
not perceptibly influenced by the hollow sphere being insulated 
or being connected to earth, if the original charging be done while 
the sphere is connected to earth ; the dispersion constant diminishes 
in both cases, at least at the beginning. But if the conducting 
system be charged while the hollow sphere is insulated, the latter 
has in this state one minute, and likewise one hour to one hour 
and a half after, electricity of the same sign with the conducting 
system, and the first connection of the hollow sphere to earth 
occasions a temporary outflow. Herr Narr shows reasons for 
believing that the electricity on the hollow sphere finds its way 
through the gas space. 


A NEW series of experiments of extended range, by Herr Roth, 
on the compressibility of gases, is described in Wied. Ann., 
No. 9. The relations between pressure, volume, and tempera- 
ture, in the case of carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, ammonia, and 
ethylene, are studied. The results are mainly confirmatory of 
van der Waal’s formulz. 


A NEw balance designed to be easily transportable, light, and 
yet stable, without fixing to the table, and to serve in inspection 
of widely various weights (by Government officials in Hungary), 
was lately brought before the Buda-Pesth Academy by Herr von 


complete observation of the descending and ascending light-curve | Krasper (see Wied, Beibl. No. 9, p- 638). Among other features, 


44 


the prism-shaped steel bed, on which the middle knife-edge rests, 
is easily drawn out with the finger from the swallow-tail shaped 
rollers between which it is passed in the body of the balance. 
The beam can thus be easily removed and replaced. The balance 
rests on four feet. The stopping and raising arrangement 1s con- 
tained in a horizontal frame. Each weighing scale hangs on a 
conical point. Passing on to the reading, we find that the accu- 
racy with which the balance works is, with 20 kg. weight, 2mg., 
with 500, 31 mg. ; and this is gained by substituting for the 
pointer an optical arrangement on the beam, consisting of two 
achromatic glass prisms, which render parallel the rays from 
opposite directions and send them to a telescope placed before 
the balance. At the two sides of the balance, about 2m. to 4m. 
from the middle knife-edge, two scales are set (best on the walls 
of the room) ; the images of these scales move in the field of the 
telescope beside each other in opposite directions, and so the 
corresponding divisions can be read off. These readings are 
independent of vibrations of the telescope, and are much more 
exact than those with telescope and cross threads, not to speak 
of the common pointer. The arrangement also permits of the 
centre of gravity of the balance being placed lower, the stability 
increased, &c, The weight of the balance is scarcely 20kg., 
though both scales can carry 20 kg. weight. 


EXPERIMENTS by Forbes in 1831 and by some others since 
seemed to warrant the view, now commonly held, that the metals 
fall into the same series as regards conduction of electricity and 
conduction of heat, that the quotient of the heat conductivity by 
electric conductivity is nearly constant. Herr H. F. Weber, 
inclined to doubt this as contradicting the view (proved for gases 
and liquids) that the amount of heat transferred within a substance 
from layer to layer is most intimately connected with the specific 
heat of unit volume, made new experiments in this relation 
(which he has described to the Berlin Academy). He measured 
the heat-conduction by observing the cooling of various metal 
rings ina space at constant temperature, and the electric conduct- 
ing power of the same rings, by noting their deadening effect on 
the oscillations of a magnet. The result confirmed his anticipa- 
tions, the quotient of heat-conduction by electric conduction 
being found in the closest connection with the specific heat of 
unit volume, Experiments by a different electrical method for 
metals conducting electricity badly (lead, bismuth, &c.) and for 
mercury gave the same result. (Ten metals in all were examined.) 
On the other hand, non-metallic conductors of electricity do not 
show the relation in question ; e.g. the heat-conduction of carbon 
is at least twenty to thirty times greater than that calculated 
from the electric conductivity and the specific heat, Thus the 
relation seems to be connected with the metallic nature of the 
substance. Herr Weber found the heat-conducting power of all 
the solid metals examined to decrease with increasing tempera- 
ture, but at a considerably less rate than the electric conductivity. 
He further offers explanations of the erroneous view adopted, 
noting, zfer alia, that the experiments in one case, though 
exact, were on too few metals, and these had nearly the same 
specific heat, 


Pror. R. B. WARDER of Haverford College (Pennsylvania) 
and Mr. W. P. Shipley have investigated the configurations 
assumed by floating magnets in a magnetic fluid. They have 
modified Prof. Mayer’s original experiment by surrounding the 
vessel of water with a coil of wire traversed by a current, thus 
producing a field of force which, while still symmetrical about 
the centre, differs in several respects, the lines of force not being 
so greatly concentrated near the centre. Diagrams of various 
configurations are given by these experimenters in the American 
Fournal of Science for October. As even a single one-fluid cell 
produces a current sufficient to show these results, they ought to 
be easy of repetition. 


A COMPREHENSIVE memoir on the theory of the radiometer, 
by M. Mees, appears in the Proceedings of the Amsterdam 
Academy, and (in pretty full abstract) in Wied. Beibl., No. 7. 
The author, after criticismg the various theories that have been 
enumerated, which he arranges in three classes, offers his own 


ieee: of the phenomena (which cannot be briefly stated 
ere). 


A FEW months ago we drew attention to certain results 
published by Herr Exner of Vienna, relative to thermoelectricity, 
and which were at variance with all the body of evidence existing 
in that branch of science. Herr Exner had in fact asserted that 
an antimony-bismuth couple possesses thermoelectric powers only 
so long as one of the two metals is in contact with oxygen or 


NATURE 


peirdlsN penance on Ee 


| Vov. 11, 1880 


with a gas capable of acting on one of them. The wish we then 
expressed that some independent observations might be made by 
other physicists has met with a response across the Atlantic. 
Prof. C. A. Young of Princeton, N.J., communicated to the 
recent meeting of the American Association a paper on the 
thermoelectric power of a platinum-iron couple zz vacuo. The 
crucial experiment was made with an exhausted glass tube con- 
taining an iron wire with platinum terminals, the terminals being 
again fastened to iron wires leading to a galvanometer. The 
tube was exhausted to one-millionth of an atmosphere. On 
laying the apparatus in the sunlight and alternately shading the 
internal or external junctions an electromotive force could be 
produced, which was found to be equal in every case. The 
conclusion Prof. Young draws from the experiment is that Exner 
is wrong in his statement that thermoelectric electromotive force 
is due to the action of the gaseous media in which the metals are 
plunged. The experiment was conducted in Mr, Edison’s 
laboratory at Menlo Park. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


THE glacier of the Zarafshan, one of the greatest in Central 
Asia, which has hitherto been very imperfectly known, was ex- 
plored during this summer by MM. Mushketoff, geologist, and 
Ivanoff. The exploration was quite successful, and at the last 
meeting, October 26, of the Mineralogical Society at St. Peters- 
burg, Prof. Mushketoff read a paper on his explorations. The 
lower extremity of the glacier is at the height of 9000 feet. The 
Galtcha people, who inhabit the upper valley of the Zarafshan, 
have never ascended the glacier ; they say that on the summit of 
it there are two great pillars of stone, between which the traveller 
must go, and that the pillars would certainly crush together if 
any one ventured into the icy solitude. On August 25 the party 
began the ascent of the glacier on a very steep slope covered 
with blocks and moraines. A tunnel, no less than ;3500 feet 
long, runs under the glacier, being the bed of the Macha River. 
After two days’ travel the party had done seven miles on the 
glacier. The temperature during the day was as high as 40° Cels., 
and during the night as low as — 8° ; some Galtchas who accom- 
panied the party fell ill with fever. On the fourth day the party 
reached the first watershed, or rather the first iceshed; the 
whole length of the glacier to this point was sixteen miles, the 
width being one mile ; six other glaciers, each of which is greater 
than the greatest Alpine glaciers, fed the principal one, At the 
head of it there is a wide c?ygue opening to the east; several 
peaks around it reach 20,000 feet. The descent on the other 
slope of the mountain ridge was far more steep and difficult than 
the ascent ; the crevasses are very numerous and the glacier 
has several great ‘‘ice-falls,” the inclination of which is no less 
than 50 degrees ; the party was compelled to make use of small 
anchors and to cut steps in the ice. Two men were unwell and 
quite unable to go further when the party reached the foot of 
the eastern slope, after a very difficult journey. 


THE last number of the Zzves/ya of the Russian Geographical 
Society contains a letter from Dr. Miklukho-Maclay. — After 
having visited the islands of New Caledonia, Lifu, New Hebrides, 
Admiralty, Louisiade, &c., he reached, about the end of January, 
1880, the south-eastern coast of New Guinea ; here he explored 
several points of the coast, and thence went to the islands of the 
Torres Strait and to Somerset, to study the population of 
Northern Australia. On his voyage from Vaihan Island to 
Sydney he stopped at several points of the eastern coast. From 
Sydney M. Maclay proposes to goto Japan, and thence to return 
to Russia. During his stay in Brisbane he was very kindly 
received by the local government and by private persons, who 
have much facilitated his anatomical studies by allowing him to 
work in the old museum and to make use of the photography of 
the topographical department. The journey in the interior of 
Queensland was very much facilitated by the cordial reception 
he received from the squatters, and by the kind permission to 
travel gratuitously along all the railways. M. Maclay expresses, 
in a letter addressed to the Go/os, his thanks to the Australians 
for the reception he met from them, and wishes that all men of 
science were so kindly received in Russia. On August 12 he 
was in the house of J. B. Bellat Jimbor, near Dallby, The 
Russian public subscription has already reached 606/. which he 
received at Sydney. 


A Goop example is being set by the Tashkent College. 
During the summer fourteen pupils of the College, under the 


) 


Nov. tt, 1880] 


NATURE 


45 


direction of their Professor of Natwal History, M. Shelting, 
made an excursion in the Ala-taou Mountains, Numerous 
measurements of heights were made during the journey, guod 
zoological, botanical, and geological collections, for the Museum 
of the College, were made, and a detailed diary of the excursion 
was kept by the scholars. The students of the Tashkent 
Normal School, as well as the pupils of the College of Verny, 
have also made scientific journeys for the exploration of the 
neighbourhood, and we learn that the College of Orenburg has 
requested tickets at reduced rates from the railway company for 
undertaking next summer a series of explorations in that little 
known but very interesting province. We cannot but wish that 
the colleges and schools of Western Europe would follow these 
examples ; what an excellent training in natural science might 
thus be given, and what a mass of valuable information might 
be collected. 


THE members of the scientific expedition which was sent 
out by the St. Petersburg and Moscow Societies of Naturalists 
for the exploration of the White Sea and of the Murmanian 
coast of the Arctic Ocean, and which consisted of Professors 
Wagner, Bogdanoff, Tsenkovsky, and eight students of the 
University, have returned after having done some very successful 
work ; they bring home very rich zoological and geological col- 
lections. : Professors Wagner and Tsenkoysky stayed throughout 
the summer at the Solovetsky Islands ; M. Lavroff in Kanda- 
laksha Bay; Prof. Bogdanoff travelled along the whole coast 
to Vadsé ; MM. Koudravtreff and Pleske, geologists, have 
travelled from Kandalaksha to Kola ; others have explored the 
flora and the fauna of the ocean; Prof. Bogdanoff has also 
studied the fishing. 


Baron A. voN HuGEL is now engaged in writing a work 
upon Fiji, where he travelled and spent some time, making 
extremely extensive and complete anthropological collections. 
The work will be more particularly an ethnological one, and 
most of the weapons, fabrics, and other ethnographic articles 
are being figured to accompany the text. The crania collected 
by Baron von Hugel have already been acquired by the Royal 
College of Surgeons, and exhaustively described by Prof. 
Flower. ; 

WE notice the appearance of an important work published by 
the Russian Geographical and Economical Societies in the first 
volume of a ‘‘ Collection of Materials for the Knowledge of the 
Russian Commune.” It contains detailed descriptions of the 
communes of the Governments Ryazan, by M. Semenoff, pre- 
sident of the Russian Geographical Society, MM. Litochenko, 
Zlatovratsky, Mme. Yakouchkin, &c.; a very complete biblio- 
graphical index of the literature concerning the communes of 
Russia and of Western Europe. 


A TELEGRAM has been received at St. Petersburg from Col. 
Prejevalsky, dated from Urga, the Ist inst., stating that during 
the spring and summer of this year he surveyed a part of the 
basin of the Upper Hoang-ho and the Lake Koko Nor. He 
also passed through Alashan, in the centre of the Gobi desert, to 
Urga. Col. Prejevalsky states that during the expedition he 
traversed a distance of 7200 versts, and that he has succeeded in 
obtaining valuable scientific results. 


THE death is announced, on his passage home from West 
Africa, of Count de Semellé, who has been recently exploring on 
the Lower Niger. 


THE new Bulletin of the Société Khédiviale de Géographie 
contains a paper by General Purdy-Pacha on the country between 
Dara and Henftah El Nabass, together with a map of that 
portion of Darfur, and another on Medina twenty years ago, 
by Col. Mohamed Sadik-Bey, illustrated by two engravings. 


THE Church Missionary Society have received news that the 
Rey. P. O'Flaherty, their new agent in Uganda, and Mr. C. 
Stokes, with the Waganda chiefs and a large caravan, started 
from Saadaui for the interior on August 9, but in little more 
than three weeks Mr. O‘Flaherty was taken ill at Kidete, and 
will be unable to proceed to the Victoria Nyanza at present. 


THE same Society have also received letters from various 
members of the Nyanza mission, giving a much more favourable 
report of their position in Uganda than had reached England 
some time back. Rev. G. Litchfield had in consequence of ill- 
health made an attempt to push northwards to Lado, in order to 
consult Dr. Emin Effendi. In this he unfortunately failed, 
being stopped by Kabba Rega, the king of Unporo, who has 


seized M’ruli and other posts vacated by the Egyptians since 
Col. Gordon’s departure. Mr. Litchfield accordingly returned 
to Rubaga, and, crossing the lake, proceeded to Upui, hoping 
eventually to get to Upwapwa, where Dr. Baxter is stationed. 


MEssRs. CAMERON AND Picort, of the China Inland Mission, 
have made a journey of eight months through a great part of 
Manchuria and a portion of Mongolia, From the treaty port of 
Newchwang Mr. Pigott went on to Moukden, while Mr. Cameron 
proceeded along the coast in an easterly direction by the borders 
of Corea, and then northwards to Moukden, They next journeyed 
through part of Mongolia into Kirin, which at first they found 
fertile and well-wooded, but afterwards the country became wild, 
poor, and sparsely populated. The city of Kirin was reached 
by a long steep descent through fine scenery. Fine teams of 
oxen were here met with, comparing favourably with some of 
our best breeds. After spending a few days at Kirin the two 
missionaries returned overland to Peking, passing the Great 
Wall at Shan-hai-kwan or Ling-yii-hsien. 


Messrs. RILEY AND CLARKE, of the same Society’s station 
at Chungking, have recently paid a visit to some Lolo villages 
in Southern Szechuen. These mountaineers for the most part 
live in inaccessible fastnesses beyond the reach of the Chinese 
authorities, and are not confined to Szechuen and Yiinnan, but 
under the designations of Laos and sundry other names are 
found throughout the extensive regions of Annam, Siam, and 
Burmah. Hardly anything is yet known of the Chinese Lolos 
and their manners and customs, but before long the agents of 
the China Inland Mission in the south-west will, it may be 
hoped, find means to collect information regarding them. 


ON A DISTURBING INFINITY IN LORD 
RAYLEIGH’S SOLUTION FOR WAVES IN 
A PLANE VORTEX STRATUM} 


LORD RAYLEIGH’S solution involves a formula equivalent 
aT 
v ay 

to dy Cola awe u=o 


Mm 


Where wv denotes the maximum value of the y-component of 
velocity ; 


” m ” 


PARRY Abele) the translational velocity of the vortex- 
stratum when undisturbed, which is in the x-direction, and is a 
function of y ; 

” ” ” 


a constant such that — is the wave-length ; 


the vibrational speed, ora constant such that 


27 is the period. 
n 


Now a vortex stratum is stable, if on one side it is bounded 
by a fixed plane, and if the vorticity (or value of 2) diminishes 


as we travel (ideally) from this plane, except in places (if any) 
where it is constant. , 
To fulfil this condition, suppose a fixed bounding plane to 


contain 0x and be perpendicular to oy ; and let = have its 


greatest value when y = 0, and decrease continuously, or by one 
or more abrupt changes, from this value, to zero at y =@ and 
for all greater values of 7. 

It is easily proved that the wave-velocity, whatever be the 
wave-length, is intermediate between the greatest and least 
values of 7. Hence for a certain value of y between o and a, 
the translational velocity is equal to the wave-velocity, or 


Tait 


m 
bracket in Lord Rayleigh’s formula is infinite unless, for the 
2 


Hence for this value of y the second term within the 


7 vanishes. 
ay = . . . 
We evade entirely the consideration of this infinity if we take 


only the case of a layer of constant vorticity (= = constant 


same value of 7, 


from y = 0 toy = a), as for this case the formula is simply 
a aed 
aye m*d, 


t By Sir William Thomson. British Association, Swansea, Section A. 


46 


but the interpretation of the infinity which occurs in the more 
comprehensive formula suggests an examination of the stream- 
lines by which its interpretation becomes obvious, and_ which 
proves that even in the case of constant vorticity the motion has 
a startlingly peculiar character at the place where the translational 
velocity is equal to the wave velocity. This peculiarity is repre- 
sented by the annexed diagram, which is most easily understood 


eS eee ee 


<a> 


if we imagine the translational velocities at y = 0 and y =a to 
be in opposite directions, and of such magnitude that the wave 
velocity is zero ; so that we have the case of standing waves. 
For this case the stream-lines are as represented in the annexed 
diagram, in which the region of translational velocity greater 
than wave-propagational velocity is separated from the region 
of translational velocity less than wave propagational velocity by 
a cat’s-eye border pattern of elliptic whirls. 


MINERAL RESOURCES OF NEWFOUNDLAND 


(@ of copper have been found in all the older formations 

in Newfoundland, from the Laurentian gneiss at the base, 
to the Carboniferous series at the summit, the qualities of which 
vary greatly with the age and condition of the rocks with which 
they are associated, Thus in the Laurentian series the rich ores 
of variegated and sometimes grey sulphide of copper are more 
frequent than any other, and are for the most part in white 
quartz veins intersecting the strata; but while thege ores have in 
many cases been found on analysis to yield at the rate of from 50 
to 70 per cent. of metal, the quantities available at any one place 
hitherto tested have never yet been found sufficient to warrant 
an outlay of capital. 

In the succeeding series, which I conceive to be the equivalent 
of the Huronian of Canada, and have provisionally called 
intermediate, as being intermediately situated between rocks of 
the Laurentian and Primordial Silurian ages, very rich ores of 
copper are likewise well known at many parts, chiefly in white 
quartz veins, and also in faults and dislocations, particularly near 
the junction with the fossiliferous Primordial, in which cases the 
indications may sometimes be regarded as favourable for the 
probable future development of mines. Several attempts have 
already been made in this direction at various parts of the 
distribution of the series, but except at a few places, chiefly near 
the junction with the newer formations, with but slender 
prospect of a successful issue. 

By reference to the Custom House returns of exports I find 
that the amount and value of copper ore shipped at St. John’s 
between the years 1854 and 1864 inclusive was as follows :— 
Ore, 6274 tons, value $22,980=4,596/. sterling. The places 
where this ore was raised are not specified, but I believe it was 
all derived from rocks of intermediate age, by which the greater 
part of the Peninsula of Avalon is occupied. 

In addition to the above export from St. John’s, 544 tons, 
valued at $19,179 were exported between the years 1875 and 
1879 ; but a considerable, if not the larger portion of this ore 
was produced from Tilt Coye and other of the early openings in 
Notre Dame Bay. 

Although the presence of copper is frequently indicated by 
stains of green carbonate and small nests of yellow sulphuret in 
the lower Primordial strata, I am not aware of any instances 
where the ores occur in mass, or in intersecting veins or lodes, 
except it may be close to their immediate junction with the older 
series on which they repose unconformably or butt up against in 
faults, At some parts of their distribution, such as in the 


NATURE 


OE 


[NVov. 11, 1880 


islands of Conception Bay, these older Silurian rocks are but very 
little disturbed, resting in nearly a horizontal attitude, and 
scarcely at all altered ; at other parts, such as Trinity Bay, St. 
Mary’s Bay, Langlois Island of the Miquelons and elsewhere, 
they are greatly disturbed by intrusions of igneous rock, and 
occasionally to some extent metamorphosed ; but they are almost 
everywhere crowded with organic remains, the types of which 
indicate the ages they represent, to extend from the horizon of 
Primordial or Cambrian to the newer Potsdam Group of the 
United States and Canada. Strata representative of Potsdam, 
Calciferous, and Levis ages, containing abundance of typical 
fossils, are extensively displayed on the western and northern 
parts of the island, the former in many cases resting directly on 
Laurentian gneiss unconformably ; but, except it may be to a 
very limited extent in Canada Bay, near the Cloud Mountains, 
I am not aware of any deposits older than the Potsdam at these 
parts, nor have I seen indications of the presence of the Huronian 
or intermediate system north of Bonavista Bay, or anywhere 
near the western shores. Galena in calcareous veins is of fre- 
quent occurrence in these Lower Silurian rocks, but except in 
small isolated crystals or patches the ores of copper are particu- 
larly rare, and in no case such as to be considered economically 
valuable. 

But the cupriferous formations proper of Newfoundland, 
according to my view of the structure, lie unconformably above 
all the former, and consist mainly of a set of metamorphic and’ 
igneous rocks, corresponding exactly in mineral character and 
condition with the rocks of the Eastern Townships of Canada 
described by Sir Wm. Logan under the title of the Quebec 
Group. Iam quite aware that these views, as regards the struc- 
ture, are at variance with those entertained by several dis- 
tinguished geologists in Canada (whose opinions, however, do. 
not seem to be very unanimous on the subject); and there can- 
not bea doubt that in many cases the evidences appear to be so 
contradictory at different localities that the difficulties in arriving 
at the truth are exceedingly great. Nevertheless, so far as my 
own observations go, and I have studied the succession at nearly 
all parts of their distribution in Newfoundland, I am led to the 
conclusion that the stratigraphical position of this metamorphic 
group belongs to a horizon intermediate between the Calciferous 
and Hudson River group, probably chiefly of Chazy age, which 
is in accord with the structure of Sir W. E. Logan, 

The group consists of chloritic, dioritic, and felsite slates, 
interstratified with compact diorites, bands of red jasper, dolo- 
mites, great masses of serpentine, or serpentinous rock, and vol- 
canic products. In nearly all these rocks the ores of copper are 
more or less disseminated ; but it is amongst the schistose portions, 
especially the clorite slates, that they seem to be most abundant, 
and it is in rocks of that quality chiefly where the principal 
mining operations have hitherto been conducted. At some parts 
of the distribution these rocks are distinctly stratified, the lines 
of deposit being well displayed in layers of different quality : 
beds of jasper, conglomerate, &c. The whole series is magne- 
sian, more or less, but particularly towards the top, which 
appears to be the horizon of the serpentinous masses, with large 
accumulations of volcanic ash. Towards the base the rocks 
become calcareous, the cliffs of strata much incrusted with car- 
bonate of lime; and some strata of a pure white crystalline 
limestone occur which are fossiliferous. The fossils are too 
obscure to be identified with certainty; but one form bears a 
strong resemblance to a JJaclurea, another to a Bellerophon, a 
third to a Merchisonia, and some rather large-sized Evcrinite 
stems, Near the horizon of this limestone moreover we find a 
set of black slates which contain graptolites. Vast intrusive 
masses of granitoid rock, and great dykes of greenstone 
melaphyre and other traps intersect the formation. 

The only mines of importance in active operation up to the 
present time are all situated in Notre Dame Bay, and these are 
Union Mine Tilt Cove, Betts Cove Mine, Colchester, in south- 
west arm of Green Bay, Little Bay Mine, Rabbit's Arm, and 
Seal Bay. Many openings and minor workings have also been 
made at various parts of the bay, at each of which the ores of 
copper were more or less indicated, some of which may eventu- 
ally, when capital and skilled labour are brought to bear, be 
found sufficiently remunerative to be worked to advantage. 

Tt will be seen by the annexed memoranda that the total value 
of the copper and nickel ore extracted since 1854, but by far the 
larger proportion since 1864, when the Union Mine Tilt Cove 
was first opened by Mr, Smith McKay, amounts to nearly one 
million sterling, 


Vou. 11, 1880] 


NATURE 


47 


Memoranda showing the Quantities and Values of Copper and 
Nickel Ores exported from the [sland of Newfoundland in the 
undermentioned Years 


| = On i 
Years. Parts cleared from. | Copper. “4 Value. ars 
= @e 
1854 | Tons. |Tons.| Dollars. |Dollars. 
to | St. John’s 6273 22,980 
1864) | 
1825) | ; 
to ” | 5442 19,179 
1879} lex 
Total St. John’s | age 42,159 
1869 | Union Mine Tilt Cove} 5,938 | 30] 190,016] 7,200 
1870 Ap 4,218 | 88] 134,976] 8,800 
1871 5 1,92 7 61,568 700 
1872 | 5 4,774°| 8] 152,768] 25,60 
1873 5 | 5414 | 233 | 189,490) 9,320 
1874 35 4,346 | — | 104,304) — 
1875 > 4,838 17 | 179,co6| 1,360 
1876 9 6,464 | 28] 232,704] 2,800 
1877 ” 5,389 | — | 194,004} — 
1878 ” 4,450 = 97,966 aaa 
1879 a 1,964 | — | 35,352} — 
Total Tilt Cove... | 49,719 | 411 |1,572,154 | 32,740 
1875 Bett’s Cove 6,280 232, 360 
1876 ag 18,670 456,481 
1877 » 42,065 1,093,768 
1878 ” 31,370 690, 140 
1878 Regulus 750 34,500 
1879 9 26,4213 475,587 
Total Bett’s Cove ... | 125,556} 2,982,836 


The ores returned for 1878-79 were largely derived from Little 
Bay Mine and partly from Colchester, all belonging to the Bett’s 
Cove Mining Company. 

Thus the total value of the ores of copper and nickel exported 
since 1854 amounts to $4,629,889, or nearly £1,000,000 sterling, 

ALEX. MURRAY 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


CAMBRIDGE.—In Groups C and E of the Higher Local 
Examination this year there were respectively fifty-four and 
ninety-nine candidates ; five obtained a first class in Group C 
(Mathematics) and eight a first class in Group E (Natural 
Science) ; nine candidates failed in Group C, and twenty-six 

failed in Group E. Three candidates answered the questions in 
Differential and Integral Calculus, and showed considerable 
knowledge. In botany a fair average of proficiency was attained ; 
in geology the papers were below the average. In zoology inferior 
text-books had been too much preferred, to the exclusion very 
largely of practical work. The work in chemistry was unequal, 
but some candidates showed a very good acquaintance with the 
details of manipulation. Physics can scarcely be said as yet to 
be studied by the candidates. In physiology the answers were 

_ in some cases accurate and to the point, but the majority of 

- candidates failed. 

The elections to the Council of the Senate were made on 
Monday, and show in a very practical manner that residents are 
in favour of considerable improvement in University matters. 
Only one member who approves of the retention of Greek as a 
universal subject in the ‘‘ Little-go” was elected, viz., Mr. G. 

_ F. Browne, whose place in the Council is due to his active work 
in connection with the University Local Examinations and his 

_ knowledge of the intentions of the University Commissioners, as 
one of their secretaries, 


® Chiefly from Huronian rocks. 
? Partly from openings in Notre Dame Bay. 
3 Cloanthite and Millarite. 


Dr, Phear, Professors Cayley and Liveing, and Mr. Peile, are 
among those who were elected to the Council well known for 
their scientific eminence and breadth of view. 

Prof. Stokes, Lord Rayleigh, and Mr. Vines were added to 
the Council of the Philosophical Society at its annual meeting. 

Mr. Forbes, Prosector to the Zoological Society, has been 
elected to a Fellowship at St. John’s College. 

AT an examination held on Wednesday, October 27th ult., 
Mr. M. Milburn, of Longtoun, was elected to a vacant bursary 
in connection with the ‘* Young” Chair of Technical Chemistry, 
Anderson’s College, Glasgow. The bursary, which is of the 
value of 50/., and tenable for three years, is the gift of Mr, 
James Young, LL.D., F.R.S., of Kelly and Dullis, founder of 
the Chair, 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


\ Journal de Physique, October.—Experimental verification by 
S. Carnot, of the principle he discovered, by M. Lippmann,— 
Apparatus and experiments for elementary demonstration in 
optics, by M. Garicl.—Influence of velocity of propagation of 
sound in the shock of elastic bodies, by M. Elie.—New form of 
plates for air pumps, by M. Terquem.—Proceedings of the 
Physical Society of St. Petersburg (including papers, in abstract, 
on the chemical and photographic action of light, the transmission 
of the current in water with unequal platina electrodes, variations 
of volume and coefficient of elasticity of palladium and its alloys 
under the influence of absorbed hydrogen, &c.). 

Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, No. 18, September 30.—On the 
relation between terrestrial storms and the planetary relations of 
the solar system, by Prof. Zenger.—Excursions (geological) in 
the neighbourhood of Modica, by Prof. Lancetta.—Palzonto- 
logical studies in Bohemia, by Prof, Fritsch.—Beats, the third 
sound of Tartini, and the differential resultant sounds of Helm- 
holtz, by Dr. Crotti. 

No. 19, October 15.—New registering pluviometer, by S. 
Grimaldi.—New apparatus with petroleum heating, by S. Esser, 
—On a new variety (Rosterite) of Elban beryl, by Prof. 
Grattarola. 

Kosmos, July 1880, contains a translation of Prof. Huxley’s 
“The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species” (vide NATURE, 
vol. xxii. p. 1).—Dr. Ernst Krause’s sketch of the developmental 
history of the History of Development.—Dr. H. Miiller, the 
importance of Alpine flowers in connection with the “flower 
theory.” —H. Schneider, observations on some apes.—Prof. Dr. 
Caspary, the conception of a soul and its significance in connec- 
tion with modern psychology.—Short contributions and extracts 
from journals (among the short articles is one on the resemblance 
between flowers and fruit, by Hermann Miiller, and on the 
occurrence of a five-toed example of Archibuteo lagopus, by W. 
von Reichenau). 

August, 1880.—Dr. Oscar Schmidt, the severance of species 
and natural selection.—Dr. Ernst Krause, sketch of the develop- 
mental history of the History of Development, No 2.—Dr. 
Herman Miller, on the development of the colours of flowers. — 
Prof. A. H. Sayce, on the history of writing (translation),— 
Short contributions and extracts from journals.—Literature and 
critical notices, 

Revue des Sciences Naturelies, September,—M. Mathias Duval, 
on the development of the spermatozoa in the frog (plates 3 ard 
4).—M. Lavocat, on the construction of the extremities of the 
limbs.—Dr. A. Godron, on the absence of a glume in the lateral 
spikelets of Lolium.—M. Leymerie, sketch of the Pyrenees of 
the Aude.—Notices of French memoirs on zoology, botany, 
and geology.—Bibliography and notice of the death of Dr. A. 
Godron. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Chemical Society, November 4.—Prof. H. E. Roscoe in 
the chair.—The following papers were read :—On the com- 
pounds of vanadium and sulphur, by E. W. E. Kay. The 
author shows that the products obtained by Berzelius are oxy- 
compounds, that the substance obtained by Berzelius in the dry 
way is a true trisulphide of vanadium V,S,; the disulphide and 
pentasulphide have also been prepared and are described in the 
present paper.—On the atmospheric oxidation of phosphorus 
and some reactions of ozone and peroxide of hydrogen, by C. T. 
Kingzett. The author concludes that in the above oxidation 
both ozone and peroxide of hydrogen are formed, the former 


48 


WNALORE 


[Vov. 11, 1880 


Jn nn nn nn TErEErnI EY San 


passes on in the current of air, the latter remains in the water in 
which the phosphorus is oxidised. In several experiments the 
proportion of peroxide of hydrogen to the ozone formed was as 
1 to 2.—On the action of zinc ethyl on benzoylic cyanide, by E. 
Frankland and D. A. Louis. The product of this reaction, an 
amber-coloured jelly, was first decomposed and then extracted 
with alcohol, about 3 per cent. of a substance C,,H,,NO,, 
named provisionally benzcyanidin, crystallising in colourless 
needles, was obtained. Besides this body an_unstable sub- 
stance was obtained which could not be purified, but which 
on oxidation with bichromate gave propiophenone C,H,,O. 
—On the action of zinc-ethyl on cyanogen, by E. Frank- 
land and C. C. Graham. The product of this reaction was a 
solid mass, which on heating to 120° yielded a colourless liquid 
which was propionitrile C,H,;N., the other product of the 
reaction being zine cyanide.—On bismuth and bismuth com- 
pounds, by M. M. P. Muir, G. B. Hoffmeister, and C. E. 
Robbs. The relative stabilities towards heat and reducing agents 
of the oxides, and towards heat of the hydrates are discussed, 
also the action of chlorine and bromine on the oxides. An 
attempt is made to give structural] formula for these bodies, in which 
bismuth is trivalent. —On the colour-properties and relations of the 
metals copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, manganese, and chromium, 
by T. Bayley. The author has carefully compared the colours 
of solutions of salts of the above metals and various mixtures 
thereof, and especially those mixtures which yield colourless or 
neutral grey solutions,—Action of diazo-naphthalin on salicylic 
acid, by Perey Frankland.—On the basic sulphates of iron, by 
Spencer Pickering.—Fourth report on researches in chemical 
dynamics, by C. R. A. Wright, E. H. Rennie, and A. E. 
Menke.—On some naphthalin derivatives, by C. E. Armstrong 
and N. C. Graham,—On acetylorthoamidobenzoie acid, by P. 
P. Bedson and A. J. King. 
VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, October 21.—On the 
propagation of ball and cylinder waves of finite width of vibra- 
tion, by Dr. Tumlirz.—On the law of convulsive action (con- 
tinued), by Prof. Stricker.—On the blood vessels of the valves 
of the heart, by Dr. Langer.—On the question of arrangement 
in the pyridin and chinolin series, by Dr. Skraup,—Experiments 
on the magnetic behaviour of iron, by Herr Haubner.—On the 
relation of the daily and yearly variation of temperature to the 
sun spot period, by Herr Liznar. 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, November 2.—M. Edm, Becquerel 
in the chair.—The following papers were read :—New observa- 
tions on the etiology and prevention of chardon, by M. Pasteur. 
He gives a letter written by Baron von Seebach (Saxon Minister 
in Paris) to M. Tissandier in 1865, stating facts which afford 
striking confirmation of M. Pasteur’s views as to the causes of 
the disease.—On the heat of formation of ethers formed by 
hydracids, by M. Berthelot. In these experiments he used his 
calorimetric detonator.—Heat of formation of sulphide of 
carbon, by M. Berthelot. The combustion of liquid sulphide of 
carbon liberates +246°6 cal. (Favre and Silbermann obtained 
258°5 cal., but they overlooked the formation of sulphuric acid). 
Sulphide of carbon is formed with absorption of heat from 
its solid elements, but there is probably liberation of heat 
from gaseous sulphur and carbon.—On volcanic thunderstorms, 
by M. Faye. In paroxysmal eruptions the enormous amount of 
steam ejected causes yolcanic thunderstorms, which are quite 
distinct from ordinary thunderstorms, especially in the absence 
of gyratory moyements, the complete immobility of the volcanic 
storm (which is confined to the column of ascending clouds), 
and the fact that no flashes occur without the presence of 
ashes. The phenomena are very much those of the Armstrong 
electric machine. Further, there is never any mention of hail ; 
and M. Faye thinks it is probably never produced, as it is the 
product of vast gyratory movements not found in volcanic 
clouds. He suggests the desirability of studying directly the 
traces of electricity in the vapours rising from the crater of 
Vesuvius.—On photographs of nebule, by M. Janssen. The 
photography of a very bright nebula is now comparatively easy, 
if one content oneself with the most luminous part, but extremely 
difficult if a complete image be sought comparable to those given 
by our large instruments. The latter is what we especially 
require, with a view to studying the important questions of 
variations of nebular structure, and calls for many able workers, 
furnished with the best instruments. M. Janssen is preparing 


observations of the kind at Meudon.—Observations of planets 


and comets, at Marseilles Observatory, by M. Stephan.—On the 
winter-egg of phylloxera, by M. Valery-Mayet. It seems certain 
that the hygrometric state of the air, generally very dry in 
Languedoc (where the author is), is the great obstacle to pro- 
duction of the winter egg. Whenever the sea-winds, which 
always blow in autumn, bring that region to the conditions of 
the climate in the west, the egg is produced.—Elements of the 
orbit of the new planet (217) discovered by M. Coggia.—On the 
resolution of algebraic equations ; examination of the method of 
Lagrange, by M. West.—On linear differential equations with 
rational coefficients, the solution of which depends on the 
quadrature of a rational function of the independent variable, 
and of an irrational algebraic product, by M. Dillner.— 
On a property of uniform functions of a variable con- 
nected by an algebraic relation, by M. Picard.—On the 
application of the photophone to study of the sounds which 
occur on the sun’s surface, by Prof. Bell. This was suggested 
by Mr. Bell in visiting the observatory at Meudon, M. Janssen 
put all the instruments at his disposal, and an opportunity was 
taken to explore a solar image 0°65 m. in diameter with the 
selenium cylinder. The phenomena were not sufficiently marked 
to justify one in affirming success, but Mr. Bell is hopeful of 
succeeding. M. Janssen has suggested the method of passing 
rapidly before an objective which should give conjugate images 
on the selenium apparatus, a series of solar photographs of one 
spot taken at intervals sufficient to show notable variations in 
the constitution of the spot. This is to be tried.—On the oxi- 
dation of mannite, by M. Pabst.—On the ferments of albu- 
minoid matters, by M. Duclaux. There are certainly over a 
hundred species, and of these he only knows twenty at present 
(the physiological conditions, z.e. of their existence), Previous 
classifications prove useless. He gives some general /raits. 
Inter alia, in milk the ferments change the caseine into soluble 
albumen, but while the aerobian:ferments do this in a slow and 
regular way, the anaerobians do it with liberation of carbonic 
acid and hydrogen, part of which becomes sulphuretted hydro- 
gen or even phosphides of hydrogen. In cheese-making the 
predominance of the aerobians has been unconsciously favoured. 
All the ferments studied are found in full activity in the stomach. 
They secrete soluble ferments, which are added to those of the 
organism.—Inoculation of symptomatic ciaréox by intrayenous 
injection, and immunity conferred on the calf, the sheep, and the 
goat by this process, by MM. Arloing, Cornevin, and Thomas. 


ue 


CONTENTS PAGE 

Dr. StemENs’ New Cure FoR SMOKE, By Dr. C. WILLIAM SIEMENS 
FERS Q¥ath Tilustvation) ss Yel in) = ces aes 
Tur Russtan Imperrat YacHT “‘LIVADIA” . . «= « 


ol te je Jeeeata 
A MEpicaL CATALOGDE 6) sine a0. cc) ilo anon stunning se eee 
Tue PurtosopHy oF LANGUAGE. By A. H. KEANE. «. « «© + © «+ 20 


Our Book SHELF :— 
Martineau’s ‘“Easy Lessons in Science”. . » + - © + = « = 
Molloy’s ‘‘ Outline of a Course of Natural Philosophy, with Speci- 
men Examination Papers’’. . I Ci kOe tr oe 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— - 
Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural Selection.—CHARLES Darwin, 
BRGS SoS fe Woop eRe Qe pile Mths eres.) od (ote Oe eae 
Geological Changes of Level.—Sir C. Wyvit_tE THOMSON, F.RiS.... 33 
“The first Volume of the Publications of the Chadlenger”—A 
Correction.—Prof. T. H. Huxtey,F.RS . 2. + = « © « 3 
Correspondence of Phenomena in Magnetic Storms,—WILL1aAM 
LSC CR Te OE Ol Den ire O oo 
Meteor.—Rev. S. J. Perry, F.R.S. . , 
Condition of Jupiter.—J. Ranp Capron. . 
Vox Angelica.—GEORGE RAYLEIGH VICARS 
Solids and Liquids at High Temperatures.—JoHN AITKEN 
Wire Torsion.—Professors Joun Perry and W. E. AYRTON 
Heat of Formation of a Compound.—A. P. LAURIE. . + 
The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho.—Surgeon 


cma ror ia cp ots’: 


. 
. 


H. B. 


Guppy. . « eo vo. é. ne eae 


The Thresher.—Francis P. PASCOE » « + + © + » » 8 0 © 35 
ILLusTRATIONS OF NEw oR Rare ANIMALS IN THE ZOOLOGICAL 
Society’s Livinc Cotxection, I. (With Illustrations). . + « « 3 
A SuccessFUL AFRICAN EXPEDITION «© + «© + « © . 5 
UnitEp STATES WEATHER Maps, DecemBeEr, 1878 . « «+ 
SEARLES VALENTINE WooOD - + + «+ © ++ 2 * © & 
NOTESH ie) Ge erie eat eee (es |= (ois arolmhmnemEn a 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 


+ 40 


PuysicaL NoTes . 


GroGraPHicaL NoTES .. + ee tote Q 
On a Disturninc InFinity 1N Lorp RAYLEIGH's SoLUTION FOR 


Waves IN A PLANE VORTEX STRATUM. By Sir WILLIAM THOMSON 
(With Diagram) i. «(eee a ce Satter 
MineRAL RESOURCES OF NEWFOUNDLAND. By Atex. MURRAY 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE + + + + + + + + 47 
ScrenTiric SERIALS . 0+ + *© © © © # ©") © © © uy ® 
SoclETIES AND ACADEMIES» + + * * * + * © + # & 


Hartwig’s Comet (1880d@) . . « « + = ote, gel ominee «ae 
Discovery ofa Comet . eS rou por re ay Rr 
Ceraski’s Variable Star . Ged sis gre, fopan hs, Meee ae! Bla 43 

: ove ae Foe re ei ey et roe 


WAU RE 


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1880 


THE FUTURE OF POLAR RESEARCH 


E have had quite a flood of Arctic news during the 
last few weeks, and the question as to the direc- 
tion to be taken by future Polar research is attracting 
attention in various quarters. Evidently those interested 
in this department of exploration are thinking that “some- 
thing ought to be done” ; but as to what that something 
should be, there is likely to be difference of opinion. It 
is unfortunate that the United States expedition sent out 
at the instigation of Capt. Howgate to found a Polar 
colony at Lady Franklin Sound, had to turn back through 
some defect in the engines of the Gw/zare. Had this ship 
been successful in reaching the proposed ground of the 
expedition’s work it would no doubt have given an im- 
petus to the scheme of Polar research which has gained 
the approval of the Arctic authorities of nearly all nations 
except our own. On the other side of the American con- 
tinent no news has been received from Mr. Gordon 
Bennett’s expedition in the Feanmette of later date than 
August, 1879, when that vessel was off Cape Serdze 
Kamen, all well, and on her way to Wrangel Land. All 
the sea within Behring Strait, both on the American and 
Asiatic side, was searched this summer by the Corwyz, 
but no trace of the Feaznefte was found. The conclusion 
from this that the expedition has come to grief, we have 
already pointed out is too hasty. Everything was in her 
favour when off the coasts of Kamtchatka last year, and if 
she had fair sea-way there can be no doubt that the expe- 
dition would take advantage of it, and push on as far 
northwards as was safe. We should not be surprised if a 
year hence the Feanmette might emerge by Behring Strait 
or by Novaya Zemlya with news of equal importance to 
that brought back by the Zege¢thof years ago. 

But perhaps the most generally interesting expedition 
on the part of the Americans is that which returned some 
weeks ago from searching for further relics of the crews 
of the Zvedus and Terrvov. With the details of this expe- 
dition our readers are already familiar. So far as further 
information concerning the fate of the Franklin expedition 
is concerned, the results have not been of much import- 
ance, though it would seem that the scientific results are 
of some value. What precisely these are remains to be 
seen. Had the handsome volume recently published by 
the U.S. Government under the able editorship of Prof. 
Nourse, containing the narrative of Capt. C. F. Hall’s 
second expedition, been issued before Lieut. Schwatka set 
out two years ago, we doubt if he would have thought it 
necessary to go over the same ground again.‘ Hall’s 
devotion to the memory of Franklin is well known, and 
his enthusiasm for Arctic exploration was almost a 
religion ; his Podaris expedition will never be forgotten. 
In order to obtain certain news of the fate of Capt. Crozier 
and the 105 men who, in April, 1848, abandoned the Erebus 
and Zerror, Hall lived with the Eskimo in the neighbour- 
hood of Repulse Bay and King William Land for five 
yeafs, 1864-69. He, like Barry, also had heard of records 
possessed by the Eskimo, and to obtain these records he 

1 “ Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F. Hall.’’ 


Edited under the orders of the Hon. Secretary of the Na’ by Prof. J. E. 
Nourse, U.S.N. (Washington: Government Printing Offive,)» ste 


VoL. xx11.—No. 577 


49 


submitted to become an Eskimo himself for all these 

years. With infinite tact and patience he carried out the 

object of his expedition, succeeded in visiting the scene of 
the memorable disaster, saw many signs of the presence 

of white men, obtained many relics, heard many stories 

from eye-witnesses of the sufferings of Crozier and his 

men when trying to make their way to the Fish River, 

but obtained not a shred of any kind of record. Among 

the things abandoned by the men in their last despairing 

efforts to reach a white settlement were certainly some 

books, but whether written or printed could not be ascer- 

tained. The poor Eskimo had no use for such strange 

things, and gave them to the children to play with, and 

long before Hall’s visit all trace of them had vanished. 

Indeed the information he obtained was of pretty much 

the same character as that just brought back by the ex- 

pedition under Lieut. Schwatka. The stories told to Hall 
by the Eskimo as to the wanderings and sufferings of the 
white men are interesting, though sad. Apart from the 
immediate object of his expedition, Hall’s long residence 
with the Eskimo, with whom he lived as one of them- 
selves, yielded results of great interest. He lived in their 
igloos, ate their food, wore their clothing, shared their 
joys and sorrows, joined in their feasts, their dances, and 
their hunts; in short, saw more of Eskimo life than 
probably eny one has done before or since. The details 
given in his journals are a contribution of great value to 
a knowledge of the Eskimo, and the self-denial of the 
high-minded and sterlingly honest man in submitting 
to this kind of life for so many years, for so noble 
a purpose, raises him to the rank of a hero. The 
volume edited by Prof. Nourse, with its many illus- 
trations and handsome get-up, might well put our own 
Government to shame. Prof. Nourse has done his part 
of editor admirably, and his volume will be of permanent 
value. So successful has the work been that we believe 
a second edition has been issued. As the work is only 
recently published, it may fairly be recognised as a con-~ 
tribution to a knowledge of the Arctic situation. 

This is a good summer’s work for America. On the 
opposite side of the Pole some good work has also 
been done. The Dutch in their tiny vessel the W2llem 
Bérents have done some good dredging in the sea 
between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, while Mr. 
Leigh Smith has added greatly to his fame as an Arctic 
yachtsman by his work in Franz-Josef Land. He has as 
we have already told, greatly extended the known area of 
this archipelago, and shown fair grounds for believing 
that it extends polewards for a considerable distance, 
He has proved, as was done last year also, that this 
Arctic land is by no means difficult to reach in an 
average year, and this has an important bearing on 
Arctic research. Last week we gave a few details of 
what had been done along the Murmanian coast and the 
White Sea by the Russian party under Prof. Wagner 
and we know that Baron Nordenskjéld is spending the 
winter in St. Petersburg preparatory to undertaking his. 
expedition next year to the New Siberian Islands. 

All this is encouraging, though it would be still more 
so were these various efforts undertaken on some well- 
concerted plan. Already has the Geographical Society 
been asked to lend its influence to an expedition which 
we cannot but regard as an anachronism. We hear 
D 


50 NATURE 


much talk of the traditions of the English navy and the 
duty of England to be the first to reach the Pole. We 
fear the so-called traditions of the English navy must be 
made to conform to the requirements-of modern science if 
she is to do any useful work in Polar discovery, just as 
they have been compelled to do in order that our navy 
may be able to keep abreast of the fighting power of 
other nations. To squander 30,000/. in one huge attempt 
to reach the Pole would be as mad as for a merchant to 
embark all his capital in one hazardous undertaking. 
Polar research and Polar expeditions are not incom- 
patible, but as Dr. Neumayer showed in an admir- 
able address at the Danzig meeting of the German 
Association, the former must be subordinated to and 
guided by the results of the latter. Preparations are 
being made by nearly all the countries of Europe and 
by America for a regular Arctic siege, to begin in 1882; 
the days of Arctic campaigns are past. We have 
reached the precincts of the citadel itself, and now the 
sappers and miners must begin their slow but sure work, 
to be capped at the proper time by a grand assault. 
Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, 
the United States, and we believe Canada are all to take 
part in this great work by establishing observing stations 
at suitable points all round the Polar area ; while Italy is 
to send out next year a scientifically equipped expedition 
to the Antarctic region, our knowledge of which is meagre 
and uncertain, This last will really be an observing as 
well as an exploring expedition, preparatory to the esta- 
blishment of an Antarctic station. Should our Geogra- 
phical Society take any steps in the direction of Arctic 
work, we trust it will not be to encourage the foolish 
venture for which the country has been canvassed for 
subscriptions for years. We hope that Society will 
see that as a scientific body, its duty is to encourage 
a scientific method of work; and if it appeals to 
Government at all, let it be to urge it, for the honour 
of our country, to join in the concert of both hemi- 
spheres for the siege of the Polar citadel. We have 
already pointed out on several occasions the vast gains 
to science that might be expected from the work of 
a series of Polar observatories established on the plans so 
ably sketched by Lieut. Weyprecht. As Dr. Neumayer 
said in the address alluded to, men of science do not 
demand practical or so-called utilitarian reasons before 
giving their adhesion to any new work; it is enough if it 
can be shown that such work will conduce to the advance- 
ment of knowledge. And that Weyprecht’s scheme of 
Polar observatories, of which so many Governments 
approve, will lead to vast additions being made to scien- 
tific knowledge, no man of science needs to be told. In 
meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, biology, geology, and 
glacial physics, the gains would be immense; and the 
history of science has taught us over and over again that 
the surest path to practical and beneficent results is 
through the gate of pure scientific research. Every day is 
the science of meteorology becoming more and more im- 
portant ; but until we are thoroughly acquainted with the 
meteorology of the Arctic regions, that most practical of 
sciences is deprived of what is perhaps its most important 
factor. But one element of the international scheme is 
that of Polar exploration, conducted, however, on scien- 
tific method, and along lines indicated by a scientific 


[Vov. 18, 1880 


knowledge of Arctic conditions such as can only be 
obtained by permanent observing stations. What success is 
likely to result from Arctic work carried outon sucha method 
was triumphantly shown by Baron Nordenskjéld when he 
sailed along the North-East Passage inthe Vega. Why then 
should not England set up a station on Franz-Josef Land, 
and another say on some part of the American coast? 
Let the station be provided with the means of carrying 


out exploration in whatever direction and by whatever * 


means the results of continued observation may indicate 
—as far as the Pole itself, if need be. Unless we are 
blind to the teachings of science and the lessons of our 
last expensive expedition, it is clear that this is the only 
sure method of reaching the Pole, if it be thought abso- 
lutely necessary for the credit of England that she should 
be the first to get at a point which it will take con- 
siderable trouble to spot. If our Government be well 
advised, we are sure they will never give the public funds 
either for any great national expedition modelled on the 
lines of the past, nor to any private chimera got up for 
the glory of one man and the gratification of balloonists. 
We do not see how, without national discredit, England 
can keep aloof from an international scheme, the scientific 
and practical results of which will be of world-wide impor- 
tance; and it is the duty of the Geographical Society to 
lend all the weight of its influence to induce the English 
Government to take up its share in the new and only 
effectual method of Polar exploration. 


THE SANITARY ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION 
T is admitted on all hands that a vast amount of 
unnecessary disease, suffering, and death is caused 
by defective sanitary arrangements, especially as regards 
drainage. A few years ago, so long as there was no foul 
smell, and all the pipes were “ properly trapped,” every- 
body was satisfied; but properly trapped usually meant 
improperly ventilated, or not ventilated at all, and we 
know now that foul gases will pass steadily, continuously, 
and certainly through water in traps. 

Clinical observation having demonstrated the fact that 
sewer air produced diseases, the prevention of the entering 
of such foul air into houses became of paramount import- 
ance ; and the matter being thus brought to so narrow an 
issue, the application of well-known physical laws was all 
that was required ; it was necessary to study the circum- 
stances under which foul air was produced, to prevent its 
production as far as possible, and to take such precautions 
that foul air, even if formed, could not accumulate and 
could not find its way into houses. 

Science has done much, both directly and indirectly, 
towards the prolongation of life ; and certainly not the 
least important of the results of the application of scien- 
tific methods to this end in recent years has been the 
discovery of the ways in which a house can be made 
practically sewer-air proof. The laws of health are being 
studied more and more every day, and will soon be taught 
as a matter of course in all our schools; they are 
already recognised as a special subject of study at the 
Universities. People are beginning to perceive that their 
health is a matter which is very largely indeed in their 
own hands, and are beginning to turn this knowledge to 
account in the matter of house sanitation, At the first 


Nov. 18, 1880] 


NATURE 


51 


meeting of the Sanitary Assurance Association, presided 
over by Sir Joseph Fayrer, eminent members of the two 
professions which must always occupy the most reponsible 
position in connection with household sanitary matters, 
the professions of medicine and architecture, bore ample 
evidence to this fact, and at the same time to the neces- 
sity for some organisation by which the benefit of the 
best advice on such matters may be brought within the 
reach of the many. At this meeting Mr. Mark H. 
Judge pointed out that the Association ‘‘ was the out- 
come of efforts which had been going on for some 
months to bring together architects and medical men 
in connection with the important question of house 
sanitation,’ and the names already identified with the 
Association are a sufficient guarantee that it will be both 
practical and permanent in its character. Sir Joseph 
Fayrer rightly stated in his opening address that “there 
is a terrible absence of all supervision of sanitary arrange- 
ments and drainage in many of the houses of the metro- 
polis,’ and that although the richer classes of the 
population are able to get that sanitary advice which will 


_ enable them to make their houses wholesome, “ there is 


an enormous population left, as regards which such a 
thing is hardly possible.” Saying that he believed the 
idea was beginning to grow that “sanitation generally 
will increase the value of life,” he continued, “over and 
over again it has come to my knowledge, and even 
occurred under my own observation, that families, 
children and servants, have suffered by the defects of 
drainage or sewer air—that great enemy to public 
health. I would venture to offer no opinion as to the 
nature of the diseases that proceed from sewer air, nor 
even enter into any discussion on the precise character of 
the air—the nature of the germs and the character of the 
poisons that it communicates; but that it does destroy 
health and induce disease is beyond a doubt. That it is 
greatly under the control of sanitary law is equally 
certain, and there are men now who have so studied and 
comprehended the nature of those laws, that they are 
able, practically as well as theoretically, to give that 
assistance and that advice which should render those 
conditions almost innocuous—in fact it should prevent 
them altogether.’’ 

Dr. Andrew Clark, after stating that he considered the 
Association ‘one of the most pressing needs of the 
present time,” added :—‘‘ Furthermore I am convinced 
that if the Association can secure and retain the services 
of men with the scientific and practical knowledge pos- 
sessed by Prof. Corfield, and will hold itself free from 
undertaking the execution of the works which it may 
suggest, superintend, and from time to time certify as 
sufficient, it will do important service to the public, and 
confer much and just credit upon all concerned.” 

Mr. Edwin Chadwick, the veteran sanitarian, said that 
“he constantly advised people, from his knowledge, ‘Do 
not take that house unless you have it examined first. If 
the drains are out of order do not take it till they are put 
right. That was exactly what this Association had to 
supply.” 

We are happy to state that the formation of the Asso- 
ciation was decided upon, and the following gentlemen 
were appointed a committee to organise it :—George 
Aitchison, F.R.I,.B.A.; Prof. W. H. Corfield, M.A., 


M.D.; Prof. F. de Chaumont, M.D., F.R.S.; Mark H, 
Judge, Prof. T. Hayter Lewis, F.S.A.; H. Rutherford 
Barrister-at-Law ; with Prof. Corfield as Chief Sanitary, 
Officer, and Mr. Judge as Surveyor. 

It is surely as necessary to be assured against pre- 
ventible diseases as it is to be assured against fire, and 
we see from the preliminary prospectus issued that it is 
intended to give persons who place their houses on the 
Assurance Register certificates that their houses are in a 
satisfactory sanitary condition, and to endorse such 
certificates from time to time ; this latter point is of great 
importance, as it is only by regular inspection at stated 
intervals that it is possible to ascertain that all continues 
to work satisfactorily. 

A very important feature is also the proposal to examine 
and report on the plans of new houses, for there is at 
present absolutely no control exerted over the sanitary 
arrangements of new houses in the metropolis. 

We have given such prominence to this matter because 
we believe that the Association will supply a widely-felt 
want, and will do good not only directly but indirectly 
too ; thus wise builders will take care to have their houses 
supervised and certified, and will reap their reward in 
increased facilities for letting ; architects will submit their 
plans for criticism and suggestion ; and so the public will 
in many ways reap a lasting benefit. In this country few 
new things succeed unless public opinion is ripe for them. 
We are slow to adopt new ideas ; but we have now learnt 
the importance of preventing disease, we believe that 
much of our health depends on the perfection of the 
drainage arrangements of our houses, and we are ready 
to place them in the hands of an association in which we 
can have confidence. 


HINCKS’S “BRITISH MARINE POLYZOA ” 


A History of the British Marine Polyzoa. By Thomas 
Hincks, B.A., F.R.S. (London: J. Van Voorst, 1880.) 
"ae value to science of Mr. Van Voorst’s splendid 

series of volumes descriptive of the Natural History 
of the British Islands is scarcely to be overrated. The 
monographs are all the work of most eminent naturalists, 
in whom perfect confidence may be placed, and they are 
sumptuously printed and illustrated with abundance of 
excellent plates and woodcuts. The thanks of naturalists 
generally are certainly due to Mr. Van Voorst. The 
present work is fully equal in merit to its predecessors ; 
it consists of two volumes—one of 600 pages of text, the 
other containing eighty-three lithographic plates. Mr. 
Hincks, whose industry is indefatigable, has already con- 
tributed to Mr. Van Voorst’s series the well-known excel- 
lent monograph on the Hydroid Zoophytes. The labour 
involved in the production of a monograph such as that 
now under consideration is very great. All the 235 
species occurring on ‘the British coast are figured, with 
one or two exceptions in cases where specimens do not 
exist for the purpose. All the figures have been drawn 
by the author himself and beautifully lithographed by 
Mr. Hollick. Further figures are added taken from 
various monographs where such are necessary for the 
elucidation of the subject. . 
The work commences with an introduction,jin which 
the author, after expressing his obligation to Mr, Busk, 


52 


NATURE 


[Wov. 18, 1880 


Mr. Norman, Mr. Peach, Dr. McIntosh, Prof. Ray 
Lankester, and others who have given him valuable aid 
in his work, gives an account of the structure of the 
Polyzoa generally, with some details concerning their 
development, life-history, and distribution. Several pages 
are devoted to the question of the name of the class 
concerning which it seems almost hopeless that any 
unanimity amongst naturalists will be attained. The 
author adopts J. V. Thompson’s term Polyzoa on the 
ground of priority, and we hope it may prevail in this 
country, although it is scarcely probable that Continental 
zoologists will, as the author trusts, “reconsider the 
grounds on which they have hitherto given their adhesion 
to Ehrenberg,’ and give up the term Bryozoa (Moos- 
thierchen). 

Several pages are devoted to the question of the nature 
of the “brown bodies,’ which the author, following Prof. 
¥, A. Smith and from his own extended observations, 
formerly considered to be essentially concerned in the 
production of new polypides by germination. He now 
admits that the evidence at present tallies better with the 
residuary theory of Nitsche and Joliet, who, as is well 
known, regard the bodies as merely remains of decayed 
_polypides, but thinks that further investigation on the 
matter is yet required. An interesting series of wood- 
cuts are given illustrating, as shown in a series of dif- 
ferent species, the development of the avicularium 
from the first rudimentary stages, hardly distinguishable 
from the ordinary zocecium, up to its most highly 
specialised bird’s head-like form. Most readers are 
familiar with Mr, Darwin’s account of his experiments on 
the avicularia of Polyozoa made during the voyage of the 
eagle and published in his Journal, The author after 
citing these, and those of Mr. Busk and others, expresses 
himself as inclined to regard the avicularia as ‘‘ charged 
with an offensive rather than alimentary function,” 
believing that their vigorous movements and the snapping 
of their formidable jaws may drive away loafing annelids 
and other enemies. 

Some short account of the embryonic development of 
the Polyozoa is given, and is illustrated bya coloured plate 
of Jarve taken from the splendid monograph on the 
subject by Dr. J. Barrois of Lille. In the matter of 
classification the author follows Ray Lankester as far as 
the main sub-classes are concerned, dividing the class 
according to the characters of the lophophore into the 
Holobranchiata, or those which have the tentacles in a 
continuous series, and the Pterobranchiata, in which the 
lophopore is broken into two distinct arms like those of 
Brachiopods. The Pterobranchiata include only a single 
genus, the remarkable Rhabdopleura of Allman. The 
Holobranchiata are divided, after Nitsche, into the Ecto- 
procta, in which the anal orifice lies without the lopho- 
phore, and the Entoprocta, in which the orifice lies 
within it. The latter group includes the genera Pedicel- 
lina and Loxosoma only, whilst the main mass of the 
existing Polyzoa come under the Ectoprocta, the marine 
forms of which form a single order, Gymnolemata of 
Allman, which order is divided by the author accord- 
ing to Mr, Busk’s well-known system into the sub-orders 
Cheilostomata, Cyclostomata, and Ctenostomata. The 
generic terms adopted in the work are however in many 
instances different from those employed by Mr. Busk and 


other former authors, and many familiar species have 
changed their names, so that the student is somewhat con- 
fused. Thus the species hitherto ranged under the genus 
Leptalia are separated into sections and: placed under 
the authors three genera, Mastigophora, Schizoporella, 
Schizotheca, and other genera. : 

As before stated, the number of British species of 
marine Polyzoa described in the work is 235. Of these 
69 have as yet not been found elsewhere, but as the 
author adds, no inference as to their range can be drawn 
from this negative fact. For 28 species Shetland is the 
only British locality, 8 of these not being found elsewhere, 
whilst the remainder are Arctic forms, with the exception 
of two, one of which, Cel/aria johnsoni, ranges as far 
south as Madeira, and is ‘abundant in the Mediter- 
ranean. Some of the British species have an extraordi- 
narily wide range. Thus Cel/aria fistulosa occurs in the 
Mediterranean at Madeira, in South Africa, in Scandi- 
navia and North America, in the Indian Ocean, and in 
Australia and New Zealand. And there are several similar 
instances of almost world-wide distribution, the species 
not being deep-sea forms, but such as flourish between 
tide-marks and in shallow water, though also found at 
greater depths. The author suggests as a possible explana- 
tion of the wideness of range of such species, in addition 
to migration along coast lines and in profound depths, 
the agency of currents, floating timber, andships. There 
is a very close resemblance between the Polyzoan fauna of 
the south-west coasts of France and our own, whilst a small 
group of Polyzoa is common to our shores and those of 
South Africa; but these are also Mediterranean. The 
author expects that a flood of light will be thrown on the 
subject of the distribution of the Polyzoa by the results of 
the Challenger Expedition, when published. It is obvious 
that in treating of any branch of the marine fauna of a 
restricted area, such as the British Isles, it will be neces- 
sary to make some restriction as to depth in considering 
questions of distribution. Once the abyssal fauna is 
reached by the dredge the animals obtained have no 
longer any special connection with the shores off which 
they are obtained, but belong to the ocean bottom and 
are mostly cosmopolitan, or rather Oceanopolitan, 

The cordial thanks of zoologists are certainly due to 
Mr. Hincks for having produced this most useful work. 
It will be valuable not only to the professed naturalist, 
but also an entertaining addition to the sea-side libraries 
of those who work occasionally with the microscope for 
recreation. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


A Popular History of Science. By Rob. Routledge, B.Sc. 
(London : George Routledge and Sons, 1881.) 


IN looking through many of the works on popular science 
one is inclined to exclaim, ‘‘ Oh, monstrous ! but one half- 
pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack.” 
Mr. Routledge’s recent volume is fortunately an exception 
to this rule, for in it we find a clear and concise statement 
of the development of the main branches of physical 
science given in a readable form with such an amount 
of biographical notices as to impart a human interest to 
the tale. Extracts, too, from the writings of the great 
workers in science have been judiciously interspersed 
throughout the text, thus bringing the student into direct 
communication with the master mind. Numerous illus- 


Nov. 18, 1880] 


trations accompany the description ; some of these are 
original, and others taken from the French, and none the 
worse for that. Most of them are well executed, but 
intimate friends might possibly find some fault with the 
likenesses of living men of science. Of course it is an 
easy as it would be a thankless task to point out sins of 
omission, and perhaps also of commission, in a book like 
the one under notice. Such works must not be looked 
upon with the eye of microscopic criticism. If the general 
direction which the author takes is the right one, if he 
does not make his task easy by glossing over all the 
points of difficulty, but puts his case clearly and fairly 
forward, he may well be excused if he omits matters 
which one or other of his readers may deem necessary. 
These conditions Mr. Routledge, as it seems to us, has 
satisfactorily fulfilled. We can therefore cordially re- 
commend this “Popular History of Science,” believing 
that it will exert a healthy influence on all who read it, 
and may be a powerful means of spreading the love of 
science amongst the rising generation. Habe. 


Class-Book of Elementary Mechanics, adapted to the 
Requirements of the New Code. Part 1. Matter. By 
Wm. Hewitt, B.Sc., Science Demonstrator for the 
Liverpool School Board. (London : George Philip and 
Son, 1880.) 


Mr. HEwiIrTtT has probably had a better chance than any 
other teacher of knowing by experience the working of 
the meagre science-subjects of the new educational code. 
The defects of that code, and particularly of its directions 
as to the subject of mechanics, are very great ; neverthe- 
less the little book which Mr. Hewitt has produced shows 
how, in spite of the disadvantageous system under which 
he works, a really good teacher will succeed in working 
up the subject for his pupils. We have seldom met with 
a veally elementary book which at once combined to so 
great a degree simplicity of language, accuracy of descrip- 
tion, and sound science. Mr. Hewitt states as his 
experience that the main difficulty has hitherto been to 
get the children to express in anything like precise 
language the ideas suggested to their minds by the simple 
experiments shown them. He therefore intended this 
little work to serve as a lesson-book to be read by the 
pupils in the intervals between the experimental lessons. 
This first part covers the ground prescribed by Schedule 
IV. for the first stage. A second part, dealing with 
“Force,” is in preparation, and will embrace the subjects 
of the second and third stages. We hope Mr. Hewitt’s 
second part will prove as satisfactory as is his first instal- 
ment. His aims are limited, indeed, by the requirements 
of the Code, but within those narrow limits his success is 
great, 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. | 

[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space ts so great that it 
1s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.| 


Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural Selection 


I HAVE at least great reason to be thankful that my stupidity 
has not prevented me from thoroughly enjoying the teachings of 
Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace, which I confess to having 
regarded as chiefly masterly and charming ‘‘studies in varia- 
tion,” for the last twenty years. 

The title of the epoch-marking book which came of age last 
month was, however, “The Origin of Species by Means of 
Natural Selection.” Mr, Darwin, as I am well aware, has put 
forward this mode of the origin of species as a part only of a 
hypothesis which is universally looked upon as a supreme effort 
of genius, 


NATURE 


53 


It seemed to me, rightly or wrongly, that the fauna of the 
enormous area forming the abyssal region exited under condi- 
tions which held out the hope that it might throw some light 
upon a question which appears to underlie the whole matter, 
and which is still unanswered. Are physiological species the 
result of the gradual modification of pre-existing species by 
natural selection, or dy any similar process; or are they due 
to the action of a law as yet utterly unknown, by which the 
long chain of organisms rolls off in a series of definite links ? 

I fear I scarcely follow Mr. Darwin’s illustration, If one 
were to pay his first visit to a breeder’s, and be shown a flock of 
Lecesters, never having seen or heard of a sheep before, he. 
would see nothing but a flock of sheep, and would certainly, 
without justly incurring the contumely of the breeder, be entitled 
to set them down merely as a group of animals of the came 
species, that is to say, animals fertile with one another and pro- 
ducing fertile progeny. He would judge so from their common 
resemblance, and without previous observation or information | do 
not see how he could know more about them. But give him an 
opportunity of comparing the results of breeding throughout a 
long period of time, or of observing the process of breeding over 
half the world, which comes to much the same thing ; the breeder 
might then have cause to rail if he had not picked up the stages 
of the process. 

The close examination of the newer tertiaries and the careful 
analysis of the fauna of the deep sea seem to me fairly to repre- 
sent these two methods ; both of these promise to yield a mass of 
information in regard to the course of evolution, but as to the 
mode of the origin of species both seem as yet equally silent. 

I will ask you in a week or two for space for a short paper on 
“‘The Abyssal Fauna in Relation to the Origin of Species.” 

C. WYVILLE THOMSON 


Rapidity of Growth in Corals 


THROUGH the kindness of M. Parrayon, captain of the French 
man-of-war Dayjot, I have received a large coral of the fungia 
tribe, which was yesterday found attached to the bottom of his” 
ship as the copper was being cleaned by native divers. The 
following is the history of the occurrence. The Dayot entered 
the tropical waters of the South Pacific about seven months ago, 
coming directly from the coast of Chile. She visited some of 
the islands, but made no long stay in harbour until she reached 
Mauga Reva (Gambia Islands), where she remained for two 
months in the still waters of a coral basin. On entering the 
basin she touched the reef slightly, and without sustaining any 
damage, From Mauga Reva she sailed to Tahiti, where she now 
lies. 

Several specimens of living coral were found attached to the 
copper sheathing, that which I have received being the largest. 
It is discoidal in shape, with its upper and under surfaces 
respectively convex and concave, and near the centre of the 
under surface there is a sear, where the pedicle by which it was 
attached to the copper sheathing was broken through. The 
disk measures 9 inches in diameter, and the weight of the speci- 
men (now half dry) is 2 lb. 14 oz. On examining the under 
surface another disk 3% inches in diameter is seen partly im- 
bedded in the more recent coral growth. Of this oli disk about 
one-sixth part is dead and uncovered by new coral, «nd is stained 
of a deep blue colour from contact with the copper, while the 
outline of the rest of this old disk is plainly discernible, although 
partially covered in by plates of new coral. ; 

My impression is that on touching the reef at Mauga Reva nine _ 
weeks ago a young fungia was jammed against the copper, 
became attached, and subsequently grew to its present dimen- 
sions. 

The case affords an interesting illustration of the rapidity of 
the growth of coral in these waters. R. W. CoprpINGER 

Tahiti, August 13 


Geological Climates 


SINCE contributing the chapter in the history of the Coniferze 
upon which Prof. Haughton remarks, I have seen Araucaria 
Cunninghami growing in gardens round Funchal, and my belief 
in the specific identity of the Bournemouth Eocene plant is 
further strengthened ; yet still, as only foliage is known in the 
fossil, I should hardly be prepared to contest upon that alone a 
question of climate, however minute the resemblance. Buteven 
with the most undisputed identity there are so many possibilities 


J 


54. NALURE 


{Nov. 18, 1880 


of error in arguing from a single species, that little importance 
should be attached to conclusions drawn from it, 

Assuming them however to be specifically identical, as I 
myself believe them to be, and to have required precisely the 
same temperature, I think Prof. Haughton’s case is not quite so 
strong as he believes. ‘The present mean winter temperature of 
Bournemouth in lat. 50° 43’ is 37° 4’, but the physical surround- 
ings of Bournemouth are not now such as conduce to luxuriant 
forest growth, even if its temperature sufficed, and the conditions 
there in the Eocene time more probably assimilated to those of 
the south-west coasts of Ireland at the present day. 

Now the mean of the coldest month at Valentia, lat. 51° 44’, 
is 44°, and it may be fairly assumed that if Valentia were a 
degree farther south, corresponding to Bournemouth, the tem- 
perature would be one degree higher ; and if sheltered by moun- 
tains from all the northerly winds as Glengariff is, the mean 
might possibly be raised to 46°. Thus but 11° are required to reach 
the minimum of 57° supposed to be required by his Araucaria. 
Again, although the Moreton Bay Pine does not appear to sup- 
port a less mean annual temperature than 67° to 70° between 
the Clarence and the Bellingen, which are its southern limits 
in Australia, it flourishes and ripens seeds in Madeira in a mean 
of 64° 96’, and although I have only noticed it in two gardens 
near the sea-level, I think it has only been excluded from others 
higher up the mountains in favour of the far more striking 
Araucaria excelsa. Moreover from its present restricted area it 
appears to be a declining type, which may, when more widely 
distributed, and possibly in presence of fewer competing species 
in remote Eocene time, have sustained greater extremes of 
climate. 

Taking the species, however, as it exists, and apart from any 
such possibilities, uniformitarians have, it seems to me, but to 
account for an increase of 14° to 15°, that is if Bournemouth were 
near its northern limit, as seems probable from its having grown 
at or near the sea-level. 

Supposing, as all evidence tends to prove, that Northern 
Europe and America were connected by continuous land in 
Eocene time, would not the mere fact of shutting off the Arctic 
Seas cause a general and perhaps sufficient rise of temperature ? 
In N. lat. 70° Prince Albert Land has amean of only 5° Fahr., 
and Lapland one of 32°, a difference of no less than 27°, caused 
solely by the presence of an Aretic ice-laden current. The 
general cooling effect of incessant oceanic circulation between the 
North Pole and the Tropics is, I think, scarcely taken into suffi- 
cient account, and although it may be contended that conversely 
the northerly flow of the Gulf Stream mitigates climate, I think 
that its action in Europe is chiefly in fending off the ice-laden 
currents from our coasts, the limit of trees penetrating quite as 
far north in Siberia away from the coast as at the North Cape, 
where they are under its influence. J. STARKIE GARDNER 


Order Zeuglodontia, Owen 


In August 1848 H.M.S. Dedalus encountered off St. 
Helena a marine animal, of which a representation appeared in 
the //ustrated News of the latter part of that year. It is thirty- 
two years since I saw this figure, but I recollect that it was one 
of a blunt-nosed animal with a neck carried about four feet above 
the water, which was so long as to present the appearance of a 
serpent; and I remember that Prof. Owen, in combating at 
the time the idea that this was a sea-serpent, pointed out that 
the position of the gape in relation to the eye, as shown in the 
figure in the Z//ustrated News, was that of a mammal, and not 
that of a reptile; in consequence of which he argued that the 
animal seen was probably only a leonine seal, whose track 
through the water gave an illusory impression of great length. 
This idea, however, seemed to me untenable in the face of the 
representation in the ///ustrated News ; but it was obvious that to 
afford the buoyancy necessary for the support above the water 
of so long a neck (estimated on that occasion as sixty feet, though 
only the part near the head was actually out of the water), the 
submerged portion of the animal could not have had the shape 
of a serpent. 

Two or three years after this, on reading the description of 
Zeuglodon cetoides, from the Tertiary (probably Upper Eocene) 
formations of Alabama, it struck me that the animal seen from 
the Dedalus may have been a descendant of the order to which 
Zeuglodon belonged ; and I have ever since watched with interest 
for reports of the ‘great sea-serpent.” 

Three years ago the following appeared in the newspapers :— 


“* Borough of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster 
to wit. 


‘*We the undersigned, captain, officers, and crew of the 
barque Pauline (of London) of Liverpool, in the county of 
Lancaster, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 
do solemnly and sincerely declare that on July 8, 1875, in lat. 
5°°3' S., long. 35° W., we observed three large sperm-whales, 
and one of them was gripped round the body with two turns of 
what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and tail 
appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about 30 feet, and 
its girth 8 or 9 feet. The serpent whirled its victim round and 
round for about fifteen minutes, and then suddenly dragged the 
whale to the bottom head first. 


**GEORGE DREVAR, Master 

** ForRATIO THOMPSON 

‘JOHN HENDERSON LANDELLS 
*“OWEN BAKER 

** WILLIAM LEWARN 


“ Again, on July 13, a similar serpent was seen about 200 
yards off, shooting itself along the surface, head and neck being 
out of the water several feet. This was seen only by the captain 
and one ordinary seaman, whose signatures are affixed. 


‘©GEORGE DREVAR, Master.” 


“‘A few moments after it was seen elevated some sixty feet 
perpendicularly in the air by the chief officer and the following 
able seamen, whose signatures are also affixed— 


““ HORATIO THOMPSON 
** WILLIAM LEWARN 


‘*And we make this solemn declaration, &c. 


“«Severally declared and subscribed at Liverpool aforesaid, 
the roth day of January, 1877, before 


“TS. RAFFLES, J.P. for Liverpool.” 


The locality here specified was about thirty miles off the 
northern coast of Brazil. 

In this account I thought that I recognised the grip of the 
whale by the long neck of the attacking animal, the appearance 
being confounded into the double coil of a serpent by the 
distance and motion of the objects; but in face of the general 
ridicule which has been attached to this subject, and being with- 
out any assurance that the declaration so purporting to be made 
was genuine, I did not venture to ventilate my long-cherished 
idea. A relative of mine, however, just returned from India, 
chancing to say that two of the officers of the steamer in which she 
went out had on the previous voyage witnessed an immense 
animal rear its neck thirty feet out of the water, and that a sketch 
of the object had been instantly made, and on reaching port 
sent to the Graghic, I obtained the number of that paper for 
July 19, 1879, and I inclose a tracing of the figures in it, which 
are accompanied by the following statement in the Graphic :— 

“The accompanyiag engraving is a fac-simile of a sketch sent 
to us by Capt. Davison, of the steamship Avashiu maru, and is 
inserted as a specimen of the curious drawings which are fre- 
quently forwarded to us for insertion in the pages of this journal. 
Capt. Davison’s statement, which is countersigned by his chief 
officer, Mr. McKechnie, is as follows :—‘ Saturday, April 5, at 
If.15 a.m., Cape Satano distant about nine miles, the chief 
officer and myself observed a whale jump clear out of the sea, 
about a quarter of a mile away. Shortly after it leaped out 
azain, when I saw that there was something attached to it. 
Got glasses, and on the next leap distinctly saw something 
holding on to the belly of the whale, ‘The latter gave one more 
spring clear of the water, and myself and chief then observed 
what appeared to be a large creature of the snake species rear 
itself about thirty feet out of the water. It appeared to be 
about the thickness of a junk’s mast, and after standing about 
ten seconds in an erect position, it descended into the water, the 
upper end going first. With my glasses I made out the colour 
of the beast to resemble that of a pilot fish.’ ” 

As Ihave not been able to find any description of the skeleton of 
the Zeuglodon, I venture to draw attention to the subject through 
your columns, in the hope that among your many readers in 
America this letter may attract the notice of some one who will 
tell us whether what is known of the osseous structure of Zeuglodon 
cetoides is or is not consistent with the representation in the 
Graphic. The remains of this cetacean, supposed to be extinct, 
indicate, according to Sir Charles Lyell, that it was at least seventy 


inertia sail 


Nov. 18, 1880] © 


NATURE 


55 


feet in length, while its great double-fanged but knife-edged 
molars show that it was carnivorous ; and as we are not so far 
removed from the period of the Alabama Tertiaries as to render 
it improbable that members of what must once have been a great 
order of carnivorous cetacea, totally distinct from the orders of 
cetacea hitherto known as living, may still survive, I have braved 
the ridicule attaching to this subject so far as to invite attention 
to it. 

The second of the two figures in the Graghic shows the long- 
necked animal to possess the cetacean tail, and its head there 
seems to have been turned from the observer, so that the under- 
side of it only is presented. The first figure shows that the 
whale had been seized on its flank by the powerful bite of its 
aggressor, and that to escape from this it had thrown itself out of 
the water. Having succeeded in this object the second figure 
shows the aggressor rearing its head and neck out of the water to 
discover the direction which its prey had taken, in order that it 
might follow it up; and so far from the charge of curious draw- 
ing made by the editor of the Grap/ic being justified, the repre- 
sentation of the whale can be at once recognised as fairly correct ; 
while that of the tail of the unknown animal (which probably 
prompted this charge), so far from being curious, forms an im- 
portant piece of evidence as showing the animal in question to be 
cetacean. SEaRLES V. Woop, Jun. 

Martlesham, near Woodbridge, September 27 


P.S.—Since sending to you the above I have again seen my 
relative, and find that the cut in the Graphic of July 19, 1879, 


is not that of the instance observed from the steamer in which 
she came home, which was the City of Washington, but of a 
separate instance which occurred to another ship. I have not 
been able yet to procure the Graphic containing the figure of the 
animal seen from the Cty of Washington, but she tells me that 
it was pasted up in the saloon, and represented only the head 
and long neck of the animal, which was raised to a great height 
out of the water, and near to the ship ; and had been drawn for 
the Graphic by a lady passenger immediately after the occur- 
rence. These repeated and independent notices of the same 
long-necked animal are, however, the more confirmatory of its 
existence, 

I find that Prof. Owen, in his article on Paleontology in the 
Encyclopedia Britannica (vol, xvii. p. 166), in giving a descrip- 
tion of Zetzglodon cetoides, says that ‘‘ the skull is very long and 
natrow and the nostril single,” that Dr, Harlan obtained the 
teeth on which, correcting Harlan’s reptilian reference of them, 
he founded the order Zewzlodontia, from the Miocene of Malta ; 
and that the teeth discovered_by Grateloup in the Miocene beds 
of the Gironde and Herault, and ascribed by him also to a 
reptile under the name of Sgza/odon, are those of a smaller 
species of Zewglodon. The remains of Sgualodon, along with 
those of the shark with huge teeth, Carcharodon miegalodon, and 
of numerous cetaceans assigned to orders all still living, and of 
which some, such as De/phinus, belong to living genera, occur 
in the ‘‘ Sables inférieurs”’ of Antwerp; which, though long 
called Miocene, are by M. Vandenbroeck regarded as older 
Pliocene, and as the base of that series of deposits of which the 


nat 
Ee 
= 
|. 


middle and upper divisions are respectively represented by the 
Coralline and Red Crags of England; and with these ‘‘ Sables 
inférieurs”’ the so-called Miocene of Malta, in which Zeug/odon is 
associated with Carcharodon, is probably coeval. Dr. Gibbes 
(Four. Acad, Nat. Sc., 2d. ser., vol. i. p. 143), figures and 
describes teeth of the Antwerp species of Carcharodon from 
both the Eocene of South Carolina and the Miocene of Alabama 
These various references bring the Zeuglodonts, with their 
Carcharodon associates, down to a late geological period, during 
which they co-existed with Delphinian prey; and of this prey 
the whale in the woodcut (which looks like a Grampus) seems 
an example. 

It is most likely that Bishop Pontoppidan, a copy of the 
English (1755) edition of whose work I possess, concocted his two 
figures (one of which is that of a huge snake undulating on the 
waves, and the other that of a serpent-like animal with pectoral 
flappers or fins, resting almost on the surface of the sea, with head 
and tail erect out of the water like the letter U, and spouting water 
or steam from its mouth 77 @ single column), from accounts given 
him by Norwegian seamen, some of whom had seen the animal 
in the position in which it was observed from the Daedalus, and 
others in that in which it is represented in the cut as seen from 
the Avushiu-maru ; for in the long narrative which he gives of 
the descriptions received from observers at numerous times, 
some of these agree with the one, and some with the other, 


1 He observes in the third edition of his ‘‘ Manual of Elementary Geology”’ 
(1851), p. 208, that he visited the spot where a yertebral column of this 
ength belonging to Zeuglodon had been dug up, 


though both of the Bishop’s figures represent only preposterous 
conceptions of his own. 

[The animal seen from the Osorne, and figured in the Graphic 
of June 30, 1877, 2s the ‘* Sea-serpent,” is quite a different thing 
from the one in question, and may have been a manatee. ] 


Temperature of the Breath 


THE interesting observation made by Dr. Dudgeon (NATURE, 
vol, xxii. p. 241, and vol. xxiti, p. 10) to the effect that breathing 
on the bulb of a thermometer through several folds of flannel or 
silk raises the temperature of the instrument several degrees 
above that of the mouth and body, is easily verified. There is 
no doubt about the accuracy of the observation ; but the explana- 
tion of it offered by Dr. Dudgeon is not satisfactory. He 
supposes that the heightened tempeature is due to the ex;ired 
air being hotter—not cooler, as is usually believed—than the 
mouth and body. A simple experiment sufficed to show that 
this view was untenable. A clinical thermometer was inserted 
in the cavity of the mouth, and the stem grasped by the teeth in 
such a way that the bulb lay free in the oral cavity. Inspiration 
was carried on by the nostrils, and expiration was effected by 
gently forcing the breath between the loosely-closed lips and the 
stem of the instrument, The bulb was thus placed in the centre 
of the stream of expired air and kept free from contact with the 
tongue and cheeks. Experimenting in this way, I found, at the 
end of five, and also of ten, minutes that the thermometer marked 
97°2°—the temperature under the tongue at the time being 98°4”. 


56 NATURE 


[ Vou. 18, 1880 


Had the breath been hotter than the mouth the instrument could 
not have failed to register a higher temperature than 98-4", but 
being really cooler, the instrument, of course, recorded a lower 
temperature, 

What is then the true explanation of the phenomenon observed 
by Dr. Dudgeon? I believe that it is simply an example of the 
conversion of latent into sensible heat by th» rapid condensation of 
aqueous vapour. The organic fabrics which compose our clothing 
are all more or less hygroscopic—that is to say, they have the 
capacity of imbibing aqueous vapour and condensing it into the 
solid and liquid forms. The expired breath is heavily charged 
with aquedus vapour ; and aqueous vapour, at the moment of 
condensation, liberates an enormous amount of latent heat, which 
thus becomes sensible to the thermometer, In this particular 
watery vapour exceeds far away all other gases. 

The following experiments were made with a view of testing 
the correctness of this view. Two strips of flannel were prepared, 
each six inches long and an inch and a quarter wide. The first 
strip was rolled, without any preliminary preparation, round the 
bulb of aclinical thermometer. The bulb, thus enveloped, was 
inserted between the closed lips, and the expired air was forced 
through the porous material for a period of five minutes. The 
thermometer rose to 104°. The instrument was then allowed to 
cool, and, after having been re-set, was again inserted between 
the lips, and breathed through fora second period of five minutes. 
This time the temperature only rosé to ro1°. The experiment 
was repeated a third time for a similar period, but this time the 
thermometer did not rise above 98°6. 

These results tallied exactly with the requirements of the con- 
densation hypothesis. During the first period the fresh dry 
flannel absorbed and condensed the watery vapour passing through 
it with such rapidity that the liberated sensible heat was sufficient 
to raise the mercury several degrees above the temperature of the 
mouth. In the second period of five minutes the hygroscopic 
activity of the flannel had been greatly reduced by the previous 
absorption of aqueous vapour, and the thermometer only rose 
slightly. In the third period saturation had been approached, 

.and the breath passed through the flannel almost without 
depositing any of its moisture, and accordingly the thermometer 
only indicated a temperature slightly higher than that of the 
mouth, 

The second strip of flannel was subjected to a little pre- 
liminary preparation, In order to increase its hygroscopic 
activity it was thoroughly dried (superexsiccated) by holding it 
for a few minutes before the fire. When it had cooled down to 
the temperature of the room it was wrapped round the bulb of 
the thermomeier, and the experiment was proceeded with as 
before. The result surprised me. Jv one minute the mercury 
had risen not only to the top of the scale (112° F.), but had 
filled the little bulb above it, that is to say, it had risen to at 
least 115° F. When the instrument had cooled it was reset, and 
inserted again between the lips and breathed through for three 
minutes. At the end of this time the scale marked 106° F. 
After the instrument had been cooled and reset the experiment 
was repeated a third time, and the temperature only reached 
102° after breathing through the envelope for four minutes. A 
fourth trial of four minutes only produced a record of 98°4”. 
Here again the development of heat steadily declined as the 
flannel became less hygroscopic. 

It is probable tliat, with the superexsiccated flannel the first 
portions of aqueous vapour condensed at the beginning of the 
experiment pass at once from the gaseous into the solid form, 
and constitute that portion of water which is incorporated in 
intimate union with all organic tissues. This accounts for the 
extreme rapidity of the development of heat at the commence- 
ment of the experiment. I found that even a single long 
expiration through the freshly-warmed flannel raised the mercury 
to 110° F, 

Dr. Dudgeon’s observation will not necessitate a revision of 
our conclusions respecting the temperature of the breath, but he 
has supplied us with an exceedingly elegant and easy way of 
demonstrating the liberation of sensible heat which takes place 
during the passage of water from the gaseous into the solid and 
liquid state. Wm. Roberts 

Manchester, November 10 


Height of the Aurora 


In NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 291, is inserted a letter of Mr. T. 
Rand Capron, on the determination of the height of aurore, 


waving the tail. 


wherein I read: ‘*It is unfortunate that simultaneous observa- 
tions of the auroral corona are almost entirely wanting. I... 
would be glad if any particulars could now be furnished me.” 

Having treated the subject of the aurorz and their properties 
in an ample manner in my ‘‘Théorie cosmique de l’Aurore 
polaire” (AZemorie della Societd degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, 
1878, vol. vii.), wherein I have adduced proofs of the thesis that 
The corona is an optical illusion, due to the laws of celestial per- 
spective, I was astonished to find the alleged words used by so 
great an authority. That ‘‘simultaneous observations” of the 
auroral corona will be ever without any result, as far as its height 
above the earth is concerned, follows already from the known 
property, that the corona always shows itself in the direction of 
the /ocaf magnetic total force (given by the inclination needle), 

Regretting that such a well-established fact seems not generally 
known, I take the liberty to refer Mr. Rand Capron to the chapter 
of my treatise, ‘‘ Dans quelle Région de l’Atmosphére terrestre se 
trouvent les Rayons de l’Aurore polaire, et est-ce que la Couronne 
est une Chose réelle?” and will repeat here that very beautiful 
determinations of the height of streamers and beams were obtained 
by Prof. Heis and Dr. Floge], and by Prof, Galle in Germany, 
showing a height of the phenomenon from 20 to 100 miles (of 
15 in 1 degree). These results are published in the Zeztschrift 
der oesterr. Gesellsch. f. Meteor. vii. p. 73. 

I regret to have found no earlier opportunity of answering the 
request of Mr, Rand Capron, but think that this letter may 
still have some interest, notwithstanding the valuable article by 
Mr. Plummer in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 362. 

Groningen (Netherlands), H,. T. H. GRONEMAN 

November 10 


Fascination 


As a contribution to this subject, at least of new material if 
of no decisive evidence in support of any existing theory, I offer 
the conclusions which Malachi Foot, Member of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, N.Y., reached in 1807 relative to this 
matter. A short memoir of his which I recently met was pub- 
lished in the AZedical Repository for that year, entitled ‘* An 
Examination of Dr. Hugh Williamson’s Memoir on Fascinaticn, 
to which is subjoined a New Theory of that Phenomenon,” and 
is striking both in matter and conception. 

The author, after displaying some temper over Dr. William- 
son’s willingness to attribute the well-accredited effects of snake- 
charming to terror, producing in the victim a condition which 
he (Dr. Williamson) terms ‘‘dementation,” and ‘‘ wherein ex- 
treme fear stupefies the mind and deprives him of the under- 
standing,” produces his own explanation, Although he acknow- 
ledges the paralysing effects of fright, and instances quadrupeds 
falling lifeless from the effect of fear, deer stricken motionless 
by the light of a torch, &c., yet he inveighs against the false 
reasoning which discovers in these cases of arrested volition any 
analogy to the phenomena of so-called fascination. Ourauthor, 
evidently of no superstitious habit, distinctly admits the fact 
that the snake repeatedly captures prey by a method seemingly 
so occult as to merit the characterisation of fascination, and 
develops his theory in the light of that very thought. 

He ascribes to the primary sensations of animals, in them 
unmodified by reflection as to their source or character, complete 
efficacy to awaken emotions of pleasure of an intensity to us 
quite incommensurate with the apparent causes which evoked 
them—emotions so powerful as to absorb all other secondary 
feeling, enfolding the animal in a delightful but numbing trance, 
whose stages advance from attention through ecstasy to anzes- 
thesia. And he finds in the eye a sensory centre which most 
expansively responds to all outward stimuli. This much pre- 
mised, he applies it to the case in hand. The snake, fixing its 
glittering eyes with hungry expectancy upon its victim, at the 
same time throws its body into graceful curves and raises its tail, 
undulating with a soft and inviting motion. (Foot insists upon 
the almost invariable accompaniment of motion as auxiliary in 
attracting and pleasing the prey.) ‘The bird’s eye, once caught, 
becomes ensnared in the endless succession of contortions, and it 
draws near, dominated by simple delight. 

As Foot expresses it, ‘‘the pleasurable movements of the 
organs of vision stimulate to approach and excite an eager desire 
to embrace.” Reverie oculorum ensues, and the bird flutters 
helpless to the ground. Foot speaks of having seen a cat 
succeed in similarly charming birds by wreathing the body and 
He might have confounded this with the 


ee Sl nt a. oe eee 


—— 


ai ut 


ee 


Nov. 18, 1880] 


NATURE 57 


ordinary nervous concentration of attention common to the 
Felidze before ‘‘pouncing.” He speaks of larks being attracted 
in the South of France by means of an octagonal box holding a 
mirror mounted on a pivot which is turned by the wind. The 
reflected rays of sunlight dazzle and delight the birds, and they 
approach near enough to be caught by a spring net. The preli- 
minary phase, that of attention, wherein curiosity perhaps pre- 
dominates, is illustrated in the known trick of a fox amusing 
ducks by rolling itself down a bank, as also in the perilous 
interest excited in a loon by a handkerchief waved by an unseen 
hand. Many must have experienced, on looking over very high 
galleries upon floors beneath, or over sheer precipices, an almost 
uncontrollable impulse to throw themselves headlong down. 
Can this feeling be described as akin to ‘‘fascination”’ ? 
L. P. GRATACAP 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., October 25 


A, Percy SMITH.—The little centipede is Geophilus electricus, 
well known to be occasionally luminous. 


HOMAGE TO MR. DARWIN 


O* Wednesday, November 3, a deputation from the 

Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union waited upon Mr. 
Darwin at his residence, Down, Beckenham, Kent, for 
the purpose of presenting him with an address expressive 
of admiration for his long devotion to scientific research, 
and appreciation of the great and important results to which 
his investigations have led. Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., of 
the Owens College, Manchester, who is the president of 
the Union for the current year, was prevented from accom- 
panying the deputation by the pressure of his professorial 
duties. The deputation arrived at Mr. Darwin’s residence 
about I p.m., and was received in a most hearty manner 
by the great naturalist himself, Mrs. Darwin, and other 
members of the family. The members of the deputation 
were introduced individually to Mr. Darwin by Dr. Sorby, 
vice-president of the Union, and then the interesting 
ceremony of the presentation of the address was at once 
proceeded with. After a few words on the work of the 
Union by Dr. Sorby, the address was read by Mr, Thomas 
Hick, B.A., B.Sc., end formally presented to Mr. Darwin 
by Dr. Sorby. Replying to the address, Mr. Darwin 
assured the deputation of his deep sense of the honour 
the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union had conferred upon 
him on that occasion, and only regretted that he had not 
-done something more deserving of such an honour. He 
had no idea previously that there was so strong a body 
of working naturalists in Yorkshire, but was pleased to 
learn that such was the fact, and to find from the 7yams- 
actions that had been forwarded to him that they were 
doing useful work. Coming from such a body, the 
address was all the more gratifying to him, though he 
still feared he hardly merited the good things that had 
been said of him. The address which had been pre- 
sented to him he and his family would for ever treasure 
and preserve, and he desired to express his warmest 
thanks, both to the deputation and those whom they re- 
presented, for it, and for the kind and considerate manner 
in which everything connected with it had been arranged. 
Subsequently the deputation were entertained at luncheon, 
and having spent a short time in familiar conversation 
with their hospitable host and his family, took their 
departure amid mutual expressions of kindness and 
regard. 

The following is the text of the Address, which is dated 
August last :-— 


To Charles Darwin, LL.D., M.A., F.RS. &c., &e. 
S1r,—The Council and Members of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ 
Union, all of whom, with scarcely an ex:eption, are working 
students of one or more of the various branches of natural history, 
desire to express to you in a most respectful manner, and yet 
with the greatest cordiality, their admiration of your life-long 
devotion (o original scientific research and their high appreciation 
of the almost unparalleled success of the investizations by which 


you have contributed so largely to the modern development and 
progress of biological science. 

More especially do they desire to congratulate you on the fact 
that your great work on the Origin of Species will come of age 
at an early date, and that your life has been spared long 
enough to enable you to see the leading principles therein 
enunciated accepted by most of the eminent naturalists of the 
day. On the conspicuous merits of that and of your other pub- 
lished works they need not dwell, as those merits have been 
recognised and admitted even by those who have dissented most 
strongly from the conclusions at which you have arrived. They 
may nevertheless be permitted to remind you that your writings 
have been instrumental in giving an impetus to biological and 
palzontological inquiries which has no precedent in the history 
of science, except perhaps in that which followed the promulga- 
tion of the gravitation theory of Newton, and that which was due 
to the discovery of the circulation of the blood by Harvey. 

One of the most important results of your long-continued 
labours, and one for which you will be remembered with honour 
and reverence as long as the human intellect exerts itself in 
the pursuit of natural knowledge, is the scientific basis you have 
given to the grand Doctrine of Evolution. Other naturalists, as 
you yourself have shown, had endeavoured to unravel the ques- 
tions that had arisen respecting the origin, classification, and dis- 
tribution of organic beings, and had even obtained faint glimpses 
of the transformation of specific forms. But it was left to you 
to show, almost to demonstration, that the variations which 
species of plants and animals exhibit, and in natural selection 
through the struggle for existence, we have causes at once 
natural, universal, and effective which of themselves are com- 
petent not only to explain the existence of the present races of 
living beings, but also to connect with them, and with one 
another, the long array of extinct forms with which the 
paleontologist has made us familiar, 

Farther, the Yorkshire Naturalists are anxious to place on ~ 
record their firm conviction that in the care, the patience, and 
the scrupulous conscientiousness with which all your researches 
have been conducted; in the ingenuity of the experiments you 
have devised ; and in the repeated verifications to which your 
results have been submitted by your own hands, you have 
furnished an example of the true method of biological inquiry 
that succeeding generations will deem it an honour to follow, 
and that cannot but lead to still further conquests in the domain 
of organic nature. 

In presenting this small tribute of their high regard and 
esteem, the members of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union cannot 
but hope and pray that many years of happiness and usefulness 
may yet remain to you, and that our Science and Literature may 
be still further enriched with the results of your researches. 

(Signed) WuiLiiAm C, WILLIAMSON, F.R.S., President, 
H. C. Sorsy, LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, 
GrorGE Brook, ter. F.L.S., Secretary, 
Wm. DENISON ROEBUCK, Secretary, 
and Eleven other representative Officials. 


THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF BERYLLIUM 


O® some time chemists have been doubtful what 
value to assign to the atomic weight of beryllium. 
Some years ago Prof. Emmerson Reynolds determined 
the specific heat of this metal to be 0°642 ; this number 
multiplied into 9°1 gave 5°8 as the atomic heat of beryllium ; 
in other words it confirmed the generally accepted atomic 
weight. In 1878 Nilson and Pettersson re-determined the 
specific heat of beryllium, and found the number o'408 
for the temperature interval o100°; hence these chemists 
concluded that the atomic weight of the metal must be 
increased by one-half (13°6 X 0408 = 5°6). If Be=g't 
the oxide of beryllium is BeO, and the metal is placed in 
the magnesium group; but if Be =13°6 the oxide is 
Be,O,, and the metal is placed in the aluminium group. 
But there is no place in Mendelejeff’s classification of the 
elements according to the magnitude of their atomic 
weights for a metal with the atomic weight 13°6, forming 
an oxide M,O., and exhibiting the properties of beryllium. 
The value of Mendelejeff’s classification is however so 
great that chemists were not inclined to alter the atomic 
weight of beryllium except upon most cogent evidence. 


55 NATURE 


5 


| Vor. 18, 1880 


Nilson and Pettersson have recently repeated their 
determination of the specific heat of beryllium, and find 
these numbers :— 

oO 50° spec. heat = 0°3973 : O'-I100° spec. heat = 0°4246, 
o'-200" 5, = = 0475 1 0-300", = = (075055. 
If the atomic weight is taken as 13°6 then the atomic heat 

for the interval— 

0°-50° = 5°46 : 0 -100° = 5°79 : 0°-200° = 6°48 : 0°-300° = 6°90, 
hence the Swedish chemists conclude that_the atomic 
weight of beryllium is 13°6. 

But in the last number of the Berichte of the German 
Chemical Society, Lothar Meyer has calculated, from 
Nilson and Pettersson’s numbers, the true specific heat 
(Ze. the ratio between the quantity of heat required to 
raise unit weight of the given substance through 1°, start- 
ing from the given temperature, and the quantity of heat 
required to raise unit weight of standard substance through 
1°, also starting from the given temperature) of beryllium 
for various temperatures : his results are as follows :— 

(y = tme specific heat at temperature ¢ : Ay = value of increase 
of specific heat for 1°), 
t é t. 
DOSES 7 SOLUS 556, iP 


+ 23° ¥ = 073973 7 = 0°5193 
Ay = 0'OOI0! .. Ay = 0'00085 ... AY = 0'00063 
256°°8 y = 0'5819. 
Hence the atomic heats of beryllium are :— 
z. ES Be = 91. Be = 13°65, 
23° 3°62 5°43 
73. 4°08 6°12 
I 7. oe 4°73 710 
257 “ 5°29 S94 


The value of Ay decreases as the temperature rises; in 
this respect beryllium resembles boron, carbon, and 
silicon, For other elements whose specific heats increase 
with increase of temperature the value of Ay also in- 
creases. Lothar Meyer therefore concludes that beryllium 
is analogous to boron, carbon, and silicon, in that its 
specific heat increases as temperature increases, and in 
that the value of this increase is less for 1° at high than 
at low temperatures. Hence the atomic weight of bery]- 
lium is almost certainly 9:1, the oxide is BeO, and the 
metal finds its place in Mendelejeff’s system of classifica- 
tion of the elements according to their atomic weights. 


THE PHOTOPHONE 


ANY readers of NATURE will doubtless be glad to 
know that Mr. Graham Bell’s extraordinary experi- 
ments may be repeated on a small scale with very simple 
apparatus, no special appliances being required beyond 
the mirror transmitter and the selenium receiver, both of 
which may be easily constructed. I propose to give a 
short description of an arrangement which has in my 
hands been very successful. 

The mirror is made of the thin mica which is sold by 
opticians for covering carte de visite photographs. It is 
cut by scissors into a circle 2} inches in diameter, and 
silvered by the process for silvering glass specula. The 
box in which it is mounted is an ordinary wood turned 
box 23 inches in diameter. A circular hole of about 2 
inches diameter is cut in the lid, behind which the mirror 
is laid with the reflecting side outwards, a flat ring of vul- 
canised india-rubber of suitable size and thickness being 
placed behind the mirror ; when the box is closed the 
ring should hold the mirror firmly in position. If the 
lid screws on, so much the better. At the bottom of the 
box is cut a hole, into which is glued one endof a flexible 
speaking-tube 18 inches long, having at its other end a 
wooden mouthpiece. It will be found convenient to 
attach a short wooden arm to the box in a direction per- 
pendicular to its axis. By means of this arm the trans- 
mitter may be held in a clamp in any desired position, 


This completes the transmitter as described by Mr. Bell. 
I have made a small addition which, though not essential, 
isa decided improvement. At the back of the mirror I 
cemented a disk of calico 1 inch in diameter, in the centre 
of which had been previously inserted a loop of silk half 
an inch long. A hole } inch diameter is bored perpen- 
dicularly in the side of the box at a point about 4 inch 
from the mirror end of it, and in this hole is inserted a 
piece of watch-spring 1% inch long, with its flat sides 
parallel to the top and bottom of the box. The spring is 
fixed into the hole with wooden plugs so that one end is 
flush with the outer surface of the box; the other end 
where it intersects the axis is bent into a shallow hook. 
Into this hook is slipped the silken loop, and the tension 
of the spring draws the mirror into a slightly concave 
form, and seems to make it respond more perfectly to 
sound vibrations. 

By far the most important part of the whole apparatus 
is the selenium “cell”? After making some dozens of 
different forms, most of which were more or less sensitive, 
but none satisfactory, I tried the one now to be described, 
which turned out very successful. Take a slip of mica 
2} inches long and # inch broad, and beginning at 4 inch 
from one end, wind round it in the form of a flat screw 
some No. 40 copper wire. The pitch of the screw is 
vs inch, that is, each wire on the two faces of the mica 
is z4; inch from its neighbours. Continue winding up to 
1 inch from the other extremity; then fix the two ends of 
the wire by passing them through holes drilled in the 
mica. Now take a second wire and carefully wind this 
on beside the other, thus forming a second screw, the 
threads of which are midway between those of the origi- 
nalone. Fix this as before. Great care must be taken 
that the two wires do not touch each other at any point: it 
will be well to make sure of this by testing with a galvano- 
meter before proceeding further. If a lathe is at hand, 
the tedious operation of winding may be very greatly 
facilitated. Turn a cylinder of hard wood 4} inches long 
and I inch in diameter: cut this cylinder longitudinally 
into two equal parts, and between the two semi-cylinders 
thus formed place, sandwich-like, a slip of mica of equal 
breadth. Secure the ends with screws. Smooth down 
the whole in the lathe, and when. the edges of the mica 
are quite flush with the surface of the wood, cut upon the 
cylinder a screw of thirty-two threads to the inch. On 
removing the mica from the cylinder its two edges will be 
found to be beautifully and regularly notched. Wind the 
first wire into alternate notches, and the second into the 
others. The wire should be annealed to take away its 
springiness and make it lie flat, and the mica should be 
stout enough to bear tight winding without buckling. 

For the succeeding operation a retort-stand at least 
15 inches high is convenient. Fix one ring 15 inches 
above the foot; on a lower ring stand a medium-sized 
3unsen burner. On the top ring lay a flat sheet of brass 
7; inch thick, and on the brass a piece of mica (to save 
waste selenium). Place the embryo cell on the mica, laying 
small weights on its two ends to keep it steady and bring 
it into closer contact. Having brought the Bunsen burner 
close under the brass, melt a few grains of vitreous sele- 
nium in a small spoon and let four or five drops fall upon 
different parts of the cell. Spread the melted selenium 
evenly over the surface with a slip of mica, pressing it 
well between the wires. During this process the tem- 
perature must be carefully regulated by raising or depres- 
sing the burner. If it is not high enough, tae selenium 
will begin to crystallise ; if too high, the selenium will 
gather up into drops, being apparently repelled from the 
surface of the cell. The temperature should in fact be 
just above the fusing point of crystalline selenium, When 
a smooth surface is obtained, quickly remove the cell with 
microscope forceps and let it cool. Its surface will now 
be smooth and lustrous. 


The cell must next be annealed. And here my expe- 


Nov. 18, 1880 | 


rience differs in a remarkable manner from that of Mr- 

Bell, as stated in his celebrated lecture. It is true that 
selenium may be rendered crystalline in “a few minutes,” 
but in this condition I find it far less sensitive to light 
than after it has undergone a process of long heating and 
slow cooling. My method is as follows:—The brass 
plate being cool, lay the cell upon it again, and place the 
burner at its lowest possible point, The selenium will 
soon begin to crystallise, as evidenced by its surface 
assuming a dull leaden appearance. (If the crystallisa- 
tion has not begun in five minutes, raise the burner an 
inch or two.) In from five to ten minutes the whole 
of the selenium should be crystallised. Then very gra- 
dually raise the burner until signs of fusion just begin to 
appear. This will probably take place when the flame is 
within 3 inches of the brass. Instantly remove the 
burner, and in about ten seconds re-crystallisation will 
occur. Now fix the burner } inch below the point at 
which it was when fusion commenced, and let it remain 
for four hours, merely looking at it from time to time to 
ascertain that, owing to increase of gas pressure or other 
causes, the heat has not become too great. After four 
hours begin the cooling by lowering the burner an inch 
or two, and repeat this operation every ten or fifteen 
minutes, until the burner is at its lowest point. Then 
slightly lower the gas-flame at short intervals, until it is 
finally extinguished. When the brass plate is quite cool 
the cell may be removed. 

I may mention that I first made a cell of this form, 
which I believe to be original, on October 28.1 If the 
two wires were wound on a cylinder made of some 
suitable non-conductor (e.g. slate) with a double screw 
cut upon its surface, a cell might be formed which, it 
appears to me, would unite all the advantages of Mr. 
Bell’s with far greater simplicity. 

_ My experiments were made with the transmitter and 
selenium cell above described, a magic-lantern with a 
4-inch condenser, the focussing lenses being removed, 
two plano-convex lenses obtained by separating a 33-inch 
condenser, a “blow-through”’ lime-light, a battery of 
eleven cells (small Leclanché’s answer well), and a pair 
of Bell telephones. It is essential that the bobbins of the 
latter be wound with finer wire than that generally 
used. Mine contain No. 40 (instead of 35 or 36), and I 
intend to try 42. Their diameter is also larger than 
usual—1# inch. 

The transmitter is clamped so that its axis is inclined 
at an angle of about 30° to that of the lantern condenser, 
the centre of the mirror being 7 or 8 inches from the 
centre of the condenser; and the position of the lime- 
light is so adjusted that the condensed rays may just 
cover the whole surface of the mirror. 

The reflected beam is rendered as nearly parallel as 
possible by one of the plano-convex lenses (this can only 
be done approximately), while the other, placed a foot or 
two away, concentrates the light upon the selenium cell, 
forming an elliptical image of the mirror, The major 
axis of the ellipse should be parallel to the length of the 
cell, and the minor axis slightly longer than its width. A 
great deal depends upon the focussing, and the best 
results have been obtained when the image of the mirror 
was not quite sharp. The selenium cell is joined in circuit 
with the battery and the pair of telephones, the latter 
being for obvious reasons placed ina distant room. The 
arrangements are now complete, and a person listening 
with a telephone applied to each ear will, if everything is 
right, plainly hear words which are spoken into the trans- 
mitter. When I first made the experiment I was so 
much astonished at the distinctness of the reproduction 
that I believed that one of the battery connections must be 

* If a larger surface is desired, two or more of these cells may be placed 
together side by side, the ends of the wires being properly connected. The 
width of } inch for a single cell cannot be much exceeded, because the 


expansion produced by the heat necessary for melting the selenium would 
make the wires on a wider surface so loose as to touch each other. 


NATURE 


59 


defective, thus acting like a microphone. This was dis- 
proved by screening the mirror, when all sound instantly 
ceased. 

Though the articulation is not perfect, it is far better 
than I had expected, judging from the accounts of the 
performances of the photophone in Paris. A leading 
article might not be altogether intelligible, but ordinary 
colloquial phrases are readily funderstood. The loud- 
ness of the reproduced speech varies in an unaccountable 
manner. Sometimes the voice is rendered almost as loudly 
as in an ordinary telephone; at other times, under ap- 
parently the same conditions, itis scarcely audible. Alter- 
nations from loudness tofaintness, and vice versd, frequently 
occur in a single sentence. 

The distances across which the beam is carried have 
varied in my experiments from 1 foot (when the two 
plano-convex lenses were in actual contact) to rather 
more than 4 feet. With a larger receiving lens this 
distance could be greatly extended, especially if the 
electric light were used. 

For the “ musical’’ effects produced by an interrupted 
beam I use a disk of zinc 1 foot in diameter, having eight 
radial slits cut in it, and mounted upon a vacuum tube 
rotator. The cell is placed 6 inches from the lantern 
condenser, and the disk made to rotate close before it. 
The sound produced is very loud, and can be heard when 
the telephones are at a distance of a foot or more from 
the ears. 

It is very singular, that whereas I have been so suc- 
cessful in repeating Mr. Bell’s more complex experiments, 
I have utterly failed in all attempts to produce sound by 
the simple incidence of an interrupted beam upon a thin 
diaphragm. I have experimented with disks of ebonite 
varying from ,, to } inch in thickness, and with several 
metals, and can only suppose that my source of light is 
not sufficiently powerful. SHELFORD BIDWELL 


THE CHRONOGRAPH 


‘PR E. DENT AND CO., of the Strand and 
Royal Exchange, London, have been for some time 
past at work upon three galvanic chronographs of unusual 
accuracy and power. They surpass in both respects, so 
far as we know, any similar instruments yet constructed ; 
and we believe, therefore, some account of them will be 
interesting to our readers. They are destined respectively 
for the Royal Observatory of Brussels, for the Japanese 
Government, and for the Egyptian Government. 

The advantages of the “chronographic’’ registration 
of the times of observations in observatories are not to be 
gainsaid. In the absence of any such arrangement an 
astronomer, whilst watching through his telescope, has to 
compute the time by counting up the clock-beats. More 
often than not he will find that no clock-beat exactly 
coincides with the instant of his observation. He must 
then reckon the difference—the fraction of the second 
elapsed—by judgment as best he is able. © Skilled 
observers can reckon to tenths of seconds, but these are 
large and coarse amounts compared with what may be 
noted upon such chronographs as those we are referring 
to. In any case the astronomer must make a hurried 
memorandum of his results ; otherwise he is liable to 
forget them. i : 

The Astronomer-Royal was, we believe, the first to in- 
troduce a system of astronomical chronographic measure- 
ment into England ; and he designed and had constructed 
at the Royal Observatory a large apparatus for the pur- 
pose. The reader must bear in mind that though differ- 
ing in some respects both in their mechanism and the 
means employed, the chronographs we are going to 
describe are fundamentally the same as the Astronomer- 
Royal’s. 

& ' With a s}-inch receiving lens the distance has been increased to upwards 
of ro feet. 


60 


IAL RT: 


[Mov. 18, 1880 


Cc (see Fig. 1) is a cylinder around which one thick- 
ness of paper is wrapped, and underneath it is a long 
screw WW. A wheel on the axis of CC gears into one 
mounted on ww; thus when the cylinder turns, the 
screw turns. WW is tapped through the lower portion of 
a carriage K (compare Fig. 2), and K rests on rails 
parallel with ww. When the screw w w turns, K cannot 
turn too, and is therefore propelled by the screw up or | 


down the rails underneath the cylinder, 


communication with the Observatory standard clock. 


L is clockwork which drives the screw, and consequently 
the cylinder and carriage. The rapidity with which EL. 
moves is regulated by the pendulum PP. PP is a conical 
pendulum ; that is, instead of oscillating, it swings round 
in the surface of a cone, PP is suspended by two pairs of 
springs SS, SS at right angles to each other. 

Let us consider the actions of cc and K (see Fig. 2). 
K carries two prickers, one of which is placed in electrical 
It 


E.DENT & CS 
ClockmaxeAs To THE Queen. 
Gl STRAND LONDON. 


is so arranged that at every beat of the standard clock | 


(except the 6oth second of each minute) the pricker shall 
rise and puncture the paper wrapped round the cylinder. 
Now suppose that whilst the clock keeps pricking, the 
cylinder is turning, and the carriage K moving to the left. 
Then we shall get a succession of pricks marked off upon 
the cylinder in the form of a slightly inclined spiral, and 
the distance between each prick will represent one second. 
Every 60th prick (or second) being omitted, the occurrence 
of each minute is easily distinguished. 

The carriage K carries another pricker alongside the 


The 
observation-pricker is placed in electrical communication 
with any instrument in the observatory the astronomer 
may be going to use, and it is so arranged that the astro- 
nomer by merely pressing down a stud can cause the 
observation-pricker to rise and puncture the paper on the 


clock-pricker—this is the observation-pricker. 


cylinder. This it will do somewhere alongside the spiral 
of clock-pricks. By reference to the latter the time of the 
observation can then be determined to the ;'5th of a second. 

Let us examine the pricks on the cylinder (Fig. 2). 
The spiral of the clock-pricks winds around the cylinder 


ual Observation 


Charted from Act 


og 


— ; 
Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 
= UNITED STATES ARMY. ; 
Charted from Actual Observations taken Singyitancously. Series commencing S: 
ost _ - = -Onr 


mber. 1877. No. V. 


OFT 


O6t 


PREVAILING WINDS. 


Avrows show the direction i 2998 
Force is shown as follows: ip pe anciamapne sneering. f PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 


Wey 


BRIG. GEN. (BVT. ASSG'D) CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER. U. 8. 4 


Metres per 
second. ISOBARS AND ISOTHERMS. 
0 to 4.0 | ysobars in blue; detached barometer means 
; n English inches. 
aL Jsotherms in red; detached temperature 
eit. 
10.1 te 18.1 anon canal Se eae 


INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY CHART, 
Showing mean pressure, mean temperature, mean force and prevailing direction of winds at 


18.1 to 30.2. 
30.2 & over. 7:35 A. M., Washington mean time, for the month of December, based 


NATURE 


61 


Ne 18, 1880] 

fro} ‘eft to right. As the cylinder turns once in two 
mii ‘es, there is between each prick and its fellow simi- 
lar vositioned on the next spiral a difference in time of 
tw« «inutes. As stated above, we note by the absence 


of tne pricks the occurrence of the minutes. By reference 
to the figures placed (for explanation) along the top and 
side of the section of the cylinder, we see that the time of 
the highest prick on the left-hand spiral was 9h. 12m. 46s. 
Following the course of the spiral down towards the 


Fic. 3. 


pricker which is tracing it, we first pass the blank line 
indicating the occurrence of the next minute, and then 
come to three observation-pricks at about the 8th and 9th 
seconds beyond it. These in practice would be measured 
off and their values determined to the ;th or j doth of a 
second. There are other observation-pricks at the 22nd 
second, the 24th, and 25th, and there is a group of others 
-. about the goth. 

When all the observations have been reckoned up the 
paper is put away, and it is not the least advantage of 


the “chronographic’”’ 
the original observation can be itself referred to years 
afterwards. 

As the paper is moving whilst being punctured, the 
prickers have to be mounted on springs to enable them 


method that in any case of doubt 


to yield a little. In Fig. 3 is a side view of the pricker, 

GG being the spring, and CC a portion of the cylinder. 
There is no difficulty in reading off the observations 

after a little practice: but in order to facilitate the eye 


in following the sequence of the punctures—before the 
paper is used a continuous spiral line is ruled upon it which 
shall exactly correspond with their course. This is done 
in the following way (see Fig. 1) :--At T are two clutch- 
wheels, which connect the screw and cylinder with the 
clock-work L.. By moving a lever near them the clock- 
work is thrown out of gear, and simultaneously the winch 
on the left is thrown into gear with the screw. On the 
carriage K (see Fig, 2) is a little roller r, and by moving 
a handle this is sprung up against the paper on the 
cylinder. The winch before referred to is now turned, the 
cylinder rapidly revolves, and the carriage quickly tra- 
verses the screw, the spiral line meanwhile being traced 
by the pressure of E upon the paper of the cylinder. To 
prevent damage to the prickers during the operation, the 
act of disengaging the clock-work breaks their electrical 
communication, and they can neither of them be raised 
until the clutch-work is restored. The cylinder moves 
very swiftly whilst the line is being traced, and were it 
brought to a standstill suddenly great damage would be 
done. To prevent this it is arranged that when the 
carriage K is approaching either extremity of the screw 
it shall work a brake arrangement B B, which brings the 
machinery quietly to repose. The act of putting the 
clutch-wheels T into position again also releases the brake. 
The clutch-wheels T are mounted on a spring, so that 
should their teeth not correspond when they are put into 
gear, one will give and wait for the other to overtake it. 

It is desirable that the clock L should drive CC with 
great uniformity ; and as the time of a conical pendulum 
is affected in a very great degree by any variation in the 
force of the clock-train, a special governing arrangement, 
the invention of the Astronomer-Royal, is employed. 
u (see Fig. 4) is a trough filled with glycerine and water. 
Power reaches the pendulum by means of its connection 
with the vertical spindle seen at the centre of the trough, 
which rises from the clock-work. In this connection 
there is a joint, and a dipper D forms part of it. Too: 
much power drives out the pendulum, and it would then 
go faster, were it not that the dipper, entering the glycerine 
and water more deeply, checks its motion. On the other 
hand, whenever the power falls off the pendulum performs 
a smaller circle, thereby lifting the dipper a little more 
away from the liquid, and diminishing the resistance in 
exactly the same proportion as the force. The pointer x 
is a very delicate index of the angle the pendulum is 
swinging. The compensatory action of this governor is 
very considerable; doubling the power produces no 
perceptible difference in the time. The quickness with 
which it works is surprising; an infinitesimal change in 
the power is immediately indicated on the scale A, 
showing how well the apparatus is doing its work. 

To prevent damage to the governor and the more 
delicate clock-wheels by any sudden check to the cylinder, 
a ratch-wheel arrangement has been introduced, which, 
when the cylinder is suddenly stopped, enables the 
pendulum to run on until it comes to rest gradually, 
by want of power. 

Fig. 1 gives a very faint idea of the dimensions of the 
apparatus. The cylinder CC is 12 inches in diameter, and 
30 inches long. Its weight is about 7olb. The space 
between each seconds prick is 3% inch, and the distance 
between the successive turns of the spiral of pricks 3% inch, 
There is room on the paper for 200 spirals, and as 
each is more than one yard long, we can get more than 
260 yards (62 hours) of continuous observation without 
disturbing the instrument. There is always a spare cylinder 
covered with paper kept ready to replace the first. 

The iron base-plate on which the instrument is mounted 
weighs over 3 cwt., the rails on which the carriage K runs 
are cast in one piece with it, and, along with all other 
bearing surfaces are planed. The pendulum, which weighs 
some 18 lb., and is compensated, goes round once in 
two seconds, Its suspension-piece weighs 2 cwt. As 


62 


NATURE 


[Vov. 18, 1880 


regards the accuracy of the construction of these chrono- 
graphs, the best criterion is to be found in the force that 
is required to work them. We find that 7 foot-pounds 
per hour drives the clock-work and pendulum ;~7 foot- 
pounds more drives the carriage as well; and only 3 foot- 
pounds more is wanted for the cylinder—17 foot-pounds 
per hour for the whole instrument. Considering the 
resistance of the carriage, the resistance of the glycerine, 
and the weight of the cylinder, we think the result as 
surprising as it is satisfactory. 


THE BELGIAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 


iat April, 1855, a circular with ten signatures was ad- 
dressed to entomologists residing in Belgium, pro- 
posing the formation of a National Entomological Society, 
the students of Insecta and allies having at that time no 
organisation, no central meeting-place for interchange of 
ideas, no special medium in which to publish the results 
of their researches. The proposal was met by cordial 
approval, and the first volume of the Azmales of the 
newly-formed Society, published in 1857, indicated a 
strength of forty-seven effective and four honorary mem- 
bers, with Baron de Selys-Longchamps as president. At 
first its publications were occupied almost entirely by sub- 
jects concerning the Belgian fauna, the volumes were thin, 
and each represented the work of more than one year. 
The Society was however well grounded, and notwithstand- 
ing occasional short periods of depression, it gradually in- 
creased in the number of its members, in the wideness of 
the scope of the papers read at its meetings, and in repu- 
tation as one of the leading entomological societies. 
Naturally the size of the volumes of the Azma/es, and the 
frequency of their appearance, also increased, and now 
the Society produces a volume each year that no similar 
society need be ashamed of. The twenty-second volume 
appeared in 1879, showing that the weakness inherent on 
infancy was soon overcome. The list in this volume 
shows a total of 171 effective Members (including many 
foreigners, of whom, however, only six are our own 
countrymen), twelve Honorary Members (including Messrs. 
Stainton and Westwood), with the addition of Corre- 
sponding and Associate Members. It had also at that 
time acquired the distinction of being recognised by the 
State and of receiving a certain amount of State aid. 

On October 18, 1880, the Society celebrated its twenty- 
fifth anniversary, rejoicing in the attainment of more than 
its majority, on which occasion the present President 
(M. Weinmann) read a short congratulatory address, and 
the indefatigable secretary (M. Preudhomme de Borre, to 
whom the Society owes much of its recent success) gave 
an instructive sketch of the history and progress of the 
Society. On that occasion an especial honour was be- 
stowed upon its first president, Baron de Selys-Long- 
champs (recently elected President of the Belgian Senate), 
by conferring upon him (in spite of his protestations) the 
title of Honorary President, a graceful tribute to one who 
for so long had continually used his energies, his social 
and scientific position, and his purse in furthering its 
interests, 

Even apart from purely scientific considerations, the 
history of Belgium is so indissolubly mixed up with our 
own, and the feeling of fraternity so close, that all students 
of entomology in this country cannot but reciprocate the 
mutual congratulations that passed on this occasion 
between the native members; and the hearty and un- 
affected demonstrations of friendship accorded to our 
own entomologists who have attended the meetings of 
the Society show how warmly they welcome those of the 
foreign members who occasionally visit Brussels. The 
meetings are held in a room in the Royal Natural History 
Museum, in which is the library, and in connection with 
the entomological collection of the Museum. The annual 
subscription is small, and entitles the members to receive 


all the publications, including elaborate separate reports 
of the proceedings at the monthly meetings. We hope 
soon to see Englishmen figuring far more numerously in 
the lists of members. R. McL. 


A GENERAL THEOREM IN KINEMATICS 


Apes following theorem with regard to the motion of a 
rigid body will doubtless be interesting to mathe- 
matical physicists :— 

_In all cases of the motion, parallel to one plane, of a 
rigid body there is at every instant a point, /, of no 
acceleration, in the plane of motion ; the acceleration of 
every point, P, in the plane is in magnitude directly pro- 
portional to the distance, 7 P; and its direction makes 
with / Pan angle which, though varying with the time, 
is at any instant the same for all points in the body. 

If wis the angular velocity of the body at any instant 
and # the angular acceleration, the angle between / P and 
the direction of acceleration of P is 

tan = 
wt 

We have therefore in all cases of uniplanar motion of 
a solid body an zustantaneous acceleration centre, which 
is analogous to the ordinary instantaneous [velocity] 
centre. 

Of course the ordinary equation 

lo=L, 
which holds for motion round an axis fixed in space and 
in the body, and which expresses that the moment of the 
external forces about the axis is equal to the moment of 
the forces of inertia, holds also for the instantaneous 
acceleration centre. 

As a particular case, whenever a solid moves with 
constant angular velocity, the accelerations are all directed 
towards the same point at any instant, and it follows that 
the resultant stress exerted over the surface of any little 
lump of the matter is a force directed to this point, if no 
continuous forces act. 

This centre can be in any case geometrically constructed 
by a rule analogous to that for the ordinary instantaneous 
centre. 

When I had hit upon this theorem I mentioned it to 
Prof. Wolstenholme, who at once lcoked out for its 
extension to three dimensicnal motion. The result is 
very simple. 

In all cases of the motion of a solid body there is at 
every instant a point, /, of no acceleration ; and if at / 
there be drawn two axes, /A and / ZB, which are those 
respectively round which the resultant angular velocity, 
w, and the resultant angular acceleration, #, take place, 
the acceleration of any point, P, is compounded of two— 
one along the perpendicular, #, from P on / A, and the 
other perpendicular to _/ 2 and to the perpendicular, ¢, 
from P on / BZ, these two components being, respectively, 

wf and ag. 

It seems surprising that such a simple and general 
property of the motion of a rigid body should not have 
been well known long ago. GEORGE M. MINCHIN 

Royal Indian Engineering College, 

Cooper’s Hill, November 6 


NOTES 


‘Tur awards of medals for the present year made by the 
President and Council of the Royal Society are as follows :—The 
Copl y Medal to Prof. James Joseph Sylvester, F.R.S., for his 
long-continued investigations and discoveries in mathematics ; a 
Royal Medal to Prof. Joseph Lister, F.R.S., for his contribu- 
tions on various physiological and biological subjects published 
in the Philosophical Zvansactions and Proceedings of the Royal 


ee 


Nov. 18, 1880] 


Society and elsewhere, and for his labours, practical and theo- 
retical, on questions relating to the antiseptic system of treatment 
in surgery ; 2 Royal Medal to Capt. Andrew Noble, F.R.S., for 
his researches (jointly with Mr. Abel) into the action of ex- 
plosives, his invention of the chronoscope, and other mathe- 
matical and physical inquiries; the Rumford Medal to Dr. 
William Huggins, F.R.S., for his important researches in astro- 
nomical spectroscopy, and especially for his determination of 
the radial component of the proper motions of stars; the Davy 
medal to Prof. Charles Friedel of Paris for his researches on 
the organic compounds of silicon, and other investigations. 


WE regret to have to record the death of M. d’Almeida, 
secretary of the French Société de Physique, and editor of the 
Journal de Physique, M. d@’Almeida published a ‘‘ Traite 
de Physique” in collaboration with M. Boutin, The Comptes 
rendus of the Academy of Sciences contain a number of his 
memoirs. 

Mr. Sporriswoopk, president of the Royal Society, was 
present at the sitting of the French Academy of Sciences on the 
15th inst. He witnessed experiments made at Meritens’ work- 
shop on the magneto-electric engines which have been ordered 
by the Trinity House. The trials were successful. 


Srp Epwarp Reep writes from Corunna to the Zimes of 
yesterday, pointing out, as we were able to do last week, that 
the reports as to the injury sustained by the Zivadia have been 
greatly exaggerated, and were not more than a few Clyde ship- 
wrights could have repaired in a couple of days. There was no 
difficulty in getting the two injured compartments put to rights, 
barring the laziness of the French shipwrights. The Zivadia 
returns to Ferrol for the winter, as her services are not required 
by her Imperial owner. 

FURTHER details concerning the earthquake in Austria on the 
oth confirm the reports as to its extent and severity. At Agram 
there were three shocks—the first, at 7.24 a.m., was the most 
formidable and lasted ten seconds; the second, also severe, 
occurred at 7.30; while the third, which was much the weakest, 
took place at 8.28 a.m. The first shock is described as circular, 
It was followed by violent oscillations from north-north-east to 
south-south-west. After it the whole town was covered by a 
dense cloud of dust caused by the falling down of chimneys, 
walls, and houses in every direction. From Laibach, Marburg, 
Klagenfurt, Kanizsa, Serajevo, Derwent, Brod, Pola, Trieste, 
Cilli, and the region of the river Drave, intelligence has been 
received of more or less severe shocks about the time of the first 
great shock in Agram. The earthquake was also felt in both 
Vienna and Pesth, but so slightly that it attracted the notice of 
only a few persons, The direction of the motion was every- 
where the same, from north-east to south-southwest. As far 
as can be judged from the information hitherto received, the 
movement extended from the 44th to the 48th degree north 
latitude, and from the 32d to the 37th degree of east longitude 
(Ferco). From almost every district on the right bank of the 
Danube there is news of a greater or less disturbance with more 
or less damage done, while fro.n the other side there is no such 
intelligence from even a single place. It was also felt at 
Szegedin and on the Theiss. Slight shocks were also felt on 
the night of the 9th and morning of the roth, at Agram, and at 
noon on the rth, a shock caused a number of houses to fall; 
the last was preceded by slighter shocks at 5.30 and 11 a.m. 
The disturbance was continued on the evening of the 11th, and 
on the morning, afternoon, and evening of the 12th, In 
the neighbourhood of Agram two mud volcanoes are said 
to be formed and in full eruption, and several hot springs have 
risen, The earth has also been rent in many places in the open 
country, and considerable quantities of mud with hot water and 
sulphur have been thrown out. The Vienna correspondent of 


NATURE: 


63 


the Zines writes under the date of November 14: ‘‘ The earth 
has been rent in many places in the open country, and consider- 
able quantities of mud and hot water with sulphur have been 
thrown out. One of the largest of these rents is near the village 
of Resnik, Agram has often been visited by these earthquakes, 
especially within the last few years. Indeed scarcely a year 
has passed without more or less violent shocks.” On the night 
of the 15th-16th there were at least five shocks at intervals 
between midnight and 4a.m. Geologists have gone from Vienna 
and Berlin to Agram to study the phenomena more closely. 


Mr. J. Munro has drawn our attention to the fact that in 
NaTurg, vol. xviii. p. 169, there appeared a short letter signed 
“J. F. W.” and dated from Kew, June 3, 1878, suggesting the 
principle of Prof. Bell’s photophone. The letter is as follows :— 
“© Till now I have looked in vain for any account in NATURE of 
experiments with the telephone or phonoscope, inserted in the 
circuit of a selenium (galvanic) element (see NATURE, vol. xvii. 
p- 312). One is inclined to think that by exposing the selenium 
to light, the intensity of which is subject to rapid changes, sound 
may be produced in the phonoscope. Probably by making use 
of selenium, instead of the tube-transmitter with charcoal, &c., 
of Prof. Hughes, and by exposing it to light as above, the same 
result may be obtained. I should be-glad to know whether 
experiments have been made in this direction ; for if the above 
should prove true, there is no doubt that many applications 
would be the result.” 

OuR entomological readers will be glad to know that Mr. 
McLachlan will still continue his valuable services to the 
Zoological Record, reporting as usual on the groups of the 
Neuroptera and Orthoptera. Mr. Rye will henceforth confine 
himself to editorial work, while the groups hitherto recorded by 
him will be undertaken by Mr. Kirby, who will also do the 
Coleoptera. 
~ LARGE additions are now being made to the Muséum d’ Histoire 
Naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, A new front is 
being erected and two new sides, which, combined with the 
former “Galerie,” will form a hollow square. This square will 
be covered with glass and used for the exhibition of skeletons of 
whales and other specimens of inordinate dimensions. The total 
cost of these buildings is estimated at five million francs 
(160, 000/. ). 2 

UnpERr the auspices of the Russian Geographical Society M. 
Merejkovsky has been investigating the prehistoric anthropology 
of the Crimea. He has explored numerous caverns and made 
large collections of skulls, and the conclusion he comes to is that 
the age of stone in the Crimea may be divided into three 
periods: 1. Diluvian period, with mammoth fauna and arms of 
large dimensions, rudely worked. 2. Alluvial period, with con- 
temporaneous fauna and the use of the arrow. 3. A later 
period, remarkable for the use of stone arrows, with scarcely any 
arms of large dimensions. In the Ural M. Malakhof has ob- 
tained important results, both geodetical and anthropological. 
He believes he has discovered on the Neiva, 75 versts from 
Ekaterineborg, traces of a prehistoric city. 

A REGULAR analysis of the air is carried on by M. Davy 
at Moutsouris. It has been found that the number of 
bacteria was twice greater than usual during the last period of 
high mortality. 

Tue President of the French Republic has established tele- 
phonic communication between the Elysée and the Chamber of 
Deputies, as well as the Senate. The first message of this in- 
strument was the intelligence that the Cabinet had been placed 
in a minority. 

AN interesting exhibition took place on Sunday, the 14th, at 
the Paris Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Rue St. Martin. 
The portefeuille of Vaucauson was opened for the first time to 


64 


public inspection. 
ments of this collection were affixed to the walls, with a number of 
other articles belonging to the archives. 
certainly the original letter written by Fulton to Mollard ex- 
plaining to him the principles of steamboat construction. 
letter is very long and exhaustive, and is accompanied by a 
drawing. M., Mollard returned a very cold answer after having 
meditated for a full month, and he says that ‘‘Mr. Fulton’s 
communication will be lodged in the archives of the Conserva- 
toire.” The date of Fulton’s communication is the beginning of 
Pluviose, An. 11; Mollard’s answer is not exhibited, but has 
been seen by our correspondent. 


On this occasion the most important docu- 


TuHeE Jablochkoff light has been introduced by M. Herve- 
Mangon into the Conservatoire. It will be fed by a Gramme 
machine, which the establishment has purchased for its constant 
use. The light will be placed in the amphitheatre, where M. 
Hervé-Mangon delivers, twice a week, his own lectures. 


THE lighting of the Victoria Station of the District Railway 
by means of the Jablochkoff electric light has been so successful 
that it has been also applied to the Charing Cross Station, and 
will shortly be introduced at Earl’s Court. 


M. MartIN is engaged in polishing the object-glass of the 
large refracting telescope now building at the Paris Obser- 
vatory. The diameter of this exceptional lens is 73 centimetres, 
and its weight 200 kilograms. The quality of the glass having 
proved defective it has already broken twice, and the operation 
is now being made on the third casting. 


Ow the occasion of the opening of the Ronalds Library at the 
Society of Telegraph Engineers, a considerable number of rare 
and curious books relating to electricity, magnetism, navigation, 
&c., was exhibited. A list of these has been printed and would 
be valuable to any one interested in the history of the depart- 
ments of science concerned, 


A GOOD example of the thoroughness of German education is 
given in the publication by Brockhaus of Leipzig of an “English 
Scientific Reader,” edited by Dr. F. J. Wershoven, its purpose 
being to familiarise students with the style and terms used by 
the best English scientific writers. The first part relates to 
physics, chemistry, and chemical technology, and the extracts 
are made with great judgment. Among the authors from whom 
selections are made are Clerk-Maxwell, Fleeming Jenkin, 
Crookes, Roscoe, Lockyer, Rankine, Bloxam, George Wilson. 


We have received the first two volumes of a new “ Biblio- 
theque Belge,” for the popularisation of the sciences and arts, 
published at Mons by Manceaux. The two volumes received are 
“‘Traité élémentaire de Météorologie,” by MM. J. C. Houzeau 
and A, Lancaster, two names well known in connection with 
this subject ; and ‘‘ Zoologie ¢lémentaire,” by Prof. Felix Pla- 
teau, whose name must also be familiar to our readers in con- 
nection with original research in a special department of the 
subject. Both volumes are well printed and illustrated. 
the volumes to follow are 


Among 
** Paleontology and Conchology,” 
by A. Briart; ‘‘Geology,” by F, Cornet; ‘‘ Botany,” by F. 
Crépin; ‘‘ Mineralogy,” and ‘‘ Mineral Physiology,” by L. L. 
de Koninck ; ‘‘ Mechanics,” by H. Hubert ; ‘‘ Astronomy,” by 
M. Niesten; ‘“‘The Beginnings of Animal Life,” by E. van 
Beneden ; and “‘ Physics,” by vand der Mensbrugghen. 


Pror, CORNELIUS DOELTER of Gratz was to proceed on the 
15th inst. to Paris, thence to set out on a mission of scientific 
investigation to West Africa. 


ACCORDING to official reports of the statistics of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, these contain 1272 parishes, 43 towns, 31 markets, 
5042 villages, 189,662 houses, 200,747 dwellings. Of the 


NATURE [Vov. 18, 1880 | 

1,158,440 inhabitants 607,789 are male, 550,681 female, 448,61 33 a 

; Maborielan confession, 496,761 Greek-Oriental, 209,391 

The most interesting is | Roman Catholic, 3426 Jewish, 249 other confessions. 4 | 
7a THE Procureur-General of Paris having complainzd, in his — 

© | official addiess on the occasion of the opening of the courts, that 4 / 


the legal experiments in cases of poison were executed without 
sufficient precautions being taken against the professional preju- i | 
dices of the operator, all the medical advisers of the criminal — 
courts in Paris sent in their resignation, after having taken the 
advice of the Dean of the School of Medicine and other scientific — 
authorities. Their number is nineteen, +t 


A FAIRLY satisfactory Report is given by Surgeon-Major 
Bidie on the Government Central Museum at Madras. The 
number of visitors, especially female, continues to increase, and 
the special arrangements for native ladies attracted an average of / 
116 on the afternoon of the first Saturday of each month, 


THE Garden has increased its size and reduced its price, 
introducing several improvements. ; 


LoRD GIFFORD, one of the Scotch judges, inopening the session — 
at the Edinburgh School of Art the other day, summed up very 
neatly the advantages which a full and accurate scientific know- 
ledge would bestow on those who were engaged in any practical 
work whatever—(1) That scientific knowledge of their subject” 
would make work, whatever it was, intelligent, not mechanical; 
(2) it would make their work skilful and easy ; (3) it would 
enable them to produce more exact and perfect work; (4) it 
would make their work advancing and progressive; and (5) it 
would make their lifework in itself delightful, and a source of 
pure and profound joy. 


A very favourable Twelfth Report of the Working Men’s 
College is issued, This institution completed its twenty-fifth 
year last year, and during its existence has doubtless done much 
good. The science classes have attracted an increasing number 
of students in recent years. a i 


UnpeER the title of ‘‘ The Free Libraries of Scotland” some 
useful information is brought together in a pamphlet by ‘‘ An” 
Assistant Librarian.” The towns in Scotland in which there ~ 
are free libraries are Airdrie, Dundee, Forfar, Galashiels, Glasgow 
(Mitchell Library), Hawick, Paisley, Thurso. The University 
towns of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews are still with- 
out such useful institutions ; the Act has been adopted in Inver- 
ness and Dunfermline ; Arbroath has twice rejected the proposal 
to adopt the Free Libraries Act. 


Weare glad to notice that the Highbury Microscopical and 
Scientific Society is increasing in numbers and has some good 
papers promised for the new year. It gave its fourth annua] 
soirée at Harecourt Hall on October 14, and the president, Mr. 
Frederick Fitch, F.R.M.S., gave his address on the ‘‘ History 
of the Microscope and Microscopic Research” on October 28. 
On Saturday, the 13th inst., a visit will be paid to the Museum 
of Practical Geology under the guidance of Prof, Rudler, F.G.S._ 


In the Zyansactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, April 
1880, recently received, the Rev. R. H. Codrington contributes 
some valuable ‘‘ Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands.” 
Since Mr. Tylor in his ‘* Early History of Mankind” so graphi- 
cally sketched the remarkable custom of the ‘‘couvade” all 
information as to its further geographical distribution is ethno-— 
logically valuable, and Mr. Codrington here adds the Banks — 

Islands to the area in which it is practised. There is also a | 
tradition that among the inland mountains there is or used to be 
a race of wild men, which agrees with the stories that are current — 
in most of the Asiatic Islands, The AZo/a practices here described 
are not to be confounded with those of the AZofu of New 
Guinea, 


Nov. 18, 1880} 


NATURE 


65 


A NEw destructive insect is recorded from America ; Cetonia 
inda, a beetle which, according to the American Naturalist, was 
“harmless, feeding on the sap of freshly cut maple-trees, has 
iis is a : 
within two or three years become very abundant and destructive 
in different parts of New England. During the past summer it 
‘collected in great numbers on green corn, ‘‘ eating the kernels 
“and partly destroying a field in Middleboro, Mass.” 
|) 


' FAavouras.e reports reach us as to the thriving condition of 
the Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon, under the direction 
‘of Dr. Trimen, who recently succeeded Dr. Thwaites. In the 
experimental nurseries, our contemporary the Colonies says, good 
work was being done. Ivery effort was being made to extend 
the cultivation of Cizzckona, the export of which for the season, 
up to the date of latest advices, had been 1,135,236 1b, In the 
district of Kotmale report represented the india-rubber tree as 
flourishing, and the export of its valuable juice from the colony 
may, it is hoped, be eventually looked upon for supplementing 
the falling off in export of this valuable article from the forests 
where it is indigenous, 


THE Colonies and India draws attention to the riches of the 
‘New Zealand forests in their indigenous timbers. Though the 
woods of New Zealand, like those of Australia, are by no means 
unknown in this country, owing to the assistance afforded for 
making their acquaintance through the various International 
Exhibitions, they are nevertheless almost unknown in commerce 
_ in consequence of their extreme hardness and the cost of freight 
_ in bringing such heavy material so long adistance. Our contem- 
| porary thinks that the timbers ‘‘ will become of much greater 
| value when it is more generally known when to cut and how to 
| season them.”’ We are told that experiments in this direction 
| are being made in order to test their value for various purposes, 
| Several of the best wocds are enumerated, and it is said of the 
“Matai” (Podocarpus spicata) that Mr. Buchanan ‘‘ reports 
having found a tree of this species prostrate on a piece of land 
near Dunedin, which from various circumstances was estimated 
to have been exposed for at least three hundred years in a dense 
damp bush under conditions most favourable to decay. It was 
still however sound and fresh.” 


MAMMEE ApPLes (Mammea americana) are, we understand, 
‘being exported in quantities from the West Indies to New York. 
The result of the experiment is being watched with some 
interest. 


In the Jast number of the Revue d’ Anthropologie has appeared 
not only an excellent photograph of the late Dr. Paul Broca, but 
_ also a biographical sketch and a complete list of his various 

contributions to science. His contributions to medical science 
commence in 1847, and his first anthropological memoir bears 
date 1850; from these dates to the time of his death this 
_‘**Bibliographie” is a record of both untiring industry and 
scientific production, which will be remembered as long as 
anthropology remains a science. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE Sotar Ecuipse or DrcemMBer 31.—Although the 
eclipse of the sun on the last day of the present year will not in 
any part of these islands amount to six-tenths of the sun’s 
diameter, it is nevertheless as large a one as will be visible until 
_ May 28, 1900, and only that on the morning of June 17, 1890, 
will compare with it in magnitude in the interval. The Wazteca! 
| Almanac furnishes the results of direct calculations for Green- 
| wich, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cambridge, Oxford, and Liverpool. 
If to the results for the former three observatories we apply the 
| very convenient Littrow-Woolhouse method of distributing the 
. predictions, we shall have the following formule for finding 
_ Greenwich mean times of first contact, greatest phase and last 
contact, and the magnitude of the eclipse at any place within or 
near to the area comprised :— 


h. m. 
First contact = 1 41.14 — [99891] L + [9°6113] M 
Greatest phase = 2 36.32 - [9°7942] L + [9°3838] M 
Last contact = 3 28.63 — [9°4618] L + [8°7599] M 


Where the latitude of the place is put = 50° + L, and m is the 
longitude from Greenwich in minutes of time reckoned positive 
to the east, and negative to the west. Quantities in square 
brackets are logarithms, 

Or the following may be substituted with sufficient accuracy, 
the factors of L and M being now numbers :— 

Me iin 
I 41.14 — 0°98 L + O'41M 
2 36.32 — 0°62L + 0'24M 
Last contact 3 28.63 — 0°29 L + 006M 

and the magnitude will be = 0°368 + 0°013 L — 07002 M, 
If we test these formule upon Oxford, the latitude of which is 
51° 45, 36”, longitude 5m, 2°6s. W., we have then L = + 1°76, 
and M = — 504m; then for first contact the expression 
becomes th. 4t-14m. + 1°76 X — 0°98 — 504m. X O'41 = 
th. 40°14m. — 1°72m, — 2°07m, = th. 37°35m. Greenwich mean 
time, or applying the longitude — 5°oqm. = th. 32°3m. agreeing 
with the Waztical Almanac, and similarly for the other phases. 
The differences from direct calculations will be within o*2m., if 
the place is not too distant. 


Tue DunEcuT ComeT.—There appears to be no doubt now 
that the comet discovered by Mr. Lohse at Lord Lindsay’s Ob- 
servatory on November 7 is the same as that detected by Mr. 
Lewis Swift at Rochester, N.Y., on October 11, which had not 
been previously observed in Europe, The elements, according 
to the calculations of Mr. S. C. Chandler, jun., of Boston, U.S., 
and those of Dr. Copeland and Mr. Lohse at Dunecht, have great 
resemblance to the elements of the third comet of 1869, disco- 
vered by M. Tempel, and there seems a probability that he may 
thus be found to have detected no fewer than four comets of 
comparatively short period. If the revolution of this comet 
should prove to be performed ina little less than eleven years 
it will be found that it must approach very near to the orbit of 
Mars shortly before the descending node, and, which is of more 
importance, within 0°4 of the earth’s mean distance, from the 
orbit of Jupiter in about heliocentric longitude 257. Mr. 
Chandler sends us elements calculated from approximate post- 
tions on October 21, 25, 28, and in his letter dated November 2 
points out their great similarity to those of the Comet 1869 IIT., 
and in a circular received from Lord Lindsay we find an orbit 
computed from Dunecht observations on November 7, 9, and 10; 
we have thus for comparison: 


First contact 
Greatest phase 


od i 


Comet of 1869. 


Comet of 1880. 
Chandler, Copeland Bruhns. 
T ... Noy. 7°714 ... Nov. 6°6127 Nov. 20°7168 
oe ale rie at Pibne tae azatt 
Cs 41 41°0 40 24 10 | 4l 17 13 
Node 295 25°4 300 49 4I | 292 40 29 
Zz we 7 2heg| 722% 13 | 655 0 
Log. 7 ... 0704262 0043364 | 0°042416 
Motion. Direct. Direct. | Direct. 


Mr. Chandler’s T is for meridian of Washington, the other 
two for that of Greenwich. An ephemeris which he adds 
proves the identity of Swift’s comet with that found by Mr. 
Lohse. 

It may be remarked that, taken as a whole, there is a distant 
resemblance to the elements of the comet of Biela. 


INTRODUCTORY LECTURE TO THE COURSE 
OF METALLURGY AT THE ROYAL SCHOOL 
OF MINES ' 


THE distinguished metallurgist who has held this lecturership 
since the foundation of the Royal School of Mines, con- 
cluded the introductory lecture he delivered more than a quarter 
of a century ago® by pointing out to the students who were then 
beginning their course that ‘fin proportion to the success with 
which the metailurgic art is practised in this country will the 
interests of the whole population, directly or indirectly, in no 
incousiderable degree be promoted.” This is a fact that none of 
his students are likely to forget. 1 
Looking back on the actual advance of this country during the 
I By Prof. W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., Chemist of the Mint. Con- 


densed by the Author. ‘ 
2 Records of the School of Mines, vol. i. pt. x (1852) p. 127. 


66 


past thirty years, and remembering that the success with which 
any manufacturing art is practised must bear a direct relation to 
the way in which it is taught, we cannot but feel how greatly 
this development of metallurgical knowledge must have been 
influenced by Dr. Percy’s labours. During this period the con- 
ditions under which metallurgy is practised have changed con- 
siderably ; for the field of knowledge has so widely extended, 
the scale on which operations are conducted is now so great, and 
the mechanical appliances they involve are so varied and com- 
plicated, that while the interest of our subject is deepened its 
difficulty is gravely increased. 

In turning to the history of metallurgy, more especially in its 
relation to chemical science, it is easy to be led away by the 
charm of the antiquarian riches of our subject into devoting too 
much time to this kind of literary research; I may remind you 
however that much of what is both interesting and full of 
suggestion, even at the present day, is to be found buried in 
the treatises by the old writers whose work we inherit and 
continue. 

Primitive metallurgical processes are referred to in some of 
the oldest known historical records; naturally therefore the 
development of metallurgy as a science must have been long 
preceded by its practice as an art, an art for which a place has 
even been claimed among the religious systems of antiquity. 
The earlier literature of the subject consists mainly of descriptions 
of processes ; but it is well known that chemistry was to a great 
extent built up on a metallurgic basis, and Black’s singularly 
advanced definition of chemistry as the ‘‘effects produced by 
heat and mixture” ? might well be applied to metallurgy. But 
of all the phenomena of our subject, probably none have more 
contributed to advance the science of chemistry than those bear- 
ing upon the relations between oxygen and lead ; indeed the 
interest attaching to the mutual behaviour of these two elements 
is so great that I propose devoting a few minutes to i's consider- 
ation, more especially as I am anxious to indicate the influence 
of an ancient process on the scientific views of the present day. 

When lead is melted with free access of air, a readily fusible 
substance forms on its surface. This substance may be allowed 
to flow away, or if the metal is contained in a suitable porous 
receptacle, the fusible oxide sinks into this containing vessel ; in 
either case the oxidation of the lead affords a means of separat- 
ing it from precious or inoxidisable metals if any were oriyinally 
present in the lead. The above fact has been known from remote 
antiquity, and the early Jewish writers allude to it as old and 
well known. They clearly show, for instance, that lead can be 
removed from silver by being ‘‘ consumed of the fire,”’ while the 
silver is not affected. That the Greeks knew and practised the 
method is abundantly proved, if only by certain specimens of 
gold and silver now in the adjoining museum, which were recently 
discovered by Dr. Schliemann. The Arabians investigated the 
subject ; for passing to Geber,® the greatest of the early chemists 
(he died in 777), we find a remarkable account of cupellation ; 
he also describes the conversion of lead into a fine powder by 
calcination with much clearness, and he noticed the fact that 
after calcination the mass has ‘‘acquired a new weight in the 
operation.” I think his subsequent observations on the reduc- 
tion of altered metals from their ‘‘calxes” show that he knew 
the weight to be increased ; in any case it is interesting to re- 
member that his work was in a sense quantitative. He more- 
over was cognisant of the fact that two different substances may 
be produced by heating lead in air, and he assumed that ‘‘in the 
fire of calcination a fugitive and inflammable substance is 
abolished.” The alchemists refer continually to the subject, and 
“* deliver themselves,” as Roger Bacon said, in his ‘‘ Speculum 
Alchimz,” ‘in the enigmas and riddles with which they clouded 
and left shadowed to us the most noble science.” In the middle 
of the sixteenth century the truly accomplisted metallurgist 
Biringuccio,* contemporary of Paracelsus and Agricola, seems to 
have been specially attracted by the phenomenon in question, 
and he remarks: ‘‘If we had not lead we should work in vain 
for the precious metals, for without its aid we could not extract 
gold or silver from the stones containing them... . The 
alchemists also,” he said, ‘‘make use of it in their operations, 
calcining it by itself or with other <ubstances ; but,” he goes on 
to observe, ‘‘the calcination, conducted in a reverberatory fur- 


* Rossignol, ‘‘ Les Métaux dans l’Antiquité’’ (1863). 

* “ Lectures by Joseph Black, M.D.,’’ vol. i. p. 8 (Edin., 1803). 

3 “*The Works of Geber,’’ translated by R. Russell (1686), pp. 74, 78, 
220, 234. wea : 
» 4 “Pirotechnia’’ (Vinegia, 1540), translated into French by T. Vincent 
Rouen, 1627), p. 41. 


NATURE 


[Wov. 18, 1880 


nace, is accompanied by a marvellous effect, the result of ma 


should not be passed by in silence ; for lead thus treated increases 
IO per cent. in weight, and, considering that most things are 
consumed in the fire, it isremarkable that the weight of lead is 
increased, and not diminished,” Although he subsequently gives 
evidence of much accurate knowledge of practical metallurgy, his 
views as to this particular phenomenon were hardly in advance of 
Geber’s; but we may claim Biringuccio as an early metallurgist, 
who knew the facts, and recognised that they were theoretically 
important. It was not until nearly a century later (1630) that a 
French chemist, Jean Rey,! stated that the increase in weight 
came from the air. The problem attracted much attention ip 
England, and it is not a little interesting that among the very 
first experiments recorded by our own Royal Society is a metal- 
lurgical series relating to the weight of lead increased in the fire on 
the ‘‘copels” at the assay office in the Tower, the account being 
brought in by Lord Brouncker in February, 1661.2  [{Subses 
quently, in 1669, John Mayo showed that the increase in weight 
of calcined metals was due to a “‘spiritus” from the air.3 Boyle 
heated lead in a small retort,* and attributed the increase in 
weight, as Lemery also did,® to his having ‘arrested and 
weighed igneous corpuscles.” § 

I need hardly point out how important this calcination of lead 
was considered by those who defended the Phlogistic theory in 
regard to chemical change, a theory which, for more than a 
century, exerted so profound an influence on scientific thought, 
[As this theory originated with a metallurgist, Becker, it was 
considered at some length, and it was made evident that the 
main aim of chemical investigation down to the end of last 
century was the explanation of calcination, combustion, of 
oxidation, and that lead was especially useful in solving the 
problem. | a 

I might perhaps add that the adsorption of oxygen by molten 
litharge has furnished M. Ste. Claire-Deville,? a physicist and 
mnetallurgist, with an important step in the argument as to disso- 
ciation, and thus connects the history of the metal with the 
great advance on the borderland of chemistry and physics im 
modern times, to which I shall constantly refer. : 

The above remarks will, I trust, be sufficient to show that 
conclusions of the utmost importance in the history of chemical 
theory were based on a very ancient metallurgical process; but 
have also selected lead as an illustration, because, in the gradual 
development of the knowledge derived in the first instance from 
its metallurgy, there is much thatis typical of the mutual relation 
of theory and practice that still prevails. é 

When Dr. Percy began his teachinz, he considered at some 
length the kind of assistance that other sciences might be 
expected to render cur subject, considered as a manufacturin 
art; and this at the time was necessary for two reasons : ® first, 
because he was ‘‘able to adduce from his own observation 
several striking cases in illustration of the advantage of the 
application of science to practical metallurgy; and, second, 
because the practice of metallurgy, so far as relates to magnitude 
of operation, having been developed to an unparalleled extent 
in this country in the absence of specific public instruction om 
the subject, it was necessary to justify the providing of sueb 
instruction.” ; 

The absence of accurate knowledge cn the part of those 
engaged in metallurgy was lamented as long ago as 1700, i 
an ‘Inaugural Dissertation of Pyrotechnicat Metallurgy,” de= 
livered, on March 25 of that year, in the University of Magde- 
burg ; no less a person than the great supporter of the theory of 
Phlogiston, George Ernest Stahl, presided, and the lecturer wa 


“ Essays de Jean Rey’’ (reprinted in Paris, 1777), p. 64. 
MS. Register Book of the Roya! Society. a 
“ Tractatus quinque Medico-Physici,’’ p. 25 e/ seg. (Oxonii, 1674) 
Collected works, vol. iii. (1744), Pp. 247- a2 
“Cours de Chymie ” (1675), znd English edition (1686), p. 107. ; 4 
I am indebted to my friend Prof. Ferguson, M.A., of the University of) 
Glasgow, whose eminence as a historian of chemistry is well known, for 
several interesting additional facts in connection with the calcination of) 
metals. After referring to Eck (1489), Glauber (1651), and others, he writes = 
“One of the most curious passages I know is inthe ‘ Hippocrates Chemicus | 
of Otto Tachen, or Tachenius, a German who lived at Venice and publish d 
his book there in 1666. He describes how lead, when burnt to minium, 
increases in weight. This increase he ascribes to a substance of acid cha~ 
racter in the wood used for burning, and then, by a very curious course of 
argument, based on the saponifying powers of litharge, makes out that lead 
is of the nature of or contains an alkali, which combines with the ‘ occult) 
acid of the fat.’ This is a curious anticipation of : very modern classifica- 
tion which brings lead into relationship with the alkalies and alkaline carte 
as well as of Chevreul’s investigations.” 

7 ** Lecons sur la Dissociation,’’ 1864. _ H 

8 Records of the School of Mines, vol. i. pt. 1 (1852), p. 128. 


UO DH 


a 


r&, 1&80] 


Fritschius, who said:1—‘‘If in any part of the working of 
metals there is commonly more owing to experience than reason, 
truly it is in fusion or melting . . . nevertheless if the reason be 
asked why the business succeedeth well in this way but in 
another doth not succeed at all, you have no solid answer, but 
only that most general one, which is most commonly false, viz. 
‘that one fire is stronger and another weaker, and so insufficient.” 
It is just a century since Bishop Watson, Professor of Chemistry 
and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, 
pointed out’ that ‘‘the improvement of metallurgy and other 
mechanic arts dependent on chemistry might best be made by 
“public establishment of an Academy, the labours of which 
should be destined to that particular purpose ;” and the School 
of Mines, thus foreshadowed, was established in 1851, its 
principal object being to ‘‘ discipline the students thoroughly in 
the principles of those sciences upon which the operations of the 
miner and metallurgist depend.” 

Our honoured founder, Sir Henry de la Beche, in his Address 
at the opening of the School of Mines,* said :—‘‘ We still too 
frequently hear of practical knowledge, as if in a certain sense 
opposed to a scientific method of accounting for it, and as if 
experience, without that advantage, was more trustworthy than 
the like experience with it.” Such remarks might, with truth, 
he made at the present day ; but it should nevertheless be re- 
membered that many metallurgical works are successfully con- 
ducted in this country by so-called practical men. I do not 
mean the kind of man so forcibly described by Mr. Bramwell? 
as one ‘‘ whose wisdom consists in standing by, seeing, but not 
investigating the new discoveries which are taking place around 
him . . . the aim and object of such a man being to ensure that 
he should never make a mistake by embarking his capital or his 
time in that which has not been proved by men of large hearts 


and large intelligence ;” nor do I mean the man who accepts no j; 


tule but the ‘‘rule of thumb” ; but I do mean practical men pos- 
Sessing technical knowledge of a high order, whose careful 
_ observation enables them to use the results of past experience in 
dealing with circumstances and conditions analogous to those 
they have met with before, and with which long practice has 
made them familiar. It would be difficult to overrate the value 
and importance of such knowledge as theirs, and, when we 
remember the scale on which smelting and other operations are 
carried on, it will be obvious that this kind of knowledge can 
only be gained in the works, and not in the laboratory or lecture- 
room; for, however careful the metallurgical teaching here may 
be, it can only be jractical in a limited sense. At the same 
time it must be borne in mind that a man trained to scientific 
methods starts with the enormous advantage of being able to 
deal with circumstances and conditions that are new to him, and 
with which therefore he cannot be said to be ‘‘ familiar.” The 
technical skill that time and opportunity can alone give him will 
then rest on a solid basis. I repeat, however, that I am anxious 
at the outset to guard against undervaluing the teaching of 
experience unaided by reasoning that we should recognise as 
| scientific ; for it is only necessary to witness such operations as 
7 


the roasting of a large mass of ore on the bed of a furnace, or 
‘the forging of many tons of iron under a steam hammer, to 
appreciate the value of the subtle skill of sight and touch on 
_ which success depends. 
__ I have thus ventured to trace the relation between scientific 
and technical men, as hitherto there have been misunderstandings 
on both sides, or, as Dr. Williamson so well observes :*°—‘* Men 
of detail do not sufficiently appreciate the value and usefulness of 
ideas, or of general principles: and men of science, who learn 
to understand and control things more and more by the aid of 
the laws of nature, are apt to expect that all improvements will 
result from the development and extension of their scientific 
methods of research, and not to do justice to the empirical 
_ considerations of practical expediency, which are so essential to 
the realisation of industrial success in the imperfect state of our 
scientific knowledge.” 

While it is no longer neces:ary to justify the scientific teaching 
of metallurgy, as Dr, Percy did, it is as important as ever that 
the true relation of Theory and Practice should be clearly under- 
stood. It rarely happens that a process can be transferred from 
the laboratory to the works without important modifications ; 


_, * “‘Pyrotechnical Metallurgy,” by J. C. Fritschius of Schwartzburg 
(translated in 1704), p. 203. 

2 “ Chemical Essays,”” 2nd edition (1782), vol. i. p. 47. 
3 Records of the School of Mines, vol. i. pt. 1 (1352), p. 20. 
4 British Association Report, Brighton (1872). p. 238. 
5 “‘A Plea for Pure Sc.ence” (Inaugural Lecture, University College, 
London, 1270). 


NATURE 


67 


and we must remember that metallurgy is a manufacturing art, 
and that, when the truth of a theory has been demonstrated, a 
dividend has to be earned ; this would indeed often be difficult 
without the aid of the technical man, Practical men have, how- 
ever, ceased to undervalue science ; and the most practical body 
of men in the world, in the best sense of the term, the iron- 
masters of this country, on whom its prosperity so largely 
depends, formed themselves ten years ago into an Iron and Steel 
Institute, many of the members of which possess high scientific 
attainments and are distinguished for scientific research. 

Let us turn, then, to the advice given us by those who are 
accustomed to deal with metals ona large scale. Mr. I. Lowthian 
Bell stated in his address as president of the Institute in 1873} : 
—‘‘If we would avoid the failure of what may be designated 
unscientific practice, or the failure of impracticable science, we 
must seek to combine commercial intelligence with a knowledge 
of those natural laws which form the only trustworthy ground- 
work of the complicated processes in which we are engaged.” 

Dr. Siemens? said in 1877:—‘‘ It is not many years since 
practical knowledge was regarded as tae one thing requisite in 
an iron-smelter, whilst ¢Aeoretical knowledge of the chemical and 
mechanical principles involved in the operations was viewed with 
considerable suspicion;” and he adds, with reference to the 
teaching of the School of Mines and of a general Technical 
University :—‘‘ But it must not be supposed that I would advo- 
cate any attempt at comprising in its curriculum a practical 
working of the processes which the student would have to direct 
in after-life. . . . Let technical schools confine themselves to 
teaching those natural sciences which bear upon practice, but let 
practice itse'f be taught in the workshop and in the metallurgical 
establishment.” 

The president for 1879, Mr. E. Williams, a most eminently 
practical man, and one of the founders of the prosperity of the 
great Cleveland iron district, urged? ‘‘educated intellectual 
young men, who now hang listlessly about the professions . . . 
to break through the absurd old prejudice against seemingly 
rough work,” in order that they may act as scientifically trained 
managers. 

I have thus appealed to authorities, because my own practical 
work has been mainly confined to a limited branch of metallurgy. 
I say limited, for although, on looking into the matter, I find, 
to my surprise, that I have during the last ten years been 
responsible for the fineness of 330 tons of gold and 740 tons of 
silver, this, though of a total value of forty-seven millions sterling, 
is a comparatively small bulk of metal, and the operations 
through which it passes are seldom complicated ; but I am none 
the less convinced that in metallurgical works generally, as in a 
mint, the work can only be efficiently conducted by taking ad- 
vantage to the utmost extent of the aid that science has to offer, 
a mint only differing from other works by the extraordinary care 
and vigilance which must be exercised to insure accuracy and 
avoid loss in dealing with the precious metals. Even this differ- 
ence is less marked than formerly, and as attention to minute 
details is becoming more and more essential to the profitable 
conduct of works, my experience in this respect will be useful 
to you. 

ie regards the actual training in the school, I believe that our 
utmost efforts should be devoted to giving the students a thorough 
acquaintance with scientific methods and metallurgical principles, 
furnishing them at the same time with as many well-ascertained 
facts as possible. Here I may perhaps be permitted to quote a 
few words from Prof. Huxley’s+ recent address at Birmingham, 
as they bear so directiy on our subject; he said, ‘* What 
people call applied science is nothing but the application of pure 
science to particular classes of problems. It consists of deduc- 
tions from those general principles, established by reasoning and 
observation, which constitute pure science. No o-e can safely 
make these deductions until he has a firm grasp of the principles ; 
and he can obtain that grasp only by personal experience of the 
processes of observation and of reasoning on which they are 
founded.” 

In one important branch of metallurgy—assaying—the teach- 
ing in the School is thoroughly practical, and the operations 
you may in future be called upon to conduct will not differ from 
those taught in this laboratory. The teaching will, I am glad 
to say, be now specially entrusted to my friend Mr. Smith, 
the value of whose instruction in my own case I gratefully 
acknowledge. 


® Yournal of the Iron and Steel Institute (1873), No. x, p. 12. 
2 [bid. (1877). No. 1, p. 7- 3 Ibid. (1879), No. 1, p. 24. 
4 Narure, vol. xxii. p, 548. 


68 


It can hardly be questioned that until the School of Mines 
was established the metallurgical success and reputation of this 
country rested to a remarkable extent on the exceptional skill of 
its technical men. I think therefore we may fairly be asked to 
consider whether the metallurgical teaching of the School has 
been justified, and how far advance has been due to trained 
scientific thought. 

Of all the metallurgical operations conducted in this country, 
those connected with iron are, of course, the most important. 
The production of pig-iron alone in the United Kingdom has 
increased from two million seven hundred thousand tons in 1852 
to six million two hundred thousand tons last year, a maximum 
slightly in excess of this figure having been reached in the year 
1872. Now the Bessemer process, the first patent in connection 
with which was taken out in 1855, has reduced the cost of steel 
from 50/. to 6/. per ton, and has changed the whole aspect of the 
iron and steel manufacture ; indeed, the success with which this 
process alone is conducted may almost be regarded as an index 
of our national prosperity. Notwithstanding the almost universal 
depression of trade during the last few years, the outturn of steel 
has been steadily increasing ; and it is estimated that in 1879 this 
country produced nearly a million tons in the Bessemer con- 
verter, double the entire produce of the remainder of the world 
in the year 1870 by the same process.!_ The outturn of Bessemer 
steel in America has, however, advanced with still more rapid 
strides; for last year she actually produced, with far fewer 
converters, ninety-four thousand tons more than this country. 
It will be evident, therefore, that every improvement effected in 
this process is of truly national importance, and I would briefly 
refer to the greatest that has been introduced in recent years. 

In 1855 the fact was established that pig-iron from the blast- 
furnace contains the greater part of the phosphorus originally 
present in the ore. Dr. Percy pointed out that phosphorus is 
not eliminated in a sensible degree in the Bessemer process, as it 
is in the old process of puddling; and he stated that if the 
Bessemer process is to be “generally applicable in this country, it 
must be supplemented by the discovery of a process of producing 
pig-iron sensibly free from sulphur and phosphorus, with the fuel 
and ores which are now so extensively employed in our blast- 
furnaces.” 2 The problem, so far as it relates to the elimination 
of phosphorus, has received the attention of many of the first 
metallurgists in this and other countries;*® but the practical 
application of basic linings in the Bessemer converter is the out- 
come of Dr. Percy’s teaching; for Mr. S. G. Thomas was a 
student of the School of Mines, and his partner, Mr. Gilchrist, 
is an Associate. Mr. Snelus is also an Associate, and Mr. Riley 
long worked in the metallurgical laboratory. The process not 
only gives hope that it will be possible to utilise the large quan- 
tities of ore in the well-known Cleveland district, but is also 
widely practised with success on the Continent.4 It is probable 
therefore that the large deposits of ore in the basin of the Saar, 
and those of Lorraine and Luxembourg, which in extent are 
equal to the Cleveland district, while containing a much greater 
amount of phosphorus, will now be available. During a recent 
visit to the Hoerde Works in Westphalia, where I witnessed the 
operation, Herr Massenez, the director, told me that 10,000 tons 
of ‘* Vhomas-Gilchrist” metal have already been proc uced there 
since the adoption of the process a few months ago. . . . 

I had intended to indicate the metallurgical work done by the 
more prominent men who have been associated with the school, 
but I found that it would not be possible, in the brief time at my 
disposal, to do justice to such as Bauerman, Dick, Gibb, Hack- 
ney, Matthey, Pearce, Riley, Willis, and others, whose labours 
have placed them so high in the ranks of English metallurgists. 
You will, however, as the course proceeds, have opportunity of 
becoming familiar with their names. 

In referring to the past teaching of the school I must remind 
you of the importance of rigorous and minute inorganic analysis ; 
and it is the more necessary that I should do so from the fact 
that the peculiar charm of organic research appears, as has 
been pointed out by Prof. Abel,® to lead the younger chemists 
to “‘under-estimate the value and importance, in reference to the 
advancement of science, of the labours of the plodding investi- 


1 Times, December 31, 1879. 

* “ Metallurgy—tIron and Steel ”’ (1864), p. 819. 

3 M. Gruner, Annales des Mines (1869). t. xvi. p. 199. 

4M. Gruner, Annales des Mines, part 1 (1879), p. 146; H. von Tunner, 
Zeitschrift der berg- und hitttenminnischen Vereins Stir Steyermark u. 
Karnten, xii. Jahrg., Mai-Juni 1880; 
xxx. (1880), p. 198. 

5 British Association Report, Plymouth (1877), p. 44. 


NATURE 


Herr J. Massenez, Engineering, vol. 


[Wov. 18, 1880. 


? 


gator of analysis.” Iam satisfied, however, that, if we bear the 
traditions of the chemical and metallurgical laboratories of the © 
School of Mines in view, we are not likely to under-rate the im- 
portance of analytical work ; and much conclusive evidence as to — 
the value of the teaching of the past thirty years is afforded by 
the labours of the accomplished analysts who have from time to 
time worked under Dr. Percy’s direction. 

The direct influence of the School on the success with which 
metallurgy has been practised in this country has been most 
marked, and would alone afford an answer to the question 
wherher the possession of high scientific attainments is generally — 
advantageous to the successful conduct of metallurgical works, 
It must not be forzotten that our subject is constantly receiving © 
valuable aid from branches of science other than chemistry ; and — 
this can hardly be better shown than by the growing importance 
of physical research in connection with metallurgical problems, — 
I would incidentally remind you that it is the more important ~ 
for us to consider this, because special attention was directed to — 
the question in the evidence given before the Royal Commission 


on Scientific Instruction," whose recommendations will, it is to — 
be hoped, extend the influence of the School of Mines. ¥ 
In connection with this branch of our subject a most promi- — 
nent position must be given to the production of high tempera- — | 
tures, as it will be obvious that we have principally to consider — 
the reactions of the elements when under the influence of heat, ‘4 
In the first half of the present century temperatures higher than 
the melting point of zinc were not known with any degree of 
certainty ; but in 18562 M. Henri Ste. Claire-Deville pointed — 
out that chemistry at high temperatures, that is to say, up to the — 
blue-white heat at which platinum volatilises and silica fuses, 
remained to be studied, Since then, in conjunction with M.- 
Troost, he has given us certain fixed points, such for instance 
as the boiling points of cadmium and zinc; and Deville’s re- 
searches on dissociation have entirely modified the views gene- — 
rally entertained in regard to the theory of combustion. Indeed ~ 
we owe so much to this illustrious teacher, that the best homage ~ 
we can offer him will be to work in the directions he has indi-— 
cated. M Stas has proved that it is perfectly easy to distil even” 
large quantities of silver from one lime crucible to another,? a 


myself in some experiments on the absorption-spectra of the” 
vapours of certain metals at high temperatures.* ae 
As regards scientific advance of a more essentially practical 


character, the gradual discovery of the fact that in certain cases | 


< 
7 


fact which has been taken advantage of by Mr. Lockyer the 


fuel can be best employed if it be previously converted into gas, 
ard the recognition of the advantages to be derived from a 
preliminary heating of the gases and the air, has led to the wide © 
adoption of the regenerative system, by which the waste heat of — 
the furnace is utilised for heating the incoming air or combustible 
mixture of air and gas necessary to effect the required operation. — 
Dr. Siemens has thus shown us how to economise fuel to a vast — 
extent, it being now possible to produce a ton of steel by the use~ 
of 12 ewt. of small coal instead of three tons of coke required to ~ 
melt it in the old form of furnace. By the command of high 
temperatures, moreover, he has developed new processes in the 
metallurgy of iron, which are resulting in the replacement of the 
old ‘‘cinder-mixed ” wrought iron by ‘‘cinder-free” ingot iron 
and steel.2 The degree of heat attainable by the regenerative 
furnace is, however, limited to the temperature of dissociation 
of carbonic acid and aqueous vapour, so that the temperature” 
never can exceed about 2600° C,; but during the present year ® Dr.” 
Siemens has employed the far greater heat of the electric are for” 
the fusion of steel and platinum.’ Bearing in mind the interest — 
excited by recent experiments on the effect of intense heat on 
bodies now considered to be elementary, we may expect physi-~ 
cists to look to us for aid in developing the methods of employing 
high temperatures. 

The essential difference in the properties of certain alloys 
produced by a small difference of composition brings me to one 
very distinctive feature of metallurgy, the enormous influence 


t Report, vol. ii. Minutes of Evidence. p. 86 (1874). 3 
2 Ann. Chim. et Phys. (3), t- xlvi. p. 182; Comptes rendus, t. xc. (1880), 


Y. 2 Bur les Lois des Proportions chimiques” (1865), p. 37. 
4 Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxiii. (1875), P- 3.44 
5 Akerman, ¥ournai of the Iron and Steel Institute, No. 2 (1878), p. 360. 
6 Engineering, vol. xxix. (1880), p. 478. x 7 
7 Figures convey but little impression as to such high temperatures ; but it 
may be mentioned that Dewar has given 7000° C. as approximately the ~ 
temperature of the electric are (Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1873, p. 466), and, according 4 
to Rossetti, the true temperature of the sun can hardly be less than 10,000" — 
C. or more than 20,000° C.—P/il. Mag. [5], vol. viii. p. 550 (1879). 3 
4 


Nov. 1 8, 1880] 


NATURE 


exerted on a large mass of metal by a trace of another metal or 
metalloid—that is, by a quantity so small that it appears to be 
out of all proportion to the mass in which it is distributed. 

I think it may safely be asserted that in no other branch of 


"applied science has the operator to deal with quantities that are 
‘at once so vast and so minute; and the course will not have 


proceeded far before you will recognise this fact. 

It may be that the trace to be extracted is alone of value—as, 
for instance, the few grains of gold that can be profitably 
extracted from each ton of a material, which, though containing 
only one part of gold in five millions by volume, is thereby 
entitled to be regarded as an auriferous deposit that can be profit 
ably worked ; or it may be the minute percentage of a metalloid 
which must be extracted in order that the physical properties of 
a large mass of metal may not be entirely altered. 

{Numerous instances of the influence of small traces of metals 
and metalloids, including the following, were then given :—] 

In 1866 Graham showed,! by experiments with which I had 
the privilege of being connected, that the presence of occluded 
gases in metals often exerts a marked influence on their molecular 
structure. In the case of iron he urged that metallurgists should 
study the effects of occluded gases, more especially carbonic 
oxide, the weight of which, according to his experiments, could 
not exceed the ;/; per cent. of the weight of iron in which it was 
present. The significance of such facts is now under considera- 
tion by a Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,” 
and the question of the presence of gas in steel, either occluded 
or retained in the form of bubbles, is further being investigated 


_ by Chernoff,? Miiller,* and others. 


M. Nyst, of the Brussels Mint, has lately found that the 
presence of #48; per cent. of silicon in standard gold will so affect 
its molecular grouping as to render it possible for a thin strip 
to bend by its own weight, as zinc would, in the flame of a 
candle. 

The growing importance of physical research in connection 
with metallurgy is shown by the fact that physical methods are 
now constantly appealed to by those interested in metallurgy, 
more especially in the case of iron and steel. We are told, for 
instance, that the hardness of steel may be correctly inferred 
from a numerical determination of its coercive force ;° it is 
sought to establish the actual nature of the change in the mode 
of existence of the carbon in steel that accompanies hardening by 
determining its thermo-electric properties ; ® and the hope is held 
out? to us that the time will soon come when boiler-makers will 
electrically test their plates, possibly by the aid of the induction- 
balance, just as they now test them for ductility and tenacity. I 


can only add the expression of a belief that this powerful weapon 


of molecular research which Prof, Hughes has given us will yield 
good results in the hands of some of you. 

The results of mechanical tests are also of the highest impor- 
tance. Not long since the appearance of the fracture of a 
sample of metal was considered to afford trustworthy and suffi- 
cient evideuce as to its nature and properties ; but such rough 


_ methods have given place, in the hands of Kirkaldy and others, 


to the rigorous physical and mechanical investigation to which 
metals must now be submitted as a matter of ordinary routine. 
The results, tabulated or plotted into curves, which mark the 
influence of each constituent or impurity, form permanent 
records of the greatest value.® 

It has only been possible for me to indicate the more impor- 
tant conditions affecting the successful practice of metallurgy. 
I have traced the relation between technical and scientific 
workers ; but there is yet another condition of somewhat recent 
growth. The enormous scale on which operations are now con- 
ducted renders it more necessary than formerly for those engaged 
in metallurgical enterprise to seek the aid of capitalists. The 
result is that a large share in the control of many important 
works fails to the non-scientific members of the Board of Direc- 
tors, men of high commercial ability, but whose knowledge of the 
importance of scientific work is necessarily limited. Itis true that 


* Phil. Trans. 1866, p. 438- 

2 First Report of the Committee on the Hardening, Tempering, and 
Annealing of Steel, 1879. 

3 **On the Structure of Cast Steel Ingots.’’ Translated for the Institution 


of Mechanical Engineers by W. Anderson, C.E. (1879). 


4 Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 1879, No. xii. 93; 
Glaser’s Annalen fiir Gewerbe und Bauwesen, August, 1880, p. 138. 

5 Tréve and Durassier, Comp. vend., t. Ixxx. (1875), p- 799; Watten 
hofen, Yo7nal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1879, No. 1, p. 305. 

6 Barus, Pil. Mag. [5], vol. viii. p. 341. 

7 W.H. Johnson, Chemical News, vol. xlii. (1880), p. 70. 

8 V. Deshayes, ‘‘Classement et Emploi des Aciers’’ (Paris, 1880); also 
Bull. Chem. Soc, tom. xxxi. (1879), p. 166. 


69 


they may recognise the necessity for scientific aid in the works 
with which they are connected, but they are too often unconscious 
of the labour and difficulty that are involved in the attainment 
of accurate scientific knowledge. I am convinced, however, 
that facts are gradually compelling them to recognise that the 
value of a metal may entirely depend on whether it does or does 
not contain a trace of impurity, and that the exact method of 
treatment to be adopted depends much on the character of the 
materials employed ; they will therefore examine more carefully 
than they have hitherto done the qualifications of men to whom 
important duties are entrusted, and will insist that the services 
of only adequately trained metallurgists shall be secured. 

I shall have to direct your attention to the minute care with 
which details affecting commercial interests are now investi- 
gated ;' and your success will further depend on the facility 
with which you are able to use the “‘ tools of thought ” furnished 
by chemistry, physics, and mechanics. Whether you will ever 
possess the tact and judgment necessary to direct such works as 
Dowlais with an army of 10,000 people, obviously depends on 
personal qualifications which I can but little influence. 

1 venture to hope that you will, by original research, add to 
the general advance of scieuce, for, as the late Prof. Clifford has 
reminded us, what have often proved to be the most useful parts 
of science have been investigated for the sake of truth, and not 
for their usefulness. 


Dr. Percy found metallurgy practised in this country mainly 
as an empirical art. He may well feel, to borrow the words of 
an old writer, that in his hands ‘‘the business of metallurgy and 
essaying has not only been illustrated but also improv’d, 
amended, and enrich’d”’; for his works contain a record of its 
progress, his teaching and researches have secured it a scientific 
basis, and he has trained a body of scientific workers, in whose 
hands the immediate future of metallurgy to a great extent rests. 
Bearing in mind how much the progress of our science means to 
England, I cannot but be conscious that, in attempting to 
continue this work, I undertake a grave responsibility, 


ON AN EXPERIMENTAL ILLUSTRATION OF 
MINIMUM ENERGY * 


HIS illustration consists of a liquid gyrostat of exactly the 
same construction as that described and represented by the 
annexed drawing, repeated from NATuRE, February 1, 1877, 
p- 297, 298, with the difference that the figure of the shell is 
prolate instead of oblate. The experiment was in fact conducted 
with the actual apparatus which was exhibited to the British 
Association at Glasgow in 1876, altered by the substitution of a 


% INCHES-—-~—--——- =~ > 


shell having its equatorial diameter about ,%, of its axial diameter, 
for the shéll with axial diameter 3°, of equatorial diameter which 
was used when the apparatus was shown as asuccessful gyrostat. 


t In illustration of this see an exhaustive mathematical paper on the values 
of iron ores, by Prof. A. Habets: Cuyfer’s Revue Universetle des Mines 
(1877). t. i. p. 504- 


2 By Sir William Thomson, F.R.S. British Association, Swansea, Section A. 


7O 


NAT ORE. 


The oblate and prolate shells were each of them made from the 
two hemispheres of sheet copper which plumbers solder together 
to make their globular floaters, By a little hammering it is easy 
to alter the hemispheres to the proper shapes to make either the 
prolate or the oblate figure. 

Theory had pointed out that the rotation of a liquid in a rigid 
shell of oval figure, being a configuration of maximum energy for 
given vorticity, would be unstable if the containing vessel is left 
to itself supported on imperfectly elastic supyorts, although it 
would be stable if the vessel were held absolutely fixed, or borne 
by perfectly elastic supports, or left to itself in space unacted on 


by external force ; and it was to illustrate this theory that the 
oval shell was made and filled with water and placed in the 
apparatus. The result of the first trial was literally startling, 
although it ought not to have been so, as it was merely a reali- 
sation of what had been anticipated by theory. The frame- 
work was held as firmly as possible by one person with his two 
hands, keeping it as steady as he could. The spimning by 
means of a fine cord! round asmall V pulley of 4-inch diameter 
on the axis of the oval shell, and passing round a large fly-wheel 
of 3 feet diameter turned at the rate of about one round per 
second, was continued for several minutes. This in the case of 
the oblate shell, as was known from previous experiments, would 
have given amply sufficient rotation to the contained water to 
cause the apparatus to act with great firmness like a solid 
gyrostat. In the first experiment with the oval shell the shell 
was seen to be rotating with great velocity during the last minute 
of the spinning ; but the moment it was released from the cord, 
and when, holding the framework in my hands, I commenced 
carrying it towards the horizontal glass table to test its gyrostatic 
quality, the framework which I held in my hands gave a violent 
uncontrollable lurch, and in a few seconds the shell stopped 
turning. I saw that one of the pivots had become bent over, by 
yielding of the copper shell in the neighbourhood of the stiff 
pivot-carrying disk, soldered to it, showing that the liquid had 
exerted a very strong couple against its containing shell, in a 
plane through the axis, the effort to resist which by my hands 
had bent the pivot. The shell was refitted with more strongly 
attached pivots, and the experiment has been repeated several 
times. In every case a decided uneasiness of the framework is 
perceived by the person holding it in his hands during the 
spinning; and as soon as the cord is cut and the person holding 
it carries it towards the experimental table, the framework 
begins, as it were, to wriggle round in his hands, and by the time 
the framework is placed on the table the rotation i, nearly all 
gone. Its utter failure as a gyrostat is precisely what was ex- 
pected from the theory, and presents a truly wonderful contrast 
from what is observed with the apparatus and operations in every 
respect similar, except having an oblate instead of a prolate shell 
to contain the liquid, 


t Instead of using a long cord first wound on a bobbin, and finally wound 
up on the circumference of the large wheel as described in NaTuRE, February 
1, 1877, p- 297, I have since found it much more convenient to use an endless 
cord little more than half round the circumference of the large wheel, and 
less than half round the circumference of the V pulley of the gyr stat; and 
to keep it tight enough to exert whatever tangential torce on the V pul ey is 
desired by the person holding the framework in his hand. After continuing 
the spinning by turning the fly-wheel for as long a time as is judged p: oper, 
the endless cord is cut with a pair of scissors and the gyrostat released. 


ON A_ DISTURBING INFINITY IN LORD) 
RAYLEIGH S SOLUTION FOR WAVES IN’ 


A PLANE VORTEX STRATUM 
[* the paper in last week’s NATURE under this heading by Sir 


[Nou 18, 188@h| 


William Thomson, the lower part of the illustration was » 


inadvertently turned round at the last moment by the printer ; 


the cut should stand as follows :— 


SARGASSUM1 


ys paper opens with a discussion of the value of the 


species Sargassum bacciferum, the i i 
this genus which is well es as the Galacene: The author 
considers that the floating plants to which this name: has been 
given are simply fragments of many varieties or species of 
Sargassum, more particularly of S. va/gare. 
view he points out that, from the accounts of 
who have examined specimens, it appears that 


the stem had been broken across, and that it is therefore fair to 


conclude that they belong to plants which are rooted under 


ordinary circumstances. 
arrived at by Rumphius, C. Agardh, Rennell, Humboldt, and 
more recently by G. von Martens ; but of thece writers Rennell 
and Humboldt are of opinion that the floating fragments continue 
to grow, and in this they agree with Thunberg, Meyen, and 
Harvey. Dr. Kuntze contends that there is not sufficient evidence 
forthcoming to establish the correctness of this view. 

that, even admitting that some growth takes place, 
temporary, and that it therefore affords no ‘ 


df ing 
these as pelagic plants. Se otecath Dae 


In support of this — 
nearly all authors 
the lower part of © 


This conclusion had been already © 


The only other cases of growth of Fuci 


when floating are offered by Macrocystis pyrifera (Sir Joseph — 


Hooker, ‘‘Flora Antarctica,” vol. i.), and by Fucus vesiculosus 


He urges — 
it is only | 


(Mr. Moseley, ‘‘ Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger”), and 


doubtless Dr. Kuntze’s objections apply to these also. The 
question naturally arises as to whether these floating plants are 
actively living, or are dying, or dead. 

In the case of Sargassum Dr, Kuntze considers that their bright 
yellow colour is due to changes taking place, either preliminary 
to or in consequence of death, in the brown colouring-matter 
of the attached forms to which he believes the floating fragments 
belong. Mr. Moseley, however, is of opinion that this is the 
natural colour of these plants whilst living. It does not appear 


that any such difference in colour has been noticed in attached — 


and floating specimens of Macrocystis or of Fucus, and this is a 


fact which is not in harmony with Dr. Kuntze’s views respecting — 


Sargassum, Again, the gene al observation that these floating 
Fuci have no reproductive organs offers a further difficulty which 
they do not explain. Dr. Kuntze endeavours to meet the diffi- 
culty by stating that he has found receptacles occasionally in 
free-swimming individuals, and he gives figures of two plants 
bearing them ; but neither from the figures nor from his account 
of them is it possible to conclude with certainty that the bodies 


in question are really of a rer ductive nature ; and he explains — 


the usual absence of the-e orvans in the floating individuals by 
suggesting that the receptacles, being the most fragile parts of 
the plant, are the most readily destroyed, and further that, 
owing to the small number of air-chambers with which they 
are provided, they would sink on becoming detached. In 
this case, as in that of the colour, these explanations respecting 
Sargassum will only become valid when they are found to hold 
good of Macrocystis and of Fucus also. It is apparent that the 


t «Revision von Sargas-um und das sogenannte Sargasso-Meer.” Von 
Dr. Otto Kuntze (Zxgler’s botanische Fahrbiicher, Bd. i. Heft iii., 1880). 
Leipzig, Engelmann.) 


pao 
= 


Nov. 18, 1 880] 


vidence offered in support of Dr. Kuntze’s views is at present 
ncomplete, and that further researches into the life-history of 
these plants must he made before these views can be generally 
accepted. 

After an elaborate systematic revision of the genus, Dr. 
Kuntze goes on to discuss the Sargasso Sea. He draws atten- 
tion to the wide divergences which exist between the accounts 
given of it by different travellers. Thus Humboldt and Maury 
speak of it as a mass of gulf-weed having an area of thousands 
of square miles, whereas others—Sir Wyville Thomson, for 
instance—describe it as consisting of small scattered patches, 
Dr. Kuntze concludes that there is no reason for assigning a 
definite and constant area to it. It appears that the patches of 
weed occur -more frequently in the region of calms, but at times 
jit is either absent or present only in small quantities even there. 
A wind blowing for a considerable time in one direction might, 
under certain circumstances, cause the aggregation of patches 
into 2 mass of some extent, such as is to be found, for instance, 
in the neighbourhood of the Bermudas in spring after the 
fequinoctial gales, but even this would be but small when 
compared with Humboldt’s estimate. 

MEET EE a 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


! Oxrorp.—The following gentlemen have been nominated by 
ithe Vice-Chancellor as examiners for the Degree of Bachelor of 
Medicine. In the first examination for M.B. :—S. H. West, 
M.A., M.B. Christ Church; J. A. Dale, M.A. Balliol; A. G. 
Vernon Harcourt, M.A. Christ Church. In the second examina- 
tion for M.B. :—T. K. Chambers, M.D., Christ Church ; James 
Andrews, M.D., Wadham; T. P. Teale, M.A., M.B., Brase- 
nose. In the examination in Preventive Medicine :—W. Ogle, 
M.D. Corpus; G. W. Child, M.D. Exeter; W. F. Donkin, 
M.A. Magdalen ; Douglas Galton, Capt. R.E., Hon. D.C.L. 

A Fellowship will shortly be offered by University College 
for proficiency in biology. The details are not yet announced. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

| Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 10.—On the influence 
of curvature of the wall on the constants of capillarity in wetting 
liquids, by P. Volkmann,—Constructions for anomalous disper- 
sion, by E. Ketteler.—On Newton’s dust-rings (continued), by 
K. Exner.—On calculation of the correction for temperature in 
lealorimetric measurements, by L. Pfundler.—Chemical energy 
and electromotive force of various galvanic combinations, by J. 
Thomsen.—On the photo- and thermo-electric properties of fluor 
spar, by W. Hankel.—On electrical elementary laws, by E. 
Riecke.—Remarks on some recent electro-capillary experiments, 
by E. Lippmann,—Experimental researches on weakly magnetic 
substances (third part), by P. Silow.—Researches on the height 
of the atmosphere and the constitution of gaseous heavenly bodies 
(continued), by A. Ritter.—Reply to Herr Herwig ‘‘On the 
Heat-Conductivity of Mercury,” by H. F. Weber.—Reply to 
{Herr Winckelmann’s remarks in a recent number, by the same. 


Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, October 15.— 
Contributions to a study of the colouring-matters of plants, by 
J. B. Schnetzler. —Practical study of marine zoology ; the zoo- 
logical station of Naples, by E. Yung.—Sixty-third session of 
the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences, held at Brigue on 
September 13-15, 1880; Proceedings in the departments of 
Physics and Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Zoology and Medicine, 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Linnean Society, November 4.—Prof. Allman, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—The session opened by Mr. H. C. 
Sorby showing drawings of some British sea-anemones, with 
habitat on the upper fronds of long seaweeds in deep water ; and 
he recorded having seen a solitary cream-coloured cetacean on 
the English coast.—Mr. Arthur Bennett drew attention to a new 
British Chara (C. sted/igera), remarkable for the presence of stel- 
late bulbils on the stems.—Mr, E. M. Holmes exhibited two 
Marine algze new to Britain, viz., Dasya gibbesit, from Berwick- 
on-Tweed, and Ectocarpus terminalis from Weymouth ; and also 
Species of Ca//ithamnion, with antheridia and trichophore on the 

ame branchlet.—Prof. T. S. Cobbold exhibited a remarkable 
itrematode from the horse. It was discovered by Dr. Sonsini at 


NATURE 


71 


Zagazig during the Egyptian plague, with which outbreak, how- 
ever, the parasite had no necessary connection. The worm 
(Gastrodiscus sonsinonis) appeared to be an aberrant amphistome 
furnished with a singular ventral disk, whose concavity was lined 
with about 200 small suckers having a tesselated aspect. In this 
respect its nearest approach was a worm infesting a genus of 
spinny-finned fishes (Cataphractus) belonging to the Triglide. 
According to Prof. Leuckart’s recent anatomical investigation, 
however, doubts are thrown onits amphistomoid affinities. —Mr. 
G. F. Angas showed the leaf of Hermas gigantez, an umbelli- 
ferous plant of the Cape used as tinder by the Hottentots.—Mr, 
E, A. Webb exhibited a monstrous bramble (Rubus fruticosus) 
with flowers represented by elongated axes covered with minute 
pubescent bracts and apices fasciated.—A communication by 
Dr. G. Watt was read, viz., contribution to the flora of North- 
West India. The geographical features of the district are noted. 
He divides it into three areas: the first range, Ravee-Basin, 
with magnificent forests of Cedrus deodara onits northern slopes, 
has on the southerly ones vegetation with an Indian facies, being 
barely outside the humid influence of the tropical rains of the 
plains ; the second range, comprising Pangi, Lower Lahore, and 
British Lahore, has a flora altogether changed, dry short 
summers and snow-clad mountains giving a climate and plant- 
life of quite a different cast ; the third range evinces still further 
change of flora, this assuming a Thibetan type. Some 300 species 
of plants are noted, four being new.—A paper on the Papilionidze 
of South Australia, by J'G. Otto Tepper, was read. The butterflies 
of this part of Austral.s are comparatively few in numbers, and 
sombre colours prevail thus seemingly in harmony with the sur- 
roundings of their habitat. The paucity of numbers the author 
attributes to the dryness of the climate. Notes on the habits 
accompany the descriptions of the species. —Notes ona collection 
of flowering plants from Madagascar were read by Mr, J. G. 
Baker. The flowering plants are less known than the ferns 
from this interesting island; two new genera are denoted, viz. 
(1) Kitchingia, belonging to the Crassulacez, a succulent herb 
with fleshy sessile leaves and large bright red flowers in lax 
terminal cymes ; (2) Rodocodon, a liliaceous plant with red flowers 
and peculiar spurred bracts : it comes between A/uscaria and 
Urginea. Thirty new species are described.—Messrs. Edw. 
Brown, H. E. Dresser, and T. F. Pippe were elected Fellows 
of the Society. 


Mathematical Society, November 11.—Mr. C. W. Merrifield, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Treasurer's and Secretaries’ 
reports were re2d and adopted. —After the ballot had been taken, 
the gentlemen whose names are given on p. 614 of the last volume 
were declared duly elected as the Council for the present session. 
—Mr. S. Roberts, F.R.S., the new president, having taken the 
chair, Mr. Merrifield read his valedictory address, ‘* Considera- 
tions respecting the Translation of Series of Observations into 
Continuous Formulz.”—On the motion of Prof. Cayley, F.R.S., 
the address was ordered to be printed in the Proceedings.—Mr. 
H. M., Jeffery, F.R.S., then read a paper on bicircular quartics, 
with a triple and double focus, and three single foci, all of them 
collinear.—Mr. Tucker (hon. sec.) communicated parts of a 
paper by the Rev. C. Taylor, further remarks on the geometrical 
method of reversion. 


Geological Society, November 3.—Robert Etheridge, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Bernard Barham Woodward 
was elected a Fellow of the Society.—The President announced 
that the original portrait of Dr. William Smith, painted by M. 
Fourau in the year 1838, had been presented to the Society by 
Mr. William Smith of Cheltenham.—The following communi- 
cations were read :—On the serpentine and associated rocks of 
Anglesey, with a note on the so-called Serpentine of Porth- 
dinlleyn (Caernarvonshire), by Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., 
Sec. G.S. Several patches of serpentine are indicated on the 
Geological Survey map on the western side of Anglesey, near 
Tre Valley Station, and a considerable one on Holyhead Island, 
near Rhoscolyn. ‘These really include three very distinct varie- 
ties of rocks: (1) compact green schistose rocks, (2) gabbro, 
(3) true serpentine. The author described the mode of occur- 
rence of each of these, and their relations, the serpentine being 
almost certainly intrusive in the schist, and the gabbro in the 
serpentine. The microscopic structure of the various rocks was 
described in detail, especially of the last. It presents the usual 
characteristics, and is an altered olivine rock which has contained 
bronzite, One or two varieties are rather peculiar ; an ophicalcite 
and a compact chloritic schist containing chromite are also noticed. 


72 


NATURE 


At Porthdinlleyn there is no serpentine, but a remarkably inter- 
esting series of agglomerates and (probably) lava-flows of a 
basic nature, which may now be denominated diabases.—Note 
on the occurrence of remains of recent plants in brown iron 
ore, by J. Arthur Phillips, F.G.S._ The fossilising ironstone de- 
scribed by the author occurs at Rio Tinto, in the province of 
Huelva, Spain, in close proximity to the celebrated copper mines 
of that name, where it forms a thick horizontal capping of a hill 
known as the Mésa de los Pinos. In this iron ore Dr. Carruthers 
has identified the following vegetable remains:—Leaves and 
acorns of Quercus lex, Linn. ; leaves and seed of a two-leaved 
species of Pinus, most probably Pinus pinea, Linn. ; the cone of 
Equisetum arvense, Linn. ; and a small branch of a species of 
Erica. There is also a well-marked leaf of a dicotyledonous 
plant not yet identified. The plants are evidently all of the same 
species as are still found growing in Spain. _ The author attributes 
this deposit of ironstone to the decomposition, partly by organic 
agency, of ferruginous salts, derived from the oxidation of iron 
pyrites, which flowed into a marsh or shallow lagoon, Subse- 
quently to this the valleys of the Rio Agrio and Rio Tinto were 
eroded, leaving the Mésa de los Pinos with its thick capping of 
iron ore.—Notes on the locality of some fossils found in the 
Carboniferous rocks at T’ang Shan, situated, in a north north- 
east direction, about 120 miles from Tientsin, in the province of 
Chih Li, China, by James W. Carrall, F.G.S., with a note by 
Wm. Carruthers, F.R.S. The author described the locality 
from which he obtained some plant-remains of apparently Car- 
boniferous age, and stated that mining operations had been 
carried on by a Chinese company in the district since the year 
1878. Several seams of coal occur, varying in thickness from 
II inches to 6 feet. Mr, Carruthers stated in a note that the 
specimens submitted to him belong to a species of Annularia, 
probably 4. longifolia, Brough, abundant in the British coal- 
measures, and found both on the Continent and in North 
America, 
PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, November 8.—M. Edm. Becquerel 
in the chair.—The following papers were read :—On the heat 
of formation of dimethyl, and on its relation with the methylic 
and ethylic series, by M. Berthelot.—Researches on the Upper 
Cretaceous of the northern slope of the Pyrenees, by M. Hébert. 
—Observations on phylloxera, by M. Henneguy. From over 
three years’ observations he is quite convinced that vines not 
attacked may be saved, and those which have not suffered too 
much be restored. Vine-growers have three efficacious modes 
of treatment: sulphocarbonates, sulphide of carbon, and sub- 
mersion. But the treatment must be repeated each year (at 
least for a time), and must extend over the whole vineyard. To 
destroy the winter egg in the bark, decortication and treatment 
with sulphide of carbons has proved good ; also application of 
flame to the stock with a ‘‘ pyrophore” (the latter is more effec- 
tual than application of boiling water, also easier and more 
economical). The spontaneous recovery of seemingly dead vines 
is only temporary ; new roots form after abundant rain, and 
supply sap for fresh shoots. If the insects (which persist) be 
destroyed before they reach these roots, the vine may quite 
recover.— Observations on the influence of last season on the 
development of phylloxera ; on insecticides, by M. Boiteau. 
August and September were so rainy as to be very unfavourable 
to theinsect. Most of the vines that still exist will be saved. 
Sulphide of carbon is largely used by all kinds of proprietors. 
Among other directions as to its use, he says, the quantity per 
square metre should be 15 to 20 gr.—Preparation of a new ali- 
mentary substance, zéricine, by M. Moride. Raw meat, freed 
from bones and tendons, is passed into suitable machines with 
nitrogenised alimentary substances (bread, e.g.), which absorb its 
water, and form perhaps organic combinations with it. The 
whole is dried in air or a mild stove, then pulverised and sifted. 
The powder got is grey or yellowish, and has an agreeable taste. 
With albumen, fats, or gummed water, solid cakes or cubes may 
be made of it, to be afterwards divided for soups, sauces, &c. 
The substance is very nutritive, and keeps indefinitely if not 
exposed to moisture or too great heat.—The Secretary stated 
that a great many applications had been ‘made for seeds of 
the vines of Soudan, M,. Lécard has published a drochure 
on this vine, and is collecting all the seeds he can to send 
home.—On algebraic equations; examination of the propo- 
sitions of Abel, by M. West.—Researches on the transfor- 
mation of oxygen into ozone by the electric effve in presence 
of a foreign gas, by MM. Hautefeuille and Chappuis. Even a 


very little chlorine hinders the transformation, and when intr 
duced destroys ozone previously formed. Nitrogen occasions a 
larger transformation than if the oxygen were unmixed, and had 
the same pressure as in the mixture. The formation of ozone in 
presence of hydrogen is greater than in that of nitrogen. With 
fluoride of silicium a large proportion of ozone is formed (the 
effluve becoming a luminous rain of fire). |The authors theoris 
on these results—Action of chlorine and hydrochloric acid on 
chloride of lead, by M. Ditte.—On the combinations of ammonia. 
gas with chloride and iodide of palladium, by M. Isambert. The 
tensions of dissociation are weaker at the same temperature 
greater the heat of combination.—On the formation of chlorofo: 

by alcohol and chloride of lime; equation of the reaction and 
cause of the liberation of oxygen manifested, by M. Béchamp. — 
Ln résumé, the chloroform is produced without liberation of 
gas ; the swelling is due exclusively to the chloroform, which 
in a medium the temperature of which is higher than its boiling: 
point, and to the tension of its vapour; the gaseous liberation 
only commences when it has completely distilled, and the tempe- 
rature rises so as to reach that which is necessary to make he 
mixture of chloride of lime and water boil.—On the organisatiot 
and the development of the Gordians, by M. Villot.—M, 
Treux described a bolide observed at Amiens on November 2 
at 4.58 p.m. Its diameter seemed about a sixth of that of the 
moon. Visible 10 to 15 sec. the bolide was successively blue, 


yellow, and red ; bright sparks being given out at each change 


OD 


presented. 
VIENNA A 
4 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, November 4.—On the 
theory of so-called electric expansion or electrostriction, by L. 
Boltzmann,—Measurements of co-vibration for the case of stron 
deadening, by C. Laske.—On cells and intermediate substances, 
by S. Stricker.—The psychic activity of the coating of fl 
brain, considered from a physiological standpoint, by ? 
Schneeder.—Description and sketch of a steerable balloon, by 
W. Bosse.—On mesitylendisulpho-acid, by J. Barth and T, 
Herzig.—On the absorption of solar radiation by the carboni¢ 
acid of our atmosphere, by E. Lecher.—On some properties of 
the capillary electrometer, by J. Hepperger. ‘ 

November 11.—On the Tsubra deer (Cervus Litdorffit, Bohlan), 
by L. T. Fitzinger.—On the question as to the nature of galvanic 
polarisation, by F, Exner.—On the latent heat of vapours, by C. 
Puschl.—Theory of acceleration-curves, by F, Wittenbauer,— 
On derivatives of cinchonin acid and of chinolin, by H. Weide 
and A. Cobenzel.—On croton-aldehyde and its derivatives, by 
A, Lieben and T. Yeisel.—On reduction of croton chloral, by 
the same. : 


CONTENTS Pag 
Dsm HOTURE|OF;POLAR RESEARCH). « © 6's -ts/usisinnnnnen 
Tue SANITARY ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION « « « + « « « « « 
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Our Book SHELF :— 
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Hewitt’s ‘‘Class-Book of Elementary Mechanics, adapted to the 
Requirements'of the New,Code’”.,- = =) <j). pene 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural Selection.—Sir C. WyviLte 
THOMSON; F:RiS oo bee ete te ee te ee 
Rapidity of Growth in Corals.—Dr. R. W. CoprinGzER . . . . . 
Geological Climates.—J. STaRKIE GARDNER .« obs shovel Sem aie 
Order Zeuglodontia, Owen.—SEARLEs V. Woop, Jun. (With Zilus- 
tration). TS tye She fois te ve. lat Yo, ey tame en nr 
Temperature of the Breath.—Dr. Wm. Roberts . . .... . 
Height of the Auroraa—H. T. H.GroNemanN, ..... . 
Fascination —L. P.GRATACAP . « « 2. 2 ew ws 
HomAGEe ro iMR: DARWIN.) =) ©.) (2 @ % seuouienre 
Tue ATomMic WEIGHT OF BERYLLIUM . ..... - 
Tue PHoroPHoNeE. By SHELFORD BIDWELL . .. e 
Tue CHRONOGRAPH (With Illustrations). . . «6 « 
THE BELGIAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. e + + + « + « 
A GENERAL THEOREM IN Kinematics. By GeorGcE M. MIncHIn 
(hy CeCe MONO) Of net Goo oi 5 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 
The Solar Eclipse of December 37 5 < © = wis 5 =.» 0) siile 
‘The Munecht Comet (29s) Seteryier ce we estes et ean 
InTRopucToRY LECTURE TO THE CouRSE OF METALLURGY AT THE 
saree Scuoot oF Mines. By Prof. W. CHanpLER Roprts, 


On an EXPERIMENTAL ILLUSTRATION OF MinIMUM ENERGY. By Sir 

Witiram Tuomson, F.R.S. (With Diagrams) . 1. . 2 6 « « « 
SARGASSUM “6, Uelo/aras sae Xs te! |» <=. e|) 6) Ted Oana 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONALINTELLIGENCE . - «© © « « + 
SCIENTIFIC SERYAUS|cilewisive ‘« © 6 i +) ‘se uke se) susie 
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NAGORE 


73 


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1880 


SULPHURIC ACID AND ALKALI 


On the Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid and Alkali. By 
George Lunge, Professor of Technology in the Zurich 
Polytechnic School, formerly Manager of the Tyne 
Alkali Works, South Shields, Vol. ii. (London; Van 
Voorst, 1880.) 

betes volume forms a fitting sequel to the first volume 

of Prof. Lunge’s valuable work (noticed in NATURE, 

vol. xx. p. 263) on the alkali manufacture. The praise 
we bestowed upon the earlier volume may without stint 
be applied to this. Clearness and conciseness ‘in style 
remarkable in a foreigner, accuracy and fulness in the 
description of both old and new processes, and admirable 
woodcuts of apparatus and manufacturing plant, constitute 
the chief merits of this by far the best treatise extant on 
the most important branch of chemical industry. The 
value of works on technical science, as wel], we may also 
add, of the teaching of such subjects, depends not only on 
a sound knowledge of the scientific principles upon which 
the manufactures are based, but likewise upon a thorough 
acquaintance with technical minutiz and the special 
details of construction and operation, the due observation 
of which is necessary for the manufacturer’s success. 
Either one of these conditions may be fulfilled by a host 
of authors, but to find both fully developed, as is the case 
with Prof. Lunge, is rare. Manufacturers themselves, 
many of whom may be fully competent to the task, are, 
for obvious reasons, not given to make known the details 
of their successful manufacture. Nor is the professional 
chemical engineer likely to do more than describe the 
most common and well-known processes. Dr. Lunge 
enjoys the great advantage of having had manufac- 
turing experience, if not along the whole line, at least 
over a very large portion of his subject; and to this 
he now adds that of a position in which every motive 
urges him to impart his knowledge unreservedly to his 
readers. 

A criticism worth having of a book like the one under 
review should by good rights imply a knowledge of manu- 
facturing detail at least comparable with that of the author. 
To this the present writer can lay no claim, whilst mere 
indiscriminate praise is a mode of treatment to which he 
would not subject the readers of NATURE, either for 
their sake or for his own. In order therefore to find out 
how far this work really teaches what it professes to 
teach, how far it is abreast of the improvements of the 
day, and how far it expresses a sound opinion on vexed 
trade questions such as “ open’’ as against “closed” salt- 
cake roasters, or as Hargreaves salt-cake process as 
against the old Leblanc’s process, the writer has called to 
his assistance his friend and former pupil, Mr. John H. 
Crossley of Widnes, in whose ability in both the theore- 
tical and practical side of the subject he has the greatest 
confidence, and to whom he is indebted for an opinion on 
these questions. 

The opening chapters of the volume are devoted to a 
discussion of the various methods of making salt-cake or 
sodium sulphate the first great step in the production of 
alkali from common salt. It is a fact worthy of note that 

VoL. xx11I.—No. 578 


although Leblanc’s process had been in successful work 
in France from the year 1797, seventeen years elapsed 
before this was taken up in England at Walker-on-Tyne 
by Losh. This may be perhaps accounted for by the war 
then raging by which communication between the two 
countries was almost entirely cut off, but especially 
because of the high war duty on salt, which in 1805 
amounted to no less than 30/. per ton, and which existed 
up to the year 1823! This may be regarded as the year of 
birth of the manufacture on a large scale, and in this year 
James Muspratt, whom we are glad still to be able to 
salute as the veteran founder of the alkali trade, erected 
works at Liverpool, where common salt was decomposed 
with sulphuric acid and the Leblanc process carried out 
completely. The difference in cost of production in the 
early part of the century and in recent years is seen by 
the fact that in 1814 soda crystals cost 60/. per ton, whilst 
in 1861 the price was 4/. Ios. 

Dr. Lunge goes into the question of “Close” versus 
“Open” salt-cake roasters pretty fully, but deriving his 
practical experience from Newcastle, where open furnaces 
are almost exclusively employed, it is not surprising to 
find a leaning towards the latter form betrayed in spite of 
his attempt to place the matter before his readers in an 
impartial manner. One of his arguments in favour of 
open roasters is that stronger sulphate is obtained by 
their use ; he says (p. 93) “ Owing to the higher tempera- 
ture of an open roaster it is much easier to calcine the 
salt-cake and to decompose the common salt completely. 
In blind furnaces this can only be obtained by employing 
a large area and consequently a very thin layer of material 
and spending a good deal of time over the calcining 
process. This of course is much easier with furnaces 
possessing two muffles to one pan.” 

Against this fact it may be mentioned that though 
the Lancashire close roasters are certainly built larger than 
the Newcastle open ones, a much larger charge is worked, 
and many works regularly turn out salt-cake testing above 
97 per cent., and this too in furnaces with one muffle only, 
the double form he speaks of and figures on pp. 72 and 
go, being certainly represented in practice by one or two 
isolated specimens only. 

Dr. Lunge (p. 116) gives 14-15 cwt. as usual charges of 
salt for close roasters, but as much as 18 cwt. are fre- 
quently worked at one operation. In this same question 
the author hardly gives due prominence to the “ Plus 
Pressure’’ system, which is now doing good work with 
regard to close roasters. Probably the appendix to be 
published with vol. iii. will deal with this. 

The description (pp. 115-125) of the actual working of 
a salt-cake furnace is very good indeed. 

Chapter IV., on Hargreaves’ Process, is also excellent, 
and is probably the best description extant ; the only fault 
that could be found is that the figures show a double line 
of cylinders separated by an arch, the idea being to allow 
of having a drawing-door on each side of the cylinders. 
This however is not by any means compensated for by 
the greater loss of heat by radiation. Only the earlier 
plants are built this way, the more modern erections 
having the cylinders built back-to-back so as to form one 
solid block. 

Dr. Lunge wisely refrains from much speculation as to 
the future of this most ingenious process. “If we are to 

E 


74 


NATURE 


[Mov. 25, 1880 


pronounce finally upon the prospects of this process,” he | On another point in the black-ash process Dr. Lunge’s 


says (p. 158), “we shall not find this quite an easy task. 
A few years ago English alkali-makers had such a high 
opinion of that process that no new vitriol chambers were 
built, and the question was discussed whether it was more 
worth while to work down the existing chambers, or to 
defray the cost of the new plant at once. Afterwards a 
less sanguine opinion gained ground, and it seemed as if 
Hargreaves’s process would again be put into the back- 
ground,’ At the present moment the writer believes that 
the outlook for the Hargreaves process is more favourable 
than ever. 

Chapters V. and XII., on the Cost of producing Sulphate 
and Soda-ash, can only serve to give an approximate idea 
of the matter. The exact cost involved is not readily 
imparted by manufacturers, and is moreover governed 
by local circumstances, such as the current price of 
labour, &c. 

The latter half of the volume is concerned with the 
second stage in the manufacture of alkali known as the 
black ash process. In this the salt-cake is heated with 
limestone and coal, the resulting carbonate of soda being 
removed by lixiviation from the insoluble alkali makers’ 
waste. The first part of the chapter on Hand Furnaces 
appears to be very complete, and the figures on the plate 
facing p. 386 are correct and well-drawn. This can 
hardly be said of that portion relating to the modern 
revolving furnaces, this is probably the weakest part of 
the book, the author having apparently had no practica] 
experience on this point. Figures of two revolvers are 
given; of these Fig. 182 may be said to represent a fairly 
good design, though one single wide evaporating pan is 
considered more convenient for repairs than two narrow 
ones. As regards the speed of revolution (p. 411) Dr. 
Lunge is a little out. He says the revolver gearing must 
be capable of giving speeds of one revolution in four 
minutes to five revolutions in one minute, “usually the 
highest velocity does not exceed one revolution per 
minute.” Those figures are not correct for the present 
style of working. Revolvers should be able to go a good 
deal slower, but speeds as high as seven to eight revolu- 
tions per minute should always be possible, especially 
when working the Pechiney-Weldon process, when the 
after charge has to be very well and rapidly mixed through 
the rest. This can hardly be obtained when the large 
spin-wheel on the revolver is worked from a worm-wheel 
as Dr. Lunge describes, a pinion-wheel should be used. 
The author (p. 406) says, “ Leaving aside the older con- 
structions of revolving furnaces, we shall only describe 
two of the most modern.” The first of these has been 
spoken of above ; the second, figured pp. 414 and 415, a 
revolver fired by gas, was erected at one works only in 
1870, and was found to be a failure; after running a year 
or two it was entirely reconstructed to burn fuel. Since 
then the mechanical bogies and engine gearing have 
been completely altered, so that the figures can hardly 
be said to represent one of the ‘“‘most modern con- 
structions.” 

Regarding chimney power Dr. Lunge says (p. 412) that 
usually every two revolvers have a chimney 6 feet diameter 
and 100 feet high to themselves. This is certainly not suffi- 
cient for the most economical working ; to stint a revolver 
of draught is a serious mistake. 


opinions do not tally with those of Lancashire manufac- 
turers. A few years ago Mr. Mactear of St. Rollox pro- 
posed a plan of adding from 6 to ro per cent. of lime to 
the black-ash in excess of that usually worked. This 
apparently simple process was believed by some likely 
to work wonders, and statements were made as to the 
actual gain of many thousands of pounds per annum in 
a single works by its adoption. Dr. Lunge gives more 
credit to this than some of cur Lancashire friends seem 
inclined to do. 

The remaining processes in the great suite of chemical 
changes involved in the alkali trade are as thoroughly 
discussed by Dr. Lunge as those which have now been 
noticed. Divergent views concerning many details of 
these may doubtless be held by various manufacturers, 
but all will agree in the opinion not only that this is an 
excellent book, but that it would be very difficult for any 
one to write a better one. 

H. E. ROSCOE 


THE FLORA OF PLYMOUTH 


Flora of Plymouth: an Account of the Flowering Plants 
and Ferns found within Twelve Miles of the Town, 
with Brief Sketches of the Topography, Geology, and 
Climate of the Area and History of Local Botanical 
Investigation. By T. R. Archer Briggs, F.L.S. With 
Map. $vo, pp. xxxv. and 432. (London: Van Voorst, 
1880.) 


HIS is a model local flora. Mr. Briggs is well known 
as one of the most experienced and trustworthy 
amongst the botanists who have made a special study of 
British Phanerogamia. He has established a claim upon 
the gratitude of his fellow-workers by acting for several 
years as the honorary distributor of their Exchange Club, 
and in this capacity has received and sent out many 
thousands of specimens. The present work is the result 
of the rambles of twenty years, and as he has restricted 
its limits to a radius of twelve miles from the town, the 
whole of the district has been within walking distance of — 
his home, and it is probable that there is no tract in 
Britain of which the plants have been worked out and 
placed on record in such a thorough and exhaustive 
manner. A radius of twelve miles from Plymouth 
includes a great variety of soil and situation. There are 
the maritime plants of the seashore and the tidal reaches 
of the Tamar and its affluents. Inland there are in the 
low country besides the stream-sides, meadows, and culti- 
vated fields, plenty of woods and deep shady lanes with 
high banks and thick hedgerows, and the twelve miles 
radius reaches to a height of 1,700 feet on Dartmoor, and 
includes a considerable space of open uncultivated heathy 
and swampy ground. The district is not rich in lime- 
stone nor in ponds, but except in the plants which affect 
these two kinds of station there is full scope so far 
as situation goes to suit all their varied requirements in 
habitat. 

Out of the 1,680 species enumerated in the last edition 
of the London Catalogue 873, or considerably more than 
half, are found within the radius covered by this book. 
Out of these 728 are natives, and the other 145 more or 
less certainly introduced by human agency. 


Nov. 25, 1880} 


It is interesting to have an area so far west in the 
island so thoroughly worked out, and certainly one of the 
most instructive points in connection with the matter is 
to note which British plants fail to reach and become 
very rare within the area. Taking the species according 
to their types of distribution as classified by Mr. Watson 
in the fourth volume of his “Cybele Britannica,’ and 
adopting the more stringent scale of species-limitation 
which he there follows, we find that out of 1,425 British 
species 764 grow in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. 


The 120 species of Watson’s highland or extreme northern 
. Pp g 


type and the 49 local or doubtful species are not repre- 
sented here at all. Of the eighty-one species of his 
Scottish type we get only 5, and out of the 37 species of 
his intermediate type only 3 enter into the Plymouth area. 
So that the boreal element of the British flora, 238 species, 
is represented at Plymouth only by 8 species, such plants 
as Rubus saxatilis, Gnaphalium dioicum, Polypodium 
Phegopteris, Polypodium Dryopteris, and Lycopodium 
Selago lurking in very small quantity in the recesses of 
Dartmoor. Of Watson’s 70 Atlantic or specially western 
species Plymouth has 36 ; of Watson’s 127 Germanic or 
specially eastern species Plymouth has only 16; of the 
532 species spread almost universally through Britain 


_ Plymouth has 484. Perhaps the most noteworthy point 


of all is that of Watson’s 409 plants of the English type 


-round about London are exceedingly plentiful. 


j 


of distribution, plants spread widely through England, 
but running out in a northern direction north of the 
Humber and in the Scotch Lowlands, Plymouth gets 
only 220, or little more than half. Amongst the absentees 
in widely-spread English plants, for instance, are the 
common Forget-me-not (AZyosotis palustris), the Mistletoe, 
Genista tinctoria, Veronica Anagallis, Glyceria aquatica, 
and Scivpus lacustris; and amongst the great rarities 
the common harebell (Campanula votundifolia), the 
cowslip, the common butter-bur, Wieracium boreale and 
vulgatum, and some of the common south-country weeds, 
like Solanum nigrum and Mercurialis annua, which 
In 
the critical genera of British plants Plymouth is rich in 


-fubi and roses, very poor in willows and_hieracia, 


Amongst the rarities of the neighbourhood are Poly- 


tarpon tetraphyllum, Erynium campestre, Pyrus Briggsit, 


a curious pear with fruit like that of a small crab-apple, 
Physospermum cornubiense, and two species of Hypericum, 
beticum, and linariifolium, and it produces some curious 


hybrid epilobia and rumices. 


_ The area is divided into five districts, founded on 
-Tiver-drainage, two of which are in Cornwall and three in 
Devonshire ; and under these the special localities of the 

species are carefully traced out, the abundance in which 
each occurs being particularised, and the claims of each 

to be regarded as wild being in all doubtful cases care- 
fully investigated. 
_ As stated in the title, the book includes a map and 
‘short sketches of the climatology and geology of the 
district, and of the progress of botanical investigation 
ithin its bounds from the days of Lobel and Parkin- 
sen down to the present day. We can recommend it 
With confidence to all our readers who are interested in 
“geographical botany as one of the most complete, con- 
‘scientious, and interesting works of its kind that have 
ever appeared. 


NATURE 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Peruvian Antiquities: The Necropolis of Ancon in 
Peru. A Series of Illustrations of the Civilisation 
and Industry of the Empire of the Incas. Being 
the Results of Excavations made on the Spot. By 
Be ae and A. Stiibel. (London: Asher and Co., 
1881. 


A FIRST instalment now lies before us of this magnificent 
undertaking, which, if fully realised, bids fair to rival in 
scientific interest and typographical splendour Lord 
Kingsborough’s great work on Mexican Antiquities. 
Reserving a full notice for a later stage of the project, 
it will suffice here briefly to indicate its main features, 
and direct attention to its paramount importance for anti- 
quarian and ethnological studies. The authors, who 
have lately returned from South America laden with 
archeological treasures of all kinds, have been encour- 
aged by the munificence of the directors of the Berlin 
Royal Museum to place the results of many years’ dili- 
gent research at the disposal of the public. Under the 
general heading of “ Peruvian Antiquities” the publishers, 
Messrs. Asher and Co., of Berlin and London, propose to 
issue simultaneously in English and German a series 
of folio volumes illustrating the whole field of the 
ancient Quichua-Aymara culture, such as it existed at 
the time of the Spanish invasion. The publication will 
spread over a number of years, each volume appear- 
ing in separate parts varying in number according to 
the nature of the subject. Each part will contain 
a number of chromolithographic engravings with corre- 
sponding pages of explanatory text. These illustrations, 
which of course are the great feature of the work, will 
be produced in the most finished style of modern typo- 
graphic art, and will consist of perfect facsimiles either in 
natural or reduced size of every conceivable object asso- 
ciated with the ancient civilisation of the Incas, The 
series begins with a volume devoted entirely to the 
“Necropolis of Ancon,’”’ now an obscure watering 
place and fishing village on the Peruvian coast, a little 
north of Lima, but in pre-Spanish times evidently the 
centre of a thickly-peopled district that had long been 
occupied by a settled population. The “finds” made in 
the mummy graves of this burial-place are of extraordinary 
archeological interest, illustrating in the most vivid 
manner every aspect of the social and domestic life of 
the ancient Peruvians. The volume is to be completed 
during the course of the ensuing two years in ten 
uniform parts, as above described, and to judge from 
Part I., which has just appeared, it is likely to prove of 
the utmost value to the antiquary and ethnologist. But 
our remarks on all details must be postponed till this 
volume is completed. The English text has been en- 
trusted to Mr. A. H. Keane, whose special knowledge 
of the subject must ensure accuracy in the descriptive 
and explanatory part of the work, 


Exposé Historique concernant le Cours des Machines, 
dans lV Enseignement de ?Ecole Polytechnique. 23 pp. 
(Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1880.) 

THE council for the improvement of the course of study 

at the Polytechnic School has for some time had under 

consideration a revision of the Programme a’ Instruction 
of the two years’ course, and at different times, for instance 

in 1865, steps have been taken with a view to their im- 

provement, but, according to this pamphlet, different 

circumstances, especially in 1870, have deferred the 
realisation of such schemes. Upon such a wide subject 
our author does not venture, but he confines himself 
merely to that part which relates to the Cours de 

Machines. We are indebted for this very interesting 

and full historical sketch of the matter from the very 

foundation of the school to the veteran geometer, M. 

Chasles. 


76 


NATURE 


’ 
‘ 
5 


[Vov. 25, 1880 — 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. | 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space ts so great that tt 
25 impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Fertilisation of Yucca 


In NATURE, vol. xxii. pp. 606, 607, appears a letter to which 
my attention has only to-day been called—signed E. L. Layard 
—on the subject of the fertilisation of yuccas successfully 
introduced and cultivated in New Caledonia. 

The writer shows himself to be under some misapprehension 
as to the generic characters and appearance of the insect which 
is generally credited with the fertilisation of these plants in 
their native country. The moth of the genus Pronuéa, to which 
he refers, is not a ‘‘large moth having yellow under-wings.” 


Although a common species belonging to the Moctuide, standing 
in our British lists under the genus 77ifi@na (Ochs), but included 
in Dr. Standinger’s European Catalogue in the genus Agvotis 
(Ochs), is distinguished by the specific, not generic, name /v0- 
nuba (Lin,), as well as by the characteristic appearance to which 
your correspondent evidently alludes. 

The genus Pronuba (Riley) was founded for the reception of 
Pronuba yuccasella (Riley) (see Proceedings Acad. Sci. Missouri, 
ii. pp. 55, 3333 Xefort Nox. Ins. Missouri, v. 151, vi. 1313 
Canadian Entomologist, iv. 182 ; Hayden’s Bulletin of the U.S. 
Geological and Geographical Survey, iii. 121-141, &c.), which 
has also been described by Prof. Zeller in the Verhandlungen 
der zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 1873, vol. xxiii, 
pp. 232, 233, under the name 7egeticula alba. 

This small white moth, of which some varieties have a few 
black dots on the fore-wings, belongs to the Lepidopterous 
group Tineina (Stn.), possibly to the family Hyponomeutida. 
Prof. Riley finds that the female, which has the basal joints of 
the maxillary palpi developed into a long curved tentacle fur- 
nished with spines, uses these appendages to collect and convey 
the yollen of the yucca to the tube of the stigma, which it could 
not otherwise reach; the eggs are then deposited, and the larva 
feeds upon the fruit, subsequently hibernating and becoming a 
pupa on the earth. It would be most interesting to ascertain 
whether Pronauda yuccasella (Riley) has been introduced with 
the yucca into New Caledonia, or whether any other insect, 
either indigenous or not indigenous to North America, has been 
found to take its place in carrying on the work of fertilisation, 
Prof, Riley considers the fact that yuccas introduced into the 
more northern portions of America have failed to produce seed 
may be attributed to the absence of Pronuba. 

If Mr. Layard will direct his attention to this point he can 
scarcely fail to supply some valuable and instructive evidence 
bearing upon the subject. WALSINGHAM 

Eaton House, Eaton Square, November 13 


Skin Furrows of the Hand 


ALLow me to contribute the information in my possession in 
furtherance of the interesting study undertaken by your Japan 
correspondent (vol. xxii. p. 605). 

I have been taking sign-manuals by means of finger-marks for 
now more than twenty years, and have introduced them for 
practical purposes in several ways in India with marked benefit. 

The object has been to make all attempts at personation, or at 
repudiation of signatures, quite hopeless wherever this method is 
available. 

(1) First I used it for pensioners whose vitality has been a dis- 
tracting problem to Government in all countries. When I found 
all room for suspicion effectually removed here, I tried it on a 
larger scale in the several (2) registration offices under me, and 
here I had the satisfaction of seeing every official and legal agent 
connected with these offices confess that the use of these signa- 
tures lifted off the ugly cloud of suspiciousness which always 
hangs over such offices in India, It put a summary and absolute 
stop to the very idea of either personatign or repudiation from 
the moment half a dozen men had made their marks and com- 
pared them together. (3) I next introduced them into the jail, 
where they were not un-needed. On commitment to jail each 


prisoner had to sign with his finger. Any official visitor to the 
jail after that could instantly satisfy himself of the identity of the 
man whom the jailor produced by requiring him to make a signa- 
ture on the spot and comparing it with that which the books 
showed. 

The ease with which the signature is taken and the hopeless- 
ness of either personation or repudiation are so great that I 
sincerely believe that the adoption of the practice in places and 
professions where such kinds of fraud are rife isa substantial 
benefit to morality. ; "4 

I may add that by comparison of the signatures of persons 
now living with their signatures made twenty years ago, I have 
proved that that much time at least makes no such material 
change as to affect the utility of the plan. 

For instance, if it were the practice on enlisting in the army to 
take (say) three signatures—one to stay with the regiment, one 
to go to the Horse Guards, and one to the police at Scotland 
Yard—I believe a very appreciable diminution of desertions 
could be brought about by the mere fact that identification was 
become simply a matter of reference to the records. 

And supposing that there existed such a thing as a finger- 
mark of Roger Tichborne, the whole Orton imposture would have 
been exposed to the full satisfaction of the jury in a single 
sitting by requiring Orton to make his own mark for comparison. 

The difference between the general character of the rugs of 
Hindoos and of Europeans is as apparent as that between male 
and female signatures, but my inspection of several thousands 
has not led me to think that it will ever be practically safe to say 
of any single person’s signature that it is a woman’s, or a 
Eindco’s, or not a male European’s. The conclusions of your 
correspondent seem, however, to indicate greater possibilities of 
certainty. In single families I find myself the widest varieties. 

15, St. Giles, Oxford, November 13 W. J. HERSCHEL 

P.S.—It would be particularly interesting to hear whether the 
Chinese have really used finger-marks in ‘is way. Finger-dips — 
(mere blots) are common in the East, as *¢ marks,” 


: 


PL a Ee Ee ee 


The Aurora of the 3rd Instant 


Mr. E. DowLeEN has kindly communicated to me some parti- 
culars of the above as seen by him at Southport. ‘ 
He first noticed the aurora at 6h. 50m. (it had however beet 
visible before that time) as a greenish white glow fon the north 
horizon. This gradually rose until 7h. 45m., when the top of 
the arch was estimated at two-thirds of the way up between the 
horizon and the Great Bear. It then gradually died out from 
the ends of the arch, and at 8h. 3om. had disappeared. During 
the time it was watched the following changes took place :— 
From 7h. to 7h. 15m, it faded away from the eastern end until 
7h. 30m., when nearly half the arch was gone. The western end ~ 
then seemed to gather itself up somewhat, and to get brighter. 
After this the ends again lengthened out until 7h.°45m., when the 
whole began to fade away. At 7h, 25m. a narrow-arched band 
of black cloud concentric with the auroral arch was formed, It 
seemed to start from the ends, and meet over the middle point. - 
At first this lay close upon the aurora, It then rose quickly, — 
passed through the Great Bear, and vanished. It took about 
ten minutes to form, rise, and disappear. ' 
Mr. Dowlen saw no streamers, but faint ones might have been 
present and escaped notice owing to adjacent gas-lamps. The 
aurora was’at no time bright, and Mr. Dowlen doubts whether 
any beyond the green Tine would have been seen in th 
spectroscope. 3 p 
The cloud formation detailed seems to me of considerable 
J. RAND CAPRON 


interest. 
Guildown, November 19 


expel all moisture from it, cooling it down to the temperature of 
the room and then breathing through it. 
did so the thermometer showed a rise to 112" and upwards at th 
end of a minute; at the end of two minutes the index was 
pushed into the small bulb at the top, showing a temperature ot 
about 116°. It is evident, therefore, that the high temperature 


observed is not the actual temperature of the ‘breath, but 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


caused by the caloric evolved by the transition of the aqueous 
yapour of the breath into the liquid or solid form. 

Before seeing Dr. Roberts’s explanation I referred the matter 
to the greatest living authority on heat, and he, after carefully 
repeating my experiments, was of opinion that the heat was 
produced by the compression of the air when forced through the 
material. Had he known of Dr. Roberts’s simple but ingenious 
variation of the experiment there is no doubt he would have 
accepted Dr. Roberts’s explanation, R. E. DUDGEON 

November 18 


TuE following experiment may serve to supplement the obser- 
vations of Dr. Roberts as to the cause of the high reading of a 
thermometer wrapped in a handkerchief and placed in the mouth. 
An ordinary non-registering thermometer was wrapped in about 
twelve folds of a dry linen handkerchief placed in the mouth, 
and the following readings taken at intervals of one minute :— 
Inspiration was effected through the nostrils, expiration through 
the handkerchief. The thermometer was in the mouth from the 
beginning to the end of the experiment. Temperature under the 
tongue before commencing, 370 C. The reading of the ther- 
mometer wrapped as above described, one minute after introduc- 
tion into the mouth, was 43°’0. At the end of the second minute, 
44°°1, 3rd 42°"9, 4th 41°°2, 5th 39°°6, 6th 38°2, 7th 37°°1, 8th 
367-9, 9th 36%9, &c. After the experiment the temperature 
under the tongue was 37°°6. Capillarity is probably the chief 
cause of the rapid condensation of water, and the consequent 
liberation of heat in the dry fabric. 

In connection with the above I may mention a schoolboy’s 
trick, viz., gripping the arm of a schoolfellow with the teeth and 
breathing forcibly through his coat-sleeve. The sensation of 
heat thus produced is much greater than .when the breath is 
allowed to impinge on the bare skin. 

In conclusion, I must freely confess that Dr. Dadgeon com- 
pletely upset my objection, as to compression of the bulb having 
anything to do with the high reading, by the experiments quoted 
in his last letter. Eo) MaPs 


Coral Reefs and Islands 


In my letter on ‘‘ Coral Reefs and Islands,” published in 
Nature, vol. xxii. p. 558, 1 have just noticed an important 
slip in writing which demands correction. 

In the third paragraph and ninth line, for metres read miles, 
so that the passage shall read thus: ‘‘On the Florida coast we 
have barriers with channels 10-40 ses wide.” 

More accurately, the space between the southern coast of 
Florida and the line of Keys (old barrier reef) gradually widens 
from a few miles in its eastern to more than 40 miles in its 
western part. The channel between the line of Keys and the 
present reef is 6-7 miles wide and about 150 miles long, 

Berkeley, California, November 2 = JOSEPH LECONTE 


Vox Angelica 


I HAVE received a letter from Mr. Samuel Ray of Stoke 
Newington with reference to my remarks on the Vox Angelica 
stop on an Estey American organ. Mr. Ray informs me that 
Gordon’s supplementary tuning-valve is used for the desired 
effects. The vationale of the method is, that by partly closing 
the mute the reeds are flattened, just as one reed is when the key 
is partially depressed. Mr. Ray also says, that by pulling out 
the stop a little way and making the reeds beat the latter are 
liable to be drawn out of tune ; but this was the original method, 
but is now improved upon. A separate mute is placed on the 
top of the tutes, so that the wind strikes one of the sets of reeds 
vertically, whereby undue strain is avoided. 

: GEORGE RAYLEIGH VICARS 

Woodville House, Rugby, November 18 


Fascination (?) 


PROBABLY none of your readers have thought it worth while 
to make any comment on the letters on this subject which have 
recently appeared, because it would seem needless to discuss the 
origin of ‘*fascination” by means of the eye of a snake (or 
whatever may be the stimulus to the alleged condition) while all 
the evidence we can obtain from these reptiles in confinement 
proves that the condition does not exist. It devolves upon those 
who might object to observations on reptiles in a glass case as 


NA PORE 


77 


untrustworthy, to show us why—all their other actions being 
normal—the prisoners should not exhibit the same habit in 
respect to this ‘‘ fascination,” as they are alleged to practise 
when free. It is rather late in the year now; but if Mr. L. P. 
Gratacap will take the first opportunity of seeing snakes feed, 
and if any of your readers will pay a visit to the Zoological 
Gardens, both he and they will, I think, come to the conclusion 
that, beyond the expression of a little surprise (on the part of 
ducks and pigeons chiefly) which soon wears off at the sight of 
an unfamiliar cbject, both the birds and animals regard the 
snakes with marked unconcern. I have seen a guinea-pig, after 
finding no place of exit from the cage, quietly settle itself 
down in the midst of the coils of an Australian constrictor, 
shut its eyes and go to sleep. Ten minutes afterwards the snake 
had moved, and the guinea-pig was washing its face with its 
paws. Not once, but a dozen times, a rabbit has nibbled the 
nose of a River Jack viper (V. r/znoceros) in a pretty, inquiring 
way, heedless of the strong blows the reptile would administer 
with its snout to the impertinent investigator of that queer- 
looking object. For fully ten minutes one day a rabbit sat 
gazing at the poised and threatening head of a puff adder, now 
and then reaching forward to smell the reptile’s nose, and anon 
sitting on its hind legs to wash its ears, and again returning to 
the ‘‘ fascinating” object of its inquiries. If during that time 
the rabbit had fallen into the state of trance, it was so soon 
released from that condition as to be able to attend to its own 
comfort and busy itself about its toilet. The birds show no 
more recognition than the other animals of the dangerous posi- 
tion in which they are placed. We see them hopping about on 
the snakes and pecking lustily at their scales; sitting on the 
branches, preening their feathers and behaving themselves just 
as though no such dreadful (or pleasing ?) sensation as “‘ fascina- 
tion” was possible ! 

I saw once a sparrow perched upon the body of a_ snake 
twisted round a branch, and preening itself, By-and-by a 
constrictor crept up slowly, touched the bird with its nose, and 
then threw the crushing folds around it. The deliberate approach 
of the snake and the unconscious attitude of the sparrow, con- 
cerned about its private affairs, would have staggered any ordi- 
nary believer in ‘‘ fascination.” I have closely watched the 
behaviour of snakes év/ent on feeding. It may be a sudden rush, 
when tke victim has no time to see its enemy, or the gradual, lazy 
advance of the reptile ; in either case the doomed victim betrays 
no suspicion of danger—at least so faras I have been able to 
ascertain after passing some hundreds of hours contemplating the 
snakes in the unequalled representative collection of the Zoological 
Society. 

The expression in Mr. Gratacap’s letter, ‘‘glittering” eyes, 
applied to the orbits of a snake, which are veiled by the “anto- 
cular” membrane, and capable of very slight movement, may 
remind us of Virgil’s ‘‘Suffecti sanguine et igni,” and help to 
confirm the ‘‘ basilisk” (not a snake, by-the-by) superstition, but 
can only serve to perpetuate a myth. Whatever may be the 
value of Mr. Foot’s opinion, I would ask, ‘‘ Who has ever seen 
a snake ‘raise its tail’ after the manner of the cats ?” 

Charles Darwin has much to say on this subject to any one 
who chooses to consult the ‘‘Origin of Species.” He does not 
see any advantage in the cat’s “ waving” tail or the noise of the 
“rattle? of Crofalus, for no predatory animal would derive any 
benefit from a signal of warning to its prey. The snake certainly 
never ‘‘wayes’’ its tail when intent on mischief. 

ARTHUR NICOLS 


Soaring of Birds 


REFERRING to NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 10, may I suggest the 
following?—The question seems to be: ‘‘How can birds, 
having attained a certain elevation, thence rise without further 
muscular effort?” If Iam not in error in what follows, they can 
theoretically do so if they s¢av¢ with a difference between their 
horizontal velocity and that of the wind, and ewd with a less 
difference ; ¢.g., if they start at rest with respect to the earth, 
and end by drifting with the wind entirely. 

Take this last case, and consider the earth as plane, and the 
wind as horizontal, and haying a velocity = v7 with respect to the 
[earth and] bird. Finally we suppose the bird gains a horizontal 
momentum =v. Then, by conservation of horizontal mo- 
mentum, the only force xcting being vertical, the air must lose an 
equal horizontal momentum, 

Now we know that in all cases of bodies colliding and ulti- 
mately acquiring the same velocity, while we have conservation 


73 


; G VE i 


of momentum we have loss of visible kinetic energy, except when 
the coefficient of restitution = 1. This kinetic energy is trans- 
formed into the vibrational kinetic energy of sound and heat in 
general, 

But cannot we have it partly transformed into potential energy 
by ‘‘soaring” against gravity? On this suppo-ition we have 
the two laws, conservation of momentum where no forces act, 
and conservation of energy, holding. But we have visible kinetic 
energy lost and fartly trans‘ormed into potential energy with 
respect to the earth, partly (as usual) into vibrational kinetic 
energy of sound and heat, [The s wis evident in the ‘‘ singing” 
of the wings. ] 

It seems to me that the swooping referred to by your corre- 
spondent is orily a matter of convenience to the bird, and does 
not really affect the mechanical question ; and that the compari- 
son to a kite (which is held by a string) is not very satisfactory. 
But from my own observation of sea-gulls I do not think one can 
say that all the manceuvres and turns of the bird in the air are 
-performed without real muscular effort, though cerfainly without 
flaps of the wing ; and if there be muscular effort: there can be 
work done—against gravity in this case. 

The above is only a suggestion. I wish to induce some more 
mathematical reader to write a clear answer on this interesting 
question. W. LarDEeNn 

Cheltenham, November 8 


The Photophone 


On reading the description published in NATURE, vol. xxiii. 
p. 15, of Prof. Graham Bell’s wonderful discovery, the trans- 
mission of speech by light, I notice that in “the photophone” 
the varying of the intensity of the beam of light thrown on the 
receiving instrument is accomplished by the simple and ingenious 
means of allowing the sound-waves to beat on the back of a 
thin plane mirror, It seems to me, however, that this arrange- 
ment is not complete, and is open to some objection. As the 
plane mirror will, if provision be not made against it, become 
convex and concave alternately, it must, unless the vibrations be 
confined within very narrow limits, give in one vibration /wo 
periods of maximum and minimum illumination at the receiver, 
and therefore the received sounds, apparently, should be (as- 
suming the periods between each maximum and minimum 
illumination to be of the same duration, which could never 
exactly occur) an octave higher than those transmitted. This I 
think follows from the fact that the rays from the mirror would 
be dispersed not only when convex, but also when concave, after 
they had passed the focus. If, therefore, the vibrations of the 
mirror are sufficiently great to bring its focus between the mirror 
and the receiving instrument, there would bea second point of 
minimum illumination. If however the mirror were made 
slightly convex, or were constrained by a spring or otherwise, 
this defect would be cured. 

Curiously enough, ¢heoretically ‘‘the photophone” is the 
more effective the greater the distance between the transmitter 
and the receiver, as the degree of variation of the intensity of 
light falling on the selenium will be, when perfectly adjusted, 
greater as the distance increases, and it is on this element that 
the intensity of the sound depends. A. R. MOLISON 

Ffynone Club, Swansea, November 15 


[Our correspondent is obviously right in supposing that with a 
beam of light focussed accurately upon the selenium receiver a 
single complete vibration of the transmitting disk would produce 
two periods of maximum and minimum illumination. This would 
not however be the case if the lenses were not set originally to 
exact focus, for then a displacement of the disk in one direction 
would scatter the rays more, while a displacement in the other 
would concentrate them more. In practice, we believe, exact 
focussing is never obtained or even attempted.—ED. ] 


Salts of Zinc 


In Roscoe and Schorlemmer, vol. ii. p. 264, it states: ‘* The 
salts of zinc do 7¢ impart to the non-luminous flame any tint ;” 
and on p. 258, ‘‘the metal burns with a bright qw/#fe flame.” 

What then is the green colour imparted to the Bunsen flame 
by zine sulphate due to? Also the green flame obtained by 
heating metallic zinc on charcoal before the blowpipe ? S. 


THE green tint referred to by ‘‘S.” (sxAra) as imparted by zinc 
sulphate to the Bunsen flame is only observed whilst the water of 


Ay 7% 

| 4Vov, 25, 1550 
crystallisation contained in the salt is being given off; the dry 
salt which remains imparts no colour to the flame. It therefore 
appears probable that the green colouration of the flame is 
caused by very finely divided particles of the salt being carried 
off into the upper part of the flame by the escaping water of 
crystallisation, These particles then become so intensely heated 
as toemit the peculiar greenish light and very likely suffer pre- 
vious reduction by the carbon of the flame, Other zine salts, 
especially the acetate, impart to the flame, when first heated, a 
greenish-blue tint resembling that observed when metallic zinc 
is burnt in the air, this being doubtlessly due to a partial reduction 
of the acetate. The characteristic zinc lines (6362 and 6099 in 
the red, and 4928, 4924, and 4911 in the blue) are not seen in 
the case of the salts or when the metal is burnt. A more correct 
description of the combustion of zinc than that referred to would 
be: ‘‘the metal burns with a bluish-white flame.” 


Chemical Laboratory, Owens College W. Borr 


THE WORKS OF CARL VON NAGELI 


(pete beginning of the forties in the present century 
marks an important epoch in the history of botany. 
The “ Naturphilosophie” which had for many years 
so banefully influenced the development of the science, 
was being routed by the energetic attacks of Schleiden. 
Botanists were becoming alive to the fact that if their 
study was to havea place as a science by the side of 
physics and of chemistry, it must be pursued by the in- 
ductive method ; that speculation must give way to re- 
search, and, above all, that development must be studied 
before any conclusions could be drawn from the investi- 
gation of mature forms. The early discoveries of von 
Mohl, and the demonstration of the cellular structure of 
the tissues by Schleiden, were among the first fruits of 
this awakening. To this period belongs also Nageli’s 
first contribution to science—a paper on the Development 
of the Pollen (1842). The first sentence in the introduc- 
tion shows how thoroughly Nageli was imbued with the 
same spirit which possessed Schleiden. He says :—* The 
right knowledge of an object includes an acquaintance 
with its mature form and a study of its development : the 
one is dependent upon the other, and the one without the 
other is insufficient to afford a complete conception of the 
object.’ The actual observations detailed in the paper 
appear from the drawings to have been accurate, and they 
were an important addition to the knowledge of the sub- 
ject; but their interpretation was so far influenced by 
Schleiden’s theory of cell-formation, which was then pre- 
valent, that the process of the development of the pollen 
grains is described as being one of free cell-formation. 

In the year 1844 appeared the first number of the 
Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Botanik, edited—probably 
on account of the sympathy existing between them—by 
Schleiden and Nageli. This short-lived periodical (1844 
to 1846) was practically an organ for the publication 
of Nageli’s researches and for the expression of his 
views, for it does not contain a single contribution from 
Schleiden’s pen. The first number opens with an article 


—a sort of confession of scientific faith—*‘ On the Present 
Aims of Natural History, and especially of Botany,” in 
which he gives an account of the actual state of botanical 
knowledge, and strongly urges the necessity of empirical 
study in order that the generalisations of the science 
might be in the future, not baseless speculations, but in- 
ductions resting upon a firm foundation of ascertained 
fact. The Zeztschrift further contains an important paper 
“On the Nuclei of Cells and the Formation and Growth 
of Cells,” in which the process of free cell-formation, 
which Schleiden had asserted to be universal, is shown to 
be only one of the processes by which a multiplication of 
cells is effected ; these processes are clearly defined and 
classified. This is followed bya number of researches on 
the morphology of the lower cryptogams, which are of 
interest inasmuch as they open up new lines of approach 
to the study of the complicated morphology of more highly 


- S. 


ici bal 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


organised plants. Nageli showed, for instance, that since 
in a unicellular alga (Caulerfa) a morphological differen- 
tiation of root, stem, and leaf is indicated, morphological 
is not dependent upon histological differentiation. He 
discovered also that in the organs of certain cryptogams 
growth is effected by the repeated segmentation of a single 
apical cell, and that this segmentation may take place 
always in one plane only (De/esseria), or in two or three 
planes (stem of Echinomitrium, Phascum, Iungermannia, 
leaves of mosses). 

In the following year (1847) he published his work on 
“The Classification of the Algze”’ (“‘ Die Neueren Algen- 
systeme”), which is of great value, partly on account of the 
acute criticisms on the various proposed classifications of 
this group of plants which it contains, but more particu- 
larly on account of the number of new facts concerning 
their structure and life-history which are contributed. 
The descriptions of Valonia, Udotea, and Acetabularia 
may be especially mentioned : it is shown that they have 
essentially the same structure as Cawlerfa. The same 
praise may be awarded to another work, “ The Genera of 
Unicellular Algz,’’ which appeared two years later. 

The next publication of importance was the first number 
of the Pflanzenphysiologische Untersuchungen, and the 
most interesting of the papers which it contains is the one 
on the Primordial Utricle. Attention is directed to its 
presence in all living cells, to its influence upon the 
osmosis of substances in solution into or out of the cell, 
and to its activity in forming the cell-wall; in short, it is 
clearly shown to be the living portion of the cell. The 
second number did not appear until 1858, although the 
MS. was ready in 1855, the delay being due principally 
to Nageli’s removal from Freiburg to Zirich, and then 
again from Ziirich to Munich on his acceptance of the 
Professorship of Botany in that University. Although it 
must have been vexatious, still the delay enabled N ageli 
to extend his researches in various directions and thus 
contributed materially to make the great work on starch- 
granules one of the most complete monographs which 
was ever written on any subject. This second number 
is entirely taken up by this work, which gives an account 
of these bodies, including their structure, development, 
chemical composition, and physical properties, as well as 
their distribution in plants. It isa monument of patient, 
accurate investigation, devoted toa subject which appears, 
at first sight, to be of limited interest, but which ultimately 
suggested one of the most remarkable generalisations of 
modern times, namely, what is known as Nageli’s theory 
of the structure of organised bodies. The primary fact 
upon which this theory is based is the property which 
starch-granules have of swelling-up—that is, of absorbing 
a certain amount of fluid with a consequent increase of 
bulk—when treated with certain reagents (dilute acids 
and alkalies), and of diminishing in size in consequence of 
a loss of water when treated with other reagents (alcohol). 
From these phenomena he inferred that the starch-granule 
consists of solid particles, which are impenetrable by water, 
but which are capable of taking up a certain amount of 
water between them, and that the amount of this water 
may vary according to circumstances. When the granule 
is absolutely dry, these solid particles—to which he gave 
the name of smolecules—apparently come into perfect 
contact, for the granule does not lose its transparency, 
which would be the case if air were included in its 
substance. 

It may be remarked here parenthetically that the word 
molecule used by Nageli to designate these solid particles 
has not the same sense as it has when it is used in 
chemistry ; one of these molecules is probably an agere- 
gation of chemical molecules. In order to avoid any 
possible confusion on this score Nageli has substituted 
the word mzce//a for molecule in his more recent works. 
The forces by which these micellz, with their surrounding 
watery areas, are held together are, firstly, the attraction 


NATURE 


79 


existing between the micelle ; and secondly, the attraction 
which exists between each micella and the water which 
surrounds it; the latter of these attractions must neces- 
sarily be greater than the former, but whereas the former 
varies inversely as the square of the distance, the latter 
must vary inversely as some higher power. Thus, if A 
represent the attraction between two micelle, L the 
attraction between a micella and the water, and D the 
distance between two micelle, the limit of swelling-up or 


imbibition will be reached when _— =A. Ag tothe 


¢ D> 
form of the micella, it is evident that they are not 
spherical or oval, for in that case the starch-granules 
would necessarily contain air when dry, and further, the 
denser parts of them would have to contain at least 26 
per cent. of water, whereas, as a matter of fact, they only 
contain 14 per cent. They must be therefore more or less 
polyhedral, but they are not equiaxial since the swelling-up 
does not take place equally in all directions. 

By this theory it was found possible to explain satis- 
factorily certain difficult points of structure, such, for 
instance, as the stratification of starch-granules and the 
striation and stratification of cell-walls. All these depend 
upon the alternation, in one or more planes, of dense and 
less dense layers. The proportion of solid to fluid is 
greater in the dense than in the less dense layers, or, in 
the terms of Nageli’s theory, the relative size of the 
micella to the watery areas surrounding them is greater 
in the layers of greater density. Further, this theory 
affords a satisfactory explanation of the mode of growth 
of acell-wall. It is easy to understand that when the 
limit of extensibility is nearly reached—that is, when the 
micellz of the membrane are separated as far as possible 
—new micelle can be deposited in the interstices, the 
extended condition of the membrane being thus rendered 
permanent. This mode of growth is commonly known 
as growth by intussusception. 

This is the stage to which the development of the 
theory is brought in this work. In the year 1862 Nageli 
published a paper in the Proceedings of the Bavarian 
Academy on the “ Application of Polarised Light to the 
Study of the Structure of Plants,” which advanced it very 
considerably. He found, in the first place, that organised 
stiuctures, such as starch-granules or cell!-walls, are 
doubly refractive, and that this property is not affected 
by causing them to increase or diminish in size in conse- 
quence either of the absorption or removal of water, or by 
mechanical stretching or pressure. From this he con- 
cluded that the double refraction is not a property of the 
organised structure as a whole, but that it belongs to each 
individual micella; hence these micella must be crystal- 
line. Again, from the interference colours which these 
objects present when examined with polarised light, he 
ascertained that the crystalline micella have three axes 
of elasticity, that they must be bi-axial crystals ; and 
further, by comparing the effect produced by the 
passage of polarised light through glass under various 
degrees of pressure, he arrived at the conclusion that the 
micelle are so arranged in the membrane of which they 
form part that one of their axes of elasticity is perpen- 
dicular to the surface, whereas the other two axes lie in 
the plane of the membrane. Ina subsequent paper con- 
tained in the same periodical, he shows that the crystals 
of proteid substance, which occur in various seeds and 
tubers, have the same molecular constitution as starch- 
granules and cell-walls. By close and acute reasoning 
from carefully observed facts, Nageli has therefore suc- 
ceeded in establishing this theory of the molecular consti- 
tution of organised bodies, a theory which satisfactorily 
explains many of the peculiarities of structure and 
properties which they present. There can be little doubt 
that it is justifiable to extend this theory to the explanation 
of the intimate structure of protoplasm ; in fact, in his 
later publications Nageli has asserted as much, and in 


80 


NATURE 


[Wov. 25, 1880. 


this he is supported by such authorities as Sachs and 
Strasburger ; but it is impossible to say anything at 
-present as to the form and arrangement of the micellze of 
protoplasm beyond this, that they do not so act upon 
polarised light as to suggest that they are crystalline. 
Full details on this subject, as well as a vast amount of 
other information, is given in the treatise on the Micro- 
scope (second edition, 1877), which Nageli wrote together 
with Schwendener ; fortunately an English edition of this 
important work may soon be expected to appear. 

In tracing the development of Nageli’s theory, it has 
been necessary to depart from the chronological order of 
his works. In the years between 1858 and 1868 he 
published his Bettrage sur wissenschaftlichen Botanih, 
which include several important works, for the most part 
anatomical. In the first number there is an elaborate 
paper on “The Arrangement of the Fibro-vascular Bundles 
and the Mode of Growth in the Stem and Root of Vas- 
cular Plants,” which is important as containing a purely 
morphological classification of the different forms of tissue 
of which these organs consist. This is followed by a 
detailed account, in the fourth number, of the mode of 
growth in thickness and of the arrangement of the fibro- 
vascular bundles in the stem among the Sapindavez, and 
this number also contains Nageli’s well-known investiga- 
tion into the mode of development and growth of roots, in 
which Leitgeb was associated with him. This publication 
has a further interest connected with it, in that Schwen- 
dener’s first papers on what is now known as his Lichen- 
theory appeared in it. 

During this period Nageli frequently contributed papers 
(the Botanische Mitthetlungen) on a variety of subjects 
of botanical interest to the Proceedings of the Bavarian 
Academy, an activity which continues up to the present 
time. Allusion has already been made to some of these, 
and it would be worth while, did space permit, to give an 
account of most of them. Among the more important 
the following may be mentioned :—‘ On the Sieve-Tubes 
of Cucurbita,’”’ ‘On the Proteid Crystalloids of the Brazil- 
nut,’ “On the Development of Varieties,” “A Theory of 
Hybridisation.” Of late years Nageli has turned his 
attention more especially to the study of the chemical 
composition and vital processes of the lower Fungi, such 
as Yeast and Bacteria. Among the interesting results 
obtained is the discovery, in yeast-cells, of a ferment 
(invertin) which converts cane- into grape-sugar, and of 
peptones. But the real importance of these researches 
only became apparent on the publication of two larger 
works, viz.: “The Lower Fungi in their Relation to In- 
fectious Disease’’ (1877), and ‘“‘ A Theory of Fermenta- 
tion’’ (1879). It is of course impossible to give here any- 
thing like a satisfactory account of the contents of these two 
books. The first treats fully of the important part played 
by Bacteria in infection and contagion, showing, in fact, 
that these organisms are the causes and carriers of the 
various forms of disease. In the second, after an exhaustive 
account of the process of alcoholic fermentation has been 
given, a new theory of it is propounded, based, not upon 
chemical principles, like that of Liebig, but upon the 
principles of molecular physics. Fermentation is defined 
as being “the communication of the oscillations of the 
molecules, groups of atoms, and atoms of the substances 
composing the living protoplasm to the molecules of the 
fermentible substance, in consequence of which the equi- 
librium of the molecules of that substance is disturbed, 
and decomposition is the result.” It is also pointed out 
that, in the case of yeast, the sugar is to some extent 
eeoppased within the cells, but for the most part outside 
them. 

Though this account of his works is but little more 
than an enumeration of them, yet it will suffice to show 
how important are Nageli’s contributions to botanical 
science in the departments of morphology, anatomy, and 
physiology, not merely as additions to the accumulated 


store of facts, but as new generalisations from those facts, 
and as opening up fields for future research. 
SYDNEY H. VINES 


PROF, TAIT ON THE FORMULA OF 
EVOLUTION} 


A® OTHER point to which I ought thus early to direct 

your-attention is the necessity for perfect definite- 
ness of language in all truly scientific work. Want of 
definiteness may arise from habitual laziness, but it much 
more commonly indicates a desire to appear to know 
where knowledge is not. Avoid absolutely all so-called 
scientific writings in which (as Clerk-Maxwell said) the 
attempt is made to “give largeness of meaning’’ to a 
word by using it sometimes in one sense and sometimes 
in another. It is true that we may thus economise in our 
language, and avoid the necessity for introducing new and 
hardterms. But it would be a most expensive and per- 
nicious economy. It is only a blockhead who could 
object to the use of a new term for a new idea. 

Our only source of information in physical science is 
the evidence of our senses. To interpret truly this 
evidence, which is always imperfect and often wholly 
misleading, is one of the tasks set before Reason. It 
is only by the aid of reason that we can distinguish 
between what is physically objective, and what is merely 
subjective. Outside us there is no such thing as noise or 
brightness :—these no more exist in the aerial and 
ethereal motions, which are their objective cause, than 
does pain in the projectile which experience has taught us 
to avoid. You will find:many prominent ideas, relics of 
a less enlightened age, from which Natural Philosophy 
has not yet wholly shaken itself free, which owed their 
existence solely to the confusion of the subjective with the 
objective. 

With observation and experiment as our sole sources 
of information we have no right, in physical science, to 
introduce @ f7%or¢ reasoning. We may (unprofitably of 
course) speculate on what things might have been, but 
we must not dogmatise on what they ought to have been; 
we must simply try to discover what they are. 

For aught that we can tell, the properties of matter, 
and physical laws in general, might have been other than 
we find them to be. How can any one of us tell whether 
his conscious self might not have been associated in life 
with the body of an Eskimo or of a New Zealander, instead 
of with what he (no doubt) considers its much preferable 
tenement? Speculations of such a kind must always be 
wholly unproductive and unprofitable, but for all that we 
cannot but allow that they are not intrinsically absurd. 

Some years ago a critic of Mr. Herbert Spencer's 
Philosophy happened to quote from a book of mine the 
remark I have just made (that the properties of matter 
might have been other than we find them to be). Mr. 
Spencer's observation on this point is highly ,instruc- 
tive. Had he not been a severely grave philosopher I 
should have taken it for a joke. He said, ‘‘Does this 
express an experimentally ascertained truth? If so, I 
invite Prof. Tait to describe the experiments.’’* Mr. 
Spencer has quite recently published a species of ana- 
lytical inquiry’ into my “ mental peculiarities,” “ idiosyn- 
crasies of thought,” “habits of mind,” “mental traits,” 
and what not. From his illustrative quotations it appears 
that some or all of these are manifested wherever there 
are differences between myself and my critic in the points 
of view from which we regard the elements of science. 
Hence they are not properly personal questions at all, but 


t Part of an Introductory Lecture delivered October 26, 1882. _ 

2 In my letter (NATURE, vol. ix. p. 402) will be found an illustrative 
anecdote, which Mr. Spencer declares to be ‘‘ot to the point. A great 
scientific man, to whom I showed the correspondence, remarked that Mr. 
Spencer must be ‘the only man in England who could not see the perfect 
appositeness of the anecdote. ; 7) ae. a 

3 Appendix to First Principles, dealing with Criticisms: (Williams and 
Norgate, 1880.) 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


NATURE 


81 


questions specially fitted for discussion here and now. I 
may, therefore, commence by inquiring what species of 
‘mental peculiarity’? my critic himself exhibited when 
he seriously asked me whether I had proved dy experiment 
that a thing might have been what it is not ! ! 

The title of Mr. Spencer’s pamphlet informs us that 
it deals with Crzticisszs, and I am the first of the sub- 
jects brought up in it for vivisection, albeit I have been 
guilty (on Mr. Spencer’s own showing) only of “ ¢acitly” 
expressing an opinion! Surely my vivisector exhibits 
here also some kind of “mental peculiarity.’ Does a 
man become a critic because he quotes, with commenda- 
tion if you like, a clever piece of analysis or exposition 
published by another ? 

In NATURE for July 17, 1879, I reviewed Sir E. 
Beckett's able little book, “Origin of the Laws of 
Nature,” and as an illustration of that author’s method I 
said :— 

“ He follows out in fact, in his own way, the hint given 
‘by a great mathematician (Kirkman) who made the follow- 
ing exquisite translation of a well-known definition :— 

“¢¥volution is a change from an indefinite, incoherent, 
homogeneity to a definite, coherent, heterogeneity, through 
continuous differentiations and integrations.’ 

“(Translation into plain English]—‘ Evolution is a 
change from a nohdwish, untalkaboutable, all-alikeness, 
to a somehowish and in-general-talkaboutable not-all- 
alikeness, by continuous somethingelsifications and stick- 
togetherations.’ ” 

Later in my article occurs the following paragraph, 
which also is quoted by Mr. Spencer :— 

“When the purposely vague statements of the ma- 
terialists and agnostics are thus stripped of the tinsel of 
high-flown and unintelligible language, the eyes of the 
thoughtless who have accepted them on authority (!) are 
at last opened, and they are ready to exclaim with 
Titania 

“Methinks ‘I was enamour’d of an ass.’ ” 


The translation is from Kirkman’s remarkable work, 
“ Philosophy without Assumptions,” which at that date I 
had just read with pleasure and profit. Humiliating as 
the confession may appear, I there saw Mr. Spencer's 
““Formula’’ for the first time, and I did not notice the 
title given to it. Hence, in quoting it from Kirkman, I 
very naturally called it by its proper name, a “ Defini- 
tion.’”’ For this I have incurred the sore displeasure and 
grave censure of the inventor of the definition. It seems 
I should have called him the discoverer of the formula! 
Now this is no petty quibble on words. It involves, as 
you will see immediately, an excessively important scien- 
tific distinction, to which your attention cannot be too 
early directed. 

Mr. Spencer complains that an American critic (whose 
estimate is ‘“‘tacitly’’ agreed in by Mr. Matthew Arnold) 
says of the ‘‘ Formula of Evolution” :—‘‘ This may be all 
true, but it seems at best rather the blank form for a 
universe than anything corresponding to the actual world 
about us.’” On which I remark, with Mr. Kirkman, 
“Most just, and most merciful!” But mark what Mr. 
Spencer says :— 

“On which the comment may be that one who had 
studied celestial mechanics as much as the reviewer has 
studied the general course of transformations, might simi- 
larly have remarked that the formula—‘ bodies attract 
one another directly as their masses and inversely as the 
squares of their distances, was at best but a blank form 
for solar systems and sidereal clusters.” 

We now see why Mr. Spencer calls his form of words 
a Formula, and why he is indignant at its being called a 
Definition. He puts his Formula of Evolution along-side 
of the Law of Gravitation! Yet I think you will very’ 
easily see that it is a definition, and nothing more. By 
the help of the Law of Gravitation (not very accurately 
quoted by Mr. Spencer) astronomers are enabled to 


predict the positions of known celestial bodies four years 
beforehand, in the Nautical Almanac, with an amount of 
exactness practically depending merely upon the accuracy 
of the observations which are constantly being made :— 
and, with the same limitation, the prediction could be 
made for 1900 A.D., or 2000 A.D., if necessary. If now 
Mr. Spencer's form of words be a formula, in the sense 
in which he uses the term as applied to the Law of 
Gravitation, it ought to enable us to predict, say four 
years before-hand, the history of Europe, with at least its 
main political and social changes! For Mr. Spencer 
says that his “formula” expresses “all orders of changes 
in their general course,—astronomic, geologic, biologic, 
psychologic, sociologic”; and therefore ‘‘could not pos- 
sibly be framed in any other than words of the highest 
abstractness.” 


Added, November 11, 1880. 


Mr. Kirkman has lately “ discovered a formula’’ more 
general than that of Evolution, the “ Formula of Universal 
Change.” Here it is :— 

“Change is a perichoretical synechy of pamparal- 
lagmatic and porroteroporeumatical differentiations and 
integrations.” 

Even to this all-embracing formula, with Mr. Spencer’s 
leave, I would apply the humbler but fitter term “‘ defini- 
tion.”’ 

Of Mr. Spencer’s farther remarks there are but three 
which are directed specially against myself. (Mr. Kirkman 
is quite able to fight his own battles.) He finds evidence 
of “idiosyncrasies’’ and what not, in the fact that, after 
proclaiming that nothing could be known about the 
physical world except by observation and experiment, I 
yet took part in writing the ‘Unseen Universe’’; in 
which arguments as to the Unseen are based upon sup- 
posed analogies with the seen. He says :—‘‘ clearly, the 
relation between the seen and the unseen universes cannot 
be the subject of any observation or experiment ; since, 
by the definition of it, one term of the relation is absent.’’ 
I do not know exactly what “mental peculiarity”? Mr. 
Spencer exhibits in this statement. But it is a curious 
one. Am not I, the thinker, a part of the Unseen; no 
object of sense to myself or to others; and is not that term 
of relationship between the seen and the Unseen always 
present? But besides this, Mr. Spencer mistakes the 
object of the book in question. The theory there deve- 
veloped was not put forward as probable, its purpose was 
attained when it was shown to be conceivable and not 
inconsistent with any part of our present knowledge. 

Mr. Spencers second fault-finding is apropos of a 
Review of Zhomson and Tait's Nat. Phil. (NATURE, 
July 3, 1879) by Clerk-Maxwell. Maxwell, knowing of 
course perfectly well that the authors were literally 
quoting Newton, and that they had expressly said so, 
jocularly remarked “Is it a fact that ‘matter’ has any 
power, either innate or acquired, of resisting external 
influences?” Mr. Spencer says :—‘“ And to Prof. Clerk- 
Maxwell’s question thus put, the answer of one not 
having a like mental peculiarity with Prof. Tait, must surely 
be—No.” Mr. Spencer, not being aware that the passage 
is Newton’s, and not recognising Maxwell’s joke, thinks 
that Maxwell is at variance with the authors of the book ! 

Finally, Mr. Spencer attacks me for inconsistency &c. 
in my lecture on Force (NATURE, September 21, 1876). 
I do not know how often I may have to answer the 
perfectly groundless charge of having, in that Lecture, 
given two incompatible definitions of the same term. 
At any rate, as the subject is much more important than 
my estimates of Mr. Spencer's accuracy or than his esti- 
mates of my “ mental peculiarities,” I may try to give him 
clear ideas about it, and to show him that there is no 
inconsistency on the side of the mathematicians, however 
the idea of force may have been muddled by the meta- 
physicians. For that purpose I shall avoid all reference 
to “differentiations’’ and “integrations” ; either as they 


” 


82 


NATURE 


{Mov. 25, 1880 


are known to the mathematicians, or as they occur in Mr. 
Spencer’s “ Formula.” 
suffice, if the differential calculus were employed. 

Take the very simplest case, a stone of mass JZ, and 
weight IV, let fall. After it has fallen through a height 
h, and has thus acquired a velocity v, the Conservation 
of Energy gives the relation 


Mz = Wh. 
Here both sides express veal things ; M~ is the kinetic 


energy acquired, M7 / the work expended in producing it. 
But if we choose to divide both sides of the equation 


by Z (the average velocity during the fall) we have (by 


a perfectly legitimate operation) 
Mo = Wi, 

where ¢ is the time of falling. This is read :—the 
momentum acquired is the product of the force into the 
time during which it has 
acted. Here, although the 
equation is strictly correct, it 
is an equation between purely 
artificial or non-physical 
quantities, each as unreal as 
is the product of a quart into 
an acre. Itis often mathe- 
matically convenient, but that 
is all. The introduction of 
these artificial quantities is, 
at least largely, due to the 
strong (but wholly mislead- 
ing) testimony of the “ mus- 
cular” sense. 

Each of these modes of 
expressing the same truth, of 
course gives its cwn mode 
of measuring (and therefore 
of defining) force. 

The second form of the equation gives 

w = 17 
t 
Here, therefore, force appears as the time-rate at which 
momentum changes; or, if we please, as the time-rate at 
which momentum is produced by the force. In using 
this latter phrase we adopt the convenient, and perfectly 
unmisleading, anthropomorphism of the mathematicians. 
This is the gist of a part of Newton’s second Law. 
The first form of the equation gives 
W= 45 4 
h 
so that the same force now appears as the space-rate at 
which kinetic energy changes; or, if we please, as the 
space-rate at which energy is produced by the force. 

Here are some of Mr. Spencer’s comments :—‘‘force is 
that which changes the state of a body ; force is a rate, 
and a rate is a relation (as between time and distance, 


interest and capital); therefore a relation changes the | 


state of a body.”’ 
The contradiction which Mr. Spencer detects here, and 
over which he waxes eloquent and defiant, exists in his 


own mind only, The anthropomorphism which has mis- | ; 
| diameter, and having a total length of 5 inches. i 
| was made by Dollond during the first few years of this 


led him is but a convenient and harmless relic of the old 
erroneous interpretations of the impressions of sense. 
P. G, TAIT 


COMET-FINDERS 
{? is only lately that the meteorites, or many of them 
which we see of a night making bright streaks in the 
heavens, have been shown to belong to definite streams 


having definite orbits and periods, and with the increase 


Of course a single line would | of our knowledge of these orbits the number of comets 


| identified as travelling in the same orbits as meteor- 


streams has likewise advanced. 
Now that the intimate relation between comets and 
meteorites has been settled, greater interest attaches to 


| the discovery of these casual visitors, many of which have 
| passed in our neighbourhood unobserved. This is shown 


by the increased number of comets seen, now that it is 
part of the business of several observatories to keep up a 
systematic search. 

To do this properly, a telescope of large field of view 
is required, and a constant sweeping of the heavens must 
be kept up, and to do this with an ordinary equatorial is 
extremely tedious, owing to the continual change of the 
position of the body required. 

To go back to early days of comet-finding, we call to 
mind the first instrument specially constructed for the 
purpose, so far as we are aware. It is a telescope of 
Galilean construction, with an object-glass of 24 inches 


{ i> 
©) 


This 


century for Dr. Kitchener. Since that time astronomical 


| instruments have grown apace, and we have now before 


us Dr. Carl’s ‘‘ Repertorium fiir Experimental-Physik” 
containing a description of the new comet-finder con- 
structed by Herr Schneider for the Observatory at 
Vienna. j 

The telescope of this instrument has an object-glass of 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


NATURE 


83 


6 inches aperture and 4} feet focal length, and the 
mounting is a striking change from what we are usually 
accustomed to see. The great point to be attained by it 
is to carry the telescope equatorially and allow it to move 
on a declination axis in such a manner that the eye-end 
remains stationary while sweeping the heavens. It will 
‘be seen from the plate which, by the kindness of Dr. 
Carl, we are able to reproduce, that the declination axis 
is carried above the polar axis somewhat in the usual 
way, but that the telescope, instead of being carried by 
its middle at the end of the declination axis, is carried 
by a frame, 0, so that the eyepiece is in the prolongation 
of that axis, and also in the prolongation of the polar 
axis, so that it remains stationary, while the object-glass 
sweeps in all directions. The handles D and N, within 
easy reach of the observer, enable him to give the requi- 
site motion to the telescope without the change of position 
necessary with an ordinary instrument. The telescope is 
balanced on the declination axis F by the counter-weight 
Q, and the excess of weight on one side of the polar axis 
is balanced by the counter-weights QQ Q. 

Herr Schneider proposes to mount telescopes of much 
greater size, say 30 or 40 feet long, in the same manner. 


NOTES 


M. MILNE-EDWARDs having completed the publication of his 
‘great work on ‘‘ Physiclogie Comparée,” a subscription has been 
opened by M. Dumas, the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy 
of Sciences, for the purpose of presenting the veteran zoologist 
with a gold medal. Subscriptions areto be sent to M. Maindron 
at the Secretariat of the Academy of Sciences, or to M, Victor 
Masson, publisher, Boulevard St. Germain, Paris. M, Milne- 
Edwards's great work is composed of fourteen large octavo 
~volumes—the first four of which are out of print—of 500 pages 
‘each ; the publication bezan in 1857, and has been accomplished 
by twenty-three years of continual work. It includes all the 
Jectures which have been delivered by M. Milne-Edwards at the 
Museum of Natural History during that lengthened period, and 
could not have been accomplished if the author had not had the 
advantage of the immense scientific resources accumulated in that 
establishment during the last two centuries for the study of 
nature. 


A VIENNA correspondent sends us the following data rezard- 
ing the Agram earthquake:—The damp ejected matter of the 
mud-volcano at Resnica near Agram was found to contain no 
elementary sulphur nor sulphuretted hydrogen, but it contained 
sulphur metals decomposable by acids, and earthy carbonates, 
along with organic substances of a humus nature. The chief con- 
stituent of it is fine sand with water, and it comes from no great 
depth. The mud-volcano at Sevete, near Agram, also ejects 
(2m. high) chiefly a clayey-sandy mud, which may be thrown up 
by movements of the ground water. The Gratz geologist, Peters 
{writing in the Zagesfost), characterises the Agram earthquake 
of November 9 to 14 as one of the most normal which could be 
observed in that region. The movement kept exactly the 
direction of south-south-west, and was thus precisely at right 
angles to the chief direction of the Eastern Alps. The entire 
breadth of the territory affected appears to be indicated by the 
towns of Klagenfurt (Carinthia) and Szegedin (Hungary). Since 
the formation of the Alps, and so through a long series of geo- 
Jogical periods, all subterranean movements in this region of 
Central Europe have been in this one direction (as Siiss first 
showed). For some months past movements have been per 
ceived to be in progress in various localities. That Agran 
should be affected as it has been is explained by an inspection of 
the geological map. Not very far north from that town rises 
aremarkable block of greenstone surrounded by chlorite schist, 
limestone and other layers. A not very broad band of recent 


Tertiary deposits separates the low ground from that mountain 
block, which thus forms a comparatively fixed point in the 
system. Every movement coming from south-south-west propa- 
gated by these strata must impinge horizontally on the green- 
stone block, and cause a greater or less curvature of the strata, 
which manifests itself most where the lower ground remains free 
from Tertiary deposits. Unfortunately for Agram the strongest 
movement was directed precisely against that mountain block, 
and so upon the town before it. The whole phenomenon has 
nothing to do with volcanic processes. The repetition of the 
shocks is easily explained by the reaction from enrvature of the 
strata not occurring all at once. In opposition to Peters, the 
astronomer and meteorologist, Rudolph Falb of Gratz, holds 
the Agram earthquake to be volcanic, and connected with the 
strong attraction of subterranean lava by the moon. They seenr 
to have continued at more or less frequent intervals during the 
past week. 


In several parts of the Tyrol (Hall, Thaur, Rum, Innsbruck) 
an earthquake-shock was experienced on the 14th inst. about 
9.15 a.m., and on the same day there was a considerable shock 
(lasting 20 sec.) in Bavaria, at Partenkirchen and Mittenwald 
about 8 p.m. Dr. Franz Woehner has been delegated by the 
Vienna Academy to Croatia to report on the phenomena. 


A CYCLONE accompanied by earthquake shocks is reported to 
have occurred at Sitka in Alaska on October 25, causing much 
devastation. 


Just after the death of its founder, Dr. Broca, the well-known 
Revue a’ Anthropologie entered on its tenth year. His successor 
in the direction of the Revae, Dr. Topinard, issues a prospectus 
intimating that it will be continued with renewed energy on the 
lines laid down by its founder. The Revie embraces all the 


-yaried departments of anthropology, and its editor has the 


collaboration of the most eminent workers in the varied depart- 
ments in France. Broca left a great number of anthropological 
papers in various stages of completeness, and these are to be 
published in successive numbers of the Aevwe, which deserves 
every encouragement. 


Tue laboratory of M. Lacazes Duthiers at the Sorbonne has 
been opened this year again for experiments in zoology. In 
the summer it will be transferred to the coast station in 
Britanny. 


THE Paris Museum of Natural History being situated in a 
somewhat out-of-way place, is rather deserted by the students, 
and great efforts are made to render the course of lectures which 
are delivered there unusually attractive. M. Fremy, Lecturer 
on Chemistry, will speak on the great discoveries in chemistry 
made almost simultaneously in Paris and in London about a century 
ago, and will perform all the original experiments, some of them 
with the very instruments which were used by the discoverers. 


A VERY interesting acquisition has just been made by the 
botanical department of the British Museum. In 1783-4 John 
Millar made a series of water-colour drawings for the Earl of 
Bute, showing the ‘‘ leaves, stalks, and ramifications of plants, 
for the purpose of ascertaining their several species.” They are 
bound in five volumes, with an elaborately flourished title-page, 
and fill 928 octavo pages. The museum has purchased the 
drawings. 

THE seismograph on Mount Vesuvius is said to indicate great 
subterranean dynan.ism. Streams of lava continue to flow down 
the north-west side cf the cone, and are increasing both in 
volume and number. ‘‘The Vesuvian eruption,” the Zzmes 
correspondent states, ‘‘has entered ona phase of greatly increased 
activity. The news reached us on Saturday, but, as it appeared 
only in those papers which are directly interested in the Funicular 


84 


Railway, it was looked upon as an exaggeration to attract Sunday 
excursionists, It is now, however, confirmed that the lava is 
flowing oyer the side towards Naples, and, after having destroyed 
the outwork built to protect the upper station of the railway, is 
running rapidly in a vivid streak of fire parallel to the line, but 
at a distance which does not thus far imperil its safety. The 
spectacle is described as magnificent, and crowds were out 
watching the course of the lava and speculating on the fate of 
the Funicular Railway.” 


AN International Congress of Electricians accompanied by an 
International Exposition of Electricity will be held in Paris 
during the autumn of 1881. This Exposition is to be opened 
(under the patronage of the Government, though at the pecuniary 
risk of private parties) on August 1, and to continue until 
November 15 following. The Congress of Electricians will 
meet on November 15 in the rooms of the Palace of the Troca- 
déro. Opportunity will be given for exhaustive research in all 
the various branches. The Exposition will remain open each 
evening until eleven o’clock to afford opportunities of testing the 
practicability of the different systems of electric lighting, The 
Congress is to assemble under the presidency of the Minister of 
Posts and Telegraphs, and the vice presidency of three French 
and three foreign delegates. 


On February 10, 1879, a few gentlemen interested in the study 
of man met in the Smithsonian Institution to devise a method 
of mutual improvement. The effort resulted in the formation of 
the Anthropological Society of Washington, with Major Powell 
for president, and Dr. Reynolds and Prof. O. T. Mason as 
recording and corresponding secretaries. Twenty-four papers 
have been read, which, if one might judge from their titles, are 
most interesting and valuable contributions. We learn from the 
American Naturalist that it is not yet decided whether a journa] 
will be published, inasmuch as the Smithsonian Institution and 
the Bureau of Ethnology ‘‘afford ample opportunities of pre- 
serving all papers of permanent value.” Without doubting this 
fact, we still hope that this young and vigorous society may not 
only have its own publication, but also that a long career of 
activity may ensue to provide the material for filling the pages 
of the same. 


HERR V. Bereso, in a recent work, ‘‘ Fra Mark og Skov,” 
has given some interesting data in regard to the habits of the 
Tarentula, Lycosa tarentula, Latr., whose nests he has traced 
and examined on the Roman Campagna. He found that the 
nest, which was well rounded and smooth, was approached by a 
tunnel which, after running about a foot straight dowa below 
the surface of the ground, made a sudden short turn before it 
finally descended for about another foot into the spider’s abode. 
The entrance to the tunnel is concealed by an arched covering 
made by the interlacing of grasses and leaves. The eggs are 
inclosed in a spun bag, and the young appear in the autumn, 
when they immediately seat themselves on the body of the 
mother where they remain till about April, neither parent nor 
offspring seeking food during their hybernation. As many as 
291 individuals were on one occasion removed in February from 
the body of an emaciated tarentula. The superstitious error of 
assuming that the bite of the animal induces an irresistible desire 
of dancing is due to the fact, that dancing having been originally 
employed as a remedy against the poison, which is believed to 
be eliminated by profuse perspiration, the action of the poison 
was confounded with the means of its eradication. 


Exoric butterflies have long, from their beauty, engaged the 
enthusiastic attention of wealthy collectors, some of whom, as 
notably the late Mr. Hewiston, have also enriched entomological 
literature with works containing coloured figures of their favourite 
insects. M. C. Oberthiir of Rennes, who, with his brother 
René, is the possessor of a very extensive entomological museum, 


NATURE 


[Vov. 25, 1880 
in which is contained the late Dr. Boisduval’s collection of 
Lepidoptera, has just published his Quatriéme livraison of a 
work, “Etudes d’Entomologie,” which has more or less regularly 
appeared during the last few years. The present part is devoted 
to the ‘‘ Papilionidze” of his collection, and six coloured plates 
illustrate the species and varieties which he considers it necessary 
to describe. 


MUCH interest has been excited in Norway by the recent 
appearance of a colony of beavers on the Voldifjord, a branch 
of the Frierfjord, which is at a considerable distance from the 
beaver-station still remaining at Omli on Nedenzs. 


UNDER the title Zagttagelser over Nordlys anstillede i Norge, 
Sverige og Danmark, bearbeidede af Sophus Tromholt (Chris- 
tiania), we have the results yielded by 839 observations of the 
aurora borealis, at 132 Scandinavian stations, on 154 nights, be- 
tween September 1878 and April 1879 on which the northern light 
was visible. These observations are arranged under four heads 
in accordance with (1) longitude and latitude of stations ; (2) time 
of year and age of moon; (3) colour, form, and altitude of 
streamers ; (4) sound. Herr Tromholt considers that it may be 
accepted as certain, that the aurora is a local phenomenon, 


circumscribed by narrow limits, and manifested at inconsiderable 


distances from the earth’s surface; that the light is generally 
white, and less often red or green, but that in latitudes higher 
than Bergen it not unfrequently presents spectral colours; and 
that the accompaniment of sound is an indisputable fact in 
relation to the auroral phenomenon. We learn from Mature 
that Herr Tromholt has resumed his observations of the 
aurora borealis, to which he has devoted his attention for many 
years. It is his intention to make a catalogue of every recorded 
manifestation of the northern light in Norway ; and for this pur- 
pose he requests the co-operation of other observers, and will be 
grateful for reference to any foreign sources of information, 
such as ships’ logs, journals, weather tables, almanacs, &c., 
which might yield materials towards the better elucidation of 
this phenomenon, 


In a letter addressed to Mr. Cust by Prof. F. W. Newman, 
and just published in the Youzal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
on the Libyan languages, the writer remarks that St. Augustine 
in his own day attested that one language prevailed in Roman 
Africa, and that it was quite natural to suppose the same to be 
the case now, when a large and striking similarity was found in 
the leading nouns and verbs. The changes however induced in 
1500 years have broken up the original unity, and Prof. Newman 
states that we are now forced te admit at least four languages, 
each differing from the other more than German from Dutch, or 
Portuguese from Spanish. 


THE annual course of five lectures in connection with the 
Brown Institution will be delivered by Dr. W. S. Greenfield, 
Professor-Superintendent, in the theatre of the University of 
London, Burlington Gardens, W., on December 13, 15, 17, 20, 
and 22, at 5.30 p.m. Subject: Further Investigations on An- 
thrax and Allied Diseases in Man and Animals. Microscopic 
specimens will be exhibited on December 22 from 4.30 p.m. 


WE learn from Psyche that Miss Emily A. Smith, a well- 
known entomologist of Peoria, Illinois, has gone to Leipzig, 
where, if the university authorities will allow it, she will pursue 
a general course of zoological work in the new laboratory of 
Prof. Leuckart. This lady was recently elected a member of 
the Entomological Society of London. 


Cart. H. Kine, R.N., writes with reference to the instances 
of fascination mentioned at p. 56, vol. xxiii., that having heard 
that the American ostrich might be enticed within gunshot by a 
person lying upon his back and kicking his Jegs and arms in the 


: 
: 


ov. 25, 1880] 


alr, he tried this with perfect success in Uruguay ; he supposes 
that curiosity was the motive. A large coral upon the copper 
ofa man-of-war, Capt. King states, is not unprecedented ; he 
remembers in 1839 seeing one of the size and shape of a large 
cauliflower, taken from the bottom of a vessel of the Indian 
navy, in the Persian Gulf, by a pearl-diver. 

Pror. GRAHAM BELL has promised to read a paper before 
the Society of Arts upon his ‘‘Photophone ” at the ordinary 
meeting on Wednesday, December 1. As considerable interest 
is likely to attach to this paper it is announced that only members 
of the Society can be admitted, and that they will be required 
to provide themselves with special tickets issued for the 
occasion. 

WE referred in the ‘‘ Physical Notes” of our issue of 
November 11 to a paper read before the American Association 
at Boston by Prof. Young, which combated certain phenomena 
in thermo-electricity which were alleged to have been observed 
by Herr Exner. We have since received from Mr. T. Brown of 
Belfast a letter in which, on behalf of Prof, Franz Exner of 
Vienna, he expressly disavows any such discoveries as those 
which Prof. Young has set himself to refute. We readily accord 
to our courteous correspondent the opportunity for this dis- 
avowal, since any reflections cast even inadvertently upon the 
accuracy of Prof. Franz Exner’s work might unfairly prejudice 
readers against the general reliability of the researches which he 
has published in another department of science, and which our 
readers are aware are just now exciting considerable attention. 

In NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 616, it was stated, on the authority 
of the Japanese papers, that Prof. Atkinson had, ‘‘during a 
sojourn in the Mitake Mountains of the Province of Koshu, dis- 
covered another valuable deposit of coal.” We are now informed 
that although Mr. Atkinson visited the Mitake Mountains last 
summer, he can lay no claim to so important a discovery. 


THE Hon. Sir Ashley Eden, K.C.S.I., has appointed Babu 
Ambika Churn Sen, M.A., and Synd Sakhawat Hossein, B.A., 
a native of Behar, to the two scholarships of 200/. a year each, 
recently created by the Bengal Government to be held at the 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 


THE Procureur-General of Paris having sent an explanatory 
note stating that he did not mean to attack the character of the 
medical advisers of the public prosecutor, but merely to give 
vent to his peculiar views, these gentlemen have withdrawn their 
resignations and resumed their work. 

THE Cutlers’ Company have arranged for a course of lectures 
being delivered, or papers read, at the hall of the company 
during the ensuing winter season, The course will consist of 
four lectures or papers upon subjects intimately connected with 
the materials used in the manufacture of cutlery, the lectures to 
take place on the following dates :—Wednesday, December 1, 
1880; Wednesday, January 5, 1881 ; Wednesday, February 2, 
1881 ; Wednesday, March 2, 1881. Sir Henry Bessemer, C.E., 
F.R.S., has promised to commence the course, and will, on 
December 1, read a paper ‘‘On the Manufacture and Uses of 
Steel, with special reference to its employment for Edge Tools.” 
The admission will be entirely free, but by ticket, which may 
be obtained on application to the hon. secretary, addressed to 
the Cutlers’ Hall. 

Ir is announced that the electric cable manufacturing firm, 
Berthoud Borel and Co. of Cortaillod, in Neuchatel, have made 
a highly important discovery in practical telegraphy. After a 
long and expensive series of experiments they have succeeded in 
devising a method of laying cables whereby the inductions of the 
electric current from one wire to another, although the wires are 
in juxtaposition, is prevented. This discovery, it is asserted, 
removes the last obstacle in the way of the widest possible 
extension of facilities for telephonic communication. 


NATURE 


85 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


Tue THIRD Comet or 1869.—This comet, the orbit of which 
has so close a resemblance! to that of the comet discovered by 
Mr. Swift on October 11, was detected at Marseilles by M. 
Tempel on November 27, 1869, in the constellation Pegasus, 
and appears to have been last observed on December 31 at 
Leipsic and Kremsmunster, the hope of seeing it after the next 
period of moonlight not having been verified. On November 29 
Dr. Vogel, observing at Leipsic, described it as a very faint 
large object elongated in the direction of the declination circle : 
in the comet-seeker its diameter was about 6’, On December 7 
it was still very faint, large, and elongated in the direction 300°, 
the central condensation very slight. On the following night its 
diameter was 5’; it had ‘‘a peculiar milky appearance” and 
hardly any central condensation, so that observations were 
attended with difficulty. On the 21st it was seen only with 
much exertion of the eye, but on the 31st, though the comet 
was very faint, Prof. Bruhns considered his separate comparisons 
certain to about ten seconds of arc. At Kremsmunster Prof. 
Strasser found it ‘‘ extraordinarily faint” during its entire visi 
bility, and in consequence of wanting central condensation, very 
difficult to observe, and hence considered that his positions would 
not possess the ordinary degree of accuracy. The elements of 
the orbit were calculated by Tiele, Oppolzer, Schulhof, and 
Bruhns, the parabolic orbit published by the latter in No. 1788 
of the Astronomische Nachrichten being founded upon nearly 
the whole extent of observation; he remarks with respect to 
it:—‘‘ Eine angestellte Vergleichung hiesigen Beobachtungen 
scheint aber doch auf eine Abweichung der Bahn von der Para- 
bel hinzudeuten ...” We are not aware that any further 
examination of this point was made. If the period of revolution 
be really something less than eleven years, the circumstance of 
the comet having escaped observation prior to 1869 will not 
nevertheless occasion surprise, considering that both in 1869 
and 1880 it has approached near the earth and has yet been 
very faint and diffused, so that when the perihelion passage has 
occurred at other seasons of the year it might be beyond reach 
of the telescope. It will be most essential for the theory of the 
comet’s motion that observations should be continued as long as 
possible at the present appearance, that if it prove to be one of 
short perio its next return to perihelion may be closely pre- 
dicted : the computation of the planetary perturbations during 
the period 1869-So will of course be a necessary process with 
this object in view. 

Tue STAR LALANDE 1013-4.—Mr. G. Knott has examined 
this star, to which we lately drew attention, as being credited 
with the very discordant magnitudes 5, 7°7, and 10. He writes 
from Cuckfield on November 21: ‘‘I looked the star up on 
November $ and again on November 19, and found it on each 
occasion 7°9 mag., and sensibly equal to B.D. + 51°, No. 131, 
which forms a convenient comparison star. This estimate, it 
will be seen, agrees nearly with that in the Durchmusterungs > 
Harding marks the star 6m. 


ee 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


In the last number of the Berichte of the German Chemical 
Society Herr vy. Lippmann describes experiments which show 
that a solution of pure cane sugar, when charged with carbon 
dioxide, is slowly converted into inverted sugar. If the carbon 
dioxide be pumped into the sugar solution under pressure, the 
rate of inversion is considerably increased : at 100° the inversion 
takes place rapidly. 


In the Annales Chim. et Phys. the results of M. Raout’s 
experiments on the freezing points of alcoholic liquids are 
detailed. An aqueous solution of alcohol containing 1°6 per 
cent. by volume freezes at — 0°5; a solution containing 47°9 per 
cent. freezes at — 32°. The freezing point of solutions containing 
from 24 to 51 gram alcohol per 100 grm, water is decreased by 
0°'528 for each gram of alcohol: when more than 51 grm. 
alcohol are present to 100 grm, water no regular decrease in the 
freezing point was observable. The freezing points of various 
wines are given in the paper referred to. 


In Comptes rend. M. Kessler announces that he has prepared 2 
crystallised hydrate of hydrofluosilicic acid, viz., H,SiF,. 2H,0. 
The hydrate is a hard, colourless, very deliquescent solid, which 
fumes strongly in air, and melts at about 19”. 


85 


NATURE 


[Mov. 25, 1880 


In the same journal M. de la Source describes his experiments 
on the dialysis of ferric oxide dissolved in a solution of 
ferric chloride. ‘‘ Fer Bravais” of medicine consists of 
30Fe,O,. Fe,Cl, ; after three months’ dialysis of a dilute solu- 
tion of this substance the greater part of the chlorine had passed 
into the dyalysate, the proportion of ferric oxide to chloride was 
then 116Fe,O, . Fe,C],, and the chlorine yet continued to pass 
through the dialyser. The author thinks that ferric hydrate is, 
per se, under certain conditions soluble in water. 


Herr A. HERZEN describes in Bied. Centralblatt some ex- 
periments on acetous fermentation. In each of three flasks was 
placed 100 c.c. pure water: to the first flask ro per cent, pure 
alcohol and a drop from the surface of a fermenting wine full 
of Mycoderma aceti were added ; to the second flask were added 
5 per cent. of pure acetic acid and a drop of the fermenting 
wine; and to the third flask were added 5 per cent. acetic acid, 
5 per cent. of a saturated solution of boric acid, and a drop of 
the fermenting wine. After eight days at 25° no Mycoderma 
appeared in the first flask, much appeared in the second, and a 
little in the third. Hence the author concludes that Mycoderma 
acett lives at the expense of acetic acid already formed in wine, 
and that it does not cause the transformation of alcohol into 
acetic acid, but that it is rather a consequence of this chemical 
change; further, that boric acid retards the development of 
Mycoderma, but does not prevent it in presence of already-formed 
acetic acid. 


In Dingler’s Polylech-Fournal a paper appears by Drs. Lunge 
and Schappi, on bleaching-powder. The results confirm the 
now generally accepted formula first proposed by Odling, viz., 
CaOCICl. 


Ir was shown some time ago by H. T. Brown that alcoholic 
fermentation proceeds more slowly under diminished than under 
ordinary pressure. According to Boussingault (Compt. vend.), 
however, sugar is rapidly transformed into alcohol by the action 
of yeast, if the carbon dioxide and alcohol, as these are produced, 
be rapidly removed from the fermenting liquid. Addition of 
alcohol soon stops fermentation under ordinary circumstances ; 
Boussingault shows that if the vessel containing the fermenting 
liquid be connected with an air-pump which is worked energetic- 
ally, fermentation proceeds rapidly even when a considerable 
amount of alcohol has been added to the liquid. 


IN connection with the recent liquefaction of ozone by Haute- 
feuille and Chappuis, the following numbers, froma paper by 
the same authors in Com/t. vend., are of interest, as showing the 
exact influence of temperature and pressure on the ozonising of 
oxygen. Diminution of pressure does nof tend to increase the 
amount of ozone produced, but decreased temperature exerts a 
marked action in increasing the amount of oxygen transformed 
into ozone :— 


ensoa Tension of ozone. Proportion of ozone by weight, 

° SS 2s ese 

oxygen. —23° °. 20. 00. —23%  o- 20 100", 
780 108'70 82°84 53796 - 0°214 O'149 ©0106 — 
380 5r68 38°76 31°54 «1°48 0°204 O'152 O'125 OOLI7 
300 40°20 30°60 0 22"20 = O°20I O'1525 O'1I2 = 
225 24°80 22°95 15°52 07088 o'1gI 07153 o104 ofor13 
180 22°30 16°58 10°52 _— o18r 07737 07089 _ 


A. Ditve describes in Compt. vend. a number of new fluorine 
compounds of uranium ; the most important are UF,.8HF and 
UO,F3, produced by the action of hydrofluoric acid on the oxide 
U,0, ; when the former compound is heated ina closed platinum 
dish it melts, gives off hydrofluoric acid and small quantities of 
the oxyfluoride UOF,, which compound is produced in larger 
quantity by heating the above-mentioned oxyfluoride, UO,F,, in 
a closed vessel. The hexfluoride UF, is produced by heating 
the double salt UF, .8HF in an open crucible. Warious double 
salts are also described, the general formula b_ing UO,F,. 4MF, 
where M may be K, Na, Li, Rb, or TI. 


CLEVE has made a redetermination of the atomic weight of 
the very rare metal erbium (Com. rend.). Assuming the 
formula of the oxide to be Er,O,, the atomic weight of the metal 
is 166, Pure erbia, Er,O,, is a beautiful rose-coloured earth, 
slowly soluble in acids, having a specific gravity of 8°64, and 
forming salts characterised by a deep-red colour; several of 
these salts are described by Cleve. 


THE same author has succeeded in separating nearly pure 
thulium ; this metal and its salts are colourless, but solutions of 
the salts show two absorption bands, one strongly marked in the 


red, and one broad band in the blue. The atomic weight of 
thulium is 129°6 or 170°7, according as the metal is regarded as 
di- or tri-valent, 


PHVSICAL NOTES 


Ir is stated that amongst the recent discoveries of Prof. Bell 
in connection with the photophone research is the finteresting 
fact that melted sulphur conducts electrically like selenium, but 
only at temperatures below that at which it thickens and becomes 
dark and viscid. 


THE Comptes rendus for November 2 informs us that Prof, 
Graham Bell and M. Janssen have attempted to 4ear with the 
photophone the sounds believed to accompany the rapid com- 
motions taking place in the solar photosphere. The experiments 
were made at the Observatory of Meudon, a selenium cylinder 
being placed in different parts of an image of the sun some two 
feet in diameter. No very conclusive results were obtained, but 
M. Janssen has further suggested that a sort of concentrated 
effect might be obtained by passing a number of successive pho- 
tographs of a sun-spot across a beam of light, the variations. of 
the intensity of the beam producing sounds when they fall upon 
the sensitive ‘‘photophonic pile” of selenium. Some experi- 
ments in furtherance of this suggestion are now proceeding. 


HAVING undertaken a series of researches upon the rapidity 
of evaporation of liquids, in dependence from the cohesion of 
molecules on their surfaces, M. Sreznevsky has measured how 
this rapidity varies with the variations of the height of the 
meniscus. He has established that, the diameter of the meniscus 
remaining invariable, the rapidity of evaporation increases as 
the height of the meniscus diminishes, that is, as its radius in- 
creases. There is however an anomaly as to this last law for 
distilled water : when the evaporation is measured in a meniscus 
the height of which is greater than the radius of its basis, the 
rapidity of evaporation increases throughout, however the radius 
of the meniscus begins by diminishing, and increases only after 
having passed through a minimum, but this minimum does not 
have a corresponding minimum in the rapidity of evaporation. 


AT the recent meeting of the Helvetic Society of Natural 
Sciences M. Forel described a thermal bar which is developed 
in winter parallel to the shore of a lake of fresh water, and which 
separates the pelagic from the littoral region. The water of the 
former region remains long, and in some lakes always, at a tem- 
perature above 4’ C, ; inthe littoral region, if the winter be cold, 
the temperature descends between 4° and zero; and between 
the two there is a band of water at 4°, descending to the bottom 
—a kind of mountain with crest parallel to the shore and a talus 
on either side. 


M. Durour described at the same meeting an apparatus for 
indicating the variations of chemical intensity of the sunlight. It 
has some likeness to Draper’s tithonometer; the principle is, 
opposing the variable action of light on a mixture of chlorine 
and hydrogen, with an electric current (of variable intensity, and 
measurable each instant), which by its passage causes decomposi- 
tion of a quantity of hydrochloric acid equal to that produced 
by action of the light on the mixture of chlorine and hydrogen. 
The apparatus is like a Rumford differential thermometer ; in 
one bulb is some hydrochloric acid solution, with carbon elec- 
trodes, in the other some sulphuric acid. The light acts on the 
former. One mode of measurement is to note the time taken in 
displacement of the sulphuric acid column a certain distance 
along the connecting tube. Then bring back the column to its 
original position by passing the current. 


M. PicreT has lately made experiments (Avch. de Sci.) 


as to the dissolving power of gases and vapours on one ~ 


another. Various solutions of alcohol and water were suc- 
cessively put into one of two glass balloons connected by 
a tube; pressure was diminished with an air-pump, so that 
the space became filled with vapours from the mixture. By 
closing the tapered point of the second balloon with the 
blowpipe, the apparatus allowed of distillation being effected 
with small differences of temperature. Plunging successively 
the balloon that held the solution in water at from o° to 80, 
and the other in water only 1° or a fraction of a degree below 
that of the liquid, M. Pictet got condensed products, the quality 
of which indicated what ‘‘affinity of solution” existed between 
water and alcohol. The following conclusions were arrived at : 
The weight of condensed liquid is proportional, in unit time, to 


—_ 


—— ee a oe 


=_—— 


ov. 25, 1880] 


NATURE 


87 


difference of temperature between the liquid in ebullition and 
the condensed liquid. The weight of liquid condensed in unit 
e is independent of the interior pressure or of the mean tem- 
peiature during distillation. Analysis shows that the gases 
have no power of solution on one another. M. Pictet was thus 
led to an industrial process for rectification of spirits. 


GEOGRAPHICAL, NOTES 


Ar the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday, Sir 
Bartle Frere read what may best be described as a suggestive 
paper on Temperate South Africa as a route to the Central 
Equatorial Region, After defining the temperate region as the 
vast tract of country extending to Cape Frio on the Atlantic 
coast and to the mouth of the River Tugela on the opposite side 
of the continent, and giving a brief account of its geography, 
&c., Sir Bartle addressed himself chiefly to the task of pointing out 
how it could be made available as a base of operations in exploring 
the country north of the Zambesi, and sugges'ing agencies which 
might be turned to account for the extension of geographical 
knowledge. These agencies are the traders and hunters, who 
have a wide acquaintance with many regions otherwise unknown, 
and missionaries of various denominations. ‘The latter have no 
less than eighty-four fixed stations beyond the colonial bound- 
aries, manned by 812 Europeans, many of whom are highly- 
cultivated and intelligent men, and have great opportunities for 
acquiring geographical information. Sir Bartle Frere also hoped 
that the Council of the Society might see their way to urging the 
Government to undertake a proper survey of the coast-line, as 
well as of the interior of the five colonies. 


AT the meeting of the Berlin Geographical Society on Novem- 
ber 6 the safe arrival of Dr. Lenz at Timbuctoo (by a route not 
before taken by any European) was announced. Two of his 
followers were lost in the desert, and two had gone back. Dr. 
Stecker (who lately went to Massowah with Herr Rohlfs) will, 
according to circumstances, either push through the Galla regions 
or to the East coast, or to the Great Lakes. Major v. 
Mechow reached a town on the Quanza, in the territory of the 
Hollo, about 2co km. from Malange on July 19, after great 
difficulties, especially in carriage of the boat. The natives were 
friendly throughout. A little above the place reached are the 
two last falls of the Quanza, between which is the mouth of the 
Cambo. The Major seems to have been the first white to visit 
these waterfalls, He was going to Lopung with a view to 
determine the course of the Quanza. Dr. Pogge and Lieut. 
Wissmann were also travelling in that region the same month, 
intending to reach Mussumba, the residence of the Muata 
Jambo ; Dr. Pogge’s object is to establish stations in the interior, 
Lieut. Wissmann will make journeys for topographical and 
collecting purposes. The Italian traveller, Dr. Matteucci, is 
seeking to reach Bornu from South Dar-For, going round 
Wadai and Bagirmi. Jn/er alia the Society resolved to memo- 
rialise the German Government to take part in the international 
project of systematic Polar investigation. 


AT the sitting of November 19 of the Societé de Géographie 
of Paris M. Zweifel received the palm of Officer of the Academy 
as a reward for the discovery of the sources of the Niger, in 
company with M. Marius Moustier. The laureate declining to 
speak himself, an address was delivered on behalf of him and his 
companions by Dr. Harmand, the well-known explorer of 
Cochin China. It appears that MM. Zweifel and Moustier saw 
a granite rock from which the pow rful stream takes its rise; 
but they were not admitted to the site, owing to the high 
priest of ‘Tembi Saleh, who inhabits an island situated on 
a small lake formed by the stream at a very few miles from its 
source. So something more remains to be done to complete 
the work begun by Laing, Reade, and Blyden. 


Srr ALLEN YoOuNG leaves England next month in his yacht, 
and will visit, among other places, the Canary Islands, a portion 
of the West Coast of Africa, and St. Helena, extending his 
voyage as far as the Cape, where he will make preparations and 
inquiries for a projected expedition of discovery to be undertaken 
by him to the Antarctic regions. It will be remembered that 
the Zrebus and Terror, commanded by Sir J. Ross and Capt. 
Crozier, penetrated in 1841 to 78° 4’ S., a latitude which has 
never been reached before or since. 


THE November number of Pelermann’s Mittheilungen has a 
long paper by Spiridion Go, Cevic, containing his ethnographical 


studies in Upper Albania. A very fine map embodies the 
important results of Severzov’s exploration of the Pamir in 1878, 
with accompanying text, followed by an account of Lieut.-Col. 
Pjevzov’s journey through Mongolia in 1878-9, to Kuku-Chota 
and Kalgan. A summary is given of the Arctic work of 1880, 
followed by the usual monthly notes. 


THE first Bulletin of the recently-formed International Geo- 
graphical Institute at Berne consists of a programme of the 
projected Italian Antarctic Expedition under Lieut. Bone, which 
is to leave Genoa in March 1881. A sketch is given of what has 
been previously done in this region, showing that the field is 
practically virgin so far as scientific work is concerned. The 
programme of the Italian expedition is very comprehensive, and 
the ultimate object is to pave the way for the establishment of an 
Antarctic observing station. 


No. 3 of vol. iii. of the Deutsche geographische Blatter, the 
organ of the Bremen Geographical Society, contains the con- 
tinuation of the unfortunate Dr. Rutenberg’s journal in 
Madagascar, and the lecture given at the Danzig meeting of the 
German Association by Dr. Neumayer on ‘‘ Polar Expeditions 
or Polar Research?” ‘To the latter able lecture we referred 
last week, the point insisted on being that while the two are 
perfectly congruous, the former should be subjected to the latter, 
which must be carried out on the system of Polar observatories 
advocated by Weyprecht, and to which nearly every civilised 
nation adheres except England. 


Tue new number of the Marseilles Geographical Society’s 
Bulletin contains a very voluminous account by Messrs. Zweifel 
and Moustier, of their expedition to the sources of the Niger. 
This memoir is illustrated by a map showing their route, and 
supplemented by an appendix containing information as to the 
natural resources of the country traversed, the races of the 
interior, Kc. 

THE last part of Ze Globe contains a paper (with map) on the 
Island of Cyprus, by M. Paul Chaix, and some account of 
recent researches in the Pamir, furnished by M. Veniukoff. 


In the current number of Zes Afissions Catholiques, M. Arm- 
bruster has commenced a series of papers on Corea, drawn from 
information furnished from time to time by the Romish mis- 
sionaries, the only Europeans who have ever had any opportunity 
of acquiring a real knowledge of the interior. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


Oxrorp.—The preliminary examination in the Natural Science 
School begins on Monday next, November 29. The Final Honour 
School begins on Monday, December 6. 

The Brakenbury Scholarship in Natural Science at Balliol 
College has been awarded to Mr. William Stroud, from Owens 
College, for proficiency in physics and chemistry. Proxinie 
accessit. Mr. A. D. Hall, from Manchester Grammar School. 
Mr. J. J. Hart, Manchester Grammar School, and Mr. J. E. 
Marsh of Balliol, are honourably mentioned. 


ON A METHOD: OF DETERMINING THE 
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE FOR ANY 


LIQUID AND ITS VAPOUR WITHOUT: 


MECHANISM * 


A PIECE of straight glass tube—6o centimetres is a con- 

yenient length—is to be filled with the substance in a state 
of the greatest purity possible. It is to contain such a quantity 
of the substance that, at ordinary atmospheric temperatures, 
about 3 or 4 centimetres of the tube are occupied by steam of 
the substance, and the remainder liquid. Fix the tube in an 
upright position, with convenient appliances for warming the 
upper 10 centimetres of the length to the critical temperature, or 
to whatever higher or lower temperature may be desired; and 
for warming a length of 4o centimetres from the bottom to some 
lower temperature, and varying its temperature conveniently at 
pleasure. ‘ 

Commence by warming the upper part until the surface of 
separation of liquid and steam sinks below 5 centimetres from. 
the top. Then warm the lowest part until the surface rises 

1 By Sir William Thomson, Buitish Association, Swansea, Section A. 
Tuesday, August 31. 


88 


NATURE 


[Vov. 25, 1880 


again to a convenient position. Operate thus, keeping the 
surface of separation of liquid and solid at as nearly as possible 
a constant position of 3 centimetres below the top of the tube, 
until the surface of separation disappears. 

The temperature of tLe tube at the place where the surface of 
separation was seen immediately before disappearance is the 
critical temperature. 

It may be remarked that the changes of bulk produced by the 
screw and mercury in Andrews’ apparatus are, in the method 
now described, produced by elevations and depressions of tem- 
perature in the lower thermal vessel. By proper arrangements 
these elevations and depressions of temperature may be made as 
easily, and in some cases as rapidly, as by the turning of a screw. 
The dispensing with all mechanism and joints, and the simplicity 
afforded by using the substance to be experimented upon, and no 
other substance in contact with it, in a hermetically sealed glass 
vessel, are advantages in the method now described. It is also 
interesting to remark that in this method we have continuity 
through the fluid itself all at one equal pressure exceeding the 
critical pressure, but at different temperatures in different parts, 
varying continuously from something above the critical tempera- 
ture at the top of the tube to a temperature below the critical 
temperature in the lower part of the tube. 

The pressure may actually be measured by a proper appliance 
on the outside of the lower part of the tube to measure its 
augmentation of volume under applied pressure. If this is to 
be done, the lower thermal vessel must be applied, not round 
the bottom of the tube, but round the middle portion of it, 
leaving, as already described, 10 or 20 cms. above for observa- 
ticn of the surface of separation between liquid and vapour, 
and leaving at the bottom of the tube 20 or 30 cms, for the 
pressure-measuring appliance. 

This appliance would be on the same general principle as that 
adopted by Prof, Tait in his tests of the Challenger thermome- 
ters under great pressure (Proceedings, Royal Soc. Edin,, 1880) ; 
a principle which I have myself used in a form of depth-gauge 
for deep-sea soundings ; in which the pressure is measured, not 
by the compression of air, but by the flexure or other strain 
produced in brass or glass or other elastic solid. 


ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC 
PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS, AND THEIR 
RELATION TO SUN-SPOTS, RAINFALL, AND 
FAMINES 


N the first part of his work on the Meteorology of the Bombay 
Presidency, which was submitted to Government in August, 
4875, Mr. Charles Chambers pointed out that the variation of the 
yearly mean barometric pressure at Bombay shows a periodicity 
nearly corresponding in duration with the decennial sun-spot 
period (see ‘‘ Meteorology of the Bombay Presidency,” § 26, 
p- 12), and in August, 1878, in a letter to NATURE, vol, xviii. 
p. 567, I drew special attention to this relation, pointing out that 
the observations of the winter and summer half-years, separately 
as well as conjointly, show that the pressure is low when the sun- 
Spot area is great, and vice versd, but that the pressure curve /ags 
bchind the sun-spot curve. 

In November of the same year the eminent physicist, the late 
Mr. John Allan Broun, regarding the relation thus established 
between the variations of barometric pressure and sun-spots as 
one of very great importance, in that it gave a probability to the 
existence of similar laws in the variations of other meteorological 
elements which he believed was previously wanting, communi- 
‘cated to the same periodical (NATURE, vol. xix. p. 6) an article 
in which he showed, from the observations recorded at Singa- 
pore, Trevandrum, Madras, and Bombay, that the years of 
greatest and least mean barometric pressure are probably the 
‘same for all India, and from this he inferred that the relation to 
ae decennial sun-spot period found for Bombay helds for all 

ndia, 

In December, 1878, Mr. S. A. Hill supplemented and con- 
firmed Mr, Broun’s communication by giving similar data for 
Calcutta (NATURE, vol. xix. p. 432). 

In May, 1879, Mr. E. D. Archibald communicated to 
NATURE, vol. xx. p. 28, the fact (brought to his notice by Mr. 
S. A. Hill) that at St. Petersburg the mean annual barometric 
pressure is high when the sun-spots are numerous, low when they 
are few, but that the pressure epochs lag behind the sun-spot 
epochs, 


In December of the same year Mr. Blanford presented to the 
Asiatic Society of Bengal a paper (Yournal of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal, vol. xlix. part ii. 1880, p. 70) in which 
it was shown that the barometric observations recorded at 
Batavia from 1866 to 1878, at Akyab, Chittagong, and Darjeeling 
from 1867 to 1878, at Port Blair from 1868 to 1878, and at 
Singapore from 1869 to 1878, afford more or less confirmation of 
the results previously obtained for other stations in India.t And 
in the same paper Mr, Blanford brought forward the observations 
recorded at the Kussian observatories at Ekaterinburg, Slatoust, 
Bogolowsk, and Barnaul from 1847 to 1877, and showed that at 
the two former stations during the whole period, and at the two 
latter during the first half of it, the barometric variations were 
similar to those previously obtained by Mr. Hill for St. Petersburg. 

In a subsequent letter to NATURE, published in March, 1880, 
Mr. Blanford discussed the same observations in greater detail, 
dealing with the summer and winter observations separately, as 
well as conjointly, and showed that the decennial variation of the 
barometric pressure found for St. Petersburg was exhibited 
only by the observations of the winter months. Healso obtained 
similar results for Ekaterinburg and Barnaul, but he appears to 
have overlooked the very important facts that the range of the 
winter curves rapidly decreases in passing from St. Petersburg, 
through Ekaterinburg to Barnauland, that the summer curves for 
the two latter stations are, on the whole, of the same character 
as the summer curves of the Indian stations, as may be seen by 
comparing the dotted curves for Ekaterinburg and Barnaul, 
given in NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 48, with the summer curve for 
Bombay, given in vol. xviii. p. 568 of the same periodical. He 
also showed that the barometric curves for Batavia, Singapore, 
and Port Blair were, as at other Indian stations, of the same 
character both in winter and summer. 

In 1873 and 1874 (see British Association Reports for those 
years) Mr. Meldrum showed that there was strong evidence of a 
connection between sun-spots and rainfall, and he has recently 
(see Monthly Notice of the Meteorological Society of Mauritius 
for December 1878) put this question beyond all reasonable 
doubt by showing that the mean yearly rainfall of Great Britain, 
the continent of Europe, America, India, and the Southern 
Hemisphere, varies‘in the same way as the sun-spots, being on 
the average great when they are numerous, small when they are 
few. 

In my “Brief Sketch of the Meteorology of the Bombay 
Presidency ” 2 in 1876, I pointed out that the abnormal variations 
of the monthly mean barometric pressure in that year were 
mainly variations in the intensity of the usual seasonal move- 
ments, although at least some portion of the variations influenced 
a wider area than the Indian monsoon region, and in the Sketch 
for 1877 I attributed the uniformly high barometric pressure and 
the deficient rainfall of that year to a weak development of the 
equatorial belt of minimum pressure, probably induced by a 
diminution of the solar heat. ¢ 

In the Report on the Meteorology of India in 1877 Mr. Eliot 
showed that the high pressure of that year was a characteristic 
of the whole Indian area and also of Australia. 

In my meteorological sketch for 1878 I showed that the 
abnormal barometric movements observed at Zi-ka-wei in China 
and at Manilla in 1878 were similar to those recorded in Western 
India ; that the latter largely influenced the rainfall of the Bom- 
bay Presidency ; and that in former years of deficient rainfall at 
Bombay the barometer had been relatively high, not only at 
Bombay, but also at Mauritius and Batavia. 

In the paper (Fournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 
xlix. part ii, 1880, p. 70) already quoted, Mr. Blanford has 
confirmed the fact that the excessive pressure observed in the 
Indian area in the years 1876 to 1878 extended to China and 
Australia, and he has also shown that it affected Western 
Siberia also. 

In my sketch for the year 1879 I have shown that these 
uniform variations of barometric pressure are accompanied by a 
nearly uniform variation of the percentage rainfall of all portions 


During the first half of these periods the results for Singapore, Akyab, 
Chittagong, and Darjeeling differ so much from each other and from the 
remarkably accordant results obtained from the more widely separated 
stations of Bombay, Calcutta, Port Blair, and Batavia as to suggest that the 
former are of doubtful validity during the earlier years. : 

2 These sketches are submitted annually to Government in August of the 
year following that to which they refer. See notices in NATURE, vol. XViil. 
pp. 199 and 619, vol. xxi. p. 384. The sketch for 1879, containing some 
further important conclusions with reference to the variations of rainfall and 
barometric pressure, has recently been submitted to Government. 


ie 


You. 25, 1880] 


of the Bombay Presidency, and that the proportionate increase 
or decrease of the abnormal rainfall, corresponding to a fall or 
rise in the abnormal pressure of a tenth of an inch of mercury, 


amounts to more than one hundred per cent. of the normall fall ; 
but that the variations of the ordinary monsoon gradients pro- 
duce yery different effects on the rainfall of different districts, 
depending on the geographical peculiarities of the particular 
locality. 

From all these facts it is clear that there is some intimate rela- 
tion between the variations of sun-spots, barometric pressure, 
and rainfall ; and as famines in general are induced by a defi- 
ciency of rain, it is probable that they also may be added to the 
above list of connected phenomena. What is required in order 
to gain an insight into the causal relation of these variations is 


NATURE 


89 


that they should each and all be studied in greater detail than 
has hitherto been attempted. Accordingly I commenced, more 
than a year ago, a detailed investigation into the nature of the 
abnormal variations of barometric pressure, and have been led 
to the discovery of some new facts which appear to me to be of 
sufficient importance to render it desirable that they should be 
published in anticipation of the theoretical conclusions deducible 
therefrom. 

Commencing with the daily abnormal barometric variations 
observed at several stations in Western India, it was soon found 
that as the time over which an abnormal barometric fluctuation 
extended became longer and longer, the range of the fluctuation 
became more and more uniform at the various stations, thus 
leading to the conclusion that the abnormal variations of long 


Years 2 8 a S i 5 % } 
= = 2 : 8 8 3 | 
= T 
3 IE see 
= + — 
; eat = t f 
3; , fee p aoe 
a = } } { 
Bes ait al a 
a : aes T 
= Aas = 
iE i Tan f a 
| \ = | | i 
== ra =a 
t = f ! } Se t 
I | 
5 1 = te 
StHelena 5 x a 
and | z = i t = 
lauritins = | ae A | 
f me: Zi aE 1 SEZ i SI i 
| i Earl + 
[ S15) afomat Jj Fy 
eee ee eee eee F 
Bomb S : Seags¢ tH 
A= ame sl {is = Yeti 
| [ T 
= 
| 
S I i | | 
S y é 
12) Me B: a i ia N E 5 2 
Bs T 
x ae 7 | ate 
|) = f 
re a ry 
> T = 7 
§ | Calcutta t 
ig +> | + 
S | = i bea DEC t i 
fF pal \ n ry a 
Ba | | x | | 5 
LN 5 aA 
SS = oo 
| Bata =I | jos ea F | 
{ [ ac TARAS EEA 4 
f + ; 
+ = 
| [=a] 
I T 
C = — : 
is | 4 . 
5 { { T 7 T T 
Cekaw t 
IE 1 ; 
] r 1 


duration affect a very wide area. To test this inference it became 
necessary to compare the observations recorded at Bombay with 
those of some distant tropical station. Batavia was chosen, and 
on curving the daily observations side by side with those of 
Bombay, the degree of accordance between them was found to 
be truly surprising, considering how far the two stations are 
apart. The next step was to compare the monthly abnormal 
variations of these two stations, and finding that they presented 
many similar features, as well as some differences, to smooth the 
variations by taking three-monthly means. The degree of ac- 
cordance was now found to be still greater, many of the discord- 
ances having been eiiminatedin the process of smoothing; but 
as some differences were still observable the process was re- 
peated, giving nine-monthly means of abnormal pressure corre- 


sponding to the middle of the months January, April, July, and 
October of each year. The curves obtained in this way for 
Bombay and Batavia were then found to be almost identical in 
form, but with this very remarkable difference: the curve for 
Batavia was seen to lag very persistently about one month behind 
the Bombay curve. Similar results were then worked out from 
all the available data for the following tropical stations: St. 
Helena, Mauritius, Madras, Calcutta, and Zi-ka-wei, and for 
comparison with them the monthly sun-spot areas 1 were treated 
in exactly the same manner. The results are given in the fol 
lowing table, and graphically represented by the continuous 
curves on the annexed plate :— 


X Taken from the paper by Messrs. De La Rue, Stewart, and Loewy, 
published in the P/ilosophical Transactions for 1870, p. 122. 


2 PP 


NATURE 


[Vov. 25, 188 


90 
TABLE I. | eae Abnormal barometric pressure in thousandths of 
Nine-Monthly Means of Solar Spotted Area and Pirornal\ S26 ee 
Barometric Pressure Year. Bee : 
fu g Abnormal Baromehic presets in thousandths of ‘ Bag 5 = 2 z g g 
aon nch. QS s ea S & 2 co 
Pieri] a ; S 
Teas See ; | 
Year. 38 g ri : £ ; Ty 86) 21) =. (855 isi a9 
bee cee aa eee Seer se 
Paadieem Mel na se riae! | Palit c a ame ard oles 2p 0 
$ & = & a | x | 4) 369] -1E] +12) +18) + 5 
— “ | eee ieee l moze o| + 7] +16} + 8 
1] 473| - 5 | 858 itres |= 7 | halal 
2 3 aa uli | | | Wit peed 13 2 
84t | 3 a2 —12 j= a | ae ete iad 3! 15 ah aod 
4 | 285 | —14 -7 Las eisepeeal ankSen singe |ocng or) atic 
y| 241 | —11 =8 | Ee) fea ra ES es Poe fees 
Peay 24 -200,| —-3 =23 Veale pre stra ea) eee 
Be aleg)| e230 et at -14 | | bears eh ee 
ae = 500i) GRY foy |) aga || eee) = —I 
4 O33 2 2) 1237 R25 3 3 
1] 188 | + 2 ach ||. aSGO My ee) ieee eae On sou ee 
tae 2 116 | + 2 + 3 FF eee Si Rees eae en | = 
43 |3| 107] + 5 +2 | Ai 405) eee eee Saal are 
14} oz} + 2 +8 : eal Gace Ee ENE BCA 
1] 130] - 5 +1 Bix.) |Z 310 sae veer es ae 
184 2 LOE iw of =fal5 Pe ee Bl Siglo ae 
oleh ees wae! = | 4 | 1238 —18 8 -13 
Ale205q| + 2 +11 Weelascepess tlt ios fie 
t| 374 | +10 +14 1862 | 75> eee |e ee 
1845 |, ce +17 +8 ; ieee Pies, Ss ee 
3| 360] +21 +13 | | 4 seer lt i 
4| 407 | +16 +25 2 es peseareeeee zo 
- Tr} 556) +11 +30 1863 3 208 ano a3 a 
2| 057 | + +2 es se 
1846 | 3 ee se 4| 652 One? ~ 23 
4| 664| - 3 25 | alee valet alieners ae ; 
ade ee ah 1864- | 2 | 985 | +16 | +24 - 7 
24 Blea a 3 783 SFT ete + 8 
47 | 3 | 1110 =10 | = 2 eer saad eae can 
5 lace ae is I} 598 | +16 | +14 +32 
I | 1251 —16 | -13 HE 5 | ase are ne 
18486 | 2 1053 =$19,|| i 4 eee eaibcee a 
Balser be A ee 4| 54r| +19| + 1 +11 
aoe es | Tecra) a5 9 +1 
malkiog6 ee || 1866 | 2 4oo | + + 9 + 2 
i BN noes Ese pees 3 174 +12 +12 = Te -46 
49 sale eee 145i PP oro | tS eal ectale +14 | +11 
alates sere = | x 74) +31 | +14 +20 | +11 
ers eset 3867) ale 70 | +18) +13 +25 | +10 
ms z BG Alena 3 200) ata etalk +20 | + 4 
3 o2 oe, 4 261 Oo} +15 +22| + 4 
3| 88 sib ae | Nh Ales) Se || ake ‘33 ua-20 
1| 671 =D) |haee3 Pees 5 ace 335 | 428 
Beal. oe = 3 | 3 Io +33 | Err || 25ulepeo 
ieee es | 14 +14 | +31 | + 9] +16} +30 
4| 627 25 ina 13 x +261) +27.) 12: tae 
1 | 659 —10| - § | 1869 | 2 | 130) S99) ee 
xBR2) 5606 = 8 see a2 22 | ane 
3| 510 — 1| +12 | i ios 1s 4 ee 
Sa eete Deg ss 2 -++13 | -19 | -49 | —17 | =%6 
Mauri- 1S 70M lex Ba] Us| Sag, | cen ee 
tius. 3 <— gf oe ee 
I) 474 O| +1 me Ald eer: 
1853) | 448 7 4 es | z ey aaa gre ae 
Bi ase io se ee ee | 187% 42 jie Se Syl = S 
4 323] -—2I1 +10] + 6| —10 : ie rae lee rae s0% 
T-| 213) —12 |) + 8) 4 7 | — 7 3 o| 8 |) mane oa 
ee, x = Sieg ee ee i +27 aaa ae — 2 ee 
2) a Up inate ae |i 2 I), 3822 #19) See ig li 
ute mers Pao as | 3 — 3 | —727)) —76)) spor 7, 
I 0755 \ 05 ale eee On ate 4 a 2a Wal i JA Bae 
ress |2| 100| - 2| +13] +12] + 4 2 — 15 | 55 acetals 
3 D7 lect S| ch PSO st atom 873 | 3 * | abel camel ae nag 
4| 16] +12] +19 +6 | 3 tT | Aiea alts 2 | anal 
1 m|-2/|+ 6 +7 - ate ine is : i 3 ae 6 
2 30 | -1 - a 8 ela 
1856 | 3 | 36 Wea Ra = 1874 Z o +s ce ie +.5|/-8 
Zi z Fi = 73: | Fi 12) ° 
Gu 45 3! 7 | 11 4 —- 6| -16 +96 Fe - 4 


\ 


\ 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


NATURE 


ep i 


TABLE I, (Continued)— 


sg | Abnormal barometric pressure in thousandths of 
263 an inch, 
don 
ga7 Fr 
Year 286 a ripe é 
BSc =| a = | g ra or 
HES) = iB 2 3 $ if 
Se & 3 3 a) oS = 
oa lat el ee Oo | a N 
a ea Sen: | 
I = 5 | —22| + 2) -=11 | fo) 
gee Iie + 1] -11| —10| - 7] =18 
ti 3 a aa) Soa 0 asec Hal sia) Ory |e (6) 
4 “fii — 1) 39°) — 5 |) 12 
I - 3 16 | -—14 ~Tn | -13 
2 2 - 1 18 | -19| -10} - 8 
eye 3 +9] -13]} - 3] +1] -12 
4 #21 || +12) +2 +22|} + 8 
I +29 | +30| +49| +28| + 4 
1877 | 2 +43 | +46 | +48 | +46) +11 
3 +43) +55 | +43 | +47 | +12 
4 +38 +32 | +49 | +29 
I +24 +51 | +34] +39 
2 a3) 155) 07S ees 
LE 3) =i15 +733) || = 1) |/=bIG 
4 — 33 | oO] - 4 
I — 40 = 26 | S118) 
2 —15 | - 2 - 7 
18 | 
3 aaa | | + 4 =o 
4 = | 2) - 8 
1880 | 1 - 8} | S37) || 
| 


Comparison of Abnormal Barometric Movements at Different 
Stations. —The general resemblance of all these curves to each 
other is very remarkable; indeed if the Mauritius curve for 
the years 1867 and 1868 be excluded, there is scarcely a single 
prominent feature in any one of the curves which is not 
reproduced in the others. To show this the corresponding points 
of the different curves have been marked with the same small 
letters. It will be seen, however, that there is strong evidence 
of a want of exact simultaneity in the barometric movements at 
different stations, and that as a rule the changes take place at the 
more westerly stations several months earlier than at the more 
easterly ones. This is particularly noticeable in the curves for 
St. Helena and Madras from 1841 to 1846, when the latter some- 
times lagged behind the former by as much as six months; in 
those for Mauritius and Calcutta from 1855 to 1866, when the 
latter persistently lagged several months behind the former ; in 
those for Bombay and Calcutta from 1862 to 1866, when the 
difference in time often amounted to wpwards of six months ; in 
those for Bombay and Batavia from 1867 to 1878, when (as 
already remarked) the latter lagged behind the former at an 
average interval of about one month ; and in those for Bombay 
and Ti-ka-wei from 1876 to 1878, when the latter lagged up- 
wards of six months behind the former. J¢ appears then that 
these long atmospheric waves (if such they may be called) travel at 
a very slow and variable rate round the earth from west to east, 
like the cyclones of the extra tropical latitudes. 

Bombay FRED. CHAMBERS 

(70 be continued.) 


DR. SIEMENS’S NEW CURE FOR SMOKE 


F ROM among a number of letters which have been sent us on 

this subject we have selected the following for publication ; 
to these Dr. Siemens has been good enough to append some 
important remarks, 

In NATURE, vol, xxiii. p. 25, I read with interest an article 
by Dr. Siemens describing an ingenious gas and coke fire which 
he suggests as a cure for the smoke nuisance. But although the 
darkening of the atmosphere or fog will certainly be prevented 
by its use, I am afraid the gases from the coke, especially the 
carbonic oxide, will make the fogs at least as poisonous and 
injurious to health as the open coal fires at present in use. 

In these circumstances a description of an ‘‘ Asbestos gas fire” 
free from this objection, which we have had in use in our 
smoking room for the last three years, and which, after a few 
alterations, has proved perfectly satisfactory, may perhaps interest 
your readers, 


A }-inch gas-pipe furnished with four Bunsen burners is laid 
on the hearthstone under the grate and parallel to the ribs, so 
arranged that the tops of the burners (which are made elliptical 
to pass through the bars) are flush with the upper surface of the 
grate, and two inches back from the line of the ribs. The fire- 
place is loosely filled with a preparation of asbestos in pieces 
about the size of a hen’s egg. 

This fire not only evolves a large amount of heat, but has a 
very cheerful appearance, similar to that of a bright coke fire, 
and to insure this it is essential that the burners should be 
placed close to the ribs, as stated above, and not in the centre of 
the grate. If this is not attended to.the asbestos in the centre of 
the fire will be raised to a high temperature, but will not be 
sufficient to heat those portions in front, which will then not only 
be of no use as radiators in themselves, but act as screens to the 
light and heat generated in the centre. I suspect this was the 
cause of the failure of Dr. Siemens’ pumice gas fire. 

The cost of maintaining this fire is simply that of the amount 
of gas burned, as the asbestos is not consumed, and its prime 
cost is trifling. I have only further to add that there is not the 
slightest trace of fumes or smell from the fire two minutes after 
it is lighted. D. A. STEVENSON 

Edinburgh, November 15 


Dr. SIEMENS has described in your pages the form of coke- 
gas grate which he has fitted in hisown house. As I had fitted 
a similar arrangement in this house before Dr. Siemens’ letter 
appeared in the Zimes of November 3, and as it is simpler than 
Dr. Siemens’ and succeeds even beyond my expectation, I send 
you a drawing and description of it. It varies, of course, accord- 
ing to the shape of the grate in which it is fitted ; but for the sake 
of comparison I have copied Dr. Siemens’ grate, and drawn my 
arrangement as fitted into it. , 

Instead of Dr. Siemens’ arrangement for withdrawing the heat 
from the back of the fire and bringing it to the front, I merely 
line the whole grate—sides, back, and bottom—with fire-bricks. 
This obviates the necessity for the close-fitting ash-pan described 
by Dr. Siemens, which would be rather expensive to fit. I make 
the fire-brick in the bottom of the grate slope towards the front, 
and leave a space of one inch between the front of it and the 
perforated gaspipe down which space the ashes fall on to the 
hearth. 

If my grate is not quite so economical in working as Dr. 
Siemens’, it is very near it, and the first cost of fitting is consi- 
derably less. In fact, as most grates are lined with fire-brick 
at back and sides, nothing has to be done but fit a wedge-shaped 
fire-brick into the bottom, a half-inch iron gaspipe, perforated 
with holes in front, and connect it with the gas service, all of 
which can generally be done for a few shillings. 

The saving of kindling-wood and of chimney-sweeping would 
pay for itina year. In Dr. Siemens’ grate the copper must 
cost about 1/, A grate fitted with this arrangement looks exactly 
the same as an ordinary grate, and there is nothing to prevent 
ordinary coal being burnt in it—in fact coal can be burnt in it 
with much less smoke than in an ordinary grate by turning on 
the gas for a few minutes when fresh coal is put on, when the 
dense black smoke emitted by the new coal is completely burnt 
up in the gas-flame. To people who object that a gas grate 
must produce a bad smell in the room I can only say, ‘‘ Come 
and see.” They will find that we have three grates with this 
arrangement in constant use in these chambers, and that they 
produce no smell and make a very pleasant fire. Any person 
who takes an interest in the subject is quite welcome to come in 
and look at them at any time. Cosmo INNES 

Adelphi Chambers, 7, John Street, Adelphi 


HAVING been experimenting for some years in the direction 
veferred to by Dr. Siemens in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 25, I must 
beg to differ with him most seriously in some of his conclu-ions. 
The gas-fire with coke which he describes has, so far as our ex- 
perience goes, several practical objections which prevent its use 
in the place of an ordinary gas fire, whilst when compared with 
a good coal fire it fails seriously, ' 

First, with regard to the objections to Dr. Siemens’ fire. It 
requires about half an hour to become anything like warm, as 
against ten to fifteen minutes with a well-lighted coal fire. 
Second, it makes as much or more dust and dirt than a good coal 
fire. Third, the grate requires as much cleaning and care as 
with coal. : 

I am not surprised at the economy, comparing the coal fire as 
shown with gas and coke, but if the result had been taken in 


g2 


comparison with a good Abbotsford grate with solid clay bottom, 
back and sides, the figures would have appeared seriously the 
other way. 

In a room of exactly half the cubic area of the one referred to 
by Dr. Siemens we have an Abbotsford grate a little over 4rd 
cubic foot capacity, the actual measurement of the fire space being 
53 inches deep, $ inches back to front, 14 inches wide. This 
is lighted at 7 o’clock every morning and at 10 o'clock the grate 
is filled (not piled high). ‘This fire burns until ro or 11 o’clock 
every night untouched, practically smokeless, making the room 
pleasantly warm all over in the severest weather, and without 
making a handful of cinders in a month, One ordinary boxful 
of coals lasts two days. We have five, sometimes six, fires going 
daily at an average cost for coal for the winter season of five 
shillings weekly, or less than twopence per day per fire. That 
Dr. Siemens is correct so far as the old style of fire-grate is con- 
cerned, I know to my cost, but taking any good grate with clay 
sides and back and a solid clay bottom, his fire at its best will 
not compare either for cleanliness, economy, or comfort. 

Gas fires are wanted where absolutely no attention and dust 
can be permitted. Allowing either of these ‘as possible, no 
substitute I know will approach a well-constructed open fire with 
a solid clay bottom and fire-box. 

With regard to the waste heat, it is no greater than absolutely 
necessary to take away the products of combustion, as, with our 
grates, it is utilised for warming the upper rooms, At thismoment, 


with five good fires, there is visible from the tops of our chimneys | 


nothing except a clear transparent current of warm air; any one 
at a cursory glance would say there were no fires in the house. 

It must be borne in mind when I refer to cost that we cook 
entirely by gas, and the price of good coal here is 14s. 2d. per 
ton, coke being about half this price. What is required in a gas 
fire is a perfectly clean source of radiant heat, without trouble, and 
quickly available: these conditions are not in any way fulfilled 
by Dr. Siemens’ arrangement. With the exception of two or 
three minutes expended in lighting, all he has attained can be 
found in a more perfect form in many of the fire-grates which 
have been in common use for the last ten years, Amongst our 
many attempts at gas fires one, although not absolutely the same 
as Dr. Siemens’, was practically so, and was condemned because 
it required as much trouble as our present fires, and was much 
slower in lighting, It would be both interesting and instructive 
if Dr. Siemens would test an Abbotsford grate under the same 
conditions as his*coke-gas fire, and supplement his report with 
one from the individual who has to do the cleaning up and 
dusting, a department which it is more than probable he ignores. 

Another important matter is that I believe the cost of making 
and fixing Dr. Siemens’ grate would be not less than that of a 
good modern fire-grate, THOS, FLETCHER 

Warrington 


THROUGH your courtesy I am enabled to reply to the 
objections raised by three correspondents against my proposed 
gas-coke grate, before they have actually appeared in your 
columns. 

Mr. D. A. Stevenson considers that the use of coke is 
objectionable on account of the gases evolved in its combustion, 
and especially the carbonic oxide gas, which would poison the 
atmosphere, In reply I have to say that in burning coke with a 
supply of hot air, and in contact in front of the grate with the 
atmosphere, its entire combustion is insured, resulting in car- 
bonic acid, which is a necessary constituent of our atmosphere. 
In obtaining the same amount of heat through the perfect com- 
bustion of gas, products of combustion at least equally objection- 
able from a sanitary point of view will be evolved. 

_ The gas-ashestos grate which he describes appears to be judi- 
ciously contrived, but its power of heating the room: depends 
entirely upon the combustion of gas unaided by hot air or solid 
fuel. Now 1000 cubic feet of gas weigh about 34 lbs., and the 
heat developed in the combustion cannot exceed 34 X 22,000 = 
748,000 units of heat, 

The heat units produced in burning a pound of coke may be 
taken at 13,400 (assuming it to contain about § per cent. of 
incombustible admixture, the heat equivalent of pure carbon 


being 14,500 units), and it requires a = 56 lbs., or just 


’ 
half ‘a hundredweight of this coke, to produce the heating effect 
of 1000 cubic feet of gas. 
Taking gas coke at 18s. per ton (which is an excessive price), 
the 56 lbs. of coke represent a cost of 5:4d., as compared with 
35. 6d. for the 1000 cubic feet of gas producing the same amount 


NATURE 


nn 


[Wov. 25, 1880 


of heat. This great difference of cost at once shows the adyan- 
tage of making coke do as much of the work as possible. With- 
out it a gas grate will consume 50 to 70 cubic feet of gas per 
hour, whereas my experiments prove that an average consump- 
tion of 8 cubic feet suffices to heat a large room when combined 
with a moderate consumption of coke, and with the use of the 
heating arrangement, to which I attach great importance. Another 
important consideration in favour of the joint use of coke and gas 
is that the existing gas companies produce both these constituents 
very much in the proportion in which they would be required, 
and could therefore provide the means of supplying an enormous 
number of coke-gas grates, whereas their plant and mains would 
be quite inadequateito supply a demand upon them for an extended 
application of purely gas stoves. a 

Mr. Cosmo Innes describes a gas grate of his construction, 
having the closed grate and single gas pipe behind the lower 
front bar which I advocate ; he proposes to fill the grate with 
common coal, using the gas only as a means of kindling the fire. 
My objections to his pioposal are that in using coal he must 
continue to make smoke, which we are /desirous to prevent, and 
that the hot back to his fire means rapid distillation of the fuel 
up the chimney in the form of hydrocarbons and carbonic oxide. 
The gas arrangement as shown by him will be efficacious, no 
doubt, as a means of kindling a bright and cheerful fire, but he 


it 

ay 
oa 
\\ 


SoS 

i b \( ae V 

CQ Wah f= Ko 
t het [WW 
a 


with in London. pa: 

He also objects to the cost of my arrangement, and his opinion 
in this respect, coming from a practical grate-builder, is entitled 
to every consideration. In first describing my plan I did not go 
into the question of cost of application; but having been since 
asked by grate-builders to advise them regarding the cheapest 
form of niy grate and the easiest mode of applying it to existing 
fire-places, I have devised a form of application which leaves 
little to be desired, I think, as regards first cost. — 

The arrangement is shown by the accompanying sketch, and 
consists of two parts which are simply added to the existing 


§ 


; 
; 

i 

g 

é 
_ 
+< 
™ 


a 


See 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


NATURE 


93 


grate, viz.:—(1) the gas-pipe (@) with holes of about 7; inch 
diameter, 1°5 inch apart along the upper side inclining inward, 
and (2) an angular plate (a) of either cast or wrought iron, with 
projecting ribs (¢) extending from front to back on its under- 
side, either cast with or riveted to the same, presenting a con- 
siderable area, and serving the double purpose of supporting the 
additional part on the existing grate, and of providing the 
heating-surface produced by the copper plate and frill-work in 
my first arrangement. In using iron instead of copper it is 
necessary however to increase the thickness of these plates and 
ribs in the inverse ratio of the conductivity of the two metals, 
or as regards the back plate, from } inch to 3 inch. 

The arrangement will be rendered more perfect by the use of 
the bent plate fastened to the lower grate bar, which directs 
the incoming air upon the heating-surfaces. 

The front edge of the horizontal plate has vandyked openings 
{c), so as to form a narrow grating, through which the small quan- 


tity of ashes that will be produced by combustion of the coke 
and anthracite in the front part of the grate discharge themselves 
down the incline towards the back of the hearth, where an 
open ash-pan may be placed for their reception. 

In adapting the arrangement to new grates, the horizontal 
grating had better be dispensed with, and the casting with its 
lower ribs extended downwards, so as to find its fixed support 
between the back of the fireplace and the inclined deflector plate. 

Mr, Fletcher speaks of the large amount of ashes that would 
be produced, but this amount can surely not be as great as in 
the case of a coal fire, seeing that the consumption of solid fuel 
is reduced to less than one-half, of which nearly one-half is 
anthracite, a fuel remarkably free from ashes. Neither do I 
participate in Mr. Fletcher’s fear regarding opposition on the 
part of housemaids, except it be from an apprehension on their 
part that, with Othello’s and the chimney-sweeps’, their ‘‘ occu- 
pation be gone.” 

The tendency of grate-builders of the present day, and also of 


your correspondents, appears to be to look for economy to brick- 
linings, which no doubt have the effect of producing hot radiating 
surfaces. I maintain however that such radiation is obtained at 
too great a cost of fuel, and that superior economical results will, 
on the contrary, be attained by abstracting the heat from the 
back of the fire, and concentrating it upon the purely carbonaceous 
material in front of the same. 

To illustrate my reasoning I may here refer to an experiment 
which can easily be made of throwing a shovelful of bitu- 
minous coal into a steel-melting furnace ; the result is an instan- 
taneous dispersion of the coal, accompanied with a powerful 
refrigerative action on the furnace. In constructing gas-producers 
I take advantage of hot walls to turn solid into gaseous fuel, 
and a fireplace with hot brick bottom and sides is very much in 
the condition of a good gas-producer, giving out radiant heat 
no doubt, but combined with rapid distillation of combustible 
gases into the chimney. This action is made apparent in 
placing on the fuel towards the back of such a grate when in 
full glow a piece of wood, which will be seen to dwindle away 
rapidly without giving rise to flame, the atmosphere immediately 
over the glowing fuel being essentially a reducing one. 

In my grate the heat, on the contrary, is confined to the coke 
immediately behind the bars, in contact with the heating gas 
flames and with the air of the room flowing in towards the 
chimney, whereas the coke at the back of the grate remains 
comparatively cool and unconsumed throughout the day. The 
cold furnace-back also means a cold chimney, and it is rather 
remarkable to observe that in the case of the application at my 
office, a thermometer held high up into the chimney showed a 
temperature of only 130° F., while the front of the grate was ina 
high state of incandescence. These, I maintain, are conditions 
most favourable to economy combined with entire absence of 
smoke or deleterious gases. C. WILLIAM SIEMENS 

12, Queen Anne’s Gate, S.W., November 24 


CURIOUS IMPRESSIONS IN CAMBRIAN 
SANDSTONE NEAR LOCH MAREE 


N course of the short excursion to Loch Maree and its neigh- 
bourhood, Mr. Walter Carruthers, of the Zrverness Courter, 
happened, on June 13, to light upon an interesting portion of the 
Cambrian or Torridon Red Sandstone of the district, forming 
part of the bed of the burn, near Loch Maree Hotel, on 
which occur what have been called the Victoria Falls, so 
named from the fact that the Queen visited them. There 
an exposed surface of the rock about sixteen feet in length, 
nearly as much in breadth, and almost perfectly level, is 
marked by several double grooves quite discernible, and each 
divided by a very thin raised line. These traverse the whole 
length of the rock in a perfectly straight line, and on both 
sides of them are roughnesses which, if we could entertain 
the idea that the grooving had been caused by some living 
creatures, might be produced by footprints which have been to 
a great extent obliterated. The impressions were so striking that 
they immediately suggested a recollection of the footprints dis- 
covered in the sandstones of Morayshire and Tarbatness, though 
there was no other resemblance than their marked character on 
the broad, flat rock. Having heard ‘that Mr. William Jolly, 
H.M. Inspector of Schools, was in the neighbourhood, Mr. 
Carruthers called his attention to the subject, and indicated where 
he should find the markings. Mr. Jolly was not slow to examine 
the spot, and he writes to Mr, Carruthers as follows, as given in 
the /nverness Courier of July 1 :— : 

“<T found your curious lines without difficulty, guided by your 
accurate description of their locality. They are assuredly no 
‘mare’s nest,’ but doxd fide ancient impressions of some kind, 
which should receive the attention of geologists, both on their 
own account and as existing in the second oldest geological 
formation in Britain, in which, as yet in Scotland, no evidences 
whatever of organic life have been discovered. 

‘‘The lines or bands in question occur in the chocolate- 
coloured Torridon sandstone, the Cambrian of Murchison and 
Geikie, which is so well developed around Loch Maree, and 
rises into the great dome of the Slioch, or the Spear Head, that 
guards its waters. The most distinct of the impressions consists 
of two continuous flat bands side by side, 1% to 1 inch broad, 
and about a quarter of an inch deep, running quite straight across 
the flat layers of sandstone iw situ, and perfectly distinct for 
sixteen feet, disappearing on the west side under the superincum- 
bent rock, and broken only where portions of the sandstone have 


94 


NATURE 


[Nov, 25, 1880 


been weathered out. In some places a third line runs alongside 
the two, but this is much less distinct and persistent. The 
double band resembles nothing more nearly than the hollow 
impression that would be left by double bars of iron placed 
closely together and neatly inserted in the rock for clasping some 
structure on it, if the iron were subsequently removed ; or, as 
you suggest, the marks of a gouge driven by a carpenter across a 
board. The bands, when looked narrowly into, consist of very 
fine close hair-like lines, continuous and parallel to their sides, 
resembling very minute stric left by glaciation, and look as if 


caused by some object drawn along the original red sand, before | 


it became the present indurated rock. 

‘© A similar double line runs parallel to this one, about two 
feet lower down, seven feet long, and a third parallel double 
line on the other or upper side, three feet long, both of the 
same breadth as the first. Besides those pointed out by you, 
which occur on the same flat of sandstone, other lines exist 
farther down, on the other side of the pool below this rocky 
flat, on a similar bed of sandstone, part of the same layer—one 
three feet in length, another six feet, running more or less 
parallel to those above. Indications of others may also be seen, 
and, no doubt, several more may be discovered on more careful 
examination. 


| 


‘What they are I can scarcely even surmise, having seen | 


nothing of the same kind elsewhere. They do suggest the 


possibility of their being the indentations of the caudal append- | 


age of some huge creature, similar to the hollow tail-lines between 
the footprints on the sandstone at Tarbatness and along the shores 


of Morayshire—a suggestion strengthened by the fact of the | 
existence, on both sides of the line, of numerous rounded | 


hollow marks, very like the footprints on these reptiliferous 
rocks, occurring, as in tkem, at intervals. 
even breadth and square section of the bands would seem to 
render this impossible. 


But the continuous | 


Then they might be the depressions left | 


on the soft sand by the hinder portions of the shell of some large | 


crustacean—a more likely cause, rendered more probable by the 
existence of very good ripple-marks on the same sandstone, in 
the same and neighbouring layers. The stria-like lines of which 
the grooves consist would seem to point to some moving agent, 
organic or physical. They may, however, be the casts or 
impressions of some great land reed or sea fucoid, the hair-lines 
being the marks of the fine structure of its stem or the parallel 
veins of its leaves. It would be desirable to have the super- 
incumbent layer of rock carefully removed where the bands in 
question disappear under the upper rock, which might shed some 
light on the nature of the strange marks. I was sorry I could 
not spend more time on their examination,” 

The impressions occur about 300 or 400 yards above the 
Victoria Falls, and immediately beside the last of three lesser 
waterfalls on the west side of the stream. 


THE QUANTITIES OF WATER IN GERMAN 
RIVERS 


AN attempt has recently been made by Herr Graeve (De 

Civil- ngenieur, 1879, p. 591) to determine the amount of 
water in German rivers and its apportionment in different 
seasons, a question very important for navigation, and also of 
much scientific interest. His research comprehends the chief 
rivers of Germany, excluding the Danube, which begins to be 
navigable only outside of Germany, and including the Vistula 
and the Memel. He first calculated, from the mean heights of 
water, the quantities of water flowing out per second, and he 
adds a table in which the amount of outflow is shown in relation 
to the extent of the corresponding river territory. When the 
amount of outflow per 100 sq. km. of the region of precipitation 
is calculated the following values are obtained :—(1) the Rhine 
at Coblentz above the Moselle mouth delivers per 100 sq. km. of 
Jand 1'070 cub. m. of water in a second; (2) the Weser at 
Minden, 0°826cub m. ; (3) the Elbe at Sorgau, 0°579; (4) the 
Elbe at Barby, 0°554; (5) the Oder at Steinau, 07460 ; (6) the 
Oder below the Warta mouth, 0°413; (7) the Warta near its 
mouth, 0°344 ; (8) the Vistula at Montau ‘ipitz, 0°5385 (9) the 
Memel at Tilsit, 0600. 

From these numbers it appears (z) that the average outflow of 
different rivers, from equal portions of their territory, differs 
much more than is usually thought, for in the Middle Rhine it 
is about three times, in the Middle Weser two and a half times, 
and in the Middle Elbe, as also in the Lower Vistula and Memel, 
more than one and a half times as much as in the Lower Warta. 


On the whole, it decreases from the Rhine to the Warta, and 
from the latter increases again to the Memel. (4) In one and 
the same river the quantity from equal portions of land seems as 
a rule to decrease down stream, (c) Alll calculations of quantity 
of outflow in streams, based merely on extent of the region of 
precipitation, must as a rule give incorrect results. 

It was important to try and determine the relations of the 
quantity of outflow to the rainfall of the corresponding regions, 
and Herr Graeve, doing so by a method which he describes, 
obtained the following percentage numbers, corresponding to the 
above series of rivers:—(1) = 38°5 per cent.; (2) = 37p.c. ; 
(3) = 30 pc. 5 (4) = 28°5 p.c. 5 (5) = 27'2p.c. 5 (6) = 214 p.c. 5 
(7) = 21 p.c. 3 (8) = 29 p.c. 5; (9) = 32°5 p.c. 

From this the following conclusions (briefly) are drawn :— 

(a) The percentage proportion of the amount of outflow to 
the rainfall differs very considerably in these several rivers, 
though far less than the amount of outflow from equally large 


| regions of these rivers; hence the differences of the latter can 


be due only in part to differences in the rainfall. 

(2) The percentage decreases from the Rhine to the Warta, 
and increases again from the latter to the Memel. In one and 
the same river a decrease is perceptible down the stream, at 
least so far as the phenomena in the Oder and the Elbe are 
general. 

(c) Since in a mountainous region a greater part of the atmo- 
spheric precipitates is carried off by rivers than in the plain, the 
steady decrease in the percentage proportion of outflow to rain- 
fall in the direction from the Rhine to the Warta must be 
primarily attributed to the increasing flatness of the region ; so 
too must the decrease of the percentage down stream. The 
influence of more or less wood on the land could not be precisely 
determined. 

(2) The marked increase of the percentage in the direction 
from the Warta to the Memel cannot be explained by the 
orographic conditions of the region of precipitation, because 
this region in the case of the Memel is not at all hilly, 
and in that of the Vistula only a little more hilly than 
that of the Warta, but since the amount of the evaporated 
part of atmospheric precipitates is considerably influenced by 
the mean temperature of the region. of precipitation, and this 
in the region of the Vistula and the Memel is lower than in that 
of the Warta, the increase of percentage in question from the 
Warta to the Memel must mainly be attributed to climatic 
conditions. 

(e) While the percentage in question must be chiefly governed 
by orographic and climatic conditions, there can be no doubt 
that other factors also act, ¢.g., the relative amount of moisture 
in the air, which influences the degree of evaporation, and in 
general must decrease from the rainy Rhine region to the dry 
region of the Warta; further, the amount of plantation, which 
in the regions of the Vistula and Memel is larger than in those 
of all other German rivers; lastly, the nature of the ground, 
allowing more or less passage to the precipitates; the influence 
of all these factors, however, cannot be proved with the same 
certainty as the orographic and climatic conditions. 

A comparison of the amounts of outflow in different years 
shows that in individual rivers more important differences occur 
than are generally supposed, that these differences in rivers of 
different character and unequal force are very different in amount, 
and that in the same river they decrease down stream. 

With regard to the difference in amount of outflow in the 
various seasons and months, the following average values were 
obtained. The amount of outflow in winter (from the beginning 
of November to the end of April) is to that of summer, at the 
parts of the stream examined, in the Rhine as 1 : 0922, in the 
Weser as 1: 0'434, in the Elbe as 1: 0467, in the Oder as 
1: 0'525, and further down stream as I: 0°522, in the Vistula 
as 1:0 486, and in the Memel as 1:0°389. A better idea of 
the regularity of the quantities of outflow is given by the relations 
of these for the dryest and the wettest month of the year; in the 
case of the Rhine this ratio is 1: 17458, in the Weser I: 4, in 
the Elbe 1 : 5°238, in the Oder 1: 475, and further down 1 : 3°68 ; 
in the Vistula 1 : 4°19, and in the Memel 1: 4°51. 

The causes of the difference in the ratio of the largest and least 
monthly amounts of outflow must chiefly be sought in the 
presence or absence of collecting basins, as also in the 
orographic and climatic conditions. In the Rhine all those 
factors combine which affect the regularity of outflow. It 
possesses in the Swiss lakes large reservoirs; its river-region 
comprises mountains of various height, and plains, so tha‘ the 


Nov. 25, 1880] 


NATURE 


95 


melting of the snow must occur at very different times of the year. 
The Memel also possesses reservoirs in its marshes, and its region 


-is perhaps better wocded than that of the other streams of 


q 


Germany, but the long and hard winters cause an accumulation 
of large masses of ice and snow which melt suddenly and almost 
simultaneously in the whole region. 

Herr Graeve takes up various other points, which have a 
practical bearing on navigation, but for these we must refer the 
reader to his memoir. He remarks in concluding on the desira- 
bility of comparing the conditions of outflow of German rivers 
with corresponding data for other European rivers, though at 
present the scanty and incomplete character of the data at hand 
render such inquiry scarcely practicable. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

THE Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, 
vol. xii. fascicules 5 and 6, contain, besides the minutes of meet- 
ings of the Society, the following papers :—In fascicule 5: On 
the dosage of chromium, by M. Th. Willm.—On the composition 
of the hydrate of peroxide of barium, by M. E. Schone.—On the 
distribution of naphtha on the peninsula of Apsheron, by M. S. 
Goulichambaroff.—On the oxidation of ketones, by M. Gold- 
stein.—On the products of oxidation of erythrite, by M. S. 
Przibytek.—A necrology of Prof. Nicolas Zinin, by MM. Borodin 
and Boutleroff.—On the magnetisation of liquids, by M. Ziloff.— 
On hail, by M. Schwedoff.—Notes by M. Latchinoff on specific 
heat, on a new dynamometer, and on electrical light.—In fasci- 
cule 6: On chlorocamphoric oxide, by M. Latchinoff.—On the 
action of heat on phosphorites, by M. Beletzky:—On tetrolic 
acid, by M. Lagermark,—On the solidification and evaporation 
of drops of liquid, by M. Sloughinoff.—On the dosage of mercury 
and arsenic in corpses ; and an analysis of the artesian wells of 
Staraya Rousia. 

Révue internationale des Sciences biologigzues, July, 1880.— 
J. L. de Lanessan, on the protozoa (a chapter with illustrations 
from the author’s forthcoming ‘‘Manuel d’Histoire Naturelle 
médicale).—A. Hovelacque, on the inferior races of mankind.— 
M. Debierre, man before and on the threshold of history.—Pro- 
ceedings of the Academies of Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam. 

August.—J. L. de Lanessan, the coloration and the colouring- 
matters in plants.—M. Moniez, on the cysticers of Tznia.—M. 
Debierre, man before and on the threshold of history.—Pro- 
ceedings of the Academies of Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam. 

September.—M. Vulpian, physiological study of poisons: 
curare.—M. J. L. de Lanessan, the saccharomycetes and the 
fermentations caused by them.—Prof. W. H. Flower, on the 
comparative anatomy of man (translated from NATURE).—M. 
R. Moniez, on cestoid worms and helminthologists.—Proceedings 
of the Academy of Paris. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Chemical Society, November 18.—-Prof. H. E. Roscoe, 
president, in the chair.—It was announced that a ballot for the 
election of Fellows would take place at the next meeting 
(December 2).—The following papers were read :—Notes on the 
oxides of manganese, by Spencer Pickering. Various samples 
of oxides were procured and heated to various temperatures, 
until their weight was constant ; in some cases they lost weight, 
in others they gained, whilst in some the weight remained 
constant.—On aluminium alcohols, by J. H. Gladstone and A. 
Tribe. When aluminium foil and iodine are heated with alcohol 
the latter is decomposed, two new organic aluminic compounds 
being formed, alumini: iodoethylate (C;H,O),I,A1,, and aluminic 
ethylate Al,(C,H,O);. The authors have applied this reaction 
to other alcohols, and have thus prepared aluminic methylate, 
ethylate, propylate (isopropylate could not be obtained), iso- 
butylate, amylate, cetylate, phenylate, cresylate, and thymolate. 
—Mr. W. H. Perkin then gave an account of the artificial pro- 
duction of indigo by A. Baeyer, and prepared some before the 
Society. The steps in the process are: toluene C,H,O, di- 
chloride of benzyl C;H;CHCl,, cinnamic acid CyH,O,, ortho- 
nitrocinnamic acid C,H-,(NO,)O,, orthonitrodibromhydrocin- 
namic acid CyH,Br,O,(NO,); by the action of caustic potash 
orthonitrophenylpropiolic acid C,H;(No,)O, is formed, which 
on reduction in alkaline solution with grape sugar furnishes 
indigo C,,;H,)N.O,.—On the synthetical production of new 
acids of the pyruvic series, by E. Moritz.—On the old alum 
well at Harrogate, by R. H. Davis. The author gives 
an analysis of the mineral constituents in the residue.—On the 


absorption spectrum of ozone, by W. N. Hartley.—On the 
probable absorption of the solar rays by atmospheric ozone, by 
W.N. Hartley, The author has photographed and measured 
the absorption spectrum of ozone ; he suggests that the shortening 
of the solar spectrum at the violet end is due to the presence of 
ozone in the atmosphere, also that the blue colour of the sky may 
be ascribed to the same cause.—On peppermint camphor, by M. 
Moriya of Tokio. The author has studied carefully the physical 
characters of this substance; he has also investigated the action 
of chromic acid, nitric acid, and bromine thereon. 


Zoological Society, November 16.—Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., 
vice-president, in the chair.—Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., read 
a paper on the development of the skull in the Urodele Batra- 
chians. Mr, Parker described the skull of the adult Gigantic 
Salamander (Stebo/dia maxima), the Siren and the Menopoma, and 
compared their structure with that of the various stages of the skull 
of the common newt.—Mr. G. E. Dobson, C.M.Z.S., exhibited 
and made remarks on the head of a partridge (Perdix cinerea) 
with an extraordinary prolongation of the intermaxillary bones. 
—Mr. W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S., made some remarks on the shed 
ding of the horns of the Prong-buck (Avtilocapra americana), 
as recently observed in the specimen living in the Society’s Gar- 
dens.—Mr. Harting, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of Bartram’s 
Sandpiper, recently killed in Lincolnshire.—Mr. Sclater exhibited 
the skin of the Guinea Fowl, lately described in the Society’s 
Proceedings as Nunida Ellioti, Further investigation had in- 
duced him to believe that this bird was the same as Mumida 
pucherani of Hartlaub, the inaccurate colouring of the head in 
Mr. Elliot’s figure of that species having prevented its identifi- 
cation.—Mr. G. A. Boulenger read a paper on the Palzarctic 
and J/Zthiopian species of Bufo, of which he recognised ten 
species : four in the Palzarctic, five in the A®thiopian region, 
and one found in both regions—A communication was read 
from Dr. Otto Finsch, C.M.Z.S., in which he gave a list of the 
birds of the Island of Ruk, in the Central Carolines.—A second 
communication from Dr. Finsch contained the descriptions of 
some new or little-known species of pigeons from the Caroline 
Islands.—A communication was read from Mr. Edgar A. Smith, 
containing an account of the shells of the genus AZyodora of 
Gray.—A communication was read from Mr. Martin Jacoby, in 
which he gave the descriptions of a collection of Phytophagous 
Coleoptera made by Mr. Buckley at Eastern Ecuador. The 
collection contained a good many new and interesting species, of 
which a great part were not alone inhabitants of Ecuador, but 
had been found either in Peru or the Amazonian region.—A 
paper by Messrs. F. D. Godman and O, Salvin was read, in 
which they gave the descriptions of some supposed new species 
of butterflies collected by Mr. Andrew Goldie in the interior of 
the district of Port Moresby, New Guinea. 


Physical Society, November 13.—Prof. W. G. Adams in 
the chair—Mr. Bosanquet, of St. John’s College Physical 
Laboratory, Cambridge, read a paper on the nature of the sounds 
which occur in the beats of consonance. From mistimed octaves 
and twelfths he found that when the beats of the harmonics are 
cleared away each beat consists entirely of variations in the 
intensity of the lower notes. He gave the mathematical theory 
of these beats, and likewise of the curves given by the harmono- 
graph. He also described an ear-tube for using in connection 
with a resonator. It is difficult to get definite results with a 
resonator unless the passage from the latter to the ear is closed 
to sound. The ear tube consists of a copper pipe bent into a 
sickle shape to gird the face, so that the ends may enter the 
ears, into which they are screwed, plugging them close. The 
sound is led from the resonator to the middle of the bent 
pipe by a flexible india-rubber tube, and thence to the ears.— 
Mr. Brown read a paper on action at a distance. He drew atten- 
tion to the fact that though Newton disbelieved in action at a 
distance, he did not pronounce whether the medium was material 
or immaterial. Mr. Brown showed that the hypothesis of a 
material medium was encumbered with difficulties, since, among 
other reasons, direct contact could not explain gravity, projection 
of small particles from one body to another could not explain 
attraction, and Lesage’s theory of corpuscles (as modified by 
Mr. Tolver Preston) required an enormous degree of porosity 
in masses of matter, The nature of magnetism and vibrations 
was also discussed by the author.—Mr. J. Macfarlane Gray read 
a paper on the mechanical nature of the forces called attraction, 
and gave grounds for attributing them to the pressures of a uni- 
versal material ether ofa gaseous nature. The paper was long, and 
had to be in part left unread. The hypothesis held by Mr. Gray 


96. 


NATURE 


[Vov. 25, 1880 


is remarkably confirmed by numerical results obtained by him,— 
Prof. Cottrell threw some doubts on Mr. Gray’s results on the 
score that numerical coincidences were not always safe ground 
for basing theoretical deductions on, Mr, Gray stated that in 
the parts of the paper which had to be skipped Prof. Cottrell’s 
objections were answered. He also pointed out that Mr. Brown 
in his criticism of the gasiform ether had not taken into account 
the important condition that the particles of ether have volume.— 
Professors Perry and Ayrton read a note on the contact-theory 
of Herr Exner recently brought before the Academy of Sciences 
of Vienna. They showed that Exner’s experimental results 
disagreed with the concordant results of several independent 
experimenters, namely, Kohlrausch, Hankner, and Ayrton and 
Perry. They concluded that Herr Exner’s experiments were 
inaccurate. They further argued that Exner’s second and later 
paper, so far from being a disproof of the contact theory of 
electromotive force as now received, is in reality a proof of it. 
Dr. Wright stated that he will read a paper on this subject soon ; 
and Prof. Reinhold said that Herr Exner had since corrected 
some of the results of his early papers on contact electricity.— 
Prof. Minchin of Cooper’s Hill Engineering College exhibited 
a new photo-electric cell. This consists of a vessel of water 
containing a little acid, carbonate of calcium, and two tinfoil 
plates. When a beam of lime light was allowed to fall on one 
of the plates, a powerful current was set up in the cell, as seen 
by the deflection of a galvanometer connected in circuit with 
the plates. When a red glass screen intercepted the beam, the 
effect was very slight. Prof, Minchin had begun his experi- 
ments with fluorescence, but found ‘‘ hard” water containing 
this salt of lime do equally well. The cell possesses this advan- 
tage: that the current it gives soon decreases in the light. 
When first the light falls on it, the exposed plate is positive, 
but it soon changes to negative. Prof. Minchin had tried the 
cell in place of a selenium one in the photophone, but with 
unsatisfactory results. 


Anthropological Institute, November 9,—Edward B. 
Tylor, D.C.L., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—A paper was 
read on anthropological colour phenomena in Belgium and else- 
where, by J. Beddoe, M.D., F.R.S. Within the last few years 
the numerical method had been extensively applied to the deter- 
mination of ethnological colour-types, the Anthropometric Com- 
mittee of the British Association having set the example. The 
Continental nations were, however, now far ahead of us. In 
Germany Prof. Virchow had procured the tabulation as to 
the colour of the eyes and hair of all the school popula- 
tion, with the exception of Hamburg. In Switzerland Dr. 
Guillaume, of Neuchatel, had obtained school statistics. For 
Belgium an elaborate monograph had been written on the subject 
by Prof. Vander Kindere, who, by the aid of the National Geo- 
graphical Society, had induced the Minister of Public Instruction 
to include questions on the colour of the children’s eyes and hair 
in the educational census. The results obtained have been of 
considerable importance, and bring out a remarkable contrast 
between the Flemish and Walloon provinces of Belgium.—Mr, 
J. F. Rowbotham read a paper on different stages in the deve- 
lopment of the art of music in prehistoric times. Musical 
instruments, though their varieties may be counted by hundreds, 
are yet readily reducible under three distinct types: 1. The drum 
type. 2. The pipe type. 3. Thelyre type. And these three 
types are representative of three distinct stages of development 
through which prehistoric music has passed. Moreover, the 
stages occur in the order named, That is to say, the first stage 
in the development of instrumental music was the drum stage, in 
which drums, and drums alone, were used by man, The second 
stage was the pipe stage, in which pipes as well as drums were 
used. The third stage was the lyre stage, in which stringed 
instruments were added to the stock. The three stages answer 
respectively to rhythm, melody, and harmony. And as in the 
geological history of the globe the chalk is never found below 
the oolite, nor the oolite below the coal, so in the musical history 
of mankind is the lyre stage never found to precede the pipe 
stage, nor the pipe stage to precede the drum stage.—A paper 
was read on neolithic implements in Russia, by Prince Paul 
Poutiatine. From the evidence of certain finds on his estate the 
author came to the conclusion: 1. That the Sclave-Scythians 
existed there in the stone period. 2, That they possessed instru- 
ments resembling those of the Celt-Scythians, and burned their 
dead, 3. That the old iron period of that neighbourhood was a 
continuation of the stone period. 4. That they supported them- 
selyes partly by hunting. 5. That they understood corn-growing. 


Meteorological Society, November 17.—Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The following gentlemen were 
elected Fellows: G, Corden, E. T. Dowson, F. Hepburn, B.A., 
C. M. Hepworth, J. Mulvany, M.D., R.N., F. H. G. Newton, 
Capt. M. Parry, E. P. Phillips, and H. L. Roth.—The papers 
read were: Table of relative humidity, by Edward E, Dymond, 
F.M.S.—Rainfall in South Africa, by John G. Gamble, M.A., 
M. Inst. C.E., F.M.S. The author gives the monthly totals of 
rainfall from 103 stations for the thirteen months, December 
1878 to December 1879, and also the monthly means from all 
stations in South Africa from which a record of five years or 
upwards could be obtained. It is shown that the Cape Penin- 
sula, the South-West and the West Coast, have winter rains 
with a dry summer, characteristics of what is called the sub- 
tropical region, the rains coming with the north-west wind or 
anti-trade; while Natal, Aliwal north, and in a less degree | 
Queenstown, have the tropical features of a wet summer and dry 
winter. On the South Coast the rainfall appears to be more 
equally distributed throughout the year, though there seems to 
be an October maximum at Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage. In 
the Central and Northern Karroo the maximum of the very 
scanty rainfall occurs in February and March. These rains 


generally fall in thunderstorms ; each storm seems to come from 


a westerly direction, but it is a more or less well-ascertained fact 
that these rains do not fall up country until the south-easters 
have set in on the South and South-West Coasts. In the south- 
east of the colony the transition towards tropical features may 
be noticed, both Grahamstown and King Williamstown showing 
a winter minimum in June.—On the meteorology of Mackay, 
Queensland, by Henry L. Roth.—Thermometrical observations 
on board ship, by Capt. W. F. Caborne, F.M.S. 


VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, November 18.—Contribu- 
butions to general nerve and muscle physiology, by Dr. Bieder- 
mann.—On rhythmic contractions of striped muscles, produced 
by chemical stimulation, by the same.—On some platino-cyanide 
compounds, by Herr Scholz.—On resorcin colouring matters, by 
Drs. Wesselskyund and Benedikt.—On the formation of car- 
boxylnatron acid from Brenz, catechin, and the constitutional 
formula of benzol, by Prof. v. Barth.—Note on mononitro- 
pyrogallol, by the same.—The distribution of rainfall over 
Austria in the period August 11-15, 1880, and its relation to 
distribution of air-pressure, by Herr Hann.} 


CONTENTS Pace 
SutpHuric Acip AND ALKALI. By Prof. H. E. Roscor, F.R.S. . . 
THE FLORAOF PEYMOUTH' Se -/s ¢ jc +) \= yo) Kelle Niclumennns 


Our Book SHELF :— 
Reiss and Stiibel’s ‘“‘ Peruvian Antiquities’®. . . . . . Sane 
“Exposé Historique concernant le Cours des Machines, dans 
l’Enseignement del’Ecole Polytechnique” ..... ++ « 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Fertilisation of Yucca.—Lord WALSINGHAM . . 
Skin Furrows of the Hand.—Sir W. J. HerscHEL 
The Aurora of the 3rd Instant.—J. Ranp Carron 
Temperature of the Breath.—Dr. R. E. DupGEon; 
Coral Reefs and Islands.—JosrrH LECoNTE . 
Vox Angelica.—GrorGe RAYLEIGH VICARS  . 
Fascination(?)—ArrHur Nicors .... - 
Soaring of Birds—W. LARDEN . ...- . «© 
The Photophone.—A. R. Motison. «. .« . 
Salts of Zinc.—S, ; W. Borr . Sa.e) ee akewee 
Tue Works oF CARL voN NAGELI. By SypNney H. 
Pror. Tair ON THE FoRMULA OF EVOLUTION . . . » Oat) . 
CometT-FInvERS (With Diagrant) «© . »« « « « «© « « © © = « 
NOTES ie, yo reuse site is] @) 9) "el ie) «oy el pele) seus aa ee 
Our AsTRONOMICAL CoLUMN :— 
The Third Comet of 1869 . . . . 
The Star Lalande 1013-4 . « + « « 
CHREMICALJNOTES (. 5. "3 =) « ee le 8 
PuysicAL NOTES . . « « » + © 5 
GroGrRarHicaL NOTES ..... - = 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 
Ow a Mernop oF DETERMINING THE CRITICAL TEMPERATURE FOR 
ANY Liguip AND ITs VAPoUR WITHOUT MECHANISM. By Sir 
WILLIAM THOMSON, F.R.S. - «05 of) = ss = 2 © 2 se 8 
ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS, 
AND THEIR RELATION TO SuN-SPOTS, RAINFALL, AND FAMINES. 
By Frep. CHampers (With Diagram). «© - + + + + + ss 
Dr. Stemens’ NEw Cure ror Smoke. [By D. A. Srevenson ; Cosmo 
Innes; TuHos. FLrercHer; Dr. C. Witt1am Siemens, F-.R.S. 
(With Diagrams) . 
Curious IMPRESSIONS 
MAREE |). Pi weuntete emlomieiereige s'he var ies 
THE QUANTITIES OF WATER IN GERMAN RIVERS. - 
ScIENTIFIC SERIALS ; 
SociETIES AND ACADEMIES. . + © + © «© # e + *& 


aneme.e s 
Siene: she 


te i eC eC Cm er Ce ce te 
IN CAMBRIAN SANDSTONES NEAR LOCH 
Or MEO! roe Gol 


ite ee Cian ee CMO De O07 2 
. 


NALORE 


97 


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1880 


POLITICAL ECONOMY 


Guide to the Study of Political Economy. By Dr. Luigi 
Cossa, Professor of Political Economy in the Univer- 
sity of Pavia. Translated from the second Italian 
edition. With a Preface by W. Stanley Jevons, F.R.S. 
(London: Macmillan and Co., 1880.) 


HE translator of Prof. Cossa’s “ Guide” has conferred 

a great boon upon the English student of political eco- 
nomy. The present condition of economic science gene- 
rally, and especially in this country, cannot be regarded as 
satisfactory. The doctrines once regarded as firmly esta- 
blished, and the limits of discussion apparently viewed as 
fixed by the nature of the facts, have been subjected to 
criticism from the most varied grounds, and the process 
of disintegration, not yet completed, has not led to any 
general agreement with respect to the scope and prin- 
ciples of the science. The system of political economy, 
which with some justice we designate as the English, 
has been revised or attacked on two grounds mainly. In 
the first place, the fundamental notions upon which it 
proceeded have been criticised as too narrow and 
limited, as referring solely to one economic condition 
and as leading to results of an abstract and isolated 
character. The “Economic Studies’’ of the late Mr. 


Bagehot represent fairly this phase of opinion, while the 


excellent little compendium by Prof. and Mrs. Marshall, 
the “Economics of Industry,’’ is a specimen of the mode 
in which the older theorems require to be restated in the 
light of more general principles. In the second place, 
the great advance in what we may call social science, and 
the application of the historic method to the study of the 
various orders of social facts, have led, on the part of 
many modern writers, to an almost total rejection of the 
whole system of doctrines grouped together under the 
title of Political Economy. The fundamental principles, 
the methods of reasoning from them, and the conclusions 
arrived at, have all been questioned, while a perfectly 
chaotic state of opinion appears to exist regarding the 
nature and method of that which is to take the place 
of the formerly accepted doctrine. 

The present work supplies most timely aid in the dis- 
cussion of these complicated problems. The first part 
(pp. 1-84), which treats in a thoughtful and judicious 
manner the province of political economy, its method, 
and its bearing upon social facts generally, brings into 
due prominence the immense extent and variety of the 
inquiries which, in an unsystematic fashion, have come to 
be included in one body of doctrine, and fairly warrants 
the conclusion that in future we must regard political 
economy as a complex of different sciences, with distinct 
aims and requiring distinct methods of treatment. The 
second part (pp. 85-227), containing a brief sketch of the 
history of the science, which we may without hesitation 
pronounce as unrivalled of its kind, leads by another 
path to the same result. The English student will learn 
from this history of the development of the science, 
more especially from the admirable account of recent 
German and Italian works, the nature of the various 
general principles which have been accepted as furnishing 

VoL. xx111.—No, 579 


the foundation of economics and its allied branches, and 
will be enabled to discover in what respects mainly the 
peculiar doctrines of the older system require revision 
and amendment. 

Prof. Cossa would doubtless be the first to admit that 
the brief treatment here given of so complex a problem 
as the determination of the province and logical cha- 
racter of political economy cannot be expected to furnish 
a final solution, His remarks on the essential nature of 
pure or theoretical political economy, which he regards 
as the science of the socéa/ laws of wealth, are at least 
instructive and helpful, while the sections on the relation 
of economics to the various branches of legislative science 
leave little to be desired. At the same time it may be 
doubted whether there is really any place for the art of 
political economy here alluded to, and it may be ques- 
tioned whether the mode the author adopts for separating 
economics from technology on the one hand, and from 
economic legislation on the other, is satisfactory in itself, 
or so clear as what we find, ¢.g.,in Hermann and Wagner, 
The chapter on Method in Political Economy contains 
little more than a judicious reproduction of Cairnes’ 
well-known essay, and the remarks on the historical 
method, though acute and sensible, do not seem to us to 
go to the root of the matter. 

The historical sketch, the main feature of the work, 
deserves every praise that can be given for breadth and 
exactitude of knowledge, for fairness and acuteness of 
criticism. Particularly valuable are the sections on the 
Political Economy of the Greeks and Romans, and on the 
Physiocratic school. One recognises with satisfaction 
the cordial appreciation extended by the author to certain 
great works of modern Continental economists which are 
scarcely known, even by name, in this country, but which 
must be pronounced absolutely indispensable to the 
student. Such e.g. are v. Hermann’s “ Staatswirthschaft- 
liche Untersuchungen,’ the first section of which is 
certainly the best treatment of the fundamental notions of 
pure economics, v. Mangoldt’s “ Volkswirthschaftslehre,” 
Knies’ “ Geld und Credit,’ Courcelle-Seneuil’s “‘ Traité,” 
and Cherbuliez’ “ Précis.’’ As text-books of the subject, 
vy. Mangoldt’s ‘ Grundriss’? and Cherbuliez’ ‘‘ Précis”’ 
are unsurpassed. 

Naturally one cannot always assent to the critical 
opinions expressed on detached doctrines or authors. 
Thus it seems to us that the author ought not to have 
included Codillac without further mention as a follower 
of Quesnay; that his estimate of the merits of Storch’s 
“Cours” is much too low; that he is hardly fair to von 
Thiinen’s acute speculations on interest and wages; and 
that he is quite mistaken regarding the nature of v. Man- 
goldt’s theory of profit. What Prof. Cossa, in this con- 
nection, stigmatises as “an equivocation’’ (p. 200) is in 
fact a misunderstanding of his own. 

In a brief sketch covering so wide a literature as that 
of political economy, absolute completeness is not to be 
expected, and probably the author has good reasons for 
omitting various names which occur to one as having a 
place in the history of the science. Still one is surprised 
to find a studious omission of the whole school of econo- 
mical writers to which the vague term socialist has been 
applied. Proudhon, we think, is mentioned once; Fourier, 
St. Simon, and Karl Marx are not mentioned at all. So 


6 


98 


NATURE 


| Dec. 2, 1880 


— 


too, American writers are dismissed without notice, save a 
passing allusion to F. A. Walker. Carey’s theories are 
occasionally referred to in connection with other names, 
but no specific account is given of them, nor are other 
American authors, orthodox or heterodox, better treated. 


Even a general history ought not, one would think, to | 
| place of description. 


have omitted notice of such writers as Lord Lauderdale 
(whose treatment of Demand and of the Functions of 
Capital has. not received the attention it deserves), R, 
Jones (whose essay on the Early English Economists 
might also have been noted in its proper place), Jacob, 
Stirling (the translator of Bastiat and author of an 


excellent but well-nigh forgotten work, “ Philosophy of | 


Commerce’), Bernhardi (the author of a remarkable 
treatise on Large and Small Landed Properties), Hiibner, 
H. Thornton, Baumstark, Skarbek, Cieskowski, Saint- 
Chamans, Esmenard de Mazet, Louis Say, Schén, 
Canard, and Cazeaux, Dureau de la Malle’s work might 
have been noted in connection with the political econ- 
omy of the Romans, and De Tracy’s name should not 


have passed without reference to his commentary on | 


Montesquieu, 
The translation appears to us generally excellent, and 


the translator, who is evidently well acquainted with the | 


subject, deserves much credit for the clear and concise 
English into which she has rendered Prof. Cossa’s work, 


OUR BOOK SHELF 

Avis préliminaire dune nouvelle Classification de la 

Famille des Dytiscide. Par D. Sharp. (Extrait des 

Comptes rendus de la Société Entomologique de Bel- 

gique, Séance du 4 septembre, 1880.) 
DR. SHARP is well known to have been long occupied on 
a work on the water-beetles of the world (at any rate on 
those of this particular family). The author announces 
it as ready for the press, and has forwarded to the Belgian 
Entomological Society a sketch of his ideas of the limits 
of the family and its classification, from which we learn that 
about 80 genera are recognised. One of the most important 
characters, as separating true Dytiscide from Carabide 
and from all other Coleoptera, appears to consist of the con- 
dition of the metathoracic episternum in connection with 
the intermediate cotyloid cavities. The family as a whole 
is divided into two great divisions, termed “/ragmentat’, 
and ‘‘complicati,” the latter being headed by the anoma- 
lous genus Amp/zizoa, the position assigned to which will 
perhaps not find universal favour. No one can doubt 
that the book, when it appears, will mark an era in this 
department of entomology. It is a great pity therefore 
that Dr. Sharp should throw himself open to the shafts 


of ridicule in his choice of terms wherewith to designate | 


some of his new genera. We need only allude here to 

such terms as Huaelhydrus (presumably a misprint for 

Huxleyhydrus), Darwinhydrus, and Tyndalhydrus !!! 

We all revere the honoured names that form the prefixes, 

and fail to realise the watery connection suggested ; if 

we mistake not, the bearers of them are not disciples of 

Sir{Wilfrid Lawson. 

Aid to the Identification of Insects. Edited by Charle 
Owen Waterhouse. Lithographs by Edwin Wilson. 
Small 4to, Part I. (London: E. W. Janson, 35, Little 
Russell Street, W.C.) 

Mr. WATERHOUSE, whose duties in the zoological de- 

partment of the British Museum have probably continu- 

ally caused him to feel the want of some such work as 
that which he now commences under the above title, has 
conceived the idea of issuing, at intervals of a month or 
six weeks, a series of hand-coloured drawings of insects 
of all orders not previously figured. Every working 
naturalist knows that a good pictorial representation con- 


veys a more accurate and ready perception of a species 


‘than the most elaborate verbal description ; and we can 


| knowledge of the arcana of science than this. 


imagine no more ready way of widely disseminating a 
; C L C Each part 
is to contain eight or nine plates, each representing a 
single species, with its generic and specific names, the 
name of its describer, and a reference to its locality and 
The plates can be classified on the 
completion of a volume (twelve parts), when a title-page 
and index will be issued. 

The first part, just issued, contains some well-executed 
figures of Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera. The 
whole idea is unconsciously a repetition of Prof. McCoy’s 
“Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,’ but with no 
Government money to back it up. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 


[The Editor does not hola himselfresponsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents, Neither can he undertake to return, or 
to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 
notice ts taken of anonymous communications. | 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that tt 
as impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of comt- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


Geological Climates 

I HAVE read with much interest Mr. Starkie Gardner’s letter 
in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 53. 

It is not necessary for me to discuss the question whether I 
am right in requiring an increase of 20° F. mean annual tem- 
perature at Bournemouth in Eocene times, or whether he is 
right in demanding an increase of only 14° F. to 15°, for I am 
able to show that the one increase is as zmpossible as the other, 
on the principles held by Lyell and his followers. 

Mr. Starkie Gardner’s ideas on the subject of oceanic circu- 
lation and its effects upon climate are expressed in the following 
words :— 

“The general cooling effect of incessant oceanic circulation 
between the North Pole and the Tropics is, I think, scarcely 
taken into sufficient account ; and although it may be contended 
that conversely the northerly flow of the Gulf Stream mitigates 
climate, I think that its action in Europe is chiefly in fending 
off the ice-laden currents from our coasts,” &c., &c. 

This statement, to my mind, involves so complete a misappre- 
hension not only of the physical causes of oceanic circulation, 
but also of the whole problem of geological climate, that I shall 
ask your permission to lay down a few elementary propositions 
on the subject, which are capable of demonstration. 

1. The Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic, so far from 
acting the part of a policeman in ‘‘ fending off” imaginary cold 
water streams from the Polar regions, is the cazse of their exis- 
tence. If there were no Gulf Stream there could be no Labrador 
current of cold water running south. The same statement is 
true of the Kuro-Siwo of the North Pacific, of the Brazilian 
current of the South Atlantic, and of the Mozambique curren 
of the Indian Ocean, 

2. If the globe were covered with water, or in the condition of 
an archipelago pretty uniformly distributed, there would be no 
exchange of currents between the Tropics and the Poles, and 
consequently no effect upon climate. Within the Tropics there 
would be a broad, slow current of warm water moving from 
east to west, and producing no effect upon climate. 
perate zones there would be in the northern hemisphere a feeble 
interchange of south-westerly and north-easterly currents, and 
in the southern hemisphere a similar interchange of north- 
westerly and south-easterly currents, both incapable of affecting 
climate to any sensible degree. 

3. Ifa north and south barrier be constructed to the westward 
of a locality like the West of Europe; such a barrier as North 
and South America affords, a gulf stream is, at once, formed, and 
a corresponding Labrador current running in thé opposite direc- 
tion.! ‘The effect of the Gulf Stream is to raise the temperature 
of the West of Europe to its »zaximum, and the effect of the 
Labrador current is to depress the temperature of the east coast 
of North America to its minimum. 

4. It is zmpossible to suggest any rearrangement of land and 
water which shall sensibly vaise the temperature of the West of 


t The earth’s rotation compels the Gulf Stream to impinge on the west 
coast of Europe, and the Polar current on the east coast of North America. 


In the tem- — 


"7 4).. 7 


NATURE 


99 


Dec. 2, 1880] 


Europe, or sensibly depress the temperature of the east of North 
America. 

Mr. Gardner makes the following hypothetical redistribution 
of land and water :— 

‘* Supposing, as all evidence tends to prove,' that Northern 
Europe and America were connected by continuous land in 
Eocene time, would not the mere fact of shutting off the Arctic 
seas cause a general and perhaps sufficient rise of temperature ? ” 

My answer to this is that such an arrangement of land and 
water in the North Atlantic would raise considerably the present 
minimum temperature of the east coast of North America, but 
would produce little or no effect in raising the already maximum 
temperature of West Europe, which already receives the full 
benefit of the Gulf Stream, and suffers none of the injuries of 
the Labrador current. 

It seems to me not possible to raise the mean annual tempera- 
ture of Bournemouth 15° F, or 20° F, without supposing an zz- 
creased Gulf Stream ; in other words, an az increased sun-heat, 
which is contrary to the ideas of Lyell and his followers, 

I must again ask Mr. Duncan to name the sfecies of bamboo 
that flourishes so luxuriantly at Cooper’s Hill under the disad- 
vantageous conditions he has so well described. 

If he decline to do so I have no other remedy than to go to 
the Indian Engineering College on my next visit to London, and 
inspect and report on the bamboo myself. 


Trin. Coll. Dub., November 23 SAML, HAUGHTON 


“Sulphuric Acid and Alkali” 

Mr. MAcTEAR informs me that the statements contained in 
my review of Prof. Lunge’s second volume, which appeared in 
your columns last week, require amendment, and I beg, in 
justice to Mr. Mactear, to make the following remarks :— 

1, It appears that the direct object of Mr. Mactear’s process 
is to reduce the amount of limestone to the least possible amount. 
Hence the words ‘‘in excess of that usually worked’’ are to be 
omitted in the sentence referring to this subject. 

2. With regard to the statement that many thousands of 
pounds have been gained in a single works by the adoption of 
Mr. Mactear’s process, that gentleman has placed in my hands 
the proof that this fact is correct. 

There remains however no doubt that, in the Lancashire 
district at least, the liming process is not now so generally 
adopted as Dr. Lunge implies; but this may be explained by 
the fact that Mactear’s process greatly reduces the quantity of 
caustic soda, and this does not suit the Lancashire plan of 
working. H, E, Roscor 


A General Theorem in Kinematics 

Pror, MINCHIN has been anticipated in his discovery of the 
theorem on uniplanar motion given in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 62, 
It was published some six years ago by Prof. W. Schell of the 
Polytechnikum, Carlsruhe, in the Zeetschrift fiir Mathematik 
und Physik, xix. 3. The paper containing it is entitled ‘‘ Ueber 
den Beschleunigung zustand des ebenen unveranderlichen, in der 
Ebene beweglichen Systems,” and commences at p. 185. The 
two parts of the theorem will be found in leaded type at pp. 190 
and 192. The paper (which is an admirable specimen of clear 
writing) is purely kinematical, and treats only of motion zz A/ano. 
The dynamical consequences pointed out by Prof. Minchin are 

“accordingly not to be found in it; nor the analogous theorem 
for the general motion of a rigid body obtained by Prof. 
Wolstenholme, The following quaternion proof of the latter 
theorem may interest some of your readers. 

The velocity p of the particle at vector distance p from a fixed 
origin is— p=a+VBp, 

a being the velocity at the origin, and £ the angular velocity. 

The acceleration is therefore— 

p=a+VBp+ VB(a+ VBp), 
and will be zero for one definite value of p. 

Taking the point of no acceleration for origin, the constant 
terms in the expresssion for the acceleration must vanish, and 
the expression will be reduced to— 

; p=VBp+ VBVBp, 
which is identical with Prof, Wolstenholme’s result. 

_ Malone Road, Belfast, November 22 J. D. Everetr 

4 ise 

Phosphorescent Centipedes 

On September 28 last I was walking in my garden here at 

eight o’clock in the evening with a friend, when we were 


~ *I entirely deny this, but will not now turn aside from my present 
purpose to discuss it. 


simultaneously attracted by a bright light about twenty paces in 
front of us. The light was so bright that in the distance it 
looked like moonlight through the trees ; and had the moon been 
shining we should probably not again have thought about the 
light until we came upon it. But it was a dark night, though 
warm and even sultry, and still. The light was so bright that, 
taking a letter out of my pocket, I could read it, It resembled 
an electric light, and proceeded from the bodies of two centi- 
pedes and their two trails, The centipedes were about four 
inches apart. The light illumined the entire body of the animal, 
and seemed to increase its diameter three times. It flashed along 
both sides of the creature in sections ; there being about six 
sections from head to tail, between which the light played. The 
light behaved precisely like the electric light, moving as it were 
perpetually in two streams, one on each side, and yet lighting 
up the whole body. In the trail there was no movement, but 
light only, The trail extended 1} foot from each centipede over 
the grass and the gravel-walk, and it had the appearance of 
illuminated mucus. 

Having observed these creatures for several minutes, I picked 
one of them up and lodged it in a box which had been procured 
from the house, for further observation. On touching the 
centipede the light in both animals, as well as in both trails, 
was instantly extinguished. Laterin the evening we found another 
centipede, and this also emitted light in the same manner, both 
from body and trail as I have described. My gardener then 
informed me that he had observed these creatures during the 
previous three or four evenings, both in the garden and in the 
stableyard. 

On the following day I took the centipede to Prof. Flower, 
who, with the assistance of the authorities of the British Museum, 
has identified the species as Geophilus subterraneus. 

The published descriptions of the luminous properties of the 
British centipedes differ considerably from what I observed in 
this instance. 

The best, so far as I know, is given in Shaw’s ‘‘ General 
Zoology,” vol. vi. After describing the animal, it proceeds thus : 
“Tt is possessed of a high degree of phosphoric "splendour, 
which, however, seems to be only excited when the animal is 
pressed or suddenly disturbed, when it diffuses a beautiful 
smaragdine light, so powerful as not to be obliterated by the 
light of two candles on the same table.” 

I may observe that I was never able to induce my centipede to 
shine whilst in captivity. It may also be worthy of note that 
the atmosphere was exceptionally dry and the barometer remark- 
ably high at the time of the observation. 

B, E, BRODHURST 

Grange Court, Chigwell, November 22 


The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho. 


ALTHOUGH the conclusions at which Dr. Woeikof has arrived 
(NATURE, vol, xxiii. p. 9) with regard to my estimations of the dis- 
charge of water and sediment of the Yang-tse and Pei-ho may 
militate against their being accepted as generally typical of these 
tworivers, I would urge that another series of observations would 
be of more service in either correcting or in corroborating my 
estimations, 

In the case of the Yang-tse it will have been seen that, 
according to the estimate of Capt, Blakiston at I-chang and of 
my own at Hankow—500,000 and 650,000 cubic feet of water 
per second respectively,—this river increases its discharge by 
150,000 cubic feet in the 360 miles that intervene between these 
two places of observation, In this portion of its course the 
Yang-tse not only receives the waters of the Han, but is also 
the recipient of those of the Tung-ting Lake ; and the increase 
it receives from these two important tributaries—an amount 
exceeding the water-discharge of the Nile’—is not such as would 
support the conclusion that my estimate for the Yang-tse at 
Hankow is under the usual average. 

My observations on the Pei-ho, referring as they do to only a 
portion of the year, are more open to correction; and a series 
of observations throughout the entire twelve months are certainly 
to be preferred. dag 

In conclusion I may state that, although my various estimations 
are open to criticism, my object will have been gained if, by 
inviting further inquiry into the hydrological features of the 
great river system of China, an accurate kaoawledge of them 
is obtained. . ff. B. Guppy _ 


1 330,000 cubic feet per second, 


100 


Aurora observed at Ovoca, Co. Wicklow, November 3.— 
Observations from 5.30 p.m. to Midnight 


AT 5.30 p.m. yellow lights tinged with red were coming up all 
round the horizon ; these at intervals formed indistinct columns 
to. the south-west and north-west. At 6.30 there were faint 
reddish lights forming fans at different points; these were 
succeeded by red and orange lights that rose forming glows, 
columns, and pencils; while at 7.30 a bright silver-white arch 
appeared to the north—the horns from this arch were pencils of 
white, which seemed to cross the arch ; they were very numerous, 
appearing and disappearing nearly instantaneously ; from about 
four to seven appeared at one time. Some of them were very 
long, shooting up to the zenith, After the arch had dissolved 
away, brilliant narrow, well-defined, thin columns of silver light 
shot up, the most marked coming up to the north-west at 7.40 ; 
this darted up suddenly, and moved gradually southward, and 
when about due west, close to the church tower, it disappeared 
at 7.45. 

These silver lights solely occurred between the west and north- 
east, while all round the horizon red and orange lights were 
rising; these sometimes congregated at the zenith in a mass. 
At 7.50 two brilliant silver pencils rose to the north-north-east, 
but disappeared nearly instantaneously. 

From 8 pm. to 8.50 there were orange and red glows of 
light sometimes in indistinct columns ; but at the latter hour there 
appeared to the north-west a vivid display of silver light that 
lasted about five minutes ; this was succeeded by a deep orange 
cloud that travelled up to the zenith. From 9 to 10.30 there 
was an orange to red glow round the horizon, while at intervals 
from the north-west rose pencils of silver light, five very bril- 
liant ones rising at 10.30. They were succeeded by a bright 
silver glow over the whole of the western heaven, across which 
at intervals passed glows of red and orange light; columns also 
rose, while at times horizontal streaks of brilliant silver lights 
appeared and disappeared in a flash. At 11 there was an 
orange glow round the horizon ; this, with spurts of light coming 
up between the south-west and north-east, were all that was 
observed up to midnight, G. H. KInaAHAN 


MR. SPENCER AND PROF. TAIT 


HEN, in NaTuRE for July 17th, 1879; while reviewing 

Sir Edmund Beckett’s book, Prof. Tait lugged 

in Mr. Kirkman’s travesty of the definition of Evolution, 

most readers probably failed to see why he made this not 

very relevant quotation. But those who remembered a 

controversy which occurred some years previously, pos- 

sibly divined the feeling which prompted him thus to go 
out of his way. 

At the time I said nothing ; but having recently had to 

prepare a new edition of “ First Principles,” and thinking it 
well to take some notice of books, and parts of books, 
that have been written in refutation of that work, I 
decided ‘to deal also with Mr. Kirkman’s implied criticism, 
in which Prof. Tait so heartily concurred ; and by way of 
gauging Prof. Tait’s judgment on this matter, I thought 
it not amiss to give some samples of his judgment on 
matters falling within his own department. To make it 
accessible to those possessing previous editions of “ First 
Principles,’ the Appendix containing these replies to critics 
was published as a pamphlet. 
_ In the inaugural lecture of this session, recently given 
to his students, part of which is published in the last 
number of NATURE, Prof. Tait first of all recalls a pas- 
sage from the preceding controversy. From this he 
quotes, or rather describes, a clause which, standing by 
itself, appears sufficiently absurd; and he marks the 
absurdity by a double note of admiration. Whether 
when taken with its context it is absurd, the reader will 
be able to judge on reading the passage to which it 
belongs. 

In disproof of certain conclusions of mine, there 
had been quoted against me the dctum of Prof. Tait 
concerning the laws of motion, which is that — “as 
the properties of matter might have been such as to 
render a totally different set of laws axiomatic, these laws 
must be considered as resting on convictions drawn from 


NATURE 


[Dec. 2, 1880 


observation and experiment and not on intuitive per- 
ception.” Not urging minor objections to this dictum, I 
went on to say :—‘ It will suffice if I examine the nature 
of this proposition that ‘the properties of matter might 
have been’ other than they are. Does it express an ex- 
perimentally-ascertained truth? If so, I invite Prof. 
Tait to describe theexperiments? Is it an intuition? If 
so, then along with doubt of an intuitive belief concern- 
ing things as ¢hey ave, there goes confidence in an intuitive 
belief concerning things as they are not. Is it an hypo- 
thesis? If so, the implication is that a cognition of 
which the negation is inconceivable (for an axiom is such) 
may be discredited by inference from that which is nota 
cognition at all, but simply a supposition. . . . I shall take 
it as unquestionable that nothing concluded can have a 
warrant higher than that from which it is concluded, 
though it may have a lower. Now the elements of the 
proposition before us are these :—As ‘ the properties of 
matter might have been such as to render a totally differ- 
ent set of laws axiomatic’ [¢hevefore] ‘these laws [now 
in force] must be considered as resting . . . not on in- 
tuitive perception :’ that is, the intuitions in which these 
laws are recognised, must not be held authoritative. Here 
the cognition posited as premiss, is that the properties of 
matter might have been other than they are ; and the con- 
clusion is that our intuitions relative to existing properties 
are uncertain. Hence, if this conclusion is valid, it is 
valid because the cognition or intuition respecting what 
might have been, is more trustworthy than the cognition 
or intuition respecting what is !” 

From which it is manifest that, when asking (of 
course ironically) whether this alleged truth was an 
experimentally-ascertained one, my purpose was partly to 
ennumerate and test all imaginable suppositions respect- 
ing the nature of Prof. Tait’s proposition, and partly to 
show that he had affirmed something concerning the pro- 
perties of matter which cannot be experimentally verified, 
and therefore which, by his own showing, he has no right 
to affirm. 

The first example which, in my recent replies to criti- 
cisms, I have given of Prof. Tait’s way of thinking, is 
disclosed by a comparison of his views concerning our — 
knowledge of the universe as visible to us, and our know- 
ledge of an alleged invisible universe. This_comparison 
shows that :— 

“ He thinks that while no validity can be claimed for 
our judgments respecting perceived forces, save as €x- 
perimentally justified, some validity can be claimed for 
our judgments respecting unperceived forces, where no 
experimental justification is possible.” 

Part of Prof. Tait’s answer is that “‘the theory there 
developed [in the ““ Unseen Universe”] was not put forward 
as probable, its purpose was attained when it was shown 
to be conceivable.” To which I rejoin that whereas 
Prof, Tait said he found in this theory a support for 
certain theological beliefs, he now confesses that he found 
none; forif no probability is alleged, no support can be 
derived. The other part of his answer concerns the 
main issue. After pointing out that the argument of this 
work, “ carried on in pursuance of physical laws established 
by converse with the universe we know, extends them to 
the universe we do not know,” I had urged that if we 
have “no warrant for asserting a physical axiom save as 
a generalisation of results of experiments—if, conse- 
quently, where no observation or experiment is possible, 
reasoning after physical methods can have no place ; then 
there can be no basis for any conclusion respecting th 
physical relations of the seen and the unseen universes,” 
“since, by the definition of it, one term of the relation is 
absent.” Prof. Tait’s explanation is extremely startling. 
When following the discussion in the “Unseen Universe, 
throughout which the law of the Conservation of Ener 
and the Principle of Continuity are extended from the 
tangible and visible matter and motion around us to a 


4 
: 
: 
b 
7 
| 


Dec. 2, 1880] 


NATURE 


IO! 


unknown form of existence with which they are supposed 
to be connected, readers little thought that Prof Tait 
meant by this unknown form of existence his own mind. 
Yet this is all that he now names as the missing term of 
the relation between the seen universe and the unseen 
universe. 

The second sample which I gave of Prof. Tait’s views 
on matters pertaining to his own subject, concerned the 
nature of inertia, which he describes by implication as a 
positive force. Here I quoted Prof. Clerk Maxwell. To 
repeat his criticism in full would cause me to trespass on 
the pages of NATURE even more unduly than I must do. 
If, however, any reader turns to NATURE, July 3rd, 1879, 
and reads the passage in question, he will be able to judge 
whether it is, or is not, a joke, and if a joke, at whose 
expense. Meanwhile, the essential question remains. 
Prof. Tait says that matter has “‘an innate power of 
resisting external influences.” I, contrariwise, say that 
the assertion of such a power is at variance with established 
physical principles. 

One further illustration of Prof. Tait’s way of thinking 
was added. Quoting from a lecture given by him at 
Glasgow, for the purpose of dispelling “the widespread 
ignorance as to some of the most important elementary 
principles of physics,” I compared two different definitions 
of force it contained. In a passage from Newton, em- 
phatically approved by Prof. Tait, force is implied to be 
that which changes the state of a body, or, in modern 
language, does work upon it. Later on in the lecture, 
Prof. Tait says—“ force is the rate at which an agent does 
work per unit of length.” I contended that these defini- 
tions are irreconcilable with one another; and I do not 
see that Prof. Tait has done anything to reconcile them. 
True, he has given us some mathematics, by which he 
considers the reconciliation to be effected ; and, possibly, 
some readers, awed by his equations, and forgetting that 
in symbolic operations, carried on no matter how rigour- 
ously, the worth of what comes out depends wholly on 
what is put in, will suppose that Prof. Tait must be right. 
If, however, his mathematics prove that while force is an 
agent which does work, it is also the rate at which an 
agent does work, then I say—so much the worse for his 
mathematics. 

From these several tests of Prof. Tait’s judgment, in 
respect to which I fail to see that he has disposed of my 
allegations, I pass now to his implied judgment on the 
formula, or definition, of Evolution. And here I have 
first to ask him some questions. He says that because 
he has used the word ‘‘ definition ” instead of “ formula,” 
he has incurred my “sore displeasure and grave censure.” 
In what place have I expressed or implied displeasure or 
censure in relation to this substitution of terms? Alleging 
that I have an obvious motive for calling it a “formula,’’ 
he says I am “indignant at its being called a definition.” 
I wish to see the words in which I have expressed my 
indignation ; and shall be glad if Prof. Tait will quote 
them. He says—‘‘It seems I should have called him the 
discoverer of the formula!” instead of “the inventor of 
the definition.” Will he oblige me by pointing out where 
I have used either the one phrase or the other? These 
assertions of Prof. Tait are to me utterly incomprehensible. 
I have nowhere either said or implied any of the things 
which he here specifies. So far am I from consciously 
preferring one of these words to the other, that, until I 
read this passage in Prof. Tait’s lecture, I did not even 
know that I was in the habit of saying “formula” rather 
than “definition.” The whole of these statements are 
fictions, pure and absolute. 

My intentional use of the one word rather than the 
other, is alleged by him @ drofos of an incidental com- 
parison I have made. To a critic who had said that the 
formula or definition of Evolution ‘‘seems at best rather 
the blank form for a universe than anything correspond- 
ing to the actual world about us,” I had replied that it 


might similarly be “remarked that the formula—‘ bodies 
attract one another directly as their masses and inversely 
as the squares of their distances, was at best but a 
blank form for solar systems and _ sidereal clusters.” 
Whereupon Prof. Tait assumes that I put the “Formula 
of Evolution alongside of the Law of Gravitation,” in 
respect to the definiteness of the previsions they severally 
enable us to make; and he proceeds to twit me with 
inability to predict what will be the condition of Europe 
four years hence, as astronomers “predict the positions 
of known celestial bodies four years beforehand.” Here 
we have another example of Prof. Tait’s peculiarity of 
thought. Because two abstract generalisations are com- 
pared as both being utterly unlike the groups of concrete 
facts interpreted by them, ¢herefore they are compared 
in respect to their other characters. 

But now I am not unwilling to deal with the contrast 
Prof. Tait draws ; and am prepared to show (that when 
the conditions are analogous, the contrast disappears. It 
seems strange that I should have to point out to a scientific 
man in his position, that an alleged law may be perfectly 
true, and that yet, where the elements of a problem to be 
dealt with under it are numerous, no specific deduction 
can be drawn. Does not Prof. Tait from time to time 
teach his students that in proportion as the number of 
factors concerned in the production of any phenomenon 
becomes great, and also in proportion as those factors 
admit of less exact measurement, any prediction made 
concerning the phenomenon becomes less definite ; and 
that where the factors are multitudinous and not measur- 
able, nothing but some general result can be foreseen, and 
often not even that? Prof. Tait ignores the fact that the 
positions of planets and satellites admit of definite pre- 
vision, only because the forces which appreciably affect 
them are few; and he ignores the fact that where further 
such forces, not easily measured, come into play, the pre- 
visions are imperfect and often wholly wrong, as in the 
case of comets; and he ignores the fact that where the 
number of bodies affecting one another by mutual gravita- 
tion is great, no definite prevision of their positions is 
possible. If Prof. Tait were living in one of the globular 
star-clusters, does he think that after observations duly 
taken, calculations based on the law of gravitation weuld 
enable him to predict the positions of the component stars 
four years hence? By an intelligence immeasurably trans- 
cending the human, with a mathematics to match, such 
prevision would doubtless be possible; but considered 
from the human standpoint, the law of gravitation, even 
when uncomplicated by other laws, can yield under such 
conditions only general and not special results. And if 
Prof. Tait will deign to look into “First Principles,” which 
he apparently prides himself on not having done, he will 
there find a sufficient number of illustrations showing that 
not only other orders of changes, but even social changes, 
are predictable in respect to their general, if not in respect 
to their special, characters. 

There remains only to notice the opinion which Prof. 
Tait seems still to hold, that the verbal transformation 
which Mr. Kirkman has made in the formula or definition 
of Evolution, suffices to show its hollowness. Here I may 
be excused for repeating what I have already said else- 
where, namely, that “We may conveniently observe the 
nature of Mr. Kirkman’s belief, by listening to an imagi- 
nary addition to that address before the Literary and 
Philosophical Society of Liverpool, in which he first set 
forth the leading ideas of his volume; and we may fitly, 
inthis imaginary addition, adopt the manner in which he 
delights. ; 

‘Observe, gentlemen,” we may suppose him saying, 
“T have here the yolk of an egg. The evolutionists, 
using their jargon, say that one of its characters Is 
‘homogeneity’ ; and if you do not examine your thoughts, 
perhaps you may think that the word conveys some idea, 
But now if I translate it into plain English, and say that 


102 


NATURE 


one of the characters of this yolk is ‘all-alikeness,’ you 
at once perceive how nonsensical is their statement. You 
see that the substance of the yolk is not all-alike, and 
that therefore all-alikeness cannot be one of its attributes. 
Similarly with the other pretentious term ‘heterogeneity,’ 
which, according to them, describes the state things are 
brought to by what they callevolution. It is mere empty 
sound, as is manifest if I do but transform it, as I did 
the other, and say instead ‘not-all-alikeness.’ For on 
showing you this chick into which the yolk of the egg 
turns, you will see that ‘ not-all-alikeness’ is a character 
which cannot be claimed for it. How can any one say 
that the parts of the chick are not-aJl-alike? Again, in 
their blatant language we are told that evolution is carried 
on by continuous ‘ differentiations’ ; 
us believe that this word expresses some fact. But if we 
put instead of it ‘somethingelseifications’ the delusion 
they try to practise on us becomes clear. How can they 
say that while the parts have been forming themselves the 
heart has been becoming something else than the stomach, 
and the leg something else than the wing, and the head 
something else than the tail? The like manifestly happens 
when for ‘integrations’ we read ‘sticktogetherations’ : 
what sense the term might seem to have, becomes obvious 
nonsense when the substituted word is used. For nobody 
dares assert that the parts of the chick stick together any 
more than do the parts of the yolk. 
you that now when I take a portion of the yolk between 


my fingers and pull, and now when I take any part of the | 


chick, as the leg, and pull, the first resists just as much 
as the last—the last does not stick together any more than 
the first ; so that there has been no progress in ‘stick- 
togetherations.’ And thus, gentlemen, you perceive that 
these big words which, to the disgrace of the Royal 
Society, appear even in papers published by it, are mere 
empty bladders which these would-be philosophers use to 
buoy up their ridiculous doctrines.” 

But though it is here, I think, made apparent enough 


and they would have | 


I need hardly show | 


that even when disguised in Mr. Kirkman’s grotesque | 


words, the definition of Evolution continues truly to ex- 
press the facts, Prof. Tait shows no sign of changing his 


original opinion that Mr. Kirkman has made “an ex- | 


” 


quisite translation” of the definition. Nay, so charmed 
does he appear to be with Mr. Kirkman’s feats of this 
nature, that he gives us another of them. 
conclusions must be drawn. Prof. Tait either thinks 
that fallacies are disclosed by the aid of these cacophonous 
long words, or else the clatter of curious syllabic compounds 
greatly excites his sense of humour. In the last case we may 


infer that had he been one of that “ Twelfth Night” party | 


in which the Clown exclaims—“I did impeticos thy 
gratillity,” he would have joined in Sir Andrew Ague- 
cheek’s applause. HERBERT SPENCER 


NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF EAST-CENTRAL 
AFRICA 


ap OUGs many travellers have now penetrated almost 
every part of Central Africa, and described the main 
geographical features, yet their accounts have been singu- 
larly barren in any reliable geological- details. 


One of two | 


The | 


Geographical Society, in its late expedition to the lake | 
region, sought to remedy this want, and I, as a student of | 


that science, had the honour of being selected as geologist 


and assistant to Mr. Keith Johnston, the leader of the | 


expedition. 
After the lamentable death of Mr. Johnston, almost at 


the commencement of our journey, the entire work of the | 


expedition fell into my inexperienced hands, and to per- 


| the Zambesi. 


[ Dec. 2, 1880 


Notwithstanding these obstacles to geological investiga- 
tion, however, glimpses of the internal structure of the 
country traversed were here and there obtained, which I 
think may fairly be considered as shadowing forth the 
main general features of the geology of the Great Lake 
Region. ; 

Let me briefly point these out in the order of their 
occurrence along our route to Nyassa and Tanganyika. 
The comparatively unbroken stretch of low-lying country 
which so markedly borders the East Coast of Africa is 
formed of two, if not three, raised beaches, elevated in 
recent times above the sea. They consist chiefly of 
brick-red sands and clays overlying coral rock. The 
former have been derived by denudation from the coast 
ranges, which, consisting of hornblende rocks and others 
containing a large amount of iron, easily account for the 
deep-red colour characterising these deposits. The sands 
are of value as containing the gum copal, of which our 
best varnishes are made. As the tree from which this 
gum has been derived is now almost extinct, it would 
seem that a considerable lapse of time has occurred since 
these deposits have been formed; but geologically they 
must be recent, as among the many insects that have been 
found imbedded in the copal none, as far as I am aware, 
are extinct. The Msandarusi, or gum copal tree, has 
evidently been restricted to the sea-coast, as neither it 
nor the gum has ever been found as yet in the interior. 

In passing from these sands and clays we step over an 
immense gap in the geological record, of which no trace 
remains, as the rocks we next reach are evidently of car- 
boniferous age. These occupy a variable strip along the 
base of the mountains, here and there rising into small 
hills and ranges. 

They are found stretching from at least Mozambique 
to the Equator. On the Rovuma coal-beds are found. 
In the Rufigi valley there are red liver-coloured sand- 
stones with pebbled beds and with interbedded lavas 
which in one curiously-shaped mountain near Behobeho 
produce a remarkable step-like appearance. These beds 
are horizontal, but beneath them are sandstones tilted by 
the intrusion of eruptive basalts, producing an unconfor- 
mability which however is probably only local. Further 
north on the Unyanyembe road from Bogamoyo, and at 
the base of the mountain I observed on my return march 
compact beds of fossiliferous limestones, together with 
shales, &c. 

At Umba, a place north of Pangani, I also discovered 
limestone, which I believe is now being burnt by the 
Universities Mission Agents. The young geologist, 
Thornton, the companion of Baron von der Decken, 
observed this same formation around Mombas, which he 
noted as being exactly similar to the coal formation of 
As no rocks of a later date have been 
found along the whole of the east coast from Mozambique 


| to the Equator, we may safely infer that this part of the 


continent has been above water since Carboniferous 
times, and this inference is strengthened by natural 
history evidence. 

We have now reached the base of the mountains, and 
again we are brought face to face with another great 
break in the series of events. From the Carboniferous 
sandstones and limestones we pass abruptly to highly 
metamorphosed rocks whose exact place in the geological 
series is as yet extremely problematical. These consist 
of the schists, gneiss, and hornblende rocks which form 


| the mountain range that flanks the great Central Plateau 


| extending from Abyssinia to the Cape. 


form that work conscientiously precluded all hope of any- | 


thing but the most superficial geological research. The 
difficulties in the way were, as in all tropical countries, 
much increased by the luxuriance of the vegetation, which 


In crossing this range we rose to a height of 7000 
feet. We found the strike of the rocks to be north and 
south. They present every intermediate grade of varia- 
tion from the most coarsely crystalline to those with the 
bedding still traceable. Indeed it would be somewhat 
difficult to point out any sharply-defined line of demar- 


seldom leaves a rock uncovered and exposed to view. | cation between the granites, which seem to predominate 
| 


Dec. 2, 1880| 


in the plateau, and the less metamorphosed rocks. It seems 
to me that this range suggests a line of weakness during 
the elevation of the continent, owing to which the neigh- 
bouring rocks were more easily folded up and raised above 
the line of greatest pressure, which has turned the main 


NATURE 


103 


mass of the continent into granite. There is however 
some hope that more definite light will be thrown upon 
the question of the age of this range, as on my way 
back to the coast I discovered in the Usagara Mountains 
some much metamorphosed rocks with imperfectly pre- 


7-3000r* 


~ 


> 


pean SI 


aa 
KB 


Section of Rocks between Dar-es-salaam and Lake Nyassa. 1, Red sandy clays; 2, Carboniferous (?) sandstones with intrusive rocks; 3, Carboniferous 


sandstones with interbedded lavas; 4, Schists, gneiss, and other hignly metamorphosed rocks; 5 


5. Granite forming main mass of the interior ; 


6, Intrusive rocks and probable line of fault; 7, Clay slates with occasional felspathic rocks; 8, Volcanic porphyrites, tuffs, and agglomerates. 


served fossils. A careful search would probably be re- 
warded by the discovery of fossils which would determine 
the age of these rocks. 

+ Leaving the metamorphic rocks of the flanking range, 


we next pass over a great stretch of granitoid rocks. 


| This tract, extending to near the lakes, is marked by 


undulating hills and valleys, with wide areas compara- 
tively level, where the Kaffir-like semi-nomadic tribes of 
the Wabena, Warori, Wahehi, Wagogo, and Masai herd 
their cattle, hunt, and live in a constant state of warfare. 


Section betweerr Lakes Nyassa & Tanganika £.& Wo 
6000 oa 


1, Volcanic porphyrites and tuffs; 22, Clay-slates, schists, and gneiss ; 3, Intrusive granite ; 


4, Variegated sandstones slightiy metamorphosed. 


The influence which the character of the country has upon { Urori, sandy as in Ugogo, or grey clay as in Unyamwesi. 
the habits and manners of savage tribes is here well |The vegetation varies greatly according to the nature of 
illustrated. | the soil. The whole of this granitoid region is marked 
The soil formed by the degradation of this granite bythe occurrence of monstrous blocks, generally rounded, 


tract is either a stiff red clay as occurs in Ubena and and strewing the whole surface as if some great eruption 


(2) Variegated sandstone ; (2) Intruded rocks and probable line of fault; (3) Sandstones smashed and tilted; (4 4) Felspathic rocks ; (5 5) Fine 
grained brick-red sandstones with quartz pebbles; (666) Greywacke and other metamorphic rocks. 


had smashed the underlying rocks. Their presence, 
however, is not due to any such cause, the main agent 
having been rain and carbonic acid, assisted by rapid 
radiation acting along the joints and cracks. 

It may be noted that ata number of points both in 


Ubena and Ugogo evidences of rocks erupted through the 
granites were obtained. 

Continuing our route to Nyassa over this plateau at a 
general height of about 5000 feet above the sea we are 
confronted by a sudden rise in the ground, which forms 


104 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 2, 1880 


apparently a second and higher plateau. The abrupt 
change of level, together with the alteration in the 
internal structure and the presence of intrusive rocks at 
the base of the mountain seem to point to the existence 
of a fault of considerable magnitude, which probably is 
the eastward extension of a great fault to be described 
further on. 

The rocks composing this high tract of country consist 
mainly of clay-slates with the original bedding still very 
distinct. What may be their exact relations to the 
granites which they probably overlie, or to the meta- 
morphic rocks of the coast-range, we have as yet no 
means of ascertaining. Careful research will be required 
before anything definite can be said about them. The 
mountains cut out of these rocks by denudation are 
rounded in form, smooth, and by no means picturesque. 
They are devoid of trees, but covered with grass. 

As we approach Lake Nyassa we observe evidence 
of much disturbance, till at a distance of about ten miles 
from the Lake we come upon the ancient pipe of a 
volcano, and five miles further on enter amongst a series 
of volcanic porphyrites, tuffs, and agglomerates forming 
mountains several thousands of feet in height, and which 
extend round the north end of the Lake. Along with this 
marked change of internal structure we have as decided 
a change in the scenery. The rounded mountains with 
smooth, grassy, and uncut sides give place to jagged 
peaks, serrated ridges, sharp yawning valleys, and 
irregular, rocky, notched sides, forming a landscape of 
no ordinary description. 

The extraordinary series of volcanic rocks which form 
the magnificent mountains round the north end of Lake 
Nyassa probably belong to the same period as a similar 
series which characterise the Cape geology. The latter 
have been assigned to the Trias, and doubtless the 
immense development of volcanic rocks in Abyssinia 
described by Blandford is of the same age. Indeed we 
might almost say we have connecting links between the 
two places, as on my return march through Ugogo I 
observed evidence of volcanic outbursts, and it is well 
known that Kilimanjaro, further north, is of volcanic 
origin. It seems then that in Triassic times a great line 
of volcanic action stretched from the Cape by Nyassa, 
Ugogo, and Kilimanjaro, to Abyssinia. 

But at the north-west corner of Nyassa we have 
evidence of later volcanic activity. In a niche cut out of 
the surrounding plateau and on a comparatively level 
plain, through which the River Jumbaka winds to the 
lake, a number of beautifully isolated cones rise to a 
height of about 300 feet. On examination these prove to 
be perfect volcanic craters, so entire and symmetrical as 
to appear almost artificial. One crater which I examined 
forms a beautifully bowl-shaped hollow, descending to 
the level of the plain, the bottom being a charming 
circular pond, where a number of hippopotamuses live. 

It is clew from the perfect shapes of these cones, and 
from the fact that the surface features of the surrounding 
country have remained unchanged since their origin, that 
they must have arisen in comparatively recent times. 
Besides these cones there are two pretty circular lakes, 
which also appear to have been originally volcanic 
craters. 

On leaving this interesting country and proceeding on 
our way to Tanganyika we rise once more to the top of 
the plateau, cross over mountains 8000 feet in height, and 
then descend to a general level of from 4000 to 6000 feet. 
We pass over clay slates and schists whose relative posi- 
tions could not be determined with intrusive masses of 
granite. “At one point an interesting section was revealed, 
showing the granite completely inclosing a mass of 
greenstone. 

On nearing the south end of Lake Tanganyika we pass 
abruptly from these ancient rocks to red and variegated 
sandstones much hardened and broken, but preserving 


their original horizontal bedding. Rounding the end of 
the lake and continuing our march northward along its 
western side, we come to almost a sheer precipice, sud- 
denly lowering the altitude from nearly 5000 feet to less 
than 3000. Running east and west along the precipice 
there occur intruded rocks, while on the northern or 
lower side of the precipice the sandstones almost dis- 
appear, being only represented by a small extent of 
crushed and tilted beds. Such a condition of things 
clearly indicates the existence of a great fault. This 
theory is strengthened by a similar abrupt change of 
rocks on the eastern side of the lake; and it will be 
remembered that we have already noticed among a 
different series of rocks still further east a sudden change 
of level almost on the same parallel of latitude. 

The sandstones thus abruptly brought to a finish in 
their extension northward are succeeded by felspathic 
rocks which form huge mountain masses both on the east 
and west sides of the lake. Near the middle of the lake 
on its western side there occurs a curious apparently 
isolated area of fine red sandstones, surrounded on all 
sides except the east by mountains of metamorphic and 
felspathic rocks. These sandstones would seem to have 
been deposited in a small lake eight miles in diameter. 
Mount Malumbi, figured in Stanley's “ Dark Continent,” 
belongs to the same formation. 

Still proceeding along the lake we cross a high mountain 
range named Tchansa, formed of metamorphic rocks with 
felspathic rock in the centre. We regain the sandstones 
once more in the country of Uguha. The sandstones 
here, unlike those of the south end, are very red in colour, 
extremely friable, and marked by the abundance of quartz 
pebbles. Through this formation the Lukuga River 
finds its way to the Congo, its course determined not by 
any great convulsion as some travellers have been inclined 
to believe, but by the long-continued action of streams 
wearing down the soft and friable barrier which hemmed 
in the lake at this point. These sandstones have an 
extension over a large area. They are found away 
towards Manyema and up the Congo Valley as far as 
Lake Moero, probably turning round and joining the 
strata we have noticed at the south. end of Tanganyika. 
On the east side they are found from Kaboga to the north 
of Ujjiji, though here shales are not uncommon and the 
strata much curved. 

The absence of all fossils leaves the question of the 
age of these rocks in somemystery. A reference to Cape 
geology may, however, as in the case of the volcanic 
rocks, throw some light on this subject. The Tanganyika 
sandstones have evidently been formed in an enormous 
inland lake, beside which the present African lakes 
would look insignificant. 

In Cape Colony a similar series of rocks occur of a 
lacustrine origin, and which have been assigned to a 
period not later than the Trias, and probably they belong 
to Paleozoic times. In the absence of anything but 
lithological evidence we cannot do better than place the 
Tanganyika sandstones in the same era as the Cape 
series, an era which would seem to have been emphatically 
characterised by the presence of great lakes. 

JOSEPH THOMSON 


INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LIGHTS 


= recent experiments of Mr. J. W. Swan of New- 
castle-on-Tyne have gone far towards demonstrating 
the practicabilty of a system of electric lighting based 
upon the so-called principle of incandescence. As the 
solution of the whole question of the possible domestic 
application of electric lighting depends in all probability 
uppon the successful application of this method, these 
experiments have claimed already a considerable share 
of public attention, though no panic has yet arisen like 


Dec. 2, 1880] 


that created two years ago by the far less formidable 
experiments of Mr. Edison in the same direction. : 

The material which Mr. Swan proposes to render in- 
candescent by means of an electric current is a “wire” 
of prepared carbon of extraordinary density and elasticity. 
Twenty years ago he prepared carbon filaments for 
the very same purpose from calcined cardboard, in. 
closing them in a glass vessel from which the air 
was withdrawn as perfectly as the imperfect air-pumps 
of that date permitted. In October 1877, or one year 
before Mr. Edison had begun to attempt the con- 
struction of lamps with carbonised paper, Mr. Swan 
had some prepared carbons mounted in glass globes and 
exhausted by the Sprengel air-pump by Mr. Stearn of 
Birkenhead. This enabled Mr. Swan to discover that 
when the carbon was properly fixed and heated during 
exhaustion so that the occluded gases might be ex- 
pelled, there was an end of the causes that hitherto had 
seemed to defeat all attempts to utilise this method of 
procuring an incandescent electric light; for when these 
conditions were observed there was none of the disin- 
tegration of the carbon rods, nor of the blackening of the 
globes that with less perfect vacua had proved the ruin of 
carbon lamps. The filaments of carbon now pro- 
duced by Mr. Swan indeed resemble steel wire rather 
than carbon, so extraordinary is their tenacity and 
texture. The secret of their manufacture has not 
yet been made known, being the essential point of 
the patent rights which Mr. Swan has just secured. 
Each filament is about three inches long, and not 
more than the hundredth of an inch in diameter, and is 
so slight as only to weigh from one-fifteenth to one- 
twentieth of a grain. The durability of these filaments 
is remarkable. In the course of a lecture delivered on 
November 25 last before the Society of Telegraph Engi- 
neers, Mr. Swan stated that he had had lamps lighted 
continuously since August 30, with an intermission of 
three weeks only, and that this seemed to be far from the 
actual limits of durability. When the currents employed 
are not too strong, the lamps will last longer. The light 
yielded by these lamps varies, according to circumstances, 
from thirty to fifty standard candles. On the occasion of 
Mr. Swan's lecture thirty-six of these tiny lamps were ex~- 
hibited working by the current of a dynamo-electric 
machine requiring four horse-power to drive it. In the 
debate which followed Mr. Swan’s communication, the 
remarks made by Prof. Tyndall, Dr. Hopkinson, Mr. 
Alexander Siemens, and others, showed the real value 
of the advance made by Mr. Swan. The question 
however of the economy of the system remains yet to be 
decided by the practical test of durability. At a previous 
lecture at Newcastle-on-Tyne Mr. Swan exhibited twenty 
lamps fed by a current generated by a gas-engine con- 
suming 160 cubic feet of gas per hour. The light obtained 
exceeded that of the seventy gas-jets which usually sup- 
plied the same room, and which consumed 280 feet per 
hour. Mr, Swan proposes to connect these lamps in series 
of fifty or a hundred in one circuit, using automatic circuit- 
closers to close the circuit in the rare case of the failure 
of alamp. He considers his method of arranging the 
system to be superior to that proposed by Mr. Edison, 
whose method of placing the separate lamps in single 
branches of a divided circuit would involve the use of 
very heavy and costly conducting-wires without any 
counterbalancing advantage. With this important differ- 
ence Mr. Swan’s further proposal to erect central stations 
from which to supply currents of electricity over large 
areas resembles that suggested by Mr. Edison. Should 
the anticipations of the inventor and the present promise 
of the new lamps be fulfilled, domestic electric lights will 
certainly become a fact at no distant date. 

Meantime Mr. Edison has not been idle. It is stated 
that he is at present laying down a service of about seven 
miles in length upon which to test the success or failure 


NATURE 


105 


of his system upon a large scale. 


He has developed 
several ideas since his last appearance before public 
notice. He now makes his dynamo-electric generators 
of a much larger pattern than any heretofore attempted. 
He has abandoned charred cardboard in favour of a 
filament of carbon prepared from a cultivated variety of 
the Japanese bamboo. We shall hear before long whether 
his indomitable perseverance has been rewarded with 
final success. In spite of being in point of date behind 
Mr. Swan, he has the enormous advantages of a unique 
workshop and laboratory under his own direction, of a 
wealthy company at his back, and of the extraordinary 
prestige won by his previous inventions. If Mr. Swan 
appears to be nearer to a genuine success, Mr. Edison 
has a popular reputation that of itself will win a hearing for 
the most trivial of his inventions. Whichever of the rival 
systems succeeds science and mankind are the gainers. 
But up to the present point it seems to us that beyond 
question Mr. Swan is nearer the goal of practical results 
than his famous rival. 

It may interest our readers to know that Mr. Edison’s 
first carbon lamp is now on view along with his original 
phonograph and his earliest tasimeter in the Patent 
Museum at South Kensington. 


SUBTERRANEAN FOREST IN INDIA 


ap = accompanying notes and illustrations on the 
underground forest recently discovered in exca- 
vating the Prince’s Dock, Bombay, were forwarded by 
Col. C. J. Merriman, R.E., C.S.I., Member of the Legis- 
lative Council, and Secretary to Government (Public 
Works Department), Bombay. s 

The trees were generally found in a dark loamy soil 
composed of underlying rock disintegrated. The upper 


Fig. r.—Dock. <7 


ee 


portion of the trunks stopped at the soft black clay, 
which is silt. A few wenta little way beyond; but as far 
as they protruded into the silt they were completely 


Surface of Ground 


i) L.W. Ex. $.Tides72.09 


4 


Fic. 2.—Section in line of trees 8 to F. Scale y; inch to x foot. 


riddled by the teredo, the nearer the root the bigger the 
hole, showing that the boring began from the top. 

The roots of the highest tree found were at 72°20 on T.H. 
datum, or close on Low Water extreme springs, about six 
feet under the surface of the mud. The lowest root was 


106 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 2, 1880 


at 55°93, or say sixteen feet under L.W. extreme springs, 
twenty-two feet under the surface of the mud. 

Inside the dock altogether were 382 trees, 223 standing, 
the remainder flat. The largest tree was forty-six feet 


Coping — Level! Sl-o0 


long, and 4’ 6” girth; it was flat. None of the trees 
would girth over 4’ 6”. The soil in which many of them 
stood was only 6” to 9” thick over the rock. The wood 
is apparently black wood. The roots presented a 


AMEE. ST. 


H.W.Ex. Spring Tides 88-60 


u Mean Weter Level 80-30 


{ GC mwe A 
i 


La hE a ee 


é UrFace of Ground —Skerae, ; eye! 18°50 
- Soft Bla a 
it Block Clay or Silt L.W.Ex-Spring Tides 72-00 


Sarr Blue Clay 


Bottom of Dock 55:00 


Fic. .—Section No. :. 


peculiar appearance, being nearly at right angles to the | 
trunks. 
The forest seems to have stopped at the gates, as 


very few trees were brought up in the dredging opera- | 


tions. 


NOTES 


ProF. HELMHOLTZ has been appointed Faraday Lecturer for 
1881 ; the lecture will be given early in April. 


WE greatly regret to announce the death of Sir Benjamin 
C. Brodie, Bart., F.R.S., the eminent chemist and late 
Professor of Chemistry in the University of Oxford. He died 
on Wednesday, last week, at Torquay, in the sixty-fourth year 
of his age. We hope to be able to give a detailed notice of Sir 
Benjamin’s life and work in a future number. 


THE death, on Sunday, is announced of Mr. Mark Firth, at 
Sheffield, in the sixty-second year of his age. _ Mr. Firth was 
eminent for his discriminating liberality, and will be specially 
known to our readers as the founder of the well-known Firth 
College, Sheffield, opened by Prince Leo: old last year. 


Pror. J. CHARLEs D’ ALMEIDA, whose sudden death at Paris 
we mentioned a fortnight since, was one of the prominent leaders 
in the scientific circles of the French capital. Formerly a Pro- 
fessor of Physics in the Lyceum of Henry IV., he had occupied 
for some years past the important and responsible position of 
Inspector-General of Public Instruction. A strong Liberal in 
matters of education, he exercised a marked influence in the late 
reorganisation of the French educational system. It was almost 
entirely owing to his efforts that the Socicté Francaise de 
Physique owes its creation, and since its origin he has occupied 
the “post of ‘secretary.. As an investigator D’Almeida is best 
known by his valuable researches on the phenomena of electro- 
lysis, on galvanic batteries, on capillary phenomena, &c, One 
of the most remarkable services he has rendered was the inven- 

. tion of the photographic despatches by means of which, during 

the siege of Paris, the inhabitants of the city were enabled to ayail 

” themselves so extensively of the otherwise limited services of the 
“* pigeon post.” 


A SHORT time ago we alluded to the severe loss to chemical 
and technical literature by the death of Prof. yon Wagner, who 
for twenty-five years past has conducted so ably his admirable 
Sahresbericht fiir die chemische Technologie, 
tion of finding a successor in the editorship of this important 
annual has been happily solved by the choice of Dr. Ferd. 
Fisher, Professor of Technology at the Polytechnic of Hanover. 
For a long time past Prof. Fisher has rendered valuable literary 
services in editing Dingler’s Polytechnisches Journal, the most 


Scale—Vertical 15 feet to } inch, horizontal 150 feet to } 


The difficult ques- : 
i iv ducation 
made an imperative part of elementary education. 


eo SN Sctt Blach SED ‘ | 
Lw s : | 
Sa eet 


Stuff Blue Clay fl 


Section N°? 2, 
Fic. 4.—Section No. 2. - 


inch, 


The mixture of different kinds of stone is curious. In 


| small patches we find trap, which gives way to moorum, 


and then a sort of pudding-stone mixed up with black 
and red stuff so hard that it cuts the divers’ hands as 
with a knife. 


important technical publication on the Continent, As an in- 
vestigator he is also well known by his elaborate researches on 
water in its technical and physiological relations, on pyrometry, 
and on numerous other chemical and technical questions. 
Under the new auspices the Fahresbericht has every reason to 
look forward to a continuance of its successful career. 


M. CHaRcoT reopened last week his course of botany at 
Salpetriére, where he exhibited last year the curious phenomena 
of female patients suffering from neuro-mental affections. New 


| instances will be produced of cures analogous to the troubles 
| regarded in medizeval times “as produced by demoniacal agency 


or cured by witchcra‘t. 


In a lecture on earthquakes delivered in Vienna on the 22nd 
inst., Prof. v. Hochstetter designated the Agram earthquake 
(affecting elliptically a region of 60 to 80 German miles diameter, 
and having its larger axis directed south-south-west to north- 
north-east) as a tectonic or dislocation-earthquake—a name which 
originated with the Austrian geologist Prof. Hoérnes. Prof. 
Siiss expressed a similar opinion in a lecture on November 24, 
“On Earthquakes in the Alps.” 

On Sunday evening, about six o’clock, slight shocks of earth- 
quake were felt at two different places in Scotland—sne being 
Callander, in Perthshire, and the other Inverary, in Argyllshire, 
The two districts affected are about forty miles apart, in a line 
due east and west. The shock was also felt at Rothesay and 
Stornoway. In the north of Ireland during Sunday evening 
and also the earlier hours of yesterday morning several decided 
shocks of earthquake were felt, especially in Londonderry and 
its vicinity. The disturbance was more particularly felt at 
Innishowen, and it seemed to travel across the bed of the River 
Foyle to the County Derry side, where the effects were felt 
strongly. 

AT DorTMUND there was a slight shock of earthquake on 
November 25, and a smart one on the 27th. 


Mr. MuNDELLA has been speaking on education again, 
repeating essentially the old story, that our country must lose in 
the race unless, as in other countries, education in science is 
We have 
many natural and traditional advantages over other countries, but 
all these must in the long run succumb to scientific training. 


A MAGNIFICENT lacustrine find has been made in the marshes 
of Corcelletes, near Consise, in Canton Vaud. It consists of a 


Lee 2, 1880] 


fie canoe ina perfect state of preservation, 11 metres 16 centi- 
metres long, and slightly more than a metre broad. It was dug 
ou{ and drawn from the marsh by sixty men and eight oxen, 
under the superintendence of the director of the Museum of 
Lausanne, ard has been placed in the court of the Leusanne 
Academy, where it is destined to remain. 


WE have before us the reports for last year of the two clubs 
which have for their object the furtherance of the special study 
of British plants and their distribution over the surface of the 
islands. The Botanical Exchange Club has been in existence 
about twenty-five years, and was a continuation of the London 
Botanical Society. The Secretary sends out each spring a list 
of the plants that are wanted, and the members, who are about 
thirty in number, at Christmas send in their parcels and lists of 
desiderata. All doubtful specimens are submitted to competent 
referees, and after the distribution is made a report is published 
on critical forms and extensions of distribution. The most 
interesting find noticed this year is the discovery of Herniaria 
hirsuta, a plant spread widely through the southern half of 
Europe, by Mr. Fred. Townsend at Christchurch, in Hamp- 
shire. Dr. Boswell identifies the prickly comfrey, which has 
been so much talked about lately as a forage plant, with the 
Symphytum uplandicum of Nyman. Probably it is really a 
hybrid between 5S. officinale and S. asferrimum, as was suggested 
lately when it was figured by Sir Joseph Hooker in the Botanical 
Magazine. Some curious observations have been made lately 
tending to show that our wild docks hybridise naturally 
not unfrequently, like verbascums, geums, primulas, thistles, 
and epilobia. There is a curious form of Ofhioglossum (O. vul- 
gatum, var. ambiguum of Cosson and Germain), which till now 
has been known in Britain only in the Orkney and Scilly 
Islands. This year Mr. Chas. Bailey has found it on the Welsh 
coast between Harlech and Barmouth. The Botanical Record 
Club has for its object the filling up of the blanks left by Mr. 


NATURE 


Watson when he traced out in detail the home-distribution of 
British plants in his ‘‘Cybele Britannica.” In the report for 
this year detailed lists are given for Cardiganshire and Peebles- 
shire, and the only counties for which lists of flowering plants 
now remain to be drawn up are Flintshire, Wigtonshire, and West 
Ross. Fourteen pages of the present report are occupied by 
fresh records for counties already worked up, and the Club is 
now turning its attention to the distribution of the lower crypto- 
gamia, especially mosses. The registration of flowering plants 
is in the hands of Dr. F. A. Lees of Wetherby, and of mosses in 
that of Mr. H. Boswell of Oxford; and the Secretary of both 
the Clubs is Mr. Chas. Bailey, F.L.S., of Manchester. 


Mr. BriAN Houcuton Hopcson, F.R.S., has just pre- 
sented to the Anthropological Institute a valuable portfolio of 
drawings illustrative of the Eastern Himalayas and Tibet. The 
drawings have been made by the same Nepalese draughtsman 
as delineated the zoological drawings which have been presented 
to the Zoological Society, and this ethnological series comprises 
and contains in all 521 subjects, including duplicates. A series 
_ of crania have been drawn by aid of the camera, Mr. Hodgson 
remarking ‘‘native patience, hand and eye being peculiarly 
fitted to work that instrument.” 


ETIENNE MULSANT, one of the most prominent of French 
entomologists, and librarian to the city of Lyons, died on 
November 4 at the great age of eighty-four. His earliest publi- 
cation was the ‘‘ Lettres a Julie sur ’Entomologie (en prose et 
en verse),” published in 1830, but for the most part consisting 
of real love-letters to the lady he afterwards married, and written 
before he was out of his teens. His writings are most volu- 
minous; but he was best known as the author of a work 
extending over nearly forty years, on the Coleoptera of France, 


and published (chiefly) in the 47a/es of the Linnean Society of | 


107 


Lyons. He was also the author of a magnificently illustrated 
work on Humming Birds, in connection with which he visited 
London about five years ago, 


WE learn that Messrs. Williams and Norgate are about to 
issue an important work on the Fishes of Great Britain and Ire- 
land by Dr, Francis Day, late Inspector-General of the Fisheries 
of India. This work deals with their economic uses, modes of 
capture, diseases, breeding, life-history, &c., with/an introduction 
on the structure of fishes generally, their functions and geo- 
graphical distribution. The first part appears this month, and is 
illustrated by twenty-seven plates. The whole will form a work 
of 700 pages royal octavo, with over 200 plates. 


THE exploration of the remains of prehistoric man is being 
activély carried out in Russia. We have already briefly noticed a 
contribution to this subject by M. Mereshkovsky, published in the 
Tevestia of the Russian Geographical Society (vol. xvi. No. 2), 
being a report upon the exploration of caverns and rock-shelters 
in the Crimea, in the neighbourhood of the Tchatyrdagh Moun- 
tain. A great cavern, 145 feet wide and 58 feet deep, was 
explored close by the Suren town, and M. Mereshkovsky found 
there the remains of a prehistoric workshop for the manufacture: 
of stone implements, the whole belonging to two distinct periods. 
The paper by M. Mereshkoysky, published in the /zvestia, is 
accompanied with four tables of drawings of stone implements. 


WE notice the following interesting communications which 
were made at the last meeting of the St. Petersburg Geological 
Society :—On the motion of downs near Sestroretsk, by M. 
Sokoloff, The velocity of these downs is about one foot per 
month.—On the excavations made by water in rivers and springs 
of Northern Esthonia, especially by the waterfalls near Reval, 
Yagowal, and Fal; and on the Devonian clays discovered by 
Prof. Inostrantseff in the cuttings of the new Ladoga canal. The 
upper parts of the beds of these clays are bent by the action of 
the ice of the ice period, as has been observed at many places in 
Great Britain; the peats which cover the glacial formations are 
full of remains of prehistoric man. 


WE can state that the Observatory of Algiers will not remain 
longer without an astronomical observer. M. Tripier, who has 
been appointed director, as has been announced in the French 
papers, will leave in time for installation at the meeting of the 
French Association for the Progress of Science in April, 1881. 


THE purchaser of the French Siemens patent is preparing to 
send a tender for establishing an electric railway from the Exhi- 
bition to the central parts of Paris. 


ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC 
PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS, AND THEIR 
RELATION TO SUN-SPOTS, RAINFALL, AND 
FAMINES* a 


Comparison of the Abnormal Barometric Variations with the 
Sun-Spots 

A GLANCE at the barometric and sun-spot curves is sufficient to 

show that the irregular and frequent fluctuations of pressure 
are relatively much larger than those of the sun-spots. In order 
therefore to compare the general course of the barometric curves 
with that of the sun-spot curve the numbers of Table I. have 
been further smoothed by taking the means of every nine conse- 
cutive quarterly values of the nine-monthly means. The results 
of this operation are given in the following table, and graphically 
represented by the dotted curves which are drawn through the 
continuous ones. . All these dotted barometer curves closely re- 
semble each other, except that portion of the Mauritius curve 
after the year 1865 which shows a tendency to assume an opposite 
character. They are also very similar to the sun-spot curve, but 
all of them lag very persistently behind the latter, as will be seen 
by comparing the points marked with the same capital letters :— 

1 Continued from p. 91. 


108 


NATURE 


Means of every Nine Consecutive Quarterly Values of the Nine- 
Monthly Means of Solar Spotted Area and Abnormal Baro- 


metric Pressure 


1841 


1842 


1843 


1844 


1845 


1846 


1847 


1848 


1849 


1850 


1851 


1852 


1853 


1854 


1855 


1856 


PwWNRARWHN HRW NRHN 


BPwWNHRBRONHHPO NRW NH HE BRWNRBRWNRPWN RAW NHN HEROIN HRW NR PO NERD DS 


in millionths of 


Solar spotted area 
visible hemisphere. 


TABLE II. 


Abnormal barometric pressure in thousandths of 


an inch. 
5 ; : d g 
o 6 as) iS) a g 
A ic} Gy "a a cry 
a a a ia) 2) 8 
tS 
nA: 
= 3 = (5 
@ male 
° es 
— 1 fo} 
= ap 
fo) + 4 
+ 2 +5 
ap Zt + 6 
ab + 8 
+ 6 +11 
+7 +13 
+ 8 +14 
+ 8 +14 
+ § +12 
+10 
ait 9 
+ 6 
+ 2 
=e 
= 9 
119) 
—II 
Se ea 
— 6] -16 
— 4) -—16 
— 4] -15 
— 4/ -14 
= Sellar 
= (4) sie) 
= 7 — 8 
— (61/516 
= 6 || 6 
DO} 
S57 es i 
-7/+1 
SG) Sb 
Se aeyel | mec! 
oe) fo 
Mauri- 
tlus. 
tee | ae 
ai Ship eae) 
apes) par 
ap | AB 
Sree 
ae GY se 
2 St 5) Oia 
—.8| + 6 +1 
= (6) <3 16 +3 
cat /4|Pirteg 3 
uionlest 53 +33 
SOUT 3 + 2 
ee ia eae t =i 3: - I 
Sit Oe - 5 
ne fo) =) 
- I = 6 


~14 


Year. 


1858 


1859 


1860 


1861 


1862 


1863 


1864 


1865 


1866 


1867 


1868 


1869 


1870 


1871 


1872 


1873 


1874 


BOWNHPONHPWNHERWNHRPWN HPWH HEWNRBWNHREWNAPWNHRPWNEABPWNARWNRHPWN HPWH RBW NBR NNHBWDN 


Solar spotted area 
in millionths of 
visible hemisphere. 


[Dec. 2, 1889 


Abnormal barometric pressure in thousandths of 
an inch. 


| Mauritius. 


Pl 
a) 
ur OV 


| 
~ 
m 


Pi tt+t+t4 i 
STR He NOD ON OWE 


Bombay. 


| 


Phebe t test 


OMMDHP KR NHHUNITNITNW DYN ND 


La ee esl 


+++ 


Madras. 


DHHRONNHBMNOANNNOU ON ODKNOW NN 


Calcutta. 


b+++++4++ 


HN NB AMWOODL OMNNUW 


| 
I 


(eit 
wee 
Qn 


—16 


Lal 
me 
as 


-18 


—18 


jeletl i 
mH 
hb OB OO 


++ 
Cu 


+11 


tbh + 
BEGG 


+12 
+13 


++ 
hae 
Oo U1 


+21 


+23 


++ 
Nob 
ty Ge 


+20 
+18 


- 
es 


Tlieeteestente 


ROONHNH HORN O OOD DAMNW HHH OO 


tothe + 


Zi-ka-wie. 


Tun 


ey 2, 1880] 


TABLE II. (Continued)— 


cia d Abnormal barometric pressure in thousandths of 
55 an inch. 
326 
, Zee | 
Year. 222 é e F FS , 2 
Paes |. “Gel a olaudaylby teal saute 
B28 & 5 3 = re 
be a fa a 1s) *) N 
I o}| -10 oi) = 4 -8 
; 2 — ~| -12|-2,),-6 -9 
1875 | = 
mee 3 =) St a a= © 
4 + 2)|-10} -1}]-4)| - 8 
I [se Gi = Bil qe eer vel) = ¥ 
1876 | 2 We Doble cey Shier ag? ih 7 teem 
eel > 2 +16 | +10] +13 | +13) - 3 
| 4 +20 +17 | B18 | 2 
I Ze +24 | +23 | + 8 
| 2 +25 +31 | +26 | +13 
Hl | 3 | +23 37 |) 2200 tan) 
\ 4 +18 +38 | | +16 
I | grail +32 | +14 
> | 2 | ap +26 +13 
= 
B78 3 | aoe! +21 | +12 
4 = 4 +16 | + 9 
| I - 9 +11 | 
1879 be | 
| 
“ | 


The epochs of maximum and minimum barometric pressure 
and of minimum and maximum sun-spot area, as determined from 
the dotted curves by the graphic method, are given in the 
following table :— 


Efochs of Maximum and Minimum Barometric Pressure and 
Solar Spotted Area 


Barometric pressure. 
Seals oh - ‘lint Tike | a 
spotted i a : 
oO = 3 oe b=] By = 
Min. in |Max.in Max.in 
July Nov = == |) Be SS — 
1843. 1845. 1845. 
Max. in |Min. in| Min. in| 
May — — | Sept. | Dec. = = = 
1848. 1848. | 1848. 
Min. in | |Max.in|Max.in) Max.in| Max.in 
April | — | Oct. | Aug.} Aug. | Sept.| — — 
1856. «| 1858. | 1858. | 1858. | 1858. | 
Max. in | Min. in| Min. in Min. in 
June |) — | April} Aug.| — | Jan. | — — 
1860. 1862. | 1862, | 1863, | 
Min. in Max.in | Max.in)Max.in} 
February | — ? May | — | Nov. | May; — 
1867, | 1865, 1867. | 1868. | 
| Min. in |Min, in/ Min. in, 
— — | ? Sept.| — | Nov.| Dec. | — 
| 1870. 1870, | 1870. | 
|Max.in Max.in Max.in Max.in 
— — — | April] — | Sept. | May | Sept. 
| 1877. 1877. | 1877. | 1877. 


The mean epochs are given below and compared with those 
of the solar spotted area. 


NATURE 


109 


Mean Epochs of Barometric Pressure compared with the Corre- 
sponding Epochs of Solar Spotted Area 


Solar spotted area. Barometric pressure. Difference. 
a. | &. b-a, 

Year. Month. Year. Month. Year. Month. 

Min. 1843 7°5 |Max. 1845 ... 10°0 +2 2°5 
Max. 1845 5°5 |Min. 1848 ... r1'o fo) 5°5 
Min. 1856 ... 4°5 |Max. 1858 ... 9'2 +2 4°7 
Max. 1860 ... 6'5 |Min. 1862... 8°8 +2 253 
Min. 1867 ... 2°5 |Max. 1868 .... 3°5 +1 1'0 
Mean... | +1 8'0 


Front this comparison it appears that the epochs of maximunt 
and minimum barometric pressure lagged behind the corresponding 
epochs of minimum and maximum solar spotted area at an interval 
varying from above six months to nearly two and a half years, or 
at an average interval of about one year and eight months. 

Making use of this result and comparing points of the pressure 
curves with points of the solar curve several months earlier, it 
will be seen that even the minor peculiarities of the pressure 
curves from 1863 to 1868 do bear some resemblance to the 
subordinate features of the sun-spot curve from 1862 to 1867. 
What appear ta be corresponding points have been marked with 
corresponding letters, It is remarkable that this part of the sun- 
spot curve is the very portion which has been most accurately 
determined by means of the Kew photoheliograph. 

Comparison of the Abnormal Barometric Variations with 
Past Famines.—According to the Report of the Famine 
Commission the famine of 1876-78 in Southern India was 
the most widespread and severe of any which have occurred in 
India during the present century, and on reference to the curves 
it will be seen that the abnormal barometric pressure during 
those years was the /izghest on record, In the year 1878 a famine 
occurred in the North-West Provinces also, in consequence of a 
deficiency of rain in the previous year, 

The famine next in severity to that of 1876-78, and of even 
greater extent, was the one of 1868-69, which affected Rajputana 
and the North-West Provinces. ‘The curves show that this also 
was accompanied or immediately preceded -by a wave of high 
barometric pressure, which reached its maximum near the middle 
of the year 1865. 

The next on the list of severe famines is that which occurred 
in Orissa in the years 1865-66, and it will be seen that this also 
was attended by a wave of high pressure which slowly passed over 
India in the years 1864-65. 

The less extensive Behar famine of 1873-74 was .also accom- 
panied by a small wave of high pressure, which, judging from 
the curves for Mauritius, Bombay, Madras, and Batavia, reached 
its maximum height towards the end of 1873. 

The famine of 1860-61 in the North-West Provinces was also 
preceded by a wave of high pressure in the year 1859, although 
the failure of the rains which induced this famine did not occur 
till the following year. 

The above-mentioned famines include a// the severe ones that 
have occurred in India since 1841, the year from which baro- 
metric data exist ; and the waves of high barometric pressure 
which have been mentioned in connection with them include a/z 
that have been observed except two, viz. the one in 1855 and the 
one in 1845, both of which, though not immediately followed by 
actual famine, were nevertheless accompanied by deficient rain- 
fall both at Madras and Bombay, the fall at the former station 
being 67 and 78 per cent. of the average in 1855 and 1845 
respectively, and at the latter station 58 and 77 per cent. in the 
same years. Between the years 1832 and 1840, during which 
the solar spotted area was accurately observed, but for which 
period I have no barometric data, two other severe famines 
occurred, viz. the Gantur famine of 1833, and the famine of 
1837-38 in Northern India ; and it is worthy of note that the 
first of these occurred soon after the sun-spots had somewhat 
suddenly fallen to a minimum in 1832, and when, therefore, the 
barometric pressure would assumably be high, the second soon 
after the great and sudden diminution of spots which took place 
early in the year 1837. This last occurrence was very similar to 
the great decrease of spots observed in 1863, on which occasion 

© The numbers 1, 2, 3, &c., under the [heading ‘‘ Month,” refer to the 


months January, February, March, &c., respectively, and the decimals of 
month are reckoned from the beginning of the respective months, 


110 


NATURE 


[Dec. 2, 1880 


the decrease was followed by the wave of high pressure which 
preceded the Orissa famine. f 

Hence it appears that widespread and severe famines are generally 
accompanied or immediately preceded by waves of high barometric 
pressure. 

Means whereby future famines may possibly be foreseen.—If the 
conclusions arrived at from the above comparisons of abnormal 
barometric variations, sun-spots, and past famines be admitted, 
it is clear that they at once present the means whereby future 
famines may possibly be foreseen. The conclusions are 
briefly :— 

1, That variations of the solar spotted area are succeeded many 
months afterwards by corresponding abnormal barometric varia- 
tions, 

2. That abnormal barometric variations in the tropics travel 
at a very slow rate round the earth from west to east, arriving 
at westerly stations several months before they reach more easterly 
ones, 

3. That famises follow in the wake of waves of high barome- 
tric pressure. 

Hence it follows that there are two methods by which early 
intimation of the approach of those meteorological disturbances 
which are attended by famines may possibly be obtained— 

1. By regular observation of the solar spotted area, and early 
reduction of the observations, so as to obtain early information 
of current changes going on in the sun. 

2. By barometric observations at stations differing widely in 
longitude, and the early communication of the results to stations 
situated to the westward. 

With regard to the first of these methods it Hs sufficient to 
state that the whole subject of solar observations is now being 
investigated by a committee of scientific gentlemen in London, 
and we may therefore hope that the all-important information 
which solar observations are capable of affording will ere long 
be at our disposal; but with regard to the second method, viz., 
that of barontetric observations at stations differing widely in 
longitude, it is to be regretted that no observatories of long 
standing situated in suitable localities to the westward of Bom- 
bay at present exist, except possibly at the very distant station 
of Havanna in Cuba. The observatory at St. Helena appears 
to have been closed in the year 1847, after working continuously 
for about seven years. 

The most suitable localities for barometric observations for 
the purpose in view are insular stations far removed from the 
disturbing influences of the large continents and near the equator, 
such as the Seychelles, St. Helena, and Ascension, but these 
appear to be at present unoccupied by permanent observatories, 
while the wide expanse of the Pacific, which is probably the 
most suitable portion of the earth’s surface for investigations of 
this kind, appears to be entirely unrepresented by any fixed 
observatory on any of its numerous islands, such as the Gala- 
pagos, Sandwich, and Fiji Islands. An observatory has how- 
ever lately been established at Zanzibar on the East Coast of 
Africa, from which very valuable observations may be expected 
if it should continue at work for any great length of time; and 
another has, I believe, been started at Aden: but as these 
stations are both situated on the borders of extensive continents, 
they are not so suitably located as the stations previously 
mentioned. 

It would therefore be necessary, in order to utilise to the fullest 
extent the second method of foreseeing the approach of a 
ineteorological disturbance of the kind which would probably be 
attended by famine, that special arrangements should be made 
for the registration of the needful observations at some, if not 
all, of the stations that have been referred to; and that the 
information thus afforded should be rapidly communicated from 
the more westerly to the more easterly stations. 

F. CHAMBERS, 
Meteorological Reporter for 


Bombay, September 4 Western India 


PosTscRipt.—In order to determine numerically the intervals 
of time at which the barometric variations of one station have 
lagged behind those of another, and behind corresponding minor 
variations of the sun spots, the times at which the continuous 
curves cross the dotted ones have been marked off by the graphic 
method for corresponding crossing points of the different curves, 
giving the first set of times and intervals in each of the following 
tables. The same thing has been done with regard to the times 
at which the continuous curves cross the respective zero lines, 


giving the second set of times and intervals in each of the tables. 
As the average pressures for Batavia and Bombay have not been 
calculated from the observations of the same years, and as the 
zero line of the Batavia curve is on this account relatively dis- 
placed by ‘oo4 of an inch in the upward direction, a new zero 
line has been drawn so as to make the times at which the con- 
tinuous curve crosses the zero line comparable with those for 
Bombay. The approximate longitudes of the stations and their 
differences are also given in the tables. 


| Madras 
Station ... St. Helena. | Madras. minus 
| St. Helena. 
Longitude. | 5 44 W. 80° 14’ E. + 85° 58% 
Year. Month. Year. | Month Month. 
First 1842 41 1842 9°7 + 56 
Set 1843 11‘6 1843 | 12°8 + 12 
; 1846 gh 1846 | Fak + 3°9 
cn, 1842 6'$ 1842 II's ae vy) 
Bee 1843 II"4 1844 19 + 25 
Z 1846 6°7 1846 gt +724 
Mean | + 3°38 
Calcutta 
Station .. Mauritius. Calcutta. minus 
| Mauritius. 
Longitude. | 57 31 E. 88° 25' E + 30° 54’. 
| Year. Month. | Year. Month Month, 
| 1856 3°6 1856 6°5 + 2°9 
| 1857 5°2 1857 78 + 2'1 
First 1858 10°5 1858 I'l -— 04 
Set 1859 91 1860 1'0 ar 338) 
ae 1861 4°7 1861 g‘0 Ser ae) 
1862 471 1862 9°55 + Se 
| 1863 Pe) 1864 60 +10°0 
| 1856 rere 1856 4°7 + 36 
Second | ‘1858 90 1858 68 = 22 
Set, 4 185004] 98 1859 | I1‘0 + 12 
| 1863 10°5 1864 | 5°9 + 74 
=_- | — | —— — — 
| | 
Mean | + 3°47 
| Calcutta 
Station ...} Bombay. Calcutta. minus 
Bombay. 
Longitude. | 72° 48 E. | 88° 25’ E. + 15° 37’ 
Year. Month. Year. Month. Month. 
1856 275) i) e150 65 + 4'0 
1857 ee ||| 1857 73 ate 1000 
1858 5°0 1858 28 - 22 
1858 89 1858 Io’! + 12 
1859 75 1859 10°F) | Bere 
1861 75 1861 9°0 +15 
| 1862 6°7 1862 9°5 + 2:8 
First | 1863 II'r 1864 6:0 + 69 
Set. 1865 1S 1865 93 + 7'5 
1866 I'l 1866 10°2 + 9'I 
1867 15 1867 70 + 5°5 
1867 12'°8 1867 10° — 2°0 
1869 6°9 1869 8°7 + 18 
| 1870 6°9 1870 Wei + o'2 
| 1876 10°r 1876 9°3 = Oe 
| 1878 54 1878 88 + 34 


Dec. 2, 1880] 


NATURE 


| 
1856 3°I | 1856 4°7 | + 16 
1857 GS |) Beey/ gl ae a 
1859 g2 | 1859 | Ir‘0 + 18 
secont 1863 | I1°5 1864 59 + 64 
a 1869 8:2 1869 | 92 + 1'0 
1876 | 48 | 1876 | 78 | + 3° 
1878 | 5:9 1878 |, 10°5 | + 46 
| | 
Mean! + 2°69 
Batavia 
Station ... Bombay. Batavia. minus 
Bombay. 
Longitude. 72° 48' E. 105° 50’ E. +34 2). 
Year. Month. Year. | Menth. Month. 
1867 12°8 1868 2'1 + 13 
1869 6°9 1869 | 85 + 1°6 
1872 4°5 1872 5°6 + Ul 
First 1873 58 1873 608 + 1°'0 
Sets 1874 5°4 1874 6°7 + 13 
2 1875 37 1875 4°9 “tee 
a2 1875 9°7 1875 100 a OE 
1876 10‘2 1876 95 -— 04 
1869 S'r 1869 10'0 + 19 
1873 | 62 1873 75. | he ee 
. 1874 57 | 31874 (3 || ae 
perond 1875 40 6| «1875 6:0 | + 2°0 
i 1875 I1'2 1875 97 | - 05 
1876 4°99 | 1876 or | + 12 
1878 59 | 1878 79 + 2°0 
| | 
| Mean | + 1°07 
Solar spotted area. Bombay barometer. | 
Year. Month. | Year. Month. Month 
1862 3°4 1862 67) | ass 
1863 0) 1863 | I1xr | + 998 
First 1863 | II‘7 1865 | To) | Eger 
Set. 1864 | 12°7 1866 Ir | +12°4 
1865 | 94 1867 Ice) |) ren 
1866 60 1867 | 128 | +18: 
| Mean | +124 
Solar spotted area. Madras barometer. 

. Year. Menth. Year. Month. Month. 
First 1849 6'7 1849 | 12°8 + 61 
Set. 1850 I1‘2 1851 54 + 6'2 

Mean] + 6°1 


It will be seen that in the great majority of cases the baro- 
metric waves reach the westerly station several months before 
they arrive at the more easterly one, but that the rate of pro- 
gression of these waves across the Indian Peninsula appears to 
be much slower than across the open ocean to the southward. 

Ne (Ce 


OUD 


THE ROYAL SOCIETY—ADDRESS OF THE 
PRESIDENT } 
IDS SPOTTISWOODE began by referring to the losses 
which the Society has sustained by death during the past 
year :—Prof. Miller, Dr. Sharpey, Mr. Lassell, Prof. Ansted, 
Lord Belper, Mr. E. W. Cooke, and Sir Benjamin Collins 
Brodie. 

The Society’s finances generally are, as the balance-sheet will 
show, in a healthy condition, and appear to justify the hope that 
they will suffice for the large claims upon them for printing our 
publications. The address then proceeds :— 

Although we are more concerned, Dr, Spottiswoode said, with 
the quality than with the quantity of communications made to the 
Society, it may not be without interest to observe that the number 
of papers received this year has been in excess of that in any 
previous year, at all events since 1872, inclusive. The following 
is a table of the numbers during the last nine years :— 


1872 99 papers received. 
1873 92 5, ” 
1874 98 ” ” 
1875 88 ” ” 
1876 113 ” ” 
1877 97 » ” 
1878 110, ” 
1879 118 ” 3? 


1880 


and we may conclude that these have contained good matter 
from the fact that of the Phzlosophical Transactions for the 
current year Parts i. and ii., already published, contain no less 
than 900 pages and thirty-three plates. 

Dr. Spottiswoode then referred to the satisfactory results of the 
change of time of meeting of the Society, and went on to speak of 
the death of Mr. Henry White, who for many years was chief 
assistant in the compilation of the great Catalogue of Scientific 
Papers. Atan earlier stage of the work, Dr. Spottiswoode went on 
to say, his loss would have been still more serious ; but in a long 
course of training he succeeded so well in imparting his own careful 
and methedical mode of work to those under him, that the Council 
felt justified in making trial of his son to take his place. With 
the result of this trial, as shown in continuing the preparation of 
a new edition of the catalogue of the Society’s Library, the 
Council has reason to be satisfied. Of this new edition, the first 
portion, 220 pages, containing our large collection of Transac- 
tions and Proceedings of Academies and Societies, and other 
scientific periodicals is in type, and will shortly be printed off. 
The verification of titles of our scientific books generally is so 
far advanced as to warrant the expectation that a large icstalment 
of this portion of the catalogue will soon be in the printer's 
hands ; after which we anticipate no further delay. 

In rezard to the Library, a cuestion has arisen as to how far 
purely literary works, which occupy much space, should be 
retained, Among them there are doubtless some which add neither 
to the utility nor to the scientific importance of our Library, but 
there are also some early printed books, bibliographical treasures, 
which are worthy of a place in any collection, It is proposed to 
have these carefully put in order, and to place them in a case by 
themselves. Among these, there may be mentioned :— 


Caxton’s Chaucer, 1480. 

Pynson’s Chaucer, 1492. 

Speght’s Folio Chaucer, 1598. 

Ciceronis Officia et paradoxa, Fust, 1466, vellum, 
The generall historie of Virginia, Lond. 1632. 
Bonifacius. Sextus decretalium liber. Ven. 1566-7 
Plautus, 1482. Seneca, 1490. 

Ovid, 1485. Statius, 1490. 

Plutarch, 1485. Herodotus, 1494. 
Homer, 1488. 


For bringing into prominence these as well as other features of 
our miscellaneous, z.¢. non-scientific, books, we are greatly in- 
debted to the care and knowledge brought to bear on the subject 
by Mr. Tomlinson, and by our treasurer. 

Although it is doubtless undesirable to propose, without suffi- 
cient cause, alterations in our statutes, or even in our practice, it 
is still often worth while from time to time to discuss questions 
involving such alterations in order that we may be prepared for a 


1230 2 


X Address of William Spottiswoode, D.C.L., LL.D., the President, 
delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society on Tuesday, 
November 39, 1880 


TZ 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 2, 1850 


deliberate judgment whenever occasion may arise, Among such 
subjects there is one upon which I have often heard opinion 
expressed, and upon which opinion has always weighed in the 
same direction: I allude to the period of office of those elected 
to serve on the Council of the Society. By the terms of our 
charter ten of the ordinary members retire every year; and as it 
is our custom to remove six according to seniority and four in 
respect of least attendance, it rarely happens, although the 
contrary is possible, that any Fellow, except those holding the 
posts of President, Treasurer, or Secretary, should remain in 
office more than two years. Experience, however, appears to 
show, that for a member serving on the Council for the first 
time, there is so much to learn, so many heads of business which 
do not in general come before the Fellows at large, that his first 
year is occupied quite as much in ascertaining his duties as in 
actively performing them. This objection is in some degree 
met by selecting for the ten incoming members five who have 
served before, and five who have not so served; but, never- 
theless, there is usually an interval of several years between two 
periods of office, and as a matter of fact we often lose a 
member of Council at the moment when his advice is becoming 
most valuable to our body. 

I am aware of the great convenience attaching to our present 
impersonal mode of selecting the members to retire in each year, 
and am not at present prepared to suggest any specific alteration. 
But}the great confidence which the Society has, especially of 
late years, placed in its more permanent officers, and the power 
which naturally accrues to them from the comparatively short 
tenure of office by the other Members of Council, appear to me 
to be points of which the Society should not lose sight. On the 
part of the officers I think it right to state that we are very 
sensible both of the honour which is thus done to us and of the 
responsibility which is thereby entailed, and that we hope never 
to discredit the one nor to abuse the other. And having said so 
much, we are quite willing to leave the matter in the hands of 
the Society to be taken up whenever they see reason so to do. 

Tt will be in the recollection of the Fellows that the position 
of the Royal Society in respect of the Government Fund of 
4000/. per annum is different from that in relation to the Govern- 
ment Grant of 1000/7, per annum. In the latter case the sum is 
placed unreservedly in the hands of the Society for promoting 
scientific investigation, subject only to an annual report to the 
Treasury of the disposal of it; and, in administering it, the 
Society has in no case applied it to the personal remuneration of 
the applicant. In the former case the Society has been requested 
to advise the Science and Art Department as to the distribution 
of the grant, not only for the direct expenses of investigations, 
but also for personal remuneration for the time expended on them, 
whenever the circumstances and wishes of the applicant appeared 
to render this desirable. The responsibility of this advice lies with 
a Committee similar to that of the Government Grant, but with 
the addition of the presidents of certain learned bodies and 
societies, nominated for that purpose by the Government. 

The recommendations made by the Committee each year are 
annually published in the Proceedings, so that the public will 
have had full information as to the distribution of the grant ; 
while the Fellows have the opportunity of seeing the nature of 
applications made, and the extent to which it has been found 
practicable to meet them, as recorded in the minutes of the 
Council of the Society. 

One of the points which is perhaps beset with the greatest 
difficulty is that of the so-called ‘‘ personal” grants, On the 
one hand it has been argued that it is desirable to enable the 
man of small means to devote to research a part of his time 
which he could not otherwise afford to give ; but, on the other, 
the question has been raised whether it be wise, even in the 
interests of science, to encourage any one not yet of independent 
income to interrupt the main business of his life. It is too 
often assumed that a profession or a business may be worked at 
half-speed, or may be laid down and taken up again, whenever 
we like. But this is not so, and a profession temporarily or even 
partially laid aside, may prove irrecoverable ; and the temptation 
to diverge from the dull and laborious path of business may 
prove to have been a snare. Without proposing to exclude from 
possible aid in some shape or other those cases where personal 
assistance may be safely offered, it has been suggested that many 
such cases may be practically met by grants for the employment 
of an assistant, instead of grants to the applicant himself. 

There is another fundamental difference between the position 
of the Government Grant of 1000/, per annum and the Govern- 


ment Fund of 4ooo/. per annum, which appears to me to be of 
material importance in the interests of science. The former is 
an absolute grant from the Treasury made to the Society for 
scientific purposes. It may be used wholly, or in part, during 
the year in which it is made, and the balance, if any, may be 
carried over by the Society to the next or even to succeeding 
years. The latter is a vote to the Science and Art Department, 
on the disposal of which the Society is consulted. Like all other 
similar votes, any unused balance reverts to the Treasury, and is 
to that extent lost to the purpose for which it was intended, I 
cannot help thinking that, if any such balances could be reserved 
and kept in hand, provision might be made for some larger pur- 
poses than those to which the fund has hitherto been devoted. 
And, even if having this end in view, the Committee should not 
see its way to recommend some of the smaller applications, it 
may be fairly questioned whether the smaller grants might not 
find a more appropriate place among those of the Donation Fund 
of this Society, or of the British Association, or among some of 
those separate funds which, through the liberality of individuals, 
are now growing up among the special societies, 

I am glad to record the fact that, upon the recommendation of 
men of science, Her Majesty has been pleased to grant pensions 
on the Civil List to the widows of two of our late Fellows, viz., 
to Mrs, John Allan Broun and to Mrs, Clifford. 

Last year two volumes containing a collection of the late Prof. 
Clifford’s general lectures and essays were brought out. It is 
hoped that during the present winter a collection of his mathe- 
matical papers will be published. The contributions to science 
by the late Prof. Rankin have recently been placed in the hands 
of the public. While very sensible of the obligations under 
which the scientific world is placed by these posthumous publi- 
cations, I cannot refrain from alluding to our obligations, even 
greater if possible, to those who during their lifetime are willing 
to re-issue their own scientific memoirs, and to give us thereby 
not only the convenience of ready access, but also the advantage 
of their own subsequent reflections on the subjects of which they 
have treated, And at this particular moment I desire to mention 
more particularly the mathematical and physical papers of our 
Senior Secretary, Prof. G. G. Stokes ; and, while expressing 
our gratitude for the volume which has already appeared, I would 
express also our sincere hope that another instalment from the 
same source may shortly follow. : 

Among the subjects which at one period of the late session of 
Parliament engaged the attention of the Government was that of 
the law relating to vaccination ; and a Bill was introduced in- 
tended to remove some of the practical difficulties in carrying out 
the existing law. While fully admitting the difficulties in ques- 
tion, the remedy proposed appeared to trench so closely upon 
the application at least of a scientific principle, and at the same 
time to be so important in its practical aspect, that I ventured 
(although the Council was not sitting) to consult the Presidents 
of the Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, and that of the 
Medical Council, about addressing the Government on the 
subject, This resulted in a joint deputation to the President 
of the Local Government Board, in which I took part as 
President of the Royal Society. I reported this matter to the 
Council at their first meeting after the recess, and received their 
approbation. The Bill in question was withdrawn. 

The Royal Commission on Accidents in Coal Mines, the 
appointment of which I mentioned in my address of last year, 
has been occupied principally in bringing together a body of 
valuable evidence on the causes and prevention of accidents in 
mines generally. The Commission has also visited a number of 
mines in which serious accidents by explosion have taken place, 
or in which certain phenomena connected with the occurrence of 
fire-damp were to be studied. They have also instituted a series 
of experiments on the behaviour of various safety lamps in 
mixtures of natural fire-damp and air. These experiments they 
are about to renew during the winter. They also contemplate 
carrying out experiments in blasting rock and coal by methods 
which will check the production of flame, and which are there- 
by calculated to obviate the danger of igniting fire-damp. __ 

The report of the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger, to which 
the scientific world has been looking forward with so much 
interest, is now so far advanced that one volume of . the 
“Zoological Memoirs ” will appear immediately. In addition 
to this a second volume may be expected withina year. The 
first volume of the whole work, ‘‘ containing a short narrative 
of the: voyage, with all necessary hydrographical details, an 
account of the appliances and methods of observation, a running 


Dec. 2, 1880] | 


outline of the results of the different observations; and a 
chapter epitomising the general results of the voyage,” together 
with the second volume containing the meteorological, magnetic, 
and hydrographic observations, will probably be published within 
the same period. ‘‘The general report on the zoology of the 
expedition will consist of about fifty distinct memoirs, which will 
occupy from ten to twelve volumes.” It has been arranged ‘‘to 
print the Zoological Reports as they are prepared, and to pub- 
lish them as soon as a sufficient bulk of memoirs is ready to 
form a volume. Copies of each memoir may also be had 
separately, in order that working naturalists may have them in 
their hands at the earliest possible date.” Two more volumes 
on the geology and petrology, and one on the general chemical 
and physical results, will probably complete the series. Into the 
details of the zoological results I am not competent to enter ; but 
the greatest interest attaches to the fact that notwithstanding the 
pressure and absence of light, there is no depth-limit to animal life, 

As the Council of the Meteorological Office is nominated by 
the Council of the Royal Society, and as the Annual Report of 
the Office is submitted to the Royal Society, I think it right to 
mention a few points connected with the work of that depart- 
ment during the past year. 

1. A method of recording the duration of bright sunshine by 
the charring of an object placed in the focus of a glass sphere, 
freely exposed to the rays of the sun, was devised by Mr, J. 
F. Campbell of Islay in 1856; and instruments, being modified 
forms of that originally proposed, have been employed for some 
time at Greenwich, at Kew, and at a few private observatories. 
Certain difficulties in adjusting the paper about to be charred to 
the path of the burning spot; which had hitherto prevented the 
adoption of Mr. Campbell’s invention as a part of the ordinary 
equipment of a meteorological observing station, have been at 
last successfully overcome by an arrangement designed by Prof. 
Stokes ; and thirty stations in the British Isles have now been 
supplied with instruments of the pattern proposed by him. We 
may thus hope to obtain in future a sufficient record of a 
meterological element, which is of primary importance in its 
relations to agricul.ure, and to the public health, but which has 
hitherto been very imperfectly registered. 

2. The climatology of the Arctic regions, in additicn to its 
importance as a part of the general physics of the globe, possesses 
a special interest in connection with geographical exploration. 
Asa contribution to our knowledge of this subject, the Meteoro- 
logical Office has entrusted to Mr. R. Strachan the task of 
bringing together, and discussing on an uniform plan, the results 
of the observations taken at intervals during the last sixty years, 
in the region extending from the meridian of 45° W. to that of 
120° W., and from the parallel of 60° to that of 80°, either at 
land stations or at the winter quarters of British and American 
expeditions. A considerable portion of this discussion has 
been already published ; the remainder may be expected in the 
course of next year. 

3. Another publication of the Meteorological Office may be 
mentioned as serving to mark the advance in meteorological 
theory, which has been achieved during the last fifteen years. 
The old ‘‘ Barometer Manual and Weather Guide” of the 
Board of Trade has been replaced, so far as it relates to the 
weather of the British Isles, by a work entitled ‘‘ Aids to the 
Stady and Forecast of Weather,” prepared under the direction 
of the Meteorological Office by the Rey. W. Clement Ley. 
Though some of the views put forward in the later work may, 
perhaps, be regarded as not sufficiently established by observa- 
tion, yet a comparison of the two works cannot fail to leave 
upon the reader’s mind the impression that in the interval 
between their respective dates of publication, some real progress 
has been made in meteorology. Perhaps this is most con- 
spicuous in the enlarged ideas that are now entertained con- 
cerning the conditions upon which the changes of weather 
depend. Local weather was first discovered to be contingent 
upon travelling areas of disturbance, each of which averaged 
many hundreds of miles in diameter, while, at the present 
time, the relation of these areas to one another, as parts of a 
single terrestrial system, has become a prominent topic of 
inquiry. If meteorology has thus been, to a certain extent, 
rescued from the ever-accumulating choas of numerical tabula- 
tions, which threatened to engulf the whole science, the im- 
provement is mainly due to the development in recent times of 
the synoptic study of weather over large regions of the earth’s 
surface, to which so great an impetus has been given by the 
extended facilities of telegraphic communication. 


NATURE 


113 


4. Balloon ascents, with a view to military purposes, are now 
systematically carried on under the direction of the War Office ; 
and the endeavour has been made to take advantage of these 
ascents for observations of the thickness of the aérial current 
which causes our winds, and of the peculiarities of the currents 
above it in the upper strata of the atmosphere. The military 
authorities have offered their co-operation in the most cordial 
manner ; but the attention of an aéronaut is often so much en- 
grossed by the operations necessary for working his balloon, that he 
has but little leisure for taking systematic records. Nevertheless, 
observations of considerable interest have already been ob- 
tained, relating especially to the velocity and direction of the 
upper air currents ; and there can be no doubt that a continuance 
of such observations affords the best prospect at present open to 
us of adding to the very scanty knowledge which we possess of 
the movements of the atmosphere, even at a moderate height 
above the earth’s surface, 

Among the various duties which the President of the Royal 
Society is called upon to fulfil, there are those ofa Trustee of the 
British Museum; and, as an operation ‘of great importance to 
science, namely the removal of the natural history collections to 
the new building at South Kensington, is now going on, the 
Fellows may be interested to hear what progress has been made 
in the work. 

The plans for the new building were approved as long ago 
as April, 1868: but the works were not commenced until the 
early part of 1873. Their progress was retarded by difficulties 
in the supply of the terra cotta with which the building is faced 
within and without, and in which the mouldings of arches and 
other ornamental features are executed. 

The building was finally handed over to the Trustees in the 
month of June of the present year. It contains cases for three 
only of the departments for which it is intended, namely, 
Mineralogy, Geology, and Botany ; the necessary funds for the 
Zoological Department not having yet been voted. As the 
latter collections are equal in bulk to the other three collectively, 
it follows that only half the new building can at present :be 
actually occupied. The removal of the collections for which 
cases had been provided, commenced in the last week of July, 
and was virtually completed by the end of September. 

Geology, which was very inadequately displayed in the old 
building, is now more commodiously accommodated, It now 
occupies a gallery 280 feet in length by 52 in breadth, forming 
the ground floor of the east wing of the new museum, together 
with eight other galleries covering an area of 200 x 170 feet at the 
back, and admirably adapted for the exhibition of the specimens. 
One of these galleries will be devoted to the illustration of 
stratification. 

The principal, part of the Minerals has been moved and 
replaced in the cases in which they were arrangedin the old 
building. The collection now occupies the first floor of the” 
east wing of the new museum, and the space devoted to it is 
280 x 50 feet in area, It is already arranged for exhibition. 

The Botanical collections are placed in the gallery over the 
minerals, where the space for exhibition and the conveniences 
for study are much greater than in their old quarters, 

The construction of the cases for. the Zoological specimens, 
and the ultimate removal of these collections, must depend upon 
the amount of the Parliamentary vote for the purpose ; but under 
the most favourable conditions it can hardly be hoped that this 
department can be open to the public or to students for two 
years from the present time. 

The ‘‘Index Museum,” designed by Professor Owen, will 
form a prominent feature in the new museum, The object of it, 
in his words, is ‘‘to show the type characters of the principal 
groups of organised beings;” and ‘‘to convey to the great 
majority of visitors, who are not naturalists, as much informa- 
tion and general notions of its aim as the hall they will first enter 
and survey could be made to afford.” 

One of the principal difficulties attending the transfer of the 
Natural History Departments to a separate building consists in 
the provision of books for the use of the keepers and their 
staff, as well as for students who may visit the museum. Hitherto 
the separate collections of books, known as departmental 
libraries, supplemented as occasion might require from the main 
library of the museum, have sufficed for all purposes. But now, 
when the departmental libraries have to stand by themselves, it 
is impracticable to carry on even the current work of arrange- 
ment without additional resources. For an adequate supply of 
the necessary works a very large outlay would be required, sup- 


114 


NATURE 


[Dec. 2, 1880 


posing that the works were in the market. But many of them 
are out of print and have become scarce ; and a large grant of 
public money would perhaps raise the market price almost in 
proportion to its magnitude. This being so, it has been thought 
best, on the whole, by the Government to make an annual grant 
to be expended from time to time as favourable opportunities 
for purchase may offer. If it should prove possible, and on 
other grounds desirable, to allow the Banks’ Library to follow 
the collections with which it has always been practically con- 
nected, the wants of the Natural History Departments would 
(so far as books up to the date of its bequeathment are con- 
cerned) be in a great measure supplied. 

Another of the duties which falls officially on your President 
is to take part in the organisation of technical education as pro- 
moted by the City and Guilds of London Institute, which is now 
incorporated under the Companies Acts, 1862-80, asa registered 
association, and of which ‘the Presidents of the Royal Society, 
the Chemical Society, the Institute of Civil Engineers, and the 
Chairman of the Council of the Society of Arts, are members. 
In the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Institute, 
its objects are fully set forth. They may be summarised under 
the following heads :— 

1. The establishment of a central technical institution for 
instruction in the application of science and art to productive 
industry. 

2. The establishment of trade aud technical schools in London 
and in the country. 

3. The development of technical education by means of 
examinations held at the Central Institution, or at other places. 

4. Toa sist by means of grants existing institutions in which 
technical education is being promoted. 

5. To accept gifts, bequests, and endowments for the purposes 
of the Institute. 

The Institute is supported by subscriptions from sixteen of the 
City Companies, of which the largest contributors are the 
Mercers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, and Clothworkers. 

The Institute has been in active operation not much more than 
a year, and during the last six months the work of the Institute 
has developed considerably in each of its several departments, 
These may be considered under the following heads :— 

1. Technical Instruction. 

2. Examinations in Technology. 

3. Asssistance to other Institutions. 

. Since November last courses of lectures and laboratory 
instruction have been given in the temporary class-rooms of the 
Institute, at the Cowper Street Schools, under the direction of 
Prof. Armstrong, F.R.S., and of Prof. Ayrton. The subjects of 
instruction have included Inorganic and Organic Chemisiry, with 
special reference to their industrial applications ; Fuel, Electro- 
depositions of Metals, and Photographic Chemistry; General 
Physics, Steam, Electrical Engineering, Electrical Instrument 
Making, Electric Lighting, Weighing Appliances, and Motor 
Machinery. 

During the term ending July last the number of tickets issued 
to students, most of whom belonged to the artisan class, exceeded 
three hundred. A considerable accession of students is expected 
as soon as the building in Tabernacle Row, the plans of which 
are already settled, shall be erected. This building, which is 
estimated to cost ;20,000/., will provide accommodation for 
schools of Technical Physics, Technical Chemistry and Applied 
Mechanics. Many of the day students at these classes are pupils 
of the Cowper Street Schools, and i: is expected that, by adapting 
the course of technical instruction to be given in the College to 
the wants of these boys, a very complete technical school for the 
children of artisans will have been established. 

The evening lectures and laboratory instruction, which are 
more advanced and more special, are attended very largely by 
external students, for whom the present temporary accmmoodation 
is already too limited. 

At Kensington, schools have been established in which 
practical instruction is given{in various art subjects, such as 
Painting anc Drawing, Modelling, Designing, and Wood 
Engraving. These schools are attended by both sexes, and are 
under the immediate direction of Mr. Sparkes. The numbers in 
attendance last term were as follows :— 


Wood Engraving. . . 8 Students, 
Modelling, 28.) 128 
Drawing and Painting 
from Life doy Alp 0 22 Ay IO” Sy eres 33 
Designing . . oo} 3 sO >) 


_ 


3 Men, 5 Women. 
> 26 ” 2 3) 


‘The Central Institution for instruction in the application of the 
higher branches of science to industrial pursuits is about to be 
erected on a plot of ground in Exhibition Road, granted by the 
Commissioners of 1851. The construction of this building, 
which, when completed, will cost 50,000/., has been entrusted 
to Mr, Alfred Waterhouse, who is now engaged in the preparation 
of plans. 

2. In the year 1879, the examinations in Technology, which 
had been initiated by the Society of Arts, were transferred to 
this Institute. Various charges where introduced into the regu- 
lations. New subjects were added, and in order to stimulate 
the teaching of Technology throughout the country, the principle 
of payment to teachers on the results of the examinations was 
adopted. The encouragement thus afforded to teachers gave a 
great impetus to the formation of classes throughout the country 
in technological subjects. Last year the number of candidates for 
examination was 202, while at the recent examination, held in May, 
816 candidates presented themselves, of whom 515 satisfied the 
Examiners. During the last few months the number of classes 
throughout the country, in which technical instruction is being 
given, has considerably increased, and, judging from the returns 
already received, there is reason to believe that the number of 
candidates, who will present themselves for examination next 
May will be much greater than in either of the preceding years. 
The new programme, which is just issued, contains a syllabus of 
each subject of examination, and every effort has been made, 
short of testing the candidates’. practical skill, to make the 
examinations as efficient as possible. To obtain the Institute’s 
full certificate, each candidate is required to give evidence of 
having obtained some preliminary scientific knowledge. 

3. In order to take advantage of efforts that are already 
being made to advance technical education, the Institute has 
given sums of money for specific objects to several institutions in 
which technical instruction is provided. The schools, colleges, 
and other bodies which have received grants from this Institute, 
are University College and King’s College, London, the School 
of Art, Wood Carving, and Mining Association of Devon and 
Cornwall, the Nottingham Trade and Science Schools, the 
Artisans’ Institute, the Birkbeck Institute, the Lancashire and 
Cheshire Union, and the Horological Institute. 

The Artisans’ Institute gives practical instruction in several of 
the humbler crafts in which artisans are engaged, such as car- 
pentry, zinc work, and plumbers’ work; and corresponds, 
therefore, to some slight extent with the apprenticeship schools 
of the Continent, from which, however, it differs in many im- 
portant particulars. A similar experiment is being tried at the 
Horological Institute, where, at the expense of the Guilds, 
classes have been organised, in which apprentices receive prac- 
tical instruction in the various branches of the watch-making 
trade. 

It is found that the demand for technical instruction in London 
and throughout the provinces is very great, and the efforts that 
have been so far made by the City and Guilds of London Institute 
have been received with considerable satisfaction by artisans and 
others engaged in industrial pursuits, and promise, when further 
extended, to be of the utmost service in the development of techni- 
cal education in this country. Turning now more particularly 
to the progress and the applications of science, I venture 
to make mention of a few topics which have come under my 
own observation. 

(To be continued.) 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN . . 


Lunar Ec LipsEs, 1880-84.—The total eclipse of the moon is 
only partly visible in this country, the middle occurring at 3h. 
39m. Greenwich time, and the moon not rising until seven 
minutes later ; the end of the total phase takes place at 4h. 
24m., and the last contact with the earth’s shadow at 5h. 33m. 
In Australia the whole eclipse may be witnessed to advantage. 
On December 5, 1881, there will occur an almost total eclipse 
(magnitude 0°97), again only partly visible here ; the first contact 
with the shadow at 3h. 28m., and the moon rising at 3h. 50m. ;. 
greatest phase at 5h. 8m. In 1882 there will be no lunar 
eclipse. On October 16, 1883, a partial eclipse is barely visible 
here ; first contact with the shadow at 5h. 59m. a.m., the moon 
setting at 6h. 25m. The next favourably-circumstanced lunar 
eclipse, as regards observation in this country, will take place on 
the evening of October 4, 1884 ; first contict with shadow at 8h. 
15m., beginning of total phase at 9h. 16m., middle of the eclipse 


Dec. 2, 1880] 


at 1oh. 2m., ending of total phase at roh. 48m., and last contact 


ee 


with shadow at 11h. 49m. 


A PROBABLE VARIABLE STAR.—On November 25 Swift’s 
comet was compared with the star No. 4339 of Lalande, by Mr. 
Talmage at Mr. Barclay’s Observatory, Leyton, the magnitude 
of the star being estimated 8, as it was also by Lalande, Arge- 
lander, in the Durchmusterung, gives it 6'4, and Heis made it 
a naked-eye star (6°7), but errroneously identifies it with 
Lalande 4359. It escaped observation in the Bonn Zones, and 
may be worth occasional examination as likely to prove an addition 
to our variable star list. 


Faye’si CoMET.—In the Berliner atsronomisches Jahrbuch 
for 1882, Prof. Axel Moller, of Lund, has given an ephemeris 
of Faye’s comet extending to the end of March next. On 
comparing the theoretical intensity of light appended to the 
ephemeris with that corresponding to particular epochs in other 
appearances, it will be found that there is a probability of 
observing the comet for some weeks from this time without 
difficulty if the larger instruments be employed. ‘Thus at the 
beginning of January the calculated degree of brightness is more 
than twice that appertaining to the dates when the comet was 
first and last observed with the Northumberland telescope at 
Cambridge, during the return of 1850-51, and the geocentric 
position is favourable for observation; a month later the 
intensity of light is still equal to that at the time of the first 
observation with the Copenhagen refractor in 1865, and even at 
the close of Prof. Axel-Moller’s ephemeris it is equal to that at 
the first and last Cambridge observations above alluded to; the 
comet’s place, however, will then be drawing into the evening 
twilight. We have already fremarked that the magnitude of 
the planetary perturbations of the comet’s motion during the 
revolution 1873-1881 is greater than in any other revolution 
since the comet’s discovery in 1843, and the success which has 
again attended his prediction of its apparent track in the 
heavens must have excited the admiration of those who have 
any experience or knowledge of such investigations, and the 
immense amount of skilled application involved in them. 

Swirt’s Comer.—The following elements depend upon Mr. 
Chandler’s observation on October 25, one at Strassburg on 
November 9, and a third at Mr. J. G. Barclay’s Observatory, 
Leyton, on November 25 :— 


Perihelion passage 1880, November 8°3691 Greenwich M.T. 


Longitude of perihelion 42 15°2 


rf ascending node 294 46°6 
RuclinatiGni eshte de Gals. 7 213 
Log. perihelion distance... . 0704188 


Motion—direct, 
The close resemblance to the orbit of the third comet of 1869, it 


will be seen, is maintained. The elements give these positions 
for Greenwich midnight :— 


R.A. Decl. Log. distance from I 
h. _m. oles Earth. . Sun. waa 
Dec 2... 3 44°t ... 50 57 ... O:3186. ... 010680... 16:5 
Bee 3 159) 0: 50 Io 
ES dese aN RESIN 49 21 ... 9°3366 0'0721 15°2 
eere4qetOuy --- 49.32 
Gere elSesa-.. 47 Al ...1.9;3550 .-. OOPO5 many 
7-4 25°62, 401.50 
O)er-) 4) 3253)... +45 59) ... .9°3756 O'OSII 12°2 


INIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


OxFORD.—No further regulations have been issued by the 
University Commissioners for the Professoriate. Opinion is 
much divided in the University itselfas_ to the operation of the 
new rules. There have been several memorials to the Commis- 
sioners got up, some praying that no alterations be made, others 
approving the new Councils of the Faculties. There seems to be 
a general feeling against. insisting on the professors examining 
their classes every term, and against making attendance at their 
lectures compulsory, - The Councils of Faculties are regarded by 
many with favour as a means of bringing the tutors and lecturers 
of the various colleges who are engaged in teaching the same 
branch of learning into closer relationship, and enabling them 
better to divide the work among them. 


NATURE 


115 


At Balliol College an extra scholarship on the Brakenbury 
Foundation has been awarded to Mr, A. D, Hall of Manchester 
Grammar School, for Natural Science, 


A MEETING of the Convocation of Victoria University was 
held at Owens College, Manchester, on Friday, Dr. Green- 
wood presiding. A resolution was received from the Associates 
of the College expressing their gratification at the creation of 
the University, and pledging themselves to perform their part in 
maintaining the welfare, dignity, and fame of the University. 
and promoting its objects. Standing orders for the regulation 
of the proceedings of Convocation were adopted, and the Rev. 
C. J. Poynting was appointed clerk, 

THE recently-presented budget of Prussia shows that, despite 
the financial straits of the kingdom, no considerations of eco- 
nomy are allowed to hamper the growth of its scientific and 
educational system, First on the list come the nine universities 
with an allotment of 7,050,000 marks (352,500/.). Berlin re- 
ceives the lion’s share, 1,378,348 marks, an increase of about 
37,000 marks on its last annual subvention. Bonn and Kénigs- 
berg each have 740,000 marks, Breslau 600,000, Kiel 404,c00, 
Marburg and Halle each 430,000, Gottingen 201,0co, and 
Greifswald 136,000, Of the above-mentioned sum about 
1,306,000 marks are appropriated for extraordinary expenses in 
connection with the construction of university buildings, and of 
this amount Berlin absorbs over one-half, viz., 766,000 marks. 
The other chief items in the Budget of Public Instruction are : 
Gymnasia and Realschulen, 5,000,000 marks; primary schools, 
14,500,0c0 ; orphanages, schools for the blind, deaf and dumb, 
&c., 300,000 ; technical schools, and for the general furtherance 
of science and art, 3,000,000 marks. 


THE number of pupils of Lycées and Colleges in the French 
Republic is $7,000 (46,500 for Lycées and 40,500 for Colleges). 
Last year it was only 84,700, These establishments may be 
considered as analogous to the English grammar-schools, 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Fournal of the Franklin Institute, November.—The metric 
system : is it wise to introduce it into our machine-shops ? by C. 
Sellers-—The weakening of steam boilers by cutting holes in the 
shell for domes and necks, by W. B, Le Van.—Observations in 
Brazil, by W. M. Roberts. 

Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, October 31.—/Résumé of solar 
observations at Palermo Observatory in the third quarter of 
1880, by Prof. Ricco.—Experimental researches on the action of 
light on transpiration of plants, by Dr. Comes.—Dynamometric 
break with circulation of water, by Prof. Ricco, 

Fournal de Physique, November.—On the combination of 
phosphuretted hydrogen with hydrochloric acid, by M. Ogier.— 
An amplifying barometer, by M. Debrun. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 


Linnean Society, November18.—Robt. McLachlan, F.R.S., 
in the chair.—Dr, Geo, E. Dobson exhibited a remarkable para- 
sitic worm from the intestine of A/egaderma frons, from the Gold 
Coast. It appears allied to Plerygodermatites plagiostoma, Wedl, 
from the Long-eared Hedgehog, though on first hasty examina- 
tion he (Dr. Dobson) had been disposed to regard it as a new 
genus, JZetabdelia. Dr. McDonald further drew attention to its 
peculiar anatomical structure and relationships. Dr. Cobbold 
agreed to the importance of the observations as verifying previous 
discoveries, with addition of novel structural details. He con- 
sidered the worm as identical with the Ophzostomum of Rudolphi 
and Willemoes Suhm, with Prerygodermatitis of Wedl, and with 
Rictularia of Froelich, and he regarded it as an aberrant member 
of the Ophiostomid, whereas Wedl thought it came nearest the 
Cheiracanthidea,—Dr. Cobbold also exhibited specimens of 
Distoma crassum, Busk (previously in 1875 shown to the Society), 
from a Chinese missionary who, on return to China with his wife 
and daughter, were again all attacked by the parasite, and obliged 
to return to England.—A paper was read on a proliferous condi- 
tion of Verbascum nigrum, by the Rev. G. Henslow. The 
upper part was very diffuse with leafy axes produced from the 
centres of the flowers, while the lower part had flowers with very 
large ovaries adherent within to arrested proliferous branches. 
These differences may be attributed to the general tendency of 


116 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 2, 1880 


the sap to run to the extremities and thus cause an excess of de- 
velopment above with simultaneous arrested condition below.— 
A paper on the classification of the Gasteropoda (part 2) was 
read by Dr. J. Dennis McDonald. In this communication the 
author gives further data in support of his mode of arranging the 
group dependent on anatomical characters.—‘‘ Novitates Ca- 
penses” was the title of a paper by Messrs. P. MacOwan and 
H. Bolus, in which, among other novelties described of South 
African plants, were Ranunculus Baurii, Ericinella passerimoidcs, 
Orthosiphon ambiguens, and Herpolirion capensis, the last a re- 
presentative of a form hitherto known only from Australia,—A 
communication from the Rey. M. J. Berkeley, on Australian fungi 
(part 2), principally received from Baron F. von Miiller, was 
taken as read.—Lieut.-Col. H. Godwin-Austin was elected a 
Fellow of the Society. 


Entomological Society, November 3.—Sir Jno. Lubbock, 
Bart., vice-president, in the chair.—Mr. E. Meyrick of Hunger- 
ford, Wilts, and Capt. Thos. Broun of Auckland, New Zealand, 
were elected as Ordinary Members, and Dr. J. E. Brandt, president 
of the Russian Entomological Society, was elected as a Foreign 
Member of the Society.—Mr, Waterhouse exhibited, on behalf 
of Mr. Sydney Olliffe, a pair of dwarfed specimens of Zone 
vespertaria, taken at Arundel.—Mr. McLachlan exhibited some 
curious galls on a broad-leaved Zucalyftus from Australia, which 
were stated to be made by a lepidopterous larva, and also men- 
tioned that in a letter he had received from Mr. Rutherford, 
dated from Camaroons, West Africa, the writer stated that he 
had taken Pafilio merope and Papilio cenea in copula, Mr. 
Trimen doubted that the butterfly referred to by Mr. Rutherford 
was P. cenea, Stoll, which, to the best of his knowledge, was a 
form of the female confined to South Africa, and was more 
probably either “7Afocoon, Fab., or one of the other prevalent 
West African forms.—Prof. Westwood exhibited a globular gall 
on the surface of a sallow leaf made by a species of Zenthre- 
dinidz, and also a dipterous larva (Syrphus) found closely 
adhering to the stem of a pelargonium.—Mr, Kirby exhibited a 
remarkable variety of Zpunda lutulenta, and also a remarkable 
form of Afatwra, stated to have been taken by Mr. Ralfe in 
Pinner Wood.—Sir Jna. Lubbock exhibited some interesting 
laryze which Mr. Culvert had forwarded to him from the Troad 
through Sir Joseph Hooker. He stated that these larve had 
recently appeared there in great numbers, and were likely to 
prove most useful, as they fed on the eggs of locusts. These 
laryze were probably coleopterous, and Sir Jno. Lubbock sug- 
gested that if the species does not exist in Cyprus it might be 
worth while to introduce it there.—Mr. Trimen exhibited a 
wingless female specimen of the Hymenoptera, which he had 
strong grounds for believing was the female of the well-known 
Dorylus helvolus, Linn.—Mr. Trimen also exhibited six cases 
fabricated by a South African lepidopterous larva, of which the 
outer covering consisted of particles of sand and fragments of 
stone, which gave them a most peculiar aspect, resembling in 
general appearance a myriapod,—Sir Sydney Saunders read a 
paper on the habits and affinities of the hymenopterous genus 
Scleroderma, with descriptions of new species.—Mr. Edward 
Saunders read a paper entitled a synopsis of British Heterogyna 
and fossorial Hymenoptera.—Prof. Westwood read a paper con- 
taining descriptions of new species of exotic diptera, with a 
supplement containing descriptions of species formerly described 
by the author in somewhat inaccessible publications, 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, November 15.—M. Edm. Becquerel 
in the chair.—Researches in isomerism, benzine, and dipro- 
pargyl, by MM. Berthelot and Ogier.—On papaine ; new con- 
tribution to the study of soluble ferments, by M. Wurtz. In one 
experiment 0°05 gr. of papaine fluidified about two thousand times 
its weight of moist fibrine. It seems that it begins by fixing on 
the fibrine, and the insoluble product gives, by action of water, 
soluble products of hydratation of fibrine, while the ferment, 
becoming free again, may act on a new portion of fibrine. The 
action is thus related to that of chemical agents, ¢.g. sulphuric 
acid.—Enrichment of plumbic earths by a current of compressed 
air, by M. Delesse. The apparatus, called ¢rieur @ soufflet, 
effects a sorting of pulverulent matters, which cannot be sepa- 
rated by water. Earths of very fine grain cannot well be treated 
with it, and unfortunately it is they that contain most lead. The 
lead-dust produced is unhealthy for the workmen.—Observations 
of M. de Quatrefages’on'the Marquis de Nadaillac’s work, “‘Les 
premiers Hommes et les Temps préhistoriques,” M. de Quatre- 


fages.thinks that man probably existed in Portugal in the Tertiary 
epoch,— Observations on the publication of Dr. Guérin’s works, by 
M. de Quatrefages.—On the arrangement of the cervical vertebrae 
in the Chelonians, by M. Vaillant.— Experimental researches on 
the heat of man during movement, by M. Bonnal. Jnter alia, 
all muscular exercise raises the rectal temperature. The increase 
is not directly related either to duration of the exercise or to 
apparent fatigue. The altitude, state of the atmosphere, energy 
of movements, and nature of clothing affect the increase. AIL 
rapid exercise diminishes the peripheral temperature (in mouth, 
armpit, or groin). The rectal heat may reach 39°5°. In rapid 
climbing it is in the first half hour that the rectal temperature is 
most raised, it may then become stationary or fall. In general, 
a rigorous application of the laws of mechanics to the human 
system is not warranted.—Studies on the habits of phylloxera 
during August to November 1880, by M. Fabre. The young 
insects showed (in the author’s experiments) a strong liking for 
light. The present year seems very unfavcurable to the parasite. 
—On some linear differential equations, by M. Brioschi.—On 
the equilibrium of flexible and inextensible surfaces, by M. 
Lecornu.—On the compressibility of oxygen and the action of 
this gas on mercury when put in contact with it, by M. Amagat. 
Oxygen and mercury (pure and dry) he found to remain in- 
definitely long in contact without absorption. He operated at 
50° and 100°, and with pressures from 110 to 420atm, The com- 
pressibility of oxygen follows the laws he gave in his memoir of 
August 30, MM. Chevreul and Dumas made remarks on the 
subject.—On the liquefaction of ozone in presence of carbonic 
acid, and on its colour in the liquid state, by MM. Hautefeuille 
and Chappuis, Gradual compression of a mixture of ozonised 
oxygen and carbonic acid at — 23° gives a blue liquid of the 
same shade as the gas above. The products of decomposition of 
carbonic acid by the effluve are proved (by the blue colour on 
compressing) to contain a large proportion of ozone.—On malle- 
able iron, by M, Forquignon, It seems to be intermediate 
between steel and grey pig-iron, differing from the latter by 
the special nature of its amorphous graphite and its greater 
tenacity ; from steel, by its small elongations and its large 
proportion of graphite.—On the presence of phosphorus in 
the rocks of Brittany, by M. Lechartier.—On the composi- 
tion of petroleums of the Caucasus, by MM. Schiitzen- 
berger and {lonine.—On the temperatures of inflammation of 
gaseous mixtures, by MM. Mallard and Le Chatelier. Among 
other results, mixtures of protocarburetted hydrogen not only 
enter into slow combustion, but, when submitted to a certain 
temperature, may be inflamed after a variable time (which is 
longer the lower the temperature).—On the secondary wave of 
muscle, by M. Richet. A second contraction occurs, without 
fresh stimulation.—On the contagion of boils, by M. Trastour.— 
On the use of boring machines without use of explosive matter, 
by M. Biver. The advantages of Mr. Brunton’s system are 
indicated. 


CONTENTS 


POLITICAL IEGONOMY: je) (c) anise elicleel Nols einen 
Our Book SHELF :— : E 
Sharp’s ‘‘ Avis préliminaire d’une nouvelle Classification de la Famille 


des Dytiscide . . . . . PPCM ty ce 

** Aid to the Identification of Insects’”” , . . . . +... = - 98 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 

Geological Climates.—Prof. Sami. HAUGHTON, F.R.S.. . . 98 

*© Sulphuric Acid and Alkali.’”’—Prof. H. E. Roscoz,P.R.S. . . 99 

A General Theorem in Kinematics.—Prof. J. D. Ev=rerr, 

Ie LEAL re OE OOM MNRAS Ooo 2 5 fe 
Phosphorescent Centipedes.—B. E. BRopuursT .... - - 99 
The Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho.—Surgeon H. B. 

(Cli) > ee ee TE OM ECEOn OG) a oc OS 
Aurora observed at Ovoca, Co. Wicklow, November 3—Observa- 

tions from 5.30 p.m. to Midnight—G. H. KIvAHAN . . + + x00 

Mr. SPENCER AND Pror. Tait. By HERBERT SPENCER. . . ~ + 100 
Notes ON THE GEOLOGY oF East-CenTRAL AFRIcA. By JosEPH 
THOMSON (With Diagrams) . . +. » « «© « « © «© 2 pe kos 
INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LIGHTS ._. 5 « « Ja «) «))e)) sisters) 20m 
SUBTERRANEAN Forest 1n Inpia (With Diagrams) . .. .- . + 105 
Nore! cuca ie! oso ie. Se ie A eee e ie eT 
ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS, 
AND THEIR RELATION TO Sun-SpoTs, RAINFALL, AND FAMINEs. 
By FRED. CHAMBERS.) «) «= ajteuias sielia ea | > 0 sine 107 
Tue Roya Socrety—AppRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. By WILLIAM 
Srortiswoopg, D.C.L., LL.D... .. . « PRINT 
Our AstronomicaL CoLuMN :— ae 
Lunar Eclipses, 1880-84. . © « « « © © © © «© » « «© » Fig 
‘A Probable’Vanriable'Statieuchie) se) a = | o> > de ts cnueneeneS 
Faye’s/Gomet cite We tele me! ee +e ¢ eos ols Senay 
Swift's Comet iad (As elite ue! si ‘e)h.o? 6050) in ke ie eee 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONALINTELLIGENCE » - + «© » «© © + 155 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS iiourcnerie! lee pet tel (el een > sen 115, 
SociETIES AND ACADEMIES +» - © © © «© 6 © + «© « 315 


eit pe oe 


ee ee eS ce ee 


ic 


gh): CA kas 


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1880 


BRITISH EARTHQUAKES 


N Sunday evening last week (28th Nov.) the northern 
parts of the British Isles were slightly shaken by 
an earthquake. The recent disastrous earthquake shocks 
in Croatia have called renewed attention to this still 
mysterious geological phenomenon, and now, while the 
subject is still fresh and under discussion, a milder visita- 
tion of the same nature reminds us that our islands are 
not wholly exempt from their share in the pulsations of 
the terrestrial crust. Save the vague and inexact news- 
paper paragraphs which chronicle the impressions of 
different observers, we have no information as to the 
direction of propagation of the earthquake wave of last 
week, its duration, relative intensity, and angle of emerg- 
ence at different localities. It appears to have been one 
of the usual type of earth-tremors experienced in this 
country, and to have affected the region which, during 
the present century at least, has been most subject to 
such movements. It is reported as having been felt at 
many points in the central valley of Scotland and in the 
north-east of Ireland, also along the west coast as far 
north as the further end of the Long Island. Its effects 
appear to have been most marked over the area occu- 
pied by the crystalline schists. In Bute the house-bells 
rang. At Oban a portion of the plaster was detached 
from the ceiling of the parish church during the service 
of the Sunday-school. At Inverary also some plaster 
was loosened, and a sensation of nausea and giddiness 
is even said to have been experienced. At Blair Athole 
the oil in the table-lamps was thrown into undulations, 
which rose over half an inch up the side of the glass. 
Over the Lowland belt the effects were less perceptible, 
though they are alleged to have been distinctly felt as far 
as Edinburgh. By some observers the duration of the 
shock was estimated at two, by others at ten seconds. 
In some places the movement was thought to be from 
the north-west, in others, from the south-west. One of 
the phenomena duly chronicled in most of the narratives 
is the jingling and creaking made by crockery and furni- 
ture. Such is the usual meagre kind of detail out of 
which an explanation of the cause of earth quake move- 
ments in Britain is in truth hardly possible. 

If we look back into the history of the subject nu- 
merous references to earthquake shocks will be found in 
the annals of the last seven or eight centuries in this 
country. And if the chroniclers are to be believed, some 
of these were of exceptional severity. According to the 
list compiled by Sir John Prestwich, shocks seem to have 
been specially numerous and severe in the twelfth cen- 
tury. Thus on the 2nd of August, 1134, England was 
shaken by an earthquake just at the very time that Henry 
I. was about to take ship for Normandy ; “ flames of fire 
burst forth with great violence out of certain riffs of the 
earth.” On another occasion, in the same century, the 
bed of the Thames was laid bare at London. We read, 
too, of churches and other buildings having been from 
time to time thrown down, and of open rents having been 
left in the ground after the passage of the shock. 

In the contemporary records of these phenomena the 

_ VoL, xx111.—No, 580 


EI 


geologist vainly searches for particulars that may serve to 
elucidate their origin. He finds much that is doubtfully 
correct, not a little that is obviously fabulous. Naturally 
the events were considered merely in their relations to the 
human population of the country, and those aspects of 
them were noted that bore special interest in that respect. 
Most frequently they were regarded in the light of 
divine judgments, and were connected with 
real or imputed delinquency on the part of the inhabi- 
tants. We read, for instance, that on the 8th November, 
1608, a rather smart shock of earthquake passed over 
Scotland. In the southern counties it was looked upon 
asa result of ‘the extraordinar drouth in ‘the summer 
and winter before.” But the more orthodox worthies in 
the farther north took a higher view of it. The kirk- 
session of Aberdeen met, and accepting the earthquake 
as “a document that-God is angry against this land and 
against this city in particular for the manifold sins of the 
people,” appointed a solemn fast for next day. On 
further reflection they came to recognise one sin in par- 
ticular as having doubtless called down the judgment. 
For more than 150 years, in virtue of a bull granted by 
Pope Nicolas V., the proprietors on the banks of the River 
Dee had been accustomed to fish salmon on Sunday. 
These Sabbath-breakers were accordingly now summoned 
before the session and rebuked. Some of them agreed 
to give up their custom, but “some plainly refusit any- 
way to forbear.” Again on 20th October, 1580, an 
earthquake occurred that particularly affected the house 
of the Master of Gray. The boy king, James VI- 
asking Fergusson, the minister of Dunfermline, ‘‘ What 
he thought it could mean, that that house alone should 
shake and totter,” was grimly answered by the divine: 
“Sir, why should not the devil rock his awn bairns?” 

Doubtless many of the events chronicled in former cen- 
turies as earthquakes may not have been of that nature. 
Landslips and violent storms would account for some of 
the phenomena recorded. In looking over the lists of 
reputed earthquakes we cannot fail to notice that some 
districts of the country have been specially liable to the 
Visitation. One of these has been the south-west of 
England, embracing the lower basin of the Severn with 
Somerset, Gloucester, Worcester, Cornwall, and the ad- 
joining counties. Another notable area for a hundred 
years past has been the southern highlands of Perth- 
shire. 

After making every allowance for the vast multiplication 
of the means of recording passing events afforded by the 
extension of newspapers and the consequent increasing 
minuteness of detail in our domestic annals, there seems 
no reason to doubt that the number of earthquake shocks 
has increased during the present century, though possibly 
none may have reached the severity of some recorded in 
earlier periods. During the four years subsequent to 
September, 1839, upwards of 200 shocks were felt in Perth- 
shire, some of which extended over nearly the whole of 
Scotland. 

In searching for a possible solution of the problem pre- 
sented by these terrestrial commotions one or two circum- 
stances should be specially considered. In the great 
majority of cases where details of any kind have been 
preserved of the nature of the earthquakes, reference is 
made to noises that immediately preceded the actual 

G 


some — 


118 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 9; 1880 


shock. In not a few instances these seem to have been 
the most alarming part of the phenomena. They are 
variously likened to the sound of a rushing wind, the roll of 
waggons, the muttering of thunder, or the rattle of cannon. 
With these aérial vibrations there are also recorded sounds 
as of a sudden snap or blow, or explosion in the earth 
underneath. Another feature of the earthquake-register 
is the persistence with which a relation is believed to 
’ exist between the commotion in the ground and the 
state of the atmosphere above. In some cases, indeed, 
the barometer is said to have suddenly fallen, and 
then to have risen after the shock had passed. Warm, 
damp, moist weather, heavy rain, thunder, strange 
electrical discharges, fire-balls, and other meteoric phe- 
+ nomena are chronicled as the concomitants of earthquakes. 
It may be said, of course, that the occurrence of these 
events together is only of the nature of a coincidence, 
and-cannot conceivably be anything else. There can be 
no doubt, however, that in Britain, as on the Continent, 
‘earthquakes have been more numerous in the winter than 
in the summer half of the year. Of the fifty-nine earth- 
quakes in Sir John Prestwich’s list,as Prof. Prestwich has 
pointed out, eleven occurred in winter, eleven in spring, 
seven in summer, and eight in autumn. Out of 139 
earthquakes recorded as having happened in Scotland up 
to September, 1839, eighty-nine occurred in the winter 
“half of the year and fifty in the summer half. We 
cannot suppose that any variation in the meteorological 
condition of the atmosphere can directly give rise to an 
earthquake. Nevertheless it is conceivable that where 
the crust of the earth is in a condition of tension, rapid 
and extensive changes of atmospheric pressure may 
destroy an equilibrium that has previously been barely 
maintained. The observed relation between a low 
barometer and the more copious escape of fire-damp 
within coal-mines may possibly be of wider appli- 
cation. 

It is evident, moreover, that the source of disturbance 
must be at no great depth from the surface. This is 
shown by the markedly local character of the pheno- 
mena. <A shock of considerable violence which rends 
walls, overturns chimney-pots, rings bells, shakes fur- 
niture, and fills with alarm the inhabitants of a few 
parishes, but is quite unperceived in the districts around, 
cannot have a deep-seated origin. In looking at the 
districts specially liable to such visitations we notice 
in some degree a connection with geological structure. 
The earthquake area in the south-west of England em- 
braces within its borders the ranges of the Malvern and 
Mendip Hills, which, with the surrounding country, point 
to a long succession of geological disturbances, while the 
hot springs that still rise there furnish additional indi- 
cations of a connection between the heated interior and 
the surface. The most remarkable earthquake district in 
these islands at present is undoubtedly that of Comrie in 
Perthshire ; where in the month of October, 1839, no fewer 
than sixty-six shocks were felt, the severest being per- 
ceived as far north as Dingwall, and as far south as Cold- 
stream. During the last forty years the British Association 
has appointed two Committees to investigate the nature of 
the shocks so frequently experienced there. But their 
labours cannot be said to have as yet thrown much light 
on the subject. They have erected seismometers of 


approved construction and sensitiveness, but in many 
cases shocks that have been distinctly perceptible to the 
inhabitants have not been registered by the instruments. 
Much speculation has been offered as to the cause that 
earth-tremors should be specially abundant in that dis- 
trict. Reference has been made by different observers 
to protrusions of granite and dykes of basalt which 
traverse the rocks, as if these igneous masses supplied 
a clue to the source of movement. But neither the 
granite bosses nor the dykes are specially conspicuous 
in the Comrie district. On the contrary, they are 
there small in area and few in number compared with 
their occurrence in other tracts where earthquake shocks 
are rare. A geological structure at Comrie, however, 
which so far as we are aware has not been dwelt upon in 
this connection, is the occurrence there of the great 
fracture by which the southern edge of the Scottish 
Highlands is bounded. The Old Red Sandstone with its 
associated volcanic bands has been thrown on end against 
the crystalline schists.’ Of the extent of the dislocation no 
precise measurements have yet been made; probably the 
amount of upthrow varies along the line. At the north- 
eastern end of the fracture the sandstones and con- 
glomerates have been placed on their ends for about two 
miles back from the fault. The line of dislocation can 
be traced across the island from sea to sea and across the 
island of Arran, whence it points for Ireland. It is 
probably one of the largest, as it certainly is the longest, 
fracture within the British area. On its north-western 
side lie the crumpled schists of the Highlands ; on its 
south-eastern boundary are the dislocated, curved, and 
even inverted strata of the Old Red Sandstone. Two 
series of rocks of very different structure and elasticity 
are here brought abruptly together along a vertical or at 
least steeply inclined face, which must descend for several 
thousand feet from the surface. So far therefore as 
geological structure can be supposed to govern the origin 
and effects of earthquakes there does not appear to 
be within these islands any line or district where ter- 
restrial disturbances should be so readily felt as along 
the flanks of the Scottish Highlands. Shocks coming 
from the Lowlands will recoil against the crystalline wall 
of the Highland schists, and be consequently more per- 
ceptible there than over the more homogeneous formations 
lying to the south. Another area in which earthquakes 
have been frequently observed is that of the Great 
Glen. This longest, straightest, and deepest of British 
valleys has from early geological times been a line of 
weakness. 

There seems every probability in the supposition that 
some at least of our earthquakes result from the sudden 
collapse of rocks that have been under great strain. 
Their occurrence along lines of powerful fault suggests 
tha thet rocks on one or both sides of these dislo- 
cations are still subject to great tension, and that occa- 
sional relief is obtained by a snap which is powerful 
enough to generate an earthquake, though it gives 
rise to no change of level at the surface. When we 
reflect upon the constant strain on the terrestrial crust 
as it settles down upon the more rapidly contract- 
ing nucleus, we may be allowed to be grateful that 
earthquakes are not everywhere more numerous and 
destructive. 


Dec. 9, 1880] 


NATURE 


11g 


THE ENCYCLOPZDIA BRITANNICA 


The Encyclopedia Britannica. Ninth Edition. Vols. x. 
and xi. (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black.) 
HESE two volumes of the Excyclopedia Britannica 
fully sustain the high character of the earlier 
volumes. The articles dealing with branches of physical 
and natural science are conspicuous by their high quality 
and number. In geographical science this volume is 
particularly strong. Dr. Rae contributes an article on 
‘Greece,’ several specialists contribute the article on 
“ Germany,” and General Strachey of the Indian Civil 
Service has produced a very striking and valuable essay 
on the ‘“Himalayas.’’ Besides these there are shorter 
articles on ‘‘Greenland,” ‘ Grisons,’’ ‘‘ Guiana,’’ the 
“Hawaiian Islands,’ and “ Heligoland,” all worthy of 
attention and replete with information. In medical 
science we note particularly the articles on “ Gout,” con- 
tributed by Dr. Affleck, and on “ Heart Diseases” by Dr, 
G. W. Balfour. In the department of natural history the 
articles are almost exclusively on subjects of a specific or 
technical character; Prof. Newton writes on “Grouse,” 
and Mr. John Gibson on the ‘‘ Hare” and the ‘“ Hippo- 
potamus.” Prof. Church contributes brief articles on 
“Hemp” and “Guano,” and Dr. Trimen has a good 
descriptive paper on ‘‘Grasses.” The article “ Her- 
barium,” contributed by Mr. E. M. Holmes, is a remark- 
ably useful and practical handling of a subject on which 
most botanical writers have usually very little to say; 
and the summary of information as to the character of 
the principal herbaria in existence will be found acceptable 
for reference. The contributions to the physical sciences 
are numerous and of great interest. Dr. Ball’s article on 
“Gravitation” is at once simple and masterly. The article 
on “ Harmonic Analysis” by the late Prof. Clerk Maxwell is 
all too short, but admirable in its way. Amongst technical 
subjects we may single out the articles on ‘‘ Gunpowder ”’ 
and “Gun-cotton” by Major Wardell and Prof. Abel 
respectively, on “ Heating” by Capt. D. Galton, two long 
and very fully illustrated papers by Col. Maitland on 
“Gunmaking’’ and “ Gunnery,” and one on “ Harbours” 
by Mr. T. Stevenson, which is accompanied by several 
capital plates. Mr. J. Blyth contributes two valuable 
articles on the “Gyroscope” and on “ Graduation.” 
From the latter we miss one or two points that might well 
have been added. There is no account of the dividing- 
machine employed by Messrs. Cooke and Sons of York 
in graduating the circles of the great Newall telescope ; 
nor of the still more recent dividing engine constructed 
by the Waltham Watch Company. The biographical 
articles are numerous and excellent. Those on the two 
‘“‘Herschels” are from the pen of Prof. Pritchard. That 
on ‘Sir W. Hamilton” is contributed by Miss E. Hamilton. 
The biographical notice of “ Sir W. Rowan Hamilton” 
is by Prof. Tait, than whom no one is more competent 
to write of the great mathematician; though somehow 
we miss in this thoughtful and appreciative article the 
peculiar characteristics of Prof. Tait’s trenchant style. 
We propose to notice at greater length the important 
articles on “‘ Geometry,” ‘‘ Geology,’’ and ‘ Heat.”’ 


The editor did well, we think, when he intrusted the 
compilation of the article upon such an important sub- 
ject as “ Pure Geometry” to so accomplished a geometer 


as Prof. Henrici. We can fancy what such an article 
would have been in the hands of the generality of English 
mathematicians trained at our conservative Universities, 
meek followers, for the most part, of one master: “There 
is but one Geometry, and Euclid is its exponent.” We 
ourselves entertain a very high regard for Euclid: indeed 
our indebtedness to him for what ability we may have in 
geometrical science is as great as that of Cicero to 
Archias for eloquence; but we cannot help feeling that 
we might have had a far greater mastery over modern 
methods had our masters been acquainted with these 
methods themselves. “This book,” says one who has 
recently left us, a consummate master of modern methods, 
“has been for nearly twenty-two centuries the encourage- 
ment and guide of scientific thought. . . . The encourage- 
ment, for it contained a body of knowledge that was 
really known and could be relied on, and that, moreover, 
was growing in extent and application. ... the guide, 
for the aim of every scientific student of every subject 
was to bring his knowledge of that subject into a form 
as perfect as that which geometry had attained.” In 
our author we have one who, 


‘“Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri,” 
can ungrudgingly acknowledge the many good points of 


the old-world geometer, whilst, with keen-cutting scalpel, 
he boldly lays bare his numerous defects. The present 


generation, perhaps, will not see Euclid superseded in 


our schools; but when his warmest defender makes 
him admit that his proofs might be abridged and im- 
proved, that alternative proofs may with advantage be 
appended to his, and that new problems and theorems 
might be interpolated, we may expect that a time will 
come, quickly if only the Universities would not handicap 
their favourite so heavily, when his order and numbering 
of propositions may be abolished, and his treatment 
of parallels shelved. Inthe meanwhile we must work in 
hope, and the article under notice will possibly pave the. 
way for an improved mode of studying the science. As 
is well known, Prof. Henrici has long been engaged 
in writing a Geometry: to this work we must refer 
readers for his views on the subject. In the do0% we see 
him as the teacher, laying his foundations deep and 
strong and broad enough for the vast superstructure— 
all pure geometry—they have to bear: in the artzc/e, he 
treats his subject at first rather as the historian and 
critic, though subsequently he takes up the 7d/e of teacher 
again (“use doth,breed such a habit in a man”), and 
rapidly but most deftly sketches a beautiful outline—in 
parts filled in—of the “higher” geometry. In a long, 
but far from tedious, sketch of sixty-four columns he 
treats pure geometry in two sections: the first, in 
twenty-five and a half columns, gives an account of 
the Elementary, or Euclidian, Geometry: the second 
is devoted to the Higher, or Projective, Geometry. In 
section 1 we have a running commentary on Euclid’s 
text, which does at greater length, though somewhat in 
the same style, what De Morgan did some years since in 
the “Companion to the British Almanac” (1849). The 
axioms which lie at the basis of the subject are well dis- 
cussed, and their foundation upon experience established : 
it is pointed out that the connection between these axioms 
has only been shown “within the last twenty years 


120 


MA TORLE 


[ Dec. 9, 1880 


through the- researches of Riemann and - Helmholtz, 
although Grassmann had already published, in 1844, his 
classical but long-neglected ‘ Ausdehnungslehre.’” In this 
connexion we can merely refer to the admirable lecture 
by Clifford, “The Postulates of the Science of Space.” 
There is a good statement of Euclid’s assumptions, but 
we shall refer only to that which is made in I. 4, thus 
enunciated by De Morgan: “ Any figure may be removed 
from place to place without alteration of form, and a 
plane figure may be turned round on the plane.” This is 
employed by Prof. Henrici, as it has been by many others, 
to prove I. 5, with this difference, that he does it after 
Mr. Dodgson has made Euclid say there is “too much 
of the Irish Bull about it, and that it reminds one too 
vividly of the man who walked down his own throat, to 
deserve a place in a strictly philosophical treatise.’ But 
the difference between these two writers is a radical one, 
and is not confined to the above solitary instance. The 
treatment of Book I. (the remarks on axiom xii. in con- 
nection with I. 28, 29 are valuable) calls for no special 
comment. In Book II. we have the propositions dis- 
cussed symbolically and proved by the aid of laws inves- 
tigated by Sir W. Rowan Hamilton and Grassmann : 
laws familiar to more advanced students, but which are 
here put in a manner within the grasp, we think, of 
junior students. The book is one, however, to which this 
class never take very kindly, and requires patience and 
illustration on the part of the teacher. We can, from the 
outline here given, guess how Prof. Henrici will treat 
‘this part of geometry in his forthcoming second volume, 
The remarks upon the Fourth Book conclude with a 
“few theorems not given by Euclid,’ but they are readily 
derived from (if not explicitly stated in) Euclid’s con- 
structions. Of Book V. there is a careful sketch, and our 
author shows “Why the usual algebraical treatment of 
_proportion is not really sound.’’? (Here we may refer also 
to Mr. A. J. Ellis’s “ Euclid’s Conception of Ratio and 
Proportion” in his “Algebra identified with Geometry,” 
and in a simpler form in a lecture at the College of 
Preceptors.) Books VI., XI., XII. need not delay us. 
We come now to the Projective Geometry, which we 
should much like to see reproduced in pamphlet form 
for use in colleges or schools, We notice Prof, Henrici 
states, “In Euclid’s Elements almost all] propositions 
refer to the magnitude of lines, angles, areas, or 
volumes, and therefore to measurement.” This, too, 
is Our own view, and we presume it is what Mr. Wilson 
intended when he says: “ Every theorem may be shown 
to be a means of indirectly measuring some magnitude” ; 
whether it be so or not, at any rate Mr. Dodgson 
cannot impugn the Professor's more guarded statement. 
Those properties of figures which do not alter by 
projection are projective properties: there is a slight 
omission in the illustrations given, an exception should, 
we think, have been made in the case when the plane of 
projection is perpendicular to the plane upon which 
the quadrilateral, or circle, or other figure is projected. 
The points of difference between the two sciences are 
well put. “In Euclid each proposition stands by itself ; 
its connection with others is never indicated ; the leading 
ideas contained in its proof are not stated; general 
principles do not exist. In the modern metliods, on the 
other hand, the greatest importance is attached to the 


leading thoughts which pervade the whole; and general 
principles, which bring whole groups of theorems under 
one aspect, are given rather than separate propositions. 
The whole tendency is to generalisation.” Euclid, it is 
open to remark, throughout his work, avoids the zwfinite, 
whereas the modern geometry, like a good Samaritan, 
takes the most tender care of it. The systems adopted 
by Prof. Henrici are principally the methods of projection 
and correspondence—as handled by Von Staudt in the 
“Geometrie der Lage,’ and by Grassman in his above- 
cited work, We should like to analyse this sketch in 
detail, but we must forbear. For curves of two dimensions 
it is quite too delicious for us to mar it by such scant and 
imperfect treatment as we could here give it, and we must 
content ourselves with giving the heads of the several 
sub-sections. After the statement of definitions and preli- 
minary explanations, we have segments of a line, projec- 
tion and cross-ratios (Clifford’s name for the anharmonic 
ratios of Chasles), correspondence, curves and cones of 
second order or second class, pole and polar, diameters 
and axes of conics, involution, involution determined by 
a conic on a line—foci, pencil of conics. The con- 
clusion of the essay on the conics is that we arrive 
at the definitions from which our English text-books 
usually start. So the mode of treatment will be 
seen to be novel to the majority of English students. 
The concluding sections (six columns) on ruled quadric 
surfaces, but more especially on twisted cubics, seem to 
us to bear on their faces tokens of having been somewhat 
hurriedly written, so are not quite up to the high standard 
of the previous work. At the close Prof. Henrici refers 
his readers to Reye’s “ Geometrie der Lage” for “a 
more exhaustive treatment of the subject.” “ Scarcely 
any use has been made of algebra, and it would have 
been even possible to avoid this little, as is done by 
Reye.” Prof, Clerk Maxwell, in a note to us, com- 
mended, in his own quaint way, this work of Reye. A 
short list of references is appended. 

We could have wished that the “‘ Analytical Geometry” 
had also been intrusted to Prof. Henrici, more especially 
that we might have seen how he would have connected 
the two together, and also that we might have had the 
subject discussed from a Continental point of view. We 
have sufficiently comprehensive and good treatises already 
by English writers, some of which are adorned with much 
of Prof. Cayley’s work, and we feel, too, that had our 
author had carte blanche for space, he would have done 
his work well; whereas in attempting to pack much 
matter into a small space we think he has assumed much 
which is not familiar to some, and yet at the same time 
which is elementary to others who are advanced students. 
Nor does the article, to our mind, thoroughly serve for 
purposes of reference, though, no doubi, it goes some way 
to thisend. The secret may be that “Pure Geometry” 
is more limited in its range, has, on one side, to do with 
a book known to almost all, and, on the other side, even 
does not reach, for the generality, beyond the conic sec- 
tions; “ Analytical Geometry,” on the other hand, has to 
do with everything that relates to curves and surfaces, of 
whatever sort they may be. Prof. Cayley takes the line 
of analytical geometry ‘‘as a method,” and confines him- 
self, in his twenty-four and a half columns, to the con- 
sideration of the applications of Cartesian co-ordinates 


Dee. 9, 1889} 


almost exclusively. The article is divided into the two 
sections of plane and solid geometry. At the commence- 
ment the student is recommended by the weight of Prof. 
Cayley’s advice to trace a number of curves, and he 
draws a few simple ones, so drawing attention to a point 
upon which Mr. Frost, in his “ Curve-Tracing,” strongly 
insists. Prof. Clifford, too, we believe, had it in his mind 
to publish an account of some methods which “are ex- 
ceedingly simple and easy of application; they partake 
more of the nature of a manual craft than of a purely 
intellectual occupation, and may so be used as a rest from 
severer studies; and, as we can only imagine things of 
which we have seen the like by appealing directly to the 
senses, they extend those powers of concrete realisation 
which the growing complication of modern analysis 
renders daily more desirable.” The methods he alluded 
to are ‘Projection, a process by which no alteration is 
made in the order, the class, nor in any other purely 
descriptive property of a curve;’’ then “those modifi- 
cations of form which leave the order of a curve 
unaltered;” then “those changes which exercise no 
effect upon the class.” In the last two cases he proposed 
to use a process which he used to call “the composition 
of curves, by which a curve of any order or class may 
be built up out of the simplest elements.” We fear that 
we have lost this proposed sketch, with the many other 
sketches he had outlined and lived not long enough to 
endue with a vitality he could so well have given them. 
After the illustrations referred to Prof. Cayley discusses 
shortly the metrical theory, and obtains the several 
familiar equations both in plane and solid geometry. In 
short paragraphs polar, trilinear, point, and line co-ordi- 
nates are described, but not applied. We have noted 
scarcely any misprints in the first article, but in the second 
there are several, all of which are easily detected. The 
figures are very well done. 

We would draw attention to the article on Geodesy by 
Col. Clarke, which we have read with much pleasure. 
It is well illustrated, and the eighteen columns treat of 
the following matters :—Horizontal angles, astronomical 
observations, calculation of triangulation, irregularities 
of the earth’s surface, altitudes, longitude. These are as 
fully discussed as need be in a sketch of the subject, and 
we shall expect that Col. Clarke’s more extended work on 
Geodesy, referred to in NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 423, will 
take its place as a standard work for some time to come. 


Geology occupies at the present day so important 
a position in the circle of the sciences that it de- 
serves to be treated, in any modern cyclopedia, with 
no niggard hand. A slender essay, confined to a survey 
of the broad features of geology, would have been sadly 
disappointing in such a work as the “Encyclopedia 
Britannica.’’ It is therefore satisfactory to observe that 
Prof. Geikie, to whom the editor entrusted this article, 
has put a liberal interpretation upon his trust. He has 
treated his subject with a fulness worthy of a great and 
growing science, and worthy too of the noble plan 
upon which the Encyclopedia has been projected. The 
masterly article which he has contributed to the new 
edition’ stretches over more than 320 columns, and is 
thus longer than most of the kindred articles, such as 
those on “Astronomy” and “Chemistry.” Possibly it 


NATURE ae 


might have borne, here and there, a little condensation, 
but on the whole it is admirably fitted for its place, It 
stands forth as a solid and comprehensive monograph 
which, if reprinted from the Cyclopedia, would form 
one of the most substantial treatises in our geological litera- 
ture. But the article is not only substantial, it is, like all 
Prof. Geikie’s writings, eminently readable. The cardina 
virtues of an encyclopedist are accuracy and conciseness 
of expression, and he usually finds but little scope for the 
play of literary graces. Prof. Geikie, however, is far too 
polished an author to write upon any subject in an un- 
attractive style; and the present article is sufficient to 
prove—were proof needed—that his graceful pen does 
not fail him, even when discoursing on the knottiest point in 
geology. The comprehensive nature of this article, and the 
originality with which the subject is treated, may be best 
shown by explaining the seven-fold division adopted by 
the author. First he deals with the Cosmical Aspects of 
Geology, and not only discusses the shape and the motions 
of the earth, but stretches his survey to the probable 
history of the solar system. Then he inquires into the 
nature of the materials of the earth's substance—an 
inquiry which falls under the head of Geoguosy. In the 
early part of the article the author may seem to trench a 
little upon subjects which are treated in other articles, 
but this is almost inevitable in any cyclopedia. It is not 
to be expected that the several essays shall just touch 
each other without overlap, like thepieces ofa neatly-jointed - 
mosaic. The geognostic division of the article is followed 
by a section on Dynamical Geology, and this in turn by one 
on Structural Geology, or the architecture of the earth. 
Under the head of Paleontological Geology Prof. Geikie 
sketches the history of life as revealed by the fossiliferous 
deposits, while in the following section on S¢ratigraphical 
Geology he traces the chronological succession of events 
in the history of the stratified rocks. Finally a chapter 
is devoted to Physiographical Geology, or a discussion 
of the origin of the physical features of the earth's 
surface. 


To see for the first time a great actor play the part of a 
familiar character is a treat ; but the pleasure is seldom 
quite free from a mixture of disappointment. His reading 
of the part is usually not our pet and peculiar one, and 
we are, as it were, bullied into contentment by the great 
power of the performer. We felt something akin to it 
when we read the article “Heat” by Sir William 
Thomson, though the feeling was of course unreason- 
able. It often happens when for the second time we see a 
great actor play a great part we yield ourselves to his charm 
without a trace of intellectual reserve ; so it will most 
likely be when next we read the article “ Heat.”’ At all 
events, the readers of NATURE may be assured that there 
is little in this article that they can justly find fault with, 
whatever they may miss to find that they expected. 
Could it be otherwise, when the author is the pupil of 
Regnault, the colleague of Joule, one of the patriarchs of 
the modern science of thermodynamics, the greatest 
living authority on the theory of heat in Britain? We 
shall therefore most modestly discharge our function by 
pointing out to our readers what they will find in Sir 
William Thomson’s article; and by slightly indicating some 
points on which, to our regret, he has withheld his opinion. 


122 


IAT ORE 


The article opens with a discussion of the sense of heat, 
and of the distinction between heat and temperature. We 
are thus introduced to the conception of latent heat, 
which is explained at some length. The two leading 
methods of calorimetry, viz. calorimetry by latent heat, 
and thermometric caloiimetry, are then discussed in 
general terms; and the results of the comparison of 
the different calorimetric units by Regnault and others 
are given. Then follows a full account of the origin of 
the modern theory of heat, which regards it as energy, 
and measures it by the equivalent amount of work. We 
thus have a third method of calorimetry, which is 
called dynamical calorimetry. Of the thirty-five pages 
occupied by the whole article eighteen are devoted 
to thermometry. This is the most important, and 
certainly the most interesting part of the article. After 
discussing a theoretical (and to some extent prac- 
tical) system of thermometry by mixtures of hot and 
cold water, the thermoscope being the sense of heat 
in the hand, the author gives an elaborate classifica- 
tion of the different possible kinds of thermoscopes. 
Then comes an extremely interesting discussion of the 
merits of the different kinds of thermometers with 
arbitrary scales. The defects of the mercury-in-glass 
thermometer, and the advantages which led Regnault to 
prefer the (constant volume) air-thermometer are fully 
explained. We do not remember to have anywhere seen 
so full, and, it is needless to say, so philosophical an 
account of Regnault’s results of the comparison of the 
different thermometric scales. The rest of the part 
devoted to thermometry is more or less speculative. The 
absolute thermodynamic scale of temperature, invented 
by the author himself, is defined ; and its great advantage 
pointed out, viz., that it gives us a definition of tempera- 
ture “such that, if a thermometer were graduated accord- 
ing to it from observation of one class of thermal effects in 
any one particular substance, it would agree with a thermo- 
meter graduated according to the same thermodynamic 
law from the same class of effects in any other substance.” 

Thermodynamic formule are investigated in a variety 
of cases for graduating thermometers, according to the 
absolute scale, from experimental data concerning the 
thermometric substance. A number of instruments are 
described in detail which are intended to realise these 
cases in practice. We are thus introduced to the water 
steam, mercury steam, and sulphurous acid steam thermo- 
meters, and the constant pressure hydrogen thermometer. 
These instruments are mostly new as to their details, 
and all of them are new in the sense that they have not 
been practically used hitherto. Nevertheless a great 
future is predicted for them. It would appear that Sir 
William Thomson has himself constructed models of 
them all; but whether he has used any of them in 
practical work he does not say. It has doubtless occurred 
to many of our readers, as it has to us, to have doubts 
and difficulties about thermometric measurements. No- 
where could we find better reasons for our scepticism 
than in the earlier part of Sir William Thomson's discus- 
sion of the systems of thermometry at present in use; 
we shall look, therefore, with all the greater interest for 
some farther account of the practical working of these 
new instruments. Their success, were it even but 
partial, would be an immense gain to thermal science. 


Thermal capacity and specific heat are next defined; 
and a brief account of the leading features of the results 
of different experimenters is given, without detail as 
to the methods employed in obtaining them. For 
further information we are referred to the articles on 
“Thermodynamics,” “ Matter,” ‘Liquid,’ “ Steam.’ 
The remaining five pages of the article deal with the 
transference of heat. Radiation is explained and dis- 
tinguished from other modes of transference ; but to our 
great regret is dismissed very briefly. A criticism of the 
work of the various experimenters in this department 
from an authority like Sir William Thomson would have 
been most interesting. There is still much doubt and 
difficulty hanging over the subject of the diathermancy of 
gases, for instance; we need scarcely mention as an 
illustration the famous controversy which has raged over 
water vapour. It may be however that these and 
kindred matters are to be treated under “ Radiation” or 
“TLight’’?; although we are not referred to these articles. 
The general principles of the theory of the conduction 
or diffusion of heat, as laid down by Fourier, are ex- 
plained ; and a most interesting critical account is given 
of the earlier attempts to measure conductivity. The 
explanation of the causes of the faidure of Clément and 
Péclet in measuring high conductivities, such as that 
of copper, is very instructive, and should be closely 
studied by those engaged in like researches. Of the 
methods in use for measuring the thermal conduc- 
tivity (or diffusivity as the case may be) of solids, Sir 
William Thomson prefers that of Angstrém, and recom- 
mends along with it the use of thermoelectric methods 
for determining the temperatures along the experimental 
bar. The mathematical theory of this method is given, 
and its connection with the researches of Forbes and 
Thomson on underground temperatures pointed out. 
The method of Forbes for measuring the conductivities 
of metals in absolute measure is described in general 
terms; and the results obtained with it by Tait are 
given, and compared with those of Angstrémand Thalén. 
We regret that no mention is made of the recent 
attempts to measure the conductivities of liquids and 
gases. The only result given is that of Bottomley for 
water, and no description of the method accompanies 
it. It is quite true that the success of many of these 
attempts has been somewhat doubtful; but, for that 
very reason, a criticism of the methods by a com- 
petent and impartial authority would have been most 
opportune, and useful as a guide to future experimenters. 
Appended to the article are a series of ten tables of 
thermal constants, and a reasoned synopsis of the prin- 
cipal mathematical formule that occur in the theory of 
diffusion. This last is a most valuable part of the 
article ; for it could be given only by a master of the 
subject, and it is likely to be extremely useful to many 
physicists, who have sufficient knowledge to enable them 
to use such formule, but not sufficient mathematical 
power to find them for themselves, or sufficient time to 
hunt them up from ponderous treatises and half-forgotten 
memoirs when they want them. 


We sincerely congratulate the editor and publishers of 
the Excyclopedia on the high degree of success which 
continues to attend their great undertaking. 


[ Dec. 9, 1880 | 


oe ee ee 


log 


Dec. 9, 1880 | 


NATURE 


123 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Life and Her Children: Glimpses of Animal Life from 
the Ameba to the Insects. By Arabella B. Buckley. 
(London : Edward Stanford, 1880.) 


AFTER light came life, and with that life there came its 
two great functions— growth and development.- With the 
simplest as with the most complex forms there is the 
same eager race to be run, to increase in size, to multiply, 
and thus replenishing this earth, to die. “Life and 
Her Children” is a praiseworthy and admirable attempt 
to tell us something of the Children that Life sends forth, 
and of their history. Its main object is to acquaint young 
people with the structure and habits of the lower forms of 
life; but in our deliberate judgment it will do a great deal 
more. None will read its introductory chapter without 
advantage, and few will read the volume through without 
enjoyment. Within its narrow limits of 300 small pages 
no candid reader would expect to find all the details that 
might be wished for, or all the illustrations that might be 
desired. What constitutes the book’s chief charm is the 
marvellously simple yet quite scientific style which runs 
through it, the food for thought and future study which it 
affords, and the truly philosophic glow which lights up its 
every page. The volume gives a general account of Life’s 
Simplest Children, the Protozoa. The word “slime” 
does not seem to us quite a happy term by which to 
designate the living protoplasm of these creatures; this 
word conveys the idea of a something adhesive or glu- 
tinous, or of a something thrown off a living organism— 
a something without a structure (sordies, eluvies)—and 
there seems somewhat of a “contempt for nature,’ a 
thought certainly never present in the author’s mind, in 
the use of such a word. Jelly would seem a more 
appropriate word, as conveying the idea of the con- 
sistency requisite for life, and would have the sanction of 
use. Thus the Noctiluce, called in this volume “tiny 
bags of slime,’’ were described, if we mistake not, by 
their discoverer as ‘‘tiny spherical gelatinous bodies,’ 
and Prof. Huxley says, “‘ Noctiluca may be described as 
‘a gelatinous transparent body about the one-sixtieth of 
an inch in diameter.’ ” 

The chapter on “ How Star-fish Walk and Sea-Urchins 
Grow ”’ is excellent. The story of how the five curious 
little oval jelly bodies swimming about by their jelly lashes 
in the depths of the smooth water in some English bay— 
ended in becoming respectively a lily star, a brittle star, 
a starfish, a sea-urchin, and a sea-cucumber, is well told, 
and woodcuts, though they make one see as in a glass 
darkly, help in their own way to make the meaning plain. 
In the ‘‘Outcasts of Animal Life’’ a difficult problem is 
treated of. It need not surprise one that it is not solved. 
The last four chapters tell of “ the Snare-Weavers and their 
Hunting Relations (spiders)’’ ; the Insects which change 
their coats but not their bodies, and those which remodel 
their bodies within cover of their coats; “the Intelligent 
Insects with Helpless Children, as illustrated by the Ants.’’ 
This volume thus tells of the greater part of the living 
invertebrate animals as they are spread over the earth to 
fight the battle of life. “Though in many places the 
battle is fierce and each one must fight remorselessly for 
himself and his little ones, yet the struggle consists 
chiefly in all the members of the various brigades doing 
their work in life to the best of their power, so that all 
while they live may lead a healthy, active existence. 
The little bird is fighting his battle when he builds 
his nest and seeks food for his mate and his little ones; 
and though in doing this he must kill the worm, and may 
perhaps by and by fall a victim himself to the hungry 
hawk, yet the worm heeds nothing of its danger till its 
life comes to an end; and the bird trills his merry song 
after his breakfast, and enjoys his life without thinking 
of perils to come. So Life sends her Children forth; 
and it remains for us to learn something of their history. 


If we could but know it all, and the thousands of different 
ways in which the beings around us struggle and live, we 
should be overwhelmed with wonder. Even as it is, we 
may perhaps hope to gain such a glimpse of the labours 
of this great multitude as may lead us to wish to fight 
our own battle bravely and to work and strive and bear 
patiently, if only that we may be worthy to stand at the 
head of the vast family of Life’s Children.” 

The work forms a charming introduction to the study 
of zoology—the science of living things—which we trust 
will find its way into many hands. E. Po Ws 


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. No 
notice ts taken of anonymous communications. | 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 
1s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Prof. Tait and Mr. H. Spencer 


As Mr, Spencer has already got the length of calling some of 
my statements ‘‘ fictions, pure and absolute,” it is time that this 
discussion should cease. But it is necessary that I should at 
least show my reasons for having made the statements in question. 
They will be found ample. 

Mr. Spencer’s pamphlet, which originated this discussion, and 
in which I am the first subject brought up for vivisection, bears 
on the title-page that it deals with Criticisms. 

The only passages of mine which Mr. Spencer quotes, which 
can possibly have the slightest reference to himself, and which 
can in any way be construed into criticisms, are but two in 
number. In these, or in one of them, the cause of his attack on 
me must be sought. 

The first is mainly a verbal transcription from Mr. Kirkman, 
and as such it is none of mine; but in introducing it I inadver- 
tently (though correctly) spoke of the ‘‘ Formula of Evolution” 
as a definition. 

The second is a passage from a different part of my article on 
Sir E. Beckett’s book, and its application is to materialists and 
agnostics in general, 

This latter passage did not appear to me capable of having 
roused the vivisection-instincts of so calm a philosopher as Mr. 
Spencer, especially as it was not applied to any one in particular, 
Of course, then, I at once assumed that the former passage 
contained the offence whizh was to be expiated; and I was 
confirmed in this idea by tae way in which Mr. Spencer put his 
formula alongside of the Law of Gravitation, I could not have 
ventured to suppose that Mr. Spencer “‘did not even know that 
he was in the habit of saying formula rather than definition.” 
This xaive confession cannot but be correct. Had it been 
made in Mr. Spencer’s pamphlet, I should not have thought it 
necessary to say a word. It explains at once his frequent entire 
misapprehensions of my meaning. So I give up my plausible 
theory of the origin of Mr. Spencer’s attack on me; and shall, 
henceforth, ascribe that attack to my having made a singularly” 
apt and telling quotation from Shakespeare ! 

With regard to the other parts of the discussion, I feel that I 
need not add anything to what I have already said; except on 
one point, an important one, 

Mr. Spencer has employed an old remark of Prof. Huxley as 
to what mathematics can, and cannot, do; but he has not 
employed it happily, for the question at issue is really this:—Is 
it correct to speak, at one time, of force as an agent which 
changes a body’s state of rest or of motion, and again to speak 
of it as the time-rate at which momentum changes or as the 
space-rate at which energy is transformed ? ; 

I answer that there is not the slightest inconvenience here ; 
except, perhaps, in the eyes of those metaphysicians (if there be 
any) who fancy they know wat force is. Such phrases as “the 
wind blows,” or ‘‘the sun rises,” though used by the most 
accurate even of scientific writers, would otherwise (on account 


of their anthropomorphism) haye to be regarded as absolute 
nonsense, P. G. Tair 


4 
124 


IA TORE 


[ Dec. 9, 8&0 


Geological Climates 


Ir was with great surprise I read Prof, Haughton’s unqualified 
statement in last week’s Natures, that—‘‘It is zmpossible to 
suggest any rearrangement of land and water which shall sensibly 
vaise the temperature of the West of Europe,” —since I had, as I 
thought, in my recently-published volume—‘‘ Island Life ”’—not 
only ‘ suggested” such a rearrangement, but also adduced much 
evidence to show that it had actually occurred throughout the 
periods when both the West of Europe and the Arctic regions 
enjoyed a much higher temperature than they do now. I will 
now briefly re-state my ‘‘suggestion,” and will also make a few 
remarks on the general causes of difference of temperature, which 
may serve to render the subject more intelligible. 

It is now well known that places in the temperate zones owe 
their temperature at different seasons only partially to the 
amount of direct sun-heat they receive, but very largely to the 
amounts of heat brought to them by currents of air. Thus we 
explain, not only the mild winter climate of our islands as due to 
the prevalence of westerly and south-westerly winds which have 
become warmed by passing over the Atlantic, but also the 
wonderful inequality of temperature at different seasons of the 
year. When we have warm spring-like days in mid-winter, it is 
because these warm currents of air are passing steadily over our 
islands ; while continued hard frosts are as clearly due to masses 
of cold air from the north or north-east which drift down to us, 
often with no perceptible wind. Again, when in Apvril and 
May we have days as cold as those of December and January, 
they can always be traced to northerly or easterly currents of air, 
and are probably often connected with the southern drift of the 
icebergs at that season. It is clear then, that if south-westerly 
winds were to continue throughout the winter, the severity of 
that season would be entirely abolished; and the same effect 
would be produced if by any means the winds from the north 
and east lost their severity. 

Now the source of the constant warmth of our westerly winds 
is admitted to be the influx of warm water into the North 
Atlantic—chiefly by the Gulf Stream ; and this warm northward 
flow of tropical water, being primarily due to the trade-winds, 
is not confined to the Atlantic, but is equally present in the 
other great oceans, and similar ‘effects are produced in them, 
though nowhere to so great a degree as in our islands, owing to 
our insular position and the great extent to which Europe to 
the east of us is permeated by water as compared with North 
America or Asia. The North Pacific, with its great Japan 
current, is probably quite as warm as the North Atlantic; but 
Vancouver's Island, though further south than London, has not 
so mild a climate; and this can b2 clearly traced to the great 
mass of land to the east and north of it, the lofty snow-clad 
mountains, and the absence of those deep gulfs and inland seas 
which do so much to ameliorate the climate of Europe. 

Prof, Haughton states, in his ‘‘ Lectures on Physical Geo- 
graphy,” that the Kuro Siwo, or great Pacific current, is two and 
a half times as large as the Gulf Stream, while the Mozambique 
current, which forms the outflow of the warm waters of the 
Indian Ocean, is one and a half times as much, so that these 
two currents have together four times the bulk and heating 
power of the Gulf Stream, If therefore these two currents at any 
time obtained an entrance into the Arctic Ocean, it is difficult 
to over-estimate their effect on its climate, The Gulf Stream, 
of which probably not half passes northwards of our islands, 
gives to Iceland the same winter temperature as Philadelphia, 
and keeps the North Cape (far within the Arctic circle) perma- 
nently free from ice, and this, notwithstanding the powerful 
counteracting influences of the lofty Scandinavian mountains on 
the one side, and the huge ice-clad plateau of Greenland on the 
other, Suppose that only an equal proportion of the Kuro 
Siwo entered the Arctic Ocean, is it not probable that no sea- 
ice at all would form there? While, if Greenland were less 
elevated and thus ceased to be an accumulator of ice, the com- 
bined effect might be to render the whole Polar area free of 
icebergs, This would at once do away with the chief source of 
winter cold to all north temperate lands, and ameliorate the 
climate of America as much, proportionately, as that of Europe. 

But we have yet to consider a still more powerful agent in 
ameliorating the climate of Western Europe in’ Secondary and 
early Tertiary times. The heated waters of the Indian Ocean 
haye now no northern outlet, and only penetrate the continent 
in the sub-tropical Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Now if we sup- 
pose the waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea to 
have had northward outlets through the heart of the Etwo-Asiatic 


continent, penetrating in two or more directions into the then 
much more extensive Arctic Ocean, we should have an agency at 
work which would render the presence of any permanent ice in 
the North Polar area as impossible as it is now in Scotland. 
The cooling agency of ice being once abolished, the compara~- 
tively small area of the Polar as compared with the Tropical 
seas (about one-tenth) would facilitate the raising of the tem- 
perature of the former to perhaps 15° or 20° F, above the freezing 
point, and this would not only give the Arctic lowlands a climate 
quite sufficient for the vegetation which we know they supported, 
but, by doing away with the only source of our winter cold, 
would give our islands a perfect immunity from frosts and render 
them capable of supporting the vegetation now characteristic of 
sub-tropical lands. 

That the modifications of land and sea here indicated did exist 
throughout a considerable portion of past geological ages, and 
that the existing consolidation of the great northern continents, to 
which the possibility of our present Arctic climates is mainly 
due, is a comparatively recent and abnormal phenomenon, I have 
endeavoured to prove in the work already referred to. At 
present I have only undertaken to show, that a ‘‘suggested” re- 
arrangement of land and water adequate to raise the temperature 
of Western Europe to a very sensible, or even toa very large 
extent, zs ‘* possible.” ALFRED R. WALLACE 


Photophonic Music 


I HAVE not yet met with any reference to the capabilities of 
the photophone for giving musical harmonies. Might not some 
curious effects be got in some such way as this:—Suppose a disk 
perforated with holes in four concentric circles corresponding to 
the notes of a chord; a beam of light to be sent through each 
circle to a lens and disk of rubber with tube (as Prof. Bell has 
described), the four tubes debouching in a cup-shaped cavity to 
be applied to the ear ; lastly, the disk to be rotated variably by 
means of a small windmill or otherwise. Another arrangement 
might be to make the beams cf light pass throuzh the holes to 
selenium cells in four telephone circuits, the four telephones 
being placed in one frame, against which the listener’s ear would 
be put, or coupled in pairs, one pair put to either ear. Again, 
might not harmonised tunes be obtained thus:—Suppose a 
broad open drum of wood or cardboard rotated uniformly on 
a screw forming a vertical axis, The drum is perforated in a 
spiral band of four lines of holes (for the light), corresponding to 
the notes of the harmonised air to be produced. This spiral 
band passes before four rubber disks or selenium cells (as in the 
former system), but arranged vertically and placed within the 
drum, at the lower part. The drum, it will be understood, 
works gradually down the axis, presenting a continuous four-line 
series of holes before the receiving apparatus, Again, a long 
continuous strip of cardboard, with four rows of holes, might be 
passed before the receiver in any convenient way, M. 


The ‘Philosophy of Language” 


THOUGH it is my principle never to answer any criticism of - 
my writings, I find myself obliged to deviate for once from this 
rule by the character of your highly esteemed review, and by 
the desire to find a discerning appreciation from your readers, 
whose judgment has for me the greater value, as it is the main 
aim of all my works to restore the relations between the science 
of mind and natural philosophy. Therefore you would oblige 
me very much by publishing the following short remarks :— 

The critic of my dvochure (‘Max Miiller and the Philosophy 
of Language,”’) says, ‘*. . . Nor is speech the deliberate product 
of a conscious will.”” Now it is the real aim of all my works 
on the philosophy of language to show how the human will— 
before dark and unconscious—grows to consciousness dy /an- 
guage and human activity intimately connected with it, Can 
there be the least doubt of this, even if I refer only to the 
motto of my ‘Origin of Language,”"—‘‘ Language has created 
reason, before language man was without reason” ? 

Your critic has made me say just the contrary of what I really 
have said. Besides, it would have been only fair if the critic 
had pointed to the following little passage of my drochure :— 

“Max Miiller has since expressed Ais full assent to this 
view,” (viz., my theory of the origin of language). 

Mayence, November 11 Lupwic Norr& 

[I gladly accept the author's assurance that he adheres to the 
view that ‘language has created reason,” At the same time his 


rie ee ee gee eee me cv 


Dec, 9, 1880] 


express words as well as the general bent of his argument seemed 
to point in the opposite direction. Thus at p, 81 he writes :— 
“Language is a product of association, .. . Language 1s a 
product of an active, not of a passive, process ; it is the child of 
will, not of sensation.” The statement that language is “the 
child of will” seems to me practically identical with the assertion 
that ‘‘speech is the deliberate pee of a conscious will,” 
because the will here spoken of, being ‘‘an active process,” is 
necessarily conscious.x—A. I. KEANE. ] 


Notes on the Mode of Flight of, the Albatross 


Wuen watching the albatross one is struck with the fact 
that the bird gets up to windward without appearing to use his 
wings.to a degree sufficient to account for thesame. ‘The sailors 
are satisfied with the explanation that he beats to windward, 
The conditions are of course not analogous to those of a ship 
sailing to windward. If the wind be very light, or if there be a 
calm, occasional powerful and obvious flapping of the wings 
occurs. If there is no wind, the birds often settle on the water 
round the ship. In very heavy weather the birds disappear 
altogether, probably settling on the water. Except that for 
breeding they resort to the islands, I believe they frequent the 
open ocean, where the surface is seldom without more or 
less swell, ; 

On watching the flight of the albatross, one observes that in 
order to rise from the water violent and obyious flapping of 
the wings is necessary, which is continued some time after the 
wings cease to strike the water. After a start has thus been 
effected, if there is a fresh breeze, the wings are kept almost 
motionless. Sometimes the bird goes some distance with the 
impetus derived from the flapping of the wings at the start, but 
sooner or later he turns so as to expose the plane surface 
of his wings full to the force of the wind, rising at the same 
time some height above the water, and drifts off to leeward, thus 
goon acquiring the velocity of the wind ; then swooping down into 
the hollow between two swells, he turns his head to windward, 
and keeping close to the surface of the water, sails along more 
or less against the wind for a surprising distance ; finally, rising 
over the crest of a wave comparatively high into the air, and 
turning with his wings as before, so as to catch the wind to the 
fullest extent, he again Jets himself drift off to leeward, 

Thus the manceuvre he performs seems to consist in drifting 
with the wind in such a way as to attain its velocity very soon, 
and then turning round so as to make use of this velocity to 
carry him inthe contrary direction. 

Of course if he still remained exposed to the wind which had 
imparted to him its velocity he would not travel far against it 
before he came to a standstill, and he would certainly make no 
progress to windward ; but by keeping close to the surface of 
the water, and as much as possible in the hollows between the 
waves, hé is almost out of the wind; and in this comparatively 
calm region the impetus derived from the wind will carry him a 
long distance in exactly the opposite direction to that of the 
wind itself, 

This manoeuvre appears to be an important factor. No 
doubt the almost imperceptible movement of the wings may 
assist, though that this alone is insufficient to account for the 
Progress to windward appears evident from the powerful efforts 
made with the wings in rising from the water and in calm 
weather. I have never had an opportunity to observe the 
albatross flying over land or over level water. If the manoeuvre 
above described be an important factor, the birds then would 
have to use their wings much as they do in very light winds on 
the ocean. If very strong winds were blowing, they would have 
to settle on the Jand or in the water in order to remain at the 
locality. Artruur W. BATEMAN 


A General Theorem in Kinematics 


Pror. Evererr (ante, p. 99) has overlooked in the intro- 
ductory paragraphs of Prof. Schell’s paper, to which he refe:s 
for the original statement of the theorem re-discovered by Prof. 
Minchin, the acknowledgment : ‘‘ Der Mittelpunkt der Beschleu- 
nigungen und jene beiden Kreise wurden bereits 1853 von Brusse 
gefunden,” e reference is to the Yournal de ULcole Poly- 
technique, tom. xx., ‘Mémoire sur un Théoréme nouveau con- 
cernant les Mouvements Plans, etc.” By means of the ‘two 
circles” Bresse determines the point c (/) ‘‘ qui aura une aceélé- 
ration totale nulle” (p, 82), and then by very ingenious applica- 


5 


NATORE 


| 


125 


tion of kinematic principles deduces those relations to it which 
any arbitrary point (7) has, as given by Prof. Minchin, Bresse 
names ¢ ‘‘ second centre instantané de rotation.” 

University Hall, December 4 J. J. WALKER 


Geometrical Optics 


Your correspondent “P, C.” (Narurn, vol. xxii, p. 607) 
asks information concerning a work, in English or French, on 
geometrical optics, thoroughly explaining the optical construction 
of telescopes and microscopes. I am not aware of any such 
publication these last forty years, but deem it possible that it 
may interest your correspondent to know of the existence of such 
a work in German by yon Littrow, entitled ‘‘ Dioptrik, oder 
Anleitung zur Verfertigung der Fernréhre.” It was published, 
I believe, in Vienna about 1838. W. G. LocemMan 

High Burghal School, Haarlem, Holland, November 17 


[Littrow’s ‘‘ Dioptrik ” was published at Vienna in 1830 in 
8yo.—Ep.] 


Ozone 


Ir a slip of the prepared paper, used for testing for atmospheric 
ozone, be carefully moistened on one side with alcohol, using a 
clean camel-hair brush, on burning off the spirit and immersing 
the slip of paper in water the paper changes to a deep ‘purple 
colour, as deep as No, 8 in Negretti and Zambra’s seale of 
colours for ozone, 

Is this due to the development of ozone? as, ae to 
Schénbein, heat destroys ozone. Apo 4, 
Leicester, December 5 


PLANTS OF MADAGASCAR 


iy SING the present year no less than four separate 

collections of plants have been received at Kew 
from Madagascar, including in the aggregate about a 
thousand species, represented by specimens complete 
enough to be botanically determinable. As the hills of 
the interior of the island attain an elevation of 10,000 
fect, its range of climate is considerable. We now know 
not less than two thousand Madagascar flowering-plants, 
and probably have almost exhausted its ferns, to which 
the collectors have paid special attention, and which are 
about 250 in number, so that we may consider ourselves 
in a position to draw broad general conclusions as to the 
botany of the island. 

Amongst the tropical types there are a considerable 
number of endemic genera. The lemurs find their 
parallel in the vegetable kingdom in the Cilenacea, a 
natural order whose nearest affinities are with Tilaceaz, 
Dipterocarpee, and Ternstromiacea, whichis strictly con- 
fined to Madagascar, and comprises four genera and 
about twice as many species, to which the Rey. R. Baron, 
in these new collections, has added a well-marked novelty 
in a second species of Leftolena. Altogether there are 
certainly not less than fifty genera confined to the 
island, some of them very curious types, as Dicoryplia 
in Hamamelidea, Ouvirandra in Naiadacea, Asteropeta 
(placed in the “Genera Piantarum” in Samydacee, but 
which Mr. Baron’s excellent new specimens will most likely 
have to be removed to Linace@), Macarisia in Rhizophoree, 
Deidamia and Physena in Passifloree, Hydrotriche in 
Scrophulariacea, Canctia, Tannodia and Spherostylis 
in Luphorbiacee, Pachnotrophe in Morea, Ci 


alantica in 
Samydacee, and several each in the orders Rudbiacea, 
Melastomacea, and Composite, To these endemic Ope 
the new collections add at last three, A7tchingia, a fine 
new genus of Crassulacee allied to Lryophyltum, with 
five or six species named after the collector of the first 
of the four parcels, R/iodocodon, a monotypic genus of 
gamophyllous Liliacee allied to Hyacinthus, and Micro- 
nychia, in Anacardiacee, also monotypic, figured lately 
in Hooker’s Icones. Besides these the tropical flora of 
the island contains a large proportion ; first, of endemic 
species of genera known elsewhere ; second, of species 


126 


NATURE 


[| Dec. 9, 1880 


common to Madagascar, Mauritius and Bourbon, but not 
elsewhere known, such as Ptlosporum Senacia, Aphloia 
mauritiana, Gouania mauritiana, Nesea triflora, Lobelia 
serpens, and Luddleia madagascariensis ; thirdly, of 
species that spread across Tropical Africa, such as 
Hlaronga paniculata, Desmodium mauritianum and 
oxybracteum, Gynura cernua, Brehmia spinosa, and Mus- 
soenda arcuata; fourthly, of species spread universally 
through the tropics of the Old World, but not reaching 
America, such as Crotalaria stricta, Oxalis sensitiva, 
Nyniphea stellata, Trichodesma zeylanica, Indigofera 
enneaphylla, Avicennia officinalis, and Rhizophora mu- 
cronata ; and fifthly, of species spread universally through 
the tropical zone of both hemispheres, such as Zlewszie 
indica, Tephrosia purpurea, Drymaria cordata, Elephan- 
topus scaber, Terammus labialis, Zornia dephylla, 
Waltheria americana, Sida rhombifolia, and Nephrodium 
molle. In Mauritius and the Seychelles there are 145 
species which occur also both in Asia and Africa, in addition 
to 225 which are spread all round the world in the tropical 
zone, and nearly all these 370 species are now known in 
Madagascar also. A small proportion of the Madagascar 
genera and species are Asiatic but not African, and these 
present collections add to the island flora Lagerstromia, 
Buchanania, and Strongylodon, three well-marked Indian 
types. 

But perhaps still more interesting, in the light that it 
throws on the past history of the island, is the relation- 
ship of the comparatively limited flora of the mountains 
of the interior to that of other parts of the world. A 
certain number of the plants, especially the ferns and 
fern-allies, are widely-spread temperate species, which 
now have their head-quarters in the temperate regions of 
the northern hemisphere ; we have instances of this in 
Nephrodium Filix-mas, Aypidium aculeatum, Osmunda 
regalis, Lycopodium claratum, L. complanatum, Sanicula 
europed, Potamogeton oblongus, Sonchus asper, S. oler- 
aceus, Polygonum minus. Most of the characteristic 
types of the Cape flora are represented on the Madagascar 
mountains, but nearly always by species which are 
distinct from those which are now found in the extra- 
tropical regions of the main continent : for instance, the 
Aloes by a couple of species of Ewaloe; the Heaths by 
several species of Philippia and Evicinella ; the bulbous 
Iridaceze by species of Gladiolus, Geissorhizaand Aristea ; 
the saprophytic Scrophulariacee by Harveya obtusifolia ; 
the special Cape ferns by Mohria caffrorium, Cheilanthes 
hirta, Pellea hastata, and P. calonelanos ; the Proteacez 
by the curious genus Dé/odeca (which Du Petit Thouars 
found at the beginning of the century, and of which Dr. 
Parker has now sent home the first specimens which have 
been seen in England); and the Selaginee by Selago 
muralis of Bentham, which grows in the grounds of the 
Queen’s palace at Antananarivo. But perhaps the most 
interesting feature of all_is the occurrence of several 
striking cases of specific identity between plants of the 
Madagascar mountains and those of the tropical zone 
of the African continent. The only Madagascar violet 
(Viola emirnensis, Bojer, = V7. abyssinica, Steud.) only 
occurs elsewhere high up amongst the mountains of 
Abyssinia, at 7000 feet above sea-level in the Camaroons, 
and at 10,000 feet above sea-level at Fernando Po. The 
only Madagascar Geranium (G. eviirnense, H. B. = G. 
compar, R. Br. = G. simense, latistipulatum and frigidum, 
Hochst.) has a precisely similar area of distribution. Caz- 
calis melanantha of Bentham is only known in Madagascar 
and amongst the mountains of Abyssinia. The Mada- 
gascar Drosera (D. madagascariensis, D.C. = D. ran- 
entacea, Burch.) reappears at the Cape and the moun- 
tains of Angola and the west tropical coast; Agazria 
Salicifolia, Hook. fil, which we noted lately as having 
been gathered by Mr. Thomson on the high plateaux of 
Lake Nyassa, is found in the Cameroons and on the 
mountains of Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon ; 


Crotalaria spinosa reappears in Nubia, Abyssinia, 
Angola, and Zambesi-land; Asplenium Mannit, Hook., 
on the mountains of Zambesi-land, the Cameroons, and 
Fernando Po. Asa whole, it would seem that the flora 
of the Madagascar mountains corresponds closely with 
that of the great ranges of the tropical zone of the main 
African continent. J. G. BAKER 


BENJAMIN COLLINS BRODIE, BART., 
FERS a5 OKC: 

N Wednesday, November 24 last, died Benjamin 
Collins Brodie the younger, a worthy son of a dis- 
tinguished sire. Born to affluence, but early imbued with 
the liberal and high-minded views of the great surgeon, 
he determined to devote his life and energies to the 
prosecution of science for its own sake, and well has he 
done his work. Brodie was born in London in 1817, and 
educated first at Harrow under Longley, and afterwards 
at Balliol, taking his Master’s degree in 1842. In those 
days it was absolutely impossible to carry out original 
chemical work at Oxford, and Brodie naturally betook 
himself to Giessen, where Liebig’s name drew students 
from all parts of the world. There in the summer of 
1845 Brodie, at Liebig’s suggestion, carried out analyses 
of certain waxes obtained by Gundlach by feeding bees 
on different kinds of sugar. The results thus obtained 
led him to continue his examination of bees’-wax on his 
return to England, and from his private laboratory in the 
Albert Road now came forth his well-known researches 
on the Chemical Nature of Wax (Phil. Trans. 1848, 
147-170; 1849, 91-108), for which in 1850 he received the 
well-merited reward of the Royal Medal. These re- 
searches will always remain not only remarkable as 
having given a successful solution of a difficult problem, 
but as having proved, by careful preparation and exact 
analysis, the existence in wax of solid bodies which play 
the part of alcohols, and of which common spirit of wine 
is a direct lineal descendant. This unexpected discovery 
of solid alcohols containing respectively twenty-seven and 
thirty atoms of carbon in the molecule completely con- 
firmed the truth of the views concerning the existence of 
an homologous series of alcohols first enunciated by Schiel 
and Gerhardt, and thus placed in firm position one of the 

chief pillars of the organic portion of our science. 
Brodie’s next work was not inferior either in importance 
or in workmanship to his first. In 1850 he published his 
memoir ‘On the Condition of certain Elements at the 
Moment of Chemical Change” (Piz/. Trans., 1850, 750- 
804), in which he carefully investigates the remarkable 
reducing action exerted by peroxide of hydrogen. Not 
only does this body lose half its oxygen when brought in 
contact with oxide of silver, but reduces this oxide to 
metal. This anomalous action was satisfactorily ex- 
plained by Brodie, who pointed out that the second 
atom of oxygen in these peroxides is not only re- 
tained in an unstable state of combination, but that 
when brought into contact with silver oxide a true 
synthesis of oxygen occurs, two atoms of this element 
uniting to form one molecule of free oxygen. That this 
reaction really takes place was shown by Brodie to be the 
case by careful experiment. These results led him to 
consider the constitution of the alcohol radicals (Chem: 
Soc. Journ. iii. 405), and to assert in 1851 the important 
fact, now universally admitted, that the molecule of the 
radical ethyl contains four atoms of carbon. To him 
too we owe the prediction of the possibility of the. 
existence of the mixed radicals, a prediction so soon 
afterwards experimentally verified by Wurtz. Next 
we find him active as secretary of the Society of 
which he afterwards became president, viz. the Chemical 
Society of London; also in lecturing at the Royal Insti- 
tution on the allotropic changes of certain elements, om 
the formation of hydrogen and its homologues, in which 


Dec. 9, 1880] 


he clearly brings forward his views concerning the union 
of atoms to form the molecule. 

In 1853 he published his interesting observations on 
the conversion of yellow phosphorus into the red modifi- 
cation by heating it to 200° in presence of mere traces of 
iodine (Chem. Soc. Journ. vy. 289). Another very im- 
portant and difficult investigation which occupied much 
of his attention about this time was the question of the 
purification (Axx. de Chimie, 45, 351) of graphite, and the 
determination of its “atomic weight” (Pz/. Tvars. 1859, 
249). By heating graphite with strong nitric acid and chlor- 
ate of potash, Brodie showed that, unlike all the other modi- 
fications of carbon, graphite yields a remarkable crystalline 
acid, to which he gave the name of graphitic acid, having 
the formula C,,H,O;. The existence of this interesting 
body led Brodie to the conclusion that graphite may be 
considered as a peculiar radical, to which he gave the 
name of graphon. In the year 1855 Brodie was appointed 
Waynflete Professor of Chemistry in the University of 
Oxford, a position which enabled him to throw all his 
influence into forcing the recognition of chemical science 
as a proper object of academic training. Under his fos- 
tering care the science which had hitherto been so long 
neglected put out distinct signs of life: new laboratories 
and lecture-rooms were built, to which students flocked 
in numbers, and Oxford saw the unwonted sight of her pro- 
fessor of chemistry busily engaged in original investigation, 
as well as in the tutorial duties of his chair. The dis- 
covery of those singular and dangerous bodies, the perox- 
ides of the organic radicals (Proc. Roy. Soc. ix. 361, Phe7. 
Trans. 1863, 407), was made in the laboratory of the New 
Museum. The same laboratory soon afterwards saw the 
minute and careful investigation on ozone (Phil. Trans. 
1872, 432), which proved beyond doubt or cavil that the 
supposition that the molecule of ozone is represented by 
the formula O, is both necessary and sufficient to explain 
all the observed phenomena. 

Next we find him experimenting on the synthetic pro- 
duction of the hydrocarbon methane, as well as of formic 
acid, by the direct union of hydrogen and carbon monoxide 
under the influence of the electric spark. Then he 
examines the effect of an induced electric current upon 
pure and dry carbonic acid, and proves that this gas is 
partially decomposed with formation of carbon monoxide 
and oxygen, the latter gas being converted into ozone. And 
he then proceeds to ask whether the ozone thus produced 
is identical with that obtained from ordinary oxygen, and 
by a series of careful quantitative experiments demon- 
strates the identity of the ozone from these tio sources. 

This was Brodie’s last experimental investigation. Ere 
long he resigned the Chair of Chemistry at Oxford, 
regretted by the whole University. He retired to his 
charming seat on the summit of Box Hill. Neither his 
own scientific activity nor his deep interest in the scien- 
tific work of others ceased on his withdrawal from 
professional life. Before his retirement he had put 
forward (Phil. Trans. 1866, 781-860) in his “ Calculus of 
‘Chemical Operations,” views altogether novel respecting 
the nature of chemical change. In place of the usual 
mode of considering this as due to a change in the 
relative positions of the atoms of which matter is com- 
posed, Brodie founds his theory of the constitution of 
chemical elements and compounds on the simple volume- 
relations discovered by Gay-Lussac to exist between these 
substances in the gaseous state. To hydrogen Brodie 
gives a simple symbol, because the unit of hydrogen can, as 
he expresses it, be conceived as made at once by one 
operation, whilst to oxygen he gives a double symbol, 
because it cannot, according to him, be made by less 
than two operations. The element chlorine is supposed 
to be made up of three operations, and a treble symbol is 
given to this body. Concerning the probable or possible 
decomposition of the elements Brodie naturally speculates. 
His analysis had led him to suspect that ‘‘ chemical sub- 


NATURE 


17 


stances are really composed of a primitive system of 
elemental bodies analogous in their general nature to our 
present elements, some of which we possess, but of which 
we possess only a few” (‘Ideal Chemistry,” p. 54). But 
no experimental evidence of this fact was offered by him, 
and none of a satisfactory character was otherwise forth- 
coming, until Victor Meyer announced his belief that 
chlorine was capable of undergoing decomposition at high 
temperatures. 

Here was a proof of the truth of Brodie’s complex 
symbol! Sad to say, further experiment has not corro- 
borated this conclusion. No substance differing essen- 
tially from chlorine has yet been got fromthis body. Even 
the change of density at a white-heat appears in the case of 
chlorine to be, to say the least, doubtful. So we are left 
for the present, and the author of the “ Calculus of Opera- 
tions” is left for ever,without the experimental confirmation 
of his conclusions which he so much desired. Whatever 
may be the verdict of the future as to the value of Brodie’s 
Calculus, there is no doubt that science is indebted to him 
for an altogether new view of chemical combination 
obtained by a systematic analytical process. 

This occasion is not a fitting one to enlarge upon the 
high personal character of the late Sir Benjamin Brodie. 
Suffice it to say that in all relations in life, in the domestic 
circle as in society, in the chair at Burlington House as 
in that at Oxford, he displayed all those qualities of heart 
and head which alone give dignity and sweetness to life, 
the possession of which ensures for his memory a lasting 
place in the minds of all those who were fortunate enough 
to count him amongst their friends. Hy E.R: 


THE PHYLLOXERA IN FRANCE 


HE new vine-disease, due to the Phylloxvera vastatrix 
‘ Planchon, has already caused much damage to the 
French vineyards and wine-production. From the taxes 
arising from that national industry France derives a 
considerable part of her revenue; and this subject has 
consequently occasioned innumerable publications and 
investigations. Of the latter some have been empirical 
and without result ; others, which were conducted scienti 
fically, have alone been of any use. It was moreover 
absolutely necessary to have an unswerving confidence in 
exact observations, in order to persevere -in making 
experiments which are often disturbed and rendered 
apparently self-contradictory by the secondary and ever- 
varying conditions of cultivation. These experiments 
have at last been crowned with success, and now there are 
decidedly good grounds for hope. For the last two years 
the public have shown a steadily increasing confidence in 
scientific methods. 

One of the most distinguished chemists, a man of 
whom France is proud, and with whom readers of 
NATURE are well acquainted, especially as they were 
lately presented with his portrait and biography, M. 
Dumas, applied himself to the study of the Phylloxera, 
and pursued his task from day to day with keen deter- 
mination, notwithstanding the attacks of some and the 
discouraging advice of others. It is his well-intentioned 
and unceasing diligence that we must thank for never 
having lost heart; it is to him that those results are due 
which are presently to be indicated. When the pébrine- 
disease was raging on silkworms in the South of France, 
it was by his personal suggestion and repeated encourage- 
ment that M. Pasteur agreed to devote himself to that 
difficult study ; and it is the same gentle influence and 
guidance that have directed the present writer, together 
with several others, especially MM. Balbiani, Duclaux, 
and Mouillefert. 

Henceforward the principal problems raised by the 
study of vine diseases are solved. They were solved one 
after another in regular order, as fresh light appeared and 
the ends to be aimed at became more definite, It cannot 


128 NATURE [ Dec. 9, 1880 


be too frequently repeated that that is due, not to a able persistence in the midst of obstacles caused by many 
happy hit or to guess-work, but to an unceasing and skil- | selfish interests. Times are greatly changed since M. 
fully conducted struggle which was kept up with indomit- Dumas? protested, in discreet but unmistakable language, 


( 


TOUVARNON 


Ss 


7 
ie Leg PRIVAS® 
Peng 


S/STERON 


—— 


im 
| 


My) at i 


oO 


Fic. 1.—Map showing the spread of Phylloxera in France from 1865 to 1872. (See NATURE, vol. x. p. 504.) 


against the indifference of a French Minister of Agriculture | taken by the railway companies and by various private 
who tried to beat down a grant of 10,000 francs necessary gentlemen. M. Tirard, the present Minister of Agricul- 
for continuing the scientific investigation. On the same ‘ 

occasion he drew attention to the praiseworthy initiation | - t Académie des Sciences, February 23, 1874. 


E 2 os 


Dec. 9, 1880] 


ture, has obtained several large grants,’ and proposes to 
ask still much larger ones for the approaching campaign, 
being anxious to assist in every way the laborious struggle. 
M. Tisserand, the new Director at the Office of Agri- 
culture, a man of great energy and ability, has resolved 
to back up all his efforts, and has instituted a special 
central staff to take charge of all documents and opera- 
tions. The Higher Phylloxera Commission, formed by 
order of the Minister, has also shown activity: it has 
adopted a general legislative scheme in order to supply 
the Government with the arms necessary to defend the 


NATURE 


129 


Switzerland and Germany soon adopted similar mea- 
sures; and with reference to England we must remark 
that the Phylloxera question may soon become something 
different from a mere matter of curiosity. Are there no 
important vineyards in England? We are told that at 
Liverpool alone, in the “ Vineries,” there are forty hectares 
of vines grown under glass. The Phylloxera was ob- 
served by Mr. Westwood before it was known in France. 
It is still found here and there in Ireland, in Scotland, 
and not far from London itself. By the admirable culti- 
vation under glass, in which English vine-growers are 


threatened territory. 


unrivalled, it is kept within narrow limits, but it might 


if 


a 
Sen 


\ anciaagh 9 
4 


Se 


Districts la uwaded irwhich the introduction of foreign 
vines, or vines trom districts in-which Phyloxera have appeared. 
___*?. 2 authorised. ...-=2--.-0-22+: ee orev? 6}! = 


Fic. 2.—Map showing the spread of 


be communicated to other places. In Switzerland one 
single parcel of plants is reported to have brought the 
parasite to Geneva, Schafthausen, and Neuchatel. In any 
case, should an international convention be instituted, 
the enforced examination at the frontiers would hamper 
the trade in those magnificent English grapes. The 
rigorous measures taken against the cattle-disease suffice 
to show what may be necessary in order to defend the 
leaf or shoots of the vine. 

Extent of the Disease.—The increase of the disease is 
considerable; thus at the beginning of 1877 there were 


7 One of 500,000 francs, which has since been doubled. 


Phylloxera in France up to 1880. 


only twenty-eight departments attacked, whereas at the 
beginning of 1879, according to the official statistics, 
there were thirty-nine. Those in the previous year, 
in order of date, were Loir-et-Cher, Haute-Garonne, 
Gers, and Corréze. In 1878 Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, 
Haute-Loire, Vienne, Indre, Céte-d’or, and Savoie. In 
1879, Haute-Savoie, Jura, Arriége, and Tarn. A special 
inquiry enables us to determine what area had been 
invaded in the end of 1879:—the invaded vineyards 
which had not yet succumbed were 319,760 hectares in 


1 Te Phylloxéra, &c.; Rapports publ. par le Ministére de l’Agric.’’ 
8 fasc., p. 9. (Paris: Masson, 1879.) 


130 


NWALTOLRE 


[Dec. 9, 1880 


extent, or 76,722 more than the preceding year; the vine- | 


yards destroyed, 474,760 ; or 101,317 more than the pre- 
ceding year (1878). 

There is unfortunately reason to fear that the isolated 
points may join each other and the affected patches unite. 
The patches, whether distinct or uniting, increase about 
75 kilometres every year ; and since the increase in any 
direction is proportional to the time, the increase of area 
is as the square ofthe time. In other words, after 2, 3, 4, 
5 years, the evil is increased 4, 9, 16, 25 times. By merely 
looking at a map showing the extent of the plague, one 
can form an idea of the invading march of the terrible 
insect. 

Yet there are actually men of science in France who join 
in depreciating those who are employed to battle with 
this fatal disease. It is sad to see the reception met 
with by those who have sacrificed their time, health, 
and scientific reputation to undertake duties so beneficial 
to their country. “They are merely wasting their time,” 
say they; ‘‘much better not have left their personal 
duties ;”’ and, true enough, those of whom this is said 
have cruelly felt its truth. M. Dumas, however, is not 
one of those. 

Several years ago a prize of 300,000 francs was instituted 
to encourage investigations as to the best remedy against 
the phylloxera. Much ingenuity was wasted, many absurd 
remedies proposed, and it is curious to note the substances 
which were lauded by the inventors. They were for the 
most part the same, mixed in different proportions—tars, 
sulphur, lime, soot, urine, phenic acid, and salts of copper 
-or iron. Patient research and scientific study have alone 
produced certain results. 

These results, however, were not accepted and acknow- 
ledged without difficulty. Objections were accumulated 
and many instances of partial failure were brought 
together, ill-will and inertia playing an important part in 
‘the business. Local influences, political opinions, and 
-other extraordinary considerations, one after another, 
opposed or favoured the results which were gained. At 
present the question has once for all entered upon a better 
path, the charlatans and pretended vine-doctors having 
entirely lost their credit. We are in possession of four 
modes of treatment which are really efficacious, though 
they vary in their effects in different cases. The struggle 
therefore should be maintained. 

The various conditions of application and the entirely dif- 
ferent principles which the application follows explain the 
divergence of opinions and methods. The scientific remedy 
is given : practice will decide which of the four methods 
is at the same time most efficacious and most economical. 
This happy result must mainly be attributed to the Com- 
mission of the Academy of Sciences, which was presided 
-over by M. Dumas, who was the very soul of it. This 
Commission sent “delegates,” who severally studied 
special clearly-defined questions, like officers sent by a 
general to make a reconnaissance in a country. 

The commissions instituted in the departments did 
much good work, especially that of Hérault, which con- 
tained several distinguished members, both vine-growers 
and scientists: MM. Marts and Planchon, Members of 
the Institute of France ; M. Bazille, Senator; M. Vialla, 
«ce. We must also notice particularly the Viticultural 
Station at Cognac, which was established by private sub- 
scription, after the English manner,—a thing of rare 
occurrence in France. It was M. Lecogq de Boisbaudran, 
now Member of the Institute, the discoverer of the metal 
‘Gallium, who first started the idea, and triumphantly 
realised it in his native town. The principal houses in 
‘the trade made it a point of honour to subscribe, and the 
expenses in four years reached a sum not less than 32,000 
francs. It was there that the general experiments as to 
“insecticides ” were made, in accordance with the simple 
method proposed by M. Cornu, Director of the Viti- 
cultural Station, in order to determine definitively what 


substances are powerless. This work of “clearing the 
way” necessarily occupied several years, the practical 
part being energetically carried out by M. Mouillefert, of 


| the National School of Agriculture at Grignon, near 


Paris, sub-director of the Viticultural Station. Towards 
the end of the first year they began to distinguish clearly the 
small group of substances which alone should be utilised. 
Amongst them was carbon disulphide (CS,),fwhich had 
been indicated by Baron Thénard, abandoned and then 
eagerly resumed by the enthusiastic M. Monestier, and at 
last rejected in a general manner in the end of 1873 and 
during 1874. 

The carbon disulphide by itself appearing too dange- 
rous to human life, M. Dumas happily started the idea 
of using it in combination with sulphide of potassium, 
forming the sulpho-carbonate of potassium (KSCS,), 
which is both a powerful “insecticide” and an energetic 
manure. 

The conclusions reached by the experiments made at 
Cognac were published towards the end of 1874 in the 
Report of the Academy of Sciences (last quarter), and 
the author can still defend every one of them as they 
were then deduced, a rare circumstance in connection 
with the phylloxera. 

Under the happy influence of the Minister of Agri- 
culture, the vine-growers were grouped into “ vigilance- 
committees” for watching, and “ syndicates” for treating, 
the vines. Thus the indifference of some and unreason- 
ing excitement of others were followed by energetic 
preparation for the struggle. At the end of 1878 there 
were sixty committees instituted in fifty-six departments, 
and now there are 221, embracing sixty-one departments. 
Some of them have obtained decidedly successful results, 
and thus furnished a powerful incentive for the others to 
persevere. 

The expense of the applications is still considerable, 
but in any case the most valuable vines are now out of 
danger. The more common vines will at first cost a 
good deal, but we are confident that scientific skill will 
supply sulphate of carbon either free or in combination 
at a cheaper rate, and that practical experience will 
render its application more easy and less expensive. 
France will thus continue to produce her wines, and 
have the pleasure of offering them to her friends and 
neighbours. This, though apparently a mere wish, is an 
actual statement of fact. 

MAXIME CORNU, 
Delegate of the Academy of Sciences, and formerly 
Director of the Viticultural Station at Cognac 


NOTES 

THE following are the arrangements for the Friday evening 
meetings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain before Easter, 
1881 :—January 21, Warren De La Rue, D.C.L., F.RS., 
Sec. R.I., The Phenomena of the Electric Discharge with 14,400 
Chloride of Silver Cells; January 28, Dr. Andrew Wilson, 
F.R.S.E., The Origin of Colonial Organisms; February 4, Dr. 
Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., The Teachings of Modern Spectro- 
scopy; February 11, Robert S. Ball, LL.D., F.R.S., The Dis- 
tances of the Stars; February 18, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., 
M.P., D.C.L., F.R.S., M.R.I., Fruits and Seeds; February 
25, Dr. J. S. Burdon-Sanderson, LL.D., F.R.S., Excitability in 
Plants and Animals; March 4, Sir William Thomson, LL.D., 
F.R.S., Elasticity viewed as Possibly a Mode of Motion ; 
March 11, uncertain ; March 18, Wm. H. Stone, M.D., Musical 
Pitch and its Determination; March 25, Alexander Buchan, 
M.A., F.R.S.E., Sec. Met. Soc. Scot., The Weather and Health 
of London ; April 1, uncertain ; April 8, Prof. Tyndall, D.C.L., 
F.R.S., M.R.I. 

THERE is nothing that will tend to keep our learned societies 
in so wholesome a condition as healthy public opinion; it is 


Dec. 9, 1880] 


therefore a matter for congratulation when we see a paper like 
the Zimes taking an{interest in the organisation_and work of the 
Royal Society, and giving its opinion on these, even when 
the justice of that opinion is questioned by many, From 
a leading article in the Zimes of Thursday last, on Mr. 
Spottiswoode’s address, we take the following passage :— 
‘¢ The election to the vacancies in its ranks has of late years been 
too manifestly governed by a tendency to set up as an idol some- 
thing which it is technically fashionable to call ‘research,’ and 
to ignore the far higher mental effort which is required for suc- 
cessful ratiocination. A man sets to work with a microscope 
and a test-tube, performs a number of curious experiments, and 
announces an interesting discovery which can neither be con- 
firmed nor refuted by any one who. does not follow precisely in 
his tracks. Such an experimenter, before now, has been rewarded 
by the privilege of placing the letters F.R.S. after his name; 
although, when the privilege had been conferred beyond recall, 
it may have been shown that his ‘research’ was undermined by 
the neglect of some essential precaution, and that his conclusion 
was erroneous. On the other hand, the man who gathers up the 
scattered facts ascertained by others, and founds upon them a 
weighty and important generalisation, is not on that account 
thought worthy of the Fellowship; and if he desires to obtain it 
isalmost compelled to engage in some colourable ‘research’ as 
a means of gratifying his wishes. The principle thus acted upon 
is as much a mistake as it would be to glorify a carpenter or a 
mason and to ignore an architect ; and it points to a narrowness 
of view which might profitably give place to a more accurate 
sense of relative proportion, The award of a medal to Prof. 
Lister, notwithstanding the great and direct utility of his work, 
is possibly an indication that better counsels may in time be 
expected to prevail.” 


WE understand that the Rev. Osmond Fisher has in the press, 
and will shortly publish, a new work entitled ‘‘ Physics of the 
Earth’s Crust.” The volume will contain selected and revised 
portions of papers which have appeared at various times in the 
Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and other 
scientific publications, together with new matter. Mr. Fi-her 
will in some chapters apply mathematical methods, but there 
will be found much matter calculated to interest those readers 
who do not care for that mode of reasoning. 


THE meeting of the British Medical Association for the year 
1881 will be held at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, to which locality 
the Association has received a cordial invitation from nearly the 
whole of the medical profession in the island. Mr. Benjamin 
Barrow, an old and much-respected practitioner in Ryde, has 
been appointed president-elect. The Council of the Town of 
Ryde have passed a unanimous resolution that the whole of the 
Corporation Buildings, which are numerous and spacious, shall 
be placed at the disposal of the Reception Committee. There 
is every reason to believe, that the many beautiful private 
grounds in the Isle of Wight will be thrown open to the Associa- 
tion, The president will give a garden party to the members 
and residents in the island. A sozrée will be held in the Town 
Hall and adjoining buildings. The address in medicine will Le 
given by Dr. John Syer Bristowe, London, of St. Thomas’s 
Hospital ; the address in surgery will be given by Mr. William 
Dalla Husband of Bournemouth, Consulting Surgeon to the 
York County Hospital ; and an address in obstetric medicine by 
Dr. John G, Sinclair Co_hill of Ventnor. Such has been the 
spirit with which the movement has been taken up by the 
Members of the Association and profession in the Isle of Wight 
and Ryde that the meeting bids fair to rival any previous meeting 
both in science and pleasure.—The following grants in aid ot 
scientific investigation for the year were made, viz. :—Dr. 
McKendrick and Committee, Glasgow, for a continued inyesti- 


NATURE 


13 


gation on anesthetics, 25/,; Dr. Gerald Yeo, London, on the 
efficacy of the antiseptic method in injuries of the brain, 50/. ; 
Dr. Shin, London, for a continued investigation on parasitic 
skin diseases, 25/7. ; Mr. W. North, London, for a continued in- 
vestigation on the relations which exist between nitrogenous 
egesta and muscular work, 50/.; Dr. D. J. Hamilton, Edin- 
burgh, an investigation on the pathology of the brain, 30/7. ; Mr. 
Watson Cheyne, London, an investigation on the relation of 
organisms of septic disease, 25/7. ; Dr. Augustus Waller, London, 
an investigation on the time and relations of muscular contrac- 
tions in the human body in health and disease, 20/.; Dr. 
Alexander Ogston, Aberdeen, a continued investigation on the 
relation between bacteria and surgical disease, 10/7. ; Dr. New- 
man, Glasgow, a renewed grant in aid of an investigation on the 
functions of the kidney, 10/.; Drs. Braidwood and Vacher, 
Birkenhead, to illustrate the third and final report on the life 
history of contagium, 20/. 


In the Vienna Gewerbeverein, Herr F. Siemens has been 
lecturing on his ‘‘ regenerative gas-burner,” in which the depart- 
ing heat of the flame serves for pre-heating the air and the gas 
to be consumed. The products of combustion of the flame, 
collected in a short chimney, flow away cold, either into the 
room or to the open air. The light, according to measure- 
ments, has twice to three times the illuminating power of the 
best-known gas-burners, and is remarkably white and steady. 


THE death is announced of Dr, Lauder Lindsay, F.R.S.E. 
F.L.S., at Edinburgh, on November 24, at the age of fifty. 
Dr. Lindsay’s name must be known to our readers as an occasional 
contributor to our columns. Dr. Lindsay did some good work 
in botany and geology, and took special interest in the subject 
of intelligence in the lower animals. In 1870 he published a 
“History of British Lichens,” and quite recently we reviewed 
his work on ‘‘ Mind in the Lower Animals,” published last year. 


On Monday a deputation, consisting of Mr. Ernest Hart, 
Prof, Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., Col. Festing, the Rev. H. V. 
Le Bas, the Rev. S. A. Bamett, Mr. S. Hadley, Mr. W. R. E. 
Coles, and others, had an interview with the Lord Mayor at the 
Mansion House, to interest him in the efforts now being made 
by the joint committees of the National Health and Kyrle 
Societies to reduce the mischief arising from the present 
excessive production of smoke in the metropolis. Mr. Ernest Hart 
said the Societies thought that a very great deal might be practi- 
cally done to make the atmosphere in London as pure as that in 
Paris. It was proposed to conduct trials of the various kinds of 
fuel and to promote competitive testing of the appliances avail- 
able at present, or which might become available, for the purpose 
of lessening the production of smoke. The smoke proceeding 
from the fires of private houses might be materially lessened by 
the use of improved apparatus, and that from factories might be 
abated with little interference with the manufacturing interests if 
the employers would only co-operate with the Societies towards 
that end. There was about to be an exhibition at South Ken- 
sington of the different kinds of apparatus and fuel, which would 
be practically tested. They now asked the Lord Mayor to let 
them bring the matter before the notice and attention of the 
citizens by means of a meeting at the Mansion House on the 
subject. The Lord Mayor thought it a matter well deserving 
the public attention, and he would gladly allow a conference in 
the Long Parlour of the Mansion House on Friday, January 7. 


I connection with the subject of Incandescent Electric lighting 
it is of interest to notice in the New York Zimes an account of 
an experiment in this direction, At a reception given on the 
evening of November 17 by Prof. Henry Draper to the members 
of the National Academy of Sciences, a part of his house was 


132 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 9, 1880 


lighted by the Maxim light. The laboratory was lighted by 
eight Maxim electric lamps, which were screwed into the chande 
liers in place of the ordinary gas burners. The large labora- 
tory, it is stated, was as light as the open fields at noonday, and 
there was no flickering or unsteadiness in the light. In shape 
the lamps are precisely similar to those used by Edison, but 
H. S. Maxim, who holds the patent on them, claims to have 
improved on Edison’s plan, by making his lamps more per- 
manent. Like Edison, he uses a carbonised fibre, in the form 
of a horseshoe, but unlike him, does not inclose this fibre in a 
vacuum, and considers tbat his lamp is complete. An atmo- 
sphere of gasoline vapour is introduced into the glass globe 
which holds the :carbonised fibre, and in this atmosphere the 
fibre is gradually heated by the electric current. As soon as the 
heat reaches a sufficient intensity it begins to decompose the 
hydrocarbon of which gasoline vapour is composed, and if there 
are any weak spots in the filament the freed carbon is deposited 
there and strengthens the fibre. A current of increasing intensity 
is thus carried through the carbonised fibre, which constantly 
grows at the expense of the gasoline vapour, and finally becomes 
of a uniform power of resistance throughout its whole length. 
The ‘gasoline vapour is then pumped out of the globe and the 
lamp is ready for use. The Maxim lamps are said to give a 
larger amount of light than any incandescent lamp hitherto con- 
structed. According to experiments made by Prof. Morton, of 
the Stevens Institute, it appears that the lamps have produced 
light at the rate of 600 candles per horse-power of current. 
Each of the eight lights in Prof. Draper’s laboratory had an 
illuminating power of about fifty candles, The electric current 
for the lamps was furnished by a Maxim dynamo machine, 
which was driven by a gas-engine of four-horse power, located 
in the laboratory. The Maxim machine has an armature some- 
thing like that of the Gramme machine, while’ its field magnets 
resemble those of the Siemens machine. 


THE recent importations into this country of cinchona bark 
from Jamaica and the high prices realised have been the means 
of causing a considerable amount of attention to be drawn to this 
new source of supply. From a.document recently drawn up by 
Mr. Morris, Director of Public Gardens and Plantations in 
Jamaica, it seems that the results of the cinchona sales for the 
year 1879-80 have been as follows :—Quantity of bark shipped 
27,399 lb., gross amount realised £5380 gs. 6d., net sum realised 
£5146 8s. 7¢. Without going into details it will suffice to show 
the superiority of Jamaica bark over that from Ceylon by saying 
that for red ‘‘root bark” the highest price for Jamaica produce 
was 45. 8d. per pound for ‘‘ good root” as against 2s. 6d. for 
** good root” from Ceylon, thus showing an advantage in favour 
of Jamaica root bark to the extent of 2s. 2d. per pound. Thus 
again for “twig and small ordinary” bark of C. succirubra 
Ceylon produce obtained from 2}. to 1s. per pound as against 
103d, to Is, 6d. per pound for similar bark from Jamaica, From 
this, together with the fact that an enormous number of plants 
are now in stock in Jamaica, the future of cinchona cultivation 
in that island seems to be ensured. 


Tt is stated in an American contemporary deyoted to electrical 
topics that a call has lately been made on the shareholders of the 
Edison Electric Light Company to the amount of sixty dollars 


per share. The object of the call was ‘‘to meet the expense of 
recent experiments.” 5 


Imporranr trials have been made lately on the Rhine, in 
order that navigation may be carried on at night by means of the 
electric light. It is hoped that soon satisfactory results will 
follow, which{will probably develop an entirely new phase in 
tiver navigation. 

In the neighbourhood of Agram, at the mountainous places 
St. Simon and Remete, some shocks (of slight importance) were 


felt up till December 1. At Dortmund, on November 27, a 
considerable shock occurred at 5.50 a.m. It lasted several 
seconds, and the direction was south-south-east, barometer 756, 
temperature 7° R. A rather smart shock of earthquake, ac- 
companied bya loud subterranean noise, was felt at Schaffhausen 
on Wednesday night last week. The Rev, Dr, Dixon of Beragh, 
near Omagh, writes that a slight earthquake shock was distinctly 
felt there on the afternoon of Sunday, November 28, at about 
half-past five, The peculiar character of the shock was most 
marked. It appeared to travel from south-west to north-east. 


IN the course of his experiences as a medical missionary among 
the Mongols the Rey. James Gilmour has gathered some inte- 
resting information regarding their inner life, but perhaps the 
most curious item is that Mongol doctors are not entirely unac- 
quainted with the properties of galvanism. It is said that they 
are in the habit of prescribing the loadstone ore, reduced to 
powder, as efficacious when applied to sores, and Mr, Gilmour 
states that one man hard of hearing had been recommended by 
a lama to put a piece of loadstone into each ear and chew a piece 
of iron in his mouth! 


THE French Great Western Company instituted last year a 
competition in the large hall of St. Lazare Station, between the 
Jablochkoff and Lontin light and the gas company, The conclu- 
sions were in favour of the electric light, but the gas company 
having declared that they would abolish entirely the special price 
charged on the Great Western Company if they declared in 
favour of gas, the gas lamps have been restored. 


Les Mondes gives the following old recipe for testing the age 
of eggs, which, it thinks, seems to have been forgotten. Dissolve 
120 grammes of common salt in a litre of water. An egg put in 
this solution on the day it is laid will sink to the bottom ; one a 
day old will not reach quite to the bottom of the vessel; an egg 
three days old will swim in the liquid ; while one more than 
three days old will swim on the surface. 


THE Launceston Examiner (Tasmania) of October 6 contains 
some account of a shaft that had been sunk for a well at a 
brewery at Launceston, near the river. Little water was met 
with, but some interesting observations were made, The shaft 
had been sunk to a depth of ninety-eight feet. The strata passed 
through are of a very interesting character. For a little over thirty 
feet strong clay was met with, then deep beds of compact sand 
separated by bands a few inches thick of fine quartz con- 
glomerate. About forty feet from the surface considerable 
quantities of partially carbonised wood were found, extending 
thence to the bottom of the shaft. The wood is evidently pine, 
and appears to be identical with that found in the shaft of the 
Working Miners Company at Brandy Creek, at a similar depth 
below the river. The grain of the wood is perfectly distinguish- 
able, but the transverse fracture is black and lustrous like jet. 
The trees must have been of a large size and very abundant, and 
the great mass of earth that has accumulated above their re- 
mains enables one to form some idea of the vast period that has 
elapsed since they flourished. The great depth of the stratum 
in which this fossil wood occurs proves that its deposition must 
have proceeded without material interruption through vast 
periods of time. It is a little curious that though vegetable 
remains occur so profusely in the freshwater deposits of the 
Windmill Hill, and at considerable depths both here and at 
Beaconsfield, no trace has yet been found of contemporaneous 
animal life. 

THE Cafe Argus for November 6 contains a full report of a 
paper read at the Cape Philosophical Society by Mr. J. G. 
Gambie, containing many useful suggestions as to important 
problems, especially in meteorology and geology, that await 
solution in South Africa. Residents and travellers in South 
Africa would no doubt find the paper suggestive. 


Dec. 9, 1880] 


NATURE 


133 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


__ Mk. J. E. H. Gornon has lately patented a method of pro- 
ducing light from electricity based upon Mr, Spottiswoode’s 

suggestion to apply the alternating-current magnetoelectric ma- 

chine’of De Méritens to the induction-coil, Mr. Gordon 
arranges small balls of platinum or iridium, or of an alloy of 
these metals, at the ends of fine platinum rods in pairs in the 
middle of a suitable globe, and causes to pass between them a 
rapid succession of sparks whereby they are raised to incand- 
escence. There is no consumption of carbon or any other sub- 
stance, and the lamps may be connected either in series or in 
parallel branched ares. The principal remaining disadvantage 
is the noise attendant on the rapid sparks. A mechanical con- 
trivance is added to bring the knobs near together when no 
current is passing in the primary coil. The induction-coils used 
are of comparatively small size. 


M. TERQUEM (Your. de Phys., October) prepares, for the 
receivers of air-pumps, brass plates with a circular groove, in 
which is put a mastic fusing about 60°. The plate is placed 
over a vessel of heated water, and when the mastic is fused the 
receiver is brought down into the groove. When cool, the plate 
adheres to the jar. These receivers are tubulated, and a 
caoutchouc stopper in the tubule holds a tube bent at a right 
angle and provided with a stopcock like those used by M, Carré 
in his air-pump. For experiments with the air-pump several 
receivers with their plates can be easily prepared beforehand. 


M. LippMANN points out (Your. de Phys., October) that full 
justice has hardly been done to Carnot with reference to his law 
{in thermodynamics). It seems to have been forgotten that he 
verified the law directly by experiment ; and did not merely (as 
is found stated in excellent treatises) furnish a demonstration 
2 priori based on the indestructibility of heat. This is doubtless 
due to the fact that Carnot’s original work has long been 
exhausted and unobtainable. M. Lippmann considers that work 
a mine imperfectly explored. 


EXPERIMENTS have been made by M. Hesehus of the St 
Petersburg Physical Society, as to the variations of volume and 
coefficient of elasticity of palladium and its alloys under the 
influence of hydrogen absorbed. The alloys contained 25 per 
cent. of gold, silver, and platinum. Wires 500mm. long and 
o°4mm. diameter served successively as cathode in electrolysis 
of dilute sulphuric acid in a long vertical glass tube, where they 
were stretched by weights so that their length could be measured 
directly with a cathetometer. The alloy containing silver showed 
the greatest increase of length, 11°7 mm. ; palladium-platinum 
64mm. ; pure palladium 5 mm. ; and palladium-gold only o'9 
mm, With acurrent of sia bichromate elements, the elongation, 
very rapid at first, reached its maximum after nearly an hour, 
The shortening after breaking the current proceeded in a similar 
way, but less rapidly ; e.g. for palladium wire it was only 2°6 mm. 
after twenty-four hours. Some experiments were made with the 
aid of a recording apparatus, and they also proved that, con- 
trarily to Graham’s opinion, the absorption of hydrogen takes 
place more quickly than the reverse action, and even when 
electrolytic oxygen is made to act on the wire (used as anode). 
M. Hesehus made a special delicate apparatus for measuring 
small variations in the length of wires. With this it was proved, 
that during the first day the shortening of the wire charged with 
hydrogen decreases very quickly, about the third day it becomes 
constant; it again decreases rapidly about the seventh day, then 
approaches zero asymptotically. This agrees with MM. Troost 
and Hautefeuille’s experiments on the tension of hydrogen of 
palladium. 


A PLUVIOMETER which registers the quantity of rain, and the 
duration and hour of the fall, is described by S. Grimaldi in 
Rivista Scientifico-Industriale for October 15, 


In a recent note to the Vienna Academy, on the relation of 
the daily and yearly variation of temperature to the eleven-years 
sun-spot period, Herr Liznar first compares observations of the 
daily variation at thirteen places (including St. Petersburg, 
Calcutta, and Hobarton), and finds for all some correspondence 
with the sun-spot curve. The curve from data for Vienna, 
Prague, Caslan, Briinn, and Trieste from 1857-70, brought to 
an average, shows, for the minima of this variation in 1859-60 
and in 1870-71, a very good agreement with the corresponding 
maxima of the sun-spot curve; while the maximum of the varia- 


tion precedes the minimum of the spots by about two years. 
With regard to the yearly variation of temperature, Dr. Hahn’s 
results for Leipzig are fully confirmed by data from eight other 
places in Europe, the variation showing a maximum and minimum 
corresponding to the maximum and minimum of spots. 


THE combinations formed by phosphuretted hydrogen with 
hydrobromic and hydriodic acids have been long known. Its 
combination with hydrochloric acid has lately been effected by 
M. Ogier (Four. de Phys., November) by compressing equal 
volumes of the gases in M, Cailletet’s apparatus. Compressing 
about 20 atm. at + 14°, small yellowish bright crystals appear, 
and with sufficient pressure the two gases disappear entirely 
(if the mixture have been well made), the tube being covered 
with a crystalline coat without trace of liquid. If the upper 
part of the tube be heated with tepid water (+ 20°), the 
compression produces a liquid layer. If the tube be slowly 
cooled, and 60 or 70 atm. maintained, so as to get only a small 
layer of liquid, the combination forms slowly in erystalline state. 
Sudden compression, without external heating, will also produce 
the liquid. On the other hand, if before there is any deposit of 
crystals the pressure be relaxed (from 25 atm. e.g.) one perceives 
not a mist, but small, light, solid flocks, which slowly go down 
the sides of the tube and disappear. The combination can also 
be produced under cold without pressure; crystals are formed 
about — 30. If the compound exist in the gaseous state, it is 
almost wholly dissociated at ordinary temperature and pressure. 


AN amplifying barometer has been invented by M. Debrun 
(Four. de Phys., November), Suppose a Fortin barometer, in 
the tube of which the mercury is kept at a constant height. 
The cistern has two other vertical tubes open to the atmosphere, 
one rising out of the mercury, the other from water over the 
mercury. The variations of the water in the latter are read with 
the aid of a scale, and they are thirteen and a half times greater 
than those of the mercury in the other open tube. 


RECENT experiments in capillarity by Herr Volkmann (Axx. 
der Phys., No. 10) have led him to the following results :—1. 
The influence (affirmed by Wilhelmj) of curvature of the wall 
on constants of capillarity cannot be maintained, and is explicable 
by the supposition of a faulty determination of specific gravity. 
(The arrangement of the index is also objectionable.) 2. Ob- 
servation of the height of rise between parallel plates warrants 
the assumption of a constant wall-layer, on which the liquid 
rises. 3. The thickness of the wall-layer in the case of neat’s- 
foot oil and alcohol is found constant for plates and tubes at 
o'co4 mm. 4. In so far as the results with neat’s-foot oil and 
alcohol may be extended to other wetting liquids, no influence of 
curvature of the wall on constants of capillarity is demonstrable. 


Pror. S1Low of Moscow has studied the magnetism of ircn 
chloride solution by the method of induced currents (Aun. der 
Phys. No. 10), and finds that the coefficient of magnetisation is 
not a constant, but a function of the force of separation. As the 
latter gradually increases, the former at first increases too, and 
pretty quickly, but reaches a maximum and then decreases, first 
quickly, then slowly. The liquid is therefore relegated to the 
same class of magnetic bodies as iron, steel, or nickel, and the 
author considers that probably all magnetic bodies show this 
rising and sinking of the coefficient. 


IN a paper which appears in the Ann. der Phys. (No. 10), 
Herr Hankel gives the chief results of his study of the photo- 
and thermo-electric properties of fluor-spar. He states, iter 
alia, that the middles of the cube-faces become, in light, nega- 
tive, the tension decreasing towards the edges, and especially the 
angles, which often show the opposite polarity. It is the 
chemical rays that act. The carbon electric light does better 
than sunlight. Sparks between two Leyden jars give the effects, 
but the light of Geissler tubes does not. Green Weardale crystals 
were the most excitable (of the specimens tried). The intensity 
of the effect generally grows with the depth of the colouring. 
The tensions produced by light do not change to those of opposite 
sign when the crystal is put and kept in thedark, Crystals long 
exposed to light are weakened in excitability. A moderate 
heating (to 130° to 150° C.) exalts the photoelectric effect. As 
to thermoelectricity, rise of temperature produces tensions of the 
same sign as illumination does, In cooling, the opposite elec- 
tricities appear. In many crystals weakly excitable by light, 
the thermoelectric tensions are greater than the photoelectric 
(especially in the case of brown-red or brown-yiolet crystals). 


134 


NATURE 


| Dec. 9, 1880 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


SoME time back it was publicly stated that Commander 
Cheyne and his friends intended to apply to the Geographical 
Society for countenance and support to their plans of Arctic 
exploration. A deputation accordingly waited on Lord Aber- 
dare, the president, on October 12, and, in pursuance of a sug- 
gestion he then made, a statement of Commander Cheyne’s 
plans was lately drawn up by a committee for submission to the 
Council of the Society. This has been considered, and in reply 
the President and Council regret that the scheme, as explained 
by the statement, does not commend itself to them as one con- 
taining the elements of success and of usefulness, and that, even 
if it were feasible, the means proposed to be adopted for encoun- 
tering the great dangers and difficulties necessarily attendant 
upon such an enterprise, do not appear to them sufficient. We 
believe the Geographical Society is to take up the subject of 
Arctic exploration this session. An Arctic Committee will be 
appointed to bring together all that has been done since the last 
English expedition, to enable the Society to decide what steps 
they should take. 


THE post of honour in this month’s issue of the Geographical 
Society’s Proceedings is naturally assigned to Mr. J. Thomson’s 
report of the journey of the East African Expedition, of which 
we have already given a résumé, It is illustrated by a map 
showing his route, constructed from the explorer’s original map 
and other sources. There is also a useful little map of a route 
from Kagéi to Tabora, by the Rev. C. T. Wilson of the Church 
Missionary Society’s Nyanza Mission. Capt. A. H. Markham’s 
“Visit to the Galapagos Islands in 1880” follows, with some 
observations by Mr. Osbert Salvin on recent additions to our 
knowledge of the fauna of the group. From the geographical 
notes we learn that medals and other rewards are to be presented 
to Mr. Thomson’s native followers, and that Dr. Kirk is to 
receive the formal thanks of the Society for the important 
services he rendered to the East African Expedition, Some 
interesting extracts from Capt. Carter’s diary on his fatal march 
from Karema are next given, with a summary of recent news 
respecting African exploration. The remaining notes deal with 
M. Mushketof’s ascent of the Zarafshan glacier, Russian explora- 
tions in Eastern and Western Siberia, surveys in Turkey, and an 
attempt to explore the affluents of the Rio Purtis, 


Mr. J. BantinG Rocers has devised and published a game 
which is likely to be of service not only asa really interesting 
amusement, but also asa means of acquiring a considerable know- 
ledge of navigation and meteorology. It is entitled the game of 
a “ Voyage Round the World,” and is played on a large board 
representing the ocean, suitably divided for counting by knots, 
and with hazards in the shape of cyclones, collisions, &c., 
which add excitement to the game. The game is played by 
means of a number of small models of ships of various kinds, 
and cards in which the number of knots is marked within 
which the players may move. Logsare kept, watches appointed, 
and a captain of the watch to record distances, &c. Altogether 
it will be seen that in Mr. Rogers’s ingeniously devised game 
there are great possibilities both of amusement and instruction, 


Two Danish Expeditions which have been carrying on scien- 
tific exploration in Greenland have returned to Copenhagen. 
One of them, under Lieut. Hammer, has been continuing the 
investigations into the movement of the mainland ice into the 
fjords and the formation of icebergs. In the course of the 
summer several previously unknown fjords were visited, and the 
western part of the island of Disko surveyed and mapped. The 
other expedition, under Lieut. Holm, was to explore several of 
the large ruins of former settlements in the district of Julianhaab 
and to obtain information on the population and condition of the 
east coast. Several extensive ruins were found, which must have 
heen left quite 100 years ago, and of which the present natives 
know nothing. Among these ruins many objects of ethnological 
interest were found. The weather during the whole summer was 
rainy and cloudy ; indeed people who have been many years in 
Greenland never knew of so rainy a summer, 


WE believe there is some prospect of Mr. Joseph Thomson 
being engaged to lead an expedition from Sierra Leone towards 
Timbuctoo, mainly to establish trading relations between the 
English Colonies and the interior. It would be a pity should 
ate Thomson be compelled to become a mere trading-carayan 
eader, 


Major Serra PInTOo’s account of his remarkable journey, 
which is still unpublished, is to be called ‘How I crossed 
Africa,” instead of “‘ The King’s Rifle.” 

THE following telegram has been received in St. 
from Col. Prejevalsky :—‘* Have finished my travel. Rich col- 
lections : 2000 birds, many mammals, 1 300 species of plants. 
Will be in St. Petersburg at the beginning of January.” 


AT the last meeting (November 17) of the Russian Geographi- 
cal Society, Dr. Piasetzky read an interesting paper on China. 
He has very closely studied the character of the Chinese, their 
life, their moral principles, and the education of children, Dr. 
Piasetzky, who has travelled during several years in China, is 
the author of a very interesting Russian work in two volumes on 
that country: the work is illustrated with very good drawings, 
which represent ‘‘types”’ of Chinese towns, streets, dwellings, 
market-places, &c. At the same meeting the Society resolved 
to take part in the next Geographical Congress and Exhibition 
at Venice. 


Petersburg 


BEFORE proceeding to Paris, as we mentioned last week, MM. 
Verminck, Zweifel, and Moustier were present at an enthusiastic 
meeting of the Marseilles Geographical Society, when the Pre- 
sident, M. Rabaud, after a eulogistic address, presented them 
with medals for the part they respectively took in the expedition 
to the sources of the Niger. 


Lizur. E, W. PETLEY, of the Marine Survey of India, has 
lately drawn up some interesting notes on Marmagao (Goa), 
Portuguese India. 


THE new Bulletin of the Antwerp Geographical Society 
contains an account of Mr. Andrew Goldie’s last journey in 
New Guinea, and some observations on artesian wells in the 
Sandwich Islands. 


Mr. Topp, the Government Astronomer at Adelaide, is to 
proceed next May to Port Darwin, in the Northern Territory, 
to determine by telegraph the difference of longitude between 
that place and Greenwich. 


A RECENT telegram from the Austrian traveller Oscar Lenz 
states that he had reached Medina, Senegal, on November 2. 
Oscar Lenz penetrated to Timbuctoo from the north, and went 
thence by Bassikonon, Sokolo, Goumbon, Nioro, and Konnia- 
kany t> Medina. 


HERR STIER, director of the Gymnasium in Zerbst, found, a 
short time ago, a detailed account of Vasco da Gama’s second 
voyage to India, It is drawn up by a Dutchman (who accom- 
panied Vasco da Gama), and in his own tongue. Herr Stier 
has now published a German translation of it. 


MR. MUNDELLA ON EDUCATION IN 
SCIENCE 
ON Friday last the Textile and Dyeing Departments of the 
Yorkshire College, Leeds, were formally opened, and at 
the dinner which followed the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella, 
M.P., Vice-President of the Council, proposed the toast of the 
occasion :—‘‘ Success to Yorkshire College.” His remarks in 
connection therewith are so significant, coming from our de facto 
Minister of Education, that we give them in full. : 
There had not, he commenced by saying, been a more gratified 
spectator of the proceedings of that day than he was. ‘There 
had been no one amongst them who had enjoyed more, if so 
much, the sense of satisfaction—he had almost said of triumph 
—that he had enjoyed that day. Sixteen years ago when he 
was, like many of those present, a captain in the ranks of 
industry, he took some interest in the question of the application — 
of science to the industries of this country. His attention had 
been called to it by the advantages he possessed of seeing what 
was being done in other countries. He saw the infancy of 
technical education abroad, and now he stood by its cradle at 
home. The School of Arts et Metiers in Paris was not by any 
means a new school, and it had done great things for French 
industry. There was no one who was acquainted with that 
school who would not endorse his remarks when he said that it 
had done marvellous things for French manufactures, and he 
had learned since he came to Leeds that we had some of its most 
distinguished scholars in this town. He witnessed the beginning 
of technical instruction in Germany with the erection of the 
Polytechnic School of Zurich; and when he went to the 
members of the Chamber of Commerce of which he was 


Dec. 9, 1880] 


NATURE 


ro 


eg ee 


president, and told them what he had seen, the answer was that 
they had great doubts about the success of the experiment. It 
was thought then that the practical place to give technical 
instruction and teach the application of science to industry was 
in the workshops. They had now satisfied themselves, however, 
that whilst they could not dispense with the practical experience 
of the workshops, there was something that gave value to that 
experience. Let them take the art of dyeing for example. 
What was the old system of training in regard to it? The dyer 
did not then ascertain the properties of the articles with which 
he had to deal with that skill and accuracy with which the 
young men of Leeds were ascertaining them to-day. It used to 
be a bucketful of this, a shovelful of that, and a handful of the 
other. But the days of the old rule of thumb were numbered ; 
and on standing at the cradle of the Yorkshire College he stood 
by the grave of the rule of thumb. He had been greatly en- 
couraged this week by his visit to Yorkshire. He came to it 
somewhat in astate of despondency : not however with reference 
to elementary instruction, for the people of Yorkshire were 
doing wonders in that way, and in a few years hence this 
county would compare favourably in that respect with any part 
of theglobe. But he had been examining recently, not for the first 
but the tenth time, what was being done on the Continent in the 
way of technical education. They had opened a good school in 
Leeds, but they must not flatter themselves. They must not believe 
that the 25,000/. which his friend Mr. Denison had indicated 
was the sum wanted to complete the work. He had stood inan 
industrial town of 70,000 inhabitants, in which a single building 
that had been erected within the past three years solely for 
teaching science, as applied to industry, had cost 100,0007. He 
had stood in three or four such towns. He had examined tech- 
nical institutions in France, in Switzerland, and in the south 
and north and centre of Germany, and all he could say was, 
that not having examined these institutions critically for five 
years, he stood amazed and almost aghast at what he beheld. He 
came home feeling that in the countries he had mentioned they 
had found the weak place in our armour, and had wounded us 
in our tender part; but what he had seen in Yorkshire within 
the last week had given him renewed confidence and courage. 
He found, in addition to this splendid institution which had 
been opened to-day, that in the little town of Keighley—a very 
splendid little place—they were going to spend 5000/. in a 
weaving-school ; that the Clothworkers’ Company of London 
were going to assist Bradford also; and he was told that in 
Huddersfield they had got 15,000/. or 16,000/, ; that they had 
no longer to teach elementary instruction in their night-classes, 
but wanted to give scientific and technical instruction to their 
workmen, and wanted a school for Huddersfield. Yesterday he 
stood by the grave of an eminent Yorkshireman who had done 
noble service to the teaching of science in Yorkshire—his friend 
Mr. Mark Firth. Would they not see that Yorkshire had 
many as worthy sons as Mr. Firth? Surely he was not the last 
man that would endow a college for science teaching. There 
were men, he hoped, within the sound of his voice who would 
perpetuate their memory, and show some gratitude to the in- 
dustry that had made them wealthy by endowing another wing 
of the College like the one they had seen to-day. They must 
not believe that this was mere amateur work. This was not 
science teaching merely for the sake of scientific research, for 
arriving at scientific truth, or for giving intellectual culture. Those 
nations on the Continent who had produced such magnificent 
buildings, machinery, and apparatus to conduct this work were not 
doing so from sentimental reasons. They were not doing it with 
the object simply. of endowing scientific research, or to make 
great progress in any particular branch of science. Their object 
was a very prosaic and a very practical one, and very full of 
self-interest. What they meant was to get industrial strength, 
which they believed was the real source of the wealth of their 
nation. The Yorkshire College was founded to supply instruc- 
tion in those sciences which were applicable to the industrial 
arts, He might say as the result of his recent observations that 
France and Germany were conducting as active a competition 
with each other in this matter of arming for the industrial fight 
as any of the nations of the Continent of Europe were in their 
military armaments with a view to any catastrophe in future. 
But this was not a case in which Englishmen could !ook on with 
benevolent neutrality, because after all in this international fight 
they could not stand aloof, they could not remain neutral, for 
the blow, whenever it fell, would fall upon them. Rely upon it 
the success of the Science College of Yorkshire meant the success 


/ Looking in another direction, Mr. 


of Yorkshire itself. They possessed great natural resources for 
which their Continental neighbours envied them. They had in 
their immediate n<ighbourhood, in the mine, the coal and iron ; 
they had in their people great vigour, great energy, and great 
inventive capacity ; and they had also their old prestige. They 
had amongst them men of great wealth. - There was his friend 
Mr, Denison ready to provide them capital very freely—at a very 
moderate rate. England, after all, was the great emporium as 
a depot market for nearly all the raw material of the world. To 
London came that Australian wool so many thousand bales of 
which were exported to their neighbours on the other side of 
the water, and then came back to them in a finished state for the 
consumption of their own population. He was speaking from 
actual knowledge when he said that there was an enormous increase 
in the manufacture of dressed goods that could be well made 
in Yorkshire, that could be produced and sold in Yorkshire, and 
that were yet made abroad, but ought to be made at home. He be- 
lieved the step they were taking that day in opening the College 
was the very way to create that employment at home which at pre- 
sent was too much done abroad. It had been said that the country 
gentlemen ought to assist in this movement. Lord Frederick 
Cavendish had come from a great and honourable house, and 
they all rejoiced in the wealth, ability, business capacity, saga- 
city, and liberality of that house. But what was it that had 
made these great houses and England wealthy? Was it not the 
value which had been added to the land by the success of the 
great manufactures? The success of the great houses of Eng- 
land was bound up in the success of the Yorkshire College and 
of other colleges like it. Thus to the success of their manufac- 
tures they must look for the continued greatness of England in 
its dealings with nations in the future. Why, they had but the 
same area of land now as they had when their population was 
only 10,000,000. They had 25,000,000 of people in England 
and Wales now, and they were multiplying at a rate which 
would soon double this number. What was it that was to feed 
all these people but the success of their manufactures? If they 
were to hold their own they must not lose a point; they must 
not neglect a single opportunity ; they must not rest content on 
their old prestige ; but they must, as Englishmen, look the diffi- 
culty in the face, and, where weakness existed, strengthen 
themselves, and this weakness was to be found entirely in the 
question of education, which they had too long neglected. In 
asking them to drink success to the Yorkshire College, he was 
asking them practically to drink to themselves. If they wished 
perfect freedom to carry on this work, he was quite of the opinion 
of Lord Frederick Cavendish that they must adopt the newest 
methods—to be untrammelled in their efforts, to carry on the 
College by themselves, and in that way in which Englishmen had 
been accustomed to do their work. 


THE ROYAL SOCIETY—ADDRESS OF THE 
PRESIDENT } 
II. 
THE aspect of spectrum analysis has become much complicated 
by two sets of facts. First, the increased dispersion, the im- 
proved definition, the enlarged electrical power at our command, 
and, above all, the substitution of photography for eye observa- 
tions, have revealed to us an almost overwhelming array of lines 
belonging to each substance. And, secondly, the same means 
have shown that many substances present different spectra when 
in different molecular states. These complications have led 
spectroscopists to seek some relief in theories of simplification. 
Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Stoney, Soret, and others have suggested 
that many of the lines, or groups of lines, may be regarded as 
the harmonics of a fundamental vibration ; and they have shown 
that in certain cases this view will account for the pheno- 
mena observed. Professors Liveing and Dewar have contributed 
largely to the subject by their observations on the reversed lines. 
Lockyer considers that in 
increased temperature we have the means not only of resolving 
compound bodies into their elements, but even of dissociating 
bodies hitherto regarded as elementary into still more simple 
substances. There still remain serious difficulties connected with 
Mr. Lockyer’s views ; but it is to be hoped that his indefatigable 
energy will in some way or other ultimately overcome them. 
The outlying parts of the spectrum, beyond the visible range, 
I Address of William Spottiswoode, D.C.L., LL.D., the President. 
delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society on Tuesday, 
November 30, 1880. Cont.nued from p. 114. 


136 


NATURE 


[Dee. 9,1 880 


must always be a subject of interest ; and while MM. Cornu 
and Mascart, and others, have extended our knowledge of the 
ultra-violet end, Major Abney has opened out to us a new region 
beyond the red.Q Lord Rayleigh and others before him have 
however proved that there must be a limit at the least refrangible 
end of the spectrum. Prof. Stokes, long since, noticed the 
difference in length between the spectrum of the sun and that of 
the electric arc ; and M. Cornu has recently shown by observa- 
tions at elevated stations that the great rapidity of atmospheric 
absortion must preclude the hope of any great extension of the 
solar spectrum toward the more refrangible end. 

The striking advances made in electricity during the last few 
years, and marked by, amongst other things, the inventions of 
the telephone and the microphone, have been followed by a 
step not Jess daring in its conception, nor less successful in its 
execution; I allude, of course, to the photophone, the result 

_ of the researches of Mr. Graham Bell and Mr, Sumner Tainter, 
The principle of this instrument is already known, A powerful 
beam of light is first thrown upon a flexible mirror, the curvature 
of which is modified through vibrations set up in it by the 
human voice. The reflected beam is then received bya selenium 
‘* cell” forming part of an electric circuit. The intensity of the 
light so received, and with it the resistance in the circuit due to 
the selenium, varies with the varying curvature of the flexible 
mirror. A large parabolic mirror is used at the distant station 
to concentrate the light on the selenium “cell”; and a 
telephone in the circuit reproduces the variations in the form 
of sound. 

Mr. Bell has however also shown that rays from the sun, or 
an electric lamp, when rendered intermittent by any convenient 
means, will set up in a plate of almost any substance vibrations 
corresponding to the intermittence. The substances as yet tried 
are ; metals of various kinds, wood, india-rubber, ebonite, &c., 
and among them zinc appears to be one of the best suited for 
the purpose. This result, which is independent of any electric 
action, is perhaps due to heat rather than to light. 

In these, as in many other issues of scientific research, we 
can hardly fail to be impressed by the almost inexhaustible re- 
sources which lie ready to hand, if we only knew how to use 
them, for the interpretation of nature or for the practical 
purposes of mankind. 

During the past year Prof. Hughes employed his induction 
balance for the detection of very minute impurities in small 
masses of gold. Mr, Preece also has shown how slight incre- 
ments of temperature in fine wires transmitting telephonic 
currents of electricity will suffice to reproduce sonorous vibra- 
tions, and even articulate speech, at a distant station by their 
influence on thin platinum wires only six inches in length. 

Mr. Stroh has shown that, at the point of contact of two 
metals carrying strong electric currents, adhesion takes place, 
varying with the nature of the surfaces in contact; and that 
many of the effects at points of contact, previously attributed 
to induction, may be due to the peculiar action now for the first 
time brought under notice, 

It is worthy of record that two Atlantic cables have been 
successfully laid during the present year; but that the opera- 
tion has become so much a matter of course, that its occur- 
rence has attracted little public attention. Two cables, each 
of more than 500 miles in length, have been laid across the 
Mediterranean ; and the Cape Colony has been placed in 
telegraphic communication with this country by a cable of not 
less than 4400 miles, 

_ Constant attention is paid in the General Post Office to the 
introduction of improved methods for the furtherance of the 
telegraphic communication throsghout the country. 

Steady progress has been made in bringing the electric light 
into practical use. The illumination of the Albert Dock of the 


London and St. Katherine’s Dock Company, the Liverpool ! 


Street Station of the Great Eastern Railway, the St. Enoch’s 
Station of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, and last, 
but not least, that of the reading-room of the British Museum, 
have become accomplished facts ; while the City authorities have 
decided to extend the use of this light over various thorough- 
fares under their control. The subdivision of the light for 
domestic purposes is a problem which appears to have found a 
solution in the incandescent carbon lamp of Mr. Swan. Besides 


this, Mr. J. H. Gordon has devised, for the same purpose, a 


very ingenious application of rapid sparks from alternating 
machines, such as that of De Méritens, to produce incandes- 


cence in refractory metals. Lamps constructed on this principle 
| 


completely fulfil the conditions of subdivision, but some diffi- 
culties of detail still retard their adoption for general use. 
There is, however, every reason to hope that the experience 
already gained, and the intelligence at present brought to bear 
upon it, will before long supply us with more than one form of 
domestic light. 

The chief question of interest which has occupied the atten- 
tion of the Iron and Steel Institute has been the adaptation of 
the ‘‘basic” process to the production of steel from pig metal 
containing a considerable percentage of phosphorus. Hitherto 
only pure hematite and spathic ironstones have been used for 
the production of steel ; but it has now been shown that, by the 
employment of basic linings and basic slags, the metal is almost 
completely cleared of its phosphorus, and that steel of good 
quality may be produced from inferior ore. 

The Conference on Lightning-Conductors, composed of dele- 
gates from the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Society 
of Telegraph Engineers, the Physical Society, and the Meteoro- 
logical Council, is steadily pursuing its labours, A large mass 
of facts has been accumulated ; several leading questions have 
been decided ; and it is hoped that, in the course of the coming 
year, the Report of the Conference will be issued. 

One of the most interesting, and at the same time useful, 
applications of the dynamo-machines, is that of transmitting 
mechanical power to spots, or under circumstances, where the 
ordinary appliances cannot be conveniently used. Their prin- 
ciple will doubtless by degrees extend itself over a wide range of 
industry ; especially in localities where water-power is abundant. 
A very remarkable instance of such adaptations will be found 
in Dr. Werner Siemens’s propulsion of railway carriages in 
Berlin. 

Our Fellow, Dr. C. W. Siemens in London, and M, De 
Meritens in Paris, have demonstrated the use of the high tempera- 
ture of the electric arc in fusing refractory metals. “The method 
of operation, while peculiarly convenient for laboratory pur- 
poses, and for demonstration, promises to be capable of extension, 
even to the large demands of commerce and manufacture. 

I should not, moreover, omit mention of the very beautiful 
experiments by Dr, C. W. Siemens on the effect of the electric 
light on the growth of plants, on the opening of flowers, and 
on the ripening of fruit. On this subject we hope to hear more 
hereafter. He has already commenced a fresh series of experi- 
ments, <nd contemplates continuing them during the coming 
winter, 

I am not sure how far the fact is known to the Fellows of the 
Royal Society that the Society of Telegraph Engineers has 
thrown open to the scientific world a remarkable collection of 
books on electrical science, collected by our late Fellow, Sir 
Francis Ronalds, and bequeathed by him to that Society. The 
catalogue, compiled by the collector, isa monument of concen- 
trated and well-directed labour, 

As regards the Transit of Venus in 1874, the printing of the 
observations is complete for the two groups of stations in the 
Sandwich Islands and Egypt, and that for others is in 
progress, 

Preparations are already being made with a view to the 
observation of the Transit of Venus in 1882. As a pre- 
liminary step for this operation, as well as for general purposes, 
it had been decided that the longitude of the Cape Observatory 
should be definitively determined by telegraphic connection with 
Aden, which place is already telegraphically referred to Green- 
wich ; and, notwithstanding a temporary interruption on the land 
line, Capetown-Durban, it may be hoped that the connection 
will be effected at no distant period. Mr. Gill is prepared 
to undertake the main share of the work. With the same 
objects in view, on the urgent representation of the Astronomer- 
Royal, it has also been determined to connect one of the Austra- 
lian Observatories with Greenwich, through Madras, the longi- 
tude of which is well known ; and this operation will be very much 
facilitated by the share which Mr. Todd, Government Astro- 
nomer and Superintendent of Telegraphs at Adelaide, would be 
prepared to take in it under the auspices of his Government. 
The eastern boundary of the Colony having been defined by 
Imperial Act as the 141st meridian, a wish has been expressed 
officially for the accurate connection of Adelaide with Greenwich, 
independently of the Transit of Venus. . 4 

The Astronomer-Royal has explained in detail the preparations 
which he considers necessary, so far at least as this country Is 
concerned, for the effective observation of the transit, and he has 
introduced several alterations in the plan which he had formerly 


Dec. 9, 1880 | 


NATURE ae 


re) 


suggested. The experience of the transit of 1874 points to the 
desirability of sacrificing something in the magnitude of the 
parallax-factor for the sake of securing a higher elevation of 
the sun; thus, for retarded ingress, Sir George Airy had at 
first proposed to refer principally to the coasts of the Canadian 
Dominion and the United States of North America, where the 
sun’s elevation is from 15° to 18°; he now proposes to substitute 
for this the whole chain of West India Islands, from the eastern 
extremity of Cuba to Barbadoes, or stations on the neighbouring 
continent of Central America, Bermuda is also included asa 
favourable point for observation. Most, if not all, of the 
longitudes required have been determined with great precision 
by the Hydrographic Department of the United States. For 
ingress accelerated, Sir George Airy relies entirely upon stations 
in the Cape Colony. or the accelerated egress, all the stations 
suggested for ingress retarded will be available. For egress 
retarded, although the fixed Observatories at Melbourne and 
Sydney will contribute to the observation of the phenomenon, 
they will have the sun at a somewhat low elevation (1o—14°) ; 
it is thereby proposed to rely mainly upon New Zealand, with 
which we are in telegraphic Communication w7é@ Sydney. Con- 
siderable correspondence has taken place on the subject of 
Australian longitude, and it is expected that the necessary steps 
to effect the connection of one of the Observatories, probably 
Adelaide, with Madras, will be taken early in the ensuing 
ear. 

q Sir G. B. Airy has completed the laborious calculations in 
his Numerical Lunar Theory, from which the corrections to the 
coefficients of Delaunay’s Lunar Theory are to be deduced ; 
and in connection with this work he has made an investigation 
of the value of the Moon’s Sectlar Acceleration, for which he 
finally obtained the value 5"'477, thus confirming the results 
obtained by Prof. Adams, and subsequently by Mr. Delaunay. 
On this important question, Prof. Adams has also published an 
investigation (AZonthly Notices, vol. xl. Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9). 

A new determination of the Physical Libration of the Moon 
from a large number of lunar photographs taken with the 
De La Rue reflector at the Oxford University Observatory has 
been recently made by Prof. Pritchard, the result being to 
indicate the existence of a small rotational inequality. 

Messrs. J. Campbell and Neison have made use of the 
Greenwich Observations, 1862 to 1876, to determine the Lunar 
Parallactic Inequality, from which they deduce for the value of 
the Solar Parallax, $’"778, or 8848, according as the existence 
of a forty-five year inequality, apparently indicated by the ob- 
servations, is admitted or not (lonthly Notices, vol. xl. Nos. 7 
and 8). The Sun’s Parallax has also been determined by Mr. 
Downing, from N.P.D. observations of Mars at Leyden and 
Melbourne, in 1877. The value thus found is 8’°96 (Astrono- 
mische Nachrichten, No. 2288). 

In continuation of his researches on tidal retardation from the 
action of a satellite on a viscous planet, Mr. G. H. Darwin has 
investigated the secular changes in the orbit of a satellite, deducing 
the early history of the earth and moon from the time when they 
were initially in contact, each revolving in the same period of 
from two to four hours. This leads to the suggestion that the 
moon was produced by the rupture of the primeval planet. In 
another memoir, Mr. G. H. Darwin gives analytical expressions 
for the history of a planet and a single satellite. (Pil. Trans., 
1879, Proc. Roy. Soc., Nos. 200 and 202.) 

An important work in connexion with the United States 
Northern Boundary Commission has been published by Mr. 
Lewis Boss, on the Declination of Fixed Stars. The systematic 
corrections to some seventy catalogues have been discussed, and, 
from the mean of the whole, standard declinations of 500 stars 
have been deduced. 

Dr, Gould’s ‘‘ Uranometria Argentina” and M. Houzeau’s 
“‘Uranomeétrie Générale,” are of especial value as giving im- 
portant information on the brightness and distribution of the 
Stars in the southern hemisphere. 

Interesting results as to the diameters of satellites have been 
obtained by Prof. Pickering from photometric observations, 
on the assumption that their albedos do not differ greatly from 
those of their respective primaries. (Avals, Harvard College 
Observatory, vol. xi.) He has further investigated, on some- 
what similar principles, the dimensions of the fixed stars, with 
especial reference to binaries and variables of the Algol type. 
(Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. xvi.) Prof. Pickering has also 
commenced a photometric survey of the heavens, in which the 
brightness of every star visible to the naked eye is to be deter- 


mined. He has further undertaken a search for planetary 
nebulz by a new method, in which, by the use of a direct-vision 
prism in front of the eyepiece, the nebula is at once detected by 
its monochromatic spectrum, focussing a point of light instead of 
a coloured line as in the case of astar. About a hundred thousand 
stars have been examined, and four new planetary nebulz 
pee been detected. (American Fournal of Science, October, 
1850.) 

From the grouping of the aphelia of certain periodic comets 
Prof. G. Forbes has inferred the existence of two ultra- 
Neptunian planets, and has indicated their approximate posi- 
tions. (Z7vavs. Roy. Soc., Edinburgh.) Mr. D. P, Todd has 
deduced from the perturbation of Uranus a position for an 
ultra-Neptunian planet closely agreeing with that found by Prof. 
G. Forbes. So far, the search for the hypothetical planet with 
the 26-inch Washington refractor has been unsuccessful. 
(American Fournal of Science, September, 1880.) 

Prof. Brecichin’s researches on the tails of comets haye led 
him to the classification of these appendages according to the 
value of the solar repulsive force which would have generated 
them, Having di-cussed the forms of the tails of thirty-three 
comets, he finds that they belong to three types, corresponding 
respectively to repulsive forces 11, 1°4 and 0°3 (the sun’s gravi- 
tation being taken as 1): and adopting Zdilner’s hypothesis of a 
repulsive force, due to electricity and inversely proportional to 
the specific gravity, he infers that the tails of the three types 
are composed respectively of hydrogen, carbon, and iron. In 
the case of the second and third types other elements of nearly 
the same atomic weight may replace or be mixed with the carbon 
and iron, and in such a comet as Donati’s a number of ‘sub- 
stances may be mixed in the tail, which will consequently spread 
out in the plane of the orbit, The first type composed of 
hydrogen will always remain separated from the others. 
(Annales de Observatoire de Moscou, vols, iii-vi.) 

The appearance, at the beginning of this year, of a great 
comet in the southern hemisphere, recalling by the length of its 
tail and the smallness of its head the remarkable comet of 1843, 
has excited great interest, more especially as it was found that 
the orbits of the two comets were sensibly the same. The 
observations of the comet of 1843, however, do not appear to 
be compatible with so short a period as thirty-seven years, and 
Prof. Oppolzer has shown that the action of a resisting medium 
would not meet the case. (Astronomische Nachrichten, Nos. 
2314, 2315.) Under these circumstances Prof. D. Kirkwood 
has suggested that the two bodies may be fragments of one 
original comet, viz., that of 370 B.C., which is said to have 
separated into two parts like Biela’s comet (Odservatory, No. 
43.) Five other comets (including Faye’s periodical comet) 
have been discovered this year, but two of them were lost 
through cloudy weather before a second observation could be 
obtained. : 

In astronomical physics Mr, Huggins has obtained photo- 
graphs of stellar spectra, which establish the existence of a 
remarkable group of nine bands in the ultra-violet, probably due 
to hydrogen, and further lead him to an arrangement of the 
stars in a continuous series according to the breadth and mar- 
ginal difference of the typical lines, particularly of the K line. 
Mr. Lockyer continues his researches on dissociation, as indi- 
cated in solar outbursts, and in connection with this work is 
engaged on a systematic observation of the spectra of sun-spots. 
At the request of the Committee on Solar Physics, correspond- 
ing observations are being made at Greenwich. > 

From the series of Greenwich photographs of the sun, 1874 
—1879, the mean heliographic latitude of spots and mean 
distance from the sun’s equator, have been deduced for each 
rotation and for each year (“‘Greenwich Spectroscopic and 
Photographic Results,” 1879). 

A fine 36-inch silver-on-glass reflector has been recently con- 
structed by Mr. Common, and with this instrument he has 
obtained photographs of Jupiter, showing the red spot, and of 
the satellites (Observatory, No. 34). 

At the outset of an undertaking one figures to oneself in 
imagination what may be done ; towards the close of it one sees 
in actual fact what has been done. In commencing this address 
T had hoped to say something of the progress of mathematics ; 
before bringing it to a conclusion I find my space filled and my 
time exhausted. How far the good intentions of this year may 
be realised in the next, cannot yet be seen ; but the difficulties of 
a task do not always diminish the fascination of making an 
attempt. 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 9, 1850 


THE ROVAL SOCIETY MEDALS 


At the conclusion of his anniversary address on Tuesday last 
week, the President, Mr. Spottiswoode, delivered the 
medals whick have been awarded this year, and in doing so 
spoke as follows :— 


The Copley Medal has been awarded to Prof. James Joseph 
Sylvester, F.R.S. His extensive and profound researches in 
pure mathematics, especially his contributions to the Theory of 
Invariants and Covariants, to the Theory of Numbers, and to 
Modern Geometry, may be regarded as fully establishing Mr. 
Sylvester’s claim to the award of the Copley Medal. 


One Royal Medal has been awarded to Prof. Joseph Lister, 
F.R.S. Mr. Lister’s claims to the honour of a Royal Medal 
are based upon his numerous and valuable contributions to 
physiological and biological science during the last thirty 

ears. 
zi By permission of its author, the Fellow of the Society best 
qualified, by his own extensive researches on the germ theory, 
to form a judgment, I quote the following account of Prof, 
Lister’s work and achievements :— 

“In 1836 and 1837 it was proved independently by Cagniard 
de la Tour and Schwann, that vinous fermentation was due to 
the growth and multiplication of a microscopic plant. At the 
same time Schwann described experiments which illustrated and 
explained the conditions, now well known, by which flesh may 
be preserved from putrefaction. But Schwann’s researches were 
overshadowed by the views of accepted authorities, and they 
continued so up to the publication of Pasteur’s investigations. 
From this point forward the view gained ground that putre- 
faction is the work of floating microscopic organisms ; and that 
if air be thoroughly cleansed of its suspended particles, neither 
its oxygen, nor any other gaseous constituent, is competent to 
provoke either fermentation or putrefaction. 

“«Condensed into a single sentence, the merit of Mr. Lister 
consists in the generalisation, to living matter, of the results 
obtained by Schwann and Pasteur with dead matter. He 
began with cases of compound fracture and with abscesses. In 
simple fracture the wound is internal, the uninjured skin forming 
a protecting envelope. Here nature works the cure after the 
proper setting of the injured parts. In compound fracture, on 
the other hand, the wound extends to the surface, where it comes 
in contact with the air; and here the operator can never be sure 
that the most consummate skill will not be neutralised by 
subsequent putrefaction. 

In the earliest of his published communications Mr. Lister 
clearly enunciates, and illustrates by cases of a very impressive 
character, the scientific principles upon which the antiseptic 
system rests. He refers to the researches of Pasteur, and shows 
their bearing upon surgery. He points to the representative 
fact, then known but unexplained, that when a lung is wounded 
by a fractured rib, though the blood is copiously mixed with air, 
no inflammatory disturbance supervenes; while an external 
wound penetrating the chest, if it remains open, infallibly causes 
dangerous suppurative pleurisy. In the latter case the blood and 
serum are decomposed by the microscopic progeny of the germs 
which enter with the air; in the former case the air is filtered in 
the bronchial tubes, and all solid particles are arrested. Three 
years subsequently this inference of Prof. Lister was shown to 
be capable of experimental demonstration. 

“* After enunciating the theoretic views which guided him, he 
thus expresses himself in his first paper :-— 

‘Applying these principles to the treatment of compound 
fracture; bearing in mind that it is from the vitality of the 
atmospheric particles that all the mischief arises, it appears that 
all that is requisite is to dress the wound with some material 
capable of killing these septic germs, provided that any sub- 
stance can be found reliable for this purpose, yet not too potent 
as a caustic.’ 

“This is the thesis to the illustration and defence of which 
Prof. Lister has devoted himself for the last thirteen years. 
His thoughts and practice during this time haye been in a state 
of growth. His insight has been progressive ; and the improve- 
ment of experimental methods founded on that insight incessant. 
By contributions of a purely scientific character, which stamp 
their author as an accomplished experimenter, he has materially 
augmented our knowledge of the most minute forms of life. The 
titles of his papers indicate the direction of his labours from 
time to time; but they give no notion of the difficulties which 


he has encountered, and successfully overcome. He performs, 
without dread of evil consequences, the most dangerous opera- 
tions. He ventures fearlessly upon treatment which, prior to 
the introduction of his system, would have been regarded as no 
less than criminal, In the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, when 
wards adjacent to his had to be abandoned, he operated with 
success in an atmosphere of deadly infectiveness, Vividly 
realising the character and habits of the ‘invisible enemy ’ with 
which he has to cope, his precautions are minute and severe. 
This demand for exactitude of manipulation has rendered the 
acceptance of the Antiseptic System slower than it would other- 
wise have been ; but a clear theoretic conception has this value 
among others: it renders pleasant a minuteness of precaution 
which would be intolerable were its reasons unknown. 

“The operative surgeons of our day have raised their art to 
the highest pitch of efficiency. Their skill and daring are alike 
marvellous, Mr, Lister urges an extension of this skill from the 
operation to the subsequent treatment, contending that every 
surgeon ought to be so convinced of the greatness of the benefits 
within his reach as to be induced to devote to the dressing of 
wounds the same kind of thought and pains which he now devotes 
to the planning and execution of an operation. His impressive 
earnestness ; his clearness of exposition ; his philosophic grasp 
of the principles on which his practice is founded—above all his 
demonstrated success—have borne their natural fruit in securing 
for him the recognition and esteem of the best intellects of 
the age. 

‘In a letter addressed to the writer on the 29th of September, 
1880, Prof. Helmholtz expresses himself thus :— 

“© Prof, Lister ist als einer der hervorragendsten Wohlthater 
der Menschheit zu betrachten, und als eines der glanzendsten 
Beispiele, wie segensreich scheinbar minutidse und abstruse 
wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen, wie die iiber di Erzeugung 
mikroskopischer Organismen, werden kénnen, wenn sie von 
einem Manne von umfassendem geistigen Gesichtskreise 
aufgenommen werden.’ ” 

“In a letter dated October 1st, 1880, Prof. Du Bois Raymond 
writes :— 

““*The period of bloody warfare through which we passed 
not long ago, just when Prof, Lister's methods were matured 
enough to be freely used even on the battlefield, has of course 
contributed to render his name popular throughout Germany ; 
nay, to make it a household word in many homes. We use the 
word ‘listern’ as a verb to designate the use of the carbol- 
spray while bandaging a wound. I do not hesitate to proclaim 
Lister the greatest benefactor of mankind since Jenner’s wonder- 
ful discovery—far superior, indeed, to Jackson and Simpson ; 
because, whatever may be the dread of pain and the blessing of 
being spared it, in Lister’s invention health and life itself are 
concerned, as in hardly any other medical discovery except 
vaccination. Moreover, the general ideas which have led to 
Prof. Lister’s conception stamp his work with a peculiarly 
scientific character.’ 

“In a letter dated from Vevey on the roth of this month, 
Prof. Klebs of Prague, himself a distinguished worker in this 
field, expresses in the strongest terms his admiration of the 
profound philosophical intuition and practical success of Mr, 
Lister, as having not only reformed the whole art of surgery, 
but given a new impulse to medical science generally. Prof, 
Klebs’s interpretation of the opposition encountered for a time 
by Mr. Lister is worthy of mention, He ascribes it to the high 
standard attained by British surgery before the time of Lister. 
‘The operators,’ he says, ‘that work under the best hygienic 
conditions will not feel so acutely as others do the necessity of 
disinfecting wounds. But the good results of the former British 
surgery are now surpassed by the new method, which is accepted 
at the present time by the whole world.’ 

“Such testimonies might be multiplied to any extent. The 
foregoing are the answers received from the only three gentle- 
men who have been requested to express an opinion as to the 
merits of Mr. Lister.” 


The second Royal Medal has been awarded to Capt. 
Andrew Noble, late R.A., F.R.S. Capt. Noble is joint author 
with Prof. Abel of the ‘‘Researches on Explosives,” Ail. 
Trans., 1875, which, in combination with other labours in the 
same field, procured for Prof. Abel the honour of the Royal 
Medal in 1879. To Prof. Abel is due mainly the chemical part 
of these investigations; to Capt. Noble the mechanical and 
mathematical part. Each is a complement of the other, but it 


stars. 


Dee. 9, 1880] 


NATURE 


£39 


| may be safely affirmed that they could not have been presented 
1 to the world in the form in which they appear without the co- 


operation of his remarkable union of technical knowledge and 


| mastery of mathematical analysis with the chemical science of 
| Prof. Abel. onos¢ 
| instrument constructed by him at great cost, by which intervals 


His beautiful invention of the Chronoscope, an 


of time as smail as the one-millionth part of a second can be 


“measured, has been of indispensable value in these researches. 


He is the author of papers which have been translated into most 
European languages on subjects of gunnery and gunpowder ; he 
is perhaps the highest authority we possess on the higher 
branches of artillery science, and the best known on the Con- 
tinent. His great talents and attainments are not more con- 
spicuous than his singular modesty and_his indefatigable 
industry. He has been engaged on these subjects about twenty 
years, having published the first experiments in this country 
with Navez’ electroballistic apparatus, in 1862. 


The Rumford Medal has been awarded to Dr, William 
Huggins, F.R.S. In 1866 a Royal Medal was awarded ito 
Dr. Huggins for his important researches, Since that time he 
has been continually engaged in prosecuting the subject of 
celestial spectroscopy, both in the departments in which he had 
already done so much, and in others of its branches. One 
subject of Dr, Huggins’ researches relates to the determination 
of the radial component of the velocity of the heavenly bodies 
relatively to our earth, by means of the alteration of the refran- 
gibility of certain definite kinds of light which they emit, or 
which are stopped by their atmospheres. The smallness of the 
alteration corresponding to a relative velocity comparable with 
the velocity of the earth in its orbit makes the determination a 
matter of extreme delicacy. But as early as 1868 he had ob- 
tained such trustworthy determinations that he was able to 
announce before the Royal Society in that year that Sirius was 
receding from our solar system with a velocity of about 29°94 


_ miles per second. 


In a paper presented to the Royal Society in 1872 he has 
given the results obtained for a large number of stars, and has 
shown that some are receding and some approaching, and that 
there seems to be a balance of recession in those parts of the 
heayens, from which we have reason, from the observed proper 
motions, which of course-can only be transversal, to conclude 
that the}solar system is receding, and a balance in favour of 
approach in the opposite direction ; while yet it does not appear 
that the motion of the solar system would alone account for the 
whole of the proper motions of the stars in a radial direction. 

The same inquiry was extended to the nebulz, the spectrum 
of which consists of bright lines, and in this case it presented 
greater difficulties. As those nebular lines which appear pretty 
certainly to be identifiable with hydrogen are too faint to be 
employed in the investigation, and the others are not at present 
identified with those of any known element or compound, he 
was obliged to avail himself of a coincidence between the 
brightest nebular line and a line of lead. But as the coincidence 
is probably merely fortuitous, the results give only the differences 
of approach or recess of different nebula. The observations 
seem to show that, so far as has been observed, the nebulz are 
objects of greater fixity as regards motion in space, than the stars. 

The other subject to which Dr. Huggins has more particularly 
devoted himself of late, is the mapping of the photographic 
spectra of stars. This was a research of great delicacy, partly on 
account of the small quantity of light at the disposal of the 
observer, partly from the great accuracy with which the com- 
parison had to be made with the spectra of known sub- 
stances, in order that satisfactory conclusions should be deducible 
as to the presence or absence of such or such substances in the 
The results obtained led to a remarkable division of the 
stars into two great classes, naturally with transition cases, 
namely, white stars, which showed a group of twelve dark lines 
belonging, apparently, to the same substance, probably hydro- 
gen, and the group of stars, of which our own sun may be taken 
as a type. 

Besides the researches already mentioned, other papers have 
been presented by Dr. Huggins to the Royal Society, on the 
spectra of comets, on the spectrum of {Uranus; and in parti- 
cular one in which he showed that it was possible to detect the 
heat of the stars, and has given the results obtained for several. 


The Davy Medal has been awarded to Prof. Charles{Friedel, 
Member of the Institute of France, 


From.1856 to the present time the investigations of M. Charles 
Friedel, ranging over widely-remote fields of chemical inquiry, 
have been continuous, numerous, and important. Mineralogical, 
theoretical, and general chemistry are indebted to him for many 
yaluable contributions ; but it is in the department of so-called 
organic chemistry that he has more especially laboured ; and 
herein he has done much to assist in breaking down the barriers 
at one time regarded as impassably isolating the chemistry of 
carbon compounds. 

Among the subjects of M. Friedel’s successful work may be 
mentioned more particularly the chemistry of the 3-carbon family 
of organic bodies, to which belong propionic acid, lactic acid, 
glycerine, propylene, andacetone. The establishment of the con- 
stitution of lactic acid and of acetone, with the determination of 
the relationships to one another of the various, and in many cases 
isomeric, members of this large family, constituted for a long 
time one of the most fiercely-contested, as it was, and is, one of 
the most fundamental problems of organic chemistry. In the 
labours effecting the satisfactory solution of this problem 
M. Friedel bore a large share. 

Passing to another branch of investigation, M. Friedel, partly 
by himself, but largely in conjunction in some parts of the work 
with Mr. J. M. Crafts, and in other parts with M. A. Ladenburg, 
made out, or confirmed in a very striking manner, the analogy 
subsisting between the modes of combination of carbon and of 
silicon, the most characteristic elements of the organic and 
inorganic kingdoms respectively. 

To mention but one more subject of M. Friedel’s research, he 
has, in conjunction with Mr. J. M. Crafts, made out and 
defined a simple method of wide application for effecting the 
synthesis of organic compounds. This method consists in bring- 
ing together a hydrocarbon and an organic chloride in presence 
of chloride of aluminum, whereby the residues of the two com- 
pounds enter into combination to form a more complex, frequently 
a highly complex, body. Independently of its utility, this process 
of synthesis is of remarkable interest from the part taken in it by 
the chloride of aluminum, which, though essential to the reaction, 
is found unaltered at the end, and seems to act by suffering 
continuously, little by little, a correlative transformation and 
regeneration. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


OxFrorD.—The statutes made by the new Commissioners for 
the different colleces are appearing in their final shape. The 
statutes of six colleges are already printed and in the hands of 
Members of Convocation, They resemble each other closely in 
several respects. Ordinary Fellows are to be elected by examina- 
tion, all the branches of learning recognised in the final schools 
of the University being taken from time to time as the subject 
of examination. These Fellowships are tenable for seven years. 
Tutorial Fellows are elected without examination, but the colleges 
may require two years’ college work from an ordinary Fellow, 
having given notice of such requirement before the examination. 
The colleges may elect persons distinguished in literary or scien- 
tific work to Fellowships tenable for a term of years, during 
which the Fellows shall devote themselves to a definite research 
specified in the resolution appointing them. 

Several meetings of the Professors and College Tutors engaged 
in teaching different branches of Physics in the University have 
been held during the last fortnight at the instance of Prof. 
Clifton. The object was to prepare a scheme of lectures for 
next term, such that the lecturers would cover most of the 
ground without clashing with each other or with the lecturers in 
other branches of science. It may be mentioned that this is the 
first time such an arrangement has been arrived at in the 
Natural Science School at Oxford. The following plan of 
lectures has been agreed upon for next Lent Term :— 

Optics (treated Mathematically), Prof. Price, Tuesday, Thurs- 
day, and Saturday, at 12; Magnetism (treated experimentally), 
Prof. Clifton, Wednesday and Saturday, at 12; Practical Physics, 
Prof, Clifton, Mr. Stocker, Mr. Jones, daily, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
Thermodynamics and Electrodynamics (treated mathematically), 
Mr. Baynes, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 10; Electro- 
statics (treated mathematically), Mr. Hayes, Saturday at II; 
Elementary Mechanics (treated experimentally), Mr. Stocker, 
Monday and Wednesday, at 10; Problems in Elementary Me- 
chanics and Physics, Mr. Jones, Friday, at 10; Elementary 
Physics (treated experimentally), Mr. Dixon, Monday, Wednes- 


140 


NATORE 


[ Dec. 9, 1880 


day, and Friday, at 11. The last three courses of lectures are 
intended to meet the requirements of ‘candidates for the Preli- 
minary Honour Examination. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Geological Society, November 17.—Robert Etheridge, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Prof. Joseph Henry Thompson, 
Auckiand, New Zealand, was elected a Fellow of the Society.— 
The President called attention to the portrait of Dr, William 
Smith, presented to the Society by his grand-nephew, Mr. W. 
Smith of Cheltenham, which was then suspended behind the 
chair, and expressed his great satisfaction at this most interesting 
picture being in possession of the Society. Mr. W. W. Smyth 
expressed the satisfaction which all must feel in possessing a 
zenuine relic of this eminent stratigraphical geologist. Now this 
one, which had been so liberally presented to the Society, was a 
most indubitable portrait of the ‘most conspicuous founder of 
English geology. That portrait was painted by M. Fourau in 
1837, and was certainly an admirable likeness. The Society was 
deeply indebted to the donor, Mr. W. Smith, the cousin of 
the valued Prof. Phillips. The portrait now hanging on the 
wall was engraved in Prof, Phillips’ ‘‘ Life” of his uncle. He 
proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the donor, Mr. Evans rose 
with great pleasure to second the vote of thanks proposed by Mr, 
Warington Smyth. The portrait was indeed replete with interest, 
not only to English geologists, but to all geologists in the world. 
An additional interest attaching to the portrait was that we had 
the whole history of it from Dr. Smith’s own hand, an extract 
from which Mr. Evans read. The portrait was an admirable 
one. He hoped that in the future Mr. Smith’s example would 
be followed, and that we should see many other portraits of 
eminent geologists on the Society’s walls. The Society was also 
deeply indebted to the president for the interest which he had 
taken in the matter. The vote of thanks was carried by acclama- 
tion.—The following communications were read :—On abnormal 
geological deposits in the Bristol district, by Charles Moore, 
F.G.S.—Interglacial deposits of West Cumberland and North 
Lancashire, by J. D. Kendall, C.E., F.G.S. 

Royal Microscopical Society, November 10.—Dr. Beale, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Photographs of P. angulatum and 
Frustulia saxonica were exhibited by Herr O. Brandt ; the Tolles- 
Blackham and eight other microscopes by Mr. Crisp; ‘‘ Calotte” 
diaphragms by Mr. Swift; Hyde’s illuminator by Mr. J. Mayall, 
jun.; and Dr. Carpenter, C.B., described Wale’s ‘‘ working 
microscope” with Iris diaphragm, which he highly commended 
as combining many noveland excellent points for a student’s micro- 
scope.—Mr. Lettsom described Abbe’s ‘‘stereoscopic ocular,” 
and Dr. Maddox his apparatus for collecting particles from the 
air.—Notes were read on monobromide of naphthaline (for 
mounting diatoms to increase their ‘‘ index of visibility”).—On 
ebonite for microscopical appliances, and on aperture exceeding 
180° in air; also papers by Mr. Stewart on the echinometridc, 
and by Dr. Royston Pigott on testing object-glasses, 


Paris 

Academy of Sciences, November 22,—M. Edm. Becquerel 
in the chair.—The following papers were read :—Meridian 
observations of small planets at the Greenwich and Paris Ob- 
servatories, communicated by M. Mouchez.—The thermal springs 
of the coast chain of Venezuela (South America), by M. Bous- 
singault. The most important are those of Onoto (alt. 696 m.), 
Mariara (533m.), and Trincheras, near Nueva Valencia (300 to 
350m.). The respective temperatures are 44°°5, 64°°0, and 
96°'9, showing an increase proportional to the decrease in alti- 
tude, 1° for a difference of level of 6m. to 7m. After the 
springs of Urijino, Japan (100°), those of Trincheras are 
prebably the hottest. The author gives an analysis of their 
water ; also general descriptions of the others.—feconnaissance 
of the Napo (Equatorial America), by M. de Lesseps. This 
important affluent of the Amazon has been scientifically explored 
by M. Wiener, who in seven months has crossed South America 
in its greatest width, Quito to Para. The river is navigable a 
thousand miles from its entrance to the Amazon, He indicates 
a region larger than France well suited for colonisation.—On 
the treatment of vines with sulphide of carbon, by M. de Lafitte. 
—On the simultaneous reduction of a quadratic form and of a 
linear form, by M. Poincaré.—On Leyverrier’s tables of the 
motion of Saturn, by M. Gaillot.—On a property of the poly- 
nomes Y,, of Legendre, by M. Laguerre.—New tables for calcu- 
lating heights by means of barometric observations, by M. 


Angot. These tables give directly the height of each station 
above the level where the pressure is 760mm.°; this is near the 
true altitude, an idea of which may thus be had without com- 
paring results from two stations. The exactness is at least as 
great as with the best formule proposed. The heights calculated 
differ always from the real height in a sense that can be known 


& priovi.—Researches on sulphide of nitrogen, by M. Demarcay. ~ 


—On phytolaccic acid, by M. Terreil, This new organic acid 
exists in the state of a salt of potash in ‘the fruit of Phytolacca 
Kempfert. (Its properties are described.) Measurement of the 
toxical dose of carbonic oxide in different animals, by M. 
Gréhant. Great differences were observed : a mixture of =; 
strength was the poisonous dose for one dog, 4, for another 
(the animals being made to breathe 200 litres). A rabbit re- 
quired 4, (breathing 50 litres). The smallest sufficing dose was 
that for a sparrow, 3$7-—On a new species of Poroxylon, by M. 
Renault. This plant is named P, Ldwardsti. The Poroxylee 
are found in the Upper Coal and Permian formations.— 
Transformation of a fructiferous ramification, resulting from 
fertilisation, into a prothalliform vegetation, by M. Sirodot. 
This was observed in Batrachospermum vagumn (Roth).—In- 
fluence of light on the respiration of seeds during germina- 
tion, by M. Pauchon. These experiments were made on 
the castor-oil plant (as being oleaginous and albuminous) and 
on the haricot bean (feculent and without albumen), 
previous experiments, a good deal more O was observed in light 
than in darkness. The castor-oil seeds exhale slightly more CO, 
in darkness than in light, but the opposite was the case with the 
seed of Phaseolus. In darkness the ratio of CO, to O was for 
the haricot at least + superior to that for the castor-oil plant, but 
prolongation of the experiment tends to bring the relation equal 
to unity, whatever the original value. For a given quantity of 
oxygen absorbed the seed placed in darkness exhales more CO, 
than that kept in light. While in light there is always less CO, 
exhaled than O absorbed, the contrary occurs in darkness. 
These facts explain the transformation of legumin into asparagin. 
—Observations on the vé/e attributed to maize, used as food, in 
the production of pellagra, by M. Fua. He considers M. Faye’s 
opinion, that pellagra may be caused by the large use of unfer- 
mented maize, to be in contradiction with facts. Maize is always 
eaten in the unfermented state. It forms the chief food of a 
large population in Central Africa, where pellagra does not 
occur; and similarly in Naples and in Hungary. He refers to 
certain alterations of maize (by fungi and oxidation), 


VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, December 2, Dr. L. A, 
Fitzinger in the chair.—On the theory of so-called electric 
expansion or electrostriction; Part ii, by Dr. Boltzmann,— 
Calculation of the absolute value and determination of the 
general equation of electrostriction, by the same.—On some 
properties of bromide of ammonium, by Dr. Eder.—Observa- 
tions on contact-electricity (sealed packet), by Herr Schulze- 


Berge.—Results of an investigation of the identity of the comets ; 


1880 e and 1869 III., by Herr Zelber and Dr, Hepperger.—On 


graphic formulz of hydrocarbons with condensed benzol-nuclei, - 


by Herr Wegscheider. 


CONTENTS Pace 
BRITISH EARTHQUAKES + © «© «© © + © © © © © © @ 117 
Tue ENcCYCLOPADIA BRITANNICA 2. 6 s «© 8 8 0) = © «© «© © 299 
Our Book SHELF :— ; . i = 
Buckley’s ‘“‘Life and her Children: Glimpses of Animal Life 
from the Amcebato the Insects” . . . 2 « »« - + « = « f25 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Prof. Tait and Mr. H. Spencer.— Pror. P.G. Tair . . . in eee: 
Geological Climates.—ALFRED R. WALLACE . . « « » « - + 224 
Photophonic Music.—M.. . . . - »- «+ - 2 © = « - 124 
The ‘Philosophy of Language.”—Lupwic NoirB. . . . « « 124 
Notes on the Mode of Flight of the Albatross—Arrnur W. 
BATEMAN .- Co Saeco 
see ee 


A General Theorem in Kinematics.—J. J. WALKER. . 
Geometrical Optics.—W. G. LoGeMaNn . ate 
Ozone —Ji Pe 0 TRA et oe aie mom om emeren ns 

PLANTS OF MapaGascaR. By J. G. BAKER » « « - 

BENJAMIN Cottins Bropik, Bart., F.R.S..D.C.L. . 9. . . 

THE PHYLLOXERA IN FRANCE. By Maxime Cornu (IVitk Japs) 

NOTES! <r eh 88 pe, Ce 

PuysicaL NoTES . » «+ +» = 

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. «2 © + «© © * + ® 

Mr. MunDELLA ON EpUCATIONIN SCIENCE - - - ., oes 

Tue Royat SocreTyY—ADDRESS OF THE PresIDENT, IT. By Wittiam 


Srortiswoopz, D.C.L.,LL.D. . . . . + « 
Tue Roya Society MEDALS . . ad 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONALINTELLIGENCE . « 
SocreTIzgs AND ACADEMIES - + * + «© + « @ 


° aye Fe sje 


As in 


NATURE 


141 


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1880 


THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE 
Tdeal Chemistry. By Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart., D.C.L., 

F.R.S. A Reprint of a Lecture delivered before the 

Chemical Society on June 6, 1867. (London: Mac- 

millan and Co., 1880.) 

HEMISTS who wish to study the “ Calculus of 
Chemical Operations ” will value this reprint of the 
lecture delivered by Sir Benjamin Brodie shortly after 
presenting his first memoir on the subject to the Royal 
Society, as it is in the main devoted to the description 
and explanation of the special symbols employed in the 
Calculus. 

Even if this were the time and place, I should not 
venture to submit Sir Benjamin Brodie’s views to that 
exhaustive analysis, which I believe has hitherto never 
been accorded to them, but which they must ere long 
receive at the hands of chemists. As yet only portions 
of the Calculus have been published, viz., Part I. “On 
the Construction of Chemical Symbols,’ and Part II. 
“On the Analysis of Chemical Events,” although a valu- 
able supplementary explanation of certain features was 
recently elicited by Naquet’s criticisms. We have still 
to learn how the author proposed to treat of isomerism, 
by far the most intricate and difficult problem yet to be 
solved in chemistry, and let us hope that his departure 
from amongst us, which we now deeply lament, may not 
involve the suspension of judgment on this point he asked 
for but a short time ago being for ever. 

I cannot refrain from devoting this notice to specially 
directing attention to what appears to me to be the topic 
of fundamental importance in the lecture, viz. the sugges- 
tion, made the author believes for the first time excepting 
in a few words at the conclusion of his first Memoir in 
the Philosophical Transactions, of the possible decom- 
position at the elevated temperature of the sun of certain 
chemical elements. 

The fundamental hypothesis of the Calculus is to 
express the symbol of the unit of hydrogen by one letter, a. 
Hydrogen is to be regarded as constructed at once, by 
one operation. But while hydrogen is conceived of as 
the product of a single operation, the hypothesis indicates 
that oxygen, &, cannot be conceived of as made by less 
than two operations; while chlorine, ax’, and nitrogen, 
av, for example, are each to be conceived of as made by 
three operations, one operation in each case being that 
by which hydrogen is made. In short, the hypothesis 
involves the conclusion that there are several distinct 
classes—three at least—of “ elements,” of which hydrogen, 
oxygen and chlorine are the types, formed respectively 
by a single operation, by two similar operations, and by 
several operations not all similar. In other words, to 
quote the author, “ we are led to a certain physical hypo- 
thesis as to the origin and causes of chemical phenomena,” 
He then continues :— 

“Now what I am going to suggest you must consider 
to be put before you with reservation, but we may con- 
ceive that in remote time, or in remote space, there did 
exist formerly, or do exist now, certain simpler forms of 
matter than we find on the surface of our globe—a, x, & », 
and so on—I say we may at least conceive of, or imagine, 

VoL. xx111.—No. 581 


the existence in time and space of these simpler forms of 
being, of which we have some records remaining to us in 
such elements as hydrogen and mercury. We may con- 
sider that in remote ages the temperature of matter was 
much higher than it is now, and that these other things 
existed then in the state of perfect gases—separable 
existences—uncombined. This is the farthest barrier to 
which in the way of analysis theory can reach, Beyond 
all is conjecture. There may be something further, but 
if so, we have no suspicion of it from the facts of the 
science. We may then conceive that the temperature 
began to fall and these things to combine with one 
another and to enter into new forms of existence, appro- 
priate to. the circumstances in which they were placed. 
We may suppose that at this time water (a €), hydrochloric 
acid (ay), and many other bodies began to exist. We 
may further consider that as the temperature went on 
falling, certain forms of matter became more permanent 
and more stable, to the exclusion of other forms. We 
have evidence on the surface of our globe of the per- 
manence of certain forms of matter to the exclusion of 
others. We may conceive of this process of the lowering 
of temperature going on so that these substances, a x* and 
av’, when once formed, could never be decomposed—in 
fact, that the resolution of these bodies into their com- 
ponent elements could never occur again. You would 
then have something of our present system of things.”’ 
We have here a most distinct prior statement by Sir Ben- 
jamin Brodie of views almost identical with those which 
have been so persistently urged for several years past by 
Mr. Lockyer, whose arguments, however, have hitherto met 
with but little sympathy from chemists, mainly perhaps on ~ 
account of the unwonted character of the evidence. In his 
paper read before the Royal Society in December 1878, Mr. 
Lockyer adduced two lines of evidence in support of his 
hypothesis of elemental dissociation at high temperatures : 
The existence of lines common to several spectra—so- 
called basic lines—and the progressive alteration in the 
character of the spectra of the stars with tempera- 
ture. Neither of these lines of argument has, I be- 
lieve, yet been impugned, and the criticisms launched 
against the hypothesis have been on side issues of no real 
importance to the main question under discussion. More 
recently additional evidence in the same direction has 
been obtained by the comparison of the observations of 
Tacchini and others on solar storms. It appears that 
whereas at certain times lines which are admittedly all 
iron lines are visible, at other times certain of these lines 
are wanting from the spectrum, new lines appearing in 
their place: fluctuations of this kind taking place at 
frequent intervals, but evidently in accordance with some 
well-defined law. Facts such as these may after all meet 
with some other interpretation than that furnished by the 
“ dissociation’? hypothesis, although at present this 
affords by far the simplest explanation of them. A com- 
munication of Mr. Lockyer’s, read at the last meeting but 
one of the Royal Society, however, adduces evidence which 
if confirmed must, it wouldseem, be regarded as final. It 
is well known that the velocity of uprush or downrush of 
vapours at the sun may be determined by observations 
of the amount of displacement from their normal position 
of the lines in the spectrum of the vapours, and obviously 
if all the lines in a given spectrum—that of iron, for 
instance—are lines due to one substance, it must be a 
matter of indifference by which of the lines the velocity is 
measured. Whereas, on the other hand, if this be not 
the case, and the simpler substances into which the body 
H 


142 


NATURE 


[Dec. 16, 1880 


is split up be of different degrees of volatility—of different 
molecular weight—we may expect that measurements of 
the displacement of different lines will not all furnish the 
same results. Mr. Lockyer states that in an observation 
of a sun-spot on August 31 of this year, when the iron 
line at A 5207°6 was doubly contorted, indicating an 
ascending and descending velocity of about fifteen miles a 
second, the two adjacent iron lines at A 5203°7 and 5201°6, 
visible in the same field of view, were perfectly steady. 
Observations of this kind are necessarily very difficult, 
and the communication is made with all reserve ; but it is 
to be hoped that observers elsewhere will co-operate in at 
once putting this observation to the test. 

It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of the 
question to the chemistry of the future, for should it once 
be proved that the dissociation of the so-called elements 
is taking place in the sun and still hotter stars, it will 
be within the power of the physicist with the aid of the 
telespectroscope to build up a theory of elemental evolu- 
tion not inferior in interest to the doctrine of organic 
evolution. For my part, I have no fear of the result, for 
apart from Sir Benjamin Brodie’s hypothesis and apart 
from spectroscopic evidence, I believe that in the relations 
of the “elements’’ to each other when arranged more 
or less in accordance with the now well-known periodic 
law of Mendeljeff we have distinct proof of progressive 
development, but of this I hope to say more on another 
occasion, 

Sir B. Brodie points out in his lecture that if the sym- 
bol a were assigned to hydrogen, instead of the symbol 
a, a different symbolic system analogous in its form to 
the system in vogue amongst chemists would result 
In the second part of the Calculus he has fully ex- 
plainel his reasons for adopting the hypothesis a, not - 
withstanding that it leads to conclusions so entirely 
different from those ordinarily accepted, the chief reason 
being that this hypothesis satisfies the so-called law of 
even numbers—the law that the sum of all the units of 
affinity ina compound is an even number. The recent 
remarkable discovery—probably one of the most im- 
portant theoretically ever made by chemists—of the 
behaviour of the halogens at high temperatures would 
appear to furnish an opportunity of experimentally ascer- 
taining whether Sir B. Brodie’s hypothesis a is admissible, 
for this hypothesis would not admit of a simple resolution 
of the diatomic molecules of chlorine, bromine and 
iodine into monatomic molecules which has been regarded 
as the more probable explanation of the results obtained 
by Victor Meyer and by Meier and Crafts. Two 
well-established exceptions to the law of even numbers 
exist, nitric oxide, NO, and nitric peroxide, NO,, but 
as is well known, Sir B. Brodie has suggested that in 
these we may not be dealing with homogeneous gases, 
but that each is constituted of two gases which, taken 
together, are made up of oxygen and nitrogen, but which 
separately are not so made up : hypothesis a would lead to 
similar conclusions regarding the constitution of chlorine, 
bromine and iodine at high temperatures. 

At present all that is established, however, regarding 
the halogens is that iodine begins to undergo dissociation 
at a temperature between 600° and 700°, and that its 
vapour gradually diminishes in density until at a white 
heat it attains not far short of half the “ normal’? value, 


Whatever the nature of the dissociation products, the 
occurrence of dissociation must be regarded as placed 
beyond doubt, for Victor Meyer’s results have been in the 
main confirmed not only by Meier and Crafts, but also 
by Deville and Troost, who had previously obtained 
normal results. Bromine does not undergo dissociation 
so readily as iodine, the ratio of the observed to the 
theoretical ‘‘normal”’ density being, according to Meier 
and Crafts, ‘8 for bromine when it is ‘66 for iodine. In 
a recent communication, Victor Meyer has stated that the 
results of his earlier experiments with chlorine would 
appear to have been vitiated by some as yet undiscovered 
source of error; this gas probably is not dissociated except 
at extremely high temperatures, and it is doubtful whether 
there is any difference in behaviour between free and 
nascent chlorine, HENRY E. ARMSTRONG 


HANDBOOK OF BOTANY 
Handbuch der allgemeinen Botantk. Von Prof. Dr. N. 
J. C. Miller. Zweiter Theil. Allgemeine Morphologie 
und Entwickelungslehre der Gewdachse. Pp. 482, 
Figs. 277. (Heidelberg, 1880: Carl Winter’s Universi- 
tatsbuchhandlung.) 
sks is the second instalment of a work by a single 
author which is to treat of all the different depart- 
ments of botanical science. ‘The first volume, which is 
devoted to the consideration of the Physiology and 
General Anatomy of Plants, was reviewed in NATURE, 
vol. xxi. p. 589. It is impossible to pass a more favour- 
able verdict upon this volume than upon its predecessor. 
It is characterised by the same failing, namely, a want of 
clearness and definiteness in the statement of important 
facts and fundamental principles. The first section of 
the book is devoted to a discussion of the theory of 
descent, the origin of species, and the occurrence of 
varieties and monstrosities, with the object, presumably, 
of making the reader acquainted with some, at least, of 
the influences which determine the forms of living 
organisms. The account of the morphology of plants 
begins at p. 38, and after ten pages of general considera- 
tions the subject is actually grappled with. Prof. Miller 
commences with the Thallophytes, though he does not 
call them so, for his first section on them is headed “ Der 
Algenstamm.”’ It is not easy to understand what he 
means by the suffix “stainm’’; does he mean to describe 
the thallus of the Alga as being a “stem,” or does he use 
the word in the sense of “tribe”? Whichever be the 
true interpretation, it still remains unexplained why this 
word should appear as the heading of a section which 
treats not only of Alga, but of Fungi as well. The 
prospectus of the work sets forth that the Classification 
of Plants is to form the subject of a subsequent volume, 
and there is therefore some hope that Prof. Miiller will 
there give a classification of the Algze which is more in 
accordance with facts and with reason than the one 
which he now follows. It is impossible to imagine on 
what grounds the Palmellex, the Protococce, and the 
Volvocinez should be united together to form the Order 
Palmellacez, and yet this is done on p. 51 of this work, 
although the author is evidently aware of the fact that in 
Volvox reproduction is effected by means of sexually 
produced oospores, as his account of that plant, a singu- 
larly inaccurate one be it said, on p. 62 testifies. 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


His account of the Lichens is not more trustworthy 
than that which he gives of Volvox. He appears to be 
halting between two opinions with regard to the burning 
question of the nature of these organisms, for although 
he states on p. 69 that the germinating spore gives rise to 
both gonidia and hyphz, thereby implying that those 
cells of the thallus which do not contain chlorophyll and 
those which do have a common origin, yet he admits 
(p. 74) that the gonidia may escape from the thallus and 
lead an independent existence, and further (p. 84), that 
he has observed the formation of a lichen-thallus by the 
combination of algal and fungal forms which were origin- 
ally distinct. 

His treatment of the Cormophytes is also disappointing. 
If the student, anxious to become acquainted with the 
most recent views as to such important points as the 
gymnosperms of the Conifers and the morphological 
significance of the embryo-sac and its contents in Flower- 
ing Plants, turns to the sections of this book which profess 
to treat of them, he will find only a few dogmatic state- 
ments with regard to the former point, and none at all 
with regard to the latter. Perhaps these points may have 
been thought too recondite for discussion in a work which 
professes to be a handbook for learners of the science, but 
many pages are devoted to the consideration of subjects, 
such as the more complicated forms of phyllotaxis, which 
have principally a mathematical interest. Again, the 
morphology of the stem, of the leaf, and especially of the 
root, is dismissed far too summarily. It is to be hoped 
that these organs, as well as inflorescences, flowers, and 
fruits, will have justice done to them in the volume on 
the Classification of Flowering Plants. One further 
shortcoming must yet be mentioned, namely, the scanti- 
ness of the account given of the embryology of plants. 
This is a subject which has been much studied in recent 
years, and, from the title of this book, it might naturally 
be expected that it would give a satisfactory account of 
the results which have been attained. This is, unfor- 
tunately, by no means the case. Some of the facts are 
mentioned, it is true, but they are stated too briefly to be 
very intelligible, and no attempt seems to have been 
made to connect them together and to explain their 
significance, 

It must be admitted that the book contains a consider- 
able amount of information scattered through its pages, 
but the purely theoretical principles upon which this 
information has been arranged render it difficult of 
acquirement, and for this reason, if for no other, the book 
is not one which can be recommended for the use of 
students. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


The Gardens of the Sun; or, A Naturalists Journal on 
the Mountains and in the Forests and Swamps of 
Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago. By ¥. W. Burbidge. 
(London; John Murray, 1880.) 


THIS book is the itinerary of a competent and enthusiastic 
botanist, whose main object was “the collection and 
introduction of beautiful new plants to the Veitchian 
collection at Chelsea,’’ in which he so far succeeded as 
to add about fifty ferns to the list of those already collected 
in Borneo, about twenty being also new to science, and to 
introduce alive the giant pitcher-plant of Kina Balu 
(Wepenthes Rajah, Hook.f.). But these alone by no 


means show the floral riches which have induced the 
author to use the by no means exaggerated term 
“Gardens of the Sun.” Amongst epiphytal orchids 
which here growing in mid-air “screened from the sun 
by a leafy canopy, deluged with rains for half the year or 
more at least, and fanned by the cool sea-breezes or 
monsoons,” is found the beautiful Phalenopsis grandi- 
flora; nor in the mountain vegetation are like floral 
riches absent; at 5000 feet the curious pitcher-plant, 
Nepenthes Lowi, was found epiphytal on mossy trunks 
and branches, and higher still a “large-flowered rhodo- 
dendron, bearing rich orange flowers two inches in 
diameter, and twenty flowers in a cluster.” The forests 
and gardens of Borneo are equally rich in native and 
naturalised kinds of edible fruits, the mango, pine-apple, 
durian, rambutan, &c., being all alike plentiful and luxu- 
riant, and, as Mr. Burbidge remarks, in some favoured 
districts in Malaya the forests almost become orchards on 
a large scale, so plentifully are they stocked. 

Zoology was naturally less followed than botany, but 
still a collection of birds was made, notices of which, 
contributed by Mr. Sharpe to the Zoological Society, are 
appended to the volume. We however regret to find the 
word “alligator’’ still constantly occurring, whilst the 
word ‘“‘boa” is equally misleading. Crocodile and python 
are words which do not seem to find a home in the East, 
nor moreover in many books of Eastern travel. It is also 
quite erroneous to say that Borneo “is the only habitat 
of the wild elephant in the Malay Archipelago”; certainly 
so, at least, if we are not to exclude Sumatra from that 
region. 

Many ethnological facts are scattered about the volume ; 
the account of the Jakuns of Johore is taken and fully 
acknowledged from Maclay’s memoir on the subject in 
the “ journal of Eastern Asia”; but the author contributes 
an interesting account of the method pursued by the 
Kadyans in playing the game of football. No one but 
the student of games knows how difficult it is to find 
much or any information on this point in most books of 
travel. 


Tasmanian Friends and Foes: Feathered, Furred, and 
Finned. By Louisa Anne Meredith, Author of ‘‘ My 
Home in Tasmania,’’ &c. With Coloured Plates from 
Drawings by the Author, and other [Illustrations. 
(London: Marcus Ward and Co., 1880.) 


Ir will probably be granted that there is developed in 
most people a fondness for certain of what we are pleased 
to call the lower forms of animals. Such are made pets 
of for various reasons: the sweetness of their song, the 
brightness of their plumage, the splendour of their scales 
—these phenomena act as causes that attract the senses. 
Their sometimes fond and gentle ways make of some, 
prime favourites, while a sense of their usefulness makes 
again of others indispensable companions to man. 

Most of man’s dumb companions have been taken from 
groups of animals with a more or less world-wide distri- 
bution ; and it will no doubt be new to some of our 
readers to learn that in Australia—a country where the 
aborigines, for want of native pets, had to import at some 
time or another a dog—that there, such forms as brush 
kangaroos, wombats, bandicoots, and even great forest 
kangaroos—animals only known in these parts—can also 
become nice, quite gentle, mannerly things, doing a little 
damage now and then, it is true, by leaving long dirty 
tracks to bother the housemaid, like a boy home at 
Christmas time, or pulling up tulip-bulbs, or, worst of all, 
getting into the children’s beds because they are com- 
fortable. The beautifully got-up volume whose title heads 
this notice is written by a well-known and respected lady 
who has often before written pleasantly about her Tas- 
manian home and the bush friends she found or made 
there. In the present volume she writes an able defence ot 
some of her dumb “marsupial” acquaintances, showing that 


144 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 16, 1880 


they too have intelligence, and that they exhibit at times 
a very respectable amount of common sense. ‘The stories 
about them are strictly true, and from their very nature 
strictly new. But the volume tells also of many a two- 
footed friend, and the last few chapters almost exclusively 
treat of the fishes of the coast. There is much in this 
portion of the volume of interest to the scientific worker ; 
there is much in every part of it to make it of value to 
those who care to learn something of the habits of Tas- 
manian beasts, birds, and fishes. One feature of the 
volume must be specially noticed—the eight coloured 
drawings, excellently chromolithographed from the 
water-colour drawings of the author. From a personal 
knowledge of the splendid colouring often present in 
freshly-caught tropical fishes, these plates are, we should 
say, by no means too brilliant. Four are devoted to 
some of the strange, wondrously-coloured fishes, and 
four to flowers, fruits, and insects. 

This volume would be an excellent and not over- 
expensive Christmas present, which may lie on any table 
however select, and be read by any person however 
critical. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 


[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to returit, or 
to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. | 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureonhis space is so great that it 
2s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of coi- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Mr, Spencer and Prof. Tait 


Pror. TAIt’s explanation itself shows that the word commonly 
applied to products of imagination, was applicable to his state- 
ments; for the only justification he assigns is that he ‘* assumed,” 
that is to say, imagined, that his substitution of ‘‘definition ” for 
**formula”’ must have been the ground of offence. How inade- 
quate a plea this is, will be seen on re-reading the questions I put, 
which were these :— 

“Te [Prof. Tait] says that because he has used the word 
* definition’ instead of ‘formula,’ he has incurred my ‘sore 
displeasure and grave censure.’ In what place have I expressed 
or implied displeasure or censure in relation to this substitution 
of terms? Alleging that I have an obvious motive for calling it 
a ‘formula,’ he says I am ‘indignant at its being called a 
definition.’ wish to see the words in which I have expressed 
my indignation ; and shall be glad if Prof. Tait will quote them. 
He says :—‘ It seems I should have called him the discoverer of 
the formula!” instead of ‘the inventor of the definition,’ Will 
he oblige me by pointing out where I have used either the one 
phrase or the other?” 

Every reader would infer that, for these specific statements 
made by Prof. Tait, there are specific foundations, which could 
be named when asked for. He does not name them, for the 
sufficient reason that they do not exist. Unable, as he says, to 
see in the passages I quoted from him, anything else to call for 
“‘censure” (a strange inability !), he ‘‘ of course” assumed that 
this change of terms was the ground of censure. And the 
assumption thus made, is the only warrant he assigns for these 
positive assertions, 

This is not all, however. Prof. Tait says:—‘‘I could not 
haye ventured to suppose that Mr. Spencer ‘did mot even know 
that he was in the habit of saying formula rather than definition, 
This waive confession cannot but be correct.” Of Prof. Tait’s 
motive for putting this statement of mine in italics and calling 
it zazve, the reader may judge for himself, How entirely correct 
it is, and how well Prof. Tait might have ‘‘ ventured to suppose” 
it, will quickly appear. For there is proof that I am #o¢ in the 
habit of always saying formula rather than definition ; and Prof, 
Tait had the proof before him, In the note on page 565 of the 
Appendix forming the pamphlet in question—a page which Prof. 
Tait must have read, since it concerns Mr. Kirkman and himself 
—I have used the word ‘‘definition.” So that not only had 
Prof, Tait no evidence on which to base his distinct statements, 


bet there was under his eyes positive evidence which negatived 
em, 

Very possibly it will be said that the question about my uses 
of these words is a trivial one. But this is not the question. 
The question is whether it is allowable to make an opponent 
look absurd by ascribing to him, in a quite positive way, things 
which he has neither said nor implied ; and that, too, when he 
has implied the contrary, HERBERT SPENCER 


Criterion of Reality 


WILL you kindly allow a learner to ask for the criterion 
according to which Kinetic Energy and Work are real things, 
while Momentum and Force are unreal? Prof. Tait says 30? 
and wh express real things, but mz and z/ unrealities (NATURE, 
vol xxiii. p. 82). 

If wt be ‘as unreal as is the product of a quart into an acre,” 
how is it that w/ is real? The illustration of quart and acre is 
as applicable or inapplicable to the one as to the other. In 
both cases we take the product of two numbers, not two con- 
crete magnitudes, which of course it would be absurd to speak 
of multiplying together. In one case the product is the number 
of units of Momentum, in the other case it is the number of 
units of Kinetic Energy. If it be said that a thing is real if its 
quantity cannot be altered, and vice versd, why is mv* said to 
be real, and wz unreal? They vanish together. When Prof. 
Tait asserts ‘‘ there is no such ¢Azzg as Force,” ‘‘ it is merely a 
convenient expression for a certain vate” (NATURE, vol. xiv. 
p. 459), he seems, if I may venture to say so, to confound the 
measure of Force with Force itself, and to lay himself open to 
Mr. Spencer’s comment that ‘a relation changes the state of a 
body.” Certainly mv is not a ¢héng, but neither is mv" a thing : 
yet the latter is the measure of something which Prof. Tait 
asserts to be ‘fas real as matter itself”: why is not that of 
which the former is the measure equally real ? E.G. 

Bardsea 


[What Prof. Tait asserts may be correct or not, but it is self- 
consistent. He asserts in his lecture on ‘‘ Force” (NATURE, 
vol. xiv. p. 462) that matter and energy must be looked on as 
real things, Jecause we cannot change the amount of either, Such 
expressions as 37v®, and w/, are to be considered as wholes, not 
as products of two or more factors. This separation into factors 
(where one is v, or w, for instance) he asserts to be a relic of 
the old erroneous belief in the trustworthiness of the impressions 
made on the ‘‘ muscular” sense.—ED. ] 


Landslips 


In NavurgE, vol. xxii. p. 560, I pointed out that landslips 
often occurred in the Salt Districts. I did not then expect that 
I should so soon be able to refer again to the subject; but on 
December 6, at an early hour in the morning, one of the largest 
subsidences and landslips ever known in Cheshire occurred, I 
pointed out that whenever fresh water reaches the rock salt it 
dissolves it. In certain districts in the immediate neighbourhood 
of Northwich the ground is completely honeycombed with rock- 
salt mines that had been worked out andabandoned. Into many 
of these fresh water had penetrated, and had become by solution 
strong brine. This brine has of late been extensively pumped 
up, and many of these extensive cavities had become nearly 
empty. ‘The thin crust of rock salt forming the roof of these 
old mines had become gradually thinner, owing to its solution by 
water, and on Monday morning the roof of one pit gave way, 
and let the superincumbent earth down into the mine, rifting and 
opening the ground to the surface, The surface rift passed 
across the bed of a large brook, and the water of the brook ran 
through the crevice into the mines below. Ina short time the 
water made a more extensive cavity, and as the brook was cut in 
two about 200 yards above its entrance into a large lake that was 
drained by the Weaver River, the water in the lower portion of 
the brook and of the lake, as well as of the Weaver, commenced 
to return and run down the enlarged cavity. For four or five 
hours this return stream increased in velocity, pouring down the 
crater-like hole. Notwithstanding the water of the brook and 
the return water, as well as a large body of water from another 
small lake entering this cavity, the water standing in the funnel- 
shaped hole gradually lowered. The velocity of both portions 
of the brook increased, and such was the force of the water that 
the bottom of the brook for 100 yards was scooped out from 
2 feet in depth to 10 feet, and the banks were washed away, 


Dee. 16, 1880} 


making the brook from 30 to 40 feet wide instead of 20 as at 
first. 

The quantity of water thus rushing down for twelve hours from 
the commencement would be fully 600,000 tons. The water in 
one direction over a surface of 160 acres was lowered one foot in 
the space of three hours. Shortly after this water commenced 
to rush below it made its way through a weak portion of a barrier 
wall into a rock salt mine that was being worked, This mine, 
extending over fifteen acres, and having a worked-out depth of 
eighteen feet, was completely filled and all the tools, materials, 
waggons, tramways, &c., entirely lost. It will be quite im- 
possible ever to pump out the water. Besides this mine, all the 
old abandoned mines were filled, and the brine, which stood at 
100 yards from the surface on the Sunday, stood at 24 yards on 
Monday night. The water being fresh, great damage was 
expected by the solution of the salt. This soon occurred, for an 
old mine that fell in forty-two years ago, and the cavity of which 
had been filled with water, gave way, and suddenly the whole 
land over a circle of about 500 feet in diameter sank, and a large 
portion of water escaped into neighbouring pits. The ground 
cracked and rifted and subsided, and a length of road of 160 
yards was destroyed, as also pipes conveying brine to the salt 
works. <A large reservoir holding brine was split across and all 
the brine let out ; the rending of the earth passed through two 
kilns of bricks, dropping one-half of the kilns at least 2 feet. On 
the Monday afternoon a tall chimney 90 feet in height became 
affected, and in a few hours fell with a great crash. The air that 
had filled the cavities below was forced out by the inrush of 
water, and caused all the pits and brooks near to bubble and boil 
violently, whilst in some of the rifts where water occurred minia- 
ture mud geysirs were formed, throwing up mud 10 or 12 feet 
high. These appearances extended over a district between two 
brooks for the space of 2000 feet. On Wednesday night a large 
hole 30 yards in diameter and 30 yards deep fell in, and more 
subsidences are daily expected, as the fresh water will eat away 
the pillars supporting the roofs of the abandoned mines. 

The cayity formed on Monday is full of water, and the brook 
now runs through it. Some idea may be formed of it when I 
mention that it is crater-like, and of about 200 feet in diameter. 
On sounding it on Wednesday I found a depth of 78 feet of 
water in the centre, and various depths from 70 to 60, 50, and 
so on to about 12 feet at the margin. On Sunday, on the spot 
which is now 78 feet, there was a sandbank with its surface 
above the water, 

Serious injury has been done to one set of salt works, and five 
sets are stopped for want of brine, the pipes being broken and 
the road destroyed. 

As the salt trade increases these enormous sinkings keep in- 
creasing, and become more alarming in their character. 

Brookfield House, Northwich THOS, WARD 


The Geology of East-Central Africa and the Subterra- 
nean Forest in Bombay 


In Mr. J. Thomson’s very interesting ‘‘ Notes on the Geology 
of East-Central Africa” (NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 104) he re- 
marks that doubtless the immense development of volcanic rocks 
described by myself (and I may add by several previous ex- 
plorers) in Abyssinia is of the same age as the volcanic rocks at 
the Cape of Good Hope, assigned to the Trias. 

Mr. Thomson has, I think, overlooked the circumstance that 
whatever may be the age of the Cape volcanic rocks, the teaks of 
Abyssinia cannot be older than Jurassic. As I have shown (Quart, 
Four, Geol, Soc., 1869, pp. 403, &c., and ‘‘ Geology and Zoology 
of Abyssinia,” pp. 184, &c.), there are in the Abyssinian high- 
lands two groups of bedded dolerites and trachytes, the upper 
of which rests unconformably on the lower, while the latter 
overlies limestone with Jurassic (Middle Jurassic) fossils. 

I trast that Mr. Thomson will pardon my suggesting the possi- 
bility of the Tanganyika sandstones being river valley deposits, 
like the Gondwana series of India, rather than lacustrine. I 
may be mistaken, but the description appears to me to indicate 
Beds coarser than those usually deposited in an extensive lake 

asin. 

In the same number of NATuRE, p. 105, is a brief notice of a 
“Subterranean Forest in India.” As I understand the account 
given, the forest should perhaps rather be termed submarine than 
subterranean. My object in calling attention to this notice how- 
ever is to point out that a previous description of the same 
formation was published in the Records of the Geological Survey 


NATGRE 


145 


of India for 1878, vol. xi. p. 302. This account is by Mr. G. 
E. Ormiston, Resident Engineer, and agrees in all essential 
particulars with the note in NATURE. I appended a few remarks 
on the geological bearing of the discovery. The ‘‘forest” has 
clearly been depressed, whilst neighbouring tracts in Bombay 
island appear to have been elevated in comparatively recent times. 
W. T. BLANFORD 


Dr. Siemens’s Gas-Grate 


HAVING endeavoured for some years past to heat my study by 
gas appliances, and having utterly failed in obtaining a comfort- 
able temperature of 60°, as a last effort to accomplish my object 
I had fitted into an ordinary grate Dr, Siemens’s arrangement of 
copper and iron, the construction of which was communicated 
to the public in the pages of NarurE, vol. xxiii. p. 25. Before 
giving the results of the trial of Dr. Siemens’s gas-grate I may 
mention in what way my former gas-stoves failed. My first gas- 
fire consisted of gas and asbestos, but this gave out fumes which 
were quite intolerable ; my second trial was with a gas-stove re- 
flecting heat from a copper lining ; this not only failed to warm the 
room, but wasa cheerless and grim apology fora fire, and to obtain 
even a moderate degree of temperature a constant and expensive 
consumption of gas was necessary, With Dr. Siemens’s gas- 
grate all that is required to produce a good cheerful fire radiating 
heat to all parts of the room, and maintaining a temperature 
from 60° to 62°, is to turn on the gas full for about twenty 
minutes, and as soon as the lower stratum of coke becomes 
incandescent, the gas may be quite turned off, the fuel, whether 
coke or anthracite, continuing to bum for five or six hours 
without any further expenditure of either gas or fuel. 

If the fire is required for a longer time, or if at any time a 
more rapid combustion is wanted, it is only necessary to turn on 
the gas again for a few minutes and add more fuel. This is my 
experience of Dr, Siemens’s gas-grate, and I:consider it a great 
boon to householders who desire well-warmed rooms combined 
with economy. After the lucid description of the gas-grate 
given by Dr. Siemens in NATURE, it would be presumption in 
me to discuss the scientific explanation of its action; I shall 
only, in conclusion, venture to claim for it the following advan- 
tages which I believe it to possess over every other.kind of gas- 
stove yet invented :— 

1. It gives a clear, smokeless, cheerful fire. 

2. It is most economical, and very soon pays the cost of the 
construction, 

3. Being absolutely smokeless, contributes nothing to that 
constituent of our London fogs which renders them injurious in 
so many ways. 

This last advantage, if multiplied by every householder at an 
outlay of 25s., adopting a cheaper modification than the copper 
and iron gas-grate, we should before very long observe a marked 
change for the better in our London atmosphere; and the dark- 
ness, dirt, and destruction of property with which we Londoners 
are annually afflicted, would be things of the past. 

December 13 R, DouGcLas HALE 


Geological Climates 


I HAVE just read Mr. A, R, Wallace’s letter in NATURE, vol. 
xxiii. p. 124, but as I have not yet seen his book, ‘‘ Island Life,” 
although my bookseller had promised it, I shall defer my reply 
in NATuRE until I shall have made myself master of his ideas. 

For the present I shall only say :—1. That Mr. Wallace’s pro- 
posal would benefit the Polar regions but not Bournemouth. 
2. Mr. Wallace omits all mention of the return cold currents 
which the admission of two new Gulf Streams into the Arctic 
regions would produce. These currents would seriously lower 
the temperature of China and Japan; and also of the Ural 
Mountains and east of Europe. 

SAMUEL HAUGHTON 

Trinity College, Dublin, December 10 


Some weeks since the Rey. Prof. Haughton took exception 
to a brief letter of mine, in which I suggested that as a bamboo 
flourishes in Cooper’s Hill College garden, in a northern aspect 
winter after winter, it could be used effectually in an argument 
relating to geological climates, The bamboo being found in 
torrid India now, that at Cooper’s Hill, if found in a future 
period, would, according to some geologists, indicate that the 
valley of the Thames was tropical formerly. My letter was 


146 


[ence nnn nnn nee 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 16, 1880 


written because the Rev. Professor had written a very long one, 
in which he applied this kind of bad reasoning in relation to a 
bit of a leafy part of a tree found at Bournemouth in an Eocene 
deposit. The leaves of his bit resemble those of Avaucaria 
Cunninghami squashed ; nevertheless a thermometric virtue is 
given to the fossil because this Araucaria is native in districts in 
Eastern Australia. 

Self-satisfied with his recognition of the similarity of the 
leaves, the Rev. Professor coolly assumes that he has made out 
his species, and therefore demands the name of mine, giving me 
a scolding before I could possibly let him have it. 

It is curious that the Rey. Professor should not have seen the 
point of my letter, and the only explanation is that he was so 
taken up with the incomparable value of his delicate ‘*self- 
registering plant thermometer.” I did not believe in his dis- 
covery, and my bamboo—never mind whence it came—was quite 
as good in the method of argument as his so-called Araucaria. 
No botanist would feel satisfied with the coneless evidence of 
the Rey. Professor, and his genus is in doubt as well as his 
species. With regard to this, Lindley stated years since that 
Araucaria Cunninghami is a ‘*supposed species” in relation to 
the Norfolk Island C, excelsa. So the ‘‘self-registering ther- 
mometer”’ has neither bulb nor stem, and the spirit or the mer- 
cury represents the Rev. Professor’s genius. He bids me plant 
the bamboo in the sunny south-west. Not so; it is the damp 
soil and the shade which have permitted the stems to grow up 
to 10 feet 6 inches. He tells me that the bamboo grows in 
China : that fact I had heard of before, and it has been strik- 
ingly impressed on many generations of Celestials. Last week, 
but too late for my purpose of immediate publication in NATURE, 
T learned that the bamboo is of the sub-genus Avundinacea, and 
the species is fz/cata. Its natural habitat is in the temperate 
Himalayas, where frosts, fogs, and north-east winds, such as 
plague the Thames Valley, are unknown. 

Finally I believe that the so-called A. Cunninghami has 
grown of late years in the south of England. 

December 9 P. MARTIN DUNCAN 


Hailstorm in Dorsetshire 


AT about 1.30 on the 25th of last November, with a strong 
wind from the south-west, this place was visited by a hailstorm 
which lasted about five minutes, accompanied by rain and violent 
gusts of wind, and by a single vivid flash of lightning which was 
followed with scarcely more than an appreciable interval by the 
thunder. 

The character of the hailstones which fell on the occasion, 
and which I examined before they could have undergone any 
important change induced by the higher temperature of the 
surrounding air, may be worth noting; for though they were not 
of very unusual size, and in most respects scarcely departed from 
what may be regarded as the typical condition of hailstones, they 
exhibited some features not generally met with in so well-marked 
a form, 

In their simplest condition their shape was that of a sphere, 
and in every such case they consisted of a spherical nucleus of 


opaque white ice enveloped by a concentric shell of ice per- 
fectly transparent and homogeneous, showing none of the radial 
strize often met with in hailstones (Fig. 1). The largest measured 
about half an inch in diameter, the nucleus having a diameter 
of about a quarter of aninch. ‘The appearance of the opaque 
white nucleus surrounded by its thick crystal-clear envelope was 
very striking and beautiful. 

In many cases two such hailstones were united firmly to one 
another, doubtless by a process of regelation after contact. In 
some of these the transparent envelope was continuous around each 
of the nuclei in the plane of contact (Fig. 2). In others it was here 
deficient, and the two nuclei were then in immediate contact with 
one another (Fig. 3). The difference thus presented is not without 
significance as affording evidence that there are two distinct 
conditions under which the union of hailstones by regelation 
may occur ; for it is probable that in the former case the contact 
and regelation had taken place directly between the nuclei 


while as yet free from the investing shell of clear ice which had 
afterwards formed around the twin nuclei ; while in the latter 
case the envelope had already existed before the contact and 
regelation of the hailstones. 

Another frequent occurrence was the presence of one or two 
little piriform offsets, which projected from the surface of the 
hailstone, and were, like the envelope itself, formed of clear homo- 
geneous ice (Fig. 4), Ina paper published in the Proc. Asiatic 
Society for June, 1880, to which my attention has been called 
by Mr. Scott of the Meteorological Office, very similar club- 
shaped projections of transparent ice are described by Mr. 
Blanford in large hailstones figured by Col. Godwin-Austen as 
having fallen at Calcutta in March, 1877. 

It is possible that in these cases the projections had originally 
the form of crystals, and that their faces and angles had been 
rounded oft in passing through a warmer region of the atmo- 
sphere, such radiating crystals of ice not being unknown. In 
a memoir by Abich (‘‘ Ueber Kugel Hagel im Unterem Kau- 
kasus,” Vienna, 1879), for a knowledge of which I am also 
indebted to Mr. Scott, an account is given of certain very large 
hailstones which fell at Tiflis in Georgia, and had large ice 
crystals radiating from the surface, Gero, J. ALLMAN 

Ardmore, Parkstone, Dorset, December 11 


we 


Sargassum 


I FIND in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 70, a short report on my 
paper, ‘‘ Revision von Sargassum,” with several objections, 
which I believe to be erroneous. It is said that the fragments 
occurring sometimes on the open sea, the so-called Sargassum 
lacciferum, should have a bright yellow colour. Not long ago I 
received fresh samples thereof from the Sargasso Sea, which are 
not yellow at all; these fragments are never bright yellow, but 
of the same brown, varying to yellowish colour as decaying 
Fucus vesiculosus, 1 observed the latter, for instance, in this 
condition in several fjords of Norway, where I found broken 
Fucus in greater quantities than ever I did Sargassum in the - 
open sea between England and the West Indies. 

Macrocystis pyrifera shows always stem and leaves entangled 
in a ball, if broken and swimming in the open sea (vide p. 235 
of my treatise), and the Sargasso fragments of the open sea are 
also often entangled in compact balls, as Sir Wyville Thomson 
states (‘‘ The Atlantic,” i. 194), and as it may be seen on my 
phototypic table, Fig. 1. 

If the floating Sargassum should have no reproductive organs, 
this would be no difficulty, but rather a confirmation of my 
views on the fragmentary nature of swimming Sargassum, for a 
particular pelagic species could not be without reproductive 
organs. Besides there have been found ‘‘ with certainty” some- 
times samples in the open sea with reproductive organs, and I 
gave an explanation of their seldom occurrence by want or 
breaking off of the air-vesicles. The writer on my paper is 
mistaken in comparing Macrozystis and Fucus with Sargassum, 
for the air-vesicles and reproductive organs of Sargassum are 
separate from the leaves and isolated on thin stalks, which 
break off easily, while those of Fucus and Macrocystis are never 
separate, but in the middle of the leaf or on the base, or on the 
broad end of the leaf or thallus, Therefore swimming Sargassum 
is found often without reproductive organs, and its air-vesicles 
are often broken off, whilst on Macrocystis and Fucus such a 
separation is not possible. Having refuted those objections, and 
having also brought in my paper many more arguments against 
the existence and vegetation of Sargassum bacciferum than 
there are mentioned in the short report, I hope that my results 
on Sargassum will now generally be accepted. 


Leipzig-Eutritzsch, December 4 OrTo KUNTZE 


Note on an Acoustical Constant 


THE number of vibrations executed in a second by a stretched 
string is generally represented in the text-books by a formula 
expressing the method of its variation with the determining 
circumstances, such as— 


I ie 
nea /f, 


where d is the diameter, 7 the length, s the specific gravity of the 
string, and 7’ the tension or stretching force, but the absolute 
number of vibrations is not generally given by the formula. 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


147 


Now if we write instead of the above— 


where # is some constant, it is evident that & will not depend on 
the nature of the string but solely on the system of units employed 
to express d, /, and 7. 

If C.G.S. units be employed, we have, as stated in Prof. 
Evyerett’s translation of Deschanel— 


where 7 is the mass of unit length ; and as we may write instead 
of m, mr*s, being the radius of the wire, we shall have— 


oe yy eee ye 
Pale ere: FO ais Ore ae 


so that here £ = <= = *5642 approximately. 
Tv 
With any other system of units we may of course determine 4 
from the value just given, by multiplying or dividing by the 
ratios of the new to the C.G.S. units; for example, if @ be 
expressed in millimetres, 7 in metres, and 7 in kilogrammes, our 
new constant would be— 


I os te 
frat toon Vee 


But we may also determine / directly for any system of units in 
the following manner :—If, in the formula— 


Sale 
al Saw 


we make d, /, 7, s, each unity, we shall have— 
n=k, 

Imagine then a wire of water, Imm. diam., 1 metre long, 
stretched by a weight of 1 jkilo.: its weight would be °7854 
grm., and #, the ‘tension length,” or length which would 
TOG! 
t ee "7854 
= 12732 metres. The velocity v of transmission of a pulse 
along the wire would be Vg H = V9°81 X 12732 = 111°76 
metres per second, and the number of vibrations per second— 


be equal in weight to the stretching weight, would be 


the same figure as that obtained above. 
If the units in which d, 7, and 7 are expressed are respectively 
the tenth of an inch, the foot, and the pound, & becomes 48°66. 
In the later editions of Ganot’s ‘‘Physics” we find the 


formula— , ws 
n = 982 / & 
9°0257 7 


given, where c is the ‘‘tension length,” and / the length of the 
string, both expressed in inches. This formula would of course 
be of more easy application than those given above when we 
know the weight per foot of the string, but does not directly 
show the relation of 7 to the diameter and specific gravity. 
W. J. GREY 
Newcastle-on-Tyne J. T. Dunn 


The U.S. Weather Charts 


I sHOULD be much obliged if you would inform me whether 
the United States Monthly Charts of Meteorological Data, 
in continuation of the series published in NATURE, can be 
procured in London, and if so where, H. M. 

6, Charles Street, Grosvenor Square, December 7 


Climate of Vancouver Island 


Mr. ALrrepD R. WALLACE asserts in his letter published in 
NATuRE, vol, xxiii, p. 124, that the climate of Vancouver 
Island is not so mild as that of London, 

For three years I commanded a gunboat on those shores ; 
speaking from recollection, and not from recorded observations, 
and with great deference to so distinguished a naturalist as Mr. 


Wallace, I should have said that the climate of Vancouver 
Island was a good deal milder than that of London, 
EDMUND H. VERNEY 
Travellers’ Club, Pall Mall, S.W., December 11 


Meteors 


On the evening of November 20 at about 8 p.m. my attention 
was attracted by a number of meteors appearing as often as once 
per minute in different quarters of the heavens, but pursuing 
courses apparently radiating from a point near the constellation 
Andromeda. M. A. VEEDER 

Lyons, New York, November 22 


THE PROBABILITY OF PHYLLOXERA 
CROSSING THE TROPICS 


UCH alarm has been felt by the wine-growers of 
South Africa at the possibility of the phylloxera 
being introduced into the Cape vineyards. Very stringent 
regulations have been framed in consequence, prohibiting 
the importation of living plants or vegetables in any form ; 
and so rigidly have these regulations been carried out 
that it is stated that, inaccordance with them, a cargo of 
potatoes from New Zealand was destroyed on its reaching 
Capetown. 

It is generally conceded by the experts who have been 
consulted that the importation of vines, on the tissues of 
which the phylloxera would be able to live in transit, 
must be prohibited. The phylloxera can however, it is 
admitted, feed on no other «plant but the vine, and the 
important question for the South African Government 
to decide is whether it is really needful to exclude other 
plants or vegetables besides the vine. In order to obtain 
the best opinion upon this point, Dr. Maxime Cornu was 
consulted. He accordingly drew up several reports, in 
which he expresses the opinion that, though extremely 
unlikely, it is still theoretically possible that the phylloxera 
should be conveyed from Europe to South Africa by 
means of other vegetable products than the vine, and he 
therefore supports the prohibitive action taken by the 
Cape Government. 

The inconvenience to the community which such a 
policy involves is necessarily considerable. The grounds 
of Dr. Maxime Cornu’s decision have therefore been 
carefully considered by an entomologist who has studied 
the subject and who has drawn up the following notes, 
The question is of great importance to all wine-growing 
countries in the southern hemisphere, and as these 
doubtless contain many readers of NATURE, I think the 
publication of these notes in its columns will give them 
the best opportunity of being fairly considered. 

Wa t.n. Ds 


Notes on Dr. Cornu’s Reports on the Phylloxera, and 
on the Protective Measures against its Introduction. 


Among the “truths” laid down in the first report, No. 
I. is, ‘The Phylloxera vastatrix lives only upon the 
vine.” This is emphasised in the third report (“ Memo- 
randum on Laws of Protection, &c.’’), Paragraph No. IV., 
stating, “they (the insects) can, moreover, subsist only 
upon the vine.” 

Notwithstanding these unreserved statements of this 
fundamental fact in the life history of phylloxera, the same 
“ Memorandum on Laws of Protection, &c.,” proceeds (in 
its “ General Conclusion ”) to recommend, “ if such acourse 
were possible,” the imitation of “the example set by 
Algeria, and to forbid the introduction of all vegetable 
products whatever, with the exception of those which are 
absolutely required for consumption.” 

It may well be asked on what ground such a recom- 
mendation is based. After stating (Third Report, Para- 
graph IV.) that the phylloxera cannot live when dis- 
sociated from the vine for more than four or five days, 
and requires protection from dessication in any case, Dr. 


148 


NATURE 


| Dee. 16, 1880 


Cornu proceeds (Paragraph V.) to sketch “the most 
favourable conditions for the introduction of the insect ” as 
follows :—“ A phylloxera is removed in the soil, say a 
pregnant mother, which survives for a period of five days ; 
it lays an egg before dying ; the egg takes fifteen days to 
hatch (at the mean temperature of 59 deg. Fahr.), and the 
young insect which is produced five days to die. This 
makes in all twenty-five days.” That is to say,that the 
maternal phylloxera, when in artécu/o mortis at the end of 
her five days’ dessication and starvation, is to lay an egg ; 
that this egg, produced under such extraordinary con- 
ditions, is to hatch in due course, and, after undergoing 
total starvation from its birth, is to live out the normal 
term of five days allotted to the mother (presumably well 
fed until she'started on the dolorous voyage), and after 
all this is to land at the Cape and propagate its species in 
the nearest vineyard at hand! If these are “the most 
favourable conditions ” under which the phylloxera would 
be introduced, we may surely say with Dr. Cornu in 
another part of the same report (Paragraph VII. a) that 
“it would require a concatenation of circumstances which 
it is difficult to imagine to bring about the misfortune of 
the insect’s introduction.” It is as well also to note that 
the writer. expressly states (Paragraph V.) that the egg’s 
hatching is accelerated when the temperature exceeds 59 
deg. Fahr., so that in the supposed case, if the starve- 
ling progeny ever did see the light on the voyage, it would 
probably emerge in a tropical temperature long before the 
normal fifteen days allowed, and so resign its life of total 
abstinence before reaching the promised land of plenty 
at.the Cape. 

Let us now turn to the “winter egg,” which, as Dr. 
Cornu states (Paragraph VI.), “is particularly to be 
dreaded.’ This is the rarest condition of the insect, 
each female of the generation which includes both sexes 
laying only one egg (Paragraph VI.). 

“It is to this egg alone that the introduction of the 
phylloxera im packing-cases, straw, &c., could be attri- 

‘buted; this would however require confirmation; in 
fact I am not aware of any well-authenticated instance 
of the introduction of the phylloxera resulting from the 
transmission of the winter egg” (Paragraph VII.). 

This admission on the writer’s part seems to reduce 
any apprehension about the winter egg to infinitesimal 
proportions, especially when it is noted that the “ winter 
egg,” as its title implies, is a state limited to cold weather, 
and “commences to develop at the return of the fine 
weather” (Paragraph VI.). If a specimen of this rare 
auf a’hiver did by any chance (in the absence of the 
vine-stems or branches upon which it is laid) start on 
a voyage for South Africa, we may be very sure that in its 
passage through the whole extent of both tropics it would 
very speedily cease to merit its title, and become a miser- 
able piylloxtra a’été, only to share the fate of its luckless 
relative, produced from the last dying egg of the médre 
pondeuse. It does not mend matters to find Dr. Cornu 
stating in italics (Paragraph VII.), ‘‘ Such introduction 
is nevertheless possible from a scientific point of view.” 
Impossibility can with accuracy be predicated of but very 
few propositions ;-as a rule it is safer to say of most 
matters apparently incredible that it is next to impossible, 
and this may very certainly be said in the present case ; 
and when all known facts and conditions place every 
probability against a bare possibility, wise men will know 
how to act. 

As long as vines and all parts of vines from abroad are 
kept out of the Cape, the requirements of the wine industry 
are fully met. This prohibition was put in force by the 
late Government, by Proclamation No. 88, of November 
30, 1876, and has been in force ever since that date. As 
late as the 4th December last, attention was specially 
directed to this Proclamation, with the intimation that its 
provisions would be strictly enforced (in Government 
Notice, No. 1288, of 1879), 


The present superfluous 


and vexatious restrictions were added by Proclamation 
No. 14, of January, 1880, and all the facts adduced by 
Dr. Cornu point to their futility, 


SONGS OF THE SCIENCES—I. ZOOLOGY 


\ E must regard it as a noteworthy sign that science 

has begun to percolate so through society generally, 
that it has reached the pages of Punch. Almost every 
week we find a bit of more or less telling waggery, and 
last week the first of a series of “Songs of the Sciences” 
appeared, which we reproduce :— 


Oh! merry is the Madrepore that sits beside the sea, 

The cheery little Coralline hath many charms for me ; 

I love the fine Echinoderms of azure, green, and grey, 

That handled roughly fling their arms impulsively away : 
Then bring me here the microscope and let me see the cells, 
Wherein the little Zoophite like garden floweret dwells. 


We'll take the fair Anemone from off its rocky seat, 

Since Rondeletius has said when fried ’tis good to eat ; 
Dyspeptics from Sea-Cucumbers a Iesson well may win, 

They blithely take their organs out and then put fresh ones in. 
The Rotifer in whirling round may surely bear the bell, 

With Oceanic Hydrozoids that Huxley knows so well. 


You've heard of the Octopus, ’tis a pleasant thing to know, 

He has a ganglion makes him blush not red, but white as snow : 
And why the strange Cercaria, to go a long way back, 

Wears ever, as some ladies do, a fashionable ‘‘sac” : 

And how the Prawn has parasites that on his head make holes, 
Ask Dr. Cobbold and he’ll say they’re just like tiny soles, 


Then study well zoology, and add unto your store, 

The tales of Biogenesis and Protoplasmic lore : 

As Paley neatly has observed, when into life they burst, 
The frog and the philosopher are just the same at first. 
But what’s the origin of life remains a puzzle still, 

Let Tyndall, Haeckel, Bastian go wrangle as they will. 


THE AUGUST AURORAS 


yA I had the pleasure of witnessing to great advantage 

at Christiania the superb aurora of August 12 last, 
as well as that of the 13th, it is possible that some account 
of these displays as seen in Norway may be useful for 
comparison with accounts of their appearance in England. 

My attention was first drawn to the aurora on going 
into the open air atizr p.m. Ati10.30 p.m. a friend had 
remarked that the night seemed unusually dark, and that 
the stars were shining brightly. When first seen by me 
the aurora consisted of a wide arch of diffused light, the 
centre of which was about 30° in height. A few broad 
streamers were then beginning to appear. I walked as 
quickly as possible to a hill whence a good view could be 
obtained, but I had hardly got there before the aurora 
had already reached, about 11.10 p.m., its maximum splen- 
dour. Broad streamers had by this time covered almost 
the whole of the northern half of the heavens, converging 
to a point considerably south of the zenith, forming a 
grand corona. The arch was still highly luminous, and 
from its upper margin coruscations or waves of white 
light shot up every two or three seconds towards the 
zenith, At this time also there suddenly appeared 
to the east of magnetic north a splendid sheaf of 
rays proceeding from the horizon altogether beyond 
the auroral arch, and apparently in complete indepen- 
dence of it. These rays, through bright, attained an 
elevation of only some 35°, and belonged apparently 
to a distinct auroral discharge. At 11.15 the arch had 
already begun to fade, but a mass of rays shone out 
brightly near its eastern termination. Throughout the 
display I was struck by the tendency to the formation of 
compact bodies of streamers which seemed to flank each 
end of the arch. As the arch faded the pulsations of 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


149 


light increased in frequency and brilliancy, and at 11.25 
they might be described as broad flashes overspreading 
a large part of the northern half of the sky, always 
travelling upwards, and sometimes passing the zenith. 
The main body of streamers had by this time mostly 
faded, after going through an extraordinary series of 
changes which I found it quite impossible to record. 
Every minute or two new rays would strike up to the 
zenith, or sometimes beyond, and every now and then a 
portion of an older ray would suddenly shine out with a 
kind of phosphoric light. 

The display now rapidly faded, and though at 11.35 
and again about 11.45 there were minor reappearances of 
rays, the aurora seemed to be near its end, and I returned 
home. 

The brightness of the phenomenon was somewhat 
delusive ; for when a superb corona of rays covered the 
northern sky, I could only just read my watch by its 
light, and could not read what I endeavoured to write 
down on paper. The light was either white or of a 
greenish yellow tinge. ‘There was no trace of the redness 
or other colours seen on other occasions. 

By very good fortune I was able to watch the aurora 
of the next night (August 13) under the most favourable 
possible circumstances, namely, while steaming down the 
Christiania Fyord, in the steamship Awge/o, during a 
beautiful calm evening. The aurora began at 10.20 p.m. 
with a very faint uniform arch, or rather line of white 
light, appearing 8° or 10° above the horizon, with difficulty 
distinguished from the twilight. This soon faded away 
entirely ; but at 10.35 reappeared as a very distinct 
luminous arch, separated by a dark space from the twi- 
light. Some slight signs of rays now also appeared. 

At 10,45 the arch seemed to be rising somewhat, with- 
out ever attaining a height of more than about 15°. The 
lower edge became indented by ray-like notches. There 
was a tendency to the formation of streamers at the flanks. 
At 10.50 a fine single ray shot up from the horizon right 
through the arch, at 10° to west of true north, Streamers 
also began to appear above the arch, and especially at its 
eastern end ; but the streamers were in no way comparable 
to those of the previous night. The arch now began to 
lose its previous regular form, and to go through a re- 
markable series of gradual changes and contortions, 
which it is impossible to describe. By degrees the eastern 
end became incurved in the manner of a folded curtain 
(like the pictures of auroras in the Polar regions which 
we see in books), and a few fragments of rays tended to 
form an inferior arch. 

For more than an hour the light of this aurora was 
steady; but about 11.30 p.m. pulsations first began to 
appear faintly, soon increasing in frequency and width. 
As the pulsations grew the arch almost insensibly disap- 
peared, but patches of light and fragments of rays 
occupied the sky above where the arch had been, and 
were every instant lighted up, as it were, by the passing 
coruscations. These flashes of light became more and 
more frequent, following each other every second, or even 
several times in a second, so as to produce at last a kind 
of rustling or dancing appearance. They were most 
intense upon the rays and patches, but were not confined 
to them. At 12.30 the display was failing, the waves 
being less frequent. At I a.m. there remained only afew 
irregular patches of faint, steady light, with occasional 
flashing waves. The light was again white, or greenish 
yellow. On neither occasion did the aurora seem to have 
the slightest relation to the ordinary vaporous clouds of 
the atmosphere, nor did the dark space beneath the arch 
seem to be more than might be explained as the effect of 
contrast. 

Mr. Thomas Bennett, who is well known to all Nor- 
wegian travellers, and has resided many years in Christi- 
ania, informed me that the aurora of the 12th was 
probably the finest he had ever seen among the many 


grand displays which occur in Norway. Though I have 
witnessed several fine auroras, including some of those 
seen in the United States in August and September, 1859, 
and two fine displays of the Aurora Australis (September 
14 and 16, 1854), I cannot call to mind that I ever saw 
coruscations or waves of electric light at all approaching 
those seen at Christiania on this occasion. The books 
say comparatively little about these coruscations, nor do 
the letters in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 361, mention them as 
seen in England. Yet they probably represent the most 
important part of the phenomenon, the active discharge of 
electric energy. 

I neither saw nor heard anything in Norway of an 
aurora on the night of August 11. About the dates I give 
there can be no possible mistake, because the steamboat 
from Christiania to Hull departed as usual on Friday 
evening (August 13). The times mentioned are the local 
times by the public clock at the Christiania University 
Buildings. W. STANLEY JEVONS 


P.S.—The above account was mostly written a few 
days after my return to London, according to notes taken 
at the time. I print it now for what it may be worth. 
After thinking the matter over for three months, and 
comparing the auroral coruscations above described with 
the exquisite discoveries of Mr. Crookes, taking into 
account also some remarks in the article on auroras in 
the new edition of the ‘‘Encyclopzedia Britannica,” I 
venture to make the suggestion that these corusca- 
tions arise from highly tenuous matter (in what Mr. 
Crookes calls the radiant state) projected through the 
higher parts of the atmosphere. It is not possible 
by words to give an impression of such a phenomenon 
in the least degree approaching to that naturally acquired 
by watching it under favourable circumstances for several 
hours. My belief is, that during the auroras described, 
puffs, as it were, of radiant matter were discharged at 
a great elevation above the earth’s surface, and the 
luminosity of these puffs perhaps arises from conflicts 
between the projected molecules and those already spread 
about the almost vacuous space. The arch and most of 
the streamers probably belong to a lower, though still a 
very high part of the earth’s atmosphere, but certain of 
the streamers, as well as patches of luminous matter seen 
on the night of the 13th, certainly exist in the lofty regions 
through which the :adiant matter is projected. The ex- 
planation of the streamers must probably be approached 
through that of the coruscations, but they are effects of a 
very different kind. W..S. J- 

November 22 


THE INFLUENCE OF A TUNING-FORK ON 
THE GARDEN SPIDER ; 


AVING made some observations on the garden 

spider which are I believe new, I send a short 

account of them in the hope that they may be of interest 
to the readers of NATURE. 

Last autumn, while watching some spiders spinning 
their beautiful geometrical webs, it occurred to me to try 
what effect a tuning-fork would have upon them. On 
sounding an A fork and lightly touching with it any leaf 
or other support of the web or any portion of the web 
itself, I found that the spider, if at the centre of the web, 
rapidly slews round so as to face the direction of the fork, 
feeling with its fore feet along which radial thread the 
vibration travels. Having become satisfied on this point, 
it next darts along that thread till it reaches either the 
fork itself or a junction of two or more threads, the right 
one of which it instantly determines as before. If the 
fork is not removed when the spider has arrived it seems 
to have the same charm as any fly: for the spider seizes 
it, embraces it, and runs about on the legs of the fork 
as often as it is made to sound, never seeming to learn 


150 


NATURE 


[Dec. 16, 1880 


by experience that other things may buzz besides its 
natural food. 

If the spider is not at the centre of the web at the time 
that the fork is applied, it cannot tell which way to go 
until it has been to the centre to ascertain which radial 
thread is vibrating, unless of course it should happen to 
be on that particular thread or on a stretched supporting 
thread in contact with the fork. 

If when a spider has been enticed to the edge of the 
web the fork is withdrawn and then gradually brought 
near, the spider is aware of its presence and of its direc- 
tion, and reaches out as far as possible in the direction of 
the fork ; but if a sounding fork is gradually brought near 
a spider that has not been disturbed, but which is waiting 
as usual in the middle of the web, then instead of reaching 
out towards the fork the spider instantly drops—at the 
end of a thread of course. If under these conditions the 
fork is made to touch any part of the web, the spider is 
aware of the fact and climbs the thread and reaches the 
fork with marvellous rapidity. The spider never leaves 
the centre of the web without a thread along which to 
travel back. If after enticing a spider out we cut this 
thread with a pair of scissors, the spider seems to be 
unable to get back without doing considerable damage to 
the web, generally gumming together the sticky parallel 
threads in groups of three and four. 

By means of a tuning-fork a spider may be made to eat 
what it would otherwise avoid. I took a fly that had 
been drowned in paraffin and put it into a spider's web 
and then attracted the spider by touching the fly with a 
fork. When the spider had come to the conclusion that 
it was not suitable food and was leaving it, I touched the 
fly again. This had the same effect as before, and as 
often as the spider began to leave the fly I again touched 
it, and by this means compelled the spider to eat a large 
portion of the fly. 

The few house-spiders that I have found do not seem 
to appreciate the tuning-fork, but retreat into their hiding- 
places as when frightened; yet the supposed fondness of 
spiders for music must surely have some connection with 
these observations, and when they come out to listen is it 
not that they cannot tell which way to proceed ? 

The few observations that I have made are necessarily 
imperfect, but I send them, as they afford a method which 
might lead a naturalist to notice habits otherwise difficult 
to observe, and so to arrive at conclusions which I in my 
ignorance of natural history must leave to others. 

C. V. Boys 

Physical Laboratory, South Kensington 


THE MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT 
BRITAIN AND IRELAND 


HERE was a time, now almost beyond the memory 
even of the oldest inhabitant, when the stillness of 

our learned halls was unbroken by the wrangle of con- 
tending geologists, when the science of geology could not 
be said yet to exist, when those who occupied themselves 
with stones found a congenial atmosphere of solemnity in 
the quiet domain of crystallography, whence with the 
boldness of adventurers they made little excursions into 
the more open and dangerous waters of chemistry. Days 
of slumberous peace as they now seem to one who turns 
Over the ponderous dusty pages in which their records 
are duly chronicled! To the mineralogist of those days 
the interest and importance of rock-masses was measured 
by their richness or poorness in mineral specimens, 
Surrounded by his cases of minerals—the reward of years 
of patient toil and judicious expenditure, with what tender 
interest would he survey his treasures! We knew him in 
old times, yea and Joved him. Enthusiastically would he 
describe how he had contrived to secure that priceless 
unique crystal; how day after day he had searched the 
rocks in vain, till at last one lucky stroke of the hammer 


laid open that magnificent druse; how he had bought 
that matchless group from a sailor who used it to keep 
down the lid of his tobacco box. Kindly too he was, 
and all the more if you took interest in his favourite 
pursuit. Ask him to tell you the difference between two 
resembling minerals, and he would launch out with evident 
relish into his “external characters.” Lovingly would he 
handle the specimens, as if they were the children of his 
old age. Eagerly would he descant upon the difference 
between “lamellar distinct concretions”; how some were 
“indeterminate curved lamellar,’ others were “ fortifi- 
cations-wise bent.” And then would follow the whole 
string of characters—“ semi-hard,” ‘‘ not particularly diffi- 
cultly frangible,” “supernatant,” “pretty cold,” “not par- 
ticularly heavy,” between “aurora-red”’ and “ hyacinth- 
red,” or between ‘‘mountain-green” and “celandine- 
green.’’ Such jargon it seemed to youthful ears! One 
could not but admire indeed its methodical precision, but 
the questions ever forced themselves on one’s mind—What 
is the living truth underlying it all? Were minerals 
really created merely as a basis for our old friend’s 
systems of classification? Orcan they not be made to 
yield up some intelligible record of their own history and 
of the planet of which they form a part ? 

When the discoveries of William Smith drew off the 
attention of students to the marvels revealed by strati- 
graphical geology, mineralogy rapidly sank into neglect 
in this country. By a curious revulsion of opinion rocks 
were now appraised as of importance in proportion as 
mere mineral specimens were absent from them, for where 
these occurred organic remains were usually not to be 
looked for; and organic remains now took the place of 
minerals. Men who would formerly have trudged cheer- 
fully a whole day with a 14-lb. hammer on their shoulders 
to secure a few minerals were now to be seen as enthu- 
siastically hunting for ammonites, gryphaeas, belemnites, 
echini, fossil fishes, and other buried treasures of the 
stratified formations. Unmeasured was the scorn of the 
veteran mineralogist for this new-fangled pursuit. To 
neglect such attractive objects as minerals, with their 
exquisite forms and colours, for the dingy and fragmentary 
relics of extinct whelks, lobsters, and other pre-adamite 
vermin seemed to him an utterly unaccountable form of 
madness. And so his beloved cabinet became dearer to 
him than ever. In its quiet retreat he lived with his 
specimens in the past, and allowed the strong rising tide 
of palzontology to rush and roar past him unheeded. 

But cycles appear in scientific as in political opinion. 
For some years past there has been a growing conviction 
that paleontology has had a long enough monopoly of 
power in the geological commonwealth, and that the mineral 
ogical side of the science has in this country been unduly 
neglected and discouraged. The attention now bestowed 
among us upon petrographical research is a pleasing proof 
of the reality and steady progress of this reaction. Another 
token of the same change is supplied by the foundation 
and encouraging growth of the Mineralogical Society of 
Great Britain and Ireland. This society was instituted 
in the early part of the year 1876. It counts among its 
members a large and increasing number of the best 
geologists in the three kingdoms. But its operations are 
carried on so quietly and unostentatiously that its work 
and aims are probably not yet so widely known as they 
deserve to be. A body gathered under the leadership of 
Sorby and Heddle is one which may count on support 
from all to whom the advancement of mineralogy 
and mineralogical geology among us is an object of 
interest. As a rule our scientific societies are bodies 
with a local habitation, gathering most of their effective 
members from the district in which their rooms are placed. 
But the Mineralogical Society, as its name denotes, 
embraces the whole United Kingdom. It has no build- 
ings of its own nor any one special home. Its meetings, 
like those of the British Association on a large scale, are 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


151 


held from time to time in different towns throughout the 
country, its object being to form a bond of union among 
those who cultivate mineralogy or who wish to see this 
science restored to the place which it ought to hold in a 
land where so much sound geological work is being done. 
The Society publishes a ‘“ Mineralogical Magazine,” of 
which three volumes and part of a fourth have already 
appeared. This publication contains numerous papers 
by Dr. Heddle and the indefatigable secretary, Mr. 
Collins, also some by Mr. Sorby, the late Mr. J. C. 
Ward, Prof. Bonney, and other well-known writers. No 
one need fear to encounter in its pages the resuscitated 
ghosts of the old mineralogical “ Dryasdusts.’”’ Peace 
to their manes! They did good though limited work 
in their day, which deserves our respect for its thorough- 
ness. But, with affectionate reverence for these early 
masters and their crabbed lingo, we breathe a more open 
breezy atmosphere now. The mineralogist’s ken sweeps 
far beyond the limits of his cabinet and laboratory. 
Hand-in-hand with the geologist and palzontologist, 
being elder brother to both, he takes his share in the 
task of unravelling the structure and history of the earth. 
Towards the attainment of this union the Mineralogical 
Society aims, and it deserves the heartiest wishes for its 
Success. ARCH. GEIKIE 


SMOKELESS LONDON 


if WRITE for the purpose of expounding a scheme 
which, if adopted, would make London a smokeless 
city. 

When taking upon myself to explain a subject in a few 
minutes which has taken many years to develop in my 
-own mind, there is a great temptation to put the reader 
in possession of the steps which led to the conclusion. 
‘The conclusion itself however has so much to recommend 
it that I will confine myself to the results of my reasoning 
only. It is enough to say that they were arrived at to a 
great extent by an exhaustive exclusion of less feasible 
plans. 

First then I propose to take advantage of the existing 
plant of the gas companies. I find they are amply 
sufficient for the purpose. 

Instead of taking 10,000 cubic feet of gas per ton from 
the coal, I propose to take 3333 cubic feet, and to pass 
three times the quantity through the retorts, or any other 
proportion that may be found most convenient. The 
result of doing so is startling. 

The companies will have double the quantity of by- 
products they have at present in the shape of tar and 
ammoniacal liquids ; the community will have 24-candle 
gas instead of 16-candle gas ; the fuel resulting from the 
process will light readily, and it will make a cheerful fire 
that gives out 20 per cent. more heat than common coal ; 
London would become a smokeless city. 

In dealing with the figures I shall take them roughly, 
ut in such a way that by including a few outlying cor- 
porations they could be made absolutely correct. 

I take the total annual consumption of coal in London 
to be 6,000,000 tons. Of this I take 2,000,000 tons to be 
the annual consumption of the gas companies. The total 
quantity of fuel used for general purposes I take to be 
4,000,000 tons of coal and 1,000,000 tons of coke sold by 
the gas companies. 

We shall now see what would be the result if we treat 
‘the whole of the 6,000,000 tons in the retorts on an ex- 
traction of less than three hours, instead of the six hours 
at present prevailing. 

The total quantity of 16-candle gas consumed in London 
may be taken at 20,000,000,000 cubic feet. This would be 
at the rate of 3333 cubic feet per ton upon 6,000,000 tons, 
the total quantity of coal consumed in London. The 
residual smokeless fuel would amount to 5,100,000 tons. 
Of this 1,000,000 tons would be required for the extraction 
- of the gas, leaving 4,100,coo available for the general 


uses of the community. This has to be compared with 
the 4,000,000 tons of coal and the 1,000,000 tons of coke 
already referred to as consumed at present. Now the 
smokeless fuel which results from an extraction of 3333 
cubic feet of gas per ton has a heating capacity fully 20 
per cent. greater than common coal, and Io per cent. 
greater than coke. This gives us the exact equivalents 
of the 5,000,000 tons of fuel at present in use. 

So far the account as regards the fuel available for the 
community balances. We may now deal with the differ 
ence in value between 16 and 24-candle gas. As the 
value of the gas varies directly as its illuminating power, 
the calculation is very simple. If we take the average 
price of 16-candle-gas to be 3s. 6¢. per thousand cubic feet 
we shall find the total value of the 20,000,000,000 consumed 
in London to be 3,500,000/7., but as we have by my 
scheme the same quantity of 24-candle-gas, the value will 
be increased to 5,250,000/.; here then we have an annual 
sum of 1,750,000/. to place to the credit of the system. 

Turning now to the by-products: seeing the gas 
companies by the new arrangements would subject three 
times the quantity of coal to the heat of their retorts 
during the period when the tar and ammoniacal liquors 
pass off most rapidly, I do not think I am wrong in 
estimating the yield at double its present amount. Taking 
this upon the tar and ammonia to yield 3s. 9¢. per ton of 
coal, we find the total value of these by-products to be, 
at present, on the supposed consumption by the gas 
companies of 2,000,000 tons of coal per annum, 375,000/. 
This being doubled under my scheme, an additional sum 
of 375,000/. must be placed to its credit. 

But the basis upon which we have hitherto been 
arguing is that the gas companies under the proposed 
scheme are getting their coal for nothing. We have 
been supposing that the community become the pur- 
chasers of 6,000,000 tons of coal and hand it to the gas 
companies. At present London only pays for its general 
consumption on 4,000,000 tons of coal and 1,000,000 tons 
of coke. Let us now suppose that the companies pay the 
same sum annually that they do at present for their coals ; 
if so, they would pay upon 2,000,000 tons, or an annual 
amount of 1,600,000/., if their coals cost 16s. per ton. 
From this falls to be deducted the money they at present 
draw from their sales of coke, which, when taken at 6s. 
yer ton of coal carbonised under the existing system, still 
leaves a sum of 1,000,000/., which they could afford to 
pay per annum for the use of the 6,000,000 tons of fuel 
as proposed in my scheme. We will now take the total 
payments of the community for their coal to be upon 
6,000,000 tons, for which we will further suppose they 
pay at the rate of 16s per ton first cost. This would 
amount to 4,800,0007. per annum. From this falls to be 
ded.cted the 1,000,000/. contributed by the gas com- 
panies for the use of the fuel, also the 1,750,000/. charged 
on the difference between the 16- and 24-candle gas 
already referred to, also the sum of 375,000/. of additional 
income from the by-products. This would leave a net 
sum paid by the community for its fuel under my scheme 
of 1,675,000/. Under the present system they have to 
pay, say 16s, per ton on 4,000,000 tons of coal, and say 
I25, per ton on 1,000,000 tons of coke. This makes in 
all the sum of 3,800,000 per annum. Here then we have 
a balance in favour of my scheme of 2,125,000/, annually. 
This may be taken as the yearly value of London smoke, 
which I propose to convert into useful products by che 
plant at present in use. _ 

I have only in conclusion to say one or two words about 
the efficiency of the scheme as regards the fuel. _It lights 
easily, it gives off no smoke, it makes a cheerful fire, it 
gives out more heat than either coal or coke, it will be 
cheaper per heat-unit than the coal at present in use, 
London would become a smokeless city, and all that 
would fall to be deducted from the sum of 2,125,000/. per 
annum would be confined to a few items, such as the cost 


>? 


~ 
or 


of additional workmen employed in charging the retorts, 
interest upon additional capital required for transit 


appliances, and the terms to be made with the gas | 


companies for carrying out the scheme.* 

I cannot close without acknowledging the help I have 
received from Mr. Wallace, the gas manager at Woolwich 
Arsenal, and the valuable information obtained from Mr. 
Field’s tabulated accounts of the London gas companies. 


So far as I am aware my contributions to the Bu/der | 
and elsewhere are the only writing on the subject of my | 


scheme that has ever been made public. 
W. D. Scorr MONCRIEFF 


Westminster, December 13 


NEW GUINEA®* 


F the few travellers who have attempted to explore 
the great island of New Guinea, Signor D’Albertis 
must undoubtedly be considered the chief, since he alone 


NAT 


URE [ Dec, 16, 1880 


has made extensive and repeated journeys both in the 
north-western andthe south-eastern parts of the island, and 
has thus been able to examine and compare some of the 
| most distinct tribes or races which inhabit the country. 
The narrative of his travels has therefore been looked for 
with some interest, for though several of his journeys 
have been more or less fully described in newspapers and 
magazines, it was felt that much must remain to be told, 
and that so energetic a traveller would probably be able 
to throw some fuller light on the hitherto doubtful 
| affinities and relations of the Papuan races. 

Leaving Genoa in November, 1871, in company with 
the well-known traveller and botanist Dr. Beccari, and 
making short excursions in Java and the Moluccas, our 
travellers hired a small schooner at Amboyna in March, 
1872, to take them to Outanata, on the south coast of 
New Guinea; and after some delays at Goram seeking a 
pilot and interpreter, on April 9 D’ Albertis records in his 
journal: ‘‘A memorable day! At last I tread the mys- 


Fic. 1.—Mount Yule Range, seen from Yule Island. 


terious land. At last, leaping on shore this morning, I 
exclaimed, ‘ We are in New Guinea!’”’ 

Finding no safe or convenient place to stay at on the 
south coast, they proceeded to Salwati and fixed their 
abode for some time at Sorong, a small island close to the 
north-western extremity of the main land of Papua. From 
this point they made excursions into the interior, and 
D’Albertis resided some time at the inland village of Ramoi, 
where he was near dying of dropsy and fever. They then 
went in a native vessel to Dorey Harbour, where they 
arrived in August, and sttled themselves at Andai Village, 


* By experiment I find that the greater heating power of the fuel in 
excess of the coke more than makes up for the cooling which takes place on 
account of the more frequent charging of the retorts. 

2 **New Guinea: What I Did and Wkat I Saw.’”’ By L. M. D’Albertis, 
Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy, &c., &ce In two volumes. 
(London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivingten, 188¢.) 


| where a German missionary resides. Here they hada 
house built, which was their headquarters till November, 
and D’Albertis succeeded in spending some weeks at 
Hatam, a village on Mount Arfak, about 3500 feet above 
the sea, and in the midst of the forests inhabited by the 
finest and rarest of the birds of paradise. On the very 
| day after his arrival here he shot both the shielded and 
the six-shafted paradise-birds (Lophorina atra and Parotia 
| sexpennis), two species which had certainly never before 
| been seen alive or freshly killed by any European ; and 


| before he left this spot he obtained many other rare 
| species, besides an altogether new and beautiful kind, 
which has been named Dyepanornis albertistt. 

Constant attacks of fever and dropsy, however, reduced 
him to such a state of weakness that it was absolutely 


| necessary to seek a change of climate, and returning to 


Dec. 16, 1880} 


NATURE 


153 


Amboyna he was taken by an Italian man-of-war to 
Sydney, making some stay at the Aru Islands and South- 
Eastern New Guinea on the way. Thence he went 
home by way of the Sandwich Islands, San Francisco, 
and New York, reaching Europe in April, 1874, and thus 
terminating his first voyage to the far east. 

When leaving Dorey in the end of 1872 he had deter- 
mined to return to the north coast and to penetrate further 
into its forest-clad mountains, but the subsequent journeys 
of Dr. Mayer, of which he heard at Sydney, and Dr. 
Beccari’s intention to return to the same district, induced 
him to turn his attention to the south, where he had 
obtained from the natives the skin of a new bird of 
paradise, and where the lofty ranges of Mount Yule and 
Mount Stanley offered the prospect of an equally rich 
and still less known exploring ground. Accordingly, in 
December 1874, he reached Somerset (Cape York) by 
way of Singapore, with the intention of settling at Yule 
Island, which he had before fixed upon as convenient 
head-quarters for the exploration of Southern New Guinea. 
After some difficulty and delay he reached the island on 
March 17, and finding the natives friendly obtained 
permission to occupy some land and build a_ house. 
Here he stayed till November, having with him a young 
Italian, two Cingalese, and five Polynesians; making 
large collections of natural history, exploring the island 
and the shores of the mainland, but being quite un- 
successful in his attempts to reach even the foot of the 
great mountains of the interior. 


This completes the first volume, which contains by far | 


the most interesting matter both to the naturalist and to 
the general reader. The second volume is devoted to a 
detailed journal of three successive voyages up the Fly 
River, the first in the missionary steamer Z//angowan, 
the two others in a small steam-launch, the /Veva, lent 
him by the Governor of New South Wales. On the 


second and most successful of these voyages D’Albertis | 


penetrated to the very centre of the great southern mass 
of New Guinea, reaching the hilly country, but not the 
great central range of mountains, of which afew glimpses 
were obtained at a considerable distance. 

The first impression produced by the careful perusal of 
these volumes is, that Signor D’Albertis has all the best 
qualities of an explorer—enthusiasm, boldness, and re- 
source, a deep love of nature, great humanity, and an 
amount of sympathy with savages which enables him to 
read their motives and appreciate the good qualities 
which they possess. To the character of a scientific 
traveller he makes no claim, and those who expect to find 
any sound generalisations from the results of his observa- 
tions will in all probability be disappointed. Let us, 
however, by a few examples and illustrative passages, 
enable our author to speak for himself, 

While residing at the village of Ramoi he became 
prostrated by fever, and was besides almost starving, for 
the natives would sell him nothing neither would they 
carry his baggage to enable him to return to Sorong. 
Determining however not to die there without an effort, 
he sent for some of the chiefs to speak to him, and then 
grasping his loaded revolver assured them that unless 
they gave him men at once to assist him to leave the 
place not one of them should quit his hut alive. The 
plan succeeded. One was allowed to go and fetch the 
men, the others remaining as hostages, and the revolver 
never left his hand till his baggage was all on board the 
canoe. A little later when the travellers were on their 
way to Dorey, the native crew were very insolent, and 
boasted that when they reached their own country they 
would kill all the white men. D’Albertis, hearing this, 
asked the man if he dared to repeat it, and on his 
doing so suddenly seized him by the throat and pitched 
him overboard. He was, of course, on board again in a 
moment, and instantly seized a bamboo to attack our 
travellers, but they exhibited their revolvers, and so cowed 


the whole crew that they became quiet and submissive for 
the rest of the voyage. An admirable portrait of one of 
these Dorey Papuans (Fanduri) is given, and the present 
writer can almost believe that he recognises in it one of 
his own acquaintances at Dorey in 1858. 

More amusing was the way in which Signor D’Albertis 
made use of the aneroid on his journey to Hatam. His 
porters, who had agreed to take him there for a fixed 
payment, stopped at a village to rest; and on being told 
to go on, said, “ This is Hatam; pay us our wages.” He 
knew however, both by the distance and elevation, that 
that they were deceiving him, and told them so, but they 
again said, “This is Hatam ; pay us. How do you know 
that this is not Hatam?’? He then took his aneroid out 
of his pocket, and laying his finger on a point of the scale, 
said, “ Here is Hatam; this thing tells me where it is;” 
and then explained that when they got higher up the moun- 
tain the index would move, and when they reached Hatam 
it would come to the point he had marked. This asto- 
nished them greatly, but they would not believe it without 


Fic. 2.—Fanduri, a Dorey Papuan 


proof. So he let one of them carry it himself to the top 
of a small hill near, when they saw that the index had 
moved, and on coming down that it moved back againt 
This quite satisfied them. They acknowledged that the 
white man knew where he was going, and could not be 
deceived, so they at once said, “Let us rest to-day ; to- 
morrow we will go to Hatam.’’ Of course every man 
and woman in the village wanted to see the little thing 
that told the stranger where lay the most remote villages 
of the forest; and thus the traveller’s influence was 
increased, and perhaps his personal safety secured. 

In his second journey he provided himself with dyna- 
mite and rockets, which were very effectual in frightening 
the savages and giving him moral power over them. At 
Yule Island he was on excellent terms with the natives, 
on whom he conferred many benefits. Yet during his 
absence on an exploration his house was entered and a 
large quantity of goods stolen. In recovering these and 
firmly establishing his power and influence he showed 
great ingenuity. Calling the chiefs and other natives 


154 
tozether—who all pretended great regret at his loss, 
though the robbery must have been effected with their con- 
nivance—he told them that he was determined to have 
his property back, and that if it was not brought in 
twenty-four hours he would fire at every native who came 
within range of his house, which fortunately commanded 
a great extent of native paths, as well as the narrow strait 
between the island and the main land. He then made 
his preparations for a desperate defence in case he was 
attacked, loaded some Orsini shells and mined the paths 
leading to his house, so that with a long match he could 
blow them up without exposing himself. At the end of 
the twenty-four hours, nothing having been brought, he 
commenced operations by exploding five dynamite car- 
tridges, which made a roar like that of a cannonade, the 
echoes resounding for several seconds. He then let off 
rockets in the direction of the native houses, and illumin- 


NATURE 


[Dec. 16, 1880 


ated his own house with Bengal fire. All this caused 
terrible consternation; and the next morning the chief 
arrived with five men, bringing a considerable portion of 
the stolen goods, and trembling with fear to such an 
extent that some of them could not articulate a word. 
He insisted however that the rest of the goods should be 
brought back; and the next day, to show that he was in 
earnest, fired at the chief himself, as he was passing at a 
distance of 300 yards, being careful not to hurt, but only 
to frighten him. A canoe was also turned back by a 
bullet striking a rock close by it. The effect of this 
was seen next morning in another visit from the chief, 
with five complete suits of clothes, axes, knives, beads, 
and other stolen articles. Much more, however, remained, 
and D’Albertis took the opportunity of impressing them 
thoroughly with his power. He first asked them to try to 
pierce a strong piece of zinc with their spears, which were 


Fic. 3.—Epa, a Village of the Mahori-papuans. 


blunted by the attempt, while he riddled it through and 
through with shot from his gun. He also sent bullets into 


the trunk of a small treea hundred yards distant, showing | 


that a man could not escape him. ‘They had been seated 


on a large stone near his house, which he had mined. He | 
now called them away, and having secretly lighted the | 


match, told them to look at the stone. A tremendous ex- 
plosion soon came, and the stone disappeared. The 
natives were too frightened to move, and begged him to 
have pity on them, promising to restore everything. A 


great hole was seen where the stone had stood, while some | 


of its fragments were found a long way off. For twelve 
days more he kept up a state of siege, turning back all 
travellers and many canoes by rifle-balls in front of them, 
but never hurting any one. Then another large instalment 
of his goods was brought, leaving little of importance, and 
ultimately he recovered almost everything. During the 


whole of this time he never hurt a single person or did 
any damage to their property, but succeeded in getting 
back his own by impressing them with his, to them, 
superhuman power. The result was that after eight 
months’ residence he parted from these people on the 
best of terms. They all embraced him, and most of them 
shed tears, while their last words were: “JZarvia rau! 
| Maria rau!” ‘Return, Maria! Return, Maria !”—that 
being his second name, by which they had found it most 
easy to call him. : 
As a fearless capturer of snakes Signor D’Albertis 
rivals, if he does not surpass, the celebrated Waterton ; 
indeed he seems to like them rather than otherwise. At 
Yule Island the natives had found a large snake under a 
tree, and all ran away from it, crying out, and this is his 
account of what happened :— ; 
“At last I went to the natives and tried to ascertain 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


155 


the cause of their conduct, and they made me under- 
stand why they had fled. I then returned to see the 
snake myself, which in fact I did, although two-thirds of 
its length were hidden in a hole in the earth. His size 
was such that I concluded he could not be poisonous, 
and I at once grasped him by the tail. While dragging 
him out of his lair with my two hands I was prepared to 
flatten his neck close to his head with one foot the 
moment he emerged, so that he should not have the 
power of turning or moving. My plan succeeded per- 
fectly, and while the snake’s head was imprisoned under 
my foot I grasped his body with my hands, and, as 
though I had vanquished a terrible monster, turned 
towards the natives with an air of triumph. They, struck 
with terror, had looked on at the scene from a safe 
distance. I must confess that the snake offered little 
resistance, although it writhed and twisted itself round 
my arm, squeezing it so tightly as to stop the circulation, 
and make my hand black. I remained however in pos- 
session of its neck, and soon secured it firmly to a long 
thick stick I had brought with me. I then gave the 
reptile to my men to carry home.” This serpent was 
thirteen feet long, whereas the one Waterton caught 
single-handed was but ten feet, though it might have 
been equally powerful. This snake was kept alive and 
became quite tame, and when the natives saw D’Albertis 
kiss its head and let it coil round his legs they howled 
with amazement and admiration. Six weeks after the 
capture he writes :—‘‘ My snake continues to do well; it 
has twice cast its skin, is well-behaved and tame, and 
does not attempt to escape, even when I put it in the sun 
outside the house; and when I go to bring it in, it comes 
to me of its own accord. It never attempts to bite, even 
when I caress or tease it. While I am working I often 
hold it on my knees, where it remains for hours; some- 
times it raises its head, and licks my face with its forked 
tongue. It is a true friend and companion to me, 
When the natives bother me it is useful in putting 
them to flight, for they are much afraid of it; it is quite 
sufficient for me to let my snake loose to make them fly 
at full speed.” He kept this serpent for nearly six months, 
and latterly another of the same species with it, till at 
last both escaped, and he mourns their loss as of dear 
friends, adding, “‘for I loved them and ‘they loved me, 
and we had passed a long time together.” 

The furthest village on the mainland visited by D’Al- 
bertis was Epa, where he lived five days, and of which 
he gives a very pleasing account. It is about 1500 feet 
above the sea, but a very short distance from the coast. 
The village is surrounded by a strong double stockade, 
and the people appear to be good specimens of the supe- 
tior Mahori-Papuan race. By the aid of these people it 
would probably not have been difficult to penetrate to the 
mountains of the interior, but our traveller was drawn 
away by the opportunity of exploring the Fly River, and 
has left the exploration of this grand mountain range 
with its rich natural treasures for some future exploration or 
some other explorer, Having thus sketched the outline 
of Signor D’Albertis’ eastern voyages and indicated his 
main characteristics as a traveller and an author, let us 
see what he has to tell us about the people among whom 
he travelled. 

ALFRED R. WALLACE 


( To be continued.) 


PROF. F. C. WATSON. 


WE regret to have to record the death of Prof. Watson, 

for many years director of the Observatory of 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, and later of the new Observatory 
established at Madison, Wisconsin, under the auspices of 
General Washburne. 


James Craig Watson was born on January 28, 1838, in 
Elgin County, Canada West, of American parents who 
were residing in Canada at the time of his birth. While 
he was still a boy they removed to Ann Arbor, where at 
fifteen years of age he entered the University as a 
classical student, but his mathematical bias soon became 
evident. He studied astronomy under Prof. Briinnow, 
who was then in charge of the Ann Arbor Observatory, 
and Professor of Astronomy in the University, and while 
the latter was director of the Dudley Observatory at 
Albany, Watson occupied his place at Ann Arbor. In 
1860, when Prof Briinnow returned there, he was trans- 
ferred to the Chair of Physics, which position he held 
until Prof. Briinnow finally severed his connection with 
Ann Arbor in 1863, when Watson was again appointed 
director of the Observatory. From this time his atten- 
tion was chiefly directed to the discovery of minor 
planets, with which view he formed charts of very small 
stars; he had also in view the possible detection of an 
ultra-Neptunian planet, and it has been stated that 
latterly he had been more particularly working with this 
object, and had removed from Ann Arbor to Madison, to 
avail himself of the more powerful instrumental means 
at the latter place, where the refractor has an aperture of 
16 inches, that of the Ann Arbor telescope being 12}. 
Watson added twenty-three members to the group of 
small planets, his first discovery being that of Eurynome 
in September, 1863. 

In 1870 Watson proceeded to Sicily at the head of a 
Commission appointed by the United States Government 
to observe the total eclipse of the sun on December 22, and 
in 1874 he went to Pekin in charge of a similar Commission 
for the observation of the transit of Venus. While at 
Pekin he discovered No. 139 of the minor planet group, 
and it was stated at the time that the discovery was effected 
entirely through Watson’s extraordinary recollection of 
the configuration of the small stars in the neighbourhood. 
where the planet was situated (R.A. oh. 58m. 15s., Decl. 
+ 10° 44’). A member of the Imperial family who had 
been asked to name the planet, called it the “Hope 
of China”; /ewa, the name by which it has since 
been known, being an Anglicisation of the Chinese 
term. 

Watson’s observations of two objects during the 
totality of the eclipse of July 29, 1878, which he con- 
sidered to be intra-Mercurial planets, will be fresh in 
the recollection of the reader: there is no doubt that 
whatever opinion may have been entertained by other 
astronomers, he was himself convinced that he had met 
with planetary bodies, and he stoutly defended his opinion 
against the doubts raised in his own country. 

Watson was the author of a valuable work upon 
Theoretical Astronomy, published in 1867, upon which his 
reputation as an author mainly depends. He was a 
member of the principal scientific institutions of the 
United States, and his merits were acknowledged by 
several of the European Academies; he received the 
Lalande Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1870 
for his numerous planetary discoveries. 

The death of Prof. Watson took place somewhat 
suddenly on the morning of November 23, at his resi- 
dence on Observatory Hill, Madison, Wisconsin, and is 
attributed to intestinal inflammation, following upon a 
severe cold, in an overstrained condition of body: he 
had been working hard as usual at night, while super- 
intending the completion of the Observatory buildings by 
day. He was buried at Ann Arbor on November 26 ; 
memorial services were held in the University hall, and 
were attended by a body of between seven and eight 
hundred students, and a large concourse of the general 
public, addresses being delivered by the President and 
several Professors of the University, of which the 
Ann Arbor and Detroit journals furnish lengthy re- 
ports. 


on 


NOTES 


Tur subscription opened by the Paris Academy of Sciences 
for raising a statue te M. Becquerel, the celebrated electrician, is 
almost closed, having produced 15,000 francs; only 1500 francs 
more are required. Those wishing to subscribe should send their 
contributions to M. Maindron, at the Academy of Sciences, as 
early as possible. 


Last week M. Moll, the doyen of the Professors of the Con- 
servatoires des Arts et Métiers, died in Paris. He was the 
oldest teacher of agriculture and one of the first, haying been 
one of the staff of the celebrated Rouville fevme-ccole, established 
about sixty years ago. 


Tue Nestor of German bryologists, Prof. Ernst Hampe, died 
at Helmstedt on November 23 at the age of eighty-five years. 


ON Noy. 23 the first section of the St. Petersburg Academy of 
Sciences (physico-mathematical sciences) had to choosea member 
inchemistry, and aninfluentially-signed presentationrecommended 
Prof. Mendelejef to the choice of the Academy. The Academy 
would certainly have done’ itself honour .in choosing a man of 
such eminence in science, but we regret that Prof. Mendelejef was 
not elected. This is held locally to show that the Academy is influ- 
enced in its selection by other reasons than the value of a candi- 
date’s scientific work. The impression on the public in general, 
we believe, is very unfavourable to the Academy; not a day 
passes, we are informed, that Prof. Mendelejef does not receive 
letters and telegrams from men eminent in science expressing 
admiration for his works, Many scientific societies have made 
him an honorary member, and only the other day the University 
of Moscow did the same. i 


AN interesting collection is being made by M. Dumas of 
medals commemorative either of scientific men or scientific dis- 
coveries. The number already collected is far greater than had 
been expected. 


Lieut. JuLtus Paver, one of the leaders of the Austrian 
North Polar Expedition of 1872-74, has settled at Munich with 
the intention of devoting himself exclusively to the art of 
painting, 


THE central committee for the erection of a Spinoza monument 
at the Hague have, before their dissolution, resolved to utilise 
the remaining balance of funds in their hands for publishing a 
new and handsome edition of the complete works of the great 
philosopher. Doctors J. van Vloten and J. P. N. Land have 
been commissioned to prepare the new edition. In the interest 
of this laudable undertaking the friendly request is now addressed 
to all librarians and possessors of autographs to communicate 
with these gentlemen regarding any autographs of Spinoza which 
may be in their possession, in order to render the edition as 
complete as possible. Communications are to be addressed to 
the publishing firm of Martinus Nijhoff at the Hague. 


A stRONG shock of earthquake was felt at Wiesbaden on the 
night of the 8th instant, at eleven o'clock; the shock was 
directed from north to south. A strong subterranean noise 
preceded it, and a violent wind of short duration was ob- 
served. Another shock is reported from Saxony. A fresh 
violent shock lasting two seconds occurred at Agram at 
twenty-seven minutes after midnight of the 7th. Subterranean 
rumblings followed the shock and continued to be heard through- 
out the night. As on the last occasion the shock was accom- 
panied by distant storms and preceded by a slight vibration. 
On Wednesday night last week there was a strong earthquake 
shock at Agram which lasted six seconds, It was preceded by a 
loud rumbling. On the day previous the earth trembled for an hour 
together. That of Wednesday night was the strongest shock 


6 NATURE 


| Dec. 16, 1850 


since the first. Two walls fell in and the houses shook, On 
Thursday evening last six slight shocks were felt at Vienna. At 
Agram there were two violent shocks at half-past two and half- 
past three o’clock inthe morning. A shock of earthquake was 
felt at Brescia on the afternoon of the 1oth, accompanied with 
a rumbling noise. 


PROF. RUDOLPH FALB gaye a lecture in the Vienna Gewerbe 
Museum on November 27, in which he said that earth- 
quakes are subterranean volcanic outbreaks, produced by the 
cooling action of the hot liquid interior of the earth and the 
attraction of the sun and moon. In support of this view he 
urged that most earthquakes occur at the time when the sun is 
nearest us, viz., in January, fewest in June; also the number of 
earthquakes increases in the months of April and- October, 
because of the stronger attraction of the sun on March 21 and 
September 23. He said further that in the period December 
16-30 this year fresh earthquakes might occur at Agram, 


A NEW and somewhat bold hypothesis as to the cause of 
earthquakes has been propounded by Dr. Novak in Pesth. He 
considers that, besides the rotation of the earth on its axis and 
its revolution round the sun, a multiplicity of motions of the 
earth appear in space, in virtue of which the earth’s axis, and 
with it the equator, shift their position, This causes a variation 
of the forces influencing the earth’s form (centrifugal and centri- 
petal force), and the earth has the tendency to adapt itself to 
this change. He also considers a change of form of the earth 
to occur through the shifting of the pole and the equator, and 
that this may have effect some time afterwards, where the earth’s 
crust is weak. 


We are requested by the Sunday Society to announce the 
following arrangements for the Sunday opening of the Winter 
Exhibition of Oil Paintings at the Hanover Gallery, New Bond 
Street, by permission of the proprietor, Mr. Weil. On Sunday, 
December 26, the Gallery will be open to the Members of the 
Society, and on the two following Sundays the public will be 
admitted by free tickets, which will be issued to those applying 
by letter and sending a stamped and addressed envelope to the 
Honorary Secretary, 8, Park Place Villas, W. On each Sunday 
ticket-holders will be admitted from 4 o’clock till 7.30 p.m., 
and the gallery will be closed at 8 o'clock. On the reassembling 
of Parliament the Society will press its claims upon both Houses 
of the Legislature by bringing forward the following resolu- 
tion :—‘‘ That inasmuch as all opposition to the action of Her 
Majesty’s Government in opening on Sundays the National 
Museums and Galleries in the suburban districts of London and 
in Dublin*has entirely ceased, owing to the good results which 
have followed such opening, this House is of opinion that the 
time has now arrived for extending this action to all institutions 
of a like character, it having been most conclusively shown that 
large numbers of the people rejoice in every opportunity that is 
afforded them of spending Sunday intelligently and with due 
regard for its preservation as a day of rest and cessation from 
ordinary work and amusement.” 


Some information regarding the observatory at Nice, now in 
course of construction through the munificence of M. Bischofis- 
heim, is given by M. Tissandier in Za Mature. Some 35 
hectares of ground have been acquired. The situation is a few 
kilometres north-east of Nice, near the road from Corniche over 
the Mont des Mignons (or Mont Gros), and 375m. above the 
sea, There are to be two large dwelling-houses for astronomers 
and for accommodation of visitors. One is already finished, and 
M. Thollon has there done some excellent work in spectroscopy. 
More than 250 workmen are at present busy on the buildings. 
Some of the instruments will shortly be ready. The whole is 
being organised under the auspices of the Bureau des Longitudes. 


ratus in the world. 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


157 


eS 
The Observatory will comprise at first two equatorials, one 
meridian, and several accessory instruments. One of the 
equatorials will probably be the largest astronomical appa- 
Its focal distance will be 18 metres, and its 
aperture 0°76m. The cupola will have a diameter of no less 
than 22m, The construction of the object-glass is entrusted to 
‘MM. Paul and Prosper Henry of the Paris Observatory. The 
instrument alone will cost about 250,009 francs, and the cupola 
will be correspondingly expensive. The total cost of the Obser- 
vatory will exceed two million francs. 


An interesting pamphlet on the subject of the introduction of 
hypotheses in school education has been published by Dr. 
Hermann Miiller of Lippstadt (Bonn, Strauss). Dr. Miiller 
writes in self-defence and in reply to Prof. Virchow, whose 
controversy with Prof. Hickel on this subject some years ago 
will be remembered. 


Amonc other useful matter in the ‘British Almanac and 
Companion” for 1881 is a summary of the science of the past 
year, by Mr. J. F. Iselin, which is good so far as it goes, but 
that is necessarily not very far. There is also an article on 
‘Weather Forecasting,” by Mr. R. H. Scott, and a ‘Sketch 
of the History of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,” by Mr. 
W. T. Lynn. 


Tue Report of Mr. Morris, the Director of Public Gardens 
and Plantations in Jamaica, on the financial results of the last 
consignment of Cinchona barks sent to the London market, is 
extremely satisfactory, inasmuch as it shows the superiority of 
Jamaica barks over those of Ceylon, as indicated by the prices 
realised. The consignment referred to in the present Report 
consisted of eighty-one bales, in which the several species under 
cultivation were represented, crown bark from C, officinalis and 
red bark from C. swccirubra forming by far the largest propor- 
tion. The total amount realised for these eighty-one bales was 


-1313/. 11s. 7d. For all the different kinds, whether ‘‘ quill,” 


“trunk,” “root,” or “twig” bark, the prices realised were in 
excess of those obtained for the same kinds of Ceylon barks, to 
the extent even in some cases of 25. 9¢. per pound, Mr. Morris 
draws attention to the fact that from the recent sales the relative 
merits of the two principal species under cultivation, namely, 
the crown or grey bark (C. officinalis) and the red bark (C. 
succirubra) have become very distinctly marked. The first- 
named species has proved to be a most valuable product, and 
whatever changes and fluctuations may ultimately take place in 
view of the more extensive cultivation of Cinchona in different 
parts of the world, high-class bark of this nature must always 
command good and remunerative prices. The conclusion arrived 
at is that the conditions of soil and climate of certain parts of 
Jamaica are ‘eminently favourable to the production of the 
best qualities of these valuable products, and as large tracts of 
land and the necessary labour are now available, there are only 
wanting sufficient capital and energy to overcome the initial 
difficulties of this enterprise.” 


Tue buds of the second vegetation in Paris which we noticed 
in October were killed by the frosty weather in the beginning of 
November, but a new vegetable phenomenon has been seen in the 
Champs Elysées. Owing to the exceptional hot weather prevailing 
in December new leaves have been observed on a few trees, and 
were flourishing at the date of our most recent observations. 


THE Bill relating to the forthcoming exhibition of electricity 
in Paris has been presented to the Chamber. M. Cochéry asks 
for a credit of 300,000 francs—150,000 for the exhibition and 
150,000 for the Congress and experiments. A guarantee fund of 
20,0007. has been signed by fifty persons. 


A USEFUL pamphlet on Bedroom Ventilation has been 
published by Mr. Lawson Tait of Birmingham. 


THE American Entomologist has been incorporated with the 
American Naturalist. 


THE rare phenomenon of an inverted rainbow was observed at 
Innsbruck on November 28 at 8.45 a.m. The end-points of the 
semicircle, the centre of which was the sun, rose and moved 
westwards with the latter for some thirty minutes. The pheno? 
menon then vanished. 


A VALUABLE discovery has been made at Jochenstein, near 
Obernzell (Bavariz), A farmer of Jochenstein had frequently 
noticed a stone plate, of some 14 metres square, in the centre of 
a wood belonging to him. He had the plate raised recently, and 
under it were found six head-rings, four spiral bracelets, each 
showing nine twists, and two battle-axes. All the objects are 
of bronze and capitally preserved. 


THE second part of ‘‘The Scientific English Reader” 
(Leipzig, Brockhaus), edited by Dr. I’. J. Wershoven, the first 
part of which we have already referred to, contains extracts 


relating to machinery and mechanical technology. 


Tue fourth part of Dr. Dodel-Port’s excellent ‘‘ Atlas of 
Physiological Botany ” has just been published. The six plates 
it contains are in every respect equal to those of the former 
numbers. They comprise (1) Volvox minor, germ-history of the 
oospore (this plate forms the supplement of the Volvox globator 
plate in part 1) ; (2) Zgudsetem Telmatega, sporangia and spores ; 
(3) Passifiora cerulea and P. carulea-alata ; (4) Selaginella hel- 
vetica, with macro- and microsporangia, macro- and microspores ; 
(5) Polytrichum gracile, male and female plants, moss-fruit and 
its anatomy, spores and germinating spores ; (6) Narcissus 
poeticus, seed-bud in longitudinal section at the time of fer- 
tilisation, These drawings are made according to the latest 
researches on the fertilisation of phanerogamic plants. Parts 
3-5 of the same authors’ ‘ Illustrirtes Pflanzenleben” will also 
shortly be published. 


Amon the special papers in the 4 nnuaire of the Brussels 
Observatory for 1881 are the following :—“‘ What is the Climate 
most favourable to the development of Civilisation?” ** Physical 
Phenomena accompanying the Transits of Mercury,” by M. 
Niesten ; ‘‘ Nomenclature of existing Public Observatories” ; 
‘The Asteroids,” by M. Niesten ; ‘‘ The Isthmus of Panama.” 


Tre last Calcutta Gasetde contains some official correspondence 
regarding the insect lately discovered in Monghyr, which threatens 
to become very destructive to the rice crops. The specimens 
forwarded to Mr. Wood Mason, deputy superintendent of the 
India Museum, have been identified by him as belonging to the 
genus Cecidomyia and as related to the Hessian fly which 
ravaged the wheat-fields in the United States. This genus, 
Mr. Mason says, has never before been found in India, and he 
proposes to call the species Cecidomyta oryz@, Or the rice-fly. 
He goes on to say that it is likely to prove a most formidable pest, 
and recommends that the district officers should be instructed to 
make further inquiries and carefully watch its progress. 


A RECENT number of the Go/os contains an interesting letter 
from Tiflis describing the enormous labour bestowed during the 
summer upon the destruction of the grasshoppers. The work 
was carried on for about three months, and occupied in one 
district (Gori) no less than 20,000 people per day. More than 
half these people had been summoned from the neighbouring 
districts of Achalzych, Ossetia, and Imeretia. Thanks to the 
colossal efforts thus made only 2 per cent. of the total crops of 
the district were destroyed by the grasshoppers. Many million 
roubles worth of hay and corn were saved by this work. On the 
other hand the organisation of the whole cost the Russian 
Government some 200,000 roubles, and many thousand acres of 
fields and gardens have been utterly neglected by the population 
to whom they belong. 


158 NATURE 


A RHENISH Fishery Society has just been founded at Cologne. 
It will direct its attention not only to the Rhine fisheries, but its 
programme is a most universal one, comprising even the further- 
ance and support of ichthyological research as well as the 
establishment of ichthyological stations in various countries. 


Mr. BALLER of the China Inland Mission has lately made a 
journey in the little-known province of Kweichow at the time 
when the people were engaged on their opium harvest, and he 
thus describes the process :—A small three-bladed knife is used 
to make an incision in the poppy-head as soon as the petals fall 
off. The drop or two of milky juice that oozes out is after a 
little while scraped off with a small curved knife into a bamboo 
tube, and a fresh incision made. The process is repeated until 
the supply is exhausted. The juice thus collected is dried in the 
sun, when it turns jet black, and is then ready for the market. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE COMETS OF HARTWIG AND SwiFT.—MM. Schulhof 
and Bossert have investigated the elements of comets 1880 @ and 
é, discovered respectively by Dr. Hartwig at Strasburg on 
September 29, and Mr. Lewis Swift at Rochester, New York, 
on October 11, Prof. Winnecke had conjectured that Hartwig’s 
comet might have been identical with the comets of the years 
1382, 1444, 1506, and 1569, with a period of revolution of 62} 
years. MM. Schulhof and Bossert fermed six normal positions 
between September 30 and November 29 from observations at 
Paris, Strasburg, Berlin, Leipsic, Kiel, Kremsmunster, Lund, 
Florence, Marseilles, O’Gyalla, Clinton, and Washington, and 
on varying the distances from the earth at the first and fifth 
place until the other normals were represented as closely as 
possible, arrived at an elliptical orbit, but with a period of 1280 
years: this result is necessarily uncertain under the circum- 
stances, but it nevertheless appears to render so short a revolu- 
tion as 624 years in the highest degree improbable. 

With respect to Swift’s comet, taking as the fundamental data 
the Odessa observation on October 31, a mean of Dunecht, 
Paris, and Strasburg on November 9, and an observation at 
Paris on November 27, it is found that, assuming only one revolu- 
tion to have been accomplished between 1869 and 1880, or that 
the period is 10°96 years, the middle place cannot be represented 
with sufficient precision ; when the error is diminished in longi- 
tude, it is increased in latitude. On the hypothesis that the 
period is 54 years, or that two revolutions are included in the 
above interval, the error in latitude is greatly diminished, but 
still exceeds thirty seconds of arc. This, while indicating that 
the second hypothesis is more probable than the first, is regarded 
by MM. Schulhof and Bossert as rendering so short a period as 
3% years possible, though it is admitted that it may well be due 
to errors of observation. It must be borne in mind that the 
comet has always presented itself as a faint diffused object, 
withoat that degree of condensation necessary to insure precise 


observation. The following is the ellipse of 54 years’ period :— 
Perihelion passage, 1880, November $*ooo11 G.M.T, 
Longitude of perihelion Ages) a 
m9 3, ascending node 296 51 33 roms 
Inclination) ec. ons gene) ues 5 23 32 
Anglejofexcentricity.. .... <1 .«. AlMESpes 
Logarithm of semi-axis major ... 0°492684 


With these elements the perihelion distance will be found to 
be 1°0671, and the aphelion distance 51518, and the heliocentric 
latitude at aphelion — 4° 6'*6, whence we find the distance from 
the orbit of Jupiter to be 0°53. 

MM. Schulhof and Bossert propose to continue their investi- 
gation when further observations are available: meanwhile it 
may be remarked that their ellipse of five and a half years is 
likely to afford positions sufficiently near the truth to insure the 
observation of the comet as long as it is within reach of our 
telescopes, and it may be suggested to those who are in possession 
of powerful instruments that they will render an important 
service in determining places of this comet as long and as accu- 
rately as practicable. 


THE NOVEMBER METEORS.—Notwithstanding much inter- 
ference from clouds the observers at Moncalieri, who watched 
for meteors during the nights of November 12-14, consider that 


[ Dec. 16, 1880 


they obtained evidence of the increasing density of the Leonid- 
stream, thus confirming observations made last year in England 
and the United States. One of these meteors appeared larger 
than the planet Jupiter, with an intense blue light, and a bright 
train of the same colour, It is added: ‘‘La lumiére zodiacale 
@ opposition était trés brillante vers Vorient, sur le fond pur de 
ciel, s’élevait jusqu’au dela de la queue de Lion.” 


NEAR APPULSE OF JUPITER TO A Fixep STAR.—On the 
evening of November 20 Jupiter must have approached very 
near to the star B.D. + 2° No. 97, rated 7°7 in the Durch- 
musterung, and 7°9 on December 17, 1856, when it was 
observed on the meridian at Bonn, indeed the resulting place of 
the star would bring it almost into contact with the limit of the 
planet about the time of conjunction in right ascension (gh. 4m.), 
but small errors of the star’s position and tables of Jupiter may 
have combined to leave it at an appreciable distance from the 
limb; perhaps some reader of NATURE may have determined 
micrometrically the nearest approach. The apparent place of 
the star on November 20 was in R.A, oh. 38m. 49°44s., Decl. 


+ 2° 32! 59'"9. 


BIOLOGICAL NOTES 


ANABANA LIVING IN BoTRYDIUM.—It is now well known 
that many plants belonging to the group of the Nostocs flourish 
within the cells of other plants, Thus they are to be found 
in the petioles of the leaves of Gunnera, in Lemna, in An- 
thoceros, in Blasia, and in Azolla; and it was to be expected 
that they would equally find themselves at home in the cells 
of even more lowly organised plants. An instance of this 
latter, not without interest, has been noticed by Dr. L. Mar- 
chand, who recently collected a Botrydium at Montmorency, 
which, on being examined under the microscope, was found, 
instead of containing the usual mass of granular chlorophyll, 
to be filled with a chain of moniliform filaments, presenting 
all the characters of the chaplets of a Nostoc or Anabzna. 
These filaments were composed of cells, some oblong with 
yellowish heterocysts, and they did not fill the entire cavity of the 
Botrydium cell, but seemed to adhere to its inner walls. The 
Botrydia plants were perfect ; the root-like prolongations, as well 
as the rest of the plant, were perfectly closed. How then did 
these foreign bodies get in? This is not a question easy to 
answer, but it is one well worthy of being investigated. Dr. 
Marchand calls attention to the remarkable figure of Mr. E. 
Parfitt in ‘‘ Grevillea” (vol. i. p. 103, pl. vii.), in which there 
is now little doubt, with the light thrown on the subject by Dr. 
Marchand’s specimens, that there is represented our common 
species of Botrydium with a parasitic, or better, an endophytic 
Anabzena. No doubt the cells of the Anabena in Parfitt’s 
figure are badly represented, but the observation made in Parfitt’s 
paper would seem now not to be without a special interest of 
its own. 


MESEMBRIANTHEMUM NOT MESEMBRYANTHEMUM.—Prof. 
Asa Gray, in the Botanical Gazette {(Indiana), vol. v. Nos. 8 
and 9, p. 89, thus writes:—This word is properly written 
Mesembrianthemum, by Jacob Breyne, who made the name, and 
by Dillenius, who took it up, both giving the derivation from 
Mesembria, mid-day, alluding to the time in which the blossoms 
open. But both Breyne and Dillenius themselves very often 
wrote it Mesembryanthemum; Linneus, adopting this latter, 
became consistent by making a wrong and far-fetched deriva- 
tion to match the orthography. Among systematic writers 
Sprengel almost alone keeps to the correct orthography, but 
Webb insists on it. The younger Breyne, in his edition of his 
father’s ‘‘ Prodomus,” has a note about it (p. 81). He mentions 
an excuse for changing the orthography, namely, ‘‘that some 
species do not open their blossoms at noontide,” but intimates 
that Linneus’ derivation from the insertion of the corolla around 
the middle of the germ is open to the same objection. Prof. 
Asa Gray adds, ‘‘if heeded, this kind of objection would be fatal 
to very many generic names.” 


CHLOROPHYLL IN THE EPIDERMIS OF PLANTS.—Adolf Stohr 
contributes to the Scientific Proceedings of the Vienna Academy 
a very interesting paper on the occurrence of chlorophyll in the 
epidermal tissue system of the leaves of flowering plants. He 
sums up a detailed account as follows :—While the epidermis of 
the aquatic submerged Phanerogams is usually regarded as con- 
taining chlorophyll, the epidermis of the green organs of the 
terrestrial Phanerogams is, on the contrary, considered to be 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


NATURE 


159 


_ destitute of chlorophyll. This at least is the most prevalent 
view. Exceptionally, submerged Phanerogams are found with 
an epidermis destitute of chlorophyll, and there are also some 
exceptions to the general rule quoted about the leaves of terres- 
trial Phanerogams. Now it happens that the at present prevail- 
ing view is only right in one respect, for up to the present, 
observations prove the regular appearance of chlorophyll in the 
outer layer of submerged Phanerogams. The second half of 
the prevalent view should be completely reversed, for the 
appearance of chlorophyll in the epidermis of the green organs 
of Phanerogams is the rule, and with few exceptions. The 
results of Stohr’s researches lead to the following :—t. The 
epidermis of the green organs of the broad-leaved Gymnosperms, 
and of by far the most of the terrestrial Phanerogams, contains 
chlorophyll, 2. Chlorophyll appears regularly to be absent 
from the green organs of the needle-leaved Gymnosperms and 
the terrestrial Monocotyledons. 3. Chlorophyll is in most cases 
only to be found in the under surface of the leaves, but is also 
to be met with in the leaf-petioles and stipules. It remains in 
such position during the whole life of the organ. 4. Chloro- 
phyll is seldom to be found in the upper an lower surfaces of 
the leaves at the same time. In most cases one can see that the 
chlorophyll of the cells of the epidermis of the upper surface 
of the leaf is quickly destroyed upon its formation, by the effect 
of a too intense light. 5. So far as the process of the evolution 
of the chlorophyll bodies was observed, the latter showed them- 
selves as starch-chlorophyll bodies. M. Stohr gratefully 
acknowledges that these investigations were undertaken at the 
suggestion of Prof. Wiesner, the author of a memoir, ‘‘ Ueber 
die natiirlichen Einrichtungen zum Schutze des Chlorophylls der 
lebenden Pflanze.”” The leaves of nearly one hundred species of 
plants were carefully examined, and full details of these examin- 
ations are given in the tables that accompany M. Stohr’s 
memoir. The investigations were carried out in the botanical- 
physiological laboratory of the University of Vienna, (S¢/zwngs- 
berichte d, k, Akad. Wissenschaften—mathem.-naturw, Cl., 79 
Bd., S. 87.) 


BLooD-VESSELS OF VALVES OF THE HEART.—Recent re- 
searches by Dr. Langer (Vienna Acad. 4z.) prove that several 
mammalian genera (pig, dog, bullock) have a fully-formed blood- 
vascular system both in the semilunar and the atrioventricular 
valves. On the other hand an examination of about 100 human 
hearts (of children and adults) discovered blood-vessels in the 
heart-valves only in one case, that of a woman of sixty, in 
whom they were evidently the result of a pathological process. 
Dr. Langer explains the difference by a difference in the mode of 
formation of the valves. 


LIGHT AND THE TRANSPIRATION OF PLANTs,—Dr. Comes 
(Naples Academy) finds, afer alia, that light favours transpira- 
tion ; that a little after midday transpiration is at its maximum ; 
that, other things equal, that organ transpires most which is most 
intensely coloured, and it emits most water when exposed to that 
part of the solar spectrum where it absorbs most light ; and that 
only those luminous rays which are absorbed favour transpiration 
of an organ (not the inactive rays) ; so the transpiration is mini- 
mum under the rays coinciding in colour with that of the organ, 
and maximum under the complementary rays. 


PINGuUICULA ALPINA.—Prof. Klein of Buda-Pesth publishes 
in the la-t part of Cohn’s Bettrige zur Biologie der Pflanzen an 
interesting memoir on this plant. 1. It appears in two forms: one 
bas bright green leaves; the other has more or less reddish- 
brown coloured ones. These forms however appear only to pos- 
sess the value of local varieties. 2. Pinguicula alpina is, like the 
other species of Pinguicula, an insectivorous, 7z.e. flesh-eating 
plant, but is partly also a plant-eating one. 3. Its roots are 
simple, z.¢. they do not branch, and they possess notwithstanding 
a pericambium, The cells of the bast layer have handsome, for 
the most part doubly-ridged longitudinal walls, and are the first 
formations that differ from the primary meristem of the end of 
the root. The greatest part of the root remains in respect to 
the tissue formation in an undeveloped and almost embryonic 
condition. 4. The caulome contains between the pith and bark a 
vascular ring which is characterised by very short-jointed vessels : 
these joints are bound together at the points of contact, and 
their cross walls are broken through by one siugle circular opening. 
The bundles of vessels belonging to the roots spring partly out of 
the caulomic vascular ring, partly out of the leaf-spur. 5. The 
original bending in of the edges of the leaves can be regarded as 
an advantageous arrangement in respect to the catching of insects, 


as insects cannot easily get over the edge of the leaf, and can 
therefore also be generally caught under it. 6. The cells of the 
epidermis of the leafcontain no chlorophyll, but the green-leaved 
specimens contain a colourless sap and the red-leaved ones a 
reddish sap. Besides they always possess a cell nucleus in which 
erystalloids are to be found. 7. The edge of the leaf is trans- 
parent, and consists of a single row of epidermis cells. 8, The 
epidermis of the leaves contains as well on the upper as on the lower 
side tolerably numerous stomates, which are only wanting on the 
outermost edge. Their manner of formation corresponds mostly 
to that observed in Thymus; it shows however some devia- 
tions. The stomate is surrounded by a narrow edging which is 
more strongly cuticularised than the outer walls of the epidermis 
cells. The cells of the stomates contain no crystalloids, but only 
a few very small chlorophyll bodies. 9. The epidermis of the 
upper surface develops two kinds of glands with and without 
stalks, The glands with stalks consist of a basal cell projecting 
above the epidermis ; out of this proceeds a one to four-celled 
half spherical columella, on the top of which a glandular body, 
consisting ofa layer of radially-placed cells, is placed cap-like; the 
stalkless glands are similarly built, only the stalk is wanting, the 
columella is conical, and the glandular body does not as a rule 
project more than half over the epidermis. The process of de- 
velopment is similar in both glands. 10, Stalkless glands 
appear also on the lower side of the leaf. They are only 
feebly developed, and their cap portion hardly projects over the 
epidermis.. From their presence it can be deduced that the 
various kinds of Pinguicula once only possessed stalkless glands ; 
from which in process of time both the stronger developed stalk- 
less glands and those also with stalks became developed on the 
upper side of the leaf, by which the capacity of the leaves for 
catching and digesting insects was at the same time perfected. 
In connection with this, one can infer a somewhat similar theory 
about Utricularia and Aldrovanda, and even about Dionza 
and Drosera. 11. The bundles of vessels belonging to the leaves 
are branched out in netlike veins, and anastomose chiefly with 
one another. The veins at the ends unite near the edge of the 
leaf into a sympodial layer, from which numerous veins go out 
directed to the edge of the leaf and end in enlarged spirally 
thickened cells, which cells sometimes border directly on the 
epidermis cells belonging to the edge of the leaf or are separated 
from them by one or more cells. 12. The tracheal vessels of the 
leaves, as well as of the other parts of Pinguicula alpina 
never contain air, but either a watery fluid or a yellowish- 
brown resinous-looking substance. This circumstance, together 
with the strange branching of the tracheal vessels in the edge of 
the leaf particularly adapted to catching insects seem to prove 
(or show) that the tracheal vessels serve for the transport of a 
substance that stands perhaps in direct connection with the 
function of the leaves, 13. The mesophyll cells form among one 
another tolerably large interstices filled with air, and contain 
generally chlorophyll bodies in abundance. 14. Starch is to be 
found in the chlorophyll bodies of P. a/pina, and also in the 
small stems and roots of the hybernating plants, when it appears 
in small compressed nuclei. 15. Glands with and without stalks 
appear in the flower stalks as well as in the flowering parts. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


Ar a meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday evening 
Capt. T. H, Holdich, R.E., of the Survey of India, read a very 
interesting paper on the geographical results of the Afghan 
campaign, in which, after giving a sketch of the features of the 
country, he summed up the additions lately made to our know- 
ledge. These are very considerable, for in the last two or three 
years he and Major Woodthorpe with their staff have surveyed 
and mapped from 25,000 to 30,000 square miles of country. 
Some of the more important facts ascertained are the facility 
with which practicable roads can be made through the passes of 
Afghanistan, and the comparatively low elevation of those of 
the Hindu Kush, which, according to Capt. Holdich’s view, 
would offer no real barrier to the advance of a properly-equipped 
army. Capt. Holdich hinted that the further mapping and 
survey of the country were being continued by native explorers 
attached to the Survey of India, and he thought that in a few 
years’ time it would be known from end to end,and that our surveys 
would then join on to those of the Russians north of the Hindu 
Kush. Capt. Holdich remarked also on the curious inter- 
mingling of races in some parts of Afghanistan, and in the 
ensuing discussion Mr. Blanford, late Director of the Geological 


160 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 16, 1880 


Survey of India, made some valuable observations on certain 
points connected with soil-formation, &c., in Central Asia. 


UNDER the title of ‘‘Die geographische Erforschung des 
afrikanischen Continents von den A4ltesten Zeiten bis auf 
unsere Tage,” by Dr. Philipp Paulktschke, Messrs. Brockhausen 
and Brauer of Vienna have published a volume of 320 pages, 
containing a brief but full sketch of the progress of African 
exploration from the earliest times down to the present day. Its 
special value consists in the detailed bibliography of the subject 
contained in the footnotes on every page, which must be of 
the greatest service to the student of African exploration and 
geography. There are occasional slips, as when Mr. Monteiro’s 
book on ‘‘ Angola and the River Congo” is entered under 
‘¢ Monteiro,” as published in New York in 1875, and again 
under “J. John,” as published in London in 1876, But such 
blunders are wonderfully few. About 1500 names are referred 
to altogether. 


Dr. Lenz, on November 22, was at St. Louis, whence he 
was going to Tangier. 


As a memorial of the work performed in the Vega, a ‘‘ Vega 
Fund” has been raised by subscription in Sweden to encourage 
further geographical research. The sum raised is 35,000 crowns, 
which will be intrusted to the Swedish Acidemy of Sciences, 
and the interest either employed at once or be allowed to accu- 
mulate for a term of years. Only natives of Sweden, Norway, 
Denmark, and Finland will be entitled to receive the benefit of 
the fund. 


Two important expeditions are soon to be sent into Central 
Africa, under the auspices of the Algerian Missionary Society, 
which already has stations at the northern ends of Lake Tan- 
ganyika and the Victoria Nyanza. One will go from Zanzibar, 
and the other will ascend the Congo. 


THE xINFLUENCE -.OF PRESSURE AND 
TEMPERATURE ON THE SPECTRA OF 
VAPOURS AND GASES" 


[NX the course of my inquiry last year into the homology of the 
spectral lines of chemically-related elements I occasionally 
made the observation that the two strongly-marked red lines 
which bromine in the fluid state gives when the spark is taken 
from it in De la Chanal’s fulgurator grow very feeble or entirely 
disappear in tbe spectrum of the rarefied vapour in the Geissler- 
tubes, while other lines not previously seen become visible. It 
appeared to me of interest to inquire more particularly into the 
changes of the spectrum of one and the same element, as these 
changes are naturally of the greatest importance in the com- 
parison of chemically-related elements; and with this view I 
addressed myself to the problem of the changes of spectra at 
higher pressures. 
» According to Wullner’s well-known experiments, which only deal 
with the three permanent gases, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, 
the spectral lines of the second order grow broader with higher 
pressure, and at the same time a continuously illuminated back- 
ground is to be observed. This phenomenon, however, presents 
even in the three permanent elements the greatest difference. 
Thus, while the lines in the hydrogen spectrum become easily 
broader even under moderate pressure, those in the spectrum 
of nitrogen do not expand. Therefore it occurred to me that a 
comparative investigation, which would extend to as many 
elements as possible, would be desirable, inasmuch as it en- 
couraged the hope that by this means one could arrive at a law, 
perhaps even at an explanation, of these phenomena. 

I now venture to present to the Academy a report of my 
experiments as far as they have gone, reserving a full account 
ull their completion, 

In my experiments I have treated the most volatile of the 
metalloids, and among the metals have included quicksilver 
and sodium. I will in due time give a full account of the 
apparatus and methods which I employed in my experiments, 
but at present I must confine myself to a statement of the results 
already ascertained, 

gi he Spectrum of the three halogens, at higher pressures, ex- 
hibits in each case the same peculiarities, ‘The lines have the 
appearance of merging into each other, and without showing 


pay P seemciens in S/tz, Ber, der k. Akad. der Wiss., Vienna, |xxvii. 


an expansion into bands, they become occasionally somewhat 
broader. There is a steadily luminous background which 
becomes brighter when the pressure is increased, and which 
is often more intense than the lines themselves. This latter 
circumstance is frequently seen in the case of iodine, where 
the continuous spectrum finally covers all the rest. In the case 
of chlorine and bromine single lines are always distinguishable 
from the continuous surrounding light. The appearance of 
certain lines in the red field in chlorine and bromine whieh 
always preserve their precision and delicacy is worth mentioning. 

The changes in the intensity of the spectral lines as exhibited 
under different pressures are very interesting. If you compare 
the spectral lines of the halogens with each other, in order to 
ascertain their homology, and in doing so only employ the spectra 
of rarefied vapours in Geissler tubes, you meet considerable diffi- 
culties, for you can only compare the lines in groups, and these 
lines present frequently in each of the three elements such differ- 
ences of intensity that you may be left in doubt as to the existence 
of a homology of their lines. But the apparent differences arise 
in reality out of the variation of intensity and the number of 
the lines. with the pressure. By appropriate change in the 
density of the gas or vapour you can always produce spectra 
which exhibit the perfect homology of the lines. Thus, in the 
case of iodine you must employ that tension which iodine-vapour 
has at 50° or 80° C., while in the case of chlorine and bromine 
atmospheric pressure is required. 

The spectrum of sulphur does not change at all at higher 
pressure, the lines maintaining their perfect sharpness, while in 
the red field a continuously illuminated background appears. 

Phosphor and arsenic do not give any reaction, and eyen the 
continuous spectrum does not appear. With arsenic I observed 
what I think has hitherto been overlooked, namely, that it gives 
at a moderate pressure, and without the interposition of a 
Leyden jar, a spectrum of the first order. It is almost con- 
tinuous, and with increase of pressure of interposition of the 
jar it gives to the spectrum of lines the spectrum of the second 
order, 

Great is the difference between the metalloids of which we 
have hitherto been speaking and the metals; they show an ex- 
pansion of their lines into bands, while the continuous light takes 
a less prominent place. In quicksilver the breadth especially 
of the green and violet lines is conspicuous, 

With sodium I have only noticed the great width of the D- 
lines when they appeared reversed, for I could only examine the 
light after its passage through a layer of cooler vapour. Sodium 
gives at high pressures a continuously illuminated spectrum near 
the D-lines, which then appear reversed ; at first one or two 
lines, but soon they widen and merge into each other, and the 
dark band of absorption gradually covers the whole illuminated 
part of the field. 


eee ee eee eee eee 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


CAMBRIDGE.—Prof, Stuart finds the progress of his School of 
Mechanism and Engineering again compels enlargement, Some 
pupils are now making small engines, and require more space for 
erecting them, A room for mechanical drawing is needed, and also 
an enlarged stove. The Museums and Lecture-rooms Syndicate 
think it best in the present condition of University funds to 
erect a new temporary building 46 feet long by 21 feet wide, 
adjacent to the present workshop, and this, with other reoms 
which can be added, will supply present necessities for about 

60/. 

2 The balance of $21/., being the debt on the last two years of 
the Museums Maintenance Fund, has been granted as an extra 
payment from the University Chest, and in future years 3000/7. 
will be granted ‘annually for the Museums and Lecture-rooms 
Maintenance Fund. 

Prof, Stuart is to have the services of a Demoxstrator of 
Mechanism and Applied Mechanics. A 

Clare College announces a scholarship of 607, a year in 
chemistry and chemical] physics, botany and geology, to be 
competed for on March 29 next, without limit of age. Jesus 
and Magdalene Colleges continue to offer no inducements to 
natural science. 

By a Royal decree, published last month, a museum will 
shortly be opened at Palermo on the plan of the one founded in 
Rome in 1874, with the object of making known the best scho- 


ec. 16, 1880 | 


NATURE 


161 


lastic materials and best didactic methods adopted with success 
by the most cultivated and civilised nations. This museum is 
styled the Pedagogic Museum, and will have its seat in the Royal 
University. Its aim is to collect, with a view to their recogni- 
tion and adoption, all objects and publications connected with 
the mode of instruction in elementary schools, and in general all 
the new means and appliances which are being successively 
invented to insure greater efficiency and progress in the arts of 
instruction and education. All that has till now been collected 
by the Professor of Pedagogy in the present Museum of Palermo 
will henceforth belong to the new institution, which is dependent 
on the Minister of Public Instruction. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


THE Yournal of Anatomy and Physiology, Normal and 
Pathological, vol. xv. part 1, October, contains:—Dr. C. 
Creighton, on an infective form of tuberculosis in man, identical 
with bovine tuberculosis, plates 1 to 6.—Dr. W. Allen, on a 
third occipital condyle in the human subject, plate 7.—Dr. J. 
Dreschfeld, some points in the histology of cirrhosis of the liver, 
plate 8.—Dr. S. Mortiz, a contribution to the pathological 
anatomy of lead paralysis, plate 9.—Dr. G. S. Middleton, 
vascular lesions in hydrophobia and in other diseases characterised 
by cerebral excitement, plate r0.—Dr. D. Macphail, an ether per- 
colator, for use in physiological or pathological laboratories, plate 
11.—Dr. D. Newman, the comparative value of chloroform 
and ethidene dichloride as anzesthetic agents. —Dr. R. Pinkerton, 
observations on the temperature of the healthy human body in 
various climates.—Dr. George Hoggan and Dr, F. Elizabeth 
Hoggan, the lymphatics of cartilage and of the perichondrium,— 
Dr. R, J. Anderson, a palatine branch from the middle meningeal 
artery.—J. F. Knott, muscular anomalies. 


Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, vol. iii. No. 5, October, 
—W. H. Gilbert, on the structure and function of the scale-leaves 
of Lathrea sguamaria.—Dr. H. E. Fripp (the late), on daylight 
illumination with the plane mirror, an appendix to Part I. of the 
‘Theory of Illuminating Apparatus.”—W. Webb, on an im- 
proved finder.—W. A. Rogers on Tolles’ interior illuminator 
for opaque objects, with a note by R. B. Tolles.—The record of 
current researches relating to invertebrata, cryptogamia, micro- 
scopy, &c. 

THE American Naturalist, November.—F. M. Endlich, the 
Island of Dominica.—J. D., Caton, the Sand-hill Crane.—W. 
K. Higley, on the microscopical crystals contained in plants 
(concluded),—J. M. Stillman, on the origin of lac (regards it as 
a secretion of Coccus lacca).—Edward L. Greene, botanising on 
the Colorado desert.—The Editor’s table : on the obligations of 
educational and charitable institutions. 


Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, Band 34, Heft 4, 
September, contains :—a very elaborate memoir by Dr. Ferdinand 
Sommer of Greifswald, on the anatomy of the liver-fluke, 
Distomum hepaticum, L., pp. 540-640, with six plates ; also by 
Dr. H. Michels, an account of the nervous system of Ovyctes 
nasicornis as it appears in the larval, pupal, and imago conditions 
of this beetle, pp. 641, 700, with four plates. 


Revue Internationale des Sciences biologigues, October 15, con- 
tains:—M,. Vulpian, a physiological study of poisons; fifth 
lecture, on curare.—M. Hanstein, protoplasm considered as the 
basis of animal and vegetable life ; introduction.—M. Borodin, 
on the physiological characteristics of asparagine.—M. L. Portes, 
on the asparagine of the Amygdaleze.—G. Thoulet, contributions 
to the study of the physical and chemical properties of micro- 
scovical minerals, 


THE Transactions of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. —Three 
parts of the above have been issued to the subscribers. These 
contain reports on the birds of the district, pp. 1-48. On the 
land and freshwater mollusca, pp. 1-16. On the lepidoptera, 
pp. 1-So0. Botany, pp. 1-51. These reports seem well and 
exhaustively worked out, and deserve every support from the 
naturalists of the Yorkshire district and others. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Mathematical Society,-December 9.—Mr. Samuel Roberts, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. William Ralph Roberts 
and Mr. Ralph Augustus Roberts were elected Members.—The 


following communications were made :—Note sur‘la Dérivation 
des Déterminants, Prof. Teixeira (Coimbra, Portugal).—Solu- 
tion of the equation +f - 1 =0; quinquisection, Prof. Cayley, 
F.R.S.—A general theorem in kinematics, Prof. Minchin.—On 
the solution of the inverse logical problem, Mr. W. B. Grove.— 
Motion of a viscous fluid, Mr. T. Craig.—On the electrical 
capacity of a conductor bounded by two spherical surfaces cutting 
at any angle, Mr. W. D. Niven. 


Chemical Society, December 2.—Dr. Gilbert, vice-pre- 
sident, in the chair.—The following papers were read :—On 
the volumes of sodium and bromine at their boiling-points, by 
W. Ramsay.—On the volume of phosphorus at its boiling- 
point, by D. O. Masson and W. Ramsay. The authors have 
determined the atomic volume (the atomic volume = the specific 
volume x atomic weight) of the following elements in the free 
state. Bromine 27°135, sulphur 21°60, phosphorus 20°91, 
sodium 31°00. The authors discuss the formula of oxy-tri- 
chloride of phosphorus, and conclude that in that substance 
phosphorus is a pentad, and that the constitution of that 
substance is O=P=Cl;. The atomic volume of phosphorus in 
this compound is therefore 21°1.—On the specific volume of 
chloral, by Laura Maude Passavant. Great care was taken in 
purifying the chloral ; the specific volume, determined according 
to the method of Thorpe, was found to be 107°37.—Note on the 
formation of carbon tetrabromide in the manufacture of bromine, 
by J.C . Hamilton, A quantity of a white crystalline substance 
was obtained as a residue, after distilling a quantity of com- 
mercial bromine, it melted at go’, and contained 97 per cent. of 
bromine.—Researches on the relation between the molecular 
structure of carbon compounds and their absorption-spectra, by 
W.N. Hartley. Part i.i—General conclusions as to the nature 
of actinic absorption exerted by various carbon compounds. 
Part iii—Experiments which prove the diactinic character of 
substances constructed on an open chain of carbon compounds. 
Part iiii—The actinic absorption exerted by various closed 
chains of carbon atoms. Part iv.—The absorption-spectra of 
condensed benzen-nuclei. Part y.—The cause of absorption- 
bands in the spectra transmitted by benzene and its derivatives. 


Geological Society, December 1.—Robert Etheridge, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Wm. Heward Bell, Wm. Jack- 
son, Peregrine Propert Lewes, William Libbey, jun., D.Sc., New 
Jersey, U.S.A. ; David Morgan Llewellin, John Marshall, Cyril 
Parkinson, Cornelius McLeod Percy, Thos. John Robinson, Rev. 
Alfred Rose, Beeby Thompson, and Stuart Crawford Wardell 
were elected Fellows of the Society.x—The following communi- 
cations were read :—On remains of a small lizard from the 
Neocomian rocks of the Island of Lesina, Dalmatia, preserved 
in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna, by Prof. 
H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. The author proposed to name this lizard 
Adriosaurus suessit,—On the beds at Headon Hill and Colwell 
Bay in the Isle of Wight, by Messrs. H. Keeping and E. B. 
Tawney, M.A. ‘The authors criticised the views put forward 
by Prof. Judd in his paper published in the Q. 7. G. S. xxxvi. 
p. 13, and supported those established by the late E, Forbes and 
the publications of the Geological Survey. The authors reject 
Prof. Judd’s term Brockenhurst series, and revert to the classifi- 
cation and nomenclature of the Geological Survey. 


Zoological Society, November 30.—Dr. Edward Hamilton, 
vice-president, in the chair.—Mr. Alfred E. Craven, F.Z.S., read 
a paper on a collection of land and fresh-water shells from the 
Transvaal and Orange Free State in South Africa, with descriptions 
of nine new species.—A second paper by Mr, Alfred E. Craven 
contained the descriptions of three new species of land shells 
from Cape Colony and Natal.—Surgeon Francis Day, F.Z.S., 
communicated a paper by Prof. A. A, W. Hubrecht, which 
gave an account of a collection of reptiles and amphibians made 
by Dr. C. Duke in Beloochistan.—A communication was read 
from Mr. J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S., containing a description of the 
immature plumage of Dryotriorchts spectabilis (Schleg.), a very 
scarce raptorial bird from Gaboon, now living in the Society’s 
collection.—A communication was read from Mr. Roland 
Trimen, F.Z.S., on an undescribed Laviarius obtained by Dr. 
B. F. Bradshaw on the Upper Limpopo, or Crocodile River, in 
Southern Africa, which he proposed to name Laniarius atro- 
croceus.—A communication was read from Dr. G. Hartlaub, 
F.M.Z.S., containing descriptions of five new birds that had 
been collected by Dr. Emin Bey in Central Africa. These were 
proposed to be called Zyicholais flavotorguata, Cisticola hypox- 
antha, Eminia lepida, Drymocichla incana, and Musicapa 


162 


NATURE 


| Dec. 16, 1880 


infulatz,—Mr. W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S., read a paper on the 
external characters and anatomy of the Red Ouakari Monkey 
(Brachyurus rubicundus), describing more particularly the liver 
and brain, and made remarks on the other species of that genus 
and their distribution. 


Anthropological Institute, November 23.—Allen Thom- 
son, M.D., F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—The election 
of W. R. Huggard was announced.—A paper by Dr. Paul 
Topinard, entitled observations upon the methods and processes 
of anthropometry, was read. Anthropometry means the measure- 
ment of the entire human body with the view to determine the 
respective proportion of its parts :—1. At different ages, in order 
to learn the law of relative growth of the parts. 2. In the 
races, so as to distinguish them and establish their relations to 
each other. 3. In all the conditions of surrounding circum- 
stances, in order to find out their influence upon the variations 
ascertained. The number of skeletons at disposal for this 
purpose being small, all our efforts should tend to make perfect 
the methods of operating upon the living, and to simplify them, 
so as to render them accessible to all, to travellers, officers of 
the navy, recruiting agents, schoolmasters, &e.; hence the 
number of measurements should be reduced to those strictly 
necessary, and only those insisted on which are really useful 
and lead to the knowledge of one of the natural morphological 
divisions of the body. Heights above the ground, breadths, 
some circumferences, and perhaps the facial angle—to these we 
ought to limit our demands, The dimensions to be obtained 
directly, or by the method of subtraction, relate to :—1. The 
trunk. 2. The head and the neck taken separately. 3. The 
lower limb as a whole. 4. The upper limb as a whole. 5. 
Each of the segments of the limbs, the hand, the forearm, and 
the arm in the one case ; the foot, the leg, and the thigh in the 
other. 6. The intrinsic proportions of the head, of the trunk, 
of the foot, and of the hand. Three fundamental principles to 
be observed are, determination and marking the reference points 
slowly, taking the measurements quickly, and the possession of 
good instruments. The choice of reference-points is a matter of 
great importance, aad the author explained his views upon this 
subject.—A paper by Mr. C. Staniland Wake on the origin of 
the Malagasy was read. 


Physical Society, November 27.—Prof. W. G. Adams in 
the chair.—New Member, H. C. Jones, F.C.S.—Prof. Graham 
Bell exhibited his photophone, and explained the apparatus em 
ployed by Mr. Sumner Tainter and himself for transmitting sound 
by a beam of light. The formin use consists of a metal plate 
or mirror vibrated by the sound and reflecting a beam of light 
to a distance, where it is focussed on a selenium cell in circuit 
with a telephone and battery. The light undulates in sympathy 
with the vibrations of sound, and alters the resistance of the 
selenium in accordance with the vibrations, thereby reproducing 
the sound in the telephone. The electric light used was too 
unsteady to give articulate speech ; but by means of a rotating 
disk perforated round its rim with holes the light could be 
occulted in such a manner as to give an audible note in the tele- 
phone. Different varieties of receivers were described, some of 
which have not yet been tried. One of these consisted in vary- 
ing the rotation of the plane of polarisation of the polarised 
beam. A plan for transmitting the beam consists in making the 
vibrating plate vary the supply of gas to a jet or manometric 
flame. The farthest distance speech has been heard by a photo- 
phone is 800 feet ; but theoretically it should operate better the 
greater the distance between the mirror and selenium. On inter- 
posing a sheet of hard rubber in the ray, the invisible rays 
passing through it conveyed the sounds in a lower degree, and 
sounds can be heard by replacing the selenium receiver by disks 
of different materials, such as hard rubber, metal, &c., and 
simply listening atthem. All substances appear to possess the 
power of becoming sonorous under the influence of varying light. 
Hard rubber, antimony, zinc, give the best effects; paper, glass, 
carbon, the worst. Even tobacco-smoke in a glass test-tube held 
in the beam emitted a note, as also did crystals of sulphate of 
copper. When hard rubber was simply made into the form of 
an ear-tube and held in the beam, the audible effect was also 
produced, and in fact when the beam was focussed in the ear 
itself, without any other appliance whatever, a distinct sound 
could be perceived.—Prof, Adams thanked Prof. Bell in the 
name of the Society, and called on Mr. Shelford Bidwell, who 
exhibited a lecture photophone, in which the reflector for receiving 
the light was discarded and the beam focussed on the selenium 


by alens. The two lenses used cost only 25s., and the beam 
was sent fourteen feet. The selenium cell was made by spreading 
melted selenium over sheets of mica, and then crystallising it by 
heat. For mica Prof. Bell recommended microscopic glass. The 
resistance of the cell was 14,000 ohms in the dark, and 6500 in 
the light. Speech was distinctly transmitted by this apparatus. 
Mr, J. Spiller thought that since selenium probably alloyed with 
brass and the baser metals, it would be better to use gold and 
silver for the cells; but Prof. Bell said that he preferred brass, 
since (perhaps for the reason that Mr. Spiller gave) it yielded 
the best results;—Dr. J. H. Gladstone read a paper on the 
specific refraction and dispersion of isomeric bodies—an exten- 
sion of his paper of last June. He concluded that the dispersion 
of a body containing carbon of the higher refraction is very 
much greater than that of a body containing carbon of the 
normal refraction 5, and that isomeric bodies which coincide in 
specific refraction coincide also in specific dispersion. WAS 


Entomological Society, December 1.—Sir Johu Lubbock, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. Pascoe exhibited a large 
series of Avescus histrio from Peru, to show the extreme varia- 
bility of the electral markings in this species.—Mr. Billups 
exhibited four species of Fezomachus new to Britain, viz., 
P. Millert, P. juvenilis, P. intermedius, P. incertus, and also 
exhibited twenty species of Coleoptera found in a small parcel 
of corn refuse. The president exhibited two specimens in 
alcohol of a species of Phasmide forwarded by a correspondent 
in St. Vincent. Mr, Cansdale exhibited a specimen of 7ischeria 
ganacella, a:species of Tineina, new to Britain; he also ex- 
hibited a remarkable variety of Czdaria russata.—Mr. J. Scott 
communicated a paper on a collection of Hemiptera from Japan. 
—Mr. C. O. Waterhouse read a paper entitled description of a 
new species of the anomalous genus Po/yctenes, and exhibited a 
diagram illustrating the structure of this insect. 


Royal Asiatic Society, November 15,—Sir H. C. Rawlin- 
son, K.C.B., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Sir W. R. 
Robinson, K.C.S.1., S. S. Thorburn, Capt. R. Gill, R.E., ard 
the Rev. Marsham Argles, M.A., were elected Resident Mem- 
bers ; and the Bishop of Lahore, Lieut. H. E. McCallum, R.E., 
S. W. Bushell, M.D., and Abd-er-rahman Moulvie Syed, barris- 
ter-at-law, Non-resident Members.—Prof. Monier Williams, 
C.1.E., read a paper on Indian theistic reformers, in which, 
after showing that Monotheism was not of recent growth in 
India, he traced the development of the modern Theistic churches 
there, from Rammohun Roy, who formulated a system which 
may be described as Unitarianism based on Brahmanism, through 
his successor, Debendra Nath, who improved on Rammohun 
Roy’s work by founding the Adi Brahma Samaj, to Keshub 
Chundar Sen, who threw off altogether both Brahmanism and 
caste, and founded his new progressive Brahma Samaj in 1866, 
In his present eclectic form of Theism, composed of Hinduism, 
Mahammedanism, and Christianity, he teaches the worship of 
God under the character of a Supreme Mother. Some of his 
followers, offended with him, chiefly for marrying his daughter 
before she was fourteen to the Maharaja of Kuch-Behar, have 
recently set up a new Theistic Church called the Sudharana 
Brahma Samaj, or Catholic Church of God. There are now 
more than 120 Theistic churches in different parts of India. 


Royal Microscopical Society, December $.—Mr. J. 
Glaisher, F.R.S., in the chair.—Eight new Fellows were 
elected.—Mr. Wallis exhibited a new rotating substage; Mr. 
Mayall his form of spiral diaphragm, and Tolles’ mechanical 
stage of extra thinness, and Mr, Crisp Crouch’s histological 
microscope, Parkes’s demonstrating microscope, Holmes’s com- 
pressorium, and Atwood’s rubber-cell.—A paper by Dr, Hudson 
was read, on a new (cistes (Fanus), and a new Mloscularia 
(tvifolium), found by Mr. Hood of Dundee in Loch Lundie. 
The trochal disk of the former formed a link between that of 
Melicerta and Gécistes. The latter was remarkable in having 
ouly three lobes and being much larger than any Floscularia 
hitherto known.—Mr. Stewart explained some peculiar struc- 
tural features of the Echinometride, illustrated by specimens 
and drawings. 


Institution of Civil Engineers, November 9.—Mr. W. H. 
Barlow, F.R.S., president, in the chair,—The paper read was 
on machinery for steel-making by the Bessemer and the Siemens’ 
processes, by Mr. Benjamin Walker, M. Inst. C.E. [ 

December 7.—Mr. W. H. Barlow, F.R.S., president, in the 
chair,—The paper read was on the different modes of erecting 
iron bridges, by Mr, Theophilus Seyrig, M. Inst. C,E., of Paris, 


Dec. 16, 1880] 


Royal Society of Literature, November 24 —Mr. Charles 
Clark, vice-president, in the chair.—Sir Hardinge Stanley 
Giffard, Mr. Ramchundra Ghose, Mr. Henry Allpass, Mr. 
Robert White Boyle, Capt. W. Deane Seymour, Dr. Altschul, 
were elected members.—Mr. F. G. Fleay read a paper entitled 
the living key to English spelling reform now found in history 
and etymology. The object of Mr. Fleay’s paper was to show 
that the objections to spelling reform are principally founded on 
an exaggerated estimate of the amount of change required. This 
exaggeration has been caused by the revolutionary proposals of 
the leading reformers, who neglected the history of our language 
and the etymological basis of its orthography in favour of philo- 
sophical completeness. Mr. Fleay, on the other hand, proposed 
a scheme which was developed in two forms, one perfectly 
phonetic for educational purposes, the other differing from this 
only in dropping the use of the accents and the one new type 
required in the former. He showed that even in the vowel 
sounds not one-tenth would need alteration, while in the case of 
the consonants the alteration required would of course be much 
) less. 

Photographic Society, November 9.—J. Glaisher, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Major Waterhouse, Bengal Staff Corps, 
read a paper ‘‘On a new method of obtaining ‘grain’ in photo- 
engraving.” The method alluded to was to squeeze into the 
gelatine relief, while wet, sand- or glass-paper, previously waxed 
to ensure removal. The contraction of the paper while drying 
would force the granular substance into the relief more strongly 
in the shadows than in the lights, and thus a discriminating grain 
would be produced.—Capt. Abney, R.E., F.R.S., read a paper, 
“Notes on the gelatine process.” The point insisted upon was 
that gelatine emulsions if kept some time before being poured 
upon the plates, extra sensitiveness would be the result ; another 
matter was, that ‘‘frilling”” could be prevented by the same long 
keeping of the emulsion; also that with emulsions where silver 
iodide is used, a few drops of hyposulphite of soda would bring 
out more detail in the image. 


CAMBRIDGE 

Philosophical Society, November 8.—Prof. Newton, pre- 
sident, in the chair.—The following communications were made 
to the Society :—On a new arrangement for sensitive flames, by 
Lord Rayleigh. A jet of coal-gas from a pin-hole burner rises 
vertically in the interior of a cavity from which the air is ex- 
cluded. It then passes into a brass tube a few inches long, and 
on reaching the top burns in the open. The front wall of the 
cavity is formed of a flexible membrane of tissue paper, through 
which external sounds can reach the burner. The principle is 
the same as that of Barry’s flame described by Tyndall. In 
both cases the wnignited part of the jet is the sensitive agent, 
and the flame is only an indicator. Barry’s flame may be made 
very sensitive to sound, but it is open to the objection of liability 
| to disturbance by the slightest dranght. A few years since Mr. 
| Ridout proposed to inclose the jet in a tube air-tight at the 
bottom, and to ignite it only on arrival at the top of this tube. 
In this case however external vibrations have very imperfect 
access to the sensitive part of the jet, and when they reach it 
they are of the wrong quality, having but little motion transverse 
to the direction of the jet. The arrangement now exhibited 
combines very satisfactorily sensitiveness to sound and insen- 
Sitiveness to wind, and it requires no higher pressure than 
that of ordinary gas-pipes. if the extreme of sensitive- 
ness be aimed at, the gas pressure must be adjusted until 
the jet is on the point of flaring without sound. The 
apparatus exhibited was made in Prof. Stuart’s workshop. An 
adjustment for directing the jet exactly up the middle of the 
brass tube is found necessary, and some advantage is gained by 
contracting the tube somewhat at the place of ignition.—Lord 
_ Rayleigh, on an effect of vibrations upon a suspended disk. In 
the British Association experiment for determining the unit of 
electrical resistance, a magnet and mirror are inclosed in a 
wooden box, attached to the lower end of a tube through which 
the silk suspension fibre passes. Under these circumstances it 
is found that the slightest tap with the finger-nail upon the box 
deflects the mirror to an extraordinary degree. The disturbance 
appears to be due to aérial vibrations within the box, acting upon 
the mirror. We know that a flat body, like a mirror, tends to 
set itself across the direction of any steady current of the fluid in 
which it is immersed, and we may fairly suppose that an effect 
of the same character will follow from an alternating current. 
At the moment of the tap upon the box the air inside is made to 
_ Move past the mirror, and probably executes several vibrations. 


a 


NATURE 


163 


While these vibrations last the mirror is subject to a twisting 
force tending to set it at right angles to the direction of the 
vibration, The whole action being over in a time very small 
compared with that of the free vibrations of the magnet and 
mirror, the observed effect is as if an impulse had been given to 
the suspended parts. The experiment shown is intended to illus- 
trate this effect. A small disk of paper, about the size of a 
sixpence, is hung by a fine silk fibre across the mouth of a 
resonator of pitch 128. When a sound of this pitch is excited, 
there is a powerful rush of air in and out of the resonator, and 
the disk sets itself promptly across the passage. A fork of 
pitch 128 may be held near the resonator, but it is better to use 
a second resonator at a little distance, in order to avoid any 
possible disturbance due to the neighbourhood of the vibrating 
prongs. 
PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, November 29.—M. Edm, Becquerel 
in the chair.—M™M. E. and J, Brongniart presented a work on 
the silicified fossil seeds of strata of Autun and Saint Etienne, 
to which their father had devoted the closing years of his life. 
These researches led, among other things, to observation of a 
pollinic chamber in some living as well as in fossil species of 
seeds.—Note relating to a memoir on vision of material colours 
in rotation, and velocities estimated in figures by means of the 
turning-plate apparatus of General Morin, for observation of 
the laws of motion, by M. Chevreul.—On the spontaneous oxida- 
tion of mercury and of metals, by M. Berthelot. He concludes 
from experiment that mercury, like iron, zinc, cadmium, lead, 
copper, and tin, undergoes, in contact with air, a superficial 
oxidation, very slight, indeed, and limited by the difficulty of 
renewal of the surfaces and the absence of contact resulting from 
commenced oxidation, This agrees with thermic data. The 
oxidation of mercury liberates per equivalent of fixed oxygen 
+(21'1 cal. (iron 31°9, tin 34°9, &c.). Spontaneous oxidation 
is not fappreciable in metals whose heat of oxidation is very 
small, eg. silver (+ 3°5 cal.). The greater rapidity of the reac- 
tion where an agent intervenes, which is capable of combining 
(with liberation of heat) with the substance produced, e.g. an 
acid, is shown to be in agreement with thermic theory.—On the 
propagation of light, by M. Gouy. He examines the case in 
which the rays have a constant direction, but vary in intensity, 
the source undergoing variations or being eclipsed by a moving 
screen, There is not, for a given homogeneous source, a deter- 
minate velocity of light, independent of the manner in which the 
amplitude is varied. But in every realisable experiment this 
variation is effected in a gradual and very slow manner relatively 
to the vibratory period ; here the formulz are simplified and the 
amplitude is transported as in a non-dispersive medium (with a 
velocity which is indicated by formula). The index of refraction 
is ‘connected with the velocity of light by a relation easy to 
establish.—On linear differential equations with periodic coeffi- 
cients, by M. Floquet.—On a. new electric property of selenium, 
and on the existence of tribolectric currents properly so-called, 
by M. Blondlot. To one pole of a capillary electrometer a piece 
of annealed selenium is attached with a platinum wire; to the 
other pole a platinum plate. If the selenium be brought (with an 
insulating handle) into contact with the platinum the electro- 
meter remains at zero ; but on rubbing the selenium against the 
platinum a strong deflection occurs (often equal to that pro- 
duced by a sulphate of copper element), The thermo-electric 
current got by heating the selenium-platinum contact has 
an opposite direction to that of the current in question (which 
is from the unrubbed to the rubbed part of the selenium) ; thus 
the effect cannot be attributed to heat. On ceasing to rub, 
the deflection persists ; the selenium, which let pass the high- 
tension electricity due to friction, opposing too great resistance 
for the weak polarisation of the mercury. Shock and even 
pressure produce the same effect as friction, though in less degree. 
—Action of phosphorus on hydriodic and hydrobromic acids, 
by M. Damoiseau.—On Waldivine, by M. Tanret. This is the 
active principle of the fruit of Simaba waldivia, which grows in 
Columbia. The composition of the crystals is represented by 
C3,H»40,5HO. The physical and chemical properties are 
described.—Direct analysis of peat ; its chemical constitution, by 
M. Guignet. This relates to peat of very modern formation in 
the Somme Valley, formed under water in presence of carbonate 
of lime. Treated with water it yields crenze and afocrenic acid, 
also a little sulphate of lime. Alcohol at 90° produces a clear 
green solution, from which vegetable wax is got in abundance 
(the green matter has all the characters of chlorophyll). The 


164 


NATURE 


[ Dee. 16, 1880 


presence of g/ucosides can also be proved. Part at least of the 
total nitrogen of the peat (amounting to 3 per cent.) enters into 
the composition of the brown matters.—On the geology of the 
Northern Sahara, by M. Roche. JZnter alia, he found in the 
middle of the Great Erg, south of Ouargla, a broad plane region 
about 250 km. long, covered only with isolated parallel dunes 
lying along the magnetic meridian ; an important feature for the 
Trans-Saharan railway. All the strata of the Northern Sahara 
are nearly horizontal.—On some phenomena of optics and vision, 
by M. Tréve. Looking at a lamp-flame through a fine slit in a 
disk, the brightness and the diffraction effects vary much, accord- 
ing as the slit is vertical or horizontal—M. Maumené in a note 
attributes the difference of experimenters as to absorption of 
oxygen by mercury to more or less silver contained by the 
mercury. —M. Dubalen announced the discovery of a prehistoric 
grotto in the Department of Landes. 

December 6.—M. Edm, Becquerel in the chair.—The fol- 
lowing papers were read :—On the development of any function 
of the radius-vector in elliptic motion, by M. Tisserand.— 
Spectral reaction of chlorine and bromine, by M. Lecoq de 
Boisbaudran. For detecting minute traces he fuses on the 
hooked lower end of a platinum wire some pure carbonate of 
baryta; places in the bend a drop of the liquid to be examined ; 
then evaporates, heating momentarily to a nascent red (with 
partial fusion) ; another platinum wire is then brought near the 
bend from below, and thejinduction spark gives a spectrum with 
lines of BaCl, or BaBr.. The 7155 mgr. of chlorine or bromine 
may be thus detected.—M., Brioschi was elected correspondent 
in geometry in room of the late M. Borchardt.—On the action 
of water in applications of sulphide of carbon to phylloxerised 
vines, by M. Catta. He shows the injurious action of excessive 
humidity. The sulphide need not be in the liquid state if the 
ground be quite saturated with water.—On the swarming of 
phylloxera in 1880, by M. de Lafitte. This has been small, almost 
nil in some parts. The phenomenon is probably periodic, with 
a two years’ period.—On mildew, Peronospora of vines (Perono- 
spora viticola, Berk. and Curt.), by M. Cornu. This mildew 
will soon (perhaps next year) have spread over all France ; 
and it is still almost unknown in regions where it pre- 
vails. The grape is not directly attacked, but the plant 
is injured, often disastrously.—New process for destruction of 
kermes of fig (Ceroflastes rusci, Lin.), by M. Gennadius. The in- 
sects may be got rid of by making a number of incisions on the 
trunk and branches, causing the plant to lose a large quantity of 
latex. —Observations of comet d 1880 (Hartwig) at Paris Observa- 
tory, by M. Bigourdan.—On the same comet and on Swift’s comet 
(e 1880), by MM. Schulhof and Bossert. He obtains for the former 
a revolution of 1280 years (uncertain) ; for the latter, 54 years. 
—On the method employed by Aubuisson in 1810 for measure- 
ment of geodetic bases, by M. Laussedat. This is, in substance, 
the same as the method now recommended exclusively by the 
International Geodetic Commission.—On the calculation of 
heights by means of barometric observations, by M. Angot. 
He cites some figures as showing the precision of his new method. 
—On the distribution of temperatures in the lower strata of the 
atmosphere, by M. André. From observations on the north and 
south slopes of Mont Verdun (625 m. in height) he infers that 
in the same vertical the distribution of temperature up to a 
certain height is absolutely indeterminate, thin hot- and cold- 
air currents being superposed on one another. The mode of 
superposition is in direct relation to the centres of high 
and low pressures.—On radiophony, by M. Mercadier. This 
name he gives to the phenomenon lately discovered by 


Prof, Bell. He shows reason for thinking it is not an 
effect of the mass of the receiving plate vibrating as a 
whole. Also the nature of the molecules of the receiver and 


their mode of aggregation do not seem to have a predominant 
7éle in the nature of the sounds produced. These sounds (he 
thinks) are due principally to direct action of calorific radiations 
on the surface of the receiver. (He got the maximum effect 
with invisible vibrations in the red and infra red,)—On the exist- 
ence of perboric combinations, by M. Etard. Boric acid in 
presence of oxygenated water acts like a different acid, 
though of little stability: perborie acid.—On cobaltamines, 
by M. Porumbaru,—Researches on the comparative anatomy 
of the nervous system in the different orders of the class 
of insects, by M. Brandt. He gives the results of his own ob- 
servations on Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Hemiptera. 
—On a new form of vesicular worm, with exogenous gem- 
mation, by M, Villot. This is named Uvocystis prolifer, is a 


parasite of Glomeris limbatus, and has the peculiarity of living 
in the same host in different degrees of development ; in the 
vesicular state proper, in the visceral cavity; in the state of 
scolex, encysted in adipose tissue, Buds are successively formed 
(containing a scolex) and detached.—Habits of a fish of the 
family of Silures, the Callichthys facratus, Cuvier, by M. Car- 
bonnier, Its mode of reproduction is peculiar.—New researches 
on saxifrages ; applications of their products to the arts and to 
therapeutics ; experiments on their cultivation, by MM. Garreau 
and Machelart. Attention is called to a new substance, Zengenin, 
obtained from the stocks ; in the free and crystalline state it is 
represented by C,H,O,. It is a strong neuro-sthenic tonic 
(between quinine and salicine). The tannin and fecula also 
obtainable, further recommend the cultivation of saxifrages,— 
On a process of meat-preservation by means of dextrine, by M. 
Senre. Meat dried and preserved with dextrine has remained 
unaltered twenty months, exposed to air.—The meteors of 
November 14, 1880, observed at Moncalieri (Italy), by M. 
Denza. Four observers counted thirty-seven in three-quarters of 
anhour. More than a third belonged to the stream of the 
Leonides, and they were the most beautiful. 


VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, December 9. Dr. 
Fitzinger in the chair.—Researches on Liverworts; 6. Mar- 
chantieze, by Herr Leitgeb.—On the watercourses of middle 
Europe, and the importance of regulation of the Danube, with 
special reference to the stretch between Theben and Gonyo 
(Hungary), by Herr Lanfranconi.—On the formation of germinal 
layers in the hen’s egg, by Herr Koller.—On combinations of 
chloride of calcium with fatty acids, by Herr Lieber. 


Imperial Institute of Geology, December 7.—Geological 
map of the environs of Gratz, by Herr Hérnes.x—On a new 
mineral, schneebergite, by Herr Brezina—Tectonics of the 
dioritic eruptive rocks of Klausen (Tyrol), by Herr Teller.— 
Geological map of Gorlice, by Herr Trajnocha.—On Predazzo, 
&ce., by Herr Reyer. 


CONTENTS Pace 

THE CHEMISTRY OF THE Future. By Prof. HENry E. ARMSTRONG, 
F.R.S. Ce ineomoucs Cora cole Bo. oS ara 
HANDBOOK OF BOTANY.» ) «. sewiejs-, 0 «© joiieh me eaien denen 


Our Book SHELF :— 


Burbidge's “Gardens ofithe*Sum 7. 08 oe a euiet teeter an emenKie 
Meredith’s ‘‘ Tasmanian Friends and Foes: Feathered, Furred, 
and! Finned "’srs.33) Sy erieracicense. byt 5) aie eee 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Mr. Spencer and Prof. Tait— HERBERT SPENCER . . « . - 144 
Criterion ofReality.—"EXGS FS St ere eee 144 
Landslips.—THos. WARD. « -) e+ is 1s 2 © 6 8 oe wl SM 
The Geology of East Central Africa and the Subterranean Forest 
in Bombay.—W. T. BLANFORD . ..-. « « «© « © « 0 « « 245 
Dr. Siemens’s Gas-Grate.—R. Doucras Harz, M.D... - . 145 
Geological Climates.—Prof. SamuEL HauGuron, F.R.S ; Prof. P. 
MARTIN. DUNGAN,)F RIS: qf 5 5 meyetre) <ife Malitethtetee Gemma 
Hailstorm in Dorsetshire.—Dr. Geo. J. Attman, F.R.S. (With 
LULUSEFAUION) 2. sac es ols ep ve oa ee re CT 
Sargassum.—Dr. Orto Kuntze. « . 24. 0. 8 146 
Note on an Acoustical Constant.—W, J. Grey and J.T. Dunn . 146 
The U.S. ‘Weather.Charts.—H. M.. . .0 }e) ene si ect ee ZA 
Climate of Vancouver Island.—Capt. Epmunp H. VeRNEY. - . 147 
Meteors.—M. A. \VEEDER ~ ¢ 2 )e © Sc he “ee es) eee es 147 
Tue PROBABILITY OF PHYLLOXERA CROSSING THE TROPICS. « . . 147 
SonGs OF THE ScreNcES—I. ZOOLOGY . . « e « © «© © = « 148 
Tuer Aucust Auroras. By Prof. W. STANLEY JEVONS, F.R.S. . . 148 
Tue INFLUENCE OF A TUNING-FORK ON THE GARDEN SPIDER. By 
C.V. Boys . + SNE SoS Mee ald . salb= Brie 
Tue MINERALOGICAL Society oF GREAT BriTain AND IpELAND. : 
By Prof. Arch. Gerkig, BUR:S. <5 2) whe 6 ee ee ke 150) 
SMOKELEss Lonpon. By W. D. Scotr MoncRIEFF . . . « « 151 
New Guinea. By AtRED R. Wattace (With Tlustvations) . . 152) 
PROFESSOR J.C. WATSON « 2 6 8 ee ee 8 ws ee 155! 
IN elsy eee OLD RECO IRICIEOT Oe CO.) oy 
Our AsTRONOMICAL CoLUMN :— 
The Cometsiof, Hartwig and Swift. 2 © «© 6) 6) el) oleae 
‘The! November’ Meteors). i/o) 2 Ao Ne) AR eee eee 
Near Appulse of Jupiter toa Fixed Star " . . 2. «© a «© + 158) 
Brotocicat Nores:— 
Anabzena living in Botrydium . . +. + » « 6» + © + = * 158 
Mesembrianthemum not Mesembryanthemum . oe ee + 6 T5Rm 
Chlorophyll in the Epidermis of Plants . . . «+ - 6 « + - + 158 
Blood-Vessels of Valves of the Heart. « » «© © + + © © + © 359 
Light and the Transpiration of Plants . +» + »- «+ «6 + += + + 159 
Pinguicula Alpina. . 29+ 2 + + + + © + © 2 es + + 159) 
GzOGRAPHICAL NOTES. +). 0 2 6 2 © ¢ © © ¢ © © + 5 6 I5Qh 
Tur INFLUENCE OF PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE ON THE SPECTRA 4 
oF Vapours AND GasEs. By G. CIAMICIAN . . . « + «)« «| 160) 
UnIveRsITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE - » « + - + « + 160° 
SCIENTIFIC GERTALS Seem ce ee’ (=e fet 9 (met emer a 108 


SocreTIES AND ACADEMIES «+ + +e «© «+ © © © = © «© © @ 


NATURE 


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1880 


THE FOGS OF LONDON 


AST week Mr. Scott Moncrieff described in our 
columns a method of all but entirely eliminating 
smoke from the atmosphere of London, and thus abolish- 
ing that most venerable of our institutions—Fog. And 
in a recent number Dr. Siemens showed how our existing 
grates could be made to give out a maximum of heat at a 
minimum of expense and an entire absence of smoke. It 
may therefore be of some interest to inquire briefly into 
the latest theories as to the causes and consequences of 
this hideous incubus which renders residence in London 
a terror to so many. 

Fogs are supposed to form a constituent part of the clima- 
tology of the British Islands from which there is no escape ; 
and in certain strictly local climatologies, such as that of 
London, where the aggregation of human beings is alto- 
gether unprecedented, they now and again acquire an 
extraordinary intensity and persistency, and are attended 
with consequences so disastrous and fatal as to press 
urgently on Parliament the necessity of legislation towards 
the mitigation of the evil. 

In illustration of this, reference may be made to the 
influence on the mortality of London exercised by the 
fog which prevailed there from November, 1879, to 
February, 1880, which was so remarkable both for its 
denseness and protractedness, as to constitute it one of 
the most memorable fogs on record. The question has 
been investigated by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, and the results 
recently published in the Journal of the Scottish Meteoro- 
logical Society. 

The increase in the death-rate was truly enormous, as 
these figures, giving the whole mortality for each of the 
seven weeks ending February 21, show—1I754, 1730, 1900, 
2200, 3376,2495, and 2016; in other words, several thousand 
persons fell victims to the disastrous fatality of this great 
fog. An examination of the figures in the Registrar- 
General’s Reports shows that no approach to so large an 
increase in the death-rate showed itself in any of the 
other British large towns, and in none of these did fog of 
a noteworthy character occur. Of all diseases, asthma 
was most directly influenced in its fatality by the fog; 
for as the density of the fog increased so did the deaths 
from asthma, and as the fog abated, relief came at once 
to the asthmatic, and the death-rate instantly fell. Thus 
the mortality rose to 220 per cent. above the average 
during the week of densest fog, but as the fog gave way 
the mortality fell to 40 per cent. below the average. 
Bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, and other lung diseases 
appeared also with an enormously increased fatality, the 
mortality from bronchitis rising during the week when the 
fog was at its worst to 331 per cent. above its average. In 
the case of these diseases however the relief did not come 
instantaneously with the cessation of the fog, but injuries 
of a more} permanent nature appear to have been sus- 
tained which kept the death-rate at a high figure for some 
time after the fog had finally disappeared. Whooping- 
cough exhibited these characteristics in even a still more 
pronounced manner. The pernicious effects of the fog 
lingered still longer in the system; so that while the 

VOL. XXIII.—No. 582 


165 


death-rate rose during the worst wees of the fog to 182 
per cent. above the average, four weeks thereafter it had 
fallen no lower than 74 per cent. above the normal 
mortality of whooping-cough. It is singular, and particu- 
larly to the medical profession profoundly interesting, that 
deaths from croup, diphtheria, and rheumatism did not 
show any distinct relation to the fog. As regards the other 
diseases, the deaths from which are registered, they 
equally did not appear to show any steady connection 
with the fog’s varying denseness and persistency. 

This pernicious and deadly character of fog on persons 
suffering from these diseases is not due to fog as such, but 
to the noxious qualities imparted to it by our large towns. 
Dr. Angus Smith has shown that the air of Manchester 
during an extremely dense fog contained 20°85 per cent. 
of oxygen, or one-tenth per cent. less than the normal 
quantity. The pernicious character of fog however is to 
be traced not so much to this slight diminution of atmo- 
spheric oxygen as to the presence of positively deleterious 
substances, 

The smoke which issues from our dwelling-houses 
contains, in addition to solid soot, also gaseous carbonic 
acid, sulphurous acid, carbon monoxide, sulphide of 
ammonia, and sometimes minute traces of arsenic. More- 
over the soot does not consist of particles of carbon only, 
but carbon saturated with tarry matters, sulphur and 
ammonia compounds, &c. Smoke from manufactories is 
usually more completely burned than that from dwelling- 
houses, and is therefore less deleterious. In many cases 
however manufactories pour out into the air their own 
specific hurtful gases. Of these gases the more pernicious 
are mineral acids, especially sulphuric and hydrochloric 
acids, sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphur dioxide, and oxide 
of arsenic. Gases rising from decaying animal and 
vegetable matter in waste heaps and in faulty sewers also 
lend their aid in the contamination of the atmosphere of 
towns. In the neighbourhood of various manufactories 
solid impurities crowd the air, resulting in a denseness of 
fog in these restricted localities with an accompanying 
suffering and fatality elsewhere unknown. 

In February last we drew attention (NATURE, vol. xxi. 
Pp- 355) to the question of fogs and the general atmospheric 
conditions under which they are generated, when the 
importance in discussing the question of fogs of a careful 
study of the anticyclone and its accompaniments was 
adverted to. Indeed it is in the highest degree probable 
that all our memorable great fogs are intimately connected 
with the anticyclone, being found towards their outskirts 
or rather in the debatable region between the cyclone and 
the anticyclone. They arise from the diffusion of the 
vapour brought up by the cyclone outwards and through 
the colder and drier air of those parts of the anticyclone 
contiguous to it, where it is condensed into immense 
breadths of fog stretching several hundred miles in 
length. 

The two features of the anticyclone to which more 
special attention is directed are these: (1) the calmness 
or comparative calmness of the air; and (2) the slow 
downward general movement of the atmosphere over the 
region covered by the anticyclone, and a general outward 
movement in all directions towards surrounding regions 
as we near its outskirts. 

Consider now] this feature of the anticyclone in its 

I 


166 


NATURE ! 4 


[| Dec. 23, 1880 


relation to the vast quantities of deleterious matters which 
are vomited into the atmosphere from the chimneys of 
London. The horizontal movement of the air is at a 
minimum, and thus altogether insufficient to sweep these 
noxious matters out into the surrounding country. The 
impurities therefore ascend into the air over London; 
and when no longer buoyed up by the warmer air with 
which they began the ascent, they fall under the influence 
of the general downward movement of the atmosphere ; 
and this downward movement is accelerated by the solid 
impurities becoming saturated with condensed aqueous 
vapour, coal-oil, and tarry substances. Hence the 
specially noxious fogs of large towns settle near the 
surface, are no more than a few fathoms in depth, and 
are at the maximum where chimneys are planted thickest, 
the situation low-lying and confined, and where conse- 
quently the horizontal circulation of the air is absolutely 
arrested. 

If we would then overcome, or in any way mitigate, 
the terribly fatal effects of our city fogs, it can be done in 
no other way than by Parliament interposing with a 
legislation which will not only effectually stop the emana- 
tion of deleterious exhalations from manufactories, but 
also compel the combustion of the smoke arising from 
ordinary fires in dwelling-houses. As regards the latter, 
where the real difficulty in legislating lies, it may be 
stated that we already have appliances for thoroughly 
burning coal, the use of which would be attended with an 
immense saving of money to the community, as well as 
the prevention of the painful recurrence of periods of 
such widespread sickness and mortality as London passed 
through in the beginning of the present year. But it is of 
little use in science showing how this terrible evil may be 
cured if the authorities make no attempt to put her hardly 
obtained results into practice; it would cost little to 
give both Dr. Siemens’s and Mr. Moncrieff’s methods a 
fair trial on something more than a miniature scale, 
But what are some of the obstacles to such a practical 
course may be seen from our correspondence columns 
to-day. 


WHAT IS CIVILISATION ? 


Lhe Past in the Present. What is Civilisation2 By 
Arthur Mitchell, M.D., LL.D. 8vo. pp. xvi. and 354. 
(Edinburgh ; David Douglas, 1880.) 

HIS interesting volume, as may be inferred from the 
title, embraces two cognate but at the same time 
somewhat diverse subjects—the one the survival, or 
possibly the reintroduction, of objects and customs, which 
are usually regarded as primitive, among the civilised 
nations of the present day; the other the nature and 
origin of civilisation. 

As Rhind Lecturer on Archeology Dr. Arthur Mitchell 
selected these two subjects as the topics on which to 
enlarge, and devoted six of his lectures to the first and 
four to the second; and these lectures, illustrated by 
nearly 150 excellent illustrations, form the body of his 
book, to which is added a long appendix and a detailed 
analytical table of contents. 

The facts brought forward in the first portion of the 
work, though for the greater part by no means new to 
most archeologists, are of considerable general interest, 


and will appear sufficiently striking to the ordinary reader. 
The peregrinations of the author in the remoter districts 
of Scotland and the neighbouring groups of islands have 
brought him in frequent contact with those among whom 
ancient customs are most likely to have survived, whose 
domestic appliances are often of the same simple cha- 
racter as were those of their ancestors generations and 
generations ago, and whose ordinary life has also been 
but little affected by the advance in material civilisation 
of their fellow-countrymen. To these objects and customs 
so persistently surviving from the Past into the Present 
the term “neo-archaic’”? has been applied by Prof. 
Rolleston ; and it is precisely these objects that a practised 
archeologist declines to regard as ancient, unless the 
circumstances of their finding justify him in so doing. 
Foremost among them is placed the whorl and spindle, 
an appliance for spinning still in use in parts of Scotland, 
as it is throughout the whole of the continent of Europe; 
and which indeed is never likely to be entirely supplanted 
by the spinning-wheel or other machinery, so long as the 
use of the spindle can be combined with an out-of-doors 
occupation, such as tending sheep or cows. All will agree 
with Dr. Mitchell that the mental power of those Scotch 
women who still use the spindle and whorl need not be a 
whit inferior to that of those who do not use it, and some 
will go farther, and place the shepherdess who spins in a 
higher rank than the one whose hands are idle all the 
day long. That a spindle should be made of a form to 
do without a whorl, or that a potato should be substituted 
for the latter, are regarded by the author as signs of the 
art of spinning by hand having reached a state of degra- 
dation ; but if producing the greatest effect with the least 
possible trouble is any sign of progress, such an opinion 
is questionable. 

In all such cases the external circumstances of a family 
or group of families must be taken into consideration ; 
and if it be cheaper or more easy to employ articles of 
the simplest and rudest character than to purchase, it 
may be from a distance, the appliances of modern art, the 
simple methods and appliances will survive. Netting 
and knitting by hand will thrive by the side of netting 
and knitting by machinery, as the long hours of a winter’s 
evening, which might otherwise be wasted, can thus be 
utilised at practically no cost ; and it seems more remark- 
able that the simple form of narrow loom for webbing, of 
which Dr. Mitchell gives a figure, should have become 
almost extinct, than that it should have survived. 

A flint for striking a light may be cheaper and in 
some respects more convenient than lucifers; and the 
“\nockin’-stane’’ and mallet are not less effective for 
their purpose than the most expensive pestle and mortar. 
The earthenware “ craggans” are as cheap and as well 
adapted for the ends they serve as pots thrown on the 
wheel; and in countries where carriage is difficult or 
extensive water power scarce, the quern or hand-mill and 
the little Norse-mill may still hold their own; as they did 
in St. Alban’s in the fourteenth century, when they com- 
peted with the high charges for multure at the Abbey 
mills. The survival of the black houses and beehive 
houses in the Hebrides may also probably be reduced to 
a question of cost. Perforated or grooved stones are 
cheaper than plummets of lead as sinkers for nets and 
lines ; and for working in water a pivot and socket of 


Dec. 23, 1&80] 


stone is probably both cheaper and more durable than 


one of metal. The existence of sockets and other working - 
parts formed of stone in our best clocks and watches can | 


hardly be regarded as an instance of low civilisation, or 
of those who use them being in the Stone Age. 


In all these remarks Dr. Mitchell will perhaps agree, } 


and if the object of his lectures were merely to inculcate 
caution in accepting such objects as those he describes as 
belonging of necessity to any remote antiquity or to an 
absolutely rude and barbarous people, most archeologists 
would fully endorse his views. But there is throughout 
these lectures a more or less evident intention that they 
should apply not to any minor questions of archzological 
classification, but to the far greater question of the 
progress of the human race. Though accepting the 
ordinary division of antiquities into those of the Stone 
Age, of the Bronze Age, and of the Iron Age, he does not 
regard the use of stone, bronze, or iron as in any way 
indicative of the culture and capacity of those who used 
them. No doubt many of those who use iron and steel 
are mentally barbarians, and certainly the instances the 
author brings forward of the superstitious beliefs still 
prevalent in Scotland show how deeply rooted are such 
relics of early beliefs, and how little material civilisation 
has done to elevate the mental culture of the mass of the 
population. The distinction Dr. Mitchell draws between 
culture and civilisation is one which is well illustrated by 
the continued existence of such low forms of belief ; and 
all his readers will agree with him that it is an error to 
suppose that in this or any other civilised country the 
mass of the people can be spoken of as_highly cultured. 
Civilisation he defines to be nothing more than a com- 
plicated outcome of a war waged with Nature by man in 
society to prevent her from putting into execution in his 
case her law of Natural Selection. 

Such a view of mankind being to a certain extent 
exempt from the operation of that law has already been 
held by many ; but even if accepted does not appear to 
contradict the opinion that the human race may have 
been evolved from some lower form of mammalian life. 
For on such an assumption it is, as Dr. Mitchell insists, 
impossible that man in isolation could become civilised, 
while, on the other hand, it is evident that until he had 
become sufficiently intelligent or cultured to enter into 
association with his fellow men, he would remain subject 
to the law of Natural Selection in the same manner .as any 
members of the brute creation. Nor even when the stage 
of association was reached can we expect that there 
should have been at once any great development of 
mental power ; for there is a long interval between the 
banding together of a certain number of human units, 
and any one of them being in that position of ease and 
leisure which is so necessary for mental culture. 

It is perfectly true that so far as osteological evidence 
is concerned there appears to be no tangible difference 
between the earliest known remains of man and the 
human frame of the present day. But it is by no means 
certain that all the skulls which have been attributed to 
the Quaternary Period actually belong to so remote an 
antiquity ; and it is worth while to remember that among 
the coolies of China and some of the Pelew islanders, 
while the weight of the brain is singularly great, it is 
balanced by a marked deficiency in the number and depth 


NATURE 


167 


of the secondary convolutions and by a want of depth in 
the grey matter. 

Dr. Mitchell’s view, though we believe nowhere clearly 
expressed, appears to be that during the whole period of 
the existence of the human race there was in some part 
of the world a state of civilisation in existence, which 
would imply that those among whom it prevailed were 
possessed of the same average mental capacity as any 
people or nation of the present day. “ May it not happen,” 
he says, ‘“‘that dealing with the human race as a whole, 
there never has been a time in its history when there did 
not occur among men states both of high and of low 
civilisation ? Is it not also possible that there may have 
never existed a time in the history of mankind as a whole 
when there were not among those composing it persons 
potentially as good—persons exhibiting as high a capacity 
—as any among those who now go to make up mankind?” 
Were the history of our race confined to the last five or 
six thousand years it might be hard to answer these 
questions otherwise than in the affirmative ; but who that 
appreciates the vast antiquity of man as established by 
recent geological discoveries will admit that such a term 
forms more than a small fractional portion of the period 
of man’s existence upon the earth, or that there is any 
parity of reasoning between the circumstances of the 
beginning of the human period and of the comparatively 
recent times of Egyptian or Assyrian civilisation ? 

Granted even that the potential mental capacity existed, 
of what use could it have been to those who were daily on 
the brink of starvation, who were unacquainted with 
writing, and with metal, and had not even succeeded in 
domesticating any of those animals which now seem 
almost necessary for human existence ? 

This however is not the place to enter into a long dis- 
cussion as to the origin and progress of civilisation. 
Those, and they are many, who are interested in this 
subject will do well to read Dr. Mitchell’s book, and even 
should they not agree with all his conclusions, will feel 
that his cause has not suffered from the treatment it has 
received at his hands. 

They will also find in his Appendix much valuable 
matter extracted from the writings of Mr. Alfred R. 
Wallace, Mr. Herbert Spencer, and Mr. Bancroft. To 
the antiquary pure and simple the illustrations of the 
“neo-archaic’’ objects still in use in Scotland will be 
attractive and valuable; and should some stray politician 
take up the volume some of the reflections on the dangers 
to civilisation which may arise from over-legislation, as 
set forth in the last of the lectures, may profitably be 
studied. 


AUSTRIAN MYRIOPODS 


Die Myriopoden der osterreichisch-ungarischen Mo- 
narchie. Von Dr. Robert Latzel. Erste Halfte : 
Die Chilopoden. S8vo. pp. xv. and 228, plates i-x. 
(Wien: Alfred Hélder, 1880. ) 

HE centipedes, millipeds, and their allies have hither- 

to not only been neglected by English naturalists, 

but practically by Continental workers, until the present 
generation. Our countryman, Newport, indeed (of whom 
it may be said with justice, that he touched nothing that 
he did not elucidate and adorn), has secured a permanent 


163 


uA T OFS 


[ Dec. 23, 1880 


place in the annals of the class referred to; but it is to 
the brothers Koch, Meinert, and the Italians Fanzago and 
Fedrizzi, with the Bohemian naturalist Rosicky, and 
some few other writers of less importance, that we have 
had to look in recent times for anything approaching 
serious or continued work upon these creatures. In 
America, Wood and A. S. Packard, jun., have also done 
good service. The writer of the book now under notice 
(Professor of Natural Sciences in the Imperial Franz- 
Joseph Gymnasium at Vienna) has by this sterling 
treatise at once assumed a place in the front rank of 
authorities. We are not aware of any prior writings of 
his on the subject, beyond one or two of trifling local 
interest; but, from his five years’ study and collection of 
material in various parts of Austria and in Western 
Hungary, it is clear that he is qualified for the task of 
monographing the species of his country, especially as 
he has examined nearly all the exponents in Austrian 
collections and museums. As he says, no work on the 
Myriopoda of Europe, or even of Germany and the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire, exists ; so it is to be hoped 
that the present instalment towards such a desideratum 
may be from time to time succeeded by others of more 
extended area. 

As regards the preparation, &c., of specimens, Dr. 
Latzel recommends the use of small well-corked glass 
tubes, containing spirits of wine. Pinned examples are 
of no use, 

Adopting the AZyriopoda asa separate class (Packard 
seems alone nowadays in uniting them with the Zsecta), 
the following classification is proposed: Orders I. 
CuHiILopopa; II. SyMpHYLA, Ryder (for the Sco/o- 
pendrellide); III. DIPLOPODA, with sub-orders Chz/o- 
gnatha, Colobognatha (for the Polyzoniide), and Hetero- 
gnatha (for the Pauropodide); 1V. MALACOPODA (Peri- 
patide). 

The present part discusses the C/z/opoda only, the 
flat centipedes, with large sternum, and whose first pair 
of thoracic feet is transformed into foot-jaws. The com- 
mon thin yellow Geophzlus, which sometimes gives out a 
phosphoric light, is a type of the order. Thirty-one 
genera are recognised, whereof fifteen are European, one 
American (Wotiphilides), and one European (St#igmato- 
aster) being described as new, and Opisthemega, Wood, 
renamed Megopisthus. Sixty-seven Austrian species are 
described (Lithodius, the largest, with thirty-seven), 
including many new ones. 

It is not within our scope to analyse the specific charac- 
ters of such a work; Dr. Latzel seems to have performed 
his task conscientiously and exhaustively, giving the 
varied stages of development in each case where known 
(“‘juvenis,” “adolescens,” “ pullus,” and “ fetus”), and 
combining biological and anatomical aspects with the 
purely descriptive accounts. 

The Myriopoda have always afforded material for the 
comparative anatomist, as evidenced quite recently by 
MacLeod’s researches upon the poison-bearing glands 
of various Chilopods (in the Bzl/etin of the Belgian 
Academy of Sciences, 2nd series, vol. xlv. p. 781 ez seg.), 
and Voges’s scheme for the classification of Zyacheata 
(in Siebold and Kolliker’s Zecéschrift fiir wissenschaft- 
isthe Zoologie, vol. xxxi. p. 143), &c. Dr. Latzel recognises 
the importance of this element, and gives some remark- 


| 
| 


ably well-executed lithographs (from his own designs) 
of such organs as are of general morphological impor- 
tance, in addition to details illustrative of specific struc- 
ture. Were it not for the general excellence of Conti- 
nental work in such matters, we should congratulate 
Messrs. Hélder upon the result of their part in this 
matter. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Die LEthnographisch-Anthropologiscthe Abtheilung des 
Museum Godefroy in Hamburg. Ein Beitrag zur 
Kunde der Sitidsee-Volker. Von J. D. E. Schmeltz 
und Dr. med. R. Krause. (Hamburg : L. Friederichsen 
and Co. 1881.) 


THIS catalogue of the anthropological section “of the 
Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg is a model of its kind, 
and from the exhaustive manner in which it is treated 
the publishers are quite justified in calling the publication 
as they do in their prospectus a “Handbook of Ethno- 
graphy and Ethnology of the South Sea Tribes.” The 
Godeffroy collection is probably unique and unrivalled as 
representing the area to which it is confined, and is 
another example of what private munificence can accom- 
plish for scientific ends ; and though the great merchant 
house may no longer have their collectors scattered 
throughout the South Seas, the town of Hamburg now 
possesses by their exertions the anthropological material 
which this somewhat bulky volume of 687 pages with 
46 plates is found not too large to enumerate. However, 
this catalogue is not merely an enumeration, but contains 
much valuable geographical information, and some most 
useful bibliographical notes, which, in the present absence 
of any anthropological record compiled in the method 
and way of our zoological work, is, if not perfect, much to 
be commended, and not too critically received. The 
arrangement is geographical, and therefore ethnological 
in its true sense, as followed in most large museums, the 
Pitt-Rivers collection being of course a brilliant excep- 
tion, which is rather designed to exhibit evolution in 
culture. 

The first part, “ Ethnographische Abtheilung,” is written 
by Dr. Schmeltz, and naturally occupies the largest por- 
tion of the volume. Australia is treated first, and then 
“Oceanien,” commencing at New Guinea and termi- 
nating with the Sandwich Isles, including not only so 
large and well known an area as New Zealand, but also 
amongst others the smaller and much less known 
Exchequer Isles and Futuna. Of the last-named we are 
told incidentally that the fauna and flora is allied to that 
of Samoa. The Gilbert, Marshall, and Caroline Islands 
are then dealt with, the last very fully. This ethno- 
graphical portion concludes with Alaska and a few other 
various localities, thus showing that in the most special 
of museums the usual few outside elements obtrude. 

The second part, “ Anthropologische Abtheilung,” is 
the joint production of Messrs. Schmeltz and Krause, 
the first author treating the photographs and original 
drawings, whilst Dr. Krause enumerates and describes 
the osteological specimens. The cranial measurements 
are most desired by physical anthropologists, and it is to 
be hoped that some of our own provincial museums 
which are still behind in that respect, though possibly 
containing but few crania, will yet, where such can be 
authentically localised, have the same at once properly 
measured, and for a method, the lately-published Cata- 
logue by Prof. Flower will supply all that anthropological 
science requires. Such Catalogues as the one under 
notice, taken with those of Prof. Flower and General Pitt- 
Rivers, are in themselves real manuals of anthropology. 


W. L. D. 


Des. 23 1850} 


On the Digestive Ferments and on the Preparation and 
Use of Artificially Digested Food. By Wm. Roberts, 
M.D., F.R.S. (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 
1880.) 


THIS little volume contains the three Lumleian Lectures 
delivered before the College of Physicians, London, for 
the present year. The subject is treated in a manner 
worthy of the reputation of the author. He gives a 
summary of what is known on the subject of digestion as 
a function common to animals and plants, treats of the 
general characters and properties of the digestive juices 
and their ferments, with an account of the action of 
each on food material. After many trials the author 
adopts three solutions for the preservation of his solution 
of animal ferment, full details of the preparation of 
which are given. The researches of Musculus and 
O’Sullivan as to the transformation of starch are given, 
with the very recent researches on the same subject by 
Brown and Heron. The subject of the digestion of 
starch is excellently handled, and any dyspeptic reader 
would do well to consider the facts and reasonings here 
so well and clearly given. The second lecture chiefly 
relates to pepsin and the digestion of proteids ; digestive 
proteolysis ; the milk-curdling ferment. The third lecture 
is devoted to the effects of cooking on food, prepara- 
tion of artificially-digested food, peptonised materials, the 
clinical experience of the use of peptonised food, and on 
the use of pancreatic extract as an addition to food 
shortly before food is taken. These lectures, though at 
times technical, may be understood by the ordinary 
reader, who would often derive advantage from a general 
knowledge of their contents. As long as man must live 
on food so long will the proper digestion of that food be 
of extreme importance to him. : 


The Niger and the Benueh : Travels in Central Africa. 
By Adolphe Burdo. From the French by Mrs. George 
Sturge. (London: Bentley, 1880.) 


THERE is a good deal that is interesting in M. Burdo’s 
lively story of his voyage up the Niger and Benueh, partly 
in the company of Bishop Crowther. He gives many 
details of the various towns and villages he visited on the 
banks of the two rivers, and of the appearance and habits 
of the people he met with, all welcome information in a 
region on which our information is even yet comparatively 
meagre. M. Burdo’s journey was made in 1878. 


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, No 
notice ts taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space ts so great that it 
1s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Smokeless London 


I HAVE read the letter of Mr. Scott Moncrieff in NATURE, 
vol, xxiii. p. 151, with much interest, and am satisfied that his 
data and conclusions are substantially accurate, This conviction 
is paced on some experience in the commercial distillation of 
coal, 

One difficulty will arise which should at once be foreseen and 
provided against, or it may be exaggerated into a big bugbear 
by that class of self-styled ‘‘ practical” men who oppose to 
every innovation the inertia of their own self-sufficient stupidity. 
The semi-coke remaining in the retorts, when only one-third of 
the volatile constituents of the coal has been run off, will be 
highly inflammable, and display this property by a great out- 
burst of lurid flame and dense smoke when the retort doors are 
opened for discharging, and unless the withdrawn charge is im- 
mediately quenched there will be a veritable Inferno where it 
falls, This is merely a matter of practical detail admitting of 


NATUR 


169 


ey remedy where there is ability and willingness to grapple 
with it. 

A more serious difficulty is likely to arise in London from the 
peculiar position of the gas companies. They are suffering from 
commercial congestion due to a plethora of prosperity, and 
receiving no stimulation from wholesome competition, they 
display very low commercial vitality. The public welfare is no 
business of theirs. 

It is otherwise in those towns that are sufficiently advanced in 
civilisation and have abolished the gas and water joint-stock 
monopolies. There the public are helping themselves, and 
control the management of the Corporation gas works by their 
election of the members of the Corporation. Many of these 
towns are foggy and smoky enough for the experiment, and in 
these such a boon as that offered by Mr. Moncrieff will probably 
be appreciated, and, being appreciated by those most interested, 
will be at once practically tested. Birmingham, for instance, is 
likely to try it. I was there a few weeks ago and saw how they 
haye eclipsed our electric lamps on the Embankment by the gas 
lamps around their town-hall. 

If it succeeds in any one of these towns our companies will 
surely follow, or if not, so much the worse for the companies. 

StoneBridge Park, Willesden, W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS 

December 17 

I HAVE read with great interest Mr. Scott Moncrieff’s scheme 
for ‘‘Smokeless London” propounded in your last issue. I 
would ask however—Is he satisfied that the coke would be 
smokeless when only 3333 feet of gas per ton has been extracted 
from the coal ? E.R. EF. 

London, December 20 


Climates of Vancouver Island and Bournemouth 


I THINK it very probable that your correspondent Capt. Verney 
is right about the climate of Vancouver’s Island. My only sources 
of information were maps of isothermals in Keith Johnston’s and 
Phillips’ Atlases, which show the szeaz temperature about the 
same as that of the south of England, while the qw7¢er tempera- 
ture is shown as being decidedly colder, and it was to this I more 
especially referred. The mainland of British Columbia is un- 
doubtedly colder than that of Western Europe, but Vancouver’s 
Island itself and the adjacent sea may be really milder; and if 
so it is another proof of the great power of the returning Japan 
current, 

I shall be very glad of Prof. Haughton’s criticisms on my 
hypothesis ; and in the mean time will only say : 1, That unless 
Bournemouth is zever cooled by north and north-east winds, any 
amelioration of the climate of the Polar regions would certainly 
benefit it. 2, That as by my hypothesis the entrance of two 
new gulf-streams into the Arctic Ocean would-entirely prevent 
the formation of ice ; the return currents that would undoubtedly 
be produced would wot be cold currents in the sense in which they 
are now, as they would probably be always considerably above 
the freezing point. ALFRED R, WALLACE 


Geological Climates 


In relation to the discussion as to the importance to be 
ascribed to the distribution of certain trees and plants in the 
determination of geological climates, it may interest Prof. 
Haughton and Mr. Duncan to know that a specimen of the 
Australian Avaucaria Cunninghami is now growing on one of 
the slopes of the Marlstone Hills near Belvoir Castle, in 
North Leicestershire, a position it has occupied for upwards of 
forty years. It has attained a height of about thirty-five feet. 
Having survived (without other protection than that afforded by 
the wooded heights about it) the cold of the winters of 1860 and 
1879, its capability to withstand a greater degree of cold than is 
ever experienced in our southern counties may be with confidence 
asserted. 

Masses of a true and very characteristic bamboo, Bamdbusa 
metaké, are now growing vigorously and spreading rapidly on 
the same estate, the long elegant and slender canes and the 
delicate green foliage of this variety of bamboo not having 
suffered in the slightest degree from the severe frost of last 
winter or the early and equally trying severity of this. dvwn- 
dinaria falcata, the bamboo found as high as the snow-line in 
the Himalayas, has also proved hardy at Belvoir, but it has been 
displaced as an ornamental plant by 2. metaké, Arundo donax 


170 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 23, 1880 


often throws up clustering bunches of canes that reach a height 

of sixteen feet in one season. Associated with Avando conspicua 

and Gynecitm argentum, the above interesting and handsome 

plants give quite a tropical aspect to some of the hillsides of 

this northern county. WILLIAM INGRAM 
Belvoir, December 20 


The Appulse of Jupiter to a Fixed Star on 


November 20 


REFERRING to a request appearing in NATURE, vol. xxiil. 
p. 158, I may say that the approach of Jupiter to B.D. + 2:97 
was well observed here, and I found that the star, when perpen- 
dicular to the belts, was 4°05 distant from the northern limb. 
The definition was good, and the measure, I should say, pretty 
exact. 

It was a strange and beautiful sight, Jupiter appearing with 
five satellites, though, at the same time, the different aspect of the 
star compared with that of the moons was very striking. The 
light of the former was however very sensibly affected by the 
glow of the great disk near it, and i: looked no more than 10 
magnitude. JOHN BIRMINGHAM 

Millbrook, Taam 


British Earthquakes 


May I ask leave to offer a few remarks on the leading article 
on British Earthquakes which appeared in NATURE, vol. xxiii. 
p. 117. The author brings out very strongly the apparent con- 
nection between great lines of jointing or faulting and earthquake 
movements, and points out the great fault which traverses Scot- 
land from sea to sea as a case in point. Now I had this same 
question before the British Association this year, and exhibited 
a map illustrative thereof. I had further, following up a theory 
submitted by me to the Royal Irish Academy, on the Correlation 
of Coast-Line Directions, and published by that body, drawn up 
on a Geikie’s Geological Map of Scotland certain of those cor- 
related lines, and on a smaller map of the British Isles had indi- 
cated both the lines in question and the localities wherein earth- 
quakes have been noticed in Jater times, more essentially since 
1860. One of those lines crosses the district about Comrie, and 
at the moment (August, 1880) could hardly be pointed out as in 
any notable way supporting the connection sought to be esta- 
blished between coast-line directions and earthquake localities. 
But the recent earthquakes in the north of Ireland and in Scot- 
land go far to do this, as the direction shown by me both 
agrees with the great fault mentioned by the author of the 
paper on British Earthquakes in direction, and also fairly shows 
the direction of the earthquake band or zone, which apparently 
extends from Londonderry across Scotland. This direction is 
exactly at 40° with the coast-line direction between Carnsore 
Point and Wicklow Head, as shown on the accompanying map. 

I may add that having had occasion to examine Prof. Hofer’s 
memoir on the ‘‘Erdbeben Karntens und deren Stosilinien,” 
and to compare his lines with those given on the map of Europe 
exhibited by me at the British Association meeting of this year, 
I find some very remarkable concordances as regards directions, 
which, having submitted to him, he quite recognised. I consider 
therefore that this memoir, Prof, Geikie’s very remarkable article 
on the Volcanoes of North-Western Europe, and this late article 
on British Earthquakes, all point more and more distinctly to the 
importance of jointing and fissuring in connection with volcanic 
and earthquake action, and so far go in support of the theory 
submitted by me. J. P. O'REILLY 

Royal College of Sciences, Dublin, December 14 


A General Theorem in Kinematics 


I AM very much obliged to Prof. Everett and Mr. J. J. Walker 
for having taken the trouble to point out that the theorem which 
I communicated to NATURE is, so far as it relates to uniplanar 
motion, already known, I am indebted to Prof. Unwin for more 
complete information on the subject. He tells me that the 
theorem (for the uniplanar case) has been employed by German 
engineers in the discussion of stresses produced in moving pieces 
—exactly the use of the theorem which naturally presents itself. 
Moreover, the theorem (for the uniplanar case) will be found in 
§ 198 of Collignon’s ‘‘ Cinématique,” as well as in other foreign 
books, but not, so far as my information goes, in the work of 
any English author. None of your correspondents or of mine are 
however able to say that the gexeral case was prevjously known. 


The simple method of proof given by Prof. Everett is that 
which I had used nearly a month ago in a paper which I wrote 
(and have since read) for the London Mathematical Society. 

I may mention in connection with this subject a kinematical 
theorem which Mr. Kempe communicated to NATURE some 
time back. J find that this theorem comes properly under a 
general theorem which holds for the areas of roulettes. It can 
be easily proved that the areas of the most general kinds of 
roulettes follow exactly the law of circular transformation which 
Steiner proved to hold gocd for the areas of pedals. For this 
theorem of Steiner’s see Williamson’s ‘‘ Integral Calculus,” 
p. 202, third ed. 

Mr. Kempe’s theorem (as also Holditch’s) is an immediate 
consequence, since every possible uniplanar displacement ofa 
body can be produced by epicycloidal motion. Mr. Williamson, 
justly describing Mr. Kempe’s as ‘‘a singularly elegant theorem” 
(zd¢d. p. 210), arrives at it quite differently. 

GEORGE M. MINCHIN 

Royal Engineering College, Cooper's Hill, December 13 


A Correction 


In Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 44, Prof. Young has published 
some experiments proving that the thermo-electric power of a 
platinum-iron couple is to be observed in vacuo as well as in air ; 
this fact is said to be contradictory to the results given in my 
papers. I presume that some error has caused this statement, 
as I never and nowhere asserted that the thermo-electric power is 
dependent on the surrounding gases. I have, on the contrary, 
stated (Phil. AZag., October 1880, p. 294) that no such influence 
has been hitherto observed. Thus the experiments of Prof, 
Young do in no way contradict my views. 


University of Vienna FRANZ EXNER 


Jelly Fish 


On November 3, in the B.I.S.N. Co.’s steamer Arcot, Capt. 
Stevenson, while in lat. 16° 50’ N., long. 55° 45’ E., with the 
Kuriyan-muriyan islands to the north, thirty to forty miles and 
three days out from Aden to Karachi, we passed through a vast 
quantity of brown anemones, the ordinary bell-shaped jelly-fish 
and strange worm-like (apparently) jelly-fish, floating on and just 
below the surface. These were first noticed about five in the 
afternoon, and we were still amongst them when we went below 
to dinner at six, the vessel steaming about eight knots. The 
anemones were only peculiar in that they appeared to be rounded 
at the base and without the ordinary flat surface for adhering to 
rock or stone ; they were in vast numbers and had the feelers 
expanded. The worm-like or centipede-like jelly-fish were from 
six to eight feet long and as thick as a man’s wrist. They 
appeared sometimes singly, sometimes many twisted together ; 
they were in slow feeble snake-like motion, All agreed that they 
were ribbed in appearance ; but there was a difference of opinion 
as to the colour. It was described by some as: that of the sea, 
by others as violet, brown, or purple. Each apparent rib was 
divided from those next it by a bar of lighter colour. 

At night the sea was bright with many phosphoric lights of 
many shapes, so we were perhaps still passing through the mass, 
There was a dead calm at the time. 

The captain has read this account and stated it to be fairly 
correct. F, C. CONSTABLE 

Karachi, Sind, November 8 


MR. PLIMSOLL’S CURE FOR COLLIERY 
EXPLOSIONS 


Eze us suppose a person actuated by very powerful 
motives, who desires to solve the most difficult 
mathematical problem of the day, and who, after having 
neglected to acquire the most rudimentary knowledge of 
his subject, and after having contented himself with 
seeking the company of land surveyors, and trying to 
entrap civil engineers into conversations about it, sud- 
denly startles the world with the cry of Eureka! Eureka ! 
Eureka! should we, or should we not, be inclined to 
regard his solution with respect ? 

Mr. Plimsoll has done for the mining world exactly what 
our suppositious person would have accomplished for the 
mathematical one. Inan article contained in the December 


Dec. 23. 1880] 


NATURE 


171 


number of the Nineteenth Century, under the title of “ Ex- 
plosions in Collieries and their Cure,” he lays before the 
readers of that magazine an account of the praiseworthy 
motives which impelled him to seek some means of pre- 
venting these horrible disasters ; he tells them plainly that 
he knows little or nothing about the subject, and he recounts 
what steps he took for the purpose of supplying the want 
of that knowledge to some extent. He says :— “In my hope 
that the resources of chemistry might supply a solution 
of the problem which has so long perplexed everybody, I 
have made it my business from time to time to seek the 
society of practical chemists as well as of purely scientific 
men whose business it is to teach chemistry. I have 
seen several amongst the former who are engaged in 
calico-printing works, lead-works, &c., and have sought, 
by getting them to talk about chemistry, and by so to 
speak lying in wait myself for some hint in their conver- 
sation, for something which might supply the missing link.” 

Mr. Plimsoll then gives an account of how he travelled 
over the painfully disappointing road of trying to “un- 
mask”’ the fire-damp, to “ make it visible to the eye like 
smoke or steam,” and to indicate its presence by means 
of a collodion balloon filled with the light carburetted 
hydrogen and put into a vertical recess glazed in front 
where it “would float upon the stratum of common air 
because filled with the lighter gas, but would remain at 
the bottom of the stratum of gas because kept down by 
the weight of the envelope inclosing it.” 

He says of the fire-damp indicator:—“A delicate 
instrument has been invented, constructed on the prin- 
ciple of the diffusion of gases; but as this would require 
the application and careful observation of anybody using 
it, and as all it shows can be equally ascertained by 
watching the elongation of the flame on the safety-lamp, 
I pass it by.” 

He next asks, “ Can this gas be absorbed?” and gives 
an example of what he means by describing the strong 
affinity which quicklime has ‘‘ for hydrogen in the form of 
water”; and lastly, he puts the question: ‘ Supposing 
all these branches of inquiry to result unsatisfactorily, 
whether this gas should be loaded or neutralised in some 
manner that should render it non-explosive ?” 

We will pass over the incentives which our author 
brings forward with the view of stimulating men of science 
to undertake the work of discovery. That these incentives 
are strong enough in all conscience we who heard the 
dreadful sound of the explosion at the Naval Steam-Coal 
(Penygraig) Collieries as we lay awake shortly after mid- 
night on Friday last can testify from experience. A few 
hours later we breathed the fatal after-damp in a suffi- 
ciently diluted form to produce only headache and nausea: 
we looked upon the blackened remains of the victims as 
they lay or knelt on the ground, some having been hurled 
from a distance and having nearly every bone in their 
bodies broken, others having their coats tightly drawn 
over their necks and mouths and their faces buried in 
the dust, and still others actually kneeling, having their 
knees drawn more or less closely up under them, their 
hands pressed on their mouths and their faces also 
in the dust. We saw nine fine horses that had been 
struck down where they stood in their stable never 
to rise again; one that had started off at a mad gal- 
lop, and been arrested in six yards by a fall of roof 
due to the blast which startled him, his legs and his 
whole body in an attitude of fierce action resting on the 
top of the fall, and his head laid gently on one side; two 
others lying on their backs with their legs in the air; 
another that had turned round in his shafts by some extra- 
ordinary convulsion, so that he faced the load he was 
drawing, while his body, with head erect, was twisted in 
between two props at the side of the road ; and, lastly, 
a little donkey denuded of harness and tossed like a 
rag on to a heap of rubbish. We saw many of the 
bodies carried to the bottom of the shaft and sent to the 


surface, and others being carried from the pit to the 
homes where they lately dwelt ; we heard the weeping of 
the bereaved ones ; we saw one little knot of mourners 
from our very window, and since we began to write, as 
they gathered at the end of a row of houses, were joined 
by others bearing a coffin on their shoulders, and pro- 
ceeded slowly down the road and out of sight, while the 
plaintive Welsh hymn that never fails to accompany such 
a procession rose and fell on the ear, and died away 
fitfully amongst the hills. 

If any one can see and hear all this and more and 
remain unmoved, his natural affection is dead, and Mr. 
Plimsoll’s appeal will be made to him in vain. Happily 
there are many whose hearts are wrung when they see or 
hear of the sufferings of their fellow-men, and who are 
always ready and willing to respond to such a cry. 

We will now turn to the second part of Mr. Plimsoll’s 
article, where we find his account of the manner in 
which he proposes to prevent “‘half, or it may happily 
prove even more than half, the number of explosions.’’ 
He describes it in the following words :—“I do not pro- 
pose to alter anything in existing arrangements in the 
suggestion Iam about to offer, but only to supplement 
them. Let the present system of ventilation remain as 
it is in all its vigour, but in regard to the gas which 
escapes it, gets behind it, and accumulates in the upper 
and the waste portions of the pit, can we not go arm in 
arm with Nature in this matter, as we do in the others, 
and follow the gas whithersoever it goes and thus, in 
Lord Bacon’s words, by obeying Nature learn how to 
conquer her ? 

“Tt soes to the highest part of the pit, therefore into 
the exhausted spaces. I would work with this tendency, 
and, as in the case of water, a large hole is dug called a 
‘sump,’ to collect the water at the bottom of the pit and 
so facilitate its removal by the pumps, so I would make a 
hole or sump for the accommodation of the gas; but as 
the water is heavy and lies upon the floor, and has the 
sump for it made in the floor, so my hole or ‘sump’ to 
gather the gas should be in the roof of the mine, and 
that in the highest accessible places. 

“Tf it were certain that the water will run into the hole 
or sump dug for it in the floor or the lowest part of the 
pit, then it is equally certain that the light carburetted 
hydrogen would rise in the ‘sump’ or hole dug for it in 
the highest part of the workings of the pit. 

“T would then place a vertical tube with an open trum- 
pet-shaped mouth, something like the funnel or chimney of 
a locomotive, in this place, and of such a length that the 
open mouth(which should be protected with a louvre cover- 
ing or cap to keep out the dirt) should reach up very near 
to the roof ; the bottom end of this pipe or tube I would 
continue to the bank of the pit; and as in the case of 
water you proceed to remove the accumulation by a 
water-pump, so in this case I would pump out the accu- 
mulation of light carburetted hydrogen by means of an 
air-pump ; probably a small fan like that used in foundries 
would do as well, or even better. 

“This air-pump or fan could easily be worked by a 
strap from the winding-engine, or by hand. It would 
require assistance during the daily drawing out of the 
pipe the atmospheric air which would fill it when the gas 
was exhausted from the mine. I ask your common sense, 
could you not as certainly in this way draw off every 
cubic foot of gas in the mine as you now can certainly 
remove the water from it?” 

Mr. Plimsoll summarises in the following manner :— 

“7. Ts it not a fact that the light carburetted hydrogen 
does and will seek the highest place of refuge open to it 
in the pit? 2. Isit not a fact that at this moment there 
is scarcely a coal-mine which has not gas in its goaves 
and highest parts? And 3. Is it not clear that by thus 
tapping the highest places it can as surely be drawn off 
as water can be pumped out of a pit?”’ 


r 72 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 23, 1880 


It would be impossible to controvert all the statements 


that Mr. Plimsoll makes regarding the properties of 
fire-damp. its tendency to rise to the highest point, and 
so on; he has supplied himself with all the knowledge 
necessary to understand its behaviour when it is found 
in easily manageable quantities. But what are we to 
think of his proposal when we come to deal with such quan- 
tities as 1000 and 2000 cubic feet per minute? Two hours 
after the explosion at the Naval Steam-Coal (Penygraig) 
Colliery we estimated the amount of fire-damp coming 
up the upcast at 1100 cubic feet per minute, and this is 
doubtless the normal quantity when the colliery is at 
work, Dinas Colliery, which adjoins the last-named one, 
always produced about 1000 cubic feet per minute for 
some years before the explosion on January 13, 1879; 
Llwynypia Colliery, which adjoins the Naval Steam-Coal 
Colliery on the other side, produced 2000 cubic feet per 
minute for some years, but its output of coal is now less, 
and consequently its production of gas has decreased. 

But where does this gas come from, and how is it dis- 
posed of? In following one of the subdivisions of the 
air-current from the point where it leaves the main in- 
take air-current to the point where it returns to the main 
return air-current we observe the following phenomena. 
On reaching the first working place the air is still appa- 
rently as pure as it was when it left the surface; about 
the fifth or sixth place it begins to show the first symptoms 
of gas on the small flame of a glass safety-lamp (it is 
still invisible in a Davy lamp); at the tenth place the 
cap is quite apparent even to the unpractised eye; at the 
fifteenth place it is say ;%, of an inch in height, and at the 
twentieth place itis a t{ of aninch. This is enough, and 
the current returns towards the upcast shaft without 
passing through any more places. At the point of its 
junction with the main return air-current its cap remains 
exactly the same as it was when it left the last face. We 
have ourselves verified these observations hundreds of 
times in different mines. The number of places through 
which the air must pass in order to obtain a given pro- 
portion of gas varies according to the rate at which gas 
is produced in the mine in question, and the volume of 
air passing along the faces. 

In the most fiery mines we can generally follow the 
air-current from the surface, and return with it again 
to the surface after having passed along the working 
places without having seen the least accumulation of 
explosive gas. This is the rule; a cavity left by a fall of 
roof and containing explosive gas is the exception, and 
not only is no work allowed to be carried on near it, but 
means are taken to ventilate it as quickly as possible. 

How then could Mr. Plimsoll’s method be applied under 
these circumstances? Should we slacken the ventilation 
in order to give the gas time to rise to the roof, and 
after it got there to give it a chance of finding its way to 
a sump excavated for it somewhere or other? If so we 
should have streams of explosive gas travelling along the 
roof of the working places, and our dangers would be 
increased a thousandfold. We do not know what kind 
of mines those are in which Mr. Plimsoll has seen a 
stratum of explosive gas along the roof of the airways, 
but we should prefer not to have anything to do with 
them, even were his method applied for the purpose of 
drawing off the gas. 

Let us take the explosion that has just occurred in the 
Rhondda Valley as an example. About ten months ago 
the two shafts, which are about 1111 yards apart, and 
over 400 yards deep, were connected together by an 
approximately straight heading, which is driven nearly 
level in coal from each shaft for say 520 yards, and 
descends the slope of a fault for 60 yards. ‘The coal in 
one shaft is 30 yards below the level of that in the 
other shaft, and the surface of the ground at the top 
of the former shaft is 188 feet higher than at the latter. 
The fault forms a natural boundary between the workings 


of the two shafts, and, except for purposes of ventilation 
and communication, they were treated as distinct collieries. 
The workings are ranged on each side of the straight 
heading, there being four districts at the lower level 
(three on the right hand and one on the left, looking 
towards the higher shaft), and one district at the higher 
level (on the right hand side, looking in the same direc- 
tion). The natural direction of the air-current is from the 
lower to the higher shaft. The natural air-current gives 
a volume of about 30,000 cubic feet of air per minute at 
the present moment, and we are informed that when the 
fan was at work the volume was between 60 and 80,000 
cubic feet. The envelope of the fan was destroyed by 
the explosion, and the natural ventilation had to be de- 
pended on for the explorations so far as they have been 
carried. 

Soon after midnight on the morning of Friday last there 
were somewhat over one hundred men and boys busily 
employed underground: five were at the bottom of the 
upper shaft, four at the bottom of the lower shaft ; seven- 
teen or so were on the straight heading about half-way 
between the fault and the upper shaft ; twenty-four were in 
the left-hand workings of the lower shaft ; several gangs of 
from three to six were in each of the other three small 
districts of the lower workings ; fifteen or so were in the 
right-hand workings constituting the only district in the 
upper pit ; some were cutting coal, others were blasting 
down roof, some were filling rubbish, others were stowing 
it into empty places, and here and there a horse and his 
driver were proceeding along the roadways with short 
trains of full or empty waggons. 

No explosive accumulation of gas is said to have been 
found in the mine when it was examined a few hours 
previously, and two men, who came up only a few minutes 
before the explosion, had not heard of any unusual oc- 
currence. The mine is a very dry one, and there is 
abundance of very fine coal-dust to be found everywhere 
on the roadways. 

A sudden shock was felt; a veritable hurricane swept 
through every passage and every open space communi- 
cating with the air-ways; a “darkness that might be 
felt’’ ensued for an instant, then a gleam of brilliant light 
accompanied by a shower of molten and red-hot dust, 
then darkness again, and all was still. 

During the interval between the raising of the dust and 
the passage of the flame some of the men, who evidently 
knew what had occurred, pulled their coats over their 
necks and mouths and staggered outwards, but fell after 
they had gone at most six or eight yards; others, as we 
have said, knelt down, covered their faces with their 
hands, and buried their mouths in the dust and small 
coal on the floor ; the terrified horses made a few mad 
plunges, and then the Angel of Death breathed upon 
them all, and they remained transfixed in the positions 
they had assumed at that fatal moment. Only five men 
who were engaged in workings close to the downcast shaft 
escaped alive. They were rendered insensible by the 
after-damp, but recovered consciousness before the ex- 
ploring parties reached them, having been revived by the 
fresh air which immediately flowed into the downcast 
shaft after the explosion was over. 

We ask now where was the fire-damp accumulated 
that could produce so widespread an explosion, and at 
what part of the colliery would Mr. Plimsoll have placed 
his apparatus for the purpose of pumping it out? x 

The flame ramified into every district of workings 
both in the upper and lower pit, and left unmistakable 
tokens of its presence in the form of crusts of coked 
coal-dust on the timber, on the coal, and on some of the 
men’s bodies. 

It is evident that Mr. Plimsoll has remained un- 
necessarily ignorant that many men have been engaged 
in working out the problem he has attempted to solve. Let 
him go back to the many volumes of Parliamentary evi- 


a Q 
Dee. 23, 1880] 


NATURE 


dence for information that will enable him to avoid all 
his useless work in trying to find means of ‘‘ unmasking” 
or absorbing the gas ; let him take up Faraday and Lyell’s 
report on the Haswell Colliery explosion of 1844, and he 
will find his own proposal described in every essential 
detail, as well as a hint thrown out that coal-dust has 
much to do with explosions ; let him peruse the copy 
of the report addressed to the United Committee of the 
Coal Trade by the Special Committee appointed to take 
into consideration Faraday and Lyell’s report, and he 
will find the opinion expressed by the practical men of 
that day regarding the very plan he now brings forward 
as original. 

But why should he labour through all that mass of 
reading and more than we have named, when he can find 
all that is of any value on the subject condensed in that 
most admirable dissertation, entitled “ Rapport de M. 
Haton de la Goupilli¢re (Ingenieur-en-chef des Mines, 
Professeur d’Exploitation des Mines a1’ Ecole des Mines), 
au nom de la Commission d’Etude des Moyens propre a 
prévenir les Explosions du grisou” (Paris: Dunod, Editeur, 
Quai des Augustins, No. 49, 1880). In that volume he 
will find an account of all his own plans and those of 
many others, as well as much valuable information that 
will prove of inestimable value to him if he should decide 
to pursue this subject to its legitimate ccnclusion, as we 
most earnestly hope he will. 

Mr. Plimsoll wrongs the scientific and mining sections 
of the community when he charges them with so much 
indifference. In England, in France, and in Belgium 
there is at present a Government Commission consider- 
ing the subject of his article, viz. “ Explosions in Collieries 
and their Cure,” and collecting evidence which will be of 
great value in enabling us to approach nearer to the 
mark we are all aiming at. 

As usual the Royal Society travels in the van, and to 
our certain knowledge has given the sum of no less than 
255/. within the last seven or eight years towards assisting 
in experiments which are being made with the view of 
throwing light upon the subject. 

Similarly each of the Mining Institutes is eagerly can- 
vassing every scrap of useful knowledge that may tend to 
lessen the risks of mining, and especially of explosions. 

Lastly, in Germany we have also activity; and we can 
recommend a perusal of a pamphlet entitled “ Die Ver- 
hiittung von Explosionen schlagender Wetter in Stein- 
kohlenbergwerken,” by Dr. Adolf Gurlt, Bergingenieur, 
Bonn: Verlag von Max Cohen und Sohn (Fr. Cohen), 
1880. This pamphlet ends with the following words, 
in which it appeals to thoughtful miners. We would 
extend the same appeal to one and all :— 

*¢So moégen denn alle denkenden Bergminner ihre 
Krafte vereinigen um dem verderblichen Feinde des 
Kohlenbergmannes, dem Grubengase, diesem Moloch, 
welcher noch fortwahrend so viele frische Menschenleben 
verschlingt, in Zukunft seine Opfer nach Méglichkeit zu 
entreissen.”’ 

If really safe safety-lamps were introduced that could 
not under any circumstances ignite an explosive mixture 
of fire-damp and air; and if at the same time the use of 
an explosive or other agent that produced no flame were 
substituted for that of gunpowder or dynamite, we might 
be comparatively free from explosions, 

Thus far however neither the one nor the other of 
these desirable consummations has been attained. 

On the other hand, if we could entirely eliminate ex- 
plosive accumulations of fire-damp and air from our 
mines we should expect, according to the most generally 
received opinions, to be able to use naked lights and to 
fire shots wherever we had a mind to do so. Naked 
lights we might use under these circumstances; but we 
should protest in the strongest terms against blasting in 
the presence of dry coal-dust alone. The 7é/e of that 
agent has not yet been officially recognised, at least to 


173 


the extent of framing special regulations to assist in 
dealing with it; and until it is so recognised we venture 
to assert that explosions will continue, and that the same 
impossibility of explaining them, save by the assumption 
of simultaneous eruptions of fire-damp in different parts 
of the workings, will continue to be experienced. 

That this is an illogical method of accounting for them 
may be gathered from the fact that the Risca explosion 
of July last required no less than three simultaneous 
eruptions to explain it. The Penygraig explosion would 
require one in each district; but we say this without 
prejudice to the evidence either direct or circumstantial 
that may yet be forthcoming to prove the existence of 
explosive accumulations in one or more places in the 
workings. 

In conclusion we would say that the Penygraig explo- 
sion cannot be explained by the fire-damp hypothesis 
alone; explosive accumulations may have been accident- 
ally ignited by a shot, or by a defective safety-lamp, and 
so have originated the explosion; but something else 
than fire-damp, something whose presence was entirely 
ignored, took up the flame, carried it to the innermost 
and to the most extreme limits of the workings, and was 
in all probability the cause of 90 per cent. or more of the 
deaths that ensued. Need we state our absolute convic- 
tion that that obscure agent was coal-dust ? 

W. GALLOWAY 


COL. PRSHEVALSKYS’ RECENT JOURNEY 


HE new number of the /zvest/a of the Russian Geo- 
graphical Society contains the long-expected letters 
from Col. Prsbevalsky on his adventurous journey on the 
frontier of Tibet. We have already referred to Col. 
Prshevalsky’s work; the following further details will be 
of interest :—His last news were dated from MHami, 
whence he proposed to go south-east to Tsaidam. But it 
was impossible to find a guide : a Chinese, given for this 
purpose by the Hami authorities, left the expedition some 
fifty miles from the town, after having led the travellers 
into a region full of great ravines. M. Prshevalsky, 
confident in his eleven companions, resolved to find his 
way himself by sending every day two men on horseback 
for distances of thirty and fifty miles round to discover 
the best direction. The advance was very slow, and the 
travellers spent one month and a half in the mountains 
south of Sa-djeou, discovering the high mountain-ranges 
to which they gave the names of Humboldt and Ritter. 
After a march of 190 miles they arrived at Kourlyk in the 
Tsaidam, but here also they were badly received, and 
could not find guides, owing to the secret influence of 
the Chinese. Finally M. Prshevalsky told the chief of 
Kourlyk that he would take him as guide to Tibet if 
another guide could not be found, and on the following 
day the guide was found. 

On September 24 the travellers left Tsaidam. Again 
the guide led them into impracticable tracts near to the 
Blue River, so that M. Prshevalsky’s expedition was 
compelled again to seek its own way. After having 
crossed the Blue River at its sources, they climbed the 
high plateau of Tan-la, after having crossed the 16,800 
feet high pass across the border-range, which was covered 
with snowin October. On the passage they were attacked 
by the nomad tribe of Egrays, but the companions of 
M. Prshevalsky gave them a hot reception, and the Egrays 
fled, leaving four killed and several wounded. 

Descending from the Tan-la ridge, the expedition con- 
tinued its way to Lassa, but at the Nabchou settlement, 
160 miles distant from the capital of the Dalai-Lama, they 
were met by Tibetians, who declared that the expedition 
could not be allowed to go further without a permission 
from the Lassa authorities; a thousand soldiers were 
assembled at Nabchou. ™M. Prshevalsky gave his 
consent to await an answer from Lassa, and stayed at 


174 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 23, 1880 


Nabchou, buying food from the Tangoutes, who consider 
themselves as under the rule of the governor of Sining. 
Twently days later the answer arrived ; a messenger from 
the Dalai Lama, accompanied by seven officers, entreated 
M. Prshevalsky to return, saying that the whole popula- 
tion of Lassa was very excited against the strangers, as 
it was declared among the people that the expedition 
intended to steal the Dalai-Lama himself and extirpate 
the Buddhist religion. A conflict with the inhabitants of 
Lassa being most probable, M. Prshevalsky was com- 
pelled to return. All December and January were spent 
on the road to Tsaidam, the distance from Nabchou to 
Tsaidam being 560 miles. Progress on this high plateau 
(14,000 to 16,000 feet) was very difficult ; out of thirty- 
four camels twenty died, and the collections were con- 
veyed on horseback; the men mostly went on foot. We 
need scarcely say that the scientific collections and obser- 
vations are of a great value. 

On March 20 M. Prshevalsky reached the Chinese 
town of Sining, close to Lake Koko-nor. After having 
received permission from the governor of the province to 
go to the Hoang-ho, however, without crossing it, M. 
Prshevalsky sent his collections to Alashan, and went 
east to the banks of the Yellow River, which are fifty-six 
miles distant from the town of Donkyr. He reached 
them at the Gomi settlement. The river, 450 feet wide, 
and 8000 feet above the sea-level, is rapid (5 feet in a 
second). Its valley cuts deeply into a great deposit of 
clay, gravel, and boulders, the abrupt walls of which, along 
the banks of the main river, being 1600 feet high, and no 
less than 1000 feet along the banks of numberless tribu- 
taries. The journey across these gigantic ravines with 
abrupt walls (quite like those of the loess in the lower 
parts of the Hoang-ho) was most difficult. After a 
journey of 130 miles up the Hoang-ho, M. Prshevalsky 
reached a lofty mountain-range, which is cut through by 
the river, and probably is a continuation of the Burkhan- 
buda range. Further advance along the banks was 
impossible, and M. Prshevalsky not having a guide for 
crossing the range was compelled to return and soon 
reached the town Gui-doni, situated on the left bank of 
the Hoang-ho, forty miles below Gomi. The natural 
history collections from the Upper Hoang-ho are very 
rich: 260 species of plants, many fishes, and 500 birds. 
The astronomical and barometrical observations are 
numerous. M. Prshevalsky did not reach the sources of 
the Yellow River, and he supposes that they cannot be 
reached otherwise than along the Tibetan plateau; he 
doubts however that the Upper Hoang-ho makes so great 
a bend as it is usually shown on our maps. 

The last letter from M. Prshevalsky is dated Gui-ta-din, 
on the Upper Hoang-ho. As is known, he returned wd 
Alashan, and is expected at St. Petersburg by the end of 
January. 


MICHEL CHASLES 


HE news of the death of Michel Chasles, perhaps the 
oldest and best-known mathematician in Europe, 

will be everywhere learned with deep regret.. For the fifty- 
five years over which his writings extend he has devoted 
himself with persistent industry to the history of geometry 
and to the perfection of those geometrical methods with 
which his name will be always associated. The ‘‘ Apercu 
historique sur ’Crigine et le Développement des Mé- 
thodes en Géométrie,’ which in fact forms an elaborate 
history of the subject from the time of Thales and Pytha- 
goras to the beginning of the present century, is the best 
known of his works ; it was first published in 1837, and a 
second edition appeared only a few years ago. His 
restoration of the Porisms of Euclid was published in 
1860. The last great work of Chasles related to the 
investigation of the number of conics satisfying any five 
conditions: the special method which he invented for 


these researches, termed by him geometrical substitution, 
involved the consideration of the characteristics of 
systems of conics, z.¢. of the numbers of conics satisfying 
four common conditions and (1) passing through an 
assumed point ; (2) touching an assumed line. 

In 1865 Chasles received the Copley medal of the 
Royal Society; this medal has, since its foundation in 
1731, been given only five times for discoveries in pure 
mathematics, viz., in 1784 to Waring, in 1814 to Ivory, in 
1841 to Sturm, in 1865 to Chasles, and in the present 
year to Sylvester. 

In 1846 Chasles was appointed to fill the new Chair of 
Modern Geometry, founded by the Faculty of Sciences 
at Paris; and as a professor he exerted personal influence 
over the younger geometers of that time, which has since 
been apparent in their writings, although the effect of the 
geometrical methods to which he devoted his life is 
chiefly visible in the works of the Italian and German 
mathematicians. He was the inventor of the term ‘‘an- 
harmonic ratio,” but not of course of the ratio itself, 
which was known to the ancients. Chasles’s memoirs on 
the attraction of ellipsoids are well known to English 
mathematicians and physicists; and a translation of his 
memoirs on Cones of the Second Order, and Spherical 
Conics, was published in Dublin in 1841 by Dr. Graves, 
now Bishop of Limerick. 

Most of our readers will remember how in 1866 Chasles 
was deceived by M. Vrain Lucas by what were called the 
Pascal forgeries, and they will also remember how honour- 
ably he extricated himself from the matter, and did all in 
his power to repair the mischief done. The forger was: 
convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment ; 
and not a shadow of suspicion was ever thrown upon 
the honour or good faith of Chasles. 

Scientific visitors to Paris will miss a well-known face 
at the Academy and a kind and hospitable friend. Tull 
quite recently Chasles seemed as active as ever, both 
mentally and physically, and it was only last September 
that he issued a new edition of his “ Géométrie supérieure.” 
He was a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and of 
the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 


THOMAS RYMER FONES, F.R.S. 


Tee late Professor of Comparative Anatomy at 

King’s College, London, whose death is announced, 
was born about the year 1820. He studied for the 
medical profession at Guy’s Hospital, and took the 
diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons, Londen, in 
1833. A chronic deafness unfitting him for the ac- 
tive pursuit of his profession, he devoted his attention 
exclusively to comparative anatomy. Some of his earliest 
papers were on the dissections of a tiger (Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1834) and of an agouti (Prac. Zool. Soc. 1834). He 
was the first Professor of Comparative Anatomy at 
King’s College, and was Fullerian Professor of Physio- 
logy to the Royal Institution in 1840. He was Assistant- 
Secretary to the Section of Zoology and Botany during 
the eighth meeting of the British Association held at 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1838, the president of the section 
being Sir W. Jardine, the secretaries J. Edward Gray, 
Richard Owen, and John Richardson. This meeting was 
marked by the presence of Christian Gottfried Ehren- 
berg, who laid before the section a copy of his famous 
work, “ Ueber Infusionsthierchen,”’ making at the same 
time a short statement as to his views of the alimentary 
canal of the polygastric infusoria. These views were, in 
the discussion which followed, criticised by Rymer Jones, 
who stood almost alone among the British naturalists in 
opposing them. In 1838 the first part of his “ General 
Outline of the Animal Kingdom” was published by 
Mr. Van Voorst, happily still among us. It was 
completed in ten or twelve parts, and was illustrated 


6. 23, 1880 | 


NATURE 


175 


by really beautiful woodcuts. This work marked an era 
in the study of zoology and comparative anatomy in our 
country. True it is that the information of the author 
was mostly borrowed; true that he had no great familiarity 
with the work of the German naturalists of the time; 
true that the book will not bear to be appealed to now: 
but forty years ago it was the best book of its sort in 
England, and the generation has not as yet quite passed 
away which learnt from its pages. We have altered since 
then, both in the manner and the matter of our teaching 
of comparative anatomy, and for the better no doubt; 
but after another forty years our systems may too have 
seen their day. It may be conjectured that this book 
was in advance of its day, for an eminent writer, in review- 
ing it in 1839, objected to Rymer Jones’ facts about the 
Infusoria, and declared he still placed confidence in 
Ehrenberg’s observations, while he criticised his descrip- 
tion of Volvox globator, and believed this “ Infusorian ” 
had nutritive organs, mouth, eyes, &c. 

Prof. R. Jones was an extensive contributor to Todd’s 
“Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology,” writing no 
less than twelve of the articles on comparative anatomy. 
He was the author of at least one work on popular natural 
history, called the ‘‘ Aquarian Naturalist.’”” He was an 
excellent lecturer, and though never rising to the highest 
rank as a biologist, well deserves this passing notice in 
our columns. 


FRANK BUCKLAND 


RANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND was born on 

Dec. 17, 1826. He was the eldest son of the Very Rev. 
Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster. Asa boy he was a 
constant companion of his father in the latter’s geological 
excursions ; he was a scholar of Winchester College and 
a student of Christ Church, graduating M.A. of Oxford 
in 1848. About this date he entered St. George’s 
Hospital as a student of medicine, taking the diploma of 
the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in 1851, becoming 
house surgeon to St. George’s Hospital, and lastly receiv- 
ing the appointment of assistant-surgeon to the 2nd Life 
Guards, a position he held until 1863. He seems to have 
been always well liked in his regiment, gaining the 
character of a pleasant, good-natured, sociable fellow. 
Although fond of all that pertained to natural science, he 
was in no sense of the word a profound naturalist; he 
could seize with alacrity the popular side of a scientific 
question, but he seldom went deeper. Perhaps the 
most scientific work he ever accomplished was the 
editing, in 1858, of his father’s work on “ Geology 
and Mineralogy,” published as one of the Bridge- 
water treatises. He was the author of some pleasant 
volumes entitled “Curiosities of Natural History,” was 
a constant writer in Land and Water, and an occa- 
sional contributor on subjects of economic zoology to the 
daily press. On the subjects of fish and fish-culture he was 
an authority, and it will be remembered that he had an 
interesting museum in connection with the subject at 
South Kensington. For his labours in this direction he 
received several honourable distinctions from France, and 
in 1869 he was appointed by the British Government one 
of the Inspectors of Salmon Fishing for England and 
Wales. He was also one of the Commissioners appointed 
to inquire into the Crab and Lobster Fisheries of this 
country, and the results of this Commission culminated in 
the useful Act regulating the oyster, crab, and lobster 
fisheries of the kingdom, which received the Royal assent 
in 1877. 

One notable event of his life was the discovery he 
made in 1859 of John Hunter’s coffin in the vaults of St. 
Martin’ s-in-the-Fields, which was re-interred at the 
expense of the Royal College of Surgeons in Westminster 
Abbey. 

Familiarly known by a large circle of friends as Frank 


Buckland, he has left them while still in middl life, and 
it will be long ere they look upon the like of poor Frank 
again. 


NEW GUINEA? 
Il. 


HE various accounts of the natives given throughout 
these volumes leave an impression of vagueness that 
is very unsatisfactory. The mixture of races in various 
parts of New Guinea is no doubt great, but we cannot 
help thinking that there is a well-marked Papuan type, 
and that its head-quarters are in this great island. Signor 
D’ Albertis seems to attach too much importance to minor 
peculiarities. He continually mentions small differences 
in the features, the hair, the form of the skull, or the 
stature, as implying a radical difference of race, forgetting 
that such differences are found among every people and 
in every country, and that on this principle we might 
establish a dozen different “races” in Europe, Taking 
the term Papuan in a broad sense as including all the 
dark-skinned woolly or crisp-haired tribes of the Western 
Pacific, it seems clear that New Guinea is very largely 
peopled by this race, and that its north-western peninsulas 
contain the most typical examples of it. In the south-east 
however another race is found which may be described as 
yellow-skinned and smooth-haired, and these are clearly 
Polynesians or “ Mahori,” that is of the same race as the 
natives of Samoa and New Zealand. In the Fly River 
and adjacent country both these occur, as wellas a mixed 
race, which D’Albertis seems to think is destined to sup- 
plant them. He describes these races as follows :— 

“‘ The two varieties to which I allude may be defined 
thus: the yellow, and the black. The term yellow does 
not exactly express the first, nor does black the second, 
and those adjectives must be used comparatively only. 
The characteristics of the yellow variety are as follows :— 
hair curling or smooth—neither crisp nor woolly, black and 
shining, often almost of a chestnut hue; forehead large 
and flat; temples little, if at all depressed; eye orbits 
scarcely, if at all, prominent ; cheek-bones rather high ; 
round chin and round face ; large brown eyes, with eye- 
balls of a bluish-white; the nose often aquiline, never 
flattened, and generally small; lips moderately full; and 
brachycephalous and round skull. These people are not 
prognathous. In colour they vary from brown to very 
light brownish yellow. In stature they are not generally 
inferior to the black race, and their forms are fuller and 
rounder. 

“The black variety is distinguished by a narrow and 
retreating forehead, compressed temples, strongly-marked 
orbital arches, prominent cheek-bones, aquiline nose, 
pointed and narrow chin, long face, decidedly pro- 
gnathous, an oblong skull. The eves are small, either 
black or brown, the eyeball bloodshot or yellowish, and 
the men are tall and generally thin. The preponder- 
ating type exhibits every gradation that can result from 
these two varieties. 

“We may therefore conclude that the present inhabitants 
of Hall Bay (opposite Yule Island) are a mixture of two 
races, one dark-skinned and crisp-haired, the other with 
lighter skin and smooth hair ; and this is all that can be 
said from our present knowledge.” 

The light race—which we may call Papuan Mahoris— 
are far more civilised than the dark Papuans. D’Albertis 
says of them :— 

“The most perfect harmony seems to reign in families, 
and rare indeed are cases of quarrel among members of 
one household. They live in communities, sometimes of 
more than a thousand inhabitants, in well-built villages, 


X «© New Guinea: What I Did and What I Saw.’”’ By L. M. D’Albertis, 
Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy, &c., &c. In two volumes. 
(London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 188c.) Continued 


from p. 1<5- 


176 


NATURE 


(fear spas 
| Hee. 2 


3, 1880 


worthy to be called small towns, both for their order and 
cleanliness. They are under the rule of the chiefs or land- 
owners. ‘The chief is looked upon as father of the family. 
He is called Pacao, and his servant or subject is called 
Irine. From all I could learn, slavery does not exist, and 
the sale of human beings is unknown.” After describing 
their daily avocations, amusements, dress, implements, 
and ornaments (a group of which are figured), he goes 
on: “Their natural disposition is gentle and placid. They 
like to spend their time in talking and games, in which 
men and women take an equal share. Playful and free of 
speech, they nevertheless do not transgress the bounds of 
modesty, either in word or deed. Women and children 
are included in every conversation, and often take part in 
public discussions, which are usually held in the evening. 
Women are always respected, and in some villages they 
enjoy a certain supremacy, although the government of 
the house belongs to the husband. Labour may be said 
to be fairly divided between the two sexes, and they are 
accustomed to work from their earliest childhood. .. . 
The material for civilisation is in them, but will the 
change make them better? ‘Will they be the happier for 


Fic. 4.—Durabi, a native of Kuvai Island, at the mouth of the Fly River. 


it? This is a difficult problem, and one which cannot be 
solved until the experiment has been made. For my part 
I do not doubt that these, more readily than any other 
savages whom I know, would answer to the call of a 
civilised nation which, stretching out a paternal hand, 
would lead them towards our civilisation! To insure 
success, however, they should be treated as friends, not 
as slaves ; they should be cherished, not destroyed.” 
Unfortunately our attempts at civilising savages have 
as yet in every case failed. Are we still, notwithstanding 
all our wretched failures, to go on in the old way, and 
-allow these interesting and now happy people to be first 
ruined morally by the teaching of the dregs of our Aus- 
tralian and Pacific traders,and then physicallydeteriorated 
by the forced introduction of a form of civilisation utterly 
unsuited to them ? Cannot either philanthropy, or religion, 
or Government protect these people from all such external 
influences as have been proved to be unsuited to their 
condition and stage of development, while aiding them to 
work out for themselves an indigenous civilisation? Here 
is perhaps the last chance we have to preserve one rem- 
nant of the better class of savages from being crushed 


under the Juggernaut car of our high-pressure civilisation 
and mad struggle for wealth. 

The inhabitants of the lower part of the Fly River 
appear to be mostly dark Papuans, while further in the 
interior a mixed race was met with. Among the curious 
articles found in this part of the country were numbers of 
stone clubs, carved into various star-like shapes and 
forming terrific weapons in close combat. Stone axes 
are also largely used, closely resembling in form the 
neolithic celts of Europe. 

Maino, chief of Moatta, a village at the mouth of the 
Fly, was a great friend of D’Albertis’, and accompanied 
him on one of his voyages up the river. An elaborate 
study, both physical and mental, was made of this 
savage, and forms one of the best and most valuable 
passages in the book. A few extracts will show its 
character. After describing his person, our author goes 
on: 

“The above is a sketch of the animal Maino. I will 
now try to draw his portrait as a man, according to the 
moral sense of that definition. The opinion I have 
formed of him as a reasonable being is favourable, It is 
not however necessary to examine him very closely with 
European lenses, remembering that he is what we call a 
savage. He has sufficient intelligence for his position, 
and probably he is not capable of more. ... He is 
friendly to the white man because he fears him, and 
because he knows he can gain by him. He is proud, and 
takes offence easily, without however showing that he is 


Wic. 5.—Maing, Chief of Moatta 


irritated ; only once during two months and a half did 
he display any anger. He is generally silent, and seems. 
meditative. Sometimes he is lively and will laugh, but 
his laugh appears studied and forced, not natural or 
spontaneous. He is cruel rather from instinct than from 
education, and in a way that we Europeans can perhaps 
neither understand nor appreciate justly. His cruelty 
raises him in his own estimation and in that of his depen- 
dents—in the eyes of his friends and of his enemies. 
He considers men and women, if they are strangers to 
him, good for nothing but to have their heads cut off. Up 
to the present time his victims number thirty-three. A 
warrior who bravely attacked him, or a woman sleeping 
in the forest would be to him exactly the same thing. He 
would see in each a trophy, a victory; and what he would 
esteem would be their skulls. He likes to see blood, and 
it is with marked satisfaction he describes the modus 
operandi in cutting off a head, the instruments used in the 
operation, and the method of surprising an enemy by 
treachery, even if a woman ora child... . He is tender 
and affectionate towards his own family, and to his sons 
at least his temper may be said to be mild. . . . Maino is 
remarkably selfish. He would willingly let others die of 
hunger if to relieve them he would have to sacrifice some 
delicacy intended for himself. I experienced this during 
the voyage. Notwithstanding certain traits which 


might make him appear a bad man in the eyes of Euro- 
s 


Dec. 23, 1880| 


NATURE LAZ 


peans, I can testify that Maino is a good fellow, and was 
a good comrade tous all. His rank and his age prevented 
his being useful except as a pilot, but in that capacity he 
was most valuable.” : 

Turning to the lighter race, one of the most interesting 
and novel facts we find recorded of them is their most 
ingenious mode of cultivation, Fields were observed 
in Yule Island so well and evenly tilled that they 
appeared as if they had been ploughed, but it was after- 
wards ascertained that all had been done by manual 
labour. 

“The natives form gangs of eight or ten men, each 
man holding in either hand a very hard wooden pole, 
sharpened to a point, over six feet long and from an inch 
to an inch and a half thick. These men stand in a row, 
and at a given signal plant their rods in the ground, re- 


peating the operation several times until they have pene- 
trated to the required depth, which is generally about a 
foot. This done, they bear down on the other end of the 
poles, making them act as levers, and thus loosen a long 
piece of ground, ten to thirteen yards long, and from a 
foot to a foot and a half wide ; then by alternate heaving 
up and bearing down, the large mass of earth is upturned, 
and as they take care to preserve the same measurements 
and distances, regularity like that of the action of a plough 
is produced.” 

On his way home, fresh from New Guinea, Signor 
D’Albertis suffered partial shipwreck in the Red Sea, and 
met a number of Somauli men and their families, and was 
much struck by their resemblance to Papuans. He says: 
“Who will believe that in these people I seemed to be 
renewing my acquaintance with the natives of New 


Fic. 6.—Attacked by Canoes on the Fly River. 


Guinea, especially those of Torres Straits! Such is the 
impression they made upon me. I observed the true 
negro type, which differs from them in several respects; 
but if several of these natives were transported to New 
Guinea they might be mistaken for aborigines of that 
country ; those with the receding forehead, aquiline nose, 
and moderately thick lips—who have curly but not woolly 
hair. They belong to the type I called Arab when 
speaking of Moatta and Tawan—the type which, although 
not predominating, I have often found in New Guinea, 
and I discover them to-day on -the shores of Ras Afun.” 
Our traveller had two true Jamaica negroes with him in 
New Guinea, and these also closely resembled other 
types of Papuans, although there were certain minute 
characteristics of skin and hair by which they could be 
distinguished. Taken as a whole, and speaking broadly, 
the Papuan and African races would appear to belong to 
the same great type of mankind. 


Our readers will now perceive that, as the journal of an 
enterprising and observant traveller, Signor D?Albertis’ 
work is one of considerable merit. It is written in a 
simple unaffected style, and bears internal evidence of 
accuracy and absence of exaggeration, while it no less 
clearly shows that in all the best qualities of a traveller 
its writer has rarely been surpassed. 

Living among some of the wildest of savages he over- 
came them by kindness, courage, and by exciting in them 
a dread of his vast powers of destruction and command 
over the forces of nature; and he never took away human 
life except when attacked by overwhelming forces—when 
the vessel committed to his "charge as well as the lives of 
its crew were in imminent danger on the Fly River, and 
even then he beat back his enemies while doing them 
the smallest possible injury. 

Turning now from the general character of the book 
and of its author, and considering it as an expensive and 


178 


WNATORE 


[ Dec, 23, 1880 


somewhat pretentious work brought out by an English 
publisher, we feel bound to state that it is full of grave 
defects. This is due probably to the incompetence of 
the editor, or the total absence of any such necessary 
functionary ; for the original was written in Italian, and 
we cannot believe that the author himself corrected or 
supervised the proofs. In the first place a considerable 
number of the illustrations seem to be thrown in at ran- 
dom, and are not referred to at all in the text. Such are 
the portraits at pp. 59, 140, and 151 in vol. i. Ornaments 
and implements from the Fly River are figured in the 
first instead of in the second volume. A cut of thirty- 


four separate articles (at vol. i. p. 416), though all num- 
-bered, has no reference to the numbers; while at vol. ii. 
p. 136, four elaborate spears or ornamental staves are 


29 30 


22 as 


Fic. 7.—Imp ements and Weapons. 


31 


descri ed as “ Baratus,” which are said in the text to be 
“pieces of armour for war,’’ and to be “worked in very 
hard stone”! 

The misprints and misspellings are excessively nume- 
rous. At p. 4 we read of “temples excavated in the | 
deserted roads” in Java. At p. 49 the traveller goes to 
the “source of the river” instead of to its mouth; and at 
p. 222 we have “stone nails” instead, probably, of stone 
clubs. The names of places and of plants and animals 
are rarely spelt correctly, and are often spelt differently 
in adjacent pages. The Italian mode of spelling scientific 
names has not been altered, and they are often almost 
unintelligible to an English reader, as Olotuyia for Holo- 
thurvia, Stafilinus for Staphylinus, and Cicas for Cycas. 
Orankaya (a village chief) is sometimes spelt Orankay 


From the Fly River (upper set) and Hull Sound (lower set). 


and sometimes Oranhay. Waigiou is spelt Waigen, and 
immediately afterwards Waigeu. Battanta is spelt Bat- 
tauta, and Daudai is spelt Dandai. At the end of the 
boo four vocabularies of native languages are given, but 
as if to make these of as little use as possible, they con- 
sist of four different sets of words, all differently arranged, 
and none in alphabetical order; so that any comparison 
with each other or with vocabularies given elsewhere is 
practically impossible without the preliminary labour of 
rearranging them. Add to this that there is no index to 
the book end that the only map given is a poor and im- 
perfect one, and it will be seen that the merits of Signor 
D’Albertis’-work have not been enhanced by the manner 
in which it is presented to the reader. 

The illustrations on the whole are good, the coloured 
plate of birds of paradise being excellent. 
But far too many skulls are figured, since 
these are of no possible interest to the 
general reader, while, as we have no 
guarantee for their accuracy, or that they 
are all figured on exactly the same scale, 
they will have little value for the man of 
science. 

From the notices scattered through 
these volumes Signor D’Albertis appears 
to have made very large collections in 
natural history, especially of birds, rep- 
tiles, and insects. It is to be hoped that 
complete series of these have been kept 
together, and that, in conjunction with 
those collected by Dr. Beccari, they will 
be made the subject of some important 
works. The birds are being carefully 
elaborated by Prof. Salvadori; but the 
reptiles and the insects would probably 
throw even more light on the zoological 
relations and past history of this won- 
derful island. 

ALFRED R. WALLACE 


PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS 

Cy pete two papers! which we notice to- 

gether under the above heading, 
though relating to different questions in 
the physiology of plants, have neverthe- 
less something incommon. Both of them 
bear on the relationship between the 
external and internal conditions of life, 
between external forces, such as light and 
gravitation, and the constitution of the 
organism on which these forces act. And 
both tend to show the importance of 
recognising in plants those specific forms 
of sensitiveness which may be said to 
determine the results which will follow 
external changes. 

I. The behaviour of leaves in rela- 
tion to light may be illustrated by the 
cotyledons of a seedling radish; if it is 
illuminated from above, the cotyledons are extended hori- 
zontally, and are thus at right angles to the direction of 
incident light. If the seedling is then placed at a win- 
dow, so that it is lighted obliquely from above, and if the 
stem (hypocotyl) is prevented from bending, the cotyle- 
dons will accommodate themselves to the changed con- 
ditions by movements in a vertical plane. The cotyledon 
which points towards the light will sink, while the other 
will rise, and thus both will become once more at right 
angles to the incident light. ; 

Two theories have been proposed to account for this 


t I. ‘* The Power possessed by Leaves of placing themselves at right angles 
to the direction of Incident Light.”” II. ‘‘The Theory of the Growth of 
Cuttings, illustrated by Observations on the Bramble, Rubus /ruticosus, 
Read by Francis Darwin before the Linnean Society, December 16, 1889. 


Dec. 23, 1880] 


NATURE 


179 


property of leaves: the first is that of Frank (“Die 
natiirliche wagerechte Richtung von Pflanzentheilen,”’ 
1870), who ascribes to leaves and to some other organs 
a specific sensitiveness to light called “ transversal- 
heliotropismus’’ or diaheliotropism (‘‘ Power of Move- 
ment in Plants,’’ p. 438). Just as an ordinary heliotropic 
organ has an inherent tendency to become parallel to 
incident light, so a diaheliotropic organ has an inherent 
tendency to place itself at right angles to the direction 
of the light. The two classes of organs differ from each 
other exactly as some creeping rhizomes differ from ordi- 
nary stems ; therhizome tends to extend itself horizontally 
under ground, while the stem above the surface grows 
vertically upwards (see Elfving, in Sachs’ “ Arbeiten,’’ 
1879). 

A different theory has been proposed by de Vries 
(Sachs’ “ Arbeiten,’’ i. 1872), whose views are supported 
by Sachs (‘‘ Arbeiten,’’ ii. 1879) with additions or modifi- 
cations. According to these»views it is not necessary to 
assume the existence of any special kind of heliotropism, 
since the phenomena might result from the ordinary 
forms of heliotropism and geotropism acting in concert. 
Thus in the case of the seedling radish illuminated from 
above, if the cotyledons were apheliotropic (negatively 
heliotropic) and apogeotropic (negatively geotropic) it is 
possible that they might be kept in equilibrium by these 
opposing tendencies. The tendency to move away from 
a vertical light will make the cotyledons curving down- 
wards towards the earth, and the apogeotropism or 
tendency to move away from the centre of the earth may 
exactly balance the downward tendency, so that the 
cotyledons remain horizcntal. 

Besides the various geotropic and heliotropic tendencies 
there are other modes of growth which may enter into 
the combination. In some cases there is a natural pre- 
ponderance of longitudinal tension or growth along the 
upper surfaces of the petiole, so that owing to impulses 
arising within the plant there is a tendency for the leaf to 
curve downwards, or more accurately in the direction in 
which the morphologically lower side of the petiole is 
directed ; this tendency is called longitudinal epinasty, or 
simply epinasty; the opposite tendency is called hypo- 
nasty. According to the theories of de Vries and Sachs 
epinasty may be opposed by heliotropism, or by apogeo- 
tropism, while hyponasty will of course be opposed by 
apheliotropism and geotroprism, and all these opposing 
forces may combine in producing an equilibrium. The 
object of the present paper is to test the relative values of 
the two above described theories: that of Frank, and that 
of de Vries and Sachs. 

The method employed was to fix the plants under 
observation to a horizontal spindle, which was kept in 
slow rotation by clockwork. ‘This instrument (called the 
klinostat) has been employed by Sachs for the study of 
ordinary heliotropism; light is admitted parallel to the 
axis of rotation, and the plants are thus subjected to a 
constant lateral illumination, while they are freed from the 
disturbing influence of gravitation, for, owing to their being 
kept in constant slow rotation, there is no reason why 
they should bend apogeotropically in one direction more 
than another (see Sachs in his ‘“Arbeiten,” Bd. ii. 1879). 
On the same principle the behaviour of leaves which 
place themselves at right angles to the incident light has 
been studied. If a plant with horizontally-extended leaves, 
which has been illuminated from above, is fixed on.a 
slowly-revolving, horizontal spindle, so that the axis of the 
plant is paraJlel both to the axis of rotation and to the 
direction of incident light, we shall have a means of 
testing the opposing theories above mentioned. 

The plant’s leaves will still be illuminated by light 
striking them at right angles ; therefore if Frank’s theory 
is the right one they ought to remain in this position. But 
if de Vries and Sachs are correct in their views, the leaves 
ought wo¢ to be able to remain at right angles to the 


incident-light, since apogeotropism has disappeared, which 
was one of the tendencies necessary to keep the leaves in 
a position of equilibrium. 

A considerable number of experiments were made with 
the celandine, Ranunculus ficaria, the results of which 
are decidedly in favour of Frank’s views. The leaves of 
the celandine are sometimes extremely epinastic, so that 
they press against the ground, and when a plant is dug 
up it often happens that, the leaves being released from 
the resistance of the soil, curve nearly vertically down- 
wards. If sucha plant is fixed on the klinostat in the 
position above described, the leaves will be pointing away 
from the light, so that if the leaves were apheliotropic, as 
might be expected according to de Vries’ theory, the leaves 
would remain pointing away from the window. But this 
is not the case, they move forwards until they are 
approximately at right angles to the light, and then come 
torest. Again, if a celandine is placed in the dark its 
leaves rise up so as to be highly inclined above the 
horizon, if the plant is then placed on the klinostat the 
leaves (which now of course point towards the light) 
again accommodate themselves by curving backwards until 
they are at right angles to the light. Thus the leaves 
cannot be called heliotropic or apheliotropic; we are 
forced to believe that under the stimulus of light they are 
able to move in either direction, which may be necessary 
to bring them into the plane at right angles to the light. 
The other experiments with 2. ficarza, the details of which 
we omit, lead to the same general result. 

Besides a few observations on Vicia, Cucurbita, and 
Plantago, a series of experiments were made on seedling- 
cherries, and these lead to a somewhat different result. 
A cherry-plant illuminated from above has its leaves 
approximately horizontal, and when placed on the klino- 
stat, as above described, the leaves are unable to remain 
at right angles to the light, but curve backwards so as to 
become parallel to the stem of the plant. This move- 
ment can be shown to be due to epinasty, not to apheliotro- 
pism, and is the result of the loss of balance which follows 
when apogeotropism is removed. It is clear therefore: 
that the horizontal position of the leaves of seedling- 
cherries growing normally must largely depend on the 
balance struck between epinasty and apogeotropism, in 
accordance with the views of de Vries and Sachs. But 
since these forces obviously cannot produce the power 
which the cherry possesses, of altering the position of its 
leaves in accordance with the direction of the light, we 
must assume that some kind of heliotropism enters into 
the combination. The view to which the present research 
lends most probability is that dia-heliotropism (transverse- 
heliotropism) is the really important influence at work. 
In the case of the celandine we have seen that the sensi- 
tiveness to light is strong enough to determine the 
position of the leaves—although the ‘natural balance is 
disturbed by the annihilation of apogeotropism. It seems 
probable that an essentially similar state of things holds 
good in the case of the cherry. When the plant is grow- 
ing normally it trusts to epinasty and apogeotropism to 
produce an approximate balance, the final result being 
determined by the stimulus of light. But when the 
balance is disturbed by placing the plant on the klinostat, 
the light-stimulus is not strong enough to produce a 
condition of equilibrium. 

This view is the same as that given in “ The Power of 
Movements in Plants,” and is in accordance with the 
principle there given: that the chief movements in plants 
are due to modifications of the circumnutating motion. 


II. When a cutting, for instance a piece of a willow- 
branch, is placed in circumstances favourable for growth, 
it produces roots at its lower end, while the buds at its 
upper end grow out into branches. The experiments of 
Vochting (“ Organbildung im Pflanzenreich,” Bonn, 1878) 
on the growth of cuttings were made by suspending 


TSO 


NATURE 


{ Dec. 23, 1880 


pieces of stems, branches, &c., in large, darkened jars, 
the air in which was kept constantly moist by a lining of 
wet filter paper. The cuttings were suspended both in 
the normal position—that is with the upper end upwards 
—and also upside down. V6chting found as a general 
result that there is a strong tendency for the roots to 
appear at the dasa/ end," and the branches to be deve- 
loped at the apical end, whether the cutting had been 
hung apex upwards or downwards in the glass jar. 

Vochting believes that the growth of roots at the base 
and of branches at the apex of a cutting are determined 
chiefly by an innate, inherited, growth-tendency. When 
the knife divides a branch into two cuttings it separates a 
mass of identically-constituted cells into two sets, one 
which form part of the apex of the lower cutting, and 
another set which form part of the base of the upper 
cutting. And under appropriate circumstances one of 
these sets of cells might develop into roots, the’ other 
into adventitious buds. Vd6cht holds that it is the 
morphological positions of these sets of cells (the fact of 
one being at the base and the other at the apex of a 
cutting) which chiefly determines the course of their sub- 
sequent development. The idea may be expressed some- 
what familiarly by saying that each cutting into which a 
branch is divided is able to distinguish its base from its 
apex, and can tell where to produce roots and buds, by 
means of an internal impulse or morphological force 
which is independent? of the external forces, gravitation 
and light. 

The theory which Sachs has brought forward in his 
paper on “ Stoff und Form der Pflanzenorgane”’ (“ Arbei- 
ten des bot. Inst. Wiirzburg,” 1880, p. 452) is entirely 
opposed to that of V6chting. Sachs conceives that 
Vochting’s morphological force is not an innate heredi- 
tary impulse, but a tendency produced by the action 
of external forces during the growth of the formative 
cells. Thus Sachs believes that the force of gravity 
acting on the developing cells of an organ produces in it 
a “predisposition” or enduring impulse which manifests 
itself in the results which Véchting ascribes to a heredi- 
tary force. The mode in which Sachs believes gravita- 
tion to act is interesting, not only in itself but also as a 
modification of a theory of Du Hamel’s. It is assumed 
that difference of material is a necessary concomitant of 
difference of form, and that accordingly the materials 
from which roots are formed are chemically (used in a 
qualified sense) different from those which supply the 
branches. Sachs’ theory supposes that the growth of 
roots or buds at a given place will be determined 
by the distribution of the root- and branch-forming 
materials, and that the distribution of these materials is 
regulated by the force of gravity. The root-material is 
in a certain sense geotropic and flows downwards, the 
branch-material having the opposite tendency. But they 
are not supposed to be sémfly geotropic, the tendency of 
the root-material to flow towards the base of a branch is 
continued after the branch has been made into a cuttiny 
and hung upside down, so that the root-material flows 
upwards towards the base of the cutting, because that end 
was originally downwards, and vice versd with regard to 
the branch-forming matter. 

The observations on the bramble, which form the 
subject of the present paper, were carried out with the 
object of deciding how far the natural growth of roots in 
the bramble agrees with Véchting’s or Sachs’ theories on 
the growth of cuttings. 

The long sterile shoots of the bramble are well 
known to possess the power of rooting at their ends. 
The terminal bud is thus protected during the winter, 
and the store of nutriment contained in the club-li e 

* The basal end is that end of acutting nearest to the parent plant; the 
apical, is the opposite end. 

* Vichting states distinctly that gravitation and light do affect the p si- 


tions in which organs are developed in cuttings, but he considers the internal 
impulse as the stroncer deterir Ining caus>, 


thickened end of the branch forms a starting-point for 
new growth in the spring. It is commonly the long 
pendant branches growing vertically downwards which 
reach the ground and form roots. it might therefore be 
supposed that gravitation determines the growth of roots 
at the /owerv end of the branch, just as in a cutting made 
from an erect willow branch the roots grow at what was 
originally the lower end. But observations made on 
brambles under certain circumstances show that this is 
not the case. When brambles grow on a steep bank the 
majority of the branches grow down hill at once, or else 
straggle more or less horizontally along the bank and 
finally turn downwards. But a certain number of 
branches grow uphill, and some of these take root at 
the apex. When therefore we find on the same indi- 
vidual plant some branches forming roots at the physi- 
cally lower, and others at the upper end, we may 
feel sure that the distribution of root growth in the 
bramble is not determined by gravitation. We mus 
believe that there is a morphologically directed impulse 
which tends to the production of roots at the apex of the 
branch, whether the direction of its growth has been 
upwards or downwards. It is true that in the observed 
cases the extreme end of the branches was bent so that 
from I to 9 inches was inclined at from 2° or 3° to 5° 
below the horizon, but it can hardly be imagined that this 
fact influences the growth of roots at the apex; and 
experiment shows that it is not necessary that even a 
single inch should be inclined below the horizon. A 
bramble branch was tied, apex upwards, to a vertical 
stick, and was surrounded by damp moss and covered 
with waterproof cloth; under these circumstances a plen- 
tiful crop of roots sprang from the terminal part of the 
branch. This result combined with the observations 
made with brambles growing on a steep bank seem to 
show that an internal impulse or morphological force 
regulates the growth of roots in the bramble. 

When a cutting is made from a bramble the only 
development that takes place is the growth of the axillary 
buds at the apical end of the cutting. Under certain 
circumstances these side shoots take on a root-bearing 
function. They are stunted in growth, being, it may be, 
10-I2mm. in length and 3 or 4 mm. or more in breadth ; 
they assume a peculiar club-like form, being thicker at 
the apex than at the base, and are clothed with rudi- 
mentary scale-like leaves, from among which a number 
of relatively large roots spring forth. 

In order to determine whether the production of this 
root-bearing type of root is determined by gravitation or 
by a “morphological force,’ cuttings were made from 
branches whose direction of growth was above the 
horizon. Such cuttings were hung apex upwards, and it 
was found that the most apical buds were capable of 
developing under these circumstances into the root-bear- 
ing type of branch. Similar rooting side-shoots are 
produced by cuttings made from branches which have 
grown beneath the horizon, it is therefore clear that 
yravitation is not the chief! determining force in this 
form of root production. 

When the end of a branch is injured, which often 
occurs when a bramble grows along the ground near a 
pathway, the most apical bud or buds grow out into 
branches ; these may be ordinary branches which ulti- 
mately take root. Under certain circumstances, the 
stunted club-shaped root-bearing side-shoots may be 
developed whose whole formation is devoted to the 
bearing of roots. It is therefore clear that the produc- 
tion of such rooting shoots in cuttings is the same pro- 
cess that occurs in branches injured in a state of nature; 
a process which enables the branch to perform the function, 
the normal performance of which had been interfered 
with. And this fact enables us to see in what way a 


* The experiments seem to show that gravitation has some infltence on 
the growth of roots ia the bramb!+ 


Dec. 23, 1880] 


NATURE 


181 


morphological growth-impulse is better fitted for the 
requirements of the case than any possible dependence 
on gravitation as a guiding force. When the end of a 
branch is injured it is clear that if a side-shoot is to be de- 
veloped to carry on the function of the injured apex, it will 
have the best chance of success if it starts from the posi- 
tion which the end of the original branch hadalready gained 
before it was injured. Therefore the bud which is nearest 
to the injured apex will be the most suitable one to be 
developed into anew branch. And thus it is advanta- 
geous to the plant that the place where the new develop- 
ment is to take place should be determined morphologi- 
cally, not by gravitation. 

Thus in the bramble the behaviour of cuttings is a 
repetition (cf. Véchting, “ Organbildung,’”’ p. 107) of the 
normal process of restoration of a deranged function in the 
plant ; how far this is the case with other plants must 
remain at present undetermined. 


NOTES 


WE are very glad to hear that Bedford College is taking a 
leading part in giving to women the opportunity of studying 
thoroughly physical science. It has this session opened a 
physical laboratory, under the able direction of Dr. Lodge. A 
chemical laboratory was added to the College some years ago, 
and has proved of great service to the students, several of whom 
have passed the science examination of the University of London, 


THE death is announced of M. Lécard, a promising French 
botanist, as the result of excessive fatigues during his late journey 
in Soudan. M. Lécard was formerly director of the Public 
Botanical Gardens at Saigon, in Cochin-China, and at Richard 
Toll in the colony of Senegal. During the past year he was 
intrusted by the French Minister of Public Instruction with the 
important mission of studying the flora of the Upper Niger, a 
question now of no slight interest in view of the probable con- 
struction of the Trans-Saharan Railway. Various difficulties 
prevented his reaching the Niger. At Kouridiam, however, 
the most distant point reached in his journey, where he was 
forced to pass the rainy season, he made the valuable discovery 
of five varieties of annual vines, the fruits of which so closely 
resemble our ordinary grapes that he regarded them as fully 
able to replace the grape in the production of raisins and wine. 
M. Lécard hoped also to find in his new discovery the means of 
satisfactorily combating the phylloxera, and inspired with this 
desire, sought to make extensive collections of the seeds of the 
vines to bring back to France. M. Lécard, in a letter recently 
read by Dumas before the French Academy of Sciences, ex- 
pressed the fear of having lost his health by the privations 
incident to this journey—a prevision unfortunately too com- 
pletely realised, 


THE death is reported of Dr. Wilhelm Heintz, Professor of 
* Chemistry at Halle University, at the age of sixty-three years. 


_. Tue death has taken place, on the 16th inst., at the age of 
ninety-one years, of Mdlle. de Montgolfier, daughter of Etienne 
de Montgolfier, the inventor of the balloon to which his name 
is attached. 


Pror. WILLIAMSON, Graham’s successor in the Chair of 
Chemistry at University College, London, has complied with the 
request of the committee of the Chemical Section of the Philo- 
sophical Society of Glasgow that he should act as adjudicator in 
the competition for the Graham Medal. 


Pror. TYNDALL, Prof. Haeckel, and Dr. Andrew Buchanan 
have been elected Honorary Members of the Philosophical 
Society of Glasgow. 


AmoNG the buildings which are to be erected on the new 
Observatory g-ounds in Paris when legel!y handed over t> Admiral 


Mouchez will be the great dome for the large refracting telescope 
which is now building. This dome will measure twenty metres 
in diameter, and its weight will exceed sixty tons. 


THE credit of 300,000 francs asked by M. Cochéry for the 
forthcoming Exhibition of Electricity and Congress of Elec- 
tricians at Paris has been voted by the Chamber of Deputies 
unanimously. The Bill has been sent to the Senate, which will 
probably have passed it by the time this number is published. 


On December 12 took place at the Sorbonne the celebration 
of the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Polytechnic 
Association for delivering scientific lectures all over France. 
This Society was established a few months after the Revolution 
of July, 1830, by a certain number of pupils of this celebrated 
school. The principal address was given by M. Gambetta, who 
praised science in magnificent style. M. Gambetta declared his 
conviction that Auguste Comte was the profoundest thinker of 
the whole century. 


FREQUENT observations on the retrograde motion of glaciers 
have been made of late years. One of the most assiduous of 
observers is Herr W. Gromer, proprietor of the Hotel on the 
Schafberg. He reports that during September the retrograde 
motion was exceptionally large, larger indeed than he had ever 
seen during seventeen years. The Gosau glacier (Dachstein), 
the Hochalmspitze, and the Uebergossene Alp showed hardly 
any ice at all on September 12 last, so that with the telescope 
only débris of rocks could be seen, Herr Grémer ascribes this 
phenomenon to the unusually high temperature which reigned 
upon the Alps during last winter, as well as to the constant rain 
during the summer. 


WE are glad to receive a third edition of vol. i, of Harcourt 
and Madan’s *‘ Exercises in Practical Chemistry” (the Claren- 
don Press). Mr. Madan is the sole reviser of this edition, and 
we quote with approval the following passage from his preface :— 
«Practical chemistry seems in danger of being made far too 
much a study of a few reactions of salts, got up for the purpose 
of detecting them in the course of an analysis, This is of course 
due to the requirements of examiners, to satisfy which nearly all 
the very moderate time available for practical instruction in 
schools must at the present day be spent. Moreover analytical 
work (in the narrow, technical sense) entails, like Latin verses, 
less trouble to the teacher and less risk to the pupil than other 
kinds of practical work; while it undoubtedly affords, when 
intelligently used, a very excellent training in the application ot 
logical methods. But it may well be doubted whether 2 more 
real and valuable advance in a scientific education is not made 
by the careful preparation and examination of the properties of 
such a substance as oxygen, or by an exact study of a few 
examples of oxidation and reduction, than by simply observing, 
for instance, that chlorides give a white precipitate with silver 
nitrate which is soluble in ammonia.” 


Mr. C. ScHOESSTER, one of the Commissioners at the Mel- 
bourne Exhibition, we learn from the Colonies and India, has 
been visiting the Geelong vineyards, and reports that they are 
suffering from Phylloxera in the worst form, and ought to be 
totally destroyed. 


Pror. DEWAR will give the first of his Christmas Lectures 
(adapted to a juvenile audience) on Atoms, at the Royal Insti- 
tution on Tuesday next, December 28, at three o’clock. 


A BOTANICAL society for Northern Thuringia has been 
founded at Sondershausen by Prof. Leimbach. The new Society 
takes the title of ‘‘Irmischia,” in memory of the celebrated 
botanist Irmisch, who died at Sondershausen last year. The 
immediate object of the Society, which has already a good 


182 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 23, 1880 % 


number of members, is the minute investigation of the Thuringian 
flora, and the making of botanical collections. 


A GENERAL meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great 
Britain and Ireland will be held at the Museum of Practical 
Geolozy, Jermyn Street, to-day, at $ p.m. The following 
papers will be read :—‘‘ On Tyreeite,’’ by Prof. M. F. Heddle, 
F.R.S.E. ; ‘‘On Minerals New to Britain,” [by Prof. M. F. 
Heddle, F.R.S.E. ; ‘‘Note on Gilbertite,” by J, H. Collins, 
F.G.S.; ‘On Brochantite,” by Wm. Semmons; ‘‘On a 
Remarkably Fine Crystal of Euclase,” by M. Guyot ; ‘‘ On the 
Action of Organic Acids on Minerals,” by Prof, H. C. Bolton, 
communicated by J. H. Collins; ‘‘On Strontium from West- 
phalia,” by Joseph J. Acworth, F.C.S., communicated by F. 
W. Rudler, F.G.S. 


UNDER the common name of ‘‘Guaco” many plants are 
known belonging to different natural families, which have a 
reputation for curing snake-bites. In a recent number of the 
Pharmaceutical Fournal particular attention is drawn to one of 
these guaco-yielding plants, the A/ikania guaco, a composite 
plant of South America. The paper referred to is the substance 
of a letter received at the Royal Gardens, Kew, from a corre- 
spondent at La Salada, New Grenada, in which the writer gives 
his personal testimony as to the value of the remedy, and says 
that it forms the basis of all the preparations of the snake-bite 
doctors of the district. Notwithstanding that there are several 
species of snakes in the country whose bite is considered mortal, 
some killing in a very few hours, it is asserted by the writer of 
the letter, who has resided in snake-infested regions for many 
years, that properly and promptly administered the guaco is a 
sure cure for the bite of the most venomous. An infusion or 
tincture of the leaves is used internally, and hot poultices of the 
bruised leaves and stem are applied externally. 


THE Report on the Botanic Gardens, Georgetown, Demarara, 
for the half-year ending June 30 last has just been received. Its 
matter is mostly of local interest. We note however that Mr. 
Jenman, the superintendent, refers in one part of the Report to 
the rapid growth of some introduced plants. ‘‘ This,” he says, 
“is more particularly shown by the roses obtained from England. 
The hybrid perpetuals from average-sized nursery plants have in 
the three months which have elapsed since they were put out, 
grown into bushes from six to seven feet high, and the other 
hard-wooded things have hardly done less well; while herbaceous 
plants such as Coleus, Alternanthera, Iresine, Amaranthus, &c., 
appear to rush up to maturity in two or three weeks. Much of 
this luxuriance is due however to the very moist season experi- 
enced, as vegetation soon suffers and becomes stagnant with 
even a short period of drought in the stiff, tenacious soil of the 
coast land of the colony.” 


A PLANT recently introduced to Queensland by accident is 
reported to be giving some trouble in the colony in consequence 
of its poisonous effects upon cattle. The plant is Yanthium 
strumarium, and it is said to have been introduced along with 
cotton seed. From experiments made with the plant by admini- 
stration of the extract to some animals it seems at first that no 
particular symptoms were apparent, but after a period of about 
half an hour the animal becomes torpid and unwilling to move 
about. ‘‘ The torpidity gradually increases, and without notable 
struggling or excitement the breathing ceases, after which the 
heart’s action becomes feeble and stops. In weaker doses 
recovery of the functions of life takes place, and the animal 
appears little the worse for the experiment. The animals poisoned 
retained their intelligence to the last. An extract prepared from 
the common Bathurst Burr, Yanthium spinosum, gave similar 
results, ‘though the stubborn character of this plant does not 


poisoned by it.” Both species are found as casual weeds in this 
country, though they are not considered to be indigenous. 


ON the 7th inst. the distinguished Vienna anatomist, Dr. Hyrtl, 
reached his seventieth birthday. He received numerous addresses 
from medical bodies in Austria, and congratulatory telegrams 
from all parts of the world, 


In Banjaluka (Bosnia) a distinct shock of earthquake was felt 
on the 6th inst. at 9.18 p.m., direction north-east to south-west, 
duration four seconds. In Agram, on the 11th, a violent shock 
was experienced about § a.m., and one less violent about 7.14 a.m. 
Since the 12th there have been no shocks there. The entire 
number of shocks at Agram during the earthquake period— 
November 9 to December 10—is (according to official data) fifty- 
nine. In Gurkfeld (Styria) shocks of brief duration were felt on 
the 11th inst. at-5 and 7.12 a.m.,, direction south-east to north- 
west. 


A sLicutT shock of earthquake was felt at Charleville, Ireland, 
on Saturday morning. It passed from the north-west to the 
south-east, and lasted for five secon(s. 


THE new ‘‘ Year-book of Photography” contains a nice 
portrait of Daguerre, the father of photography, from a daguerro- 
type taken in 1846 by Mr. J. E. Mayall. 


In a moor of the Canton of Vaud (Switzerland) a well-pre- 
served boat, dating from the age of pile-dwellings, has been 
found. It measures eleven metres in length and one metre in 
breadth, and has been ccnveyed to Lausanne. 


THE ruins of a once magnificent ba‘hing establishment have 
been recently discovered by Prof. Giuseppe Novi not far from 
Herculaneum. They are covered with a layer of ashes and lava 
of ten metres thickness. What has been brought to light up to 
the present is said to eclipse all previous discoveries of a similar 
nature both in Herculaneum and Pomgeii. The fountains and 
tanks of these ‘ Terme” are made of oriental granite and adorned 
with sculptures. The floors are of coloured glass mosaic ; un- 
fortunately it is but badly preserved, The walls of the various 
buildings are elegantly ornamented with paintings and stucco- 
work. The excavations are to be continued. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


Swirt’s ComeT.—The evidence in favour of a period of about 
53 years instead of about 11 years for this comet is apparently 
strengthened by an able note from Mr. S. C, Chandler, jun., 
which we find in an advance number of the Boston Scsence 
Observer. He brings the two periods to bear upon the repre- 
sentation of the observations of 1869. Starting with Prof. 
Bruhns’ parabolic elements in Ast, Mach. No. 1788, he computed 
an ephemeris and compared therewith all the published observa- 
tions, thirty-five in number, after taking into account parallax 
and aberration. ‘The residuals were found to be considerable 
and systematic, and with the view to obtaining a nearer approxi- 
mation to the orbit before proceeding with the determination of 
final elements, he formed three normals, using for the first all the 
observed places, six in number, from November 29 to December 
I inclusive ; for the second all the places from December 8 to 10 
inclusive, eleven in number; and for the third six observations 
between December 26 and 31: these observations were made at 
Hamburg, Konigsberg, Kremsmunster, Leipsic, Manheim, and 
Vienna ; he thus gets for the foundation of his subsequent work 
the following normal positions :— 


Washington MT. sep. RAS App. Decl. 

m. a © ’ a“ 
1869, November 29°52475 ... 23 1 5°20 +15 51 577 
December 881453... © 3 37°28 20155) e2ck 
December 29°43628 2 39 22°08 ... +26 30 568 


From these data Mr. Chandler calculates elements upon three 
different hypotheses: (1) that the orbit is a parabola ; (2) that — 
it is an ellipse with a period of 4006 days, or about 11 years 


offer a tempting food for cattle, and they are not therefore | (3) that it is an ellipse with a period of 2003 days, or about 5b 


Dee. 23, 1880} 


NATURE 


183 


years, and he finds from these three orbits the following residual 
errors for the second normal place :— 


Longitude. Latitude. 

u “ 

HetretDOlag oes see. Gory Sul + 25°7 
11-year, ellipse ... ... — 0°6 + 12°9 
55-year ellipse 0°3 + 4°! 


-Mr.Chandler finds that an attempt to reduce these errors in latitude 

on the assumption of a parabolic orbit or an elliptic orbit of 11 
years’ period, will only lead to intolerable discordances in the longi- 
tudes, and he considers that for both these hypotheses the residuals 
are far in excess of the probable error of the normal position. 
For the shorter period, on the contrary, the residuals seem well 
within reasonable limits of error, and his conclusion therefore is 
that the comet will be found to revolve in about 53 years. His 
ellipse with this assumed period is as follows, and will be found 
in close agreement with that obtained on a similar hypothesis 
from the observations of the present year, by MM. Schulhof and 
Bossert, which we gave last week :— 


Perihelion passage, 1869, November 18°59702 Washington M.T. 


42 58 53) M.Eq. 
296 46 2) 1869°0 


Longitude of perihelion 
rf, ascending node 


Inclination ... 5 23 44 
Excentricity ... ee 0°6581359 
SEMI-AXIS MAjOK -. 9.6 Sse 3710971 

Log. perihelion distance ... ... 0°0265728 


It appears that the comet was observed at Harvard College until 
January 3, 1870, or three days later than at any other observa- 
tory, and Prof. Pickering has had these late observations very 
carefully reduced. 

At the actual appearance a communication from Mr, Lewis 
Boss, Director of the Dudley Observatory at Albany, N.Y., 
shows that the comet was micrometrically referred to a star, 
with the r3-inch refractor of that establishment, on the evening 
of October 11, but the declination of the comparison-star 
(B.D. + 17°°4611) needs further examination; it mizht be 
referred to Bessel’s star 38s. following and about 63’ north. If 
good observations can be obtained towards the end of the 
present month the elliptic orbit may admit of pretty close 
determination from the observations of 1880 alone. ‘The fol: 
lowing ephemeris is calculated from MM. Schulhof and Bossert’s 
ellipse of 54 years :— 

At Greenwich midnight 


Decl. N. Log. A. 
De kes: o 4 
WDCC Hess 5S 2or1Sy 21 35!) 374: 9°3514 
240-5) 30.38 -... -34 28°9 
‘ 25... § 32 5! 33 55°6 9° 3736 
26 5 34 58 33 23°4 
27 5 36 59 32 52°5  -. 9°3957 
Zou 530.55 32 22°6 
29... 5 40 47 3U 53°7 9°4177 
30) ass) 5) 4253 31 25°8 
3I_... 5 44 19 30 58°9 974528 
Jan. 1 5 45 59 39 33'0 
2.» 5 47 35 «--° 30) 8'0 9°5041 
3 +-°5 49 7 29 44°1 
4 ee SU 5ORS4 a 92OR2EN2 9°5252 
5 5 5156 ... 28 59°2 


A New Comet.—A small, pretty bright comet was discovered 
by Dr. Pechiile at Copenhagen on the evening of December 16, 
in R.A. 18h. 49m., Decl. + 10° 30’. Daily motion,+ 5m, and 
+ 40’. 

OccULYATION (?) OF 73 PIsctuM BY JUPITER.—On February 
3, 1881, according to Leverrier’s Tables of the planet Jupiter 
and the position of the star 73 Piscium (rated 6°om. in the 
Durchmusterung) brought up from the Greenwich Catalogue of 
1872, the star should be occulted by the planet about 2h. 8m. 
G.M.T. - Very smali change however in the place or semi- 
diameter of the planet, might suffice to bring about merely an 
appulse. The facts of the case may be well ascertained in 
easterly longitudes, as at Madras, where the conjunction in Right 
Ascension appears to occur when the planet is 3h. 26m. past the 
meridian, about 7h. 29m. mean time. The apparent place of 
the star on February 3 is in R.A. oh. 58m. 43°533., Decl. 
+ 5° 1/102. The polar semi-diameter of the planet, according 
to the value of mean semi-diameter now adopted in the Wazsical 
Almana-, will be 17""2, and allowing for parallax, this seems to 
place the star a little over 2" within the planet’s northern limb. 


METEOROLOGICAL NOTES 


From an able and temperately-worded article in the New York 
Nation on the Signal-Service Succession, it is plain that meteor- 
ology is in a critical position in the United States at the present 
moment. The whole question of the future of meteorology in that 
country practically turns on the sort of man who is to be appointed 
to succeed the late lamented Gen. Myer. As regards the bearing 
of the question on the promotion of the great financia!, com- 
mercial, and educational concerns of the country, the writer of 
the article well puts it when he states that ‘‘it depends altogether 
on the future management of the office whether its activity shall 
be confined to a lifeless routine without any attempt to make 
new discoveries or introduce improved methods, or whether it 
shall be animated by that progressive spirit which will not be 
satisfied until every man within reach can be informed of coming 
meteorological changes as long in advance as it is possible for 
them to be foreseen.” To accomplish this end much more is 
needed than a most diligent discharge of the daily duties of the 
office, such as will put the public in possession of forecasts 
drawn up on the lines that have hitherto been followed in fore- 
casting the weather. It was an essential feature of General 
Myer’s procedure that in framing the forecasts in the office he 
confined himself simply to making the best use of what was 
already known of meteorology. But whilst this continued the 
practice of his office, he had the genius to see that if the system 
of forecasting weather is to make way it is absolutely indispens- 
able to strike out entirely new lines of observation with the view 
of arriving at some positive knowledge of the great movements 
of the atmosphere and their determining causes. Hence his 
great scheme of International Meteorology, by which was 
secured one daily observation at the same physical instant, 
where possible, over the globe, and the regular publication 
of the monthly results in the U.S. Weather Maps, with 
which our readers are familiar. These admirable maps, to- 
gether with the Weather Maps of the States themselves, 
published at intervals of eight hours through a period of ten 
years, now furnish a mass of material the value of which it is 
not possible to overestimate ; and the adequate discussion of 
which, it may be very safely said, is the next great step to be 
taken by meteorology. This step it is in the power of the 
United States to take, and whether it be taken or not depends 
almost wholly on the character of the man who may be called to 
fill the place so suddenly left vacant by General Myer’s pre- 
mature decease. What, above all, is imperatively required, 
is a sympathy with science and workers in science, so strong 
and so decided that he will, without fail, enlist in the service of 
his country some of the best intellects who will give their time 
and their energies to work out the great problem of weather 
prognosis. 


Tue American mails inform us that a frost of unusual severity 
for the season set in over Canada and the middle States on 
November 19. It came so suddenly and with such intensity 
that vessels of every description were frozen up and fixed, in 
many cases in mid-stream, The cold was greatest all along the 
St. Lawrence, where the thermometer ranged from zero to 
— 10°'0. Several ocean steamers, even, were placed in a very 
precarious position, and altogether it is estimated that 800 
vessels laden with grain, potatoes, fruit, and other produce were 
frozen up; and many deaths have occurred in consequence of 
the frost. So early and intense a frost has not been experienced 
in Canada since 1873. Closely following it occurred a remark- 
able depression of temperature in the British Islands, which as 
regards certain districts in North Britain was unprecedented at 
so early a period in the winter months. It was an accompani- 
ment of a wide-spread area of high pressure which appeared off 
the north-west of Scotland on the 20th as shown by the English 
and German daily weather maps. On this day temperatures 
fell low for the season, particularly along the west from Corn- 
wall to Shetland. On the 2tst the high-pressure area had ad- 
vanced a considerable way towards the south-east, and under the 
clear skies and light winds which characterised it, the tempera- 
ture fell in many places in Scotland to a degree which would 
have been noteworthy in the depth of winter. The protected 
thermometer fell at Aboyne Castle on Deeside to zero, and to 
1°'o at several places, viz., at Lanark in Clydesdale, at Stobo 
Castle near the head of the Tweed, and at Thirlestane Castle on 
the Leader. These low temperatures were approximated to at 
a considerable number of the other stations of the Scottish 
Meteorological Society situated in the larger valleys in in- 


184 


IN) A TAG RAE Chie Bee Siew 


land situations. As on similar occasions, the influence of the 
sea in arresting the fall of temperature was strikingly seen. 
Thus the minimum temperatures on the 21st were 31°°7 at Port- 
patrick, 8°°3 at Drumlanrig Castle on the Nith, 1°‘0 at Stobo 
Castle and Thirlestane Castle, 11°°7 at Milne Graden near Cold- 
stream, and 17°'7 at Eyemouth on the East Coast. At Douglas 
Castle and Thirlestane Castle the unprotected thermometer fell 
to —6°'0, 

Mr. H.S. EATon has rendered a great service to meteorology 
by a paper on the average height of the barometer in London, 
which has just appeared in the Yozrnal of the Meteorological 
Society for October. The great value of the paper consists not 
so much in the long period of 100 years for which the monthly 
averages of each year are given, as in this, combined with a care- 
ful and laborious elimination of instrumental errors and errors 
arising from breaks of one or more days in the observations of 
the months. The series is sufficiently extended as to entitle it 
to be considered one of the most valuable we possess in dealing 
with questions of secular meteorological variations. The mean 
atmospheric pressure at 32° and sea-level for London is 29°952 
inches, the mean monthly maximum 29°996 inches occurring in 
June, and the minimum 29’900 inches in November, the mean 
for October being nearly as low, viz., 29°909 inches, In a dis- 
cussion which followed the reading of the paper Mr, Strachan 
remarked that even another 100 years’ observations would not 
alter the positions of these points of the London curve—a remark 
no doubt quite true for London. On advancing however to the 
south-west the means for June and July approach towards equality, 
and ultimately the July mean becomes the larger as we advance 
into the region of high pressure which occupies the Atlantic to the 
south-west during this month. On the other hand, as we pro- 
ceed northward, the means for May and June approach towards 
equality till about the south of Scotland the mean for May 
becomes the maximum for the year, and the further north the more 
decidedly is May the maximum, till in Iceland it exceeds the 
mean of any other month by the tenth of an inch. Attention 
was drawn to the dips in the curve of pressure for Apriland July. 
These in all probability are permanent features in the London 
curve of pressure for March-April and July when drawn from a 
long average, since the former is connected with the east winds 
of spring and the latter with the great summer barometric de- 
pression which falls to the lowest point in July in the interior of 
the Europeo-Asiatic continent. 


In the same number Mr. Marriott gives a brief részmé of 
three years’ observations made by Mr. F. E, Cobb at Stanley, in 
the Falkland Islands, which, from the geographical position of 
the place, possess some interest. The results show a mean 
annual pressure of 29°604 inches, the maximum occurring in 
winter, and the minimum in summer, A singular feature of the 
monthly means is their comparative steadiness from year to year, 
the highest being 29°819 inches for August 1876, and the lowest 
29°342 inches for February of the same year. The difference of 
these two extremes is ouly 07477 inch. Tt would be difficult to 
select from Mr, Eaton’s 100 years mean pressures for London 
any consecutive three years which would show so small a yaria- 
tion between their two extreme monthly means as do these Falk- 
land Islands’ observations. The prominent features of pressure 
in thase islands would appear to be its variability, the constant 
recurrence of rapid changes, and the comparative absence of pro- 
tracted periods of very low, but especially very high pressures— 
occasioned in all likelihood by there being no great mass of land 
in that quarter of the globe. A like equableness from year to 
year characterises the temperature and rainfall of the climate, 
The rainfall is surprisingly small, amounting only ‘to twenty 
inches in the year ; but the falls, though not heavy, are frequent, 
there being 236 rainy days in the year. The lowest mean 
temperature of any of the thirty-six months was 35°°4, and the 
highest 52°°6. ‘Lhe climate is eminently a dripping one, and 
when the range of its temperature is taken into consideration, 


and its high winds, it is one of the most disagreeable climates of 
the globe. 


eC TT —— —— 


GEOLOGICAL NOTES 


Narnt Tat Lanpstip.—In Nature, vol. xxii. p. 505, 
attention was directed to landslips in connection wih the 
catastrophe at Naini Tal on September 18. We have just 
received part 4 of vol. xiii. of the Records of the Geological 
Survey of India, containing a paper by Mr. R. D. Oldham, of 


the staff of that Survey, who was deputed to examine and report 
on the landslip to the Director, From this paper and a note 
appended to it by Mr. Medlicott, it appears that we were in error 
in supposing Naini Tal to stand upon Tertiary rocks. It lies 
just to the north of the younger formations, and is situated upon 
“‘more or less imperfectly-cleaved clay slates.” These rocks 
are subject to a decomposition which penetrates deep into their 
mass, and it would seem to have been the cover of loose, de- 
composed detritus which, thoroughly saturated with water from 
the heavy rains, slid down the hill, and gave rise to the 
catastrophe. 


THE ‘‘CHALLENGER” Work.—Steady progress is being 
made in the investigation of the deep-sea deposits dredged up 
by the Challenger Expedition. M. Kenard has established him- 
self at Edinburgh, where, in concert with Mr. J, Murray, he is 
busily engaged in subjecting the various dredgings to chemical 
and microscopic analysis. In the first volume, devoted to an 
account of the bottom of the ocean, will be gathered together 
the facts amassed during this laborious study. It will avoid all 
speculation, but will contain such a body of data for the expli- 
cation of the sedimentation and chemistry of the ocean abysses as 
has never before been ayailable. In a subsequent volume the 
authors will develop the views to which their prolonged and 
minute investigations have led them. No part of the work of 
the Challenger promises to possess a profounder interest in 
geology. 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY or BeLGcruM.—The dual organisation 
for the Geological Map of Belgium is likely ‘to lead to some 
curious reduplications and complications. Besides the staff under 
the direction of M. Dupont, there are other geologists inde- 
pendently at work under the Ministry of the Interior who are 
determined to lose no time in bringing out sheet after sheet of 
the geological map as surveyed by them. In particular the 
Baron O, Van Ertborn and M, Paul Cogels have been eminently 
energetic. The Baron made a convention with the Ministry 
towards the end of last year to complete six sheets with their 
explanatory texts before June 1 of the present year. He 
has been able to keep his engagement except as regards the 
Lubbeek sheet, for which he obtained a delay until the close of 
this year. We have just received the Boisschot and d’ Aerschot 
sheets. Meanwhile M. Dupont makes no sign. Specimens of 
his map were seen at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, and also at 
the Dublin meeting of the British Association last year. But 
so far as we are aware, nothing has yet been issued. The 
Director is understood to be resolved to make his map the most 
perfect geoloyical map that has ever been published. It is being 
chromolithographed at Leipzig. Considerable interest is natu- 
rally felt among geologists to see the first completed specimens 
of this long-expected work. We are curious also to know what 
will happen when the Official Survey and the free-lances meet 
on the same ground. Will the Government publish two different 
geological maps? ‘The position reminds us of that which roused 
the activity of the Congress of the United States a few years ago, 
when it was discovered that the same Territory in the far West 
was sometimes independently surveyed by two or three different 
organisations, all paid out of the public purse. Only in Bel- 
gium things are worse, for the country is small, and the certainty 
of reduplication must have been foreseen from the beginning. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


Ar the meeting of the French Geographical Society on 
November 19, M. Henri Duveyrier read an important memoran- 
dum which he had drawn up on the subject of the sources of the 


Niger. After going carefully into the question of Major Laing’s — 


prior discovery and various matters relating to the hydrographic 
system of the Niger basin, he thinks it very doubtful if any other 


stream will ever be discovered having a right to be deemed the ~ 


chief source of the river, than the Tembi-Kundu -visited by 
MM. Zweifel and Moustier. M. Duveyrier’s remarks will no 
doubt be published in an early number of the French Geogra- 
phical Society’s Bulletin, and it may be hoped that it will be 
illustrated by a large scale map. At the annual meeting of the 
Society last Friday, M. Maunoirread his usual report on the work 


of the Society and the progress of geographical knowledge. It was — 


announced that the Society had now about 21co members, being 
an increase of about 100 in the year. 


Hert 3 of vol. ii. of the AZi/¢helungen of the German African — 


Society contains a brief report of the work of the year. 


The - 


Dec. 23, 1880] 


NATURE 


185 


most striking feature of the work is the successful journey of 
Dr. Lenz from Morocco to Timbuctoo and thence to St. Louis 
in Senegal. In the region to the south of the Congo some good 
work has been done. Dr. Buchner has probably got beyond the 
district known as the kingdom of Muata Yanvo, while Major von 
Mechow has reached the Coango from Malange by following 
down the valley of the Cambo, a tributary of that river. The 
navigation above the junction is obstructed by cataracts, but 
Major von Mechow did not expect to meet with any difficulty in 
sailing down the Coango to its mouth in the Congo, Dr. Pogge 
is on his way out to Portuguese West Africa to proceed to the 
interior to found a station at Mussumba, the chief townin 
Muata Yanvo’s kingdom. Herr Flegel has been exploring 
the Niger in the Henry Venn, and expects shortly to reach 
Sokoto. Dr. J. Hann has a paper in this number on the 
meteorological and hypsometrical results of Rholfs’ expedition to 
the Kufra Oasis. The Society have received instructions from 
the Imperial Government regarding the manner in which the 
3750/. granted by the Reichstag is to be divided. Dr, Gerhard 
Rohlfs’ expedition to Abyssinia will receive 1600/., and 150/. is 
to form a reserve fund for this same undertaking. The expedi- 
tion now being organised at Zanzibar under the leadership of 
Herr von Scholer will receive 80o/., and the remaining 1200/. 
are for Dr. Pogge, who is attempting to reach the capital of 
Muata Yanoo, in Central Africa, in order to found a station 
there. The Society has also granted 250/. to Herr R. E, Flegel, 
who ascended the Binué River this year. 


THE new number (No. 9 of vol. vii.) of the Verhandlungen of 
the Berlin Geographical Society contains papers by Herr Gustav 
Niederlein on some of the scientific results of an Argentine expe- 
dition to the Rio Negro in Patagonia, and by Dr. Nachtigal on 
the ethnological place of the Tubu and Kanuri. 

THE December number of Petermann’s Mittheilungen con- 
tains an interesting paper by Dr. Rholfs on the Libyan Desert, in 
which he shows that it is the eastern part of the Sahara, and not 
the western, that is the real desert, broken only here and there 
by oases. Indeed the extreme west of the Sahara, for a distance 
of from 400 to 500 kilometres from the coast, does not strictly 
belong to the desert at all ; and even the eastern half, the more we 
know of it, the more numerous are its oases found to be. There 
is an eclectic article on the Liu-Kiu Islands, by Dr. vy. Kléden ; 
a paper on the New Volcano on Lake Ilopango ; and a map of 
the South \Coast of Franz Josef Land, based on Mr. Leigh 
Smith’s recent discoveries. In the Monatsbericht some interest- 
ing details are given of Dr. Junker’s journey to and his sojourn 
in the Niam-Niam country. A letter from Dr. Emin Bey, the 
Governor of the Egyptian Equatorial Province, informs us that 
Mtesa, King of Uganda, whom Mr. Stanley so whitewashed, is 
as tyrannical and bloodthirsty as ever, and does not intend to be 
either Christianised or Mohammedanised, but to adhere to the 
ways of his forefathers. Dr. Emin is anxious that explorers 
should turn their attention to the Equatorial Province, which 
forms a splendid field for botanists, zoologists, and other 
specialists. 

NOTWITHSTANDING the belief in some quarters that the 
American Arctic steamer /zanzette has been lost with all hands, 
it is thought in San Francisco that Capt. De Long and his staff 
and crew may have only abandoned her, and be waiting succour 
at some point. An attempt is therefore being made to get a 
small schooner sent out next spring to search Wrangell Land. 


EARLY in the present year Mr. W. H. Cornish, of the 
Surveyor-General’s Department at Adelaide, was engaged for 
some two months in examining the country in the far interior for 
the extension of the trigonometrical survey and traverse of the 
Herbert River. In about lat. 30° 59’ near that river he crossed 
a piece of country which by his account almost baffles descrip- 
tion ; it was flood country of the Herbert, and was completely 
rotten. ‘“‘Cracked ground,” he reports, as a term is scarcely 
applicable, for there were yawning chasms from four to five feet 
deep, and even deeper, and eight to twelve inches wide at every 
few feet. The country indeed was so bad that it took the camels 
six hours to travel seven miles, and Mr. Cornish’s difficulties 
were increased by the unusually intense heat of the weather, 
Mr. Cornish believes that before long the cattle-trade from the 
part of Queensland which he visited will go southwards to 
Australia as soon as the settlers who are beginning to open 
up the country on the Herbert, Diamantina, and Mulligan 
become sufficiently acquainted with the means of communica- 


300 natives, who were all friendly, but he believes there are large 
numbers in the region he travelled through, and that it would 
not be prudent to trust them. 


Dr. Laws, the head of the Livingstonia station on Lake 
Nyassa, is actively engaged on linguistic work. He has trans- 
lated various portions of the New Testament into Chinyanja, 
and the Laing trustees have agreed to publish his translation of 
St. Mark’s Gospel. Dr. Laws has also begun the Yahitonga 
language spoken at Bandawi, and he has collected a short 
vocabulary of the Chungu dialect at the north end of the lake. 
The Livingstonia and Foreign Missions Committee of the Free 
Church of Scotland have recently agreed that, on the assurance 
that there will be no difficulty there as to civil government, owing 
to the presence of powerful chiefs, Bandawi shall be made the 
principal port of the mission on Lake Nyassa, while sanitary 
out-stations are to be sought on the neighbouring hills among the 
Angoni. As soon as possible however the east side of the lake 
is to be explored, in the hope of finding a better sanitarium on 
the so-called Livingstone Mountains, 


Messrs. GRIFFITH AND HuTLEY, who lately established the 
first mission station on the west side of Lake Tanganyika at 
Mtowa, near the mouth of the Lukuga Creek, have sent home to 
the London Missionary Society some information respecting the 
religious notions of the Waguha, There appears to be a marked 
difference on this point between the tribes on the opposite shores 
of the lake. Those on the east side have no images or idols, but 
on the west shore they have them in great numbers, and have 
certain beliefs connected with them. Mr, Griffith observes that 
the first thing which strikes the African traveller on entering the 
western half of the continent is an image at the entrance of 
every village, besides many others inside it. The image is in 
imitation of the human figure, and is called AZézssz, which is the 
same as the Mzimu of the Swahili, and means spirit. 


THE new Bulletin of the Belgian Geographical Society con- 
tains reports relating to the International African Association’s 
expeditions in East Africa, including tables of meteorological 
observations taken by M. Popelin. ‘There is also a report on 
the ‘‘Conférence Géodésique Internationale de Munich,” and 
an essay by Col. Verstraete on biological geography. 


THE Bulletin of the Norman Geographical Society contains a 
paper by M. G. Gravier on M, Paul Soleillet’s journey fo Adrar 
between December, 1879, and May, 1880, as well as the con- 
tinuation of M. Ch, Benner’s journey from M’ruli to the capital 
of Unyoro, 


THE Italian Expedition to the Antarctic Regions will not set 
out till 1882, but Lieut. Bove will shortly set out on .board a 
whaling vessel to make a voyage of reconnaissance. 


Two Englishmen, with sixteen men belonging to an Indian 
convoy, are reported to have arrived at Yarkand from the direc- 
tion of Tibet, whither they returned after visiting Kashgar. 


M. RazsourDIN, who accompanied Col. Flatters on his survey 
for the proposed Trans-Saharan Railway, reports that he dis- 
covered numerous remains of cut flints, not less than eighteen 
manufactories being found in a length of 800 kilometres from 
Wargla. He also found remains of the great horned oxen which, 
according to Herodotus, were found in the country of the 
Garamantes. 


Dr. NAcHTIGAL has furnished the Zour du Monde with a 
résumé of the concluding portion of the forthcoming volume of 
his ‘Reise in Afrika” in advance of publication, and it now 
appears in that periodical under the title of ‘‘ Voyage du Bornou 
au Baguirmi,” accompanied by a sketch-map and some very 
interesting illustrations, 


We hear that the Geographical Society of Marseilles have 
awarded their gold medal to Major Serpa Pinto for his journey 
across Africa. 


AccorpINc to the Echo du Japon the King of Corea has been 
induced to make an offer of entering into treaties with foreign 
powers, through his fear of his kingdom being annexed by Russia, 
and he has despatched two envoys to opennegotiations. Though 
the opening of Corea will hardly be of any great commercial 
importance, it will pave the way for interesting geographical 
researches in a country which is almost unknown, except from 
the imperfect accounts of Roman Catholic missionaries. 


THE first volume of Léwenberg’s ‘‘ Geschichte der geo- 


tion, During his journey Mr, Cornish did not see more than graphischen Entdeckungs- und Forschungsreisen,” which treats 


186 


NA TiO hare 


[ Dec. 23, 1880 


of voyages of discovery made during antiquity and the middle 
ages, as far as Magellan’s first voyage round the globe, will be 
shortly published by Herr Spamer of Leipzig. It will contain 
some 100 illustrations, besides maps, charts, &c. 


CRITICAL TEMPERATURE OF ETHYLENE 


M AMAGAT (Com#zt. rend.* [1879], Ixxxix. p. 437, corrected 
* Beiblatter [1880], iv. p. 19) has submitted hydrogen, oxygen, 
nitrogen, air, carbon monoxide, methane, and ethylene at tempera- 
tures from 18° to 22° to pressures ranging between 28 and 431 atmo- 
spheres, and finds that, except for hydrogen, the product 9 w first 
diminishes and then increases as / increases, the most marked 
case being that of ethylene, for which the values of pv at 31°58, 
84°16, 398°71 atmospheres are proportional to 2°29, 1, 3°13 
respectively. Dr. van der Waals deduced this general pecu- 
liarity theoretically in 1873, and showed that its markedness is 
the greater, the less the temperature of compression exceeds the 
critical temperature: concluding, therefore, that for ethylene 
the critical temperature is not far below 18°, as M. Amagat has 
also surmised, he has recently (AZeded. der hk, Akad. van Weten- 
schappen in Amsterdam, Mei 1880)? determined it directly by a 
Cailletet compression-apparatus, finding it to be 9°*2, and the 
critical pressure 58 atmospheres. 

On p. 55 of his dissertation ‘‘ Over de Continuiteit van den 
Gas- en Vloeistoftoestand ” (Leiden, 1873), van der Waals finds 
the characteristic equation of a gas in the form— 


( + “ye — 6)= R(t + ad), 


where a, 2, R are constants and a the coefficient of expansion, 
and on p. 79 e seg. itis shown that at the critical temperature 
all three values of v given by this equation, which may be 
written " 
Rt tat) 2,2, 26 
2 2 
are equal: hence, if Vis put for this common value of zw, and 
7, P for the corresponding values of 7, , z.e. for the critical 
temperature and pressure, the theory of equations gives 


a 15 + = 


% Ri + a7) ee ab 
V=6+- ve a 
3 P Le -’ P 
whence 5 
a a 
= — = 2b ——— ————— 
7a Vi 20 Paya »,l+a aTb R 
and also 
o IPA 
— 2 ye SS 
a=3PV2, 6=1V,R 3 Fae 


The minimum value of fv at any temperature ¢ may be de!er- 
mined in the usual way by a being equated to zero, and, if 
v 
2’, v' are written for the corresponding values of J, 7, there resul, 


Me id ,p =27(1 — t)(27 — 1)P, pv’ = 2(27 - 1) PP, 


Bet) 
where 


2 
72 


IO Kiet) 2 ve euro 
= @ iim ry 2" 
Thus a minimum value of fv exists only when 
l>7 >; 
i.e. only at temperatures that lie between 
a Le ae rt 
bRa «@ 4oRa a 
If A, represents the pressure of the gas when occupying unit 
voluine at 7, then 
(A, + a(t - 6) = RII + a2), 
and, /, being the value of £ z in this initial state, the markedness 
of the minimum value of / v is greater the less 


PD sect : , (= lz = 0) 
os or its equivalen a= aa 
that is, since the sign of the /-differential coefficient of this 
expression is the same as that of (r— 4) (1 — 6 — 7), the less ¢, 


provided that 


1-b6>7>4, 


1 Since the following was written, M. Amagat has published further re- 
sults, which do not however affect its main point. 

* Mr. Dickson seems to have independently discovered (Piil. Mag. for 
July, 1880) the principles laid down by Dr, van der Waals in his above 
mentioned dissertation, pp. 79-93, which is not sufficiently known in England” 


or that the temperatures lie between 
a{1 — 6)? 
a { a= 2) a Is & 
bRa eice! ce 
If v represents the volume of the mass of gas which occupies 
unit volume at 0? under unit pressure, then 
R=(t+a) (1 — 3d), 
as is taken in the following calculations, 
In the case of ethylene van der Waals’ experiments give 
T=92 and P= 58: hence, by the above relations with 
a = 0'00367, 


a = 
b(t + a)(t — 6) 
which lead to a cubic equation that gives 
@ = 000786, 4 = 0'00224, = 1'0056, 
so that the characteristic equation is 
pe 0°0037(272°5 + ¢) _ 0100786: 


@ — 000224 ov 

the pressure being reckoned in atmospheres; hence too 
V = 0°0067 and PY = 0°39. Further, when ¢ = 20, the mean 
temperature in Amagat’s experiments, t = 0°5547, and thus by 
calculation ~' = 76°25, while Amagat’s direct observations give 
? = 84 approximately, so far justifying the the theory. The 
temperatures for which fv has a minimum value range from 
678° to — 35°. 

The intimate agreement between Amagat’s experiments and 
van der Waals’ formula (which is entirely independent of them) 
is shown by the following table, wherein the first column con- 
tains the pressures (expressed in atmospheres) employed jby 
Amagat, the second his experimental values of fv divided by 
23500, and the third the values of fw calculated for ¢ = 20 
from the formula :— 


3°489, © = 1566, 


2 oe 2 
observed. calculated. 
31°58 0-914 0895 
45°80 o°781 0°782 
59°35 0°522* 0624 
72°86 07416 0°387 
84°16 0399 0°392 
94°53 0°413 O'4I4 
110°47 0°454 07456 
133°26 0°520 0520 
176°OL 07643 0642 
233°58 0°807 0°805 
282°21 O'94I 0*940 
32914 1°067 1'067 
398°71 1°'248 1°254 


The only serious discrepancy occurs for 4 = 59°38, and van 
der Waals accounts for this by supposing that in Amagat’s table 
12263 is misprinted for 15263, so that the asterisked number 
should be 0°650; for by experiment he finds that the ratio of 
the values of Av for = 45°80 and # = 59°38 is 1°26 (the calcu- 
lated ratio being 1°25), while Amagat’s actual numbers give 
1°50, but, when corrected, 1°20. 

For methane the equation of van der Waals’ form that best 
satisfies Amagat’s experimental values has for constants 
@= 10° X 279,90 = "53, = 25525, ih 2 —) 200 CORO 7. 
pressures being measured in metres of mercury, and this gives 
— 993° for the critical temperature and 50} atmospheres for the 
critical pressure. The constants have large values here, for, as 
calculation shows, the mass of the gas considered is about 
244 grams, which would occupy, at o° under one atmosphere, 
about 33518 c.c. 

This discussion—with the numbers recalculated—by Dr. van 
der Waals of M. Amagat’s experiments in connection with the 
critical temperature is here reproduced, together with the brief 
vésumé of his theory (which has not hitherto appeared in an 
English dress), for ready application in other cases. 

September 17 Rosert E. BAYNEs 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
CAMBRIDGE.—The Natural Science Tripos Class List has just 
been issued. ‘There are eight names in the first class, eight in 
the second, and fifteen in the third. Of those in the first class 
three attain their first class for Physics and Chemistry, viz. : 
Fleming, St. John’s (distinguished in Physics) ; S. L. Hart, St. 
John’s, and Heycock, King’s. Two attain their first class for 


Dec. 23, 1880] 


NATURE | 


187 


Botany: Hillhouse, Trinity, and Hoffmeister, Caius (distin- 
guished); and three for Zoology, Anatomy, and Physiology : 
Caldwell, Caius; Pigeon, Christ’s ; and Shaw, Sidney. 

Mr. J. A. Fleming, B.A., of St. John’s, has been appointed 
to the new post of Demonstrator of Mechanism and Applied 
Mechanics; Mr. Fleming is a distinguished graduate of London 
University, as well as having attained distinction in Physics, 
with first class honours in the Natural Science Tripos of this 

ear. 

Mr. J. J. Lister, B.A., of St. John’s College, has been 
appointed Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy, in place of 
Mr. A. C. Haddon, who has been appointed to the Professor- 
ship of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the Royal College 
of Science, Dublin, vacated by Prof. Bridge. 

Mr. A. H. Cooke, B.A., Fellow of King’s College, has been 
appointed Curator of the Zoological Museum. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 11.—Magnetic re- 
searches, by F, Auerbach.—New researches on magnetism, by 
C. Baur.—On so-called polar induction, by E. Riecke.—Deter- 
mination of the absolute velocity of current electricity from 
Hall’s phenomenon, by A. v. Ettingshausen —Method of 
calibration of a wire for galvanic measurements, by W. Giese, 
—Action of gases and vapours on the optical properties of re- 
flecting surfaces, by P. Glan.—On a new interference-photo- 
meter, by:Fr. Fuchs.—Influence of the density of gases on their 
conduction of heat, by A. Winkelmann.—Currents of liquids 
_ resulting from unequal temperature within them, by A. Oberbeck. 
_ —Theory of the interference-phenomenon presented by dichroitie 
_ crystal-plates cut at right angles to the axis, by E. Ketteler.— 

On the polarisation of diffracted light, by M. Rethy.—On 
_ changes produced in the spark and brush phenomena by coverings 

of the electrodes, by W. Holtz.—On atmospheric refraction of 
_ sound rays, by A. Kneser.—Double-acting mereury-pump with- 

out cock, by F. Neesen.—Alteration of Riidorffs absorption- 
_hydrometer, by the same.—Reply to a note by O. E. Meyer, by 
1. Boltzmann.—Remarks on U. Diihring’s paper on the law of 
_ corresponding boiling temperatures, by A. Winkelmann. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Zoological Society, December 14.—Prof. W. H. Fowler, 
LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. Sclater exhibited 
and made remarks ona skin of a brown female of Pauxis galeata, 
formerly living in the aviary of the late Mr. G. Dawson Kowley, 
_ F.Z.S.—Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., exhibited and made remarks 
on a skin of a new species of Aiyzchocyon from Eastern Africa, 
| discovered by Dr. Kirk.—Prof. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., read a 
_ paper on the application of the laws of evolution to the arrange- 
| ment of the Vertebrata, and more particularly of the Mammalia. 
—Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., read a paper on 
the anatomy of Ferussacia gronoviana, Risso, from Mentone, 
pointing out its general relationship with Zovea ‘ornatellina, 
‘Lowe, of Madeira, and with Ferussacia follicula, Gronovy., froin 
Algiers.—Mr. Arthur G. Butler read a paper on a second col- 
lection of Lepidoptera made in Formosa by Mr. H. E. Hobson. 
‘Thirty-three new species were found in this collection.—Mr. 
Oldfield Thomas, F.Z.S., read a paper containing the descrip- 
tion of a new species of Rezthrodox, obtained in Venezuela by 
the Jate Mr. D. Dyson, which was described as Reithrodon 
alstont.—Dr. A. Giinther read a paper containing notes onsome 
rare reptiles and batrachians now or lately living in the Society’s 
Gardens. 


_ Physical Society, December 11.—Prof. W. G. Adams in 
the chair.—New Members: Mr. W. R. Brown, Mr. T. Might- 
son, C.E.—Lieut. L. Darwin read a paper on the rate of loss 
of light from phosphorescent substances. His experiments were 
/ made at Chatham on Balmain’s luminous paint, by comparing 
the intensity of the phosphorescent light with the light of a 
‘sun-burner ; the luminous surface being kept cool by placing 
ice and water near, as a slight increase of temperature in the 
surface considerably increases the quantity of light given off in 
_acertain space of time. The supply of light was communicated 
‘to the paint from a mirror reflecting sunlight. A table and a 
curve exhibited to the meeting showed the rate of loss found by 
Lieut. Darwin. It is independent of the original intensity of 
of the illumination. According to the curve the light diminishes 


. 


very nearly in proportion to the square of the intensity of the 
light. Ina report on the use of Balmain’s paint in mines, it 
had been stated that the phosphorescence became brighter a few 
minutes after exposure in the dark ; but the curve showed this 
to be an error, due probably to the fact that the eye becomes 
more sensitive to light after being a few minutes in the dark. 
Mr. Pearsall emphasised the advantages of such a light in fiery 
mines. Prof. Guthrie inquired if the phosphorescent power 
grew weaker by time, and Lieut. Darwininstanced a specimen 
eighty years old to thecontrary ; but Dr. W. Crookes stated that 
these luminous substances give off sulphuretted hydrogen in damp 
air and deteriorate. If sealed ina vacuum they would not. Dr, 
Crookes remarked that in Balmain’s patent it was stated that the 
phosphorescence died out sooner when exposed to a strong light 
fora short time than to a weak light for alonger time ; but Lieut, 
Darwin thought this was explained by the slow decrease in the 
lower part of the curve when the phosphorescence became faint, 
Mr. R, J. Lecky mentioned that Evelyn in his Diary (1650) 
describes a phosphorescent powder as ‘‘ bottling up” sunlight. 
Dr, Coffin inquired if short exposure to strong light was equiva- 
lent to long exposure to feeble light. Lieut. Darwin thought 
not.—Dr. C, R. Alder Wright read_a full paper on the deter- 
mination of chemical affinity in terms of electromotive force, 
He considered first the value of the B.A. unit of resistance, 
which from different experimenters might be taken as really 
1005 earth quadrants per second, or not more than half per cent, 
out. Clark’s element when carefully prepared was practically 
correct at 1°457 volts, and it kept constant for three or four 
months after bcing made, but deteriorated thenceforth some 3 
per cent. in about two years. The deterioration was assisted by 
air, which could not be well excluded by the paraffin cork, as it 
cracked. If sealed in a Sprengel vacuum the element lasted 
better. Joule’s mechanical equivalent of heat (7) he estimated 
at 42 X 10°, or not over I per cent. greater than Joule’s water 
value. The chief result of Dr. Wright’s researches was the 
conclusion that the action of a current in electrolysis is to 
decompose the electrolyte into ‘‘ nascent” products which evolve 
heat in changing into ordinary products of electrolysis. These 
nascent products may be the ultimate atoms composing the 
molecules of the ordinary products, and the heat is given 
out in these atoms coming together to produce molecules, 
say of oxygen and hydrogen in the case of water, A 
number of deductions from this theorem are verified by experi- 
ment. One of these is that no gas battery can give a higher 
E.M.F. than 1°5 volts. A result, not before published, is 
that the E.M.F. of a Daniell cell is a function of the current 
and is a maximum when the current jis indefinitely small. The 
variation may amount to 10 degrees, Therefore all methods of 
determining resistance by means of two currents of different 
strength are inaccurate. Dr. Wright’s experiments also verified 
Faraday’s law that conduction in an electrolyte is always accom- 
panied by electrolysis. Prof. Adams inquired if Dr. Wright 
had seen the letter of Prof. Rowland’s assistant to the effect that 
Dr. Wright’s former estimate of the ohm was on the wrong side 
of unity. He had been too busy to see it. Prof. Foster thought 
that the variation of E.M.F. in a cell with the current was to be 
expected, and was probably due to the slowness of diffusion. Dr. 
Wright thought diffusion would account. for it. Dr. Lodge 
said that there was no way of measuring the resistance of a cell 
except by employing two currents of different strength, and 
therefore it was necessary to know the law of variation of 
E.M.F, with current strength. Dr. Wright stated that he had 
found two methods of proceeding with currents of the same 
strength. With regard to the deduction of Dr. Wright that no 
current passes without producing electrolysis, Mr. Walenn in- 
quired if the ordinary law of solution held when there was no evolu- 
tion of hydrogen, and was answered in the affirmative.—Prof, 
Guthrie cited the experiments of Mr. C. V. Boys and himself on the 
conductivity of liquids as an instance of a current passing with- 
out electrolysis, or if there was decomposition it was followed 
by instant recomposition. Dr. Wright thought there must be 
electrolysis in Dr. Guthrie’s experiments (which were conducted 
by rotating a glass vessel filled with the liquid between the 
poles of a magnet, after Arago’s experiment), because some two 
parts of the rotating vessel would be at different potentials, and 
a current would be set up in the liquid.—The Society then 
adjourned till after Christmas, 


Paris 
_ Academy of Sciences, December 13.—M, Edm. Becquerel 
in the chair.—The following papers were read:—Solid and 


1838 


NATURE 


[Dec. 23, 1880 


liquid products which continued issuing in April, 1880, from a 
crater of Dominica (English Antilles), by -M. Daubree. The 
lake of boiling water which filled the crater in January had 
shrunk to a boiling spring, the dark liquid from which joined a 
river. The weight of solid matter is nearly half the liquid, 
and mainly consists of silica and alumina; there is also iron 
oxide, with carbonate of lime, &c., Chloride of potassium 
abounds in the water.—Order of appearance of the spikelets in 
the ear of Lolium, by M. Trécul.—On the orbit described by a 
material point which is attracted by a spheroid, by M. Gylden, 
—M. Abria was elected Correspondent in Physics in place of 
M. Lisssajous.—Application of the theory of germs to parasitic 
champignons on plants, and especially to diseases of the vine, 
by M. Cornu. In some cases the diseased leaves may be 
variously utilised, after such treatment as will prevent the spores 
being disseminated when their time of vegetation comes, Other 
kinds of parasites do not allow of the leaves being used as food 
for cattle, compost, or litter. Their dormant spores are not 
killed by digestion or putrefaction of tissues; after prolonged 
burial they may produce new germs. The débris in that case 
should be burnt. Oidium and anthracnose exemplify the former ; 
peronospora the latter.—On the discovery of the winter egg in the 
Eastern Pyrenees, by M. Campana. He found three in the end of 
September.—On a process of preparation of sulphide of carbon 
in the solid state for treatment of phylloxerised vines, by M. 
Lafaurie. He solidifies the sulphide by making an emulsion of 
it with a solution of algze (Japanese moss does very well). The 
proportion of sulphide may be varied up to 80 per cent. It 
evaporates very slowly, so that vapours can be thus maintained 
along time about the roots.—Swift’s comet (e 1880), by MM. 
Schulhof and Bossert.—Influence of the slope of refringence on 
astronomical refraction, by M. Glasenapp. By this term he 
denotes the effect of atmospheric layers of equal density not 
being generally distributed in concentric surfaces on the earth’s 
surface (as they are supposed to be in all theories of astronomical 
refraction). He proposes to investigate the influence of this 
phenomenon and its law of variation; to find whether it have an 
annual period, and if so, of what nature; to study the influence 
ofthis on the annual parallax of fixed stars and their aberration ; 
also to study lateral refraction.—On the contact of conics and 
surfaces, by M. Darboux.—On a class of linear differential 
equations, by M. Appell.—On the integration of equations with 
partial derivatives of the first order, by M, Collet. —On linear 
differential equations of the second order, by M. Mittag-Leffler. 
—Reclamation of priority on the subject of the law of corre- 
sponding boiling temperatures, by M. Dihring.—On radio- 
phony (second note), by M. Mercadier. The sounds may be 
got from oxyhydrogen lamps and gas lamps without concen- 
trating lenses, if the lamps be brought very near the (glass) 
interrupting wheel, and the rays limited by a diaphragm with 
aperture. A copper disc (0'002 m, thick) was placed near the 
wheel, and heated on the side opposite to that of the wheel with 
an oxyhydrogen blowpipe. Sounds were heard when the disk 
still remained invisible in the dark (though louder when the disk 
was raised to a dark or bright red),—On new and economic 
methods of producing intermittent luminous signals, by M. 
Mercadier. Instead of using a diaphragm with a constant 
source of light, he varies the source ; ¢.g. by introducing oxygen 
suddenly into a low flame. Thisis done by pressing a key, and so 
releasing from pressure a tube conveying the oxygen.—On the 
absorption-spectrum of ozone, by M. Chappuis. Eleven dark 
bands are observed in the visible spectrum, and several corre- 
spond with telluric bands of the solar spectrum.—Action of 
hydrochloric acid on metallic chlorides, by M, Ditte.—Action of 
hydrofluoric acid on bichromate of ammonia, by M. Varenne.— 
On chlorised derivatives of strychnine, by MM. Richet and 
Bouchardat. They have isolated three such compounds, retain- 
ing in different degrees the chemical properties of strychnine.— 
On the cause of spontaneous alteration of the raw sugar of cane, 
by M. Gayon. He gives reasons for thinking this process a true 
fermentation.—On the variations of luminous sensibility accord- 
ing to the extent of the retinal parts excited, by M. Charpentier. 
One region, seventeen to eighteen hundredths of a millimetre in 
diameter, and corresponding to the fovea centralis, requires a 
determinate quantity of light, independent of the extent of sur- 
face, to excite it. In other parts the minimum illumination is 
proportional to the surface.—Anatomic researches on Onchi- 
dium, Cuv. (Oncidiella celtica, Gray), by M. Joyeux Laffine. 
—Serpentines of Corsica; their age and origin, by M. 
Dieulafait, M, Hebert dissented from some of the results in 
this paper. 


| 


VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, December 16.—Herr vy. 
Burg in the chair.—Table of the most important relations of 
astronomy and geography, by Herr Letoschek,.—Further_re- 
searches on identity of the comets 1869 III. and 1880 ¢, by Herr 
Zelbr and Dr. Hepperger.—On leuceemia, by Herr Ludwig.— 
Fourth report of the Prehistoric Commission, containing (1) 
Szombathy on this year’s prehistoric investigations and excava- 
tions at Kiritein and Mokrau in Moravia; (2) Luschau on several 
old burial-places in Bosnia and Dalmatia; (3) Heger on skeleton 
graves of Tlonic, grave-mounds at Tschemin (Bohemia) and at 
Wassering in Lower Austria, and tumuli at Mars in Hungary.— 


Theoretical researches on the displacements of the radiation-. 


points of dissolved meteor-streams, by Herr y. Riessl.—Appli- 
cation of hyposulphate of soda to separation of copper from 
cadmium, by Herr Vortmann.—Some experiments on an earth- 
magnetic inductor, by Herr Stefan. 


BERLIN 

Geographical Society, December 4.—Dr. Nachtigal in the 
chair.—It was stated infer alia that Herr Flegel, who is busy in 
the Niger region, had gone from Lukodja to the King of Nupe 
or Nife, seeking letters of introduction to the rulers of the 
Haussa States, so as to make a safe journey up the Niger, espe- 
cially on the stretch between Tawa and Sai. He had a friendly 
reception, and wrote in good hopes (October 10). From Sai he 
means to go to Sokoto, the chief town of the Haussa States, and 
there to get letters for the ruler of Adamaua. A large collection 
of ethnological objects of the Niger region is looked for in 
Berlin. Rumours of the death of Herr Hildebrandt in Mada- 
gascar prove false. A letter from him dated Krabeé in Bessileo 
(Central Madagascar), September 2, 1880, states that he had 
made a journey, rich in results, from the West Coast to the 
Central Plateau ; but his health broke down, when he was two 
hours’ journey from the capital, to which however he was shortly 
brought by Herr Cousins and tended for a time in the Norwegian 
mission-house till able in July to visit the hot springs of Sirale 
(for health). He discovered in the moor at Siralé the skeleton 
of an extinct species of hippopotamus.—Dr. Kiepert gave 
details of Mr. Doughty’s expeditions in Central Arabia, which 
have cleared up much of the physical geography of that region. 
—Dr. Holub spoke on the Maruthameich in southern interior 
Africa, north of the lower, and about the middle course of the 
Zambesi. 


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SocieTizs AND ACADEMIES 


oie + ef) sia te loos 


NATURE 


189 


THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1880 


PERUVIAN BARK 


Peruvian Bark; a Popular Account of the Introduction 
of Chinchona Cultivation into British India. By 
Clements R. Markham, C.B., F.R.S. 1860-1880. 
(London: John Murray, 1880.) 

a | Die enterprise undertaken by me in 1859 of intro- 

ducing the cultivation of Peruvian bark trees into 

British India and Ceylon is now an assured success.” 
With these words Mr. Markham begins his preface, and 
a perusal of the convenient history he has put together of 
the gradual steps by which during the past twenty years 
this success has been reached, enables us to fully share 
the satisfaction with which they must have been written. 
Not merely has a cheap supply of febrifuge alkaloids 
been brought within reach of the fever-haunted population 
of India, but a new and highly-profitable industry has 
been opened to the planters of our tropical colonies, and 
the yield of an inestimable drug placed beyond risk of 
exhaustion. 

Enthusiasm is in most enterprises essential to success. 
If a certain tinge of impracticability often accompanies it 
a moderate experience of human nature disposes us to 
regard this with a good deal of toleration. We may as 
well confess at once therefore that the pleasure with which 
we have studied Mr. Markham’s pages would have been 
greater but for his insistance throughout on two grievances, 
in neither of which do we find ourselves in any way 
persuaded by his advocacy. One of these—the other is 
more serious, and must be adverted to further on—is 
irritating in inverse proportion to its importance. The 
names of genera employed in systematic botany are 
Latinised forms, very arbitrary, and often, it must be 
allowed, unscholarly in their construction. But they are 
symbols or dockets under which scientific information 
can be arranged. If there is one thing about which 
botanists, of whatever nationality, are agreed, it is that the 
docket, having once been promulgated and brought into 
use, shall not be meddled with. It may be abolished or 
merged in some other, but being a mere symbol it cannot 
be tampered with without disturbing all kinds of mechani- 
cal aids to study, such as indexes and catalogues, and so 
adding to the worry of life. From a literary point of 
view the correction of Czzchona into Chinchona may be 
desirable, but the trouble of having two spellings in circu- 
lation is too great a price to pay for the mere satisfaction 
of literary propriety. It cannot be said therefore that 
this is merely a literary question like such spellings as 
those of diocess and chymistry affected by the Z7mes, 
while from a technical point of view it has been already 
discussed and conclusively decided against Mr. Markham 
in the pages of this journal. : 

The genus Czachona—as we must still beg leave to call 
it—includes all the plants at present known to yield 
quinine and allied alkaloids. It has rather more than 
thirty species,,some of which however are medicinally 
valueless, while the rest vary individually in the amount 
and character of the alkaloids they yield. The native 
habitat of the genus is very restricted; it is only found 
on the Andes between 10° N, and 19° S. lat., and between 

VOL. xx111.—No. 583 


| 2500 and 9ooo feet of elevation. 


Besides this the several 
species are closely limited to particular portions of the 
general area, 

The native inhabitants seem to have set little store on 
the febrifugal properties of the cinchonas, and indeed 
to have been little aware of them except in the neigh- 
bourhood of Loxa, where a Jesuit was cured in 1600 of a 
fever at Malacotas by Peruvian bark, and to this day the 
local prejudice against its use is very strong. In 1638, 
however, the Countess of Chinchon, wife of the Viceroy 
of Peru, was cured of intermittent fever by bark sent by 
the Corregidor of Loxa. The remedy, whose reputation 
was now established, was carried by her to Spain in 1640, 
and became known as Pulvis comitisse. In 1670 it was 
sent to Rome by the Jesuits and distributed to members 
of that order throughout Europe. Hence it came to be 
called Jesuit’s bark, and it is interesting to find that its 
merits became accordingly a party question between 
Protestants and Catholics. 

For more than a century (till 1776) the only bark met 
with in commerce was that brought from the neighbour- 
hood of Loxa. This was called Quinquina, from the 
Indian name guina-guina, guina meaning bark, and the 
reduplication the possession of medicinal properties. 
The plant producing the bark was described by Linnzus 
under the name of Czxchona officinalis, to be rechristened 
afterwards by Humboldt and Bonpland Cizchona conda- 
minea, a change correctly rejected by Mr. Markham, 
following Sir Joseph Hooker, and, be it remarked, on 
precisely the same grounds as those on which the rechris- 
tening of the genus as C/zvchona must also be rejected. 

As early as 1735 Ulloa represented to the Spanish 
Government that the Loxa forests could not long survive 
the reckless treatment to which even then they were sub- 
jected. And this was in spite of the intelligent efforts of 
the Jesuits, who endeavoured to enforce replanting as a 
religious duty. The Loxa bark, eventually distinguished 
as Crown bark from being reserved, when other kinds 
became known, for use in the Royal Pharmacy at Madrid, 
is represented in old collections of Materia Medica, such 
as that of the College of Physicians, by massive fragments 
which must have been detached from very old trees. Mr. 
Markham tells us that it is now only found in commerce 
in the minutest quills. As the Loxa bark became scarce 
the search after other supplies of cinchona bark was 
stimulated. The botanical expedition of Ruiz and Pavon 
sent by the Spanish Government in 1777 resulted in the 
discovery of seven species of Cimchona, yielding gre 
bark, near Huanuco in Northern Peru. Mutis, another 
Spanish botanist, believed that he first detected a Czichona 
in Columbia in 1772, though a resident in Bogota chal-- 
lenged his claim to priority. 

The well-known “red bark” of the slopes of Chimborazo 
seems to have been known early in the last century, and 
later to have found its way into European markets, though 
it was not till 1857 that the plant yielding it was clearly 
identified by Dr. Klotzsch, The yellow or Calisaya barks 
of Bolivia, first discovered by Haerke in 1776, did not 
become of commercial importance till 1820, when quinine, 
the most important active principle of Peruvian bark 
having been isolated by the French chemists, Pelletier 
and Caventou, yellow bark was recognised as richer in it 
than any other kind, 

K 


190 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 30, 1885 


It is not necessary to follow in detail the interesting | 


account given by Mr. Markham of the recklessness with 
which the natural supplies of Cinchona bark were drawn 
upon. 
upon the South American forests has for at least forty 
years occupied the attention of scientific men in Europe. 
Royle, in 1839, urged the introduction of Cinchonas 
into India, and pointed out the Nilgiri Hills as a suitable 
locality. The Dutch botanists had been no less urgent 
that the experiment should be madein Java, and Hasskarl 
was commissioned to proceed to Peru in 1852 to obtain 
seeds. In this he succeeded, but the bulk of the seeds 
eventually proved to belong to a species worthless medi- 
cinally, which was afterwards named C. Pahudiana. He 
also obtained, by the aid of a Bolivian named Henriquez, 
400 plants of the yellow bark, C. Calisaya, only two of 
which unfortunately survived in Java. The mishaps of 
the Dutch enterprise cannot be followed here, instructive 
as they are to any one interested in the cultivation. A 
happy accident, to be presently alluded to, was a kind and 
well-deserved turn of fortune in its favour, and a greater 
measure of success than could ever have been hoped for 
now seems assured to it. 

The Government of India in 1852 first proposed the 
introduction of cinchona into that country, and several 
abortive attempts to effect it were made with the aid 
of the Foreign Office, but without success. In 1859 
Mr. Markham was officially employed by the present 
Lord Derby, who was then Secretary of State for India, 
to undertake a mission to South America for the purpose. 
His previous travels in the Cinchona region, though for 
ethnological and not for botanical inquiry, and his know- 
ledge of the Spanish and Quichua languages singularly 
fitted him for the task. The plan laid down by him was 
extremely comprehensive, and has at last been fully carried 
out, or nearly so. It was nothing less than the introduc- 
tion into India of all the species of Czuchona yielding 
bark of known commiercial value. This plan was adopted 
as it was @ gvioré uncertain which kinds would turn out 
best adapted for Indian cultivation, and it was desirable 
that all should be tried ; it involved no less than five 
distinct expeditions to the different districts of the Andes 
already mentioned. 

Mr. Markham visited himself in 1860 the yellow bark 
region in Southern Peru and Bolivia, accompanied by a 
young gardener named John Weir, recommended by Messrs. 
Veitch. The plants collected reached England in fifteen 
Wardian cases, but the heat of the Red Sea was fatal to 
them and they all eventually died. A supply of seed which 
Mr. Markham had arranged for at Caravaya arrived in 
India in 1865 and germinated satisfactorily. 

Mr. Pritchett, who had travelled in the Huanuco 
district, was employed to make a collection of the grey 
bark plants, and to these also the Red Sea was fatal, but 
the loss again was retrieved by the safe transmission to 
India of seed which grew well. The red bark region was 
visited, at the suggestion of Sir William Hooker, by the 
well-known botanical traveller, Dr. Spruce, who was 
residing in South America at the time, and he was ac- 
companied by Robert Cross, a Scotch gardener, recom- 
ménded by the Kew authorities. The plants collected 
by Dr. Spruce were more fortunate, and reached India 
in good condition in 1861 under Mr. Cross’s charge. 


The inconvenience of a precarious dependence 


This skilful collector then returned to South America and 
obtained the seed of the crown bark from the Loxa 
forests, which reached India in 1862 and germinated 
abundantly. Before returning to Europe he visited the 
Columbian forests in 1863 and secured seed of Pitayo 
bark (C. Pitayenszs), which however had lost its vitality 
before it arrived in India. He was therefore sent again 
in 1868, and this time secured both plants and seeds, 
which were transmitted to India in a living state. The 
only remaining kinds of importance which had not been 
introduced into India were the Calisaya de Santa Fé; 
yielding soft Columbian bark, and Cinchona cordifolia, 
yielding hard Carthagena bark’; to procure these Mr. 
Cross was despatched on another mission, from which he 
returned in 1878, bringing cuttings of both kinds, and 
these were successfully propagated at Kew, which had 
indeed in every case been made the depdt for the receipt 
of the successive consignments and their despatch to 
India. The Carthagena bark is now well established in 
India, Jamaica, and it is hoped in Ceylon. But the fate 
of the Calisaya de Santa Fé is still doubtful, as one 
consignment succumbed to the heat of the Red Sea, 
which is so great an obstacle to the transport of plants, 
intolerant of great heat, and no news as to the second 
instalment taken out in charge of Mr. Cross has yet 
reached this country. 

We must but very briefly hurry over the interesting 
pages in which Mr. Markham describes what has been 
done in India. Red bark has everywhere taken the lead. 
Next to this, in the Nilgiris, crown bark has succeeded 
best; the other kinds have made but little progress. 
Unfortunately little care seems of late to have been taken 
in Southern India to keep the different kinds distinct, 
and as the species hybridise very freely it is not easy 
to say what some of the plants actually in cultivation 
precisely are. In the Himalayas, however, besides red 
and crown bark-plants, C. Cadisaya (yellow bark) and 
C. micrantha (one of the species yielding grey bark) also 
do well. 

The share taken by Kew in this important enterprise 
enabled the advantages secured by the Indian Government 
to be extended to other tropical possessions in the Empire. 
Sir William Hooker was allowed to transmit a share of 
the seeds and plants to Ceylon, Jamaica, Trinidad, 
Mauritius, and St. Helena. In the three latter islands 
the cultivation has made but little progress ; in the first 
it is now one of the staple resources of the planters ; 
while in Jamaica the crown and red bark bring in an 
annual revenue to the Government, which leaves an 
ample surplus after paying the whole expenses of the 
botanical department. 

One of the most singular incidents in the whole story has 
still to be told. Mr. Charles Ledger, who had long resided 
in South America, hearing of Mr. Markham’s enterprise, 
employed a native servant, Manuel Mamani, to collect seed 
of the best Calisaya or yellow bark tree. Four years elapsed 
before he succeeded, as each year the blossom of the trees 
was destroyed by frost. These seeds were transmitted to 
London to the care of Mr. Ledger’s brother, and it is 
believed were offered to the Indian Government, who 
refused to purchase them. Half was eventually sold to 
the Dutch Government and half to Mr. Money, a planter 
on the Nilgiris. This fortunate purchase has put quite a 


Dec. 30, 1880} 


NATURE 


1g 


new face upon the cultivation in Java. The bark of some 
of the trees has yielded as much as 1o per cent. of 
quinine; and the news of this remarkable result has 
produced much the same effect on Cinchona planters in 
Ceylon and Southern India as the discovery of a gold-field 
on the inhabilants of an Australian city. The Java 
officials have however behaved with singular liberality in 
the matter, and in the course of a few years it cannot be 
doubted that Ceylon will be abundantly supplied with this 
valuable kind, which, there seems reason to think, may 
prove to be a distinct species. Part of the seed sent in 
the first instance to the Nilgiris seems to have found its 
way to Sikkim, and the Government plantations there are 
believed to be in possession of a strain of Calisaya, little 
if at all inferior to that possessed by the Dutch. 

The Government of Bengal have effected an enormous 
saving by using, in hospitals and dispensaries, instead of 
quinine imported from Europe, the febrifuge manufactured 
at the Sikkim plantations. The Government estimated 
that in consequence, by the end of 1879, “the plantations 
will have cleared off the entire capital that has been 
invested in them.” 

And this leads us to what is really the painful feature 
in Mr. Markham’s book. He coinplains in repeated and 
in bitter terms of the want of justice which has been 
shown to those whom he employed in the business of 
collecting. “Those who did the work have not received 
fair recompense for most valuable services.’’ It is rather 
singular to find that he adduces in support of this state- 
ment the case of Mr. Ledger, who was not even in 
any way commissioned to do what he did. But the 
remuneration which his actual agents received was the 
ground of no complaint on their part, and was in point of 
fact liberal compared with that which is given to the 
collectors who are constantly employed by the great 
nurserymen, and who too often lose their lives in their 
arduous pursuits without the satisfaction of feeling that 
they are doing so in an enterprise like this of lasting 
utility. But we fear that if Mr. Markham’s assistants 
have reason to complain the blame must, on his own 
showing, be laid at his own door. He tells us (p. 271): 
“The system I adopted was... to include very slight 
remuneration in the original agreements. Thus the loss 
to Government would be insignificant uf the work was not 
executed satisfactorily. If, on the other hand, the arduous 
tasks were successfully performed . . . I anticipated no 
difficulty in obtaining fitting recognition for such dis- 
tinguished services.” We leave our readers to judge of 
the probability of such a scheme answering Mr. Mark- 
ham’s expectations. We may go further, and ask how 
the claims would have stood if, notwithstanding all the 
pains that were taken, the cultivation of Cinchonas had 
fared in India—as might even have happened—no better 
than it at first did in Java. 

But there are many other things pleasanter than this 
which we should like to touch upon if this review had not 
already run to an inordinate length. So many English- 
men are now in one way or other interested in colonial 
industries that it will be strange if this interesting book 
does not find as many readers as it deserves. Besides a 
complete history of the Cinchona enterprise in the Old 
World, it gives, in an appendix, accounts of some other 
South American vegetable products, notably india-rubber. 


The steps taken at Mr. Markham’s instance for the 
introduction into India of the most important rubber- 
yielding plants of the New World have been from time to 
time recorded in our pages. We have only to repair one 
inadvertent omission on Mr. Markham’s part, and point 
out that the transmission of the Para rubber plant to 
India was secured by the exertions of Mr. Wickham, as 
recorded in the Kew Report for 1876, p. 8. 


PRACTICAL BLOWPIPE ASSAYING 
Practical Blowpife Assaying. By George Attwood. 
With Seventy-four Woodcuts, (London: Sampson 
Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1880.) 
HIS book shows many signs of carelessness on the 
part of the author. At the very outset, in the 
Introduction, we meet with strange statements. Mr. 
Attwood divides the elements into those which are of 
commercial value and those which are of no commercial 
value. In the latter class we find Uranium and Tungsten; 
surely the author does not intend to deny the value of 
pitchblende and wolfram. He classifies zirconium among 
the non-metallic elements. 

The first part of the work describes the reagents and 
apparatus ; the second, we are told, contains the modes 
of determining any one of the sixty-four well-recognised 
elements, and in the third part we have the methods 
adopted by the author for making quantitative assays by 
the blowpipe. Finally, Part IV. contains some tables 
showing the English and American values of gold ac- 
cording to its fineness, and the value of gold coins in the 
United States. 

The apparatus employed is much the same as that 
recommended by Plattner. Like Neumann, Mr. Attwood 
very wisely uses riders with his balance instead of the 
very small weights supplied by some of the other Freiberg 
opticians; but the balance would be improved by the 
addition of a movable arm for shifting these riders. 
The steelyard devised by the author will probably be of 
use to explorers. From practical experience with the 
batea I can fully endorse all that is said in its favour, 
but why are the merits of the iron pan ignored? It 
has the advantage that it will stand rougher usage than 
the batea. Again, for washing a sample of tin ore nothing 
will beat the Cornish vanning shovel. 

I regret to see no mention of the useful little pastilles 
and crucibles made out of charcoal powder, proposed by 
Griffin thirty or forty years ago and‘adopted by Plattner. 
Col. Ross’s aluminium plate for sublimates seems also to 
have escaped Mr. Attwood’s notice. 

With reference to the list of reagents I must remark 
that the author does not name all the reagents which his 
tests require, whilst others are inserted which he does 
not appear to put to any use. I should be glad to know ~ 
what he means by inserting ‘‘ nitrous acid’’ among his 
reagents. This is not a misprint for “ nitric acid,” because 
that acid has been already named. 

The plan of the second part of the work is not one 
which I should recommend. It simply contains a list of 
tests for the various elements, but gives no systematic 
scheme for making the examination of an unknown 
substance. I fear that the “direct” method advocated 
by Mr. Attwood will often prove a very tedious one. 
Many of the tests themselves are not so complete as they 


192 


NA TD ORL 


[ Dec. 30, 1880 


ought to be. In describing the tests for barium it is said 
that the bead ‘‘can be flamed,’’ but no explanation is 
given of the process of flaming. The capital test for 
bismuth with potassium iodide and sulphur is entirely 
ignored. 

I now come to the third part, which treats of quanti- 
tative assays. Mr. Attwood’s plan of making a check 
assay in every case with a small quantity of the pure 
metal is certainly calculated to give the operator con- 
fidence in his results. The author adopts 14 grain as the 
amount of ore to be taken for an assay. Ithinkhe would 
have done better to have followed Plattner and used the 
French weights, because there is less chance of making 
errors where each milligramme means I per cent. 

For the silver assay Mr. Attwood employs pieces of 
ordinary charcoal instead of the far more convenient and 
portable charcoal crucibles designed by Plattner. He also 
describes a crucible assay for silver ores, which does not 
appear to possess any advantage over Plattner’s scorifica- 
tion method. 

There is one most unfortunate error in the book to 
which I feel bound to call attention. Mr. Attwood 
gives some tables for calculating the number of ounces 
of gold or silver per ton from the results of assays of 14 
grain of the ore. In an unlucky moment he forgot that 
gold and silver are weighed by voy weight, and calculated 
his tables for avotydupois ounces. The consequence is 
that these tables are not only valueless, but also highly 
misleading. Let us take one case asan example. Suppose 
that 1 grain of ore had yielded o’or grain of fine metal. 
We look down the table (p. 117), and find, according to 
Mr. Attwood, that the yield would be 238'93 oz. per ton ; 
in reality the yield should be 217°77 oz. 

Some neat little retorts have been designed by the 
author for distilling ores of mercury and amalgam, but he 
does not mention Kiistel’s assay. 

On coming to the tin assay we have the peculiar state- 
ment that silica may be separated from tin ore by boiling 
t with hydrochloric acid. ‘‘The assay being finely 
powdered, the silica is dissolved.” “The dissolved silica 
is decanted off’’ (p. 158). Cornish mine agents will be 
surprised when they are told that, in order to obtain 
correct results, it is necessary to wash or van as much as 
5 lbs. of an ordinary tin ore (p. 159). 

« Under the head of nickel no mention is made of the 
valuable ores from New Caledonia. 

Small mistakes are numerous. The size of a box 
is said to be “twelve inches square” (p. 3); we note 
also: “a most useful addenda” (p. 24); “chloride of 
ammonia” (p. 33); “manganzte” instead of manganate 
(p. 53), and permanganate (p. 54). The term “raw iron” 
is used frequently instead of “ pig iron,’’ and shows that 
the author has copied Cornwall’s translation blindly, 
Coal, anthracite, and graphite are said to “volatilise” 
when heated in the platinum spoon (p. 82). Sieves are 
made with 2000 holes per “linear” inch (pp. 100 and 
137). In the description of cupellation (p. 106) we read : 
“The lead parts with portions of its oxygen to the copper 
and other base metals.’’ 

In conclusion I think that the value of the book would 
be increased if a list of evvata et corrigenda were inserted, 
correcting some of the errors which, I regret to say, 
impair its general usefulness. C. Lr NEVE FOSTER 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
Uber die von den Trichopterenlaryven der Provinz Santa 

Catharina verfertigen Gehduse. Von Dr. Fritz Miiller. 

Archivos de Museu national, Vol. iii. pp. 99-134, and 

209-214. Rio de Janeiro, 1880. (Aus dem Portu- 

gieischen tibersetzt von dem Bruder des Verfassers, Dr. 

Hermann Miiller in Lippstadt.) 

DR. Fritz MULLER has for some years been engaged 
upon an investigation of the habits of the Caddis-flies of 
Santa Catharina, and has shown extraordinary skill in 
breeding these insects, a matter always difficult, and 
especially in the case of those that inhabit running water. 
The results of his researches were foreshadowed in various 
notes published in the Zoologischer Anzeiger and in. the 
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 
for 1879. But it was well known that the extended infor- 
mation and figures would be given in the Rio de Janeiro 
Archivos. As this publication is somewhat difficult to 
obtain, and as most of us are not familiar with Portu- 
guese, Dr. Hermann Miller has conferred a great 
boon by publishing a translation of the paper (accom- 
panied by the two folded plates) in the Zezéschrift 
fir wissenschaftliche Zoologie for the present year 
(pp. 47-87, plates iv. and v.). It is needless to state that 
the details are of the greatest interest, and we have 
here the most important contribution to the natural his- 
tory of Zyéchoptera that has appeared since the publica- 
tion of Pictet’s “ Recherches”’ on the species of Geneva, 
and worked out in a far superior manner. We cannot 
here even allude to most of the many marvels of insect- 
architecture and habits that Dr. Fritz Miiller has revealed. 
Some of the most interesting are the numerous forms of 
Helicopsyche, which build little sand-cases so like shells 
that they have been described as such; those Dentalium- 
like cases, originally noticed by Aug. St. Hilaire as 
Grumicha, which name our author retains; those in- 
stances of parasitism (or worse) in which a larva of one 
species dispossesses that of another of its house and con- 
verts it to its own purposes ; those very numerous forms 
of Hydroptilide, the most minute of all 77échoptera, with 
cases of the most varied and wonderful structure ; above 
all, that most interesting fact that the rain-water which 
collects at the bases of the leaves of some Bromeliace 
has a special fauna of its own, including at least one 
Caddis-worm. The descriptions of these and many 
others will be read with delight by every biological stu- 
dent ; and we hope Dr. Miiller will follow up the paper 
by records of further discoveries, for here, as in all his 
works, the evidences of superior powers of observation 
strike one on every page. 

The plates are excellent, and aid much in a realisation 
of the descriptive portion. Dr. Miiller’s artistic powers 
are so marked that we cannot but regret he has not fur- 
nished details of the form and structure of the perfect 
insects also, which would have greatly aided systematists ; 
in fact the perfect insects are only alluded to in a casual 
manner. 


Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America. Thirteen 
Original Narratives from the Collection of Hakluyt, 
Selected and Edited, with Historical Notices, by E. J. 
Payne, M.A. (London: De La Rue and Co., 1880.) 

WE do not quite understand Mr. Payne’s reason for 

publishing this selection from Hakluyt’s classical collec- 

tion of voyages. The selection is, however, judicious, 
and cannot fail to be interesting, and at the same time 
instructive, to those who desire to become familiar with 
the first beginnings of English conquest in America. 

Mr. Payne’s familiarity with the subject of British coloni- 

sation, as exemplified in his excellent little “ History of 

European Colonies,’ specially qualifies him for making 

such a selection as the present. His brief Historical 

Introduction enables the reader to understand the special 

significance of the voyages contained in this volume. He 


Dec. 30, 1880] 


shows the various causes in operation at the time to 
instigate such voyages, causes mainly political and 
commercial. Other influences were however at work, 
not the least of which was “the total transformation 
which astronomy and geography had undergone ” during 
the sixteenth century. The narratives here given are 
those of Hawkins’s and Frobisher’s three voyages, Drake’ s 
voyages of 1577 and 1585, Gilbert’s voyage of 1583, 
Amadas and Barlow’s voyage, 1584; Cavendish’s first and 
last voyages, and Raleigh’s voyage to Guiana. Prefixed 
to each narrative is a short historical introduction. 


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 manuscripts. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that it 
as impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Black Sheep 


THE following extract of a letter from Mr. Sanderson of 
Chislehurst, who permits me to publish it, seems worth placing 
onrecord. Itrelates to the former frequent appearance ofspetted 
or black sheep in the Australian flocks, as long as animals thus 
coloured were of use to man, although they were never, as far 
as Mr. Sanderson knows, separately bred from, and certainly 
not in bis own case. On the other hand, as soon as coloured 
sheep ceased to be of use they were no longer allowed to grow 
up, and their numbers rapidly decrezsed, I have elsewhere 
assigned reasons for the belief that the occasional appearance of 
dark-colored or piebald sheep is due to reversion to the primeval 
colouring of the species. This tendency to reversion appears to 
be {most difficult quite to eradicate, and quickly to gain in 
strength if there is no selection. Mr. Sanderson writes :—‘‘ In 
the early days before fences were erected and when shepherds 
had charge of very large flocks (occasionally 4000 or 5000) it 
was important to have a few sheep ea-ily noticed amongst the 
rest ; and hence the value of a certain number of black or partly 
black sheep, so that coloured lambs were then carefully pre- 
served. It was easy to count ten or a dozen such sheep in a 
flock, and when one was missing it was pretty safe to conclude 
that a good many had strayed with it, so that the shepherd really 
kept count of his fleck by counting his speckled sheep. As 
fences were erected the flocks were made smaller, and the 
necessity for having these spotted sheep passed away. Their 
wool also being of small value the practice soon grew of killing 
them off as lambs, or so young that they had small chance of 
breeding, and it surprised me how at the end of my sheep- 
farming experience cf about eight years the percentage of 
coloured lambs produced was so much smaller than at the 
beginning. As the quantity of coloured wool from Australia 
seems to have much diminished, the above experience would 
appear to be general.” CHARLES DARWIN 


The Nature of the Chemical Elements 


Dr. ARMSTRONG’S article in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 141, has 
bronght to my mind some calculations I made more than a year 
ago to. test a theory I had long previously ent-rtained. Most of 
us who have paid much attention to the subject are agreed that 
the elements are capable, under exceptional circumstances, of 
profound chemical change. Mr. Lockyer is searching, with 
success as it appears, for contemporary evidence of this by ex- 
amining the condition of the solar surface. The other line of 
evidence is historical, and turns mainly on the classification of 
the numerical values of chemical symbols, It is of course only 
with the latter that 1 have to deal. 

The classifications proposed by Newlands and Mendelejeff are 
comprehensions of much similar preceding work. They appear 
to me to be faulty in two ways: (1) on account of the seriously 
large number of elements they wholly fail to include, and (2) 
because of the strong stress they lay upon arithmetical series 
of a rough fer sal/tum character. As I do not know of any real 
case of fer saltum chemical change, I do not think the ele- 
ments should be classified on such a basis. What is wanted 
is a system capable of including—with exactness and not 
mere approximation —the whole of the elementary num- 


WATORE — 


ee 


nh: 


bers; that system to be represented in the mathemati- 
cal symbols of ordinary chemical change, and therefore 
free from a fer saltum character. JI have to a great 
extent succeeded in finding such a system, and the results 
of testing it at many points are as follow :—1. There is pro- 
bably only one fundamental form of matter; and this, as has 
been previously supposed, yields our ordinary elements and many 
others by ordinary polymerisation, 2. Almost all the elementary 
numbers have been tried, and, with the exception of H and Cl, 
which are alittle troublesome, they fall into order very exactly. 
3. This order exhibits no discontinuity, and is similar to a case 
of ordinary chemical change. 4. There is clearly an upper limit 
to this order ; in other words, elementary numbers of more than 
a certain magnitude appear to be impossible. 

Sir B. C. Brodie’s method is really a classificatory one ; and 
I with others had been very desirous to read the Third Part of 
the Calculus, in which it was promised ampler play. It will be 
a matter for much regret if his premature death should have pre- 
vented this. But what he did publish was sound and sure: the 
first real symbols chemistry has yet enjoyed, and the only ones 
hitherto proposed whereby the process and the results of chemical 
change admit of unitary as well as kinetical representation. 

EDMUND J. MILLs 


Smokeless London 


As I hope soon to have an opportunity of reading a paper on 
this subject before a scientific audience I need not occupy your 
valuable space by replying to your correspondents of last week in 
detail. 1 may say however that the scheme has been carried out 
in practice at a gas-work to which I shall afterwards refer. 
When it was found that the apparatus for making gas on an 
extraction of six hours was insufficient for supplying the wants of 
the long winter evenings the distillation was stopped when gas 
had been removed to the extent of 5000 cubic feet per ton, The 
larger quantities obtained from the coal per unit of time and the 
superior illuminating power obtained per unit of volume tided 
over the difficulty and rendered the existing plant sufficient. 
No practical obstacles were discovered in discharging the 
retorts. I do not think the difference between an extrac- 
tion of 5000 and 3333 cubic feet per ton would make a 
material change in this respect. Mr. Mattieu Williams points 
out a much more serious obstruction in the plethoric indifference 
of the gas companies, In reply to E, Rk, F. I may say that the 
fuel resulting from a uniform extraction of 3333 cubic feet per 
ton is practically smokeless if it is taken hot from the retorts and 
immediately quenched with water. 

Westminster, December 27 W. D. Scorr-MONCRIEFF 


Colliery Explosions and Coal-Dust 


AccrrtinG Mr. Galloway’s view that in many mines the 
extent and destructiveness of colliery explosions are due to the 
distribution of coal-dust in the air, may I suggest the possibility 
of preventing the explosion from spreading beyond the sphere of 
the fire-damp by sprinkling the floors throughout, at certain 
regular intervals, with mineral oil? A shady road, with one 
such sprinkling, may be kept free from dust for several weeks 
during the summer, and the corridors of a mine, not being open 
to wind and rain, would of course remain wet for a longer period. 
A saucer filled with dust and treated with mineral oil will retain 
the oil for months even when exposed to sun and rain, The 
mixture of coal-dust and oil is quite uninflammable. The expert- 
ment may perhaps be worth trying in one of the drier coal-mines. 

December 27 R. RUSSELL 


Geological Climates 

Pror. DUNCAN is under the impression that the claim of 
Araucaria Cunninghami to have flourished at Bournemouth 
during the Eocene, rests on ‘‘a bit of a leafy part of a tree,” 
and that this bit is ‘‘squashed.” The foliage is however 
abundant there, occurring almost wherever vegetable remains 
are found, from the east of Bournemouth Pier to half a mile 
beyond Boscombe. In one place, where a bluff is literally full 
of it, the di:articulated branchlets are perfect, and not in the 
least degree compressed. Again, the determination was not 
made by Prof. Haughton, but rests upon my statement that this 
foliage and that of A. Cunninghami cannot be distinguished 
one from the other, That it is Araucarian foliage 1 am_per- 
fectly satisfied ; but whether the existing Australian species is 
i identical and unmodified, must remain doubtful until other 


194 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 30, 1880 


organs besides foliage are found, it being by no means absolutely 
certain that because the foliage is identical the species are so. 
The discussion raised by Prof, Haughton, and continued by Prof. 
Duncan and Mr. Wallace, seems therefore hardly worth pro- 
longing, since it is based upon an assumption that is only probably 
correct. But even if the identity were proved, a single species 
is not satisfactory evidence of former temperature. 

I am indebted to Mr. Winslow Jones for the only information 
that I have yet obtained about the growth of either species in 
England. He recollects a small tree of 4. excelsa, growing near 
the water’s edge in a garden on the upper portion of Falmouth 
Harbour, which he believes died three years ago. He has seen 
flourishing trees at Naples, Cintra, Malta, and Algiers, but even 
Northern Italy seems beyond the range of successful cultivation. 
OF the two A. Cunninghami seems the more tender, though 
possibly its les symmetric growth may have excluded it from 
many gardens. In Madeira it grows generally best close to the 
sea and in sheltered places. 

Lindley was mistaken in regarding the two species as one. All 
the needle-leaved (Eutacta) section of Araucaria are certainly 
closely allied, for the species, however distinct in other respects, 
possess two kinds of foliage, that of the young plants being 
identical in all: yet otherwise the species are clearly and distinctly 
marked off from each other. 

With further regard to the identification of the Bournemouth 
foliage with Araucaria, I find that Massalongo? gives an excellent 
photograph of the same foliage from Chiavon, in North Italy, 
and of an immature cone consisting of 250 scales. Although 
existing Sequoias have cones with from 16 to 20 scales, Schimper 
says: ‘‘Il est sans aucun doute un Sequoia et peut-étre identique 
au S. Sternbergii, Les cones ont la plus grande ressemblance 
avec ceux du S. gigantea” (Pal. Végétale,” vol. iii. p. 573). Lam 
beginning to lose all faith in the so-called science of palzeo-botany 
as worked out by our Teutonic brethren. Not only is the above 
quotation an absurdity, for which Heer is responsible, but I fail 
to see any good evidence to support the change made by Heer from 
Araucaria* Sternbergit to Sequoia Sternbergit. The foliage is more 
Araucaria-like than Sequoia-like, and has been found associated 
with an Araucaria cone, but never with any Sequoia cones. It 
has nothing to do with the Icelandic foliage, neither with the 
Upper Miocene foliage from Turin, nor that from Bilin nor 
Oeningen. The true Avaucaria Sternbergii characterises a well- 
marked horizon, that of the Newer Eocene or Oligocene in 
Central Europe, and has been found at Barton in Hampshire ; 
it differs from the Middle Eocene form (A. venetus, Mass.) 
of England and Italy in the needle-like leaves hugging more 
closely to the branchlet, as the latter differs in its turn from 
the Araucaria of the Grés du Soissonnais, which has needles 
very widely opened out. ‘This progressive change may have 
taken place favi passu with the changing climate. At Sheppey, 
where foliage is plentiful, I have met witha beautifully-preserved 
axis of an Araucaria cone with the basal scales attached, exactly 
as we find them in the existing species. 

Now with regard to Mr. Wallace's letter, I pointed out in 
NATURE, vol. xix. p. 126, that the Tertiary fossil plants, even 
of the Eocene, require at most an increase in temperature of 20°, 
and that the land connection between Europe, Greenland, and 
America, which there is reason to suppose existed then, would, 
by shutting out Arctic currents, have produced more than the 
required increment. If this theory appeared for the first time in 
my article, however clumsily I may have worded it, and if it has 
been of use to Mr. Wallace, it is only fair that the fact should 
be acknowl:dged, while if it has escaped his notice he will per- 
haps pardon my now drawins his attention to it. At the same 
time the publication of the Tertiary flora of North-East Siberia, 
which I had not then seen, and of Saghalien, has modified the 
views I put forward ina manner which I trust I may shortly find 
time to explain. J. STARKIE GARDNER 


Chalk 


Mr. WALLACE’s theory that chalk was deposited in compara- 
tively shallow. water requires careful examination before it is 
accepted by geologists. Ido not think he has given sufficient 
evidence to bear out his views which are necessary t his theory 
of continents. 

M~. Wallace cites the resemblance between chalk and Globi- 
gerina-ooze, namely— 

The similarity of the minute organisms found to compose a 


* “Specimen photographicun.’’ Verona, 135). Plate xxi. 
2 Actually described as Araucarites, a useless modification in this imstanc:- 


considerable portion of both deposits ; several species of Globi- 
gerina appearing to be identical in the chalk and the modern 
Atlantic mud ; the presence of Coccoliths and Discoliths in both 
formations ; the abundance of Sponges in both ; the presence of 


| Porifera vitrea, the nearest representative of the Ventriculites 


of the white chalk ; the resemblance of the forms of Echino- 
derms ; and without attempting to reconcile these with a shallow 
sea-deposit, he proceeds to state the case on the other side. 
This consists of the difference in analysis betwezn chalk and 
Globigerina-ooze, the former containing more carbonate of lime 
and less alumina, the presence of silica in the Globizerina-ooze 
being perhaps counterbalanced by the flints in the chalk. The 
greater proportion of alumina certainly points to different con- 
ditions, which Mr. Wallace considers to be that chalk is the 
very fine mud produced by the disintegration of coral-reefs, and 
mentions a deposit resembling chalk at Oahu in the Sandwich 
Islands and the deposit in several growing reefs, without how- 
ever attempting to show that there is any probability that the 
remains found in these would bear any resemblance to the 
Sponges and Echinoderms of the chalk, or why we find no 
remains of these Cretacecus coral-reefs. 

Mr. Wallace does not state in what the greater resemblance 
between chalk and Globigerina-ooze of shallow over deep water 
consists, but he looks on it as ‘‘ weighty evidence.” 

Mr. Gwyn Jeffries, he says, finds all the Mollusca of the 
chalk to be shallow-water forms, many living at forty to fifty 
fathoms, some confined to still shallower waters, while deep-sea 
forms are absent. The late Dr. S. P. Woodward considered 
that Ammonites probably lived in water not over thirty fathoms ; 
and these facts are as difficult to reconcile with Mr. Wallace’s 
views that chalk was deposited in a sea of not over a few 
thousand feet as in a deeper sea, 

The rareness of corals and absence of coralline beds of the 
age of the Lower or Upper Chalk is an important objection to 
the theory that chalk was deposited similarly to the Oahu chalk, 
the beds of Maestricht and Faxoe being above the chalk, and 
the former are not even conformable with it. 

The point I think is still an open one, whether we shall accept 
Mr. Wailace’s views that chalk was deposited in a comparatively 
shallow sea and not very far from land, or in a deep sea, the 
immense break between the chalk and Eocene beds givinz ample 
time for very considerable alteration to have taken place in the 
disposition of land in the interval. I send this letter in the hope 
that a discussion on the point may elicit new facts bearing on the 
subject. S. N. CARVALHO, JUN. 

8, Inverness Terrace, Kensington Gardens, W. : 


On Estimating the Height of Clouds by Photography 
and the Stereoscope 


THE great practical value of meteorological science and the 
desirability of extending its usefulness by the collection of data 
relating to atmospheric current will perhaps be sufficient excuse 
for asking attention to anything likely to promote this end. 

In studying the currents and other peculiarities of the atmo- 
sphere a method of estimating the height, motion, and character, 
as also the position with respect to each other, of each stratum 
of cloud, is a requirement of almost paramount importance, the 
value of the means employed being proportional to the number 
of particulars provided in its record, and the facility with which 
any set of observations can be compared to another at any future 
period. With such ever-changing subjects as clouds in constant 
motion, and having no strongly-defined marks, the use of theo- 
dolites is almost out of the question, and the sextant and mirror 
process for similar reasons would be a very tedious operation. 

These considerations have induced me to endeayour to make 
use of photography and the stereoscope, the former to secure a 
couple of simultaneously-exposed photographs at the extremities 
of a base line, and the latter to observe them reproduced 
apparently solid for the respective distances of the points com- 
posing the picture to be measured when superimposed on a scale 
of distances and placed in it. The base line is thus practically 
reduced to the width of the eyes, and the difficulties arising from 
motion eliminated. 

The recording apparatus consists of a base 50 or 100 feet long, 
constructed of wood and turning on a pivot at the centre of its 
length, its extremities being suitably supported by a framework 
of wood or other material upon which they could easily roll. 
The small cameras for the ends of this are each to be hinged at 
the back of its base to a second board having a graduated 
| quadrant aad rackwork erected from one of its sides for adjusting 


Dee. 30, 1880] 


NATURE 


195 


the camera to any degree of altitude. These supplementary 
boards are then } ivoted at the centre of part of a divided circle, 
previously inlaid in the wood at the extremities of the base line, 
in such a manner thut a line passing through the axis of the 
lenses would cut the pivots. The cameras thus furnished can be 
adjusted with ease to any vertical or horizontal angle. These 
angular adjustments of the two instruments must always coincide, 
with the slight exception that the horizontal ones must make 
internal angles with the base included between them, or, in other 
words, the lenses of both require to be directed to a point 
opposite to the centre of the base line. 

The cameras also require their rapid exposing shutters to be 
electrically connected, to ensure the pair of sensitive plates being 
impressed at the same instant, and each dark slide employed to 
have a fine wire strained at its centre from top to bottom imme 
diately in front of the prepared plate, and as close as possible to 
it without touching. The transparent lines produced in the 
developed negatives by these wires will constitute the zero of 
distance of any pair, 2nd during the operation of reading off 
must be made to agree with similar ones onthe scale of measure- 
ments obtained as follows :-— 

Upon a large cardboard rule a number of squares in fine black 
lines, one inside the other, and each one slightly out of the 
centre of its predecessor to the right hand, the outside square 
being then divided with a line at a tenth part of its diameter to 
the left of its centre. This line will indicate the zero of the 
seale. After placing a distinguishing mark or number in the 
corner of every square for purposes of identification, the card- 
board will be ready to be photographed and reduced at the same 
time to the intended size of the cloud negatives. ‘Two trans- 
parent positives copied from this and observed when placed side 
by side in a suitable stereoscope with the «dges representing the 
left-hand one of the cardboard, together, will appear in that 
instrument with the lines composing the zero only a few inches 
away, and the squares as a succession of vertical planes com- 
mencing some distance from that and receding from the eye in 
the order of greater to less, each one representing its own 
distance in space. 

To find the value of these distances it will be necessary to 
focus the two cameras upon some terrestrial objects whose dis- 
tances can be measured by any of the known methods, and 
negatives taken. The two resulting landscapes, when placed in 
the stereosc pe, each superimposed face to face upon its respec- 
tive scale, and the fine vertical lines of the whole made to 
occupy one apparent distance, an operation offering but little 
difficulty, every object or point of the landscape will be found to 
stand out in the vertical plane suited to its own distance, the 
relation between them being noted for the values found by 
measurement of the one to be marked upon the other. As a 
scale prepared thus would be of no value for any other angle at 
which the cameras might be placed, it would be most convenient 
to make use of two or three angles only, more being quite un- 

_ necessary, and prepare a scale for each, or one with a reference 
table of values for the respective angles would suffice. Again, 
in respect of altitudes. As the terrestrial measurements would 
only be «bsolutely accurate for those of clouds in the zenith, or 
of them, if it were possible, from the earth’s centre in any 
direction, the tables of reference would have to include calcu- 
lated correclions for altitude, or the graduations could be valued 
for the m=st useful! degrees by experimental means. 

It will be gathered from the above that the constancy of length 
of the base line can be ascertained, and corrected if necessary, 
by taking a couple of views of the same landscape for compari- 
son with the preceding pair ; slight fluctuations of length would 
not however be of much consequence in dealing with the com- 
paratively coarse mea-urements of thick masses of cloud floating 
in so short a distance as the few miles of atmosphere capable of 
forming them consists. 

To ascertain the height of clouds photograph a pair of nega- 
tives, and place these in the stereoscope with a pair of scale 
plates agreeing with the angle al which they were taken, and 
adjust as for the landscapes described above. The data required 
may then be read off by noting the vertical plate each stratum 
occupies. 

Prints of these negatives should afterwards be made for the 
particulars of height, direction of motion of the respective layers, 
point of compass, wind rate, state of barometer, thermometer, 
and general remarks upon the weather, to be recorded upon them 
for compari:on or circulation. 

Meteorological Sobservatories fitted with such an addition to 


their present splencid collection of instruments would have their | 


powers of dealing with the atmosphere ard weather changes 
greatly reinforced. JouNn HARMER 
Wick, near Arundel 


Correction of an Error in “Island Life” 


My friend Dr. Giinther has kindly called my attention to an 
extraordinary error at p. 322-323 of my ‘‘Island Life,” where 
I state that the Loch Killin Charr (Sa/mo A7llinensis) inhabits a 
lake in Mayo County, Ireland; instead of a small lake in 
Inverness-shire, 2000 feet above the level of the sea, as given in 
Dr. Giinther’s original description in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society, 1865, p. 698. On referring to my MSS, notes 
for this part of my work, I find that the habitat was first correctly 
given, but subsequently scored out and altered to the erroneous 
Trish locality! Why this was done I cannot now discover ; and 
I can only regret that I should have fallen into so palpable an 
error, and request such of the readers of NATURE as possess my 
book to make the necessary alterations. 

ALFRED R, WALLACE 


Natural Science for Women 


WILL you allow me to supplement your kindly reference to 
the instruction in physical science given to women in Bedford 
College, London, by the statements that for the last two sessions 
a class in biolosy has been conducted there by Mr. Charles 
Stewart of St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. The course 
of study is in every sense a practical one, with special reference 
to th: Preliminary Scientific and First B.Sc. examinations at 
the University of London, and the best testimonial to the excel- 
lence of the instruction in these various subjects is furnished by 
the remarkable success during the present year of the Bedford 
College pupils at the University examinations, a success not less 
marked in the Science than in the Arts examinations, 

ALFRED W, BENNETT 


Movements of Leaves 


A YEAR ago we had in our conservatory a healthy young plant 
of Acacia mollissima. It bore no flowers, but consisted of a 
simple axis adorned with the soft feathery leaves of its genus, 
which closed up at night. Our gardener however thought it 
would improve in appearance if it could be made to bear a few 
branches; and with that view he cut it back, His end was 
achieved : a new stem shot up from the section, and graceful 
limbs were thrown out in turniby it. But along with this a 
strange result followed : the fresh leaves borne by the new stem 
and by the branches now closed at night, while the old leaves 
below the section ceased to do so. These lower leaves have 
long since fallen off, but the upper ones kept to their habit, and 
at the pre:ent time all fold up at dusk save a few of the very 
oldest, which only partially shut, or, in one case, do not shut at 
all. When our plant was cut back it stood three feet high ; now 
it stands seven: which shows that the vig: ur of the plant as a 
whole in no wise diminished by the operation. 


Chislehurst, December 23 M. L, RousE 


ON DUST, FOGS, AND CLOUDS * 

UST, fogs, and clouds seem to have but little connec- 

tion with each other, and we might think they could 

be better treated of under two separate and distinct heads. 

Yet I think we shall presently see that they are more 

closely related than might at first sight appear, and that 

dust is the germ of which fogs and clouds are the 
developed phenomena. 

This was illustrated by an experiment in which steam 
was mixed with air in two large glass receivers; the one 
receiver was filled with common air, the other with air 
which had been carefully passed through a cotton-wool 
filter and all dust removed from it. In the unfiltered air 
the steam gave the usual and well-known cloudy form of 
condensation, while in the filtered air no cloudiness what- 
ever appeared. The air remained supersaturated and 
perfectly transparent. 

The difference in the behaviour of the steam in these 
two cases was explained by corresponding phenomena, 


I Abstract of a paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, December 
20, by Mr. John Aitken. Furnished to Naiure by the Council of the 


G 


5 ciety. 


196 


WAT ORE 


[ Dec. 30, 1880 


in freezing, melting, and boiling. It was shown that 
particles of water vapour do not combine with each other 
to form a cloud-particle, but the vapour must have some 
solid or liquid body on which to condense. Vapour in 
pure air therefore remains uncondensed or super-satu- 
rated, while dust-particles in ordinary air form the nuclei 
on which the vapour condenses and forms fog or cloud- 
particles. 

This represents an extremely dusty condition of the 
air, as every fog and cloud-particle was formerly repre- 
sented by a dust-particle, which vapour by condensing 
upon it has made visible. When there is much dust in 
the air but little vapour condenses on each particle, and 
they become but little heavier, and easily float in the air. 
If there are few dust specks each gets more vapour, is 
heavier, and falls more quickly. 

These experiments were repeated with an air-pump, a 
little water being placed in the receiver to saturate the 
air. The air was then cooled by slightly reducing the 
pressure. When this is done with unfiltered air a dense 
cloudiness tills the receiver, but when with pure air no 
fogging whatever takes place, there being no nuclei on 
which the condensation can take place. In this experi- 
ment, and in the one with steam, the number of cloud- 
particles is always in proportion to the dust present. 
When the air is nearly pure and only a few dust-particles 
present, then only a few cloud-particles form, and they 
are heavy and fall like fine rain, 

The conclusions drawn from these experiments are : 
(1) that whenever water vapour condenses in the atmo- 
sphere it always does so on some solid nucleus; (2) that 
dust-particles in the air form the nuclei on which the 
vapour condenses; (3) that if there was no dust there 
would be no fogs, no clouds, no mists,.and probably no 
rain, and that the supersaturated air would convert every 
object on the surface of the earth into a condenser on 
which it would deposit ; (4) our breath when it becomes 
visible on a cold morning, and every puff of steam as it 
escapes into the air, showthe impure and dusty condition 
of our atmosphere. 

The source of the fine atmospheric dust was then 
referred to, and it was shown that anything that broke up 
matter into minute parts would contribute a share. The 
spray from the ocean, when dried and converted into fine 
dust, was shown to be an important source. Meteoric 
matter also probably contributed a proportion. Attention 
was then directed to the power of heat and combustion as 
a source of this fine dust. 

It was shown that if there is much dust then each 
particle only gets a little vapour condensed upon it, that 
when the particles are numerous they become but little 
heavier, and easily float in the air, and give rise to that 
close-packed but light form of condensation which consti- 
tutes a fog, and therefore whatever increases the amount 
of dust in the air tends to increase fogs, and that when 
the dust-particles are not so numerous the cloud-particles 
are larger and settle down more quickly. 

It was shown that by simply heating any substance, 
such as a piece of glass, iron, brass, &c., a cloud of dust 
was driven off, which, when carried along with pure air 
into the experimental receiver, gave rise to a dense fog 
when mixed with steam. So delicate is this test for dust 
that if we heat the one-hundredth of a grain of iron wire 
the dust driven off from it will give a distinct cloudiness 
in the experimental receiver, and if we take the wire out 
of the apparatus and so much as touch it with our fingers 
and again replace it, it will again be active as a cloud- 
producer. Many different substances were tried, and all 
were found to be active fog-pro7ucers. Common salt is 
perhaps one of the most active. 

Heat, it is well known, destroys the motes in the air, 
and it might be thought that flame and other forms of 
combustion ought to give rise toa purer air. Such how- 
ever is not the case. Gas was burned in a glass receiver, 


and supplied with filtered air for combustion, and it was 
found that the products of combustion of pure air and 
dustless gas gave rise to an intensely fog-producing 
atmosphere. It may be mentioned here that the fog- 
producing air from the heated glass, metals, and burning 
gas were each passed through the cotton-wool filter, and 
the air was in all cases made pure, and did not give rise 
to cloudiness when mixed with steam 

It will be seen that it is not the dust motes which are 
revealed to us by a beam of sunlight when shining into a 
darkened room, that form the nuclei of fog and cloud- 
particles, as these may be entirely removed by heat, and 
yet the air remain active as a cloud-producer. The heat 
would seem to break up the larger motes which reflect the 
light into smaller and invisible ones. When speaking of 
dust, it is to these infinitesimally small and invisible par- 
ticles we refer. The larger motes which reflect the light 
will no doubt be active nuclei, but their number is too 
small to have any important effect. 

It is suggested, and certain reasons are given for sup 
posing, that the blue colour of the sky is due to this fine 
dust. 

Other experiments were made to test the fog-producing 
power of the air and gases from different sources. The 
air to be tested was introduced into the experimental : 
receiver and mixed with steam, and the relative densities 
of the fog produced were noted. It was always found 
that the air of the laboratory where gas was burning gave 
a denser fog than the air outside, and that the air outside 
varied, giving less fog during wet than during dry weather. 
The products of combustion of gas burned in a Bunsen 
flame, a bright flame, and a smoky flame, were all tested 
and found to be about equally bad, and all much worse 
than the air in which they were burned. Products of 
combustion from a clear fire and from a smoky one gave 
about equal fogging, and both much worse than the air 
of the room. 

Experiments were made by burning different substances. 
Common salt when burned in a fire or in alcohol flame 
gave an intensely fog-producing atmosphere, but burned 
sulphur was the most active substance experimented on. 
It gave rise to a fog so dense it was impossible to see 
through a thickness of 5 cm. of it. 

The vapours of other substances than water were tested 
to see if they would condense in the cloud form without 
nuclei on which to deposit. All the substances experi- 
mented on, which included sulphuric acid, alcohol, benzole, 
and paraffin, only gave a cloudy condensation when mixed 
with ordinary unfiltered air, and remained perfectly clear 
when mixed with filtered air, all these acting like water 
vapour. 

Before referring to fogs, which have now become so 
frequent and aggravated in our large towns, it was pointed 
out that caution was necessary in applying the results of 
the experiments. 

The conditions of a laboratory experiment are so 
different, and on so small a scale, that it is not safe to 
carry their teaching to the utmost limits and apply 
them to the processes which go on in nature. We may, 
however, Jook to the experiments for facts from which 
to reason, and for processes which will enable us to 
understand the grander workings of nature. 

It having been shown that vapour, by condensing on 
the dust-particles in the air, gives rise to a fogging, the 
density of which depends on the amount of fine dust in 
the air; the more dust the finer are the fog-particles, and 
the longer they remain suspended in the air. It having 
been also shown that all forms of combustion, perfect 
and imperfect, are producers of fog nuclei, it is con- 
cluded that it is hopeless to expect that, adopting more 
perfect forms of combustion than those at present in use, 
we shall thereby diminish the frequency, persistency, or 
density of our town fogs. More perfect combustion will, 
however, remove the pea-soup character from the fogs 


Dec. 30, 1880] 


NATURE 


197 


and make them purer and whiter, by preventing the 
smoke which at present mixes with our town fogs and 
aggravates their character, and prevents them dissolving 
when they enter our rooms. Smoke descends during a 
fog, because the smoke particles are good radiators, and 
soon get cooled and form nuclei on which the water 
vapour condenses. The smoke thus becomes heavier 
and falls. This explains why falling smoke is often a 
sign of coming rain. It indicates a saturated condition 
-of the atmosphere. 

Sulphur when burned has been shown to be an intensely 
active fog-producer. Calculation shows that there are 
more than 200 tons of sulphur burned with the coal 
every winter day in London, a quantity so enormous as 
-quite to account for the density of the London fogs. It 
is suggested that some restriction ought to be put on the 
amount of sulphur in the coal used in towns. 

Before utterly condemning the smoke and the sulphur, 
it was pointed out that it would be necessary thoroughly 
to investigate and fully to consider the value of smoke as 
a deodoriser, and also the powerful antiseptic properties 
of the sulphurous acid formed by the burning sulphur. 
The air during fogs is still and stagnant. There is no 
current to clear away the foul smells and deadly germs 
that float in the air, which might be more deadly than 
they are, were it not for the suspended soot and burned 
sulphur. We must therefore be on our guard lest we substi- 
tute a great and hidden danger for an evident but less evil. 


ON THE SPECTRUM OF CARBON 


LTHOUGH fifteen years have passed since the 
possibility of one substance possessing more than 
one spectrum was first suggested by Plicker and Hittorf, 
the question of the existence of double spectra cannot 
yet be considered as decided. One of the elements to 
which multiple spectra have been attributed is carbon, 
which was at one time supposed to possess four different 
spectra: of these one has been shown to be due to oxide 
of manganese, a second to oxides of carbon, the origin of 
a third (obtained only from oxides of carbon) has hardly 
been discussed (though it may prove to be one of the true 
carbon spectra), and the other “carbon” spectrum—the 
best known of all—is the one first attributed to carbon by 
Attfield, but ascribed to acetylene by Angstrém. 

In a paper read before the Royal Society, and of which 
an abstract is given in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 620, Pro- 
fessors Liveing and Dewar describe experiments to prove 
that this spectrum is that of a hydrocarbon, and not of 
carbon itself; and also that certain blue bands, best seen 
in the flame-spectrum of cyanogen, are due to compounds 
of carbon and nitrogen, and not to carbon itself. They 
attribute to hydrocarbon (amongst others) the yellowish- 
green group, which we will call y, of wave-lengths from 
about 5635 to 5478, and the emerald-green group, which 
we will call 6, of wave-lengths from about 5165 to 5082; and 
they attribute to nitro-carbon the two blue groups of wave- 
lengths 4600 to 4502 and 4220 to 4158, which we will call 
6 and ¢ respectively. 

As these result are directly opposed to my own experi- 
ence, I have thought it necessary to repeat two of the 
experiments described in my paper on the carbon spectra 
in the Philosophical Magazine for October, 1869, under 
such conditions as to exclude (as far as lay in my power) 
all trace of hydrogen in the one case, and of nitrogen in 
the other. 

The difficulty of supposing carbon to be present in the 
state of vapour at any temperature which we can com- 
mand seems to be the chief reason why so many investi- 
gators think it necessary to attribute the spectrum in 
question (with experimental evidence or without it) to 
compounds of carbon. Iam not aware that Angstrém 
ever gave any experimental proof of his assertion that this 
spectrum was caused by acetylene. 


On the other hand, the evidence ‘that the spectrum is 
due to carbon is that first stated by Attfield, that if these 
lines “are absent in flames in which carbon is absent, 
and present in flames in which carbon is present,” 
if they are “ observable equally in the flame of the oxide, 
sulphide, and nitride as well as in the hydride of carbon,’’ 
and if “present whether the incandescence be produced 
by the chemical force, as in burning jets of the gases in 
the open air or by the electric force, as when hermetically- 
sealed tubes of the gases are exposed to the discharge ot 
a powerful induction-coil,’’ then they “must be due to 
incandescent carbon vapour” ; and if this is borne out by 
experiment the conclusion that the lines are due to carbon 
(as gas, liquid or solid) cannot be resisted, whatever may 
be the apparent impossibility of volatilising or even liqui- 
fying carbon, even by the most powerful current of 
electricity directed through it. 

We must bear in mind how very small a quantity of 
a gas is often sufficient to give us a spectrum, and when 
the carbon spectrum is obtained by the decomposition of 
olefiant gas or cyanogen by passing sparks through the 
gas, the carbon certainly exists as gas in the compound 
which is decomposed, and before the liberated atoms 
unite together to form the molecules of the solid, there is 
surely no impossibility in their existing for the moment 
as gas—as gaseous carbon. 

On an examination of Professors Liveing and Dewatr’s 
paper to ascertain the experimental evidence upon which 
the bands y and 6 are attributed to hydrocarbon and not 
to carbon itself, we find it stated that “the green and 
blue bands characteristic of the hydrocarbon flame seem 
to be always present in the arcs, whatever the atmo- 
sphere. This is what we should expect if they be due, as 
Angstr6m and Thalén suppose, to acetylene, for the car- 
bon electrodes always contain, even when they have been 
long heated in chlorine, a notable quantity of hydrogen.” 

Since then it is impossible to completely expel hydro- 
gen from the carbon-poles, we must reject all the experi- 
ments in which the electric arc was observed in atmo- 
spheres of different gases, although “ the green and blue 
hydrocarbon bands were seen more or less in all of 
them.” 

Turning then to other methods of producing the spec- 
trum, we find it stated that in the flame of carefully- 
dried cyanogen “the hydrocarbon bands were almost 
entirely absent” (they should have been evtively absent) ; 
“only the brightest green band was seen, and that 
faintly.” Hence we are to infer, I suppose, that the 
bands y and 6, so brilliant in the flame of cyanogen in 
air or oxygen, are due to the accidental presence of 
hydrogen (see the extract from Morren’s paper, NATURE, 
vol. xxii. p. 7. Dibbits also speaks of this spectrum as 
‘‘by far the most magnificent ’’ he has seen). 

Next we have the experiment of burning hydrocyanic 
acid, in which, as we have hydrogen present, we expect 
to find the hydrocarbon bands brilliantly developed. But 
we find the result stated as ‘‘ very much the same as that 
of cyanogen.” The flames of hydrogen and sulphide of 
carbon, and of hydrogen and carbonic oxide, do not give 
the hydrocarbon bands (their spectra being continuous) ; 
a mixture of hydrogen and carbon tetrachloride gives 
them faintly, and a mixture of hydrogen and chloroform 
gives them strongly. 

In all this we have no Proof of the point in question, 
nor even any special probability that the bands are 
due to hydrocarbon; and yet, in the face of experiments 
in which the spectrum is obtained from cyanogen, when 
care has been taken to exclude hydrogen, we are asked 
to attribute the bands to the hydrocarbon formed by 
combination with some trace of hydrogen (as water or 
otherwise), supposed to be present as impurity. In the 
same way the presence of the bands @ and ¢ obtained 
under circumstances when nitrogen has been intentionally 
excluded, is to be explained by “ the extreme difficulty of 


198 


NATURE 


[ Dee. 30, 1880 


removing the last traces of air.” So that in the case of 
cyanogen with a trace of hydrogen present, the spark 
persists in giving us the spectrum of hydrocarbon ; and 
when we have naphthalin with a trace of nitrogen present, 
it gives us the spectrum of nitrocarbon ! 

Attfield states that the spectrum in question is obtained 
from p~ure dry cyanogen. “The ignition of the gases 
having been effected in air, it was conceivable that 
hydrogen, nitrogen, or oxygen had influenced the pheno- 
mena. To eliminate this possible source of error the 
experiments were repeated out of contact with air. A 
thin glass tube one inch in diameter and three inches 
long, with platinum wires fused into its sides and its 
ends prolonged by glass quills having a capillary bore, 
was filled with pure dry cyanogen, and the greater portion 
of this gas then removed by a good air-pump. Another 
tube was similarly prepared with olefiant gas. The 
platinum wires in these tubes were then so connected 
with each other that the electric discharge from a power- 
ful induction-coil could pass through both at the same 
yime. On now observing the spectra of these two lights 
nm the simultaneous manner previously described, the 


characteristic lines of the hydrocarbon spectrum were 
found to be rigidly continued in that of the nitrocarbon 
Moreover, by the same method of simultaneous observa- 
tion the spectrum of each of these electric flames, as they 
may be termed, was compared with the corresponding 
chemical flames, that is with the oxyhydrocarbon and 
oxynitrocarbon jets of gas burning in air, The charac- 
teristic lines were present in every case.” 

“The spectrum under investigation having then been 
obtained in one case when only carbon and hydrogen were 
present, and in another when all elements but carbon and 
nitrogen were absent, furnishes to my mind sufficient 
evidence that the spectrum is that of carbon.”’ 

Morren also adopted this method of producing the 
spectrum by taking the spark of an induction coil in a 
sufficiently rapid current of pure cyanogen at atmospheric 
pressure. 

I have again repeated this experiment with cyanogen 
under conditions which would seem to ensure that the gas 
should be dry (see also PAz/. AZag., 1875). 

The cyanogen was prepared by heating pure cyanide of 
mercury, which was finely powdered and placed in a piece 


of combustion-tubing (a) drawn out at both ends. In this 
it was repeatedly heated to the temperature of incipient 
decomposition whilst a current of dry air was drawn over 
it. One end of the tube was then closed by fusion at the 
point g, and the other bent round and fitted, as shown in 
the figure, to a U-tube (4) containing phosphoric an- 
hydride—the discharge-tube ¢ was interposed between 
this U-tube and a second U-tube d also containing phos- 
phoric anhydride, the other branch of which was con- 
nected to one end of a vertical tube e of more than thirty 
inches in length, the lower end of which passed into 
mercury contained in the bottle f£ the upper portion of 
which could be exhausted by means of the air-pump. 
The connections with the U-tube were made by means of 
perforated india-rubber stoppers, and the joints were 
surrounded during the experiment by melted paraffin. 

The apparatus having been exhausted, the mercuric 
cyanide was heated till the apparatus was filled with 
cyanogen at atmospheric pressure; it was then again 
exhausted and again filled with cyanogen. After having 
been thus exhausted and re-filled five or six times, the 
spectrum of the spark between the wires at c was examined 
at various pressures. The spectrum figured in my paper 
in the PAzlosophical Magazine for October, 1869, was 
obtained, the groups y and 6, with which alone we are at 
present concerned, being the brightest in the whole spec- 
trum. Next careful search was made for the red hydro- 
gen line. The cross-wires of a one-prism spectroscope 
were accurately adjusted to the red line, as seen in a 
hydrogen vacuum tube, and the spectroscope was then 
directed upon the spark in the cyanogen. No trace of 
the line could be observed. 

A second experiment was devoted to the examination 
of the spark in an atmosphere of naphthalin vapour, 
from which nitrogen had been excluded as far as possible, 
in order to ascertain whether the bands ¢ and 6, which 
Professors Liveing and Dewar attribute to cyanogen, would 
be produced. Professors Liveing and Dewar are somewhat 
in error in saying that I laid much stress on the occur- 
rence of these bands in carbonic oxide. They were never 
obtained very brilliantly from carbonic oxide (except under 
pressure), but they are obtained brilliantly from a naph- 
thalin vacuum tube. I have obtained them also from a 
vacuum tube containing pure marsh-gas (my note-book 
remarks ‘‘6 very bright’’), and as confirmation by an 
independent observer, I would remark that Plucker maps 
them in the spectruin of a vacuum tube containing 
methyl. 

The vacuum tube in this second experiment contained 
pure solid naphthalin fused on the sides of the tube ; this 
was placed in position so that the upper end passed 
through one hole in an india-rubber stopper into a flask 
filled with carbon dioxide ; a vertical tube of thirty inches 
length passed through the second hole in the stopper of 
the flask, and its lower end dipped below mercury. The 
whole of the vacuum tube except the lowest portion was 
surrounded by a wider tube containing melted paraffin. 

When the apparatus had been arranged, the experiment 
was commenced by passing a rapid current of carbonic 
acid through the vacuum tube, so as to fill the flask and 
escape through the mercury. After passing the gas for a 
considerable time, the lower end of the tube was closed’ 
by fusion, the naphthalin all melted down into this end, 
where it was made to boil violently, while the paraffin was 
maintained at a temperature of about 220°C. After the 
current of naphthalin vapour had lasted some time, the 
upper end of the tube was closed by fusion, the tube 
removed and cooled, and its spectrum examined. It gave 
a spectrum in which the groups ¢ and @ were plainly 
seen. 

It is to be hoped that some independent observer will 
repeat these experiments, so as finally to settle the ques- 
tion of the origin of these bands of what I must still 
call the “carbon’”’ spectrum. W. M. WaTTs 


Dec. 30 1880] 


NATURE 


1.9 


THE INDO-CHINESE AND OCEANIC RACES— 
TYPES AND AFFINITIES 
I. 


"THE ethnological area here under consideration com- 

prises the south-eastern corner of the Asiatic main- 
land, and nearly the whole of the Indian and Pacific 
Oceans. Of the three great divisions of the human 
family—the black, yellow, and fair—the two former alone 
are usually supposed to be represented in this region, the 
black by the Australians, extinct Tasmanians, Melanesians 
or Paptians, and Negritos, the yellow by the Indo-Chinese 
(Annamese, Siamese, Burmese, &c.), of the mainland, 
and the so-called ‘‘ Malayo-Polynesians’’ of Oceanica. 
But it will be one of the main objects of these papers to 
show that room must here be henceforth made for the 
third also, and that most of the difficulties associated 
with the mutual classification of the other two are due to 
the omission or neglect of this third factor in the problem. 
It has long been an accepted doctrine of ethnologists that 
this fair or Caucasian type, using the term “ Caucasian” 
in Blumenbach’s sense, is limited by some mysterious 
law of nature or providential arrangement to the western 
portion of Asia, to the northern section of its African, and 
to nearly the whole of its European peninsula. But 
anthropology is a very young science, and as facts 
accumulate and knowledge expands, many of its con- 
clusions too hastily arrived at will have to be modi- 
fied or abandoned. The time seems to have already 
arrived for very materially modifying the views hitherto 
entertained regarding the geographical limits of the 
Caucasian species, which, instead of being confined to a 
western corner of the Old World, will be found to have 
been diffused in prehistoric times eastwards to within 
2,500 miles of the American cont:nent. 

But the acceptance or rejection of this new doctrine will 
of course depend largely on the various senses in which 
the terms type, species, race, are understood by the 
different monogenist and polygenist schools. For the 
erthodox monogenist these words can obviously have 
but a relative meaning, for if all are necessarily sprung 
of one created pair, all have also necessarily become 
differentiated into the now existing types, these types thus 
sinking to the category of mere varieties. But to poly- 
genists of all shades such expressions may naturally 
convey an absolute sense, the fundamental species now 
existing having presumably been evolved in so many 
independent centres, and for these the only question will 
be in how many centres? Yet even they cannot con- 
sistently base their theory on the eternal fixity of species, 
for they are all of them otherwise, and necessarily believers 
in evolution. They must therefore admit the abstract 
possibility of such comparatively slight transformism as 
the development of the dark from the yellow, the fair 
from either, lank from woolly hair, dolichocephaly from 
brachycephaly, the tall stature of the Tehuelch Patagonian 
from the pygmy Akka, or the reverse of all these pro- 
cesses. They may say that, assuming independent deve- 
lopment from various anthropoids, such transformism is 
unnecessary to account for the present state of things; but 
they can never deny its inherent possibility, for it still 
remains a very trivial modification compared with the 
evolution of any given human from any given anthropoid 
type. Nor will they deny that in general differentiations 
of this sort are far more easy and explicable than independ- 
ent growths, which involve so much more fundamentally 
radicai changes. Consequently unorthodox monozgenism, 
that fs monogenism not starting from a created pair, but 
from one evolutionary centre, seems more rational and 
philosophic than any conceivable form of polygenism., 
This view seems in other respects to harmonise best with 
the actual conditions, and an effort has accordingly been 
made to give it expression in the subjoined definition 
of species, which differs in some important res>ects from 


those hitherto proposed : Sfecies 7s an aggregate of units 
resembling each other in all salient points, producing off- 
spring of the same type tn the same surroundings, or of 
continuously modified type in continuously modified sur- 
roundings, and themselves evolved of previous spectes 
similarly modified indefinitely. Thus any given species 
or race (terms practically identical when used with 
scientific precision) exists only for the time being, is not 
and cannot be permanent, for it has become what it is by 
slow modification under slowly modified outward condi- 
tions, has had a beginning, may have an end. The best 
vindication of this truth is the geological record, which 
can only be explained either with Cuvier by the unwar- 
ranted assumption of successive fresh creations, or with 
common sense by regarding type or species as relative, 
not absolute concepts. Between the two views there seems 
to be no logical middle term. 

It is therefore in this relative sense only that race or 
species are here to be understood, and in this sense it wi'l 
be seen that all the three most fundamental types of man- 
kind have existed from the remotest times in the wide 
area above defined. With their diverse modifications and 
intercrossings these three types form altogether seven 
main groups, which it will be convenient to take serdatinz 
in the order adopted in the subjoined 

General Scheme of Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races 

A.—DARK TYPES 
I. Necritos: Aetas; Andamanese; Samangs; Kalang:; 
Karons. 
( Central branch—Papians Proper. 
| Westem branch—Sub Paptians 
4 called ** Alfuros”’). 
| Eastern branch—Sub-Paptians East (Melane- 
\ sians), 
Ill. AustrRaL: Australians ; Tasmanians (?) 
B.—CAUCASIAN TYPE (Fair and Brown) 
1V. ConTINENTAL BRaNncH: Khmér or Cambojan Group. 


V. Oceanic BRANCH: Indonesian and Sawaiori or Eastern 
Polynesian Groups. 


C.—MONGOLIAN TYPE (Yellow and Olive Brown) 
VI. ContTINENTAL BRANCH: Indo-Chinese Group. 
VIJ. Oceanic BRANCH: Malayan Groups. 


A—DARK TYPES 


I. THE NeGritos: Aetas ; Andamanese ; Samangs 5 
Kalangs; Karons 


Of the three divisions of this type shown in our scheme 
the Negrito is probably the most primitive. It seems ty 
have formed the aboriginal element in South-East Asia 
and Malaysia at a time when the Archipelago was still con- 
nected with the mainland ; but it is now represented only 
in a fragmentary way by the wild tribes in the Philip- 
pines collectively known as Aetas, Aitas, or Itas, the 
so-called “Mincopies” of the Andaman Islands, th- 
little-known Samangs of Malacca, probably the Karus 
or Karons! of the Arfak Hills behind Geelvink Bay, New 
Guinea, and a few surviving members of the Kalangs o° 
East Java. From a number of specimens recently brought 
to Europe, the osteology of the Aetas and Andamanese 
has been carefully studied, the former by Virchow in 
Germany, the latter by Prof. Flower in England, with 
parallel and in many respects identical results. Virchow * 
describes the Aetas as “a brachycephalous race differing 
altogether from the Papuans and Australian Negroes, 
and no less so from the African Negroes.’’ He adds 
that they are “strongly prognathous,” the profile of some 


West (so- 


II, PArOans: 


! Described by M. Raffray (‘Tour du Monde,” April 26, 1879) as essen- 
tially disvinct from the Papfians, “Ce ne soni pas des Papous. mais bieuw 
des Negraos. plus semblables aux sauvages aburi,énes des Philippines 
qu’aux Papous Mélanésiens qu. les entourent.”” x % bec 

2 In ‘*Correspondenz-Blatt der deutschen Gesellscha‘t fir Anthropologie, 


&c , 1872, p- 58. 


200 


NATURE 


| Dec. 30, 1880 


crania consequently presenting an almost “orang-utan 
physiognomy.’’ So also Prof. Flower? tells us that the 
Andamanese cranium is “as distinct as possible’’ from 
the Melanesian, and on all the available evidence he 
seems disposed to regard these islanders as “‘representing 
an infantile, undeveloped or primitive form of the type 
from which the African Negroes on the one hand, and 
the Melanesians on the other . . . . may have sprung. 
The relations of the Negritos to the Paptans, long a 
vexed question in anthropology, may thus be regarded as 
finally settled by the most competent authorities. One 


Fic. 1.—Ape-like Type, Java. Ardi of Buitenzorg. 


doubtless, originally, they must now be regarded as two 
distinct species in the relative sense involved in our 
definition of that term. C, Staniland Wake also points 
out another important feature in which the two races 
differ. The Paptians proper, and especially the Melane- 
sians of Fiji, New Caledonians and Solomon Islanders, 
are frequently furnished with well-developed beards, 


whereas the Andamanese and all other true Negritos, | 


are absolutely beardless. ‘The absence of the beard 
seems to be characteristic of all the Negrito peoples, and 
this trait may in my opinion be safely added to the con- 


Fic. 2.—Andamanese ‘ype. 


A lis. 3 —Australan Lype. 
Mourning Head-dress. 


Woman in Mcurning. 


clusions of de Quatrefages touching the small black races 
of the Archipelago.” 2 


The ape-like appearance of the Aetas, already spoken | 


of by de la Gironniére, and now insisted on by Virchow, 
receives a Startling illustration from the accompanying 
portrait (Fig. 1) of a Javanese Kalang named Ardi, 


* In paper ‘‘On the Osteology and Affinities cf the Natives of the 
Andamanese Islands,” in Yournal of Anthropological Institute, November, 
1879, pp. 132-3. 

* La barbe conside 
an. 15, 1880. 


comme caractére de races, in Rev. a Anthrop., 


| é : 
| recently if not still employed as a workman in the famous 


3uitenzorg (Sans-Souci) Botanic Gardens near Batavia. 
| Here he was seen by C. B. H. von Rosenberg in 1871, 
and reproduced at p. 569, vol. iii. of that naturalist’s 
work on the ‘Malay Archipelago’’ from an_ original 
photograph by van Musschenbroek, which has also been 


North-west Coast New Guinea. 


Fic. 4.—Full-blood Papifian Type. 


figured on an enlarged scale in Dr. A. B. Meyers mono- 
graph on the ‘‘Kalangs of Java.” Notwithstanding its 
startling ape-like appearance all doubt as to the correct- 
ness of the portrait is removed by the independent testi- 
mony of von Rosenberg and van Musschenbroek, the 
latter of whom informs me through Prof. Veth of Leyden 


4 
Vic. 5.—Full-blood Papian Type. North-west Coast New Guihea. 


(Letter, October 16, 1880), that “he has met with the 
same type in other parts of Java, though not so pro- 
nounced, and that it could always be traced to a Kalang 
origin.’ He adds that “this race is fading away and 
| that the intermixture with Common Javanese has become 


Dee. 30, 1880 | 


NATURE 201 


such that in most instances only faint traces of the 
peculiar type have been left.’? Meyer agrees with van 
Musschenbroek in regarding the Kalangs as a remnant 
of the aborigines of Java, possibly allied to the other 


Fics. 6, 7-—Malayo-Paptian Mixed Types. 


Body-guard of the Sultan of 
Ternate. 


Negrito peoples of the Archipelago, and “occupying Java 
before it was peopled by the Malays.” Ardi had come 
from the eastern parts of the island, where a few still 
linger no longer as a distinct tribe, but dispersed, like 
Ardi himself, amongst the general population. Hence 


SS = = 
G 


Fic. 8.—Melanesian Type. Vanikoro Chief. 


the reader will doubtless be glad to have this authentic 
specimen of perhaps the very lowest type of mankind, 
now all but extinct. 


Our next illustration (Fig. 2 


Negrito in a mourning head-dress, from a photograph 
sent to Europe by Mr. Man, and originally published in 
the Anthropological Journal, vol. vii. (1877) p. 416. It 
presents a singular resemblance to an Australian woman 
(Fig. 3) also in mourning, reproduced in the same place 


Fic. 9.—A Motu Youth, 


from a picture in Angus’ “ South Australia Illustrated ”” 
(plate 51). 

The Negrito and Hottentot hair is usually described as 
growing in separate woolly tufts, or, as Topinard puts it, 
“in little peppercorn masses, separated by bald spaces.” 
In his “Genealogical Classification of the Human 


Fic, 10.—Maori Type. 


Races and Languages” Venzel Krizhek revives the well- 
known classification of Friedrich Miiller which makes this 
feature the basis of one of the main divisions of mankind, 
including the Hottentots, Paptans, and Negritos. Yet 
the phenomenon has absolutely no existence in nature. 


is that of an Andamanese | But such is the tenacity of errors of this sort that 


202 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 30, 1880 


it seems impossible to dispel the delusion, although, as 


Prof. Flower well remarks, “the report of a committee of | 


the Paris Anthropological Society on the growth of the 
hair of a Negro in one of the hospitals of that city, 
published last year (1879) in the Lzd/etin of the Society, 
ought to set the question at rest for ever.’ It is curious 
that evolutionists should have discovered in man a trait 
which is characteristic of none of the anthropoids. 

The Negritos, whether those described by Jagor and 
Meyer in the Philippines, or those visited by E. H. Man 
in the Andaman group, are all alike socially on the lowest 
level. They are all nomadic, though not pastoral, moving 
about from hill to hill, from coast to river-bank, in search 
of food or shelter from the weather or their enemies. 
They live on the fruits and roots of the tropical wood- 
lands, on wild honey, snakes, frogs, fish, or such game as 
their feeble weapons (mostly spear and bow and arrow) 
are able to procure them. Yet, although indolent and 
incapable of providing for the future, they do not lack 
intelligence, for their brain capacity (index No. 74) is 
still immensely greater than that of the highest anthropoid 
ape. The Aetas often acquire a knowledge of the neigh- 
bouring Tagalog and Bisayan (Malayan) dialects, and the 
speech of the Andamanese seems from Man’s specimens 
to belong to a highly agglutinating type. They appear 
to have no shrines er idols of any sort, in this greatly 
differing from the Papuans, and their religious thought is 
jimited to a blind awe or fear of the powers of nature, for 
them doubtless supernatural manifestations. But our 
knowledge of their inner life is still far too restricted 
to pronounce very positively on these points. The 
Negritos are not generally suspected of cannibalism ; but 
the Karons of New Guinea are certainly addicted to the 
practice. One of them, although quite a youth, admitted 
to M. Achille Raffray that he had already eaten fifteen 
men, treating it as quite a matter of course. They 
appear, however, to confine themselves to the bodies of 
their enemies slain in battle, and do not regard every 
stranger as so much “meat,” like the Negroes of the 
Lualaba-Congo. 


Il. THE PapUANS: Papians proper, Sub-Paphans West 
(“ Alfuros”),; Sub-Paphans East (Melanesians) 

The Paptian domain is entirely oceanic, stretching in 
its widest sense from the island of Floris, Malaysia, 
eastwards to Fiji (120° — 180° E. long.), and from about 
the equator southwards to New Caledonia, at this point 
approaching the Tropic of Capricorn. In our scheme 
are shown three branches, a central, western, and eastern, 
which grouping has the convenience of being at once 
geographical, and to a large extent ethnical. The type 


itself, so named from the Malay word Bon (papiwah 


= frizzly), denoting one of its most striking characteristics, 
retains everywhere a considerable degree of uniformity in 
all essentials. But it is largely mixed with two distinct 
elements, the Malay in the west, the brown Polynesian or 
Sawaiori in the east. No doubt there are mixtures in 
New Guinea or the central region also, and notably on 
the south-east coast, to which the brown Polynesians 
seem to have penetrated in more recent times. But on 
the whole the bulk of the New Guinea people, including 
the adjacent Aru, Waigiu, Salwatty, Mysol, and Ké 
islanders, may be taken as the most typical branch of the 
race. The western division, composed of Malayo-Papitians, 
and often vaguely spoken of as “Alfuros,” but whom | 
name Sub-Paptians West, comprises the Malaysian islands 
of Floris, Jilolo, Ceram, Buro, Goram, Timor, Wetter, 
Timor Laut, and neighbouring islets, without prejudice to 
the question of Paptian blood in Borneo and Celébes. 
The eastern division, compose! mainly of Sawaiori- 
Paptians, and whom I name Sub-Paptians East, comprises 
all the South Pacific Islands grouped as Melanesia. This 
term, Melanesia, referring to the prevailing black colour 


of the natives, is in every way convenient, so that Sub- 
Paptian East and Melanesian may be taken as practically 
synonymous. Here the chief groups are the Admiralty, 
New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon, New Hebrides, 
New Caledonia, Fiji, and it is to be noted that there are 
some, possibly many, Melanesians who betray no trace of 
mixture with the brown Polynesians, and who must con- 
sequently be regarded as pure Paptians. Such are the 
Vanicoro and Mallicolo people in the New Hebrides, and 
especially the Kai Colos of Viti Levu in Fiji, some speci- 
mens of whose crania Prof. Flower has recently shown to 
be absolutely the most dolichocephalous on the globe. As 
brachycephaly is a distinctive mark of the Negrito, so 
dolichocephaly is of the Paptian type. Consequently on 
this easternmost verge of the Paptan area we would seem 
to have, as far as is known, the very purest specimen of 
the race. This harmonises with the view I have ventured 
elsewhere to express, that the type was developed in a 
now submerged South Pacific Continent, moving west- 
wards with the gradual subsidence of the land. For a 
long way east of New Guinea and North-East Australia, 
in fact quite as far as Samoa, the water is very shallow, 
averaging probably not more than 5co fathoms. 

The accompanying illustrations may be taken as typical 
specimens of the three great divisions of the Paptian 
family. Characteristic full-blood Paptian types are those 
of two members of the Wosaoni tribe, North-West Coast 
of New Guinea (Figs. 4 and 5), from portraits by M. 
Raffray, originally figured in the Your du Monde, for 
April, 1879, p. 267. In Figs. 6 and 7 we have good 
specimens of the so-called “ Alfuros,” or mixed Malayo- 
Paptians of the Archipelago, from sketches by M. Rosen- 
berg, reproduced in his “ Malay Archipelago,’ vol. ii. 
p. 401. The Vanikoro chief (Fig. 8), from Stanford’s 
“Australasia,’? p. 476, represents a pure Melanesian 
head, extremely narrow and high, with long straight, but 
somewhat broad (platyrhine) nose and frizzly hair. In 
this front view the prognathism and dolichocephaly are 
of course not so perceptible as they would be in pro- 
file. The Motu youth (Fig. 9), from ‘Stone’s work, “A 
Few Months in New Guinea’’ (Sampson Low and Co.), 
illustrates the sub-Paptian East type, the moppy head 
being thoroughly Paptian, while the broad face, implying 
brachycephaly, must be referred to Sawaiori influences. 
The Motu people occupy a strip of about sixty miles on 
the south-east coast of New Guinea about Port Moresby, 
and speak a language of the Sawaiori type, apparently 
more allied to Samoan than to Malay. O. C. Stone’s 
statement that they reckon up to ore million must be 
received with caution, for the Samoans themselves cannot 
get beyond 10,000, while the Malays draw the line at 
100,000. The familiar Maori (New Zealand) head (Fig. 
10), from Stanford’s ‘Australasia,’’ p. 565, seems to 
support the now generally accepted view that the Maoris 
are not pure brown Polynesians, but a mixture of Raro- 
tongans (Sawaiori stock) and Melanesians, the former 
predominating. According to some of their traditions on 
their arrival, probably some 600 years ago, they found 
the islands occupied by an aboriginal people, who must 
have been Melanesians, and who were partly exterminated 
and partly absorbed. j 

In point of culture the Paptians take a far higher place 
not only than the Negritoes and Australians, but even 
than most of the African Negroes. They build houses 
preferably on piles, cultivate the land with great care and 
intelligence, are everywhere settled in fixed tribal com- 
munities governed by well-understood usages. Alfred R. 
Wallace, a careful observer of this race, ranks them intel- 
lectually higher even than the Malays, accounting for their 
social inferiority by their less favourable surroundings 
and remoteness from the civilising influences of more 
highly-cultured peoples. A very pleasing account is given 
by Cook of his visit to the New Caledonians, who are 
geoerally regarded as an unfavourable branch of the 


De-. 30, 1880 | 


family. He describes the land about the villages as “finely 
cultivated, being laid out in sugar-canes, plantations, 
yams, and other roots, and watered by little rills con- 
ducted by art from the main stream, whose source was in 
the hills. . . . Some roots were baking on a fire in an 
earthern jar which would have held six or eight gallons ; 
nor did we doubt its being their own manufacture.” And 
further on : “The plantations were laid out out with great 
judgment, and cultivated with much labour.’ The re- 
ference to earthenware is curious, because the Polyne- 
sians are generally supposed to be ignorant of the potter’s 
art. But a taste for art in general, and especially for 
decoration, is one of the most distinguishing features of 
the Paptians. Their arms, idols, houses, boats, and other 
objects are often adorned with very tasteful and elaborate 
designs, and some of their tatooing presents extremely 
elegant patterns. They have domesticated the pig, dog, 
and poultry, and they cultivate the yam, sweet potato, 
banana, sugar-cane, taro, bread-fruit, and mango. 
Amongst their arms, besides the spear and bow, are the 
bamboo blowpipe, and flint knives and axes like those of 
the neolithic age in Europe. Cannibalism seems to be 
extremely rare in the West and in New Guinea, but until 
suppressed was universal in New Zealand and Fiji, and 
is still prevalent in New Britain and many other parts of 
Melanesia. From this division of the family it seems to 
have passed to the brown Polynesians, many of whom 
were formerly addicted to the practice. It reached its 
climax in Fiji when, shortly before the annexation of 
these islands to Great Britain, a whole tribe was con- 
demned to be roasted alive and eaten. As they were too 
numerous to be consumed at one meal, it was arranged 
that at the annual taro harvest one family should be baked 
and eaten with that esculent, and the arrangement was 
scrupulously carried out until the annexation seasonably 
intervened to save a remnant of the tribe (De Azcz). 
A. H. KEANE 


(To be continued.) 


PROF. HUXLEY ON EVOLUTION 


AE the meeting of the Zoological Society on December 

14, among the papers read was one by Prof. Huxley on 

the application of the laws of evolution to the arrangement 

of the vertebrata, and more particularly of the mammalia. 

We take the following report of the paper from the 
Times :— 

Prof. Huxley began by saying :—There is evidence, the 
value of which has not been disputed, and which, in my 
judgment, amounts to proof, that, between the commence- 
ment of the Tertiary epoch and the present time, the group 
of the Equide has been represented by a series of forms, 
of which the oldest is that which departs least from the 
general type of structure of the higher mammalia, while 
the latest is that which most widely differs from that type. 
In fact, the earliest known equine animal possesses four 
complete sub-equal digits on the fore-foot, three on the 
hind-foot ; the ulna is complete and distinct from the 
radius ; the fibula is complete and distinct from the tibia; 
there are forty-four teeth, the full number of canines 
being present, and the cheek-teeth having short crowns 
with simple patterns and early-formed roots. The latest, 
on the other hand, has only one complete digit on each 
foot, the rest being represented by rudiments; the ulna is 
reduced and partially ankylosed with the radius ; the fibula 
is still more reduced and partially ankylosed with the tibia ; 
the canine teeth are partially or completely suppressed in 
the females; the first cheek-teeth usually remain un- 
developed, and when they appear are very small; the 
other cheek-teeth have long crowns, with highly com- 
plicated patterns and late-formed roots. The Equide of 
intermediate ages exhibit intermediate characters. With 
respect to the interpretation of these facts, two hypotheses, | 
and only two, appear tobe imaginable. The one assumes 


NATURE 


that these successive forms of equine animals have come 
into existence independently of one another. The other 
assumes that they are the result of the gradual modifi- 
cation undergone by the successive members of a 
continuous line of ancestry. As I am not aware that 
any zoologist maintains the first hypothesis, I do 
not feel called upon to discuss it. The adoption 
of the second, however, is equivalent to the accept- 
ance of the doctrine of evolution so far as horses 
are concerned, and, in the absence of evidence to 
the contrary, I shall suppose that it is accepted. 

Since the commencement of the Eocene epoch, the ani- 
mals which constitute the family of the Equid have under- 
gone processes of modification of three kinds : (1) there has 
been an excess of development of one part of the oldest 
form over another; (2) certain parts have undergone 
complete or partial suppression ; (3) parts originally dis- 
tinct have coalesced. Employing the term “law’’ simply 
in the sense of a general statement of facts ascertained by 
observation, I shall speak of these three processes by 
which the Eohippus form has passed into Equus as the 
expression of a three-fold law of evolution. It is of pro- 
found interest to remark that this law, or generalised 
statement of the nature of the ancestral evolution of the 
horse, is precisely the same as that which formulates the 
process of individual development in animals generally, 
from the period at which the broad characters of the 
group to which an animal belongs are discernible onwards. 
After a mammalian embryo, for example, has taken on its 
general mammalian characters, its further progress towards 
its special form is effected by the excessive growth of one 
part in relation to another, by the arrest or suppression of 
parts already formed, and by the coalescence of parts 
primarily distinct. This coincidence of the laws cf 
ancestral and individual development, creates a strong 
confidence in the general validity of the former, and a 
belief that we may safely employ it in reasoning deduc- 
tively from the known to the unknown. The astronomer 
who has determined three places of a new planet calcu- 
lates its place at any epoch, however remote ; and, if the 
law of evolution is to be depended upon, the zoologist 
who knows a certain length of the course of that evolution 
in any given case, may with equal justice reason back- 
wards to the earlier, but unknown stages. Applying this 
method to the case of the horse, I do not see that there is 
any reason to doubt that the Eocene Equid were pre- 
ceded by Mesozoic forms, which differed from Eohippus 
in the same way as Eohippus differs from Equus. And 
thus we are ultimately led to conceive of a first form of 
the equine series, which, if the law is of general validity, 
must need have been provided with five sub-equal digits 
on each plantigrade foot, with complete, sub-equal ante- 
brachial and crural bones, with clavicles, and with, at 
fewest, forty-four teeth, the cheek-teeth having short 
crowns and simple-ridged or tuberculated patterns. More- 
over, since Marsh’s investigations have shown that the 
older forms of any given mammalian group have less- 
developed cerebral hemispheres than the later, there is a 
primé facie probability that this primordial hippoid had a 
low form of brain. Further, since the existing horse 
has a diffuse allantoic placentation, the primary form 
could not have presented a higher, and may have pos- 
sessed a lower, condition of the various modes by which 
the feetus derives nourishment from the parent. Such 
an animal as this, however, woull find no place in 
any of our systems of classification of the mammalia. It 
would come nearest to the Lemuroidea and the Insectivora, 
though the non-prehensile pes would separate it from the 
former, and the placentation from the latter group. 

A natural classification is one which associates together 
all those forms which are closely allied, and separates them 
from the rest. But, whether in the ordinary sense of the 
word “alliance,” or in its purely morphological sense, it 
is impossible to imagine a group of animals more closely 


204 


NATURE 


| Dec. 30, 1880 


allied than our primordial hippoids are with their de- 
scendants. Yet, according to existing arrangements, the 
ancestors would have to be placed in one order of the 
class of mammalia and their descendants in another. It 
may be suggested that it might be as well to wait until the 
primordial hippoid is discovered before discussing the 
difficulties which will be created by its appearance. But 
the truth is that that problem is already pressing in an- 
other shape. Numerous “lemurs,’’ with marked ungulate 
characters, are being discovered in the older Tertiaries of 
the United States and elsewhere ; and no one can study 
the more ancient mammals with which we are already 
acquainted without being constantly struck with the in- 
sectivorous characters which they present. In fact, there 
is nothing in the definition of either Primates, Carnivores, 
or Ungulates, which affords any means of deciding whether 
a given fossil skeleton, with skull, teeth, and limbs almost 
complete, ought to be ranged with the Lemurs, the Insec- 
tivores, the Carnivores, or the Ungulates. 

In whatever order of mammals a sufficiently long series 
of forms has come to light. they illustrate the three-fold law 
of evolution as clearly, though perhaps not so strikingly, 
as the equine series does. Carnivores, Artiodactyles, and 
Persso-sodactyles all tend, as we trace them back through 
the Tertiary epoch, towards less modified forms which will 
fit into none of the recognised orders, but come closer to 
the Insectivora than toany other. It would, however, be 
most inconvenient and misleading to term these primor- 
dial forms Insectivora, the mammals so-called being 
themselves more or less specialised modifications of the 

- same common type, and only, in a partial and limited 
sense, representatives of that type. The root of the 
matter appears to me to be that the paleontological facts 
which have come to light in the course of the last ten or 
fifteen years have completely broken down existing taxo- 
nomical conceptions, and that the attempts to construct 
fresh classifications upon the old model are necesssarily 
futile. The Cuvieran method, which all modern classifiers 
have followed, has been of immense value in leading 
to the close investigation and the clear statement of the 
anatomical characters of animals. But its principle, the 
association into sharp logical categories defined by such 
characters, was sapped when Von Baer showed that, in 
estimating the likenesses and unlikenesses of animals, 
development must be fully taken into account ; and if the 
importance of individual development is admitted, that of 
ancestral development necessarily follows. If the end of 
all zoological classification is a clear and concise expres- 
sion of the morphological resemblances and differences 
of animals, then all such resemblances must have a taxo- 
nomic value. But they fall under three heads : (1) those 
of adult individuals ; (2) those of successive stages of 
embryological development or individual evolution ; (3) 
those of successive stages of the evolution of the species, 
or ancestral evolution, An arrangement is “natural,” 
that is, logically justifiable, exactly in so far as it ex- 
presses the relations of likenesses and unlikenesses enu- 
merated under these heads. Hence, in attempting to 
classify the Mammalia, we must take into account not 
only their adult and embryogenetic characters, but their 
morphological relations, in so far as the several forms 
represent different stages of evolution. And thus, just 
as the persistent antagonism of Cuvier and _ his school to 
the essence of Lamark’s teachings (imperfect and objec- 
tionable as these often were in their accidents) turns 
out to have been a reactionary mistake, so Cuvier’s 
no less definite repudiation of the principle of Bonnet’s 
“échelle des étres” was no less unfortunate. The 
existence of a ‘scala animantium,” is a necessary 
consequence of the [doctrine of evolution, and its 
establishment constitutes, I believe, the foundation 
of scientific taxonomy. Many years ago, in my lec- 
tures at the Royal College of Surgeons, I particularly 
insisted on the central position of the Insectivora among 


the higher Mammalia; and further study of this order 
and of the Rodentia has only strengthened my conviction 
that any one who is acquainted with the range of variation 
of structure in these groups possesses the key to every 
peculiarity which is met with in the Primates, the Carni- 
vora, and the Ungulata. Given the common plan of the 
Insectivora and of the Rodentia, and granting that the 
modifications of the structure of the limbs, of the brain, 
and of the alimentary and reproductive viscera which 
occur among them may exist and accumulate elsewhere, 
and the derivation of all Eutheria from animals which, 
except for their diffuse placentation, would be Insectivores, 
is a simple deduction from the law of evolution. I venture 
to express a confident expectation that investigation into 
the mammalian fauna of the Mesozoic epoch will, sooner 
or later, fill up the blanks which at present exist in the 
“scala mammalium.” Prof. Huxley proceeded to give 
details on which his conclusions were based, and dwelt 
on the fact that much further careful work is needed 
to clear up problems before us. 


NOTES 

WE are enabled through the courtesy of the Council of the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh to present our readers with an 
abstract of a remarkable paper by Mr. John Aitken, on 
Dust, Fog and Mist. The paper opens up new lines 
of. inquiry, and indeed a new future, to what has hitherto 
been one of the most {difficult branches of meteorology, viz. 
the investigation of the vapour of the atmosphere, which we 
may safely predict meteorologists will not be slow in following 
up. Mr. Aitken continues the prosecution of the inquiry, and 
we learn that last week he has experimented with tempera- 
tures as low as 14°'0 F. with the result that equal ly as at 
higher temperatures, there is no cloudy condensation when there 
is no dust ; but, when there is dust, cloudy condensation takes 
place on the dust nuclei, the amount of cloudiness being of 
course relatively small at such low temperatures on account of 
the small amount of vapour present. Taken along with Prof. 
Lister’s experiments, in which it was shown that a single 
drop of rain developed organisms in sensitive solutions which 
would otherwise have remained for months unaltered, it shows 
that germ-producing matter, or germs themselves, form at 
least a part of the cloud- and fog-producing dust. Hence a 
cotton-wool respirator may prove a protection against disease. 
We have said enough tofshow that the paper is one of interest, 
not only to the physicist and the meteorologist, but also (and 
perhaps even specially) to the physiologist and the sanitarian, 


We are pleased to learn that Dr. W. De La Rue, F.R.S., 
has been chosen a Corresponding Member of the Paris Academy 
of Sciences in the Section of Astronomy. 


BARON DE CHAuDoIR, Mr. McLachlan, and Baron C. R. 
Osten-Sacken have been elected honorary members of the Ento- 
mological Society of Belgium, filling the vacancies in the list 
caused by the deaths of Dr. Boisduval, M. Mulsant, and Dr. 
Snellen van Vollenhoven. 


Ir is proposed to hold a meeting of the Association for the 
Improvement of Geometrical Teaching on ‘Friday, January 7, 
in the Botanical Theatre of University College, Gower Street, 
at Ira.m, The sub-committees appointed January 11, 1878, 
have prepared, and circulated amongst the members, draft 
syllabuses of solid geometry, higher plane geometry, and geo- 
metrical conics, and will present their Reports at the meeting. 
All persons interested in the elementary teaching of geometry 
are invited to attend. 


AccorbDING to a resolution of the St. Petersburg Society of 
Naturalists, the work of Prof. Wagner on ‘‘Medusce and 


Dec. 30, 1880] 


NATURE 


205 


Hydroids of the White Sea,” will be published in German and 
French, with fifty tables of engravings. 


THE Peabody Academy of Science (Salem, Massachusetts, 
U.S.A.), after a forced suspension of its publications for six 
years, announces that the AZemoirs will be resumed at an early 
date. 


Dr. Hoek of Leiden writes us that a first part of the Zoo- 
logical Results of the Dutch Arctic Cruises with the 60-ton 
Schooner /Villem Barents will shortly be published, These re- 
sults—a preliminary report of which Mr, D’Urban has given in 
the October number of the Axz. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.—will 
be published as an extra volume of the Mrederlindisches 
Archiv. fiir Zoologie (Leiden, E. T. Brill). The different 
articles will be written in English, French, or German, and the 
distribution of the material has been as follows :—Sponges, Dr. 
G. C. J. Vosmaer; Echinoderms, Prof. C. K. Hoffmann; 
Hydroids and Polyzoa, Dr. W. J. Vigelius ; Nemertineans, Dr. 
A. A. W. Hubrecht; other Worms, Dr. R. Horst ; Pycno- 
gonids and Crustaceans, Dr. P. P. C. Hoek ; Lamellibranchiate 
Mollusks, Mr. D. van Haren Noman; Gastropodous Mollusks, 
Mr. Th. W. van Lidth de Jeude; Fishes, Dr. A. A. W. 
Hubrecht; Birds, Prof. H. Schlegel. The first part contains 
the Worms, the Pycnogonids, the Lamellibranchiate Mollusks, 
the Fishes, and a description of the only mammal captured, and 
will be issued before the end of January. 


Tue death is announced of Prof. Karl B. Heller of the K.K, 
Theresianum at Vienna, a naturalist well known by his numerous 
writings. 

Reports from Honolulu describe an eruption of the Mauna 
Loa Volcano (Hawai) as the grandest which has ever been 
observed. It began on November 5 at some nine kilometres 
distance from the suminit of the crater. The eruption of lava 
was accompanied by terrible explosions. 


EARTHQUAKES are reported (1) from Brescia, where a shock 
was observed on December Io in the afternoon ; (2) from Schloss 
Trakostyan and environs (inthe mountains of Northern Croatia), 
where three violent shocks occurred in the night of December 
10-11 ; (3) from Smyrna, where, on December 12 at 9.40 p.m., 
a tolerably powerful shock was noticed. On the 23rd inst., 
about 5 p.m., a shock of earthquake was felt at Bucharest, 
Rustchuk, Kustendje, Galatz, Berlad, and Jassy. In the 
night of December 16-17 two earthquake shocks were felt in 
Agram, in close succession, about Ir pm. About the same 
-hour shocks were observed in various parts of Carniola and 
Styria, e.g. in Gurkfeld at 11.4 and 11.9 p.m., in Grossontag, 
near Friedau, three quickly-successive shocks; in Pragerhof two 
pretty sharp shocks; in Peltau and in Marburg one strong shock 
each. In Csakathurn (Hungary) and neighbourhood strong 
earthquake motions were likewise observed the same night 
about 11.20 p.m. In the night of December 21-22 shocks 
were again felt in Agram, of which one about I a.m, 
was pretty violent. In the environs of Agram slight earth- 
vibrations are still censtantly being experienced. At about 
ten minutes past five o’clock p.m. on December 25 two rather 
severe shocks of earthquake occurred at Odessa within a 
very short interval of each other. They appear to have come 
from the direction of the Middle Danube, and, passing through 
Roumania and Bessarabia, spent themselves here on the shores 
of the Black Sea in South Russia, They seem to have been 
most strongly felt at the Bessarabian towns of Bieletz, Kishineff, 
and Tiraspol, for the walls of some of the houses were cracked 
in consequence, At Odessa the effects were limited to buildings 
and furniture being more ox less roughly shaken, or light articles 
such as vases, bottles, and glasses, being thrown down. The 
weather was extremely mild and calm at the time, and the sky 
but very partially clouded. 


FAus’s theory is gaining in favour with the population, 
especially as he predicted fresh earthquakes in the Agram region 
from December 15 to 31. Falb has enunciated his theory in a 
newly-published popular work entitled “ Die Umwalzungen im 
Weltall”” (Revolutions in the Universe). These are treated 
under three heads: (1) in the star regions; (2) in the region of 
clouds ; and (3) in the depths of the earth. 


THE tomb of Immanuel Kant at Kénigsberg will soon be 
decorated in a worthy manner. Upon a suitable pedestal a 
marble bust of the great philosopher will be placed. The bust 
is the work of Prof, Siemering. 


“ALLERLEL gesammelte ornithologische Beobachtungen ” is 
the title of a new book from the pen of Rudolf, Crown Prince 
of Austria, just published in a limited number of copies, which 
have been presented by the author to his friends. 


A MONUMENT of the celebrated ornithologist Naumann was 
recently unveiled in the Schlossgarten at K6then upon the 
occasion of the centenary of Naumann’s birth. 


THE German Fisheries Union have, according to the proposal 
of Prof. Nitsche of Tharand, resolved to offer a prize of 500 
marks (25/.) for the best treatise on the following subject :—Of 
the ova of fish which are sown out for breeding, and particularly 
of the ova of the Salmonide, a large percentage is completely 
destroyed by fungi, well-known to pisciculturists as byssus or 
“mould,” and belonging partly to the family of Schizomycetz 
and partly to that of Saprolegniaces. A detailed botanical 
description of the respective genera and species, their biology 
and propagation, as well as an account of the manner of their 
introduction into the pisczicultural apparatus, of the conditions 
which favour their development and of the way in which they 
destroy the ovum, is now required. At the same time the ques- 
tions are to be discussed whether and by what means it would be 
possible to prevent their introduction, and what measures would 
best stop 2 continued spreading of the evil when once introduced 
into a breeding place. ‘The treatises are to be sent, under the 
usual formalities, to the office of the German Fisheries Union, 
9, Leipziger Platz, Berlin. The competition for the prize is to 
be an international one, and the treatises may be written in 
German, English, or French. The final term is October 1, 
1882. 

WE have received specimens of the diaries published by 
Messrs. De La Rue. While their beauty and convenience com- 
mend them to everybody, they ought to be of special value to 
lovers of science, as they contain so many scientific data. Their 
get-up and general utility are beyond praise. 


THE Comptes vendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences for 
December 20 is entirely occupied with the discourses pronounced 
at the funeral of M. Michel Chasles by representatives of the 
various bodies with which the deceased member was connected— 
MM. J. Bertrand, Bouquet, Laussedat, Dumas, and Rolland. 


At the last meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of 
Gardening M. Grigorieff made an interesting communication 
on Japanese gardens. The Japanese are most passionate lovers 
of gardening, which is carried on by all classes of society, 
from the great palaces to the most humble houses, Gardening, 
as well as the art of making bouquets, is taught in schools, and 
nowhere else in Europe are there so many gardens as in Japan. 
The species cultivated in the small private gardens are mostly 
miniature representatives of great trees. All new species and 
varieties of garden flowers and trees are sold at high prices and 
become known throughout the country with great rapidity. M. 
Grigorieff exhibited during his lecture a most interesting collec- 
tion of photographs of Japanese gardens. 


Tre Russian scientific bodies continue to express their 
sympathy with Prof, Mendeleeff on the occasion of the refusal 


206 


NATURE 


| Dec. 30, 1880 


by the Academy of Sciences to admit him as Member of that 
body. The Russian Chemical and Physical Society, while 
electing him Honorary Member, has presented him with an 


address in which it is stated that the Society considers him ‘‘to | 


“bea chemist who has no equal among Russian chemists.” Many 
scientific bodies, as the University of Kieff, the Society of 
Hygiene, &c., have elected him Honorary Member or President. 
A public subscription has been opened for the institution of a 
prize bearing his name, and a great dinner was given in his 
honour by the St. Petersburg savants, among whom we notice 
the most eminent Russian Members of the Academy of Sciences. 
It is worthy of notice that Professors Korkin and Setchenoff, as 
well as the late M. Ililferding, the Panslavist explorer of 
Slavonian literature, met at the hands of the Academy of 
Sciences the same fate as M. Mendeleeff. 


THE law for the isolation of the French National Library has 
been adopted by both Houses of the French Parliament, and 
the necessary expropriation for the great work will begin imme- 
diately. 


AT a recent sitting the Municipal Council of Paris voted a 
sum of 4oo0/. for the establi:hment of a School of Chemistry. 
It will be opened free to the pupils of the several Municipal 
schools who are de irous of practice in chemical in lustrie:. 


THE French Government is to establish in Egypt a school of 
Egyptol gy, which will be directed by M. Maspero, now Pro- 
fessor of Egyptology to the College of France. This creation 
will be the third school established abroad at the expense of the 
French Budget. The two others are one at Rome and the other 
at Athens. 


‘Tue Thirteenth Annual Report of the Eastbourne Natural | 


History Society testifies to the Society’s continued prosperity. 


discordances in the estimates of the magnitude of this star in the 


various catalogues. Dembowski has directed attention to the 
probable variability of the principal component, and the star 
certainly de-erves more regular attention at the hands of obser- 
vers than it has yet received. R.A. Sh. 54m. 58s., N.P.D. 
38° 25'°5. The estimated magnitudes vary from 5°5 to 8. 

6, Attention may be once more directed to the star which 
Riimker compared with Encke’s comet at Paramatta, N.S. W., 
on June 19, 1822, and wi.ich he rated at the time 4°5._ Whether 
it really attains this degree of brightness is not yet certain ; it is 
however 60 in the Uranometria Argentina, and was observed as 
low as 8m. in 1873. The B.D. says 65. Its light is a full 
yellow. R.A. 7h. 23m. 15s., N.P.D. 91° 39'°5. 

7. 65 6? Geminorum. k.A, 7h. 22m. 21s., N.P.D. 61° 503. 
Lalande rated this star as low as 8$ in March, 1794, but calls it 
52 in February following. Bessel estimated it 7; all other 
observers say 5 or 5°6. 

8. 16 Leonis Minoris, R.A. 9h. 42m. 51s., N.P.D. 49° 487. 
D’Agelet has 5 and 7°8, Lalande 63, Piazzi 8, the first Radcliffe 


| Catalogue 6°6, Bessel, Taylor, and the B.D, 7, Houzeau 5°6, but 


neither Argelander nor Heis included it amongst the stars 


| virible to the naked eye. 


9. Lalande 19034. R.A. gh. 34m. 49s., N.P.D. 113° 27. 
It appears strange that a star i olated as this is should not have 
been more frequently observed on the meridian, if always as 
bright as say 5m. D’Agelet and Piazzi have not got it ; Lalande 
calls it 44 on March 21, 1797; Argelander has 6 on March 6, 
1850, 4 on February 16, 1851, and 5 on March 8, 1852; Heis and 
Houzeau call it 5, and Gould 5°2. 

If we may rely upon the observations of Kirch early in the 
last century there would appear to be sensible changes in the 
relative brightness of 6 and 8 Scorpii ; on January 17, 1704, he 
writes: ‘*B und 6 erschienen fast im gleicher Grosse, jedoch & 
ein wenig heller (ietzt ist 8 2, 5 3 gro<se),” while on April 1 
following he records ‘3 merklich grosser als 6.” Argelander 


_and Heis estimate 8 and 6 re-pectively 2 ard 2°3 ; Gould has 


no sensible difference. 


to, Lalande 38405. R.A. 20b. om. 16s., N.P.D. 94° 45'°4. 


| This star was rated 6 on July 15, 1794, 7 on August 15, 8 on 


At the meeting of November 19 Dr. Royston Pigott read an | 


interesting paper on ‘‘ The Limits of Human Vision.” 


THE Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History and Philo- 
sophical Society for 1878-So contains, besides several general 
papers, a few natural history-papers of local interest, including 
one (with illustrations) on Irish Spiders, by Mr. Thomas 
Workman. 


A BALNEOLOGICAL and a patent-j rotection exbibition w-l te 
held at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1881. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


VARIABLE S'rars.—Amongst the stars which, from a com- 
parison of the various catalogues, exhibit more or less strongly 
signs of variability, may be mentioned the following, which we 


take in order of right ascension ; the positions are for the year | 


1880 :— 


1. Lalande 2037-8. R.A. th. 3n. 24s,, N.P.D. 38° 30's. 


On September 29, 1790, Lalande rated this star Iom., and on | 
December 27 following, 8°9; the B.D. (by which letters we | 
refer to the Bonn Durchmusterung) has 70, Harding marks it | 


a ninth, 

2. 40 Cassioper, R.A. th. 28m. 57s., N.P.n 
Lalande calls this star 4m, in September, 1789, and 6 i 
1790. In Argelander’s zone No. 167 on January 14, 1843, i 
was estimated 7, yet in the B.D, it is 5°2. “In the first Radcliffe 
catalogue, where great attention was given to the magnitudes, it 
is 4°7; Piazzi has 6, Groombridge 56, and Heis the :ame. 

3. Lalande 4864-5. R.A. 2h. 32m, 15s., N.P.D. 40° 57’. 


Estimated 9 in September, 1790, and 74 in January following ; | 


but it has since been discerned with 
it6-7. The B.D. has 6°7. It is not in Houzeau, 

4. Bradley 396. R.A. 2h. 53m. 13s., N.P.D. 8° 59/8. 
Lalande rated this star 4°5 in November, 1789, and 7 in March, 
1790. Groombridge, who made six observations for position, 
poueeted it 7, Heis and Carrington 6, while it is 5°5 in the 


the naked eye, Heis calling 


5. 35 Camelopardi. We have already referred to the marked 


ells 


August 20, and 74 on August 30 of the following year. It is 8 
in Bessel, 7 in Wolfer’s map, one of the series of the Berlin 
Academy, and 6°7 in Heis and Houzeau. Gould does not give 
It mizht be inferred from Lalande’s observations that the 
period is not very long. : 

11. 33 Capricorni. Chacornac says of this star: ‘‘ Observée 
tantot plus brillante, tantot mvins qu’une etoile de 7™* grandeur 
dont elle est voisine :” the seventh magnitude alluded to being, it 
may be presumed, O.A,. 21386, which follows 2m. 12s., 9’"4 to 
the south. 33 Capricorni is 5°6 in Argelander, 6°5 in Heis and 
Behrmann, and 5°7 in Gould ; it is one of Chacornae’s red stars, 
Gould also calls it red. The evidence of variability in this case 
seems to rest with Chacornac. R.A. 21th. 17m. 21s., N.P.D. 
LNLa 2heahe 

12. 17 1 Andromedz, a star previously noted in this column 
as variable. In the ‘‘ British Catalogue” it is rated 4; Bradley 
and Piazzi call it 7; Lalande’s three estimates are 5, 5 and 4; 
D’Agelet has 3°4 and 6; the first Radcliffe catalogue 379, and 
the B.D, 4:2; e-timates from 4 to 7 are therefore sufficiently 
confirmed: the variation may be slow, but the star certainly 
deserves attentim. R.A. 23h. 32m, 15s., N.P.D. 47° 24’"1. 

THE Comer 1873 VII.—The comet discovered by Coggia at 
Marseilles on Nove.nber 10 and by Winnecke on November 11 
was soon lost in Europe from its rapid southerly motion ; indeed 
the observations extend over less than a week. The elements 
exhibited a similarity to those which had been assigned to a 
comet detected by Pons in February, 1818, but very imperfectly 
observed, and Prof. Weiss, the present director of the Imperial” 
Observatory at Vienna, was at the trouble of examining the 
question of possible identity as closely as the data permitted. He 
formed three normal positions from the small number of observa- 
tions—for November 11, 13, and 15—and under the condition 
that the first and third normal, should be exactly represented he 
a certained how the second one was represented on the assump- 
tion (1) that the orbit was parabolic; (2) that the period of revo- 
lution corresponded to the interval between the perihelion- 


| pas ages in 1818 and 1873, or 55°82 years; and (3) that the 


comet had completed eight revolutions in this interval, or that 
the period extends only to 6°977 years. As a matter of figures 
the agreement was found to be slightly closer for hypothesis (3) 
than for the other two, the parabola showing the largest differ- 


Dec. 30, 1880} 


NATURE 


207 


ence. Hence so far as the paucity of data in 1873 enabled any 
judgment to be formed, the preference appeared to belong to the 
revolution in 6°977 years. On this supposition there would be 
a very near approach to the orbit of Jupiter near the ascending 
node, which would render possible an amount of perturbation 
at some past time, that might have fixed the comet in an orbit of 
such limited dimensions. 

If the comet were really revolving in an elliptical orbit with 
this period of revolution, neglecting perturbations, which might 
however be sensible since 1873, it would be again due at peri- 
helion about November 24 in the present year, in which case its 
track in the heavens would not be very different from that 
followed in 1873. We are not aware if any search has been 
made for the comet. It would have been possible to have 
decided in 1873 if a short period were admissible could observa- 
tions have been obtained in the southern hemisphere: this was 
not done, and the identity of the comets of 1818 and 1873 
remains therefore open to conjecture ; but it must be borne in 
mind that the data in the former year are in a high degree 
uncertain. 


PECHULE’s ComeT.—Elements computed by the discoverer 
from observations at Copenhagen on December 16, 17, and 20, 
have a general resemblance to those of the comet of 1807, so 
elaborately discussed by Bessel, but after his resulting period of 
many centuries, and considering the position of the orbit in the 
system, there can be of course no question of identity of these 
bodies. At Greenwich noon on January 1 the comet’s position 
will be, by Pechiile’s elements, in R.A. 20h, 1'9m., N.P.D. 
70° 24’, and on January 5 in R.A. 20h. 19°6m., N.P.D. 68° 30’. 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


MM. HAUTEFEUILLE AND CHAPPUIS, in continuing their 
investigation of the conditions under which oxygen is trans- 
formed into ozone, have shown in Compt. vend, that the 
character of the electric discharge to which the oxygen is 
subjected largely influences the quantity of ozone produced. If 
the discharge assume the character of a luminous shower the 
maximum amount of ozone is produced, the temperature of such 
a discharge being lower than that of the ordinary efuve. The 
production of this special form of discharge is ensured by mixing 
with the oxygen a small quantity of a foreign gas whose physical 


properties are dissimilar from those of oxygen; of the gases’ 


experimented with silicon fluoride has given the best resucts. 
If nitrogen be the foreign gas the transformation into ozone is 
greater than when pure oxygen is employed, but the discharge is 
not altogether luminous. Hydrogen is more effective than 
nitrogen, The presence of carbon dioxide also insures a large 
amount of ozonation. In their earlier experiments on the lique- 
faction of ozone the authors only succeeded in obtaining a mist in 
the Cailletet tube when the pressure was suddenly withdrawn, 
They now find that if a mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen 
which has been ozonised at a low temperature be submitted to 
the action of the silent discharge at — 23°, and be slightly com- 
pressed, the gas acquires a deep blue colour, and after a time a 
blue liquid is produced. At — 88° the liquid is very dark blue. 
When carbon dioxide is decomposed by the electric spark at 
— 23° a blue gas is produced, and at a certain pressure (exact 
pressure is not mentioned) the undecomposed carbon dioxide 
condenses to a blue coloured liquid. By this experiment the 
authors think they have proved that ozone is one of the products 
of the decomposition, by the spark, of carbon dioxide. 


THE heat of formation of benzene has recently been measured 
by Thomsen (Berliner Berichte) and by Berthelot (Compt. rend.), 
The results show considerable differences : but from the accounts 
of the experiments, Thomsen’s number seems the more trust- 
worthy. For the heat of combustion of gaseous benzene Thom- 
sen finds the number 805,800 heat units ; Berthelot the number 
776,000. For the heat of formation of gaseous benzene, at 
constant volume, from amorphous carbon and hydrogen, Thom- 
sen finds — 20,120 heat units; Berthelot, on the other hand, 
finds + 5800. Berthelot does not state whether this number is 
calculated for constant volume or constant pressure. Thomsen 
makes certain theoretical deductions from the value which he 
has found for the heat of formation of benzene, basing these on 
his calculations for the heat of formation of ‘*singly- and 
doubly-linked” carbon atoms (see NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 608) : 
he concludes that the generally accepted hexagon formula for 


benzene is probably incorrect, and that a formula in which each 
carbon atomis ‘‘singly linked” to three others is to be preferred. 


BERTHELO? finds the heat of formation of gaseous dipro- 
pargyl—C, H,—a metamer of benzene—from amorphous carbon 
to be — 64,800 heat units. The instability and easy polymerisa- 
tion of this body are explained by the great absorption of heat 
which occurs in its formation. Attempts to transform dipro- 
pargyl into benzene were unsuccessful. Berthelot has also 
determined the heats of formation of various hydrocarbons, and 
finds certain constant differences between the successive members 
of homologoas series. 


Herr V. Meyer describes in the Berliner Berichte a very 
elegant modification of his method of determining vapour densi- 
ties, whereby the specific gravities of permanent gases may be 
ret.dily measured at very high temperatures. At the highest 
temperature of a Schlising’s furnace (about 1400’) the density 
of hydrogen vapour was normal. It has now been shown that 
the coefficients of expansion of the following gases are not 
changed at very high temperatures: tellurium, sulphur, nitrogen, 
oxygen, hydrogen, mercury, carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid, 
arsenious oxide. 


Tue following numbers for the vapour densities of tellurium 
and selenium have been recently obtained by Deville and Troost 
(Compt. rend.) :—Selenium at 1420° = 5°68 (calculated = 5°54), 
tellurium at 1440° = 9’0, at 13g0° = 9'08 (calculated,= 8°93). 


In the Wien. Acad. Berichte Herr Offer describes the results 
of experiments which he thinks show that Guthrie’s cryohydrates 
are merely mixtures of various salts and ice: alcohol dissolves 
the ice, leaving a ‘‘skeleton” of undissolved salt; cold water 
dissolves the salt, and leaves the ice with the form of the cryo- 
hydrate. Solution of a eryohydrate is attended with the same 
thermal change as solution of the salt and ice separately. 


THE connection which exists between the opium and cinchona 
alkaloids, and between both of these groups of compounds and 
pyridine, has been recently made more apparent by the work of 
Herr E. v. Gerichten (Berliner Berichte), who has shown ,that 
the so-called apophyllenic acid—obtained by oxidising the opium 
alkaloid cotarnine—is really the acid methyl salt of pyridine dicar- 
boxylic acid, which acid is obtained from the cinchona alkaloid 
cinchonine, and which when heated with lime yields pyridine. 


WHEN an aqueous solution of potassium, sodium, cr lithium 
chloride, or potassium nitrate is kept for some time in a vertical 
tube, the upper part of which is maintained at a considerably 
higher temperature than the lower part, diffusion of the salt from 
the hotter to the colder part occurs, according to M. C. Soret 
(Naturforscher). The amount of diffusion in a given time 
depends upon the original concentration of the solution, and is 
also connected with the molecular weight of the salt used. 


M. Durer stated some little time since that the refractive 
index of a mixture of isomorphous salts in solution is equal to 
the mean of the indices of the components. Herr Fock (in 
Zeitschrifc fiir Crystallographie) concludes, from measurements 
of the refractive indices of solutions of thallium and potassium 
alums, of lead and strontium thiosulphate, and of magnesium 
chromate and sulphate, that Dufet’s statement does not hold 
good in all cases: for the second pair of salts mentioned above 
it is approximately correct. In Compt. rend. Dufet gives num- 
bers showing that his statement applies to a mixture of magne- 
sium and zinc sulphates. 


In Compt. rend. M. Demarcay describes two new compounds 
containing sulphur, nitrogen, and chlorine, viz., SNCl and 
(SN),Cl: the former prepared by passing chlorine into a solution 
of nitrogen sulphide in chloroform, and the latter by adding 
nitrogen sulphide to a solution, in chloroform, of the compound 
SNCI. SNClL is partly decomposed by heat, in accordance with 
the equa ion 2SNCl =N, + SoCs. 


Tue relation between the total energy developed in the 
chemical reactions which occur in various kinds of galvanic 
batteries and the energy which appears in the form of current 
electricity, has been recently studied by Thomsen (Wiedemann’s 
Annalen) using a thermal method of measuring the total energy. 
He finds that the whole of the energy developed in the chemical 
chanye appears as electric energy in Daniell’s battery (with 
closed circuit), and in those forms of batteries in which the 
metallic surface of the negative electrode is not changed by the 
electrolytic process ; when nitric acid is used as electrolyte the 
same total conversion of one into another form of energy is 


208 


NATURE 


[ Dee. 30, 1880 


nearly realised, but the gradual absorption, by the liquid, of 
reduction products, tends to cause a deviation from this result. 


BERTHELOT has recently studied (Compt. rend.) the action of 
air and of hydrochloric acid in presence of air, on pure mercury. 
He confirms the generally accepted fact that pure mercury is 
very slowly and superficially oxidised by the action of air at 
ordinary temperatures. If gaseous hydrochloric acid is shaken 
with mercury in presence of air mercurous chloride and water 
are produced. This reaction (Hg,+2HCl+O=Hg,Cl, + H,0) 
is attended with the evolution of 53,400 thermal units, whereas 
the oxidation of mercury (Hg + O = HgO) is attended with 
the evolution of only 21,100 units. The action of hydrochloric 
acid in presence of air on copper (Cu, + 2HCl + O = 
Cu,Cl, + H,O) is accompanied by the evolution of 26,500 
thermal units, hydrochloric acid in absence of air is, as is well 
known, almost without action on metallic copper, 


IN the course of his investigation into the action of phosphorus 
on hydriodic acid, Damoisean (Compt. vend.) describes a method 
for preparing phosphonium iodide in a state sufficiently pure for 
general use. ‘Ten parts ordinary phosphorus in small pieces are 
allowed to react for some time on twenty-two parts of anaqueous 
solution of hydriodic acid (saturated in the cold); two parts 
iodine are added, and the phosphorous acid which is produced is 
separated from the crystals of phosphonium iodide by washing 
with aqueous hydriodic acid. 


A SERIES of compounds, derived from monohy@ric alcohols, in 
which the ‘‘hydroxylic hydrogen” of the alcohol is replaced by 
aluminium, is described (Chem. Mews) by Gladstone and Tribe. 
These bodies are prepared by the action of aluminium in presence 
of aluminium iodide on the alcohol. The new substances are 
solids, melting to clear liquids which do not solidify at tempera- 
tures much below the melting points of the solids; they are 
decomposed by water with formation of aluminium hydrate and 
the corresponding alcohol. 

THE sulphides of vanadium have been investigated by Kay 
(Chem. Soc. Jouin.). The compounds obtained by Berzelius by 
the acticn of sulphuretted hydrogen on solutions of vanadium 
salts are shown to contain oxygen in addition to vanadium and 
sulphur, but no definite formula can be assigned to any of these 
bodies. Vanadium trisulplide V,S, is obtained by the action of 
dry sulphuretted hydrogen on heated vanadium trioxide, as 
described by Berzelius. When this compound is heated to bright 
redness in hydrogen, it is reduced to the disulphide V,S», and 
when heated with sulphur to 4oo° it is converted into the 
pentasulphide V,S,. 

In the Chem. Soc. Journ, Kingzett describes experiments on 
the atmospheric oxidation of phosphorus which seem to prove 
that ozone and hydrogen peroxide are simultaneously produced 
when air is drawn over phosphorus partially immersed in water. 


Many so-called basic sulphates of iron have been from time 
to time described: of the fifteen which are generally recognised 
as probably existing it would appear from Pickering’s experi- 
ments (Chem. Soc. Journ.) that only one, viz. 2Fe,O3.SO,, 
actually exists. 

Dr. SYDNEY MARSDEN has recently experimented on the 
action of boron on various metals at high temperatures. He 
finds (Proc. R. S. Edin. and Chem. Soc. Journ.) that silver dis- 
solves amorphous boron, and that on cooling, pure boron is 
obtained partly in the graphitoidal, partly in the adamantine 
form, Copper combines with boron to form the compound 
B, Cu. 

Pror, BELLATI has published in pamphlet form, under the 
title ‘‘ Proprieta termiche notevoli di aleuni Ioduri doppi,” an 
extended and careful series of observations of the specific gravities, 
specific heats, thermal expansions, and thermal changes which 
accompany changes of colour and structure, of several double 
iodides of mercury, more especially of the three salts HgI,. 2AgI, 
HglI, . 3AglI, and Hgl,. Cugl,. 

Herr Haass describes in the Berliner Berichte a simple 
method of illustrating the existence of the so-called “ critical 
pressure ” described in this journal by Carnelley. A small piece 
of mercuric chloride is placed in a glass tube which is closed at 
one end, and communicates at the other with a Bunsen pump. 
So long as the manometer registers less than about 400mm, 
pressure it is not possible to melt the mercuric chloride by heating 
it; the salt passes at once from the solid to the gaseous state. 


But immediately the pressure rises above about 420mm, the 
mercuric chloride melts. 


In studying the condensation products of aldehyde Prof. 
Lieben has obtained (Wied. Akad. Ber.) a new alcohol belonging 
to the same series as glycerin, viz. C,H,(OH)3. The new com- 
pound, called butenyl glycerin by Lieben, is a syrupy, sweet- 
tasting liquid, soluble in water, boiling at 172°-175" under a 
pressure of 27mm, It forms a triacetin analogous in properties 
to the natural fats ; when heated with oxalic acid its behaviour is 
similar to that of glycerin : formic acid is produced along with 
an oily, strongly-smelling substance which has not as yet been 
fully examined. v 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


Mons. A. ANGOT proposes a new formula for calculating 
altitudes from barometric observations, based upon that given 
originally by Laplace. The existing method of calculation from 
observed monthly or annual means is found, as Plantamour has 
shown, to be defective, since its results exhibit an uncertainty 
that varies with the season, an elevated station appearing to be 
higher by day and in summer than at night or in winter. As an 
example, when the height of the Great St. Bernard is measured 
by comparison of barometer observations between that place 
and Geneva, it would appear that the height of the Great St. 
Bernard exhibits a diurnal variation of 17 metres in winter and 
of more than 47 metres in summer ; while the mean of the June 
observations gives a height of 25 metres higher than that found 
from the January numbers! These anomalies M. Angot ex- 
plains by the facts that the mean temperature between the sta- 
tions is not exactly equal to the half sum of the two temperatures, 
and that the weight of the air between the two stations is on the 
other hand greater when the mean temperature is low. The 
rather complicated formula proposed by M. Angot gives the 
difference in altitude by calculating directly the height of each 
station above an imaginary plane at which the barometric pres- 
sure is equal to 760 millims. No empirical coefficients are 
needed in this case, the standard constants of Regnault and 
others for air and aqueous vapour being taken. M. Angot has 
recalculated from his formula a new set of tables, involving all 
the corrections that must be applied to the older tables of the 
Bureau des Longitudes. 


IN a recent number of the Yournal de Geneve M. Colladon 
has pointed out that a poplar or other tall tree may, if its roots 
strike into damp soil, serve as a lightning-conductor to protect a 
house ; and he thinks he has verified this conjecture by examin- 
ation of a number of individual cases of lightning-stroke. In 
the case however where the house stands between the tree and a 
piece of water, a pond or a stream, the shortest path for the 
lightning from the tree to the wet conductor may be through the 
house! 

Yvon Zocu has described a new kind of electric dust-figures, 
which he regards as having an important bearing upon the theory 
of discharges in vacua, being in opposition to the views of 
Crookes. Tubes of 1 to 3 centims. diameter, and from 10 to 30 
centims. in length, were closed at both ends by corks pierced to 
receive copper wires. In the tubes were placed various powders, 
bronze powder being chiefly used in preference to others, which 
being lighter adhered to the sides of the tube. One wire was 
then connected with the positive conductor of an electric machine ; 
from the other the repelled electricity dissipated itself into the 
air. In other cases the discharges of Leyden jars were employed. 
The experiments were all conducted at atmospheric pressure. 
When thus treated the bronze powder arranged itself in beauti- 
fully-marked ridges or strata, varying in regularity according to 
the original distribution of the powder. A space free from all 
traces of powder was observed to surround the positive pole. 
Unusually there was a corresponding accumulation about the 
negative pole. These ridges or striations may be compared to 
the stratifications observable in Geissler-tubes ; and Herr Zoch 
shows that varistions in the strength of the electric discharges, 
in the width of the tubes, &c., produce upon these figures similar 
effects to those they produce on the luminous striae of vacuous 
tubes. In this present case a mechanical repulsion of the particles 
lying near the poles undoubtedly takes place ; and the author of 
this research believes that the presence of light at the poles of 
the Geissler tube may be similarly accounted for on the hypo- 
thesis that the luminous regions are those of less density than the 
non-luminous. Since the bronze powder is heaped up_ mostly 
about the negative pole the inference is that at the negative pole 
of a Geissler tube the residual gas has a greater density than at 

: 


Dec. 30, 1880] 


NATURE 


20¢ 


F 


any other part. The stratifications produced by electric dis- 
charges through flames may be similarly explained; and these 
researches have an obvious bearing on the structure of Lichten- 
berg’s well-known figures. 

Mons. MERcaDIER has been devoting some attention to the 
subject of the photophone, and more particularly to the produc- 
tion of sounds by the simpler forms of the instrument, in which a 
selenium receiver with its electrical connections is dispensed 
with. The musical photophone—or, as M. Mercadier chooses 
to style it, the radiophone—may be described as a sort of 
optical siren, in which a rctating disk pierced with holes is 
interposed in the path of a period of rays of light, causing 
intermittences of regular period varying with the speed of the 
disk. Our readers will remember that such a beam falling on a 
simple disk of metal or of hard rubber throws it into vibration, and 


it emits a note corresponding in pitch with the frequency of the | 


intermittences of the light. In Prof. Bell’s actual instrument 
this ‘‘ siren” was a heavy disk of brass pierced with holes. M. 
Mercadier prefers a disk of black paper gummed upon a glass 
disk in order to get rid of the whistling sounds which even a 
gentle current of air produces on the brass disk. It may be 
noted in passing that M. Duboscq has independently constructed 
similar disks. The receiving disks were fixed in a suitable 
holder at the end of a short india-rubber hearing-tube. M. 
Mercadier finds that when opaque disks of zinc, copper, and 
other substances are employed to receive the beams, very little 
difference in the loudness of the sounds can be perceived, 
whether the disks are polished or not. But the thickness of the 
disks is of great importance, thin ones answering much better 
than those a little thicker. With transparent laminze such as 
glass and quartz, M. Mercadier obtains strong effects, whereas 
Prof. Bell found only feeble results with these substances. The 
degree of polish is here unimportant also ; but a film of smoke or 
white paint, or of metallic silver on the front of the disk, dimi- 
nishes its powers, while, onthe contrary, the loudness is augmented 
by blackening the back of the disk. M, Mercadier employed as 
sources of light the lime-light and flames of petroleum fed with 
oxygen. 


Herr F. Krocke has lately discovered an anomalous pro- 
perty in hyposulphite of lead in respect of its action on polarised 
light. This substance usually exhibits circularly polarised light: 
but Klocke has found that plates cut perpendicularly to the 
optic axis, when viewed in the field of a polariscope by parallel 
rays of light, appear unequally bright, being divided by dark 
bands into six sectors, of which opposite pairs are equally bright. 
In convergent light, moreover, the ordinary ring-figure of a 
uniaxial crystal is not seen, but instead there appears in each 
sector a figure of the form characteristic of the ordinary biaxial 
erystal, and having the plane of the optic axes perpendicular to 
the neighbouring edge of the crystal. The explanation of this 
curious phenomenon appears to be that there is some anomaly 
in the molecular structure of the crystals, by virtue of which the 
six portions are compressed equally each in direction ,per pen- 
dicular to the neighbouring face of the prism. 


In the Vienna Berichte for June, 1880, Victor von Lang 
describes a form of dichroiscope, in which a small improvement 
upon the common form has been made. Usually the small 
square aperture through which light is admitted to the rhomb of 
spar is fixed rigidly to the tubular holder of the latter. In the 
new form the square aperture is cut ina diaphragm fastened to 
an outer tube, which can be rotated round the inner. The 
advantages gained in permitting the rhomb of spar to be turned 
independently of the aperture are obvious. A plano-convex 
lens of small magnifying power is added as usual as an eyepiece 
at the other end of the rhomb. 


M. AmMAGAT has experimented on the compressibility of 
oxygen gas in an apparatus in which the working fluid for trans- 
mitting the pressure was mercury. Since the experiments of 
Regnault it has been commonly assumed that the absorption of 
the gas by mercury at high pressures and temperatures rendered 
inexact any such experiments. M. Amagat however finds that 
the absorption is almost insensible, an oxygen manometer and a 
nitrogen manometer giving identical indications for several days, 
even with temperatures varying up to 100°. 


MM. HAUTEFEUILLE AND CHAPPUIS have continued their 
researches on the liquefaction of ozone, which they have lately 
liquefied in the”presence of carbonic acid. They believe the 
point of liquefaction of ozone to be very near that of carbonic 


| 
acid ; and on mixing ozonised oxygen with carbonic acid and 


submitting it in a capillary tube to a slow pressure at a tempera- 
ture of — 23° (obtained by the evaporation of methylic chloride), 
they obtained a liquid separated by a distinct meniscus from the 
gas. This liquid was of a clear blue tint, as was the compressed 
gas above it. If the substance is then allowed to expand gently 
and immediately compressed, the liquid becomes much more 
blue, owing to the greater proportion of liquefied ozone, The 
blue tint thus characteristic of ozone under pressure proves it to 
be present in the gases which result when the silent electric 
discharge is passed through carbonic acid gas for some hours. 


Epson has lately patented a ‘* webermeter.” This is an 
instrument for measuring the amount of electric current flowing 
through a circuit, or in other words a #zeter for electric currents 
to tell the number of webers that have been supplied. The 
name is at least in accordance with the inventor’s usual abundant 
ingeniosity. 

In the Coples rendus M. Gouy publishes an extract from a 
memoir presented by him to the Académie des Sciences, on the 
propagation of light. In this memoir he proposes to examine 
the particular case of propagation of luminiferous waves, in 
which, while the direction of the propagation of the movement 
is constant, the intensity of the waves or of the source of light 
varies. This problem, which has doubtless been suggested to 
the author by considerations derived from the photophone, affects 
the whole question of the measurement of the velocity of light, 
whether by the methods of occultations of Roemer and Fizeau, 
or by that of aberrations (in the rotating mirror), as devised by 
Foucault. The former case only is treated of in M. Gouy’s paper. 
Setting aside at first the case of dispersive media, and restricting 
the question to isotropic media, M. Gouy investigates mathe- 
matically whether the velocity of propagation of the amplitude is 
the same as that of the wave, and finds that this is the case only 
for those waves for which the differential equations contain no 
terms beyond those of the second order—those in which the 
vibration has virtually attained to the steady condition. For such 
waves moreover in dispersive media the amplitude is not propa- 
gated with the same velocity as the waves themselves, but the 
amplitude itself varies according to a complex function of the 
wave-length according to an ascertainable periodic law. If we 
remember rightly, a similar hydrodynamic investigation of the 
rate of propagation of waves in water was made some years ago 
by Prof. Osborne Reynolds, with the result that the effective 
wave-front only travelled at half the velocity of the steady 
waves. The inference is that that which physicists usually term 
«the velocity of light” is only the rate of propagation of the 
wave-front, which is slower than the true velocity, the retardation 
being greatest for the vibrations of greatest wave-length, 


ANOTHER new property of selenium is claimed as the disco- 
very of M. Blondlot. He states that when selenium is rubbed 
upon platinum, each metal being connected with a terminal of 
a capillary electrometer, a current is observed. This current, 
which is observed to pass,through the electrometer. from the 
platinum to the selenium, appears therefore to differ from the 
tribo-electric currents discovered by Becquerel, and which were 
always in the same direction as the thermo-electric currents 
which would have been produced had the surfaces of friction been 
directly heated. The true thermo-electric current of a selenium- 
platinum pair is, according to M. Blondlot, from selenium to 
platinum through the heated junction. One curious point stated 
by M. Blondlot is that no indication whatever is obtained upon 
the capillary electrometer by friction between two metals, or 
between two insulators, or between a metal and an insulator. 
The electrometer in the selenium experiment indicated a differ- 
ence of potential about equal to that of one Daniell’s cell. 


MAGNUS AND TYNDALL found carbonic acid to have a con- 
siderable absorbent action on radiant heat. Dr. Lecher (Vien. 
Acad. Anz.) has lately made new observations, especially as to ab- 
sorption of solar radiation by the carbonic acid inthe atmosphere. 
Experiments with a gas-lamp and glass cylinder first showed 
that carbonic acid in a length of 214 mm. gave passage to 94°8 
per cent. of the radiation; 536 mm. 93°8 per cent. ; 917 mm. 
89°0 per cent. At Greifenstein, outside of Vienna (chosen for 
pure air), the sun’s rays also were proved to undergo consider- 
able weakening in passage through ‘carbonic acid gas, A layer 
of this gas one metre thick*absorbed about 13 per cent. when 
the sun had an altitude of 59°; the number however diminished 
in proportion as the sun got lower. This shows that the absorp- 
tion of solar radiation by:carbonic acid is selective, and that the 


210 


NATURE 


[ Dec. 30, 1880 


absorbable wave-lengths become more rare the greater the atmo- 
spheric layer the rays have already traversed. The author cal- 
culates from his experiments the proportion of carbonic acid in 
the atmosphere, finding it 3°27 in 10,000 parts by volume; a 
number agreeing so well with results of chemical analysis as to 
indicate that this is a good way of determining the carbonic acid 
in the atmosphere and its variations, applicable, too, at heights 
where direct measurements are impossible, 


HERR WINKELMANN proves by experiment (Wied. Ann. 
No. 11) that the heat-conduction of ethylene decreases somewhat 
with increased pressure. The pressure was varied from 10 to 
740 mm. (Comparative experiments with air showed no in- 
fluence of pressure.) The author explains the phenomenon by 
the divergence of ethylene from Boyle’s law. The action of 
cohesion-forces between the molecules is indicated by that fact ; 
and this will cause, at each collision, a temporary retardation of 
the straight movements, which effect will occur oftener the 
greater the number of collisions (¢.e. the greater the density). 
Hence this retardation will increasingly affect the velocity with 
which two contiguous layers of different temperature exchange 
the energy of their motions. 


A REMARKABLE fall of rain in Austria and neighbouring 
parts on August 11-15 this year, has been closely investigated 
by Dr. Hann (Mien. Akad. Anz,), on the basis of data from 
260 stations in Austria-Hungary, Bavaria, Switzerland, aid 
Saxony. This fall caused the Danube at Vienna to reach (on 
the 18th) its highest summer level in this century. The rain 
began in Siebenburgen and south-east Hungary on the 11th, 
and in general went from east to west. It was most extensive 
on the 12th, and the heaviest fall was in Salzkammergut and 
neighbourhood. The rain-area is found to lie on the west and 
north-west side of the area of lowest air-pressure, and to stretch 
westwards far over the border of the minimum region. Near 
the centre of lowest pressure the precipitation was much less 
than in several parts distant from it. The non-existence of a 
minimum-producing power of rainfall (contrary to common 
views), and the incapability of so great rainfall as that in the 
present case attracting a minimum and influencing its propaga- 
tion, are noteworthy. The general conclusion arrived at is that 
no relation is demonstrable between barometric variation and 
rainfall ; the fall of the barometer does not primarily depend on 
the rainfall, and is not perceptibly influenced by it. Dr. Hann 
finds this confirmed by an examination of several other heavy 
rainfalls in their relation to distribution of air-pressure. 


THE salt and the ice in cryohydrates have been regarded 
by Prof. Guthrie as in chemical combination. In 1877 
Herr Pfaundler expresssed the view that*cryohydrates were 
merely mixtures of salt and ice. This view is also maintained 
by Herr Offer, who in a recent paper to the Vienna Academy 
raises various objections to the existence of cryohydrates as 
chemical compounds. The numbers expressing the quantities 
in which the water unites with the salts in various cryohydrates, 
indicate no stoichiometric law, and tell much rather in favour of 
chemical mixtures. No cryohydrate forms a clear and pure 
crystal, but always an opaque confused crystalline mass. The 
phenomena which occur when cryohydrates are brought into 
alcohol and into water are considered to be against Prof. 
Guthrie’s view. The heat-absorption of cryohydrates in dis- 
solving, as compared with that of the salt and ice separately, 
only presents differences which lie within the errors of observa- 
tion. Further, Herr Offer compared the specific gravity of 
several cryohydrates with those of their constituents, and found 
pretty close agreement. 


From recent magnetic researches Herr Auerbach (Wied. Ann. 
No. 11) finds the temporary magnetism of cylindrical bodies, 
ceteris paribus, proportional to the mass ; greater the greater the 
length; the less the thickness; the greater the density ; depen- 
dent only on form, not on size; in the case of nickel, according 
to density and force, a quarter to half as much as in iron. It 
increases with magnetising force, first proportionally, then (except 
with very small density) more quickly, and at last more slowly. 
The quick increase is greater the denser the body. The turn- 
ing point is, for the same density, at the same place, but with 
stronger forces the greater the density ; for magnetic saturation 
of powders extremely strong forces are necessary. Herr 
Auerbach theorises on these results. 


ANOTHER paper on magnetism in these Axznalen is by Herr 
Baur, and deals with the ‘‘ function of magnetisation” for very 
small magnetising forces; the influence of temperature on it ; 


the magnetisability of iron at very high temperatures ; Gore’s 
phenomenon ; and the function for varieties of iron. Among 
other re-ults, the smaller the magnetising force the greater is the 
influence of temperature on the function in question, Up toa 
certain force the function increases with increase in temperature, 
but beyond that it decreases. With weak forces the temporary 
magnetic moment rises quickly (with rise of te nperature) to a 
maximum at red glow, then sinks quickly to mi/; with strong 
forces it gradually sinks, with rise of temperature, to a very 
low value at red glow, With increased magnetic force Gore’s 
phenomenon becomes more intense and prolonged, and it oceurs 
at a higher glow. In ordinary iron the function of magnetisation 
reaches its maximum very quickly, in iron filings later, and in 
electrolytic iron very late. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


THE glacier of the Byeloukher Mountain, the chief summit of 
the Siberian or Great Altay, which has not been visited by men 
of science during the last fifty years, was recently explored by an 
expedition engaged in the study of the life of the West Siberian 
natives. After having crossed the goco feet high Alps of the 
Tchouya, the explorers descended into the pretty and wealthy 
broad valley of the Tchouya, whence, following the Arkhyt River, 
they soon reached the foot of the mighty Berel glacier. The 
glacier, which forms in its lower parts a mer.de glace two miles 
long and 2800 feet wide, was accurately explored and surveyed 
during a week by the expedition from its lower end to a great 
ice-fall, where the travellers were compelled to stop their work 
before a moving wall of ice, while mighty masses of snow fell, one 
after the other, on the glacier from the neighbouring mountains. 
After having surveyed the glacier and made several drawings of 
the severe scenery which it affords, the travellers returned to the 
valley of Ouimon, and thence to the civilised towns. 

THE astronomical determinations of positions which were made 
by M. Pyevtsoff during his journey from Khobdo through Mon- 
golia to Kalgan, and from Ourga to Kosh-agatch, are published 
by Col. Scharnhorst in the last number of the Zzvestza of the 
Russian Geographical Society. They are most welcome, as they 
come from a country where exact determinations are very scanty. 
—The same fascicule of the /zves/ia contains M. Larionoff’s cata- 
logue of seventy-five determinations of heights in the northern 
and eastern parts of the province of Kouldja and in the moun- 
tains which border it north and east; and M. Severtsoff’s map 
of his route on the Pamir Rang-koul, south-east of the Lake 
Kara-koul, 

Tue Russian travellers who have been engaged in the explora- 
tion of Central Asia are now returning to St. Petersburg, Col. 
Prshevalsky is expected every day, and the Russian Geographical 
Society, at its last meeting (December 15), elected the inde- 
fatigable traveller an Honorary Member. M. Potanin is already 
at St. Petersburg, and will soon give a lecture on his journey to 
Western Mongolia, as also M. Pyevtsoff, who travelled with 
merchants from Biysk to Khou-khou-khoto, and who during his 
joumey collected much material for the correction of the map of 
Mongolia. M. Mushketoff, who has explored the glacier of 
Zaraf-han (NATURE, vol. xxili. p. 44), gave a lecture at the last 
meeting of the Russian Geographical Society on his excursion. 
This traveller, contrary to M. Severtsoff’s experience, did not 
find in the Thian-Shan any traces of the glacial period. 

THE Kouban News announces the appearance, in the Sea of 
Azoff, of a new little island, some 150 feet in diameter, and Io 
feet above the level of the water. Its appearance was accom- 
panied with a kind of marine eruption. It is 150 brasses distant 
from the shore, where a crevice has appeared. 

THE organisation of the Polar meteorological station on the 
Lena is being actively carried out by Prof, Lentz. The director 
of the station will be M. Yurgens. 

Pror. NORDENSKJOLD is again thinking of fresh enterprises. 
At present a ship is being built at the Lena estuary, in which he 
intends to start on a new Arctic expedition in the summer 
of 1882. 

PRINCE BorGHES®, the Italian African traveller, has arrived 
near Tripolis from Wadai. This is the first time that a traveller 
from Darfur has reached the Mediterranean by way of Wadai 
and Bornu. 

Tue Leipzig publishing firm of Ferd. Hirt and Son announce 
that Major Serpa Pinto’s great African work of travel will be 
published in January, 1881. 


— 


| 


= 
Dec. 30, 1880} 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


AtrreD C. Happon, B.A., Scholar of Christ’s College, 
Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy, and Curator of Zoology 
in the University of Cambridge, has been appointed Professor of 
Zoology at the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 


THE movement to found a college at Dundee has been revived, 
and at a meeting last week it was announced by Dr. Baxter, the 
Procurator-Fiscal, that he was in a position to place 125,000/. 
at the head of a subscription for the purpose. Owens College 
Manchester, is proposed as the model of the Dundee Institution’ 


DURING recent years much has been done in Russia by private 
initiative for primary education in natural science. Now we 
notice the creation at St. Petersburg of a special institution, the 
aim of which is to devise and collect apparatus and drawings for 
the teaching of natural science in primary schools. A special 
collection of objects intended for the illustration of science will 
be sent from school to school by the Committee, and lectures 
will be given in each school on the subject. 

THE building of the new Siberian University is being briskly 
carried on. It will contain twenty large rooms for lectures, as 
well as spacious halls for the museum and library. The building 
for anatomy, as well as the hospital for clinical medicine, will 
be erected in accordance with the latest hygienic principles. A 
special building will be appropriated for the physical cabinet 
and the astronomical observatory, 


THE Moscow University is closed for an indeterminate time 
because of the disturbances among medical students, and three 
hundred students are incarcerated in the town prison. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Fournal of the Franklin Institute, December:—Boiler ex- 
periments, by Mr. Isherwood.—New electric motor, by Mr. 


Griscom.—The Sawyer electric light.—Proceedings of Institute, 
&e. 


Bulletin del’ Academie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, Nos. 9 
and 10,—Influence of liquids on the sound of sonorous bells 
which contain them or which are immersed in them, by 
M. Montigny.—On the chemical composition of the epidote of 
Quenast, by M. Renard.—On Caels and De Bennie, by M. 
Mailly. 

No. 11.—On the compensation of a chain of geodetic triangles, 
by M. Adan.—Excretory apparatus of Trematodes and Cestode 
(3rd paper), by M. Fraipont. # 


Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, No. 21, November 15.—On 
spherohedry in crystallisation, by Prof. Bombicci.—On beats, 
the third sound of Tartini, &c. (concluded), by Dr. Crotti. 

No. 22, November 30.—On some singular phenomena of 
geometrical optics, by Prof, Cassani. 


Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere.  Rendiconti, 
vol. xiii. fase. xvii., November 11.—On Peronospora viticola 
and the cryptogamic laboratory, by Prof. Garovaglio.——On 
measurement of the thermo-luminous radiations of the sun, by 
Dr. Chistoni.—Fourth series of researches and studies on the 
pelagic fauna of the Italian lakes (short 7észmé), by Prof. Pavesi. 
—The leprosy of Ancient Italy, especially of Comacchio, by 
Prof. Sangalli. 


Kosmos, September 1880, contains :—Theodor Vuy, on the re- 
habilitation of shattered authorities ; considerations on the educa- 
tion of the future.—Dr. Ernst Krause, sketch of the development 
history of the history of development, No. 3.—Dr. H. Miiller, 
on the variability of alpine flowers.—Leopold Einstein, appre- 
hension and comprehension, a study in the philosophy of lan- 
guage.—Short notices and extracts from journals. Literary and 
critical notices. 

October.—Prof. Fritz Schultze, the transformation of human 
fundamental conceptions on the threshold of modern times.— 
Prof. Dr. Hornes, on phacops and dalmanites, genera of trilo- 
bites and their probable genetic connection.—George Potonié, 
on the purport of the stony particles to be found in the flesh 
of the pear and generally in the Pomacex.—Dr. Fritz Miiller, 
Paltostoma torrentium, a gnat with two forms of females, one 
with a mouth for honey-sucking the other with a mouth for 

_ blood-sucking (with illustration).—Short notices and extracts 
from journals, Literary and critical notices. 


NATURE 


211 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Chemical Society, December 16.—Prof. H. E. Roscoe, 
president, in the chair.—The following communications, &c., 
were made :—On the estimation of nitrogen by combustion, 
including the nitro-compounds, by J. Ruffle. The author recom 
mends the use of the following mixture instead of soda-lime in 
the process of Will and Varrentrapp:—Two molecules of 
sodium hydrate, one molecule of pure lime, and one molecule 
of sodium hyposulphite; the substance before burning being 
mixed with about its own weight of a mixture of sulphur and 
wood charcoal. By this process good results were obtained with 
sodium nitrate, picric acid, &e.—Dr. Carnelly then showed some 
experiments as to the effect of pressure in raising the melting- 
points of ice, camphor, and mercuric chloride. By suspending 
a cylinder of ice (formed round the bulb of a thermometer) in a 
Torricellian vacuum and condensing the aqueous vapour by a 
freezing mixture, so as to keep the vacuum perfect, the author 
has raised ice to 180° C, before it melted. In the experiment 
shown, through an accident, the temperature only rose to 30° C. 
before the cylinder fell off the thermometer. Camphor which 
was boiling in a tube solidified when the pressure was dimin- 
ished, though the heating was continued. Mercuric chloride, 
which under diminished pressure had been raised considerably 
above its melting-point, melted and boiled as soon as it was 
exposed to atmospheric pressure.—On some naphthalene deriva- 
tives, by Dr. Armstrong and Mr. Graham. 


Geological Society, December 15.—Robert Etheridge, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—William Elijah Benton, Rev. 
George Clements, J. Kerr Gulland, Francis T. S. Houghton, 
George Bingley Luke, and William Mansell MacCulloch, M.D., 
were elected Fellows ; and Prof. Luigi Bellardi of Turin, and 
Dr. M, Neumayr of Vienna, Foreign Correspondents of the 
Society. The following communications were read :—On the 
constitution and history of grits and sandstones, by John Arthur 
Phillips, F.G.S. In the first part of this paper the author 
described the microscopic and chemical structure of a large 
series of grits, sandstones, and in some cases quartzites, of 
various geological ages, noticing finally several sands of more or 
less recent date. ‘The cementing material in the harder varieties 
is commonly, to a large extent, siliceous. The grains vary con- 
siderably in form and in the nature of their inclosures, cavities of 
various kinds and minute crystals of schorl or rutile not being 
rare. The author drew attention to the evidence of the depo- 
sition of secondary quartz upon the original grains, so as to con- 
tinue its crystal structure, which sometimes exhibits externally 
a crystal form, This is frequently observable in sandstone of 
Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic age. Felspar grains are 
not unfr2quently present, with scales of mica and minute chlorite ~ 
and epidote. Chemical analyses of some varieties were also 
given, The author then considered the effect of flowing water 
upon transported particles of sand or gravel. It results from 
his investigations that fragments of quartz or schorl less than 
one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter retain their angularity for a 
very long period indeed, remaining, under ordinary circum- 
stances, unrounded ; but they are much more rapidly rounded 
by the action of wind. It is thus probable that rounded grains 
of this kind in some of the older rocks, as, for example, certain 
of the Triassic sandstones, may be the result of A®olian action, 
—The chair was then taken by J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., V.P.G.S. 
—On a new species of 7+¢gonia from the Purbeck beds of the 
Vale of Wardour, by R. Etheridge, F.R.S., president ; with a 
note on the stratigraphical position of the fossil by the Rev. W. 
R. Andrews. In this paper the author described a species of 
Trigonia discovered ty the Rey. W. R. Andrews in the ‘‘ cinder- 
bed” of the Middle Purbeck series in the Vale of Wardour. 
The specimens were found in the railway-cutting one mile west 
of Dinton Station. The shell was referred to d’Orbigny’s sec- 
tion ‘Glabre” of the genus Zrigonia, and named Trigonia 
densinoda, In its ornamentation it closely resembles 7. senui- 
texta, Lyc., of the Portland oolite, but is more depressed and 
lengthened posteriorly, and destitute of the antecarinal space 
which occurs in all known Jurassic ‘‘ Glabrae.” The escutcheon 
is remarkably large, and possesses transverse rugz, as in the 
Neocomian ‘‘ Quadrate.” The author regarded the species as 
a transition form connecting the two groups of 7rigonie above- 
mentioned, The description of the new species was accom- 
panied by a note on the Purbeck strata of the Vale of Wardour 
by the Rey. W. R. Andrews. 

Meteorological Society, December 15.—Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—J. Coventry, J. W. Moore, 


212 


NALTORE 


[Dec. 30, 1880 


M.D., W. T. Paulin, J. Porter, and Capt. W.C. Smith were 
elected Fellows.—The following papers were read :—Report 
on the phenological observations for the year 1880, by the Rev. 
T. A. Preston, M.A., F.M.S. Agriculturally speaking the 
year may be considered as disappointing. Till June the 
weather was such as has rarely been experienced for farm 
operations, The severe cold of the winter broke up and 
mellowed the soi], and the dry open weather enabled farmers to 
clean their Jand from the excessive growth of weeds caused 
by the damp of the year before. The dry May was not favour- 
able for the hay, which suffered severely in some places, but 
still a crop with far more real nourishment in it than would be 
obtained from a rank growth would have been secured had it 
not been for the terrible floods of July in the Midland Counties, 
which not only seriously injured the crop, so that it was fre- 
quently not-worth the trouble of removing off the land, but also 
carried it entirely away in low-lying districts. The corn again, 
which was looking most promising till July, suffered much 
during that damp period, and had it not been for the subsequent 
fine weather would have been ruined. But the unfavourable 
season of 1879 produced very serious effects on vegetation, 
especially on trees and shrubs and their produce. The 
young wood of the trees was not ripened, and as a natural 
consequence the severe winter killed an enormous quantity 
of some kinds, and greatly injured others. ‘‘ Laurustinus” 
was generally killed to the ground, and in some districts 
the destruction of other shrubs was severely felt. The ever- 
greens in many cases lost'large quantities of their leaves. Hollies 
especially are mentioned by several observers, and privet-hedges 
were sometimes quite leafless. With respect to fruit-trees, apples 
and pears in some localities (but not all) were hardly able to put 
forth any bloom, and the crops were consequently extremely 
poor. Wall-fruit was also a general failure, but this was parti- 
ally owing to severe weather when the trees were in bloom, 
for in some instances the show of bloom was splendid. Goose- 
berries and currants produced enormous crops, and strawberries 
were very fine, but they lasted an unusually short time. Seeds 
generally ripened with difficulty ; much of the corn could not be 
ground, and a great deal was mixed up with roughly-ground 
Indian corn and flavoured to induce the cattle to eatit. Thecrop 
of ordinary garden seeds was also far below its usual quality, and 
some of the favourite garden flowers were consequently very poor. 
Among the s/ecia/ features of the year may be mentioned the 
great quantity of certain insects. ‘‘ Aphis” was in astonishing 
numbers in the early part of the year. The apple-shoots, before 
the leaves expanded, were in almost every case covered with the 
*€oreen fly,” and among wild plants the Mealy Guelder-rose was 
especially attacked by them, ‘‘ Wasps,” again, have been in 
extraordinary numbers, and dreadful accounts of them have been 
sent to the various entomological periodicals; their numbers 
appear to have exceeded all previous experience. The larvze of 
the gooseberry moth and of the gooseberry saw-fly have also 
been extremely destructive; and finally, as an undoubted result 
of the wet season of 1879, the larvee of the crane-fly have been 
a perfect plague in some localities, and sheep-licks in others, 
The scarcity of small birds has been universally noticed ; some, 
no doubt, perished from the cold, but vast numbers had migrated. 
The enormous numbers of larks which hastened to the Kastern 
Counties on the outbreak of cold weather was astonishing.—On 
the variations of relative humidity and thermometric dryness of 
the air, with changes of barometric pressure at the Kew Observa- 
tory, by G. M. Whipple, B.Sc., F.R.A.S.—On the relative 
frequency of given heights of the barometer readings at the Kew 
Observatory during the ten years 1870-79, by G. M. Whipple, 
B.Sc., F.R.A.S. 


Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 
December 23.—Prof. M. Forster Heddle, F.R.S.E., president, 
in the chair.—Prof. F. J. Wiik of Helsingfors was elected a 
corresponding member, and Messrs. Baxter, Gray, James Cun- 
ningham, R, Shaw Simpson, H. B. Guppy, and Stephen Vivian 
as ordinary members.—The following papers were read and 
discussed :—On Tyrceite, by the President.—On minerals new 
to Britain, by the President.—Note on Gilbertite, and on tin 
pseudomorphs from Belowda Mine, by J. H. Collins.—On 
Brochantite and its allies, by William Lemmons.—On a remark- 
ably fine crystal of Euclase, by L. Guyot.—On the action of 
organic acids on minerals, by Prof. H. C. Bolton.—Note on 
artificial Gay-Lussite, by C. Rammelsberg.—Note on a peculiar 
carbonaceous substance from the Maesymarchog Colliery, by 
James S. Merry. 


Anthropological Institute, December: 14.—Edward B. 
Tylor, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The election of the 
Rev. R. A. Bullen as a member of the Institute was announced. 
—Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen read a paper on ‘‘ Hittite 
Civilisation.” 


Institution of Civil Engineers, December 21.—W. H. 
Barlow, F.R.S., president, ‘in the chair.—The scrutineers 
reported that the following gentlemen had been duly elected to 
fill the several offices in the Council for the ensuing year :—Mr, 
James Ab rnethy, president; Sir W. G. Armstrong, C.B., 
F.R.S., Sir J. W. Bazalgette, C.B., Mr. F. J. Bramwell, 
F.R.S,, and Mr. J. Brunlees, vice-presidents; Mr. G. Berkley, 
Mr. G. B. Bruce, Sir John Coode, Mr. E. A, Cowper, Mr. A. 
Giles, Sir Charles A. Hartley, Mr. H. Hayter, Dr. W. Pole, 
F.R.S., Mr. R. Rawlinson, C.B., Mr. A. M. Rendel, Dr. C. 
W. Siemens, F.R.S., Mr. D. Stevenson, Sir W. Thomson, 
F.R.S., Sir Joseph Whitworth, Bart., F.R.S., and Mr. E. 
Woods, other members of Council. ' 


EDINBURGH 


Royal Society, December 20.—Sir Wyville Thomson, 
vice-president, in the chair.—Mr. John Aitken read a paper 
on dust, fogs, and clouds, which we give on another page. 
—Mr. E. Sang communicated a note on the solar eclipse 
of December 31, 1880, which is visible in our islands.— 
Dr. Marsden, in a paper on the preparation of adamantine 
carbon, intimated that he had at length effected the crystal- 
lisation of carbon in the cubical form. The crystals he 
had obtained were however far too minute to be of any 
commercial value.—Prof. Blyth described an electric sono- 
meter, consisting of a wire monochord, which, traversed by 
an interrupted electric current, was set into strong vibrations 
between the poles of a horse-shce magnet. The notes 
given out were loudest when they were harmonics of the 
fundamental interrupted note which was sounded by a vi- 
brating tuning-fork inserted in the circuit—Dr. Haycraft com- 
municated an explanation of the amceboid motions of masses 
of protoplasm, illustrating his theory by an extremely simple 
mechanical contrivance. An india-rubber ball perforated 
with several small apertures was filled with coloured white of 
egg, and immersed in a solution of sugar of about the same 
density as the albumen. When a gentle pressure was applied, 
the albumen was forced out in long continuous processes ; and 
when the pressure was relaxed the processes at once retracted 
inside the ball again, probably in virtue of the action of the 
viscosity and surface-tension of the gelatinous matter. Thus 
was explained the retraction of the amceboid processes, after 
they had been expelled by contraction of the internal muscular 
structure. 


CONTENTS 


PERUVIAN*BARK «, es @ (© fo poi up dis pie >: yells] ie MCCinS ne nN 
PraAcTICAL BiowpipE AssAyYING. By Dr.C. LE Neve Foster . « 191 
Our Book SHELF :— 
Miiller’s ‘‘ Uber die von den Trichopterenlarven der Provinz Santa 
Catharina verfertigen Gehaduse” . . ... +» « « » = » » Q2 
Payne’s ‘‘ Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America”. « 192 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Black Sheep.—Cuarces Darwin, F.RS.. « © » » 2 - + « 193 
The Nature of the Chemical Elements.—Dr. Epmunp J. Mitts, 
13h ee MONS SOOO. Oo 5 5 « 193 
Smokeless London.—W. D. Scorr-MoncrigFF . SOMION Mec Ge} 
Colliery Explosions and Coal-Dust —Hon. R. Russert . . . . 193 
Geological Climates.—J. STARKIE GARDNER . - - « + nf eer 
Chalk: 4S. Ni ‘CamvaAcno; Jun?) 2). 0. =. 5 le) ae eee OMS 
On Estimating the Height of Clouds by Photography and the 
Stereoscope.—JOHN HARMER <. .ce jms re! o., ellgt nile ea ED 
Correction of an Error in “ Island Life.’”,—AtFrED R. WALLACE. 195 
Natural Science for Women.—ALFRED W. BENNETT... «© 195 
Movements of Leaves.—M. L. RousE . . . «2 » » ws IC5 
On Dust, Focs, AND CLroups. By JoHN AITKEN . «. - ~ + + » 105 
On THE Specrrum oF Cargon. By W. M. Warts (With Diagram) 197 
Tue Inpo-Cu1ngsE AND Ockanic Races—Types AND AFFINITIES, 

I. By A. H. Keane (With Illustrations) . . . . « « « © « 169 
Pror. HuxLey.ON EVOLUTION « « 6 +s w « © ©» 9 = © * © 203 9 
NOTES: =», o.c0 0, 105.0) i0: 101 ew isip She) anintouaen) he/iniee ila] De nA 
Our AsTRONOMICAL CoLuMN :— 

WVariabletStars <! 300 5 5/0) a a) eke oe ch se) tia). Ln eaOO, 
The Comet 1873 VII. . . « « es « a Aietko gid) Aelhte) eeimetea 
Pechiile’s\Comet. . . » » © « © «© « soe: gate TC eg 
Cremicat NoTrs. .. e actat usr eae oe: 0. ein REA 
PuysicaL NoTES. . . «= « Dy OmlbEEeG Aero eo oo en 
GHOGRAPHIGALINOTES 4s Gps 6) 6) ete 0 ee oe © Welw) wee ee. 
UNIVERSITY AND EpucATIONALINTELLIGENCR . » «© 5 + «© «© » 212 
Screntiric SERIALS. - « « + «© © »& errs oo Se 
SocreTIEs AND ACADEMIES . + + + © + + © + « ee ata) 


NATURE 


213 


THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1881 


DR. GUNTHER ON FISHES 


An Introduction to the Study of Fishes. By Albert C. L. 
G. Giinther, M.A., M.D., Ph.D, F.R.S., Keeper of the 
Zoological Department in the British Museum. (Edin- 
burgh: A. and C. Black, 1880.) 


GENERAL work on Fishes could not have been 
undertaken by a more thoroughly qualified writer 
than Dr. Giinther. Twenty years ago and more he com- 
menced studying the collection of this ever-interesting 
and most important group in the vaults of the British 
Museum, with what success let not only the present fine 
collection of fish in the National Museum declare, but 
also that truly wonderful work, to be the product of one 
man’s labours, “The Catalogue of Fishes,’ in eight 
volumes, published by order of the Trustees of the British 
Museum. Fishes have always been a subject of great 
interest to mankind; their commercial value interests 
some, others, as keen sportsmen, could not exist without 
their finny prey; from the earliest times, and among 
the earliest records, we find them of importance as articles 
of food. To the man of science, be he or be he not a 
specialist, fishes are of an ever-increasing interest, placed 
at the very beginning of vertebrate life, and by their study 
we seem to see more clearly into the evolution of that life 
which culminated in the production of ourselves. 

A book to tell us in carefully selected generalities all 
about fishes: such the English reader had no access to, 
until the publication of this volume. If it come not up to 
a perfect standard how could it be otherwise, for had not the 
history of the structure of fish, their habits, their distribu- 
tion, their classification to be condensed within the limit 
of a few hundred pages, and the wonder is that so much 
will be found here given, not that a few things have been 
left unnoticed or but partially touched upon. We have 
looked over each page of the handsomely got-up, well- 
printed, and well-illustrated volume, and we feel certain 
that it must find a place on the shelf of all biologists, 
and that it will find a place in the libraries also of that 
vastly larger class, the intelligent general reader. 

The first and slightly smaller half of the volume treats 
of fishes in general; the second half of fishes from a 
systematic and descriptive point of view. The work 
opens with an account of the history and literature of the 
subject beginning with Aristotle; who had a perfect 
knowledge of the general structure of fish, and who 
wrote about them some three and a half centuries be- 
fore the Christian era ; which account is continued to 
the most recent times; the work done by Ray, Artedi, 
Linneus, Bloch, Lacépéde, Cuvier, Agassiz, Miiller, being 
passed in review. The next twelve chapters treat of 
the external morphology of fish and of their internal 
structure. We would have liked more details about the 
recent researches into the modifications to be met with in 
fishes’ tails ; the description of the electrical organs to be 
met with in some fish is far too brief; the myology of 
fishes is dismissed with a little over a page, as if it were 
not a favourite subject with the author, and yet it is one 
worth working at and by no means deficient in promise, 
In the chapter on Respiration the subject of the tempera- 

VoL. xxit1.—No. 584 


ture in fishes is scarcely alluded to; the chapter on the 
Reproductive Instincts of Fish is sure to interest the 
realers, some of whom may learn for the first time of 
female fishes taking care of their progeny, and more 
curious, of male fishes doing the same. The chapter on 
the Growth and Variation of Fishes is well illustrated by 
woodcuts of some remarkable changes of form in fish. 
The fourteenth chapter treats of domesticated and ac- 
climatised fishes, on the artificial impregnation of ova, 
tenacity of life and reproduction of lost parts, hybernation 
in fishes (a misuse of this term), useful and poisonous 
fishes. The uses of fishes to man our author disposes of 
in twelve lines, and it would almost seem as if he would 
rather not have referred to such a subject at all in the 
scientific part of this treatise. In these twelve lines we 
find the following :—‘In the Polar regions especially whole 


tribes are ex¢évedy dependent on this class for subsistence.” 


Without venturing on criticism we would ask, Is this so? 
Do the inhabitants of the Polar regions support their life 
wholly on fish, or are they not indebted for a large portion 
of their heat-producing food to the flesh or blubber. of 
mammals? and do not the inhabitants of tropical countries, 
on the contrary, manage often to support their existence 
almost entirely on fish food ? 

While the chapters concerning the distribution of fishes 
in time leave a good deal to be desired, those on the 
distribution of fishes in space are most excellent; that on 
the fishes of the deep sea contains a complete list of deep- 
sea forms with the depths as ascertained by the dredgings 
of the Challenger, which list contains apparently over 100 
species. Before the voyage of the Chadlenger scarcely 
thirty deep-sea fishes were known. Though this number 
has been now so very much increased yet no new types 
of families have been discovered. Perfectly novel and 
very interesting modifications of certain organs have been 
met with, but nothing more than what might have been 
expected from our previous knowledge of the group. The 
greatest depth reached hitherto by a dredge in which 
fishes were inclosed is 2900 fathoms ; but the specimens 
then obtained belong to a species (Govostoma microd), 
which would seem to be extremely abundant in the upper 
strata of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and were very 
probably caught by the dredge in its ascent. The next 
greatest depth, 2750 fathoms, must be accepted as one at 
which fishes undoubtedly do live. The fish obtained at 
this depth in the Atlantic, Bathyophis ferox, showing by 
its whole habit that it is a form living on the bottom of 
the ocean. - 

“The fish fauna of the deep sea,”’ writes Dr. Giinther, 
“is composed chiefly of forms or modifications of 
forms which we find represented at the surface in the 
cold or temperate zones, or which appear as nocturnal 
pelagic forms.’? The Chondropterygians are few in 
number, not descending to a depth of more than 600 
fathoms. The Acanthopterygians, which form the majority 
of the coast and surface faunas, are also scantily repre- 
sented ; genera identical with surface types are confined 
to the same inconsiderable depths as the Chondro- 
pterygians, while those Acanthopterygians which are so 
much specialised for the life in the deep sea as to deserve 
generic separation, range from 200 to 2400 fathoms. 
Three distinct families belong to the deep sea fauna, viz. 
Trachypteride, Lophotide, and Notacanthide; they 

L 


_ >, 


214 


NATURE 


| Fan. 6, 1881 


respectively consist of three, one, and two genera. 
Gadidz, Ophidiide, and Macruride are very numerous, 
ranging through all depths ; they constitute about one-fourth 
of the whole deep-sea fauna. Of Physostomi, the families 
of Sternoptychidz, Scopelidez, Stomiatida, Salmonidz, 
Bathythrissidz, Alepocephalidz, Halosauride, and 
Mureenide are represented. Of these the Scopeloids are 
the most numerous, constituting nearly another fourth of 
the fauna. Salmonidz are scarce, with three small 
genera only. Bathythrisside includes one species only, 
which is probably confined in its vertical as well as 
horizontal range : it (Bathythrissa dorsalis) occurs at a 
depth of about 350 fathoms in the sea of Japan. The 
Alepocephalidee and Halosauride, known before the 
Challenger Expedition from isolated examples only, prove 
to be true, widely spread, deep-sea types. Eels are well 
represented, and seem to descend to the greatest depths ; 
Myxine has been obtained from a depth of 345 fathoms. 

In the systematic portion Dr. Giinther divides the class 
of fishes into four sub-classes—the first Paleeichthyes, the 
second Teleostei, the third Cyclostomata, and the fourth 
Leptocardii. The description of each order, sub-order, 
and family is given. In addition we have the diagnosis 
of all the more important genera, and under these are 
given the names of the species of economic value or 
special scientific interest. We select the following 
account of two interesting genera as examples taken from 
the eighth family of the sharks, Spinacedz :— 


“* ACANTHIAS.—Each dorsal fin with a spine. Teeth 
equal in both jaws, rather small; their point is so much 
turned aside that the inner margin of the tooth forms the 
cutting edge. Spiracles rather wide, immediately behind 
the eye. 

“The two species of ‘Spiny Dog Fishes,’ A. vulgaris 
and A. Blainvilliz, have a very remarkable distribution, 
being found in the temperate seas of the Northern and 
Southern Hemispheres, but not in the intermediate 
tropical zone. They are of small size, but occur at times 


in incredible numbers, as many as 20,000 having been | 


taken in one season on the Cornish coast. They do 
much injury to the fishermen by cutting their lines and 
carrying off their hooks. 

“ CENTROPHORUS.—Each dorsal fin with a spine, which 
however is sometimes so small as to be hidden below the 
skin ; mouth wide ; teeth of the lower jaw with the point 
more or less inclined backwards and outwards; upper 
teeth erect, triangular, or narrow, lanceolate with a single 
cusp; spiracles wide, behind the eye. 

“Eight species are known from the southern parts of 
the European seas and one from the Moluccas; they do 
not appear to exceed a length of five feet. According to 
the observations of E. P. Wright some of the species at 
least live at a considerable depth, perhaps at a greater 
depth than any of the other known sharks, The Portu- 
guese fishermen fish for them in 400 to 500 fathoms with 
a line of some 600 fathoms in length. The sharks caught 
were specimens of Centrophorus celolepis, from three to 
four feet long ; the sharks as they were hauled into the 
boat fell down into it like so many dead pigs, there was 
not the smallest motion of their bodies. There can be 
no reasonable doubt that they were inhabitants of the 
same great depth as Hyalonema ; and that in fact they 
were killed by being dragged to the surface from the 
pressure of water under which they lived. The dermal 
productions of some of the species have a very peculiar 
form, being leaf-shaped, pedunculate, or ribbed or fronded 
with an impression.” 


One other quotation must suffice ; the Clupeide forms 


the twenty-second family of the Physostomii, which is the 
fourth order of the second sub-class ; after enumerating 
several genera, among them Engraulis, to which the 
Anchovy belongs, the hint being given that “lucrative 
fisheries of Anchovies might be established in Tasmania, 
where the same species occurs, in Chili, China, Japan, 
California, at Buenos Ayres, each of which countries 
possesses Anchovies by no means inferior to the Mediter- 
ranean species ;” the author proceeds to give the par- 
ticulars of the genus Clapea. After the scientific descrip- 
tion he adds :— 


“This genus comprises more than sixty different species 
The majority are of greater or less utility to man, but a 
few tropical species (C. ¢i7issa, C. venenosa, and others) 
acquire probably from their food highly poisonous pro- 
perties so as to endanger the life of persons eating them. 
The most noteworthy species are :— 

“1. C. harengus (the ‘ Herring’). It is readily recog- 
nised by having an ovate patch of very small teeth on the 
vomer. Gill cover smooth without radiating ridges. It 
inhabits in incredible numbers the German Ocean, the 
northern parts of the Atlantic, and the seas north of Asia. 
The herring of the Atlantic coasts of North America is 
identical with that of Europe. A second species has been 
supposed to exist on the British coast (C. Leachiz), but it 
comprises only individuals of a smaller size, the produce 
of a late or early spawn. Also the so-called ‘ Whitebait’ is 
not a distinct species, but consists chiefly of the fry or the 
young of herrings, and is obtained ‘in perfection’ at 
localities where these small fishes find an abundance of 
food, as in the estuary of the Thames. 

“2. C. mirabilis. The herring of the North Pacific. 

“3. C. sprattus. The ‘sprat,’ without vomerine teeth. 
Gill cover smooth, without radiating ridges. Abundant 
on the Atlantic coasts of Europe. 

“a. C. thrissa. One of the most common West Indian 
fishes, distinguished by the last dorsal ray being pro- 
longed into a filament. Hyrtl has discovered a small 
accessory branchial organ in this species. 

“5. C. alosa. The ‘shad’ or ‘Allice shad, with very 
fine and long gill-rakers, from sixty to eighty on the 
horizontal part of the outer branchial arch, and with one 
or more black lateral blotches. Coasts of Europe, ascend- 
ing rivers. 

“6. C. finta. The ‘shad’ or ‘ Twaite shad,’ with stout 
osseous gill-rakers from twenty one to twenty-seven on 
the horizontal part of the outer branchial arch, and 
spotted like the preceding species. Coasts of Europe, 
ascending rivers and found in abundance in the Nile. 

“7. C. menhaden, The ‘mossbanker,’ common on the 
Atlantic coasts of the United States. The economic value 
of this fish is surpassed in America only by that of the 
Gadoids, and is derived chiefly from its use as bait for other 
fishes and from the oil extracted from it, the annual 
yield of the latter exceeding that of the whale (from 
American fisheries). The refuse of the oil factories 
supplies a material of much value for artificial manures. 

“8. C. sapidissima. The American shad, abundant 
and an important food-fish on the Atlantic coasts of North 
America. Spawns in fresh water. 

“9. C. mattowocca. The ‘Gaspereau’ or ‘ Ale-wife,’ 
common on the Atlantic coasts of North America, ascend- 
ing into fresh water in early spring and spawning in 
ponds and Jakes. 

“To. C. pilchardus. The‘ Pilchard’ or the ‘ Sardine,’ 
equally abundant in the British Channel, on the coast of 
Portugal, and in the Mediterranean, and readily recognised 
by radiating ridges on the operculum, descending towards 
the sub-operculum. 

“11. C. sagax. Representing the Pilchard in the 
Pacific, and found in equally large shoals on the coasts 
of California, Chili, New Zealand, and Japan. 


Fan. 6, 1881] 


NAL ORE 


215 


“12. C. tolt. The subject of a very extensive fishery 
on the coast of Sumatra for the sake of its roes, which are 
salted and exported to China, the dried fish themselves 
being sent into the interior of the island. The fish is 
called ‘Trubu’ by the Malays, is about eighteen inches 
long, and it is said that between fourteen and fifteen 
millions are caught annually. 

“13. C. scombrina. The ‘oil sardine’ of the eastern 
coast of the Indian Peninsula.” ! 


These quotations will show the value and importance 
as well as the interest of the systematic and descriptive 
part of this volume, not a page of which is without some 


\ 


Toxotes jaculator. 


lines of most instructive reading, in many cases sufficiently 
so as to tempt one to turn “ Ichthyologist’’ on the spot. 
We strongly recommend the reader to turn at once to the 
pages on the Salmonidz. This portion too is illustrated 
with many excellent figures, two of which, through the 
courtesy of the publishers, we are permitted to reproduce 
—the first is of a fish belonging to the genus Toxotes. 
Two species of this genus are known from the East Indies, 
one of which (7. jacz/ator) is the more common, and it 
ranges to the north coast of Australia. It has received 
its name from its habit of squirting a drop of water at an 
insect which it perceives close to the surface in order to 


Skull of Plagyodus ferox. 


make it fall into it. The Malays, who call it “Ikan 
sumpit,” keep it in a bowl in order to witness this singular 
habit, which it continues even in captivity. 

The second woodcut represents the bones of the head 
of one of the largest and most formidable of the deep-sea 
fishes. Of the genus Plagyodus but one species is known 
(P. ferox). It has been found off Madeira and in the sea 
off Tasmania. Other species have been noticed from 
Cuba and from the North Pacific, but it is doubtful ig 
they differ specifically from P. ferox. The fish grows toa 


7 In this quotation the fin formulz and references to works on the Herring, 
&c., are omitted. 


length of six feet, and from the stomach of one specimen 
have been taken several eight-armed cuttle-fish, Crustacea, 
Ascidians, a young brama, twelve young boar fishes, a 
horse-mackerel, and one young of its own species. The 
stomach is coécal, the commencement of the intestine has 
extremely thick walls, its inner surface being cellular, like 
the lung of a reptile, ithas no pyloric appendage. All the 
bones are extremely thin, light, and flexible, containing very 
little earthy matter. Very singular is the development of 
a system of abdominal ribs symmetrically arranged on 
both sides and extending the whole length of the abdomen. 
Perfect specimens are rarely obtained on account of the 
want of coherence of the muscular and osseous parts, 
caused by the diminution of pressure when the fish 
reaches the surface of the water. The exact depth at 
which Plagyodus ferox lives is not known; probably it 
never rises above a depth of 300 fathoms ; but woe betide 
any rash intruder that dares to descend into the realms 
of its abyss. 

The volume closes with some directions for collect- 
ing and preserving fishes—when practicable fishes when 
dead should be set to swim in spirit. But we must not 
quote any more, so leave the curious reader to find out 
the details of how, having caught his fish, he can cook it 
so as to make it of value for some national museum. 


SULPHURIC ACID AND ALKALI 


A Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the Manufacture 
of Sulphuric Acid and Alkali, with the Collateral 
Branches. By George Lunge, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Pro- 
fessor of Technical Chemistry at the Federal Poly- 
technic School, Zurich (formerly manager of the Tyne 
Alkali Works, South Shiels), Vol. III. (J. Van Voorst, 
1880.) 

SEE publication of the third and concluding volume 

of Prof. Lunge’s excellent work follows wonderfully 
soon on that of the first and second. This volume, which 
fully equals the other two in accuracy of description and 
clearness of style, is devoted to the subsidiary processes 
lying alongside of the main channel of Leblanc’s great 
discovery. We first find a chapter on the ammoniacal 
soda process now rising, through Solvay’s exertions, into 
well-merited and formidable competition with its older 
rival. The ash made by this theoretically beautifully 
simple and practically most original process is very pure, 
containing from 98 to 99 per cent. of Na,COs, and free of 
course from the impurities common to Leblanc’s ash of 
caustic soda and sulphide of sodium. 

But this Solvay’s ash is less dense than that made by 
the old plan, and both German and English manufac- 
turers are now making a Leblanc ash of 98 per cent. free 
from sulphur and of a dense quality. The struggle, says 
Lunge, is not now one of purity, but merely of price, and 
so far Leblanc soda is holding its own. Here however 
the beneficial action of competition is seen: if Messrs. 
Brunner, Mond, and Co., of Northwich and Sandbach, 
were not turning out from 35 to 4o tons of Solvay ash 
per diem, 1 cannot help thinking that the Leblanc soda- 
makers might have felt inclined to rest content with their 
previous performances. There is of course no chance of 
this new process turning out the old-fashioned plan until 
the chlorine of the common salt can by this new method 


210 


WA TORE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


be made available as a marketable article. At present it 
runs away as calcium chloride ; but if Weldon’s process 
for regenerating the chlorine were to prove as successful 
as his well-known plan (of world-wide application) for 
obtaining it from the ordinary chlorine-still liquor has 
proved (and this so far has not come to pass), it is pretty 
clear that all the old alkali works would have to be 
closed. Next come the chapters on Bleaching Powder 
and Chlorate of Potash. Here we find thirty-four pages 
of a practical treatise devoted to the theoretical con- 
sideration of the composition of bleaching powder, and 
even graphical formula may be detected on some of these 
pages, to say nothing of chemical equations of some com- 
plexity, involving the discussion of one of the most intri- 
cate of chemical problems. This is a pretty dish to set 
before our “typical practical man,” who only knows the 
Substance he makes under the names of “B.P.’ or 
**Chemic,”’ and would be puzzled to say of what 
it consisted. It is however a species of nourishment 
which it will do him good inwardly to digest, for 
if he turns away from it in disgust and dismay, so much 
the worse for him and his manufacture. “The rule of 
thumb,” as Mr. Mundella truly said at Leeds the other 
day, ‘‘is now over; we stand at its grave.” Cur manu- 
facturers must all be thoroughly trained in the scientific 
principles which underlie their trades. Noble and great 
things have been done by Englishmen in the perfection 
and development of chemical industry, and still greater 
things remain for them to do; but whilst taking only 
proper credit for what England has done and is doing, 
let us not forget that the general scientific education of 
our manufacturers and managers is far below that of their 
Continental competitors. It is no doubt quite true that 
no German aikali work could exist were it not for their 
import duty on English soda ; for even with all their care 
and scientific knowledge, the Germans are unable to 
compete on equal terms with us, thanks rather to the 
circumstances of our environment than to any special 
merits of our own. 

But this artificial and economically unsound condition 
of Continental manufacture ought rather to urge us so to 
comjlete our system that we not only shall have the 
advantages which geographical position and geological 
good fortune places at our disposal, but also that thorough 
scientific training and the knowledge of what is being 
done elsewhere, without which all natural advantages 
become comparatively valueless. In this way and in this 
way only can we, as it seems to me, fight against the 
incubus of protective tariffs. On this necessity for our 
typical “practical man” to re-consider his position and 
to arm himself for the technical war with every appliance 
which science places at his disposal, Dr. Lunge speaks 
so forcibly and so well in the preface to his third volume 
that I take the liberty of giving his remarks 2 extenso. 

I may however express my own doubts whether the 
British alkaliimaker has, as Dr. Lunge maintains, in 
reality been distanced by any foreign manufacturer of 


alkali or sulphuric acid, except so far as regards the. 


import of British goods into countries where inland 
production is artificially stimulated by protection. As 


regards other chemical industries, especially those such | have looked all round, not merely in their own countries, 


as the manufacture of colours, in which great delicacy and 
care in manipulation and an intimate knowledge of the 


| highest developments of organic chemistry are essential, 


| rity of English works. 


one must in sorrow confess that Dr. Lunge is perfectly 
right when he says that the English trade is rapidly 
passing into the hands of French and German houses. 


“Other books aim at nothing but giving an accurate 
description of the present style of making sulphuric acid 
and alkali in England; and they leave the chemistry 
of the subject almost totally aside. My treatise differs 
from this in several respects. First it gives a detailed 
chemical description of the raw materials, intermediate 
and final products, of the modes of testing, and so forth, 
supplemented by numerous tables of solubilities, densi- 
ties, &c.; and it also enters very fully into the theory of 
all the processes concerned, accurately citing all papers 
on the subject, so that the reader can go to these for 
further elucidation. I am quite aware that a treatment 
of this kind will appear lengthy and superfluous to some 
readers who look into this book merely for ‘ practical’ 
hints. In this respect they will not, I trust, be dis- 
appointed either, but I make bold to say that they would 
do very well not to despise the scientific part, the purely 
chemical detail, of this work. 

“Afterall, our subject belongs tothe domain of chemistry, 
and the times are far behind us when, in the manufacture 
of chemical products, the practical man with his rule of 
thumb could look down upon the chemist in the labora- 
tory—who in the former’s idea was at best only good for 
testing the materials, but whose interference with the 
works would invariably cause mischief. That this was 
true to some extent, and still is so, where the chemist 
attempts to transfer his ideas into practice in a crude 
state without sufficient practical experience, nobody can 
possibly deny. But does the ‘ practical man’ on his part 
make no mistakes ? 

“ Have not untold sums been wasted in futile ‘inven- 
tions’ and ‘improvements’ merely because ‘practical’ 
inventors lacked a scientific knowledge of their subject ? 
Probably very much larger sums have been lost in this 
way than by the deficiency in practical experience of 
‘theoretical’ inventors, for the simple reason that the 
latter class of inventors generally have not so much 
means at command as the former. It is a mere 
truism that theory and practice should always go 
hand in hand; but it must nevertheless be incul- 
cated over and over again, as would appear from the 
fact that several costly books oi perhaps the most impor- 
tant branch of chemical industry have just been published 
with next to no chemistry in them. And to what conse- 
quences does this neglect of a scientific treatment of 
practical subjects lead? The author may be pardoned 
for illustrating this from his personal experience. A 
little more than sixteen years ago he left his native 
country for Great Britain, and he might justly hope to 
learn a great deal and find much more scope for himself 
in that country which he is proud to have made his 
second home. More particularly the manufacture of 
sulphuric acid, soda-ash, and bleaching-powder was at 
that time quite insignificant in Germany, and not very 
considerable in France as compared with Great Britain, 
nor could the technical appliances, the yields, or even the 
purity of the products in the two former countries vie 
with those of the latter, How different matters are now 
is a matter of notoriety. The manufacture of chemicals 
has made enormous strides forward, both in quantity and 


| quality, in France, and even more so in Germany. Many 


of the chemicals of these countries outstrip those of 
English works in purity ; and their plant and their pro- 
cesses are frequently superior to those used in the majo- 
Everybody knows how this has 
come about. The foreign chemists and manufacturers 


but wherever they could find improved methods and 


_ apparatus, and upon the fractical knowledge thus gained 


Fan. 6, 1881] 


NATURE 


217 


they have brought to bear the scientific training they had 
received at their universities and polytechnic schools. 
Thus they have already, in many fields formerly remu- 
nerative to British manufacturers, distanced the latter, 
immensely aided though these be by their long occupation 
of the ground and by permanent natural advantages, such 
as cheapness of coal and of freight, superior command of 
capital, &c., and this is likely to go on to an increasing 
extent if many British chemical manufacturers decline to 
profit from a scientific study of their respective branches. 
This is all the less excusable, as England from of old has 
been a stronghold of scientific chemistry, and can hold 
its own against the whole world in that respect.” 


To these words I will only add that one of the best 
possible signs of advancement in the study of science so 
necessary for the permanent well-being of our manufac- 
tures would be to find well-thumbed copies of Dr. Lunge’s 
three volumes not only on the alkali-maker’s shelves, but 
in the house of every manager, and on the table of every 
free library in the manufacturing districts. 

H. E. ROscor 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Aide-Mémoire duVoyageur. Par D. Kaltbrunner. (Zurich: 
Wurster et Cie., 1881.) 


THIS is a sort of supplement to the “ Manuel du Voy- 
ageur”’ by the same author, noticed in these pages at the 
time of its appearance. The present volume may be 
described as a collection of constants in all departments 
of science likely to be of service to the scientific traveller, 
and indeed to students of many kinds. It contains a 
series of sections in geography (mathematical, physical, 
and political), geology, biology, and anthropology. To 
each section is prefixed a list of works to be consulted on 
the particular subject, numerous plates and maps, an 
index, and a table of authors whose works are cited. 
The whole work seems to us well put together, the infor- 
mation really useful, and, so far as we have tested, trust- 
worthy, though the lists of works are not always so com- 
plete as they might be; this can be easily amended in 
subsequent editions. To all interested in geography in 
its widest sense, the work must prove of real service. 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 
1s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


Geological Climates 


I SHOULD not say more on this subject, but that the last. para- 
graph of Mr, Starkie Gardner’s letter seems to imply that I have 
adopted some of his views without acknowledgment. Now I 
certainly read his article in NaruRE of December 12, 1878, with 
much interest and profit ; but, as regards the special question of 
the cause of the mild climates of Eocene and Miocene times, I 
entirely disagreed with his views, as is sufficiently shown by my 
recent letter in Nature. I quite admit that the closing up of 
the North Atlantic between Europe and North America might 
have considerably rai-ed the temperature of Britain, but it would 
just as certainly have rendered the Arctic regions even colder 
than they are now, by shutting out the Gulf Stream, whereas all 
the evidence points t» cov/inwous mild Arctic climates through 
Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene times. Again, though I admit 
that there has probably, on more than one occasion during the 
Tertiary period, been a land connection between North-West 
Europe and North-East America, yet the peculiar dis ribution of 
the Tertiary mammalia of Europe and North America indicates 
that such connection was exceptional, and only endured for very 


short periods, the rule being a separation like that which now 
exists. I could therefore only have quoted Mr, Gardner’s view 
to disagree with it; and I did not think it advisable to encumber 
the exposition of my own theory with more references of this 
kind than were absolutely necessary. I may add, that the 
extension of the Miocene Arctic flora to Grinnell Land since 
Mr, Gardne:’s article appeared, renders his views still more 
untenable. Of course I here refer to my chapter on ‘‘ Mild 
Arctic Climates ” in ‘Island Life.” In my letter to NATURE I 
confined myself strictly to the point raised by Prof. Haughton, 
which I did not consider had been adequately met by Mr. 
Gardner’s hypothesis. ALFRED R, WALLACE 


Is your correspondent, Mr. Ingram of Belvoir Castle, quite 
certain that he has not confused the Avaucaria Cunninghami of 
Queensland with Cunninghamia lanceolata of China? The names 
are misleadinz. H. Kine 

Chithurst, Petersfield 


Temperature of the Breath 


From time to time during the past few months letters on 
“the temperature of the breath” have appeared in NATURE, 
and some conjectures have been advanced rezsarding the cause 
of the high temperatures produced by breathing on thermometers 
envel )ped in silk or other materials. 

One of the correspondents supposes that the high tempera- 
ture thus produced indicates a cool ng action of the breath. 
The refrigerating agency of respiration by the heating of 
respired air and by evaporation from the lungs is sufficiently 
well known, and has been calculated by Helmholtz; but it is 
scarcely logical to ascribe to the breath a temperature so ob- 
viously produced by the intervention of another agent, and this 
hypothesis would involve the rejection of all observations 
hitherto made by physiologists on the temperature of the breath 
and of the blood 

A few lines which appeared in NATURE of October 7 in- 
dicated what appeared to me to be the simple and philosophi- 
eal explanation (z.e. hygroscopic condensation) of the phenome- 
non under discussion. The higher temperatures produced in 
dry than in wet weather, and by some materials than by others, 
distinctly point to the hygroscopic state and na'ure of the 
material as the modifying influences. 

The question is entirely physical, and not physiological, 
Wrapping the thermometer i; a new factor in taking the tem- 
perature of the breath, and is, Armd facie, the cause of the 
hizh temperature. Some further experiments which I have 
just completed place the matter beyond all doubt. Not to 
Occupy your space with unnecessary details, I give only an 
outline of them :— 

1 A current of air directed upon the bulb of a naked thermo- 
meter caused no appreciable rise ; neither did the mercury rise 
when the bulb was enveloped in silk ; but when it was env. loped 
in dyied silk it rose several deyrees. (The silk was dried by 
heat, and allowed to co»l in a stoppered bottle.) 

2. Three thermometers—(1) bulb naked, (2) bulb wrapped in 
silk, (3) bulb wrapped in dried silk—placed in a current of hot 
damp air for some minutes, marked respectively 116°, 120°, and 
rag! FF. 

3. Two thermometers, one naked, the other wrapped in silk, 
were placed in a flask, with their stems pas ed through the cork. 
The flask was then immersed in hot water (about 150° F.). The 
naked thermometer rose rapidly, the covered one very slowly. 
After twenty minutes the temperature of the water was 120”, 
and the naked thermometer marked 112°, while the covered one 
registered only 108°, 

4. Two thermometers, one naked, the second wrapped in 
dried silk, were fixed in a flask as for last experiment, but a 
little water was placed in the flask, which was then plunged into 
hot water as; before. The naked thermometer rose rapidly at 
first, but it was soon outstripped by the covered one. The fol- 
lowing was the result after some minutes :— Water, 128°; naked 
thermometer, 118°; covered thermometer, 136°. : 

5. Two thermometers, one naked, the second enveloped in 
dried silk, were passed through a cover fitling a glass vessel 
which was carefully dried and heated, and the ccver was 
cemented on to prevent the pas age of moisture from the air. 
After an hour the naked thermometer had cooled to 81° (tem- 
perature of air), and the covered one to 83. They were then 
changed to a similar vessel containing a little water; the 


218 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


nt IIE SSS 


covered thermometer rose rapidly till it nearly touched 94°, while 
the naked one remained stationary. 
The conclusions to which these experiments point are too 
obvious to require demonstration, C. J. McNALLy 
Madras, December 9, 1880 


Selenium 


THE use of selenium in the photophone has suggested to me 
the possibility of using it in two ways, which I shall now describe, 
thinking you may perhaps consider them of sufficient general 
interest to publish in NATURE. 

Firstly, it seems probable that selenium might be used to | 
obtain the automatic registration in a chronograph of such phe- | 
nomena as star transits. It possesses the property of being | 


drawn into fine wire at a low temperature, but whether it can | 
be drawn fine enough to represent transit wires in a telescope I | 
do dot know, 

The arrangement would be as shown in the diagram, where | 
AA BB are parallel metal plates crossing the field of the tele- | 


scope, and insulated from each other except by the selenium 
wires CC CC in one direction, and by a wire circuit passing 
through a battery, and a relay, R, in the other. The relay 
should be so adjusted that the increased force of the current 
passing through the circuit caused by the light of a star falling 
on each wire CC in succession, shall cause its armature to act, 
and pass on a signal to the chronograph. 

The delicacy of the adjustment required for this purpose 
might be a greater difficulty than Iam aware of; but it should 
be borne in mind that the length of selenium in the circuit may 
be very small, as the plates A A B B need not be farther apart than 
sufficient to insure the star’s falling between them without exces- 
sive accuracy of setting, say one-twentieth to one-tenth of an inch 
in a telescope of moderate size. If necessary, it would be simple 
enough to give each wire CC its own distinct circuit. Should 
the brittleness of the wires prove a difficulty, they may be sup- 
ported between the plates AA BB in any convenient way which 
does not interfere with the insulation of these plates. 

The second purpose would perhaps be of more practical use 
than the above, viz. to secure an automatic daily time-signal. 

— 


< co 


4|_ 


Let a thin plate of selenium be placed between, and in firm | 
contact with, two parallel plates of metal, which are connected | 
with each other by a wire passing through a battery and a relay | 
as above, so that the selenium alone interrupts the circuit. Then | 
if this plate be placed with its length in the meridian, and a 
lens adjusted above it, so as to throw the image of a star, or the 
sun, as it crosses the meridian exactly on the selenium, a 
signal will be obtained from the relay as before, which in this 
case may be the stroke of a bell or any other convenient sound. 

An ordinary leas would require constant changes of adjust- | 
ment if used for the sun, moon, or any body of varying 
declination ; but if the lens were the central slice cut out of a 
sphere by two small circles parallel to each other and equidistant 
from the centre, placed with its flat sides parallel to the meridian, 


ene [A 


while the selenium was placed in a curve concentric with that of 
the lens, at the proper distance from its surface, and of sufficient 
length—of course being accurately in the meridian—then any 
heavenly body of whatever declination—between certain wide 
limits—would throw its image on the selenium and afford a 


| signal, if of sufficient brightness. The arrangement of a warning- 


signal would be easy. 

If this method proved practicable the objection would remain 
of having to apply a correction to obtain mean time, which 
would probably prevent its being used for public purposes, such 
as dropping time-balls or firing time-guns. It seems to me how- 
ever that it might nevertheless prove very useful to many private 
individuals who require an accurate knowledge of time. 

Poona, December 3, 1880 W. M. G. 


SS 


Experiments with Vacuum Tubes 


AT a meeting of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow on 
December 22, 1880, I gave a ve: brief preliminary account of 
some experiments that I have b.en making, along with Sir 
William Thomson, with vacuum tubes. We have sealed up 
English and German glass tubes with very high vacuums, but 
without any electrodes; and have obtained very remarkable 
Juminous effects both with the Ruhmkorf coil and also working 
by means of electrostatic induction. Using an ordinary frictional 
electric machine, and applying one end of a long vacuum tube | 
to the prime conductor, while the other end of the tube is held | 
in the hand, the tube becomes charged as a double Leyden jar in 
the following way :—one end of the tube, next to the prime con- 
ductor,—outside positive, inside negative ; the other end—inside | 
positive, outside negative. This can be shown by the gold leaf | 
electroscope. The charges seem to be very high and the glass | 
is very frequently perforated. Indeed it is difficult to work with | 
the electric machine in tolerably good order without perforating | 
the glass. While this double Leyden jar is slowly discharged, 
by removing, part by part, the charges from the outside of the | 
tube, beautiful luminous effects are observed very different from 
those seen in the ordinary vacuum tubes. We have also obtained | 
curious effects by heating the middle region of the tube so hi -hly 
that it becomes a semi-conductor. J. T. BorroMLey 

Physical Laboratory, University, Glasgow, December 29 | 


Modern Use of Ancient Stone Implements 


Peruaprs the following statement will interest some of your 
readers :—In an old volume, ‘‘ Thomae Bartolini Acta hafni- 
ensia,”” Ann, 1674, 1675, 1676, I find a paragraph signed by 
Olaus Borrichius, which clearly indicates that in the seventeenth 
century ancient stone implements, and probably many of them, 
Were converted into flints for the use of the contemporaneous 


musquetry. The text runs thus :—‘‘Silices Anholdini trian- 
gulares. Insula haec [Anholt in the Kattegat] porrigitur in sinu 
codano, minuta illa quidem et naufragiis multorum infamis, uno 
hic laudanda quod si quis arenas littoris eiusdem scrutetur, 
infinitos reperiat silices nigros, albos, varios, in sabulo hinc inde 
sepultos, ad sex transversos digitos in longitudinem protensos, 
latos digitum unum, omnes triquetros ac si manu _artificis 
fuissent acuminati, et lateribus plerumque in illam aciem excitatis, 
ut Iosuae servire potuerint cultris saxeis filiorum Israel cireum- 
cisionem imperanti. Nune ferreo hic seculo in alios vocantur 
usus: malleo enim in frusta convenientia divisi sclopetorum 
rotulis ignem prompte ministrant et fomitis incendiarii loco 
fulmineis bellatorum tubis ancillantur.” D. BUDDE 
Rome, December 26, 1880 


Pile Dwellings 


Ir the connection between pile dwellings in the Swiss lakes, 
the Swiss chalet, and the Malayan modern pile dwellings is 
demonstrated, a decided advance has been or will be made in 
prehistoric anthropology. 

Pile dwellings are a very distinct characteristic of all the Hill 
races north-east of Bengal, except those on the Kasia Hill ranges, 
and so far as I can see is a conspicuous distinction between the 
Aryan and non-Aryan races here. 

The persistence with which this custom is retained among 
tribes who have migrated to new sites, where the need is not 
obvious, seems to offer a safe means of tracing to some extent 
racial descent or relationships. 

The ‘‘ Miris” of Asam offer a case where part of the tribe is 
still in its hills, while the rest are more or less scattered along 
the Brahmaputra in the level land of Asam, and build houses 
alike. The Ahoms, a Shan race who invaded and settled in 
Asam in A.D, 1228, built pile dwellings, and the ‘‘ Deodhaings,” 
who are lineally descended from them, do so now. The Butias 


Fan, 6, 1881] ~ 


NATURE 


219 


Daflas, [Akas, Abors, Mishmis, Singphus, ‘and Nagas (all) | confined to 42/7 races, and not seen in jlain races; that the 


build pile-dwellings, as do the Kamtis. 


invariable explanation offered to inquiry is that on the hill tops 


Several peculiarities are noteworthy, 7.c. that the custom is | and spurs, where a/one the villages are built, there is very little 


level land ; also that this form of house is a necessity among 
races that keep pigs and goats, which to any casual visitor is at 
once obvious. 

As it is possible that this question may afford unexpected 
results when examined, I inclose sketch of a Naga ‘‘ Morang,” 


Landslips.—The Cheshire Subsidences 


UNDER the guidance of Mr. Thos. Higgin, F.L.S., and your 
correspondent Mr. Ward, I have just been examining the subsi- 
dences that have been lately taking place in the neighbourhood 
of Northwich. To understand how they occur, it is necessary 
to know that there are two beds of rock salt in the Triassic 
marl, The upper bed, 25 yards thick, is from 40 to 60 yards 
below the surface ; the lower, 35 yards thick, is separated from 
the upper by about 1o yards of hard marl. The greater bulk of 
the salt is obtained in the form of brine pumped up from the 
upper bed, The lower bed is to a smaller extent worked as a 
salt-mine. From these operations two classes of subsidences 
result: the one general and gradual, due to the removal in solu- 
tion of the rock salt of the upper bed by percolation of water 
and pumping, by which the surface of the ground sinks in undu- 
lations ; the other, sudden fallings in of the ground into the 
mines, forming crater-like pits. It is to these I wish to call 
attention. I was fortunate enough to see one before it had 
become, as they all do, partially filled with water, I should 
judge it to be about 70 feet deep, 150 feet diameter at the top, 
and 20 or 30 feet at the bottom, where a little water was lodging. 
The problem to account for is how such an inverted cone of 
marl capped with boulder-clay and drift-sand could apparently 
have disappeared through so small a hole? The explanation 
appears to be this: By percolation of water the roof of the mine 
begins locally to give way and fall into the mine, gradually 
working its way to the surface, where it fir:t appears in the form 
of a hole about the size of a well. The vacuity will no doubt 
take a conical form, the base being at the roof of the mine; 
once the hole is formed, the surface-ground begins to slip and 
fall in around, gradually enlarging the orifice, the material dis- 
appearing into the mine below. 
is filled up and the sides of the ‘‘crater” attain the angle of 
repose. The whole thing will occur in a night. The subsidences 
certainly present a very remarkable appearance from the regu- 
larity of their circular or elliptical form and funnel crater-like 
shape. It is evident such subsidences could not happen except 
under special conditions, such as are provided by salt-mining 
and pumping in these Keuper marls, T. MELLARD READE 

Park Corner, Blundellsands, Liverpool, December 22, 1880 


This continues until the bottom | 


or skull house, which with its platform is the same as those they 
live in. Different tribes have variations of the pattern, and 
most have the platform balcony in some shape or other, and the 
posts go through the roof in some Nagas houses alone. 

Asam S. E. PEAL 


Animal Reasoning 


I SEND an account of a singular act of animal intelligence 
which may not be uninteresting to the readers of NATURE. A 
lady, a friend of mine, was at one time matron of a hospital for 
poor women and children which was maintained by subscription. 
One of the inmates was a blind girl who was there not as a 
patient, but temporally till a home could be found for her. She 
had learned to feed herself, and at meal times a tray containing 
her dinner was placed on her knees as she sat in a comfortable 
chair for her special convenience in feeding herself. One day 
while she was eating, the pet cat of the establishment placed 
herself before the girl and looked long and earnestly at her, so 
earnestly that the matron, fearing the anima] meditated some 
mischief to the girl, took her out of the room, Again the next 
next day, at the same hour, the cat entered the room, but this 
time walked quietly to the girl’s side, reared herself on her hind 
legs, and noiselessly, stealthily reached out her paw to the plate, 
selec ed and seized a morsel that pleased her, and, silently as she 
came, departed to enjoy her stolen meal. The girl never noticed 
her loss, and when told of it by her companions laughed very 
heartily. 

It is evident that the cat from observation had entirely satisfied 
herself that the girl could not see, and by a process of reasoning 
decided she could steal a good dinner by this practical use of her 
knowledge. kK Ps 

Cambridge, Massachusetts 


Ozone 


THE letter of J. P. on this subject hardly gives enough data to 
enable one to found an opinion upon ; but is it not possible the 
paper is coloured by ozone from the air? It is well known that a 
flame is the most potent method of collecting atmospheric elec- 
tricity, anda properly-insulated spirit flame ignited indry air seldom 
fails to show some traces. I would suggest the experiment being 
repeated on the exposed plate of a gold leaf electrometer, the sur- 
rounding conditions of place, air, &c., being noted : also under 
a bell glass, where such conditions would be varied. Ozone is 
very strong just now, my paper this morning reaching 10, the 
limit of Negretti and Zambra’s scale. J. RanpD CAPRON 

Guildown, December 28, 1880 


220 


NGA DORE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


THE INDO-CHINESE AND OCEANIC RACES— 
TYPES AND AFFINITIES* 
Il. 


yAN BELIEF in sorcery is very general, especially amongst 

the Melanesians, and some of the practices associated 
with it often resemble those prevalent amongst the Aus- 
tralians and African Negroes, and even in mediaeval 
times in Europe. In Tanna, New Hebrides group, Dr. 
G, Turner tells us that the real gods “ may be said to be 
the disease-makers. It is surprising how these men are 
dreaded, and how firm the belief is that they have in 
their hands the power of life and death. There are rain- 
makers and thunder-makers, and fly- and mosquito- 
makers, and a host of other ‘sacred men’; but the 
disease-makers are the most dreaded. It is believed 
that these men can create disease and death by burning 
what is called xafak. Nahak means rubbish, but princi- 
pally refuse of food. Everything of the kind they burn 
or throw into the sea lest the disease-makers should get 
hold of it. These fellows are always about, and consider 
it their special business to pick up and burn, with certain 
formalities, anything in the nahak line that comes in 
their way. If a disease maker sees the skin of a banana, 
for instance, he picks it up, wraps it in a leaf, and wears 
it all day hanging round his neck. The people stare as 
they see him go along, and say to each other, ‘ Hehas got 
something : he will do for somebody by and by at night.’ 
In the evening he scrapes the bark off a tree, mixes it with 
the banana skin, rolls up tightly in a leaf in the form of a 
cigar, and then puts the one end close enough to the fire 
to cause it to singe, and smoulder and burn away 
gradually. Presently he hears a shell blowing. ‘ There,’ 
he says to his friends, ‘there is the man whose rubbish I 
am now burning ; he is ill. Let us stop burning and see 
what they bring in the morning.’ 

“When a person is taken ill he believes it is occasioned 
by some one burning his rubbish. 
about medicine he calls some one to blow a shell, which, 
when perforated and blown, can be heard two or three 
miles off. The meaning of this is to implore the person 
who is supposed te be burning the sick man’s rubbish and 
causing all the pain to stop burning; and it is a promise 
as well that a present will be sent in the morning. The 
greater the pain, the more they blow the shell, and when 
the pain abates they cease, supposing that the disease- 
maker has been kind enough to stop burning. Then the 
friends of the sick man arrange about a present to be 
taken in the morning. Pigs, mats, knives, hatchets, 
beads, whales’ teeth, &c., are the sort of thing taken. 
Some of the disease-maling craft are always ready to 
receive the presents and to assure the party that they will 
do their best to prevent the rubbish from being again 
burnt. If the poor man has another attack at night 
he thinks nahak is again burning. The shell is again 
blown, and so they go on; and if he dies his friends lay it 
all down to the disease-makers, as not being pleased with 
the presents taken and as having burned the rubbish to the 
end. The idea is that whenever it isall burned the person 
dies.” (‘‘ Nineteen Years in Polynesia.”) Substitute 
for the nahak a waxen image of the absent victim, and 
you have in this account a perfect parallel to the belief in 
the power of witchcraft to injure at a distance universal at 
all times in Europe :— 

“Devovet absentes, simulacraque ce:ea fingit, 
Et miserum tenues in jecur urget acus,” 
(Ovid, Zpist 6.) 

But this merely shows how little reliance can be placed 
on similarity of manners and customs in tracing the 
affinities of races. The mind of man having sprung, as 
seems cst probable, from one original centre, is every- 
where very much the same in the infantile or undeveloped 

* Continued from p. 203. : 


Instead of thinking | 


stage. Hence, like practices under like conditions may 
very well arise independently in diverse places without im- 
plying any ethniaal relationship or even anynecessary social 
contact. The most extravagant theorist would scarcely ven- 
ture to suggest any direct relationship of any sort between 
the Paptans, for instance, and the Basques ; yet amongst 
the young girls of both races the extraordinary taste for 
making pets of little pigs prevails. At least the practice 
is spoken of by recent explorers as common in New 
Guinea, while Mdme. d’Aulnoy (“Relation du Voyage 
d'Espagne,” Paris, 1691) was greatly surprised to find the 
young Basque ladies of Bayonne indulging in the same 
habit when she visited the place in 1679. “Some of 
those who came to see me had a little sucking-pig tucked 
under their arms, just as we carry our little lap-dogs. 
Several had ribbons of different colours tied round their 
necks as collars. But when the ladies joined in the dance 
they were obliged to let the horrid beasts loose in the 
room, where they made more noise than so many imps.’’ 
The ‘‘couvade”’ is another remarkable custom attributed 
both to the Basques and to the Buru Islanders, Eastern 
Archipelago, in common with many other peoples ancient 
and modern in the Old and New World. But M. Julien 
Vinson (République Francaise, January 19, 1877) has shown 
that, at least as far as regards the Basques, there is little 
or no ground for the statement. We all know what 
astonishing conclusions as to ethnical affinities certain 
ethnologists have drawn from the assumed common 
prevalence of this eccentric fashion amongst the most 
widely-dispersed nations. Yet even if it did exist 
among-t them such conclusions would be otherwise 
inadmissible. 

It may be mentioned that the missionaries have been 
for some years at work amongst the Mafér people and their 
kinsmen of Dorey, into whose language they have trans- 
lated several tracts and portions of Scripture. Here is a 
specimen from Genesis i. 1 (‘In the beginning,” &c.): 
“Beponeia kaku manseren allah ibejadi nanggi ma 
dinya. Ddnya ibeiirba ma ibro beri, ma ifnurep | 6n ‘ro 
bo i, ma rir manseren allah biéda iriob ‘ro bo wareya.” 
The Malay, or rather Arabic words, a//ah, God, d#nya, 
earth, 7x for 72h, spirit, are of course borrowed by the 
translator; but the structure of the language is entirely 
different, being highly agglutinating and employing both 
pre- and post-fixes, like other Paptan dialects. In other 
respects the Papiian and Melanesian tongues differ so 
profoundly from each other that it is impossible to group 
them in one linguistic family. As a rule they possess 
absolutely nothing in common beyond a certain uniformity 
of structure and such verbal resemblance as is due to’ 
Malay and Sawaiori influences. These influences are 
very wide-spread, as shown especially in the numerals, 
which the dark races have almost everywhere borrowed 
from their brown and olive neighbours. But they often 
still retain the old quint system at one time common to 
Indo-China and Malaysia, but in th> Oceanic area now 
mostly replaced by the decimal. Thus in the Duke of 
York Islands, between New Britain and New Ireland, 
the five first numerals only are taken from the Sawaiori 
or Eastern Polynesians, the numbers beyond five being 
expressed by addition, as in Cambojan and _ several 
Malayan and Western Pay ian dialects. Hence for the 
Samoan ¢ ovo = six, e sefiulu = ten, we have /imadt ma’ 
ra=5+1, limadi ma limadi = 5+ 5, where madi is 
from the Samoan or Eastern Polynesian /7a = 5. By 
an analogous process the numerous Sawaiori words that 
have found their way especially into the Eastern Papuan 


| idioms are always compelled to conform to the agglutinat- 


ing character of Paptian grammar. Thus the Fijian and 
Duke of York fama = brother, apparently answering to 
the Samoan ¢av:a = boy, assume the pronominal post- 
fixes 2, g, ua, &c., peculiar to those groups, the Fijian 
tamazu and Duke of York ¢amag being equivalent to the 


Samoan 0 /o‘z ¢ama = my brother or my boy. Here we 


Fan. 6, 1881] 


clearly see how entirely the structure of the Papiian differs 
from that of the Sawaiori tongues, and how constant is 
the law that languages of different systems may borrow 
any number of words from each other, while each invari- 
ably retains its own grammatical genius. Hence, when 
we hear of mixed Papiian, Malayan, and Sawaiori tongues 
in these regions the expression is always to be understood 
as referring to the vocabularies only, never to the gram- 
mar or structure of those languages. In philology there 
is no rarer phenomenon than mixed grammatical systems, 
though perhaps it might be premature to deny the abso- 
lute possibility of such mixture. 


II. THE AustRAL RAcEs: Australians ; Tasmanians (?) 


The area occupied by this division of the dark races is 
limited to the Australian continent and neighbouring 
island of Tasmania. Here we enter an entirely new 
ethnical world, for, although the extinct Tasmanians 
betray certain doubtful affinities to the Melanesians, the 
Australians stand quite apart. They are usually repre- 
sented as black, straight-haired, dolichocephalous, and 
prognathous. But this general description can pretend to no 
scientific accuracy, and in any case it is extremely doubt- 
ful whether they can be regarded as all belonging to one 
original stock. Topinard, who has devoted great atten- 
tion to the subject, recognises at least two distinct 
aboriginal types, the fusion of which results in the average 
Australian as above described, and whose essential 
peculiarity may be said to consist in the combination of 
more or less negroid features with straight hair. The 
more primitive race, found mainly on the low-lying coast 
tracts about King George’s Sound, in the north-west and 
extreme east, is described as of short stature, very black 
and prognathous, with woolly or at least frizzly hair ; the 
second and finer race, occupying the interior, and 
especially the north-eastern highlands, are much taller, 
of lighter colour, with straight or wavy hair, and slight 
prognathism. 

But, notwithstanding these discrepancies, Brough Smith 
well observes that “throughout Australia the natives exhibit 
a general conformity to one pattern as regards features, 
colour, and mental character. A man from Southern 
Gippsland [Victoria] would be recognised as an Australian 
by the inhabitants of Port Essington, and a native of 
King George’s Sound would be surely known if taken to 
York Peninsula.” This common racial instinct or fellow- 
feeling is perhaps our best justification for treating as an 
independent ethnical group a people for whom affinities 
have been sought far and wide, by Huxley with Logan 
in India, by others in Polynesia, Egypt, Europe, or 
America. One of the arguments adduced in support 
of an Egyptian or Indian relationship is based on the 
assumed resemblance of the throwing-sticks of those 
peoples with the Australian womguine or boomerang; 
but Brough Smith (“The Aborigines of Victoria,” i. 
p- 323), who has gone thoroughly into this question, con- 
cludes that ‘‘it is safe to deny the affinity of the Dravidian 
or Egyptian boomerang with that of the Australian 
native, because the first, under no circumstances whatever, 
could be made to behave as the womguine does. The 
flat leaf-like weapon of the Australian differs essentially 
from the Egyptian crooked stick.’’ Muchreliance is also 
placed on a certain resemblance between the Dravidian 
and Australian systems of kinship. But when we find 
that L. H. Morgan discovered a somewhat similar system 
prevailing throughout the North American tribes, and 
that the Rev. Lorimer Fison was able to extend its domain 
to the South Sea Islanders, we begin to attach less im- 
portance to a character of this sort. Quod nimis probat 
uthil probat was a sound maxim amongst the schoolmen. 

The Australian languages, which, with great differences, 
present aremarkable uniformity of structure and phonetics 
throughout the continent, have also been compared with 
the Semitic, Aryan, and other systems, but with no 


NATURE 


221 


results, except where the unscientific method has been 
adopted. Thus »urry, great, is compared with the Keltic 
mor, or the English more, cobbera, head, with the Spanish 
cobra, quite a modern formation ; gzdber, rock, with the 
first syllable of Gibraltar, of which the true Arabic form 
is Jebel, hieleman, shield, with the Anglo-Saxon helian 
or heligan, to cover, or with the English /e/met, which 
the ingenious etymologists are careful to tell us is “a little 
shield for the head”; cabohn, good, with the French 4oz ; 
tiora, land, with the Latin ¢erra, hkiraji, wizard, with the 
Greek yepoupyds ; rw, country, with the Latin rus, 
takkin, eating, with the English fake zz (why not “ack 
im ?); martz, limestone, with mortar, beyond which it 
would be difficult to carry etymological eccentricity. 
Many of these languages are highly agglutinating, some 
even verging on true inflection ; but scarcely any have 
distinct names for the numerals beyond 1 and 2, after 
which 3 =2+1; 4=2-+2, and soon. 

This common feature alone should be sufficient to 
reject any Semitic, Aryan, or Dravidian affinities, for if 
the Australians came of any of those stocks, it is not to 
be believed that all the tribes would have agreed to forget 
their inherited arithmetical system, and stop short pre- 
cisely at the inconveniently low numeral 2. At the same 
time it is conceivable that at an extremely remote age, while 
Australia still formed part of the Asiatic mainland, tribes 
resembling the Korumbas, Maravans, Todas, and other 
low-caste peoples of the Deccan, may have spread south- 
wards and here amalgamated with others of a Paptian 
type from Melanesia. The result of such an intermingling 
might be a race not unlike the present average Australian 
—dark, prognathous, more or less dolichocephalous and 
with wavy or shaggy hair intermediate between the frizzly 
and straight. But these migrations cannot have taken 
place since the subsidence of the land, because none of 
the races in question are navigators, although some of 
the New Guinea tribes have recently learnt the art from 
the Malays. On the other hand the remoteness of the 
period to which such movements must be referred is no 
objection, for Australia has been peopled for many ages, 
as is evident from the vast kitchen-middens found on the 
coast, and some of which have already been used as 
manure by the white settlers. 

The extremely low estimate of the Australian intellect 
formed by Mr. Wake and other ethnologists seems at 
least somewhat premature, and no one can turn over the 
pages of Brough Smith’s great work on the Aborigines of 
Victoria without coming to the conclusion that the race 
has been much vilified and unduly depreciated by careless 
or superficial observers. Many instances are given of 
their skill even in drawing, a capacity for which was 
wholly denied them. They often show great quickness 
in adapting themselves to the ways of the white man, and 
the children constantly show themselves “ quite as capable 
of receiving and profiting by instruction as the children of 
untaught parents among the white race” (of. cit. ii. p. 256). 
It was recently stated that the native school at Coranderrk, 
on the Yarra, had gained relatively more passes than any 
other school in Victoria. 

At the same time most of the tribes are addicted to 
extremely revolting practices, those by which the “coming 
of age” is celebrated being especially barbarous and 
disgusting. Some also, under unfavourable conditions, 
have either sunk to, or never risen from, the most de- 
based condition compatible with existence. Mr. Taplin 
was acquainted with a Narrinyeri famfly, “residing on 
Lake Alexandrina, the members of which were as nearly 
brutes as they could be. . . . They subsisted on roots and 
native fruits, and such fish and game as came into their 
hands by means of the simplest contrivances, the thrown 
waddy, or the simple noose, and they were regarded by 
their own pecple as very low. They would not even 
make a shelter, but cowered under bushes and in holes; 
and yet it could not but be evident how far they were 


222 


NATORE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


above the brute. The man could make twine, the 
woman a rush basket”’ (of. cét., p. 10). 

Cannibalism has also been prevalent, assuming amongst 
some tribes a very revolting form. 

Unfortunately not many of the Aborigines are left to 
benefit by the enlightened and humane system of treat- 
ment tardily introduced by the local administrations. 
There are probably not 30,000 left in all Australia ; even 
those of Victoria, who are best cared for, are dying out 
except in a few favoured stations, and “Lalla Rookh,” 
the last of the pure blood Tasmanian women, died in 


June, 1876. The Tasmanians differed in many important | 


respects from the Australians. They were of darker 
colour and considerably less dolichocephalous, with 
decidedly frizzly hair, this latter feature bringing them 
into close connection with the Melanesians. In point of 
culture they stood almost on the lowest level, possessing 
no fixed abodes, wearing no clothes, never cultivating the 
land, unacquainted with the rudest arts, possessing neither 
domestic animals, pottery, nor the boomerang or bows 
and arrows of the Australians. They were divided into a 
great number of tribes, speaking as many as nine quite 
distinct languages, but so little developed that the sense 
was largely eked out with the aid of gesture and signs. 
Yet their cranial capacity seems to have been slightly 
greater than that of their neighbours (index 80 as com- 
pared with 78), while they were nearly as orthognathous 
as Europeans. These contradictions constitute the Tas- 
manian a type sw generis, allied partly to the Australian, 
partly to the Melanesian and Polynesian, with some 
special features which may perhaps be due to their long 
isolation from other races. 


B—CAUCASIAN TYPE 


IV. CONTINENTAL BRANCH: Ahmér or Cambojan 
Group 


In Further India, with one exception, all the settled 
peoples forming recognised nationalities, that is, the 
Burmese, Thai or Siamese and Annamese, are physically 
of Mongolian stock, and all speak languages of the 
monosyllabic or isolating class. The same is largely true 
of the Mishmis, Khasias, Kukis, Nagas, Khyengs, Karens, 
and other wild tribes in the west and north-west, as well 
as of the Shans, Mou-tz’, and many Miau-tz’ tribes in the 


north. Hence the universal assumption that, excluding | 


Malacca, all the inhabitants of the peninsula constitute 
one ethnical and linguistic group allied to the Chinese in 
the north and to the Tibeto- Himalayan races of the north- 
west, and with them forming collectively the great South- 
Eastern division of the Mongolian family. This comfort- 
able theory was first shaken by the revelations of the 
famous French expedition of 1866-8 up the Me-Khong 
River, since when the writings of Dr. Thorel, Francis 
Garnier, E. Aymonnier, C. E. Bouillevaux, Dr. Har- 
mand, and other French naturalists have made it abun- 
dantly evident that there is in this region an important 
non-Mongolian element, which must henceforth be taken 
into account. Yet so slowly does scientific truth make 
its way against long-established error, that the fact has 
scarcely yet been recognised in any comprehensive trea- 
tise on ethnology or linguistics. In a paper prepared 
for the meeting of the British Association in Sheffield 
in 1879, and since published in separate form,’ I en- 
deavoured to determine the true nature of this non- 
Mongolian element, and to point out its essential impor- 
tance in connection with the classification of all the 
Indo-Chinese and Oceanic races. It was there shown 
that the Khmér or Cambojan nation, the exception above 
referred to, together with a large number of kindred 
peoples inhabiting the Lower Mekhong basin and the 
region between that river and the Coast range running 
from Cape St. James northwards to the Chinese frontier, 


* “On the Relations of the Indo-Chinese and Inter-Oceanic Races and 


Languages.’”’ (Triibner, 1820.) 


form a distinct racial and linguistic group, of the same 
physical type as the Mediterranean or Caucasian races 
of the west, and closely akin to the brown Oceanic races 
of Malaysia and the Pacific. 

The arguments brought forward in support of this view 
need not here be formally repeated, and it will be suffi- 
cient to vindicate the use of the term “ Caucasian” as 
thus extended to the remotest Polynesian islands. It 
has been objected that there are no Aryan languages 
in the far east, and that the Eastern Polynesians are a 
brown race, consequently that the word Caucasian cannot 
here apply. But those who so argue seem scarcely to 
realise the nature of the problem. Caucasian is not a 
linguistic, but an ethnical expression; hence although 
the Aryan, Basque, Semitic, and many languages of the 
Caucasus have no conceivable relationship with each 
other, we do not hesitate to regard those who speak these 
languages as of one stock because their physical type is 
substantially the same. This type we conventionally call 
Caucasian or Mediterranean, which terms must be held 
to apply wherever the physical features implied by them 
are found, irrespective altogether of the language ques- 
tion. Why speech and type should not correspond is 
another problem, which admits of an obvious solution, 
but which cannot here detain us. 

The objection based on colour, though more to the 
point, is scarcely more forcible. The brown Polynesians 
are not supposed to spring directly from the fair Euro- 
peans, but to have gradually spread from Indo-China 
through Malaysia to their present homes ; and it will be 
presently seen that there are peoples in Indo-China brown 
enough to suit the Polynesian taste, and fair enough to 
claim kinship with the western nations. Besides, the 
question of colour must anthropologically be regarded as 
altogether of secondary importance. There are black 
Caucasians in Abyssinia, deep brown Caucasians in the 
Ganges Valley, dusky or swarthy Hamites and Semites, 
also Caucasians, in North Africaand Arabia ; and why may 
there not be brown Caucasians in Polynesia? Surely the 
evolutionist, who does not hesitate to accept the develop- 
ment of the gevs homo from some anthropoid ape, need 
not scruple about the relationship of the human species 
because of such a secondary matter as colour. Schwein- 
furth tells us that albinism is common amongst the 
negroes of the Nile basin, and there is at the present 
moment a clear case of melanosis in London. If these 
be regarded as morbid symptoms, they are often here- 
ditary, and it has not yet been shown that they may not 
be cases of atavism, such as the reappearance of the bars 
on the pigeon’s wing, bowever far removed from the 
original blue-rock type. Véméum ne -crede colori, wisely 
said Linnzeus, speaking of plants, and the remark is 
equally applicable to the animal kingdom. Observing 
that the black pigment does not make its appearance on 
the Negroes of Loango, West Coast of Africa, until after 
birth, the Berlin anthropologist Falkenstein suggests 
that it may be due to the action of the solar rays. If so, 
what becomes of colour as a fundamental characteristic 
at all? q 

Besides the civilised Khmérs, forming the bulk of the 
present kingdom of Camboja and neighbouring Siamese 
provinces of Ongkar and Battambang, the chief Cauca- 
sian peoples of Indo-China are the Chams, Charays,. 
Bolovens, Stiéngs, Sué, Xong, Cedangs, Rhoedehs, Ban- 
hars, Samré, Lemets, and Ktys. the last of whom are 


| looked on by the Cambojans as the primitive Khmer 


stock ; hence are called by them K/smér dom, or “ origi- 
nal Khmérs.” In the paper above referred to the physical 
characteristics of these tribes are thus summed up mainly 
from Thorel :—‘‘ A fine, vigorous race, with symmetrical 
and well-set frames ; stature rather above the middle size, 
straight profile, oval face, dolichocephalous head, high 
forehead, retreating very slightly, black hair, often inclin- 
ing to brown, straight or wavy and elliptical in section, 


Fan. 6, 1881] 


NATURE 


beard and whiskers well furnished and always frizzled, 
or at least wavy, eyes perfectly straight and horizontal, 
nose not particularly prominent, but nearly always 
straight and never flattened at the root, cheek-bones 
scarcely if at all prominent, mouth of medium size and 
even small size, with moderately thick lips but no trace 
of prognathism, complexion mainly of a bister or brown 
colour, but varying from fair and even white to light 
brown and dark, though never so dark as that of the 
Aryans of India.” 

This description, given by a scientific observer, is the 
very antithesis of the Mongolian, and corresponds in all 
essentials to the ordinary Caucasian of Western Asia 
and Europe. Hence it is not surprising to find recent 
French writers freely applying to these peoples such 
epithets as ‘‘Caucasique,” “ Indo-Européen,” ‘ blanc,”’ 
and so on. Bouillevaux calls the Chares “ white savages 
of Caucasian type.” Thorel connects the northern tribes 
with “the Caucasian race, or more correctly with the 
Indo-European peoples.’’ Dr. Harmand gives us a 
description of a beautiful Khang woman, dwelling par- 
ticularly on her “aquiline nose, large eyes, thin lips, 
round shoulders,” and other points of a European cha- 
racter. The Bolovens of Bassac he describes as of 
lighter complexion and taller than the surrounding Laos 
(Mongoloid) peoples, with sub-dolichocephalous head, 


Fic. 11.—Stieng Pipes. 


whereas that of the Laos is decidedly brachycephalic. 
Many Boloven women are remarkably beautiful in the 
European sense, with large straight eyes, regular features, 
and ruddy rather than yellow complexion. The colour 
of these wild tribes is often described as darker than 
that of their Siamese and Laos neighbours; but Dr. 
Harmand points out that this is due to the deep-rooted 
prejudice of the Laos, who habitually speak of them as 
even ‘‘black,” though often fairer than the Laos them- 
selves. The essential difference between the two races 
in this respect is precisely what we should expect, the 
Thai being more yellow, the Khas, or Caucasian wild 
tribes, more red. This red or ruddy tinge was also 
noticed by Dr. A. Maurice amongst the Banhars, and the 
Piaks are even said to have wavy black hair with a russet 
hue, a trait never occurring in any pure branch of the 
Mongolian family. 

These Caucasian tribes seem to be the true Aborigines 
of Indo-China, where they have been mostly sup- 
planted, or driven to the impenetrable forests and high- 
lands of the south-east by the intruding Mongol races, 
descending by the valleys of the great rivers from the 
Tibetan plateau. Still one branch, the Khmérs, or 
Cambojans, were powerful and numerous enough to 
hold their ground in the lower Mekhong Valley, where, 
under Buddhistic influences, they established a flourishing 


223 


empire and erected monuments 2000 years ago, whose 
stupendous ruins rival those of Java and India itself in 
archeological and artistic interest. Indeed it may be 
doubted whether there is anything. in the whole world 


Fic. 12.—Ornamental Work on Stieng Quiver. 


more wonderful in its way than the magnificent temple of 
Ongkor Vaht, on the northern shores of Lake Toulé-sap. 
It is noteworthy that the bas-reliefs and other figures on 
these monuments are of the same type as the present - 
Cambojan race, with the same regular features, full beard, 


Fic. 13.—Ornamental Work on Stieng Quiver. 


and even their very dress, arms, and musical instruments. 
Traditions of this early civilisation still linger amongst 
the surrounding Khmér tribes, many of whom, such as 
the Stiengs, Kings, and Chams, possess natural endow- 


224 


ments of a high order, cultivate their lands with great 
intelligence, are skilful workers in metals, and betray 
extreme taste in their decorative art. In the Zour du 
Monde for May 15, 1880, Dr. Harmand figures two native 
pipes and a quiver of a Stieng tribe, whose forms and 
arabesque designs are supremely beautiful (see Figs. 11, 
12,and 13). “ Their artistic instincts,” this observer re- 
marks, ‘are more developed and especially more original 
[than those of their Laos neighbours]. From them I have 
procured various objects betraying a refined taste, and 
woven fabrics with simple designs avd well-harmonised 
colours’”” Amongst them there is prevalent a curious 
system of writing, at first sight somewhat suggestive of 
the Irish Ogham, but of a far more primitive character. 
It consists of a series of notches, varying in size and 
number, cut on both edges of a bamboo plancheite, 
which is generally set up as a sort of public notice at 
the entrance to the villages. Thus a row made up of 
eight large, eleven medium-sized, and nine small notches 
was explained to mean: ‘“ Our village contains eight men, 
eleven women, and nine children.’’ It is evident that in 
a system of this sort as wide a scope must be left to the 
imagination as in the hypothetical primitive speech, in 
which broken utterances are largely supplemented by 
signs and gesture. A. H, KEANE 
( To be continued.) 


GEOLOGY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA? 


yeu the conflict of political parties, the jealousies of 
rival powers, the rumours of renewed dispeace 
among the nations, and the smouldering embers of war 
that seem ready at any moment to burst forth into re- 
newed conflagration, it is a relief to turn to a volume in 
which the Austrian Government has just shown to the 
world one of the first uses to which she has put her new 
acquisitions in the East. Nothing could have been more 
quietly and unostentatiously done, and nothing could 
show a more enlightened and humanising policy than the 
action which is modestly described in the volume before 
us. The story is briefly told by the Ritter von Hauer in 
an introductory note. It appears that immediately after 
the pacification of the occupied provinces of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina the Director of the Geological Institute at 
Vienna addressed to the Minister of Public Worship and 
Instruction (under whom the Geological Institute is placed) 
a letter in which he pointed out the desirability of ex- 
panding the pacific mission on which the country had 
entered in these provinces by organising a geological 
survey of them under the guidance of the Geological 
Institute. His representations were acceded to, and on 
March 9, 1879, he received instructions to commence a 
geological reconnaissance of the provinces with detailed 
investigation of such localities as might be found of 
sufficient importance. The task was to be undertaken 
conjointly by the Geological Institutes in Vienna and 
Buda-pest. The Director was requested as soon as 
possible to submit a plan of survey with proposals as to 
the number of geologists to be detailed and the individuals 
most competent for the exhaustive discharge of the duties 
required ; and he was further instructed to put himself in 
direct relations with the Hungarian Geological Institute 
with a view to a proper sub-division of the work. Ritter 
von Hauer had no difficulty with one part of his instruc- 
tions. Two of his staff, Dr. E. von Mojsisovics and Dr. 
E. Tietze, had already signified their wish to under- 
take the work, and Dr. Bittner expressed his desire to 
share in it. After some delay the Hungarian Institute 
made known its inability, from want of a sufficient staff, 
to take part in the intended survey. At last, on March 

* Jahrbuch der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstait, Band xxx. Heft ii., 
containing ‘‘ Grundlinien der Geologie von Bosnien-Hercegovina,’’ yon Dr. 
E. v. Mojsisovics, Dr. E. Tietze, und Dr. A. Bittner, mit Beitragen von Dr. 


M. Neumayr und C. v, John. Vienna, 188 The work is also published 
separately by Holder of Vienna, with a preface by Fr. v. Hauer. 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


23, Director Von Hauer was able to announce to the 
Ministry that he was ready to begin operations. He 
proposed that as the work would naturally fall into two 
sections, (1) the preparation of a geological sketch-map 
of the whole occupied Provinces, and (2) a special de- 
tailed investigation of localities affording indications of 
salt, coal, or ores, it would be desirable to arrange the 
officers employed into two divisions. For the prepara- 
tion of the map he suggested that four geologists should 
be employed, which, estimating the area to be surveyed 
at 1000 square German miles, would give 250 square 
miles to each surveyor. He recommended for this duty 
the three gentlemen above-named, and added the name of 
Prof. Hérnes of Graz as the fourth, should the Hungarian 
Geological Institute have no other to propose. It was of 
course impossible that these officers, intrusted with the 
task of rapidly traversing the country and seizing on the 
salient features of its geological structure, should have 
time to halt anywhere long enough to make detailed 
investigations for useful minerals. This part of the 
duties however was one in which the services of the 
Hungarian Geological Institute might be especially useful, 
seeing that the distribution of ores in the Hungarian terri- 
tory bore the closest analogy to that in Bosnia. The 
name of Herr F. Herlich of Klausenberg was accord- 
ingly suggested as one of the most competent persons to 
be intrusted with this part of the survey. It was further 
represented that the interesting and important coal and 
salt-spring region of Dolnj-Tuzla would be most fittingly 
explored by Herr Bergrath K. M. Paul, well known for 
his intimate acquaintance with the mineral tracts of 
Slavonia, Croatia, and the northern slopes of the Car- 
pathian Mountains. Some further suggestions as to 
additional assistants were made. At last on April 7, 
1879, the scheme of operations received the sanction of 
the Minister of Public Worship and Instruction. 

By the beginning of May Herr Paul had broken ground 
in Bosnia. Before the end of the same month Herren 
von Mojsisovics, Tietze, and Bittner were likewise in the 
field, and undertook by themselves the whole burden of 
the map. In about three months the traverses for the 
construction of the map were completed, and the geologi- 
cal structure of a hitherto unexplored region of 1000 
square German miles was added to our knowledge of the 
geology of Europe. One is at a loss whether most to 
admire the breadth of view which conceived and planned 
this first utilisation of an annexed territory, or the zeal and 
capacity which so rapidly carried out and completed the 
conception. 

The Jahrbuch der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstalt is 
one of the best-known and most useful geological journals 
in existence. The present number considerably exceeds 
the usual size of the periodical, since it is expanded by 
containing the reports of the geologists upon the recent 
survey of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dr. von Mojsisovics takes 
West Bosnia and Turkish Croatia. In his report, after 
acknowledging assistance received in the country and 
enumerating the literature of the subject, in which the 
work of the veteran Ami Boué stands in the foremost 
place, the author proceeds to give a general outline of the 
topography and geology of the region examined by him. 
Most of his survey was done on horseback. He chose 
various traverses of the country, noting down by the way 
his observations upon the general map of Europe on a 
scale of s5g5a0, published by the Military Geographical 
Institute of Vienna. The first section of his report is 
devoted to geological topography, and includes some 
interesting information regarding what has been termed 
the “ oriental fixed land’’—an ancient island or nucleus 
round which, in the Balkan Peninsula, the Lias and more 
recent formations have been ranged. The second section 
treats of the geological formations in stratigraphical order, 
the moreimportant being Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and 
Flysch, the last-named belonging partly to the Cretaceous 


Fan. 6, 1881 | 


and partly to the Eocene system. Among the younger 
formations the author devotes a couple of pages to sub- 
aérial deposits, including the results of the superficial 
weathering of rocks and the formation of “ eluvial ” accu- 
mulations. The third section describes the geological 
structure of different traverses of the country, and locali- 
ties of geological interest, while a supplement contains 
observations on the mineral resources of the ground re- 
ported upon. 

Dr. Tietze describes in a similar methodical way the 
geology of East Bosnia, while Dr. Bittner takes the 
Herzegovina and the south-east part of Bosnia. These 
reports are ful] of interest, especially in relation to the 
Cretaceous and Tertiary geology of the east of Europe. 
To some of the questions discussed in them we may 
return on another occasion. Though the geologists in 
their rapid marches had little time to collect specimens 
they nevertheless found opportunity to carry off some 
rocks and fossils which were found of sufficient importance 
to deserve special description. Herr C. v. John gives a 
report on some crystalline rocks of the Provinces, including 
granite, older plagioclase rocks, younger diabases, diorites, 
and similar rocks from the Flysch, gabbros, serpentines, 
eclogites, with trachytic and andesitic lavas. Dr. 
Neumayr describes a series of brackish-water shells from 
the Tertiary formations of the Provinces. 

The Geological Institute of Vienna may be congratulated 
on the signal success of its well-planned and admirably- 
conducted enterprise. Rarely has so compendious a body 
of detailed information in geology been so rapidly accu- 
mulated and so promptly published. Ritter von Hauer’s 
preface is dated March 1, 1880—that is within a year 
from the time when his proposal for the Survey was laid 
before the Austrian Government. These few months 
sufficed for the field-work, for the elaboration of the reports, 
and for the preparation of the map and engravings. The 
Reports form a volume of 333 closely-printed octavo 
pages. The map is issued in one sheet on the scale of 
78000) With twenty-one colours. ARCH. GEIKIE 


MICHEL CHASLES 
Born November 15, 1793, Died December 18, 1880. 

ce NOW ye not that there is a prince and a great 

man fallen this day?’’ might well have been the 
thought of the President Becquerel when he announced 
to the Academy on the 2oth ult. that Chasles was dead. 
To many the man who had surpassed in age Leibnitz by 
seventeen, Euler by eleven, Lagrange by ten, Laplace 
and Gauss by nine, and Newton by two years, was a 
“venerabile nomen,’’ but yet a “nomen” only. 

As far back as the present generation can remember 
Chasles has been a prince of geometers, and it has come 
upon many of us as a surprise to hear that he was still 
walking and working in our midst. A few years back a 
telegram was sent him from Boston conveying congratu- 
lations, and expressing the hope that the illustrious 
mathematician might see the close of the present century, 
in which event he would have surpassed the years of 
Pythagoras. Length of days is not always a boon, but 
Chasles’s was a pleasant old age, and he died in harness :; 
in such a case he might say with one of old, “nihil habeo 
qued incusem senectutem.’’ “La vie de M. Chasles a 
écé heureuse et simple; il a trouvé dans la Science, 
avec les plus grandes joies, une gloire qui sera immortelle, 
et dans la vive affection de ses amis, dans leur assiduité 
empressée aux réunions ot il les conviait avec une grace 
si aimable, dans leur respectueuse déférence en toute 
circonstance, la consolation de sa vieillesse.” 

Born at Epernon (Eure-et-Loir), he entered the Ecole 
Polytechnique in 1812. At this early date he would com- 
municate to students in the rival colleges the problems 
and exercises of the week, asking in return the questions 
proposed by their masters: ‘‘ Dans cet échange org anisé 


NATURE 


225 


par le jeune lycéen, on peut croire aisément que le futur 
géometre avait souvent la meilleure part.’’ After taking 
his place in the defence of Paris in 1814 he passed out in 
engineering, but he re-entered the school in 1815. And 
this is the reason: Chasles was on the point of leaving 
for Chartres to show his uniform and to bid farewell to 
his mother before going to Metz, when he was waited on 
by the father of one of his comrades. “ Mon fils,” said 
the father, “est le premier des éléves qui n’ont pas 
obtenu de place ; vous avez hésité, je le sais, 4 accepter 
lépaulette ; votre refus aurait assuré & votre camarade 
une carriére qui lui plait et pour laquelle j’ai fait les 
derniers sacrifices ; il m’est impossible de les continuer 
pour lui en préparer une autre.” Chasles made no reply: 
he went to Chartres; on his arrival his choice was made, 
and he told his mother he would stay with her. The 
army lost him as an officer, the world gained him as a 
geometer. On finally leaving the establishment, in spite 
of the high position he held amongst his companions, he 
voluntarily renounced public employment (Larousse states 
however: “ Fut agent de change et plus tard aux affaires 
pour les sciénces”) and went to Chartres, where he spent 
some ten years. He was working quietly however: 
“Toujours passionné pour la géométrie, il résolvait de 
beaux problémes, comme au collége, trouvait chaque jour 
d@élégants théorémes, inventait des méthodes générales et 
fécondes, sans attirer l’attention des maitres de la sciénce 
et sans y prétendre. ‘Que de talent perdu!’ disaient 
les plus bien-veillants, sans songer méme & traiter d’égal 
ce jeune homme obstiné & approfondir les théories élé- 
mentaires et qui bientét peut-étre devait, par elles, s’élever 
bien au-dessus d’eux.” Elected a Corresponding Member 
of the Academy in 1839 (“ decorated” the same year), he 
was made “ Professeur de Machines et de Géodésie”’ at 
the Ecole Polytechnique, in succession to Savary in 1841. 
This chair he occupied for ten years, when, in conse- 
quence of some alterations (“ profondes ‘et trés regret - 
tables’ 7), he sent in his resignation, and ever afterwards 
did all in his power to combat these, as he thought, 
dangerous reforms. His affection however continued 
unabated : “ C’est ainsi qu’il acceptait avec tout d’empres- 
sement la présidence du Comité de la Société amicale des 
Anciens Eléves ; c’est ainsi qu'il entrait au conseil de 
perfectionnement, et que, tout récemment encore, malgré 
son grand age, il acceptait le renouvellement de son 
mandat, avec le désir, disait-il, de continuer jusqu’a son 
dernier souffle 4 entretenir ce foyer de travail, d’honneur 
et de dévouement au pays.’’ With the ardour which so 
distinguished him, M. Chasles had undertaken to write a 
history of the school; an extract from this history he 
recently published: “ Exposé historique concernant le 
Cours de Machines, dans I'Enseignement de 1’Ecole 
Polytechnique” (see notice in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 75)- 
M. Laussedat informs us that the veteran’s wish is in 
great part attained, and that it was with great pleasure 
Chasles learned before his death that the Journal de 
LP’ Ecole Polytechnique is to be revived, and that the. re- 
vision of the “ programmes de lenseignement” was 
decided upon. In France the professorial chairs are 
special Poinsot was, for some years, desirous that a 
chair should be appointed for the Modern Geometry, and 
in 1846 this chair was created by the Faculté des Sciences, 
and Chasles was elected to be the first occupant. In 
1851 he was elected a Member of the Academy, and in 
the same year, as above stated, gave up his appointment 
at the Polytechnic. In 1854 he became Foreign Member 
of our Royal Society, in 1865 he was awarded the Copley 
medal, and in April, 1867, he was elected the first (and 
for some time the only) Foreign Member of the London 

™ Note, p. 583, to the admirable “ Discours d’ Inauguration de Cours de 
Gémétrie Supérieure de la Faculté des Sciences de Paris” (December 22, 
1846). which follows the second edition of the ‘‘Traité de Géométrie 


Supérieure *’ (1880). ? ‘ ; 
2 «Toutes les chaires ont un titre special.’”” ‘‘ Rapport sur les Progrés de 


la Géométrie,” Paris, 1870, pp. 219, 376 


226 


Mathematical Society. His honours of membership were 
numerous, and are printed on the title-pages of his works. 
The Pascal-Newton controversy has already been alluded 
to in these pages, and we willingly leave it here un- 
touched. 

““M. Chasles a poursuivi son ceuvre sans interruption 
depuis sa sortie du Lycée jusqu’a l’age de quatre-vingt- 
sept ans. Soixante-huit années séparent la premiére note 
de l’éléve Chasles, insérée dans la Correspondance sur 
L’ Ecole Polytechnique, du dernier mémoire présenté ad 
lAcadémie des Sciences. Tous les géométres, sans dis- 
tinction de nationalité ni d’école, se sont inclinés devant 
ce vénérable vieillard; tous ont admiré sa puissance 
d’invention, sa fécundité, que l’'4ge semblait rajeunir, son 
ardeur, et son zéle, continués jusqu’aux derniers jours.’’ 

A mere recital of the titles of M. Chasles’ numerous 
papers would fill several columns. In the “ Catalogue of 
Scientific Papers’’ will be found the titles of 177, and 
from the slight examination we have been able to make 
we have little doubt that the number published since 
1873 would bring the total to nearly 240. The subjects 
range over curves and surfaces of the second and of any 
degree, geometry, mechanics (and attractions), history, 
and astronomy. Amongst his earliest papers are those 
which were translated by the present Bishop of Limerick 
in 1841, under the title “ Two Geometrical Memoirs on 
the General Properties of Cones of the Second Degree, 
and on the Spherical Conics.” “These possess strong 
claims on the attention of mathematicians, whether they 
are considered merely as exercises of pure geometry, 
exhibiting its elegance and power ina remarkable degree, 
or as a rich and early contribution to the theory of 
spherical curves.” 


Chasles himself remarks in his Rapport! (which | 


perhaps furnishes the best key to his writings), “On 
peut s’étonner que, jusque vers la fin du premier tiers de 
ce siécle, on n’ait eu Pidée d’étudier ni les propriétés des 
cénes du second ordre qui servent & engendrer les 
coniques, ni celles des courbes qui tiennent sur la sphére 
le rang des coniques sur le plan” (p. 75). 

In reply to the question, “On demande un examen 
philosophique des différentes méthodes employées dans 
la géométrie récente et particulitrement de la méthode 
des polaires reciproques,’ was written, “ Mémoire de 
Géométrie sur deux Principes généraux de la Science, 
la Dyalité, et ?Homographie” (January, 1830, to the 
Académie Royale of Brussels), preceded by some histori- 
cal researches. This work subsequently took the form 
of the famous ‘‘Apercu historique sur I’Origine et le 
Developpement des Méthodes en Géométrie. . . . suivi 
d’un Mémoire... sur deux Principes généraux.. . 
et !Homographie.’’ This work appeared in 1837, and 
having become exceedingly scarce, was reprinted ver- 
batim in 1875, with the addition of a short preface giving 
a brief historical account of the book. In the Rapport 
(p. 80) we are told “c’est cette troisitme partie” (the 
memoir on Duality and Homography) ‘qui 4 donné lieu 
a la composition de VYouvrage. La théorie des figures 


homologiques et celle des polaires reciproques qui sont | 


la base des beaux travaux de Jillustre Général Poncelet 
donnérent une heureuse impulsion aux recherches de pure 
géométrie.” These two methods were susceptible, he 
says, of generalisation, and the progress of the science 
demanded it. The Afer¢u, which has been translated 
into German (except the third part) by Sohncke, is a 
perfect mine of geometrical facts, and is to the present 
day a high authority on the subject of which it treats, 
In some places too great reliance on Montucla (see Dr. 
Allman on “Greek Geometry from Thales to Euclid,’ 
p. 171, cf. also p, 202), and in others non-acquaintance 
with German (“nous éprouvons un vif regret de ne pouvoir 
citer ici leurs ouvrages, qui nous sont inconnues, par 


_* Pp. 72-126, 220-280, contain an account of the author’s own contribu- 
tions to geometry. 


IVA TOT 


[| Zan. 6, 1881 


suite de notre ignorance de Ja langue dans laquelle ils 
sont écrits,” p. 215) may slightly detract from its merits, 
but after all deductions it exhibits a vast amount of 
research and originality, and well merits the title of 
ouvrage classique. 

The appointment to the Chair of Modern Geometry 
necessitated a course (or courses) of lectures, and in 1852 
these were embodied in the “ Traité de Géométrie supéri- 
eure,” “an elaborate and masterly treatise,” which of 
late years has been rarely attainable, and only at a 
very high price. M. Chasles, hardly two months before 
his death, had the satisfaction of seeing a second edition, 
accompanying which is (pp. 547-585) the excellent “ Dis- 
cours d’Inauguration” (referred to above). The three 
fundamental principles of this work are ‘‘ Anharmonic 
Ratio of Four Points,” “ Homographic Divisions,” and 
“Tnvolution’’ (Rapport, p. 220). 

In 1865 appeared the first volume of the “Traité des 
Sections coniques, faisant suite au Traité de Géométrie 
supérieure.” As its title indicates, constant application 
is made in it of the principles of pure geometry unfolded 
in the earlier work. It thus differs considerably not only 
from analytical treatises, but from geometrical treatises 
also : “ Ces trois théories primordiales s’appliquent avec 
une extréme facilité a toutes les recherches concernant 
les sections coniques’’ (Rapfort, pp. 266 9). 

Mathematicians have long looked for a second volume, 
materials for which have appeared in the Comptes rendus. 
In the Rapport (pp. 257-266) will be found an account of 
the method of yveometrical substitution and a definition 
of the elements (or characteristics) of a system of conics 
(Comptes vendus, 1864-7). Numerous applications are 
made of this remarkable theory (for further accounts the 
English student may referto Dr. Salmon’s “‘ Higher Plane 
Curves,” pp. 360, &c., and “‘Conics,” p. 368; see also 
later papers in the Comptes rendus, vol. \xxviii.* p. 577, 
&c., vol. Ixxxv. p. 362, pp. 460-6). 

We must now go back to the year 1863, when Chasles 
published his “ Les trois Livres de Porismes d’Euclide, 
rétablis pour la premiére Fois, d’aprés la Notice et les 
Lemmes de Pappus, et conformément au Sentiment de 
R. Simson, sur la Forme des Enoncés de ces Propositions.” 
In 1838 he had contributed a paper, ‘‘ Sur la Doctrine des 
Porismes d’Euclide,’ to Quetelet’s Corvesp. Math. x. (pp. 
1-23). We must content ourselves with referring to the 
Rapport, pp. 155, 233-42; the Afpergu, pp. 39, &c. (He 
cites Montucla as to the profoundness of the Porisms, 
gives high praise to Simson, and shows that there is in 
Pappus’s Lemmas what is in effect the projective pro- 
perty of the anharmonic ratio of four points). The publi- 
cation of this work led toa short controversy with M. P. 
Bréton (“ Question des Porismes—notices sur les débats 
de priorité auxquels a donné lieu l’ouvrage de M. Chasles 
sur les porismes d’Euclide,” Paris, 1865; and a second 
part, Paris, 1866). M. Chasles comments on these in 
the Rapport (cf. reff. above). ‘ 

We turn now for a moment to the subject of attraction. 
“La question de Vattraction presenta-t-elle 4 auteur sous 
plusieurs points de vue, qui donnérent lieu a divers 
mémoires et s'étendirent méme au probléme général de 
l’attraction d'un corps de forme quelconque’’ (apport, 
p. 101); on p. 103 he gives a history of Maclaurin’s 
theorem (of which Todhunter—“ History of the Theories 
of Attraction,” &c., vol. i. 260, writes: “Chasles is 
correct’’); on p. 105 we read: “ Mais il restait toujours 
a désirer une démonstration directe et rigoureuse du 
théoréme de Maclaurin;’? and he cites an extract 
from Poinsot’s report on his paper (AZémozres par divers 
Savants, t. ix. 1846): “Ce mémoire remarquable nous 
offre un nouvel exemple de I’ élégance et de la clarté que 
la géométrie peut répandre sur les questions les plus 


* De Morgan says, “A work of great importance in the historical point of 
view.”” ws is 
? ** Considérations sur le caracttre propre du principe de correspondance, 

‘* S'applique avec une tres grande facilité, & une infimité de questions. 


Fan. 6, 1881 | 


obscures et les plus difficiles’? (Comptes rendus, t. vi. 
1838, pp. 808-812). 

This, the first syzthetéc solution (of General Sabine’s 
address on presenting the Copley Medal) was published, 
if we mistake not, in 1837. M. Bertrand, in his éoge of 
Lamé (January 28, 1878, Mémoires de Y Académie des 
Sciences), says “ M. Chasles obtenait, en la transportant 
& la théorie si souvent étudiée de lattraction des 
ellipsoides, des démonstrations et des résultats admirés 
comme un modéle d’élégance et de généralité.”’ 

We have no space left, having perhaps already dwelt 
too much in detail upon the complete works, to give an 
account of the numerous papers we referred to above. 
This is the less necessary as the results of many are 
already incorporated in the larger works. We must how- 
ever just mention the important mechanical principle 
founded upon the proposition “quand deux polygones 
égaux sont placés d’une maniére quelconque dans un plan, 
il existe toujours un point du plane qui est également 
distant de deux sommets homologues quelconques des 
deux polygones, le point est semblablement placé par 
rapport aux deux polygones.” 

The applications of this, under Poncelet’s form of 
enunciation, are fully treated of by Richard in his “ Note 
sur un nouveau principe de cinématique sur son emploi 
et sur la Théoréme de M. Chasles” (Paris, 1856). 

In the closing lines of the Rafpfort M. Chasles indig- 
nantly condemns the modern system which has for its 
supreme and immediate object des applications pratigques ; 
and which is “ caracterisée suffisamment par !’idée fatale 
de bifurcation.” These remarks we pass over, but gladly 
draw attention to a wish which he strongly expresses, viz. 
that a defect should be remedied by the creation of two 
chairs, one for “ Géométrie infinitésimale et analytique,” 
and the other for “ Analyse transcendante.’’ If these 
chairs do not now exist, it would be a fitting compliment 
to his memory to establish one or both. One other wish 
we have which we repeat, and that is, following the 
fashion of the time, that a collected edition of his papers 
be issued, for at present they are scattered over a very 
wide area. 

In this notice we are indebted to the funeral speeches 
pronounced over M. Chasles’s grave (Comptes rendus, xCi. 
No. xxv., December 20, 1880) which, and M. Chasles’s own 
remarks, we have freely cited in their original language, 
thereby securing conciseness of expression. 

We must however linger no longer by the grave, but 
turn to the “living present,’’ after repeating M. Dumas’s 
last words, ‘“ Adieu, Chasles, adieu !” R. TUCKER 


PROF. HUXLEY ON EVOLUTION * 
Il. 


F all the Mammalia are the results of a process of 
evolution analogous to that which has taken place in 
the case of the Equida, and if they exhibit different 
degrees of that process, then a natural classification will 
arrange them, in the first instance, according to the place 
which they occupy in the scale of evolution of the mam- 
malian type, or the particular rung of the ‘‘scala mam- 
malium’”’ on which they stand. The determination of 
the position thus occupied by any group may, I think, be 
effected by the deductive application of the laws of evolu- 
tion. That is to say, those groups which approach the 
non-mammalian Vertebrata most closely, present least 
inequality of development, least suppression, and least 
coalescence of the fundamental parts of the type, must 
belong to earlier stages of evolution ; while those which 
exhibit the contrary characters must appertain to later 
stages. 


t Continued from p. 204. By the courtesy of the Secretary of the Zoolo- 
logical Society we are able to give the remainder of the paper ‘“‘On the 
Application of the Laws of Evolution to the Arrangement of the Vertebrata, 
and more particularly of the Mammalia,”’ by Prof. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. 


NATURE 


227 


Judged from this point of view, there can be no doubt 
that the Monotremes embody that type of structure which 
constitutes the earliest stage of mammalian organisa- 
tion :— 

1. The mammary glands are devoid of teats; and thus 
the essential feature of the mammal could hardly be pre- 
sented under a simpler form. 

2. There is a complete and deep cloaca, as in Verte- 
brata lower in the scale. 

3. The openings of the ureters are Ayfocystic—that is 
to say, they open, not into the bladder of these animals, 
but behind it, into the dorsal wall of the genito-urinary 
passage. As this answers to the neck of the allantois, the 
ureters of the Monotremes retain their primitive embryonic 
position. 

4. There is no vagina apart from the genito-urinary 
passage, and the oviducts are not differentiated into 
distinct uterine and Fallopian regions. 

5. The penis and the clitoris are attached to the ventral 
wall of the cloaca. 

6. The epiphyses of the vertebrae are but slightly, or 
not at all developed. 

7. The malleus is relatively very large, and the ‘‘pro- 
cessus gracilis,” which is singularly long and strong, passes 
between the tympanic and the periotic bones to the 
pterygoid, with which it is firmly united. Thus the 
palato-pterygoid apparatus is directly connected by a 
“‘suspensorium ” with the periotic, as in the Amphibia 
and Sauropsida. As in these, the representative of the 
incus is extremely small and that of the stapes columelli- 
form. 

8. The coracoid is complete, distinct, and articulates 
with the sternum. 

9. The hip-girdle is provided with large epipubes, and 
the iliac axis is inclined at a large angle to the sacral axis. 

to. The corpus callosum is very small. 

II. There appears to be no allantoic placenta, though, 
from the obvious remains of the ductus arteriosus and of 
the hypogastric arteries, there can be little doubt that the 
foetus has a large respiratory allantois. It is quite 
possible that, with a large umbilical sac, there may be an 
imperfect “ umbilical” placentation. 

But, while the Ornithorhynchus and the Echidna are 
thus the representatives of the lowest stage of the evolu- 
tion of the Mammalia, I conceive-it to be equally unques- 
tionable that, as Haeckel has already suggested, they are 
greatly modified forms of that stage—/chzdna, on the 
whole, representing a greater, and Ornithorhynchus a less, 
departure from the general type. The absence of true 
teeth in both genera is an obvious sign of extreme modi- 
fication. The long tongue, extraordinary external auditory 
passages, and relatively large convoluted brain of Echzdna, 
and the cheek-pouches and horny mouth-plates of Orzz- 
thorhynchus, are other indications of the same kind. 

Hence, the primary mammals which were less modified, 
and the existence of which is necessarily postulated in the 
conception of the evolution of the group, cannot, without 
risk of confusion, be called Monotremata or Ornitho- 
delphia, since in all probability they were as widely 
different from Ovnithorhynchus and Echidna as the 
Insectivora are from the Edentata, or the Ungulata from 
Rhytina. It will therefore be convenient to have a distinct 
name—Profotheria—for the group which includes these, 
at present, hypothetical embodiments of that lowest stage 
of the mammalian type, of which the existing Monotremes 
are the only known representatives. 

A similar reasoning applies tothe Marsupialia. In their 
essential and fundamental characters they occupy an 

* Dr Albrecht (‘Die Epiphysen und die Amphiomphalie der Saugethier- 
wirbel-kirper:” Zoologischer Anzeiger, 1879, No. 18), while admitting that 
Echidna has no epiphyses, describes epiphyses of an incomplete character 
between the posterior twelve caudal vertebrae of Ornithoriynchus. So far 
as I am aware, the memoir of which Dr. Albrecht has given a preliminary 
notice, has not yet been published. I content myself therefore with remark- 
ing that my own recent observations are in harmony with Dr. Albrecht’s 
statement, 


228 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


intermediate position between the Prototheria and the 
higher mammals. 

1. The mammary glands are provided with teats. 

2. The cloaca is so greatly reduced that it is often said 
to have disappeared. 

3. The openings of the ureters are exfocystic—that is to 
say, the ureters open into what is called the “base” of 
the bladder in front of the narrowed “neck” by which 
it passes into the tubular “urethra.” This means, I con- 
ceive, that, morphologically, the bladder of the Marsupial 
represents the bladder of the Monotreme + the anterior 
part of the genito-urinary passage; the so-called “ tri- 
gonum,’”’ if not more, of the bladder of the Marsupial, 
being the homologue of that anterior segment of the 
genito-urinary passage of the Monotreme. 

4. There is a distinct and long vagina, quite separated 
from the cystic urethra, in the female; and the oviducts 
are differentiated into uterine and Fallopian portions. 

5. The penis is large, and the corpora cavernosa are 
connected by fibrous tissue and muscles with the pelvis. 
The spongy body has a large bifurcated bulb, and 
Cowper’s glands are very largely developed. 

6. The vertebre have distinct epiphyses. 

7. The malleus is small, and its connections are similar 
to those which it possesses in the higher mammals. The 
incus is relatively larger, and the stapes more or less 
stirrup-shaped. 

8. The coracoid is short, does not articulate with the 
sternum, and becomes ankylosed with the scapula. 

g. The hip-girdle is provided with epipubes, usually of 
large size and well ossified ; and the iliac axis is inclined 
at a small angle to the sacral axis. 

10, The corpus callosum is small. 

a1. In the few forms of which the foetus is known 
there is no allantoic placenta; while the umbilical sac is 
so large that the possibility of the existence of a transitory 
umbilical placentation must be taken into account. 

It will be observed that in the characters I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
6, 7, 8, and the latter part of the 9th, the Marsupials 
agree with the higher mammals; while in the former part 
of the 9th, the 10th, and the 11th, they present Proto- 
therian characters. So far, therefore, they constitute an 
intermediate type between that of the Prototheria and 
that of the higher mammals, which may be termed that 
of the MWetatheria. And if there were any known animals 
which combined these characters, with a complete double 
dentition, unmodified pentadactyle manus and pes, and 
normal uterogestation, they would furnish us the exact 
transition between the Prototheria and the higher mam- 
mals, which must have existed if the law of evolution is 
trustworthy. 

No known Marsupial, however, possesses these addi- 
tional characters. None has more than a single succes- 
sional tooth on each side of each jaw; and, as Prof. 
Flower (to whom we owe the highly important demon- 
stration of this fact) has pointed out, the question arises 
whether we have here a primary dentition with only one 
secondary tooth, or a secondary dentition with only one 
tooth of the primary set left. I have no doubt that the 
answer given to this question by Prof. Flower is correct, 
and that it is the milk-dentition of which only a vestige 
is left in the Marsupialia. Among existing Rodents, in 
fact, all conditions of the milk-dentition exist, from a 
number equal to that of the permanent incisors and 
premolars (as in the Rabbit ') to none at all. 

The same thing is observed in the Insectivora, where 
the Hedgehog, and probably Cev/etes, have a full set of 
milk-teeth, while none have yet been found in the Shrews. 


t The deciduous molars and the posterior deciduous upper incisors of the 
Rabbit have been long kncwn. But I have recently fund that unbcrn 
Rabbits pcssess, in addition, two anterior upper and two lower deciduons 
incisors. Bcth are simple conical teeth, the sacs of which are merely em- 
bedded in the gum. The upper is nct more than one-hundreth of an inch 
long, the lower rather larger. Jt would be interesting to examine ‘cetal 
Guinea-pigs in relation to this point ; at present theyare known to possess 
only the hindmost deciduous molars, so far agreeing with the Marsupials. 


In these cases, it is obvious that the milk-dentition has 
gradually been suppressed in the more modified forms ; 
and I think that there can be no reasonable doubt that 
the existing Marsupials have undergcne a like suppres- 
sion of the deciduous teeth, in the course of their deriva- 
tion from ancestors which possessed a full set. 

Again, no existing Marsupial possesses an unmodified 
pentadactyle pes. If the hallux is present, it presents an 
extensive movement in adduction and abduction; in 
fact, the pes is prehensile. This is the case in the 
Phascolomyide, Phalangistide, Phascolarctide,and Didet- 
phide. The Dasyuride present the same type of pes, 
with the hallux reduced or suppressed. Hence, consider- 
ing the relations of the Wacrofodide and the Peramelide 
with the Phalangers, it seems likely that the hind foot 
in these groups is also a reduced prehensile pes; in 
which case this special modification of the foot would 
characterise the whole of the existing Warsupialia. 

Thirdly, the most marked peculiarities of the re- 
productive organs and processes in the Marsupial are 
in no wise transitional, but are singularly specialised 
characters. The suspension of the scrotum in front of 
the root of the penis is unlike any arrangement in the 
higher mammals, and the development of the bulb and 
of Cowper’s glands is in excess of anything observable in 
them. In the female, the cystic urethra is as completely 
separated from the vaginaas it is in the higher mammals ; 
while the doubling of the vagina must, in my opinion, also 
be considered as a special peculiarity which leads from, 
rather than towards, the higher mammals. In a Mono- 
treme, in fact, the anterior end of the genito-urinary 
passage exhibits two very short dilatations or cornua, 
one on each side, In the middle line, a little distance 
behind these, the ureters open on a prominent ridge-like 
papilla. The opening of the bladder lies in front of 
and below the genital cornua. Now, if we compare this 
arrangement with that which obtains in the lower forms 
of the higher Mammalia, we find that the ureteric papille 
have separated laterally and moved forwards, in such 
a manner as to occupy the base of the bladder, and the 
genital cornua come to lie behind and somewhat dorsad 
of them. At the same time a longitudinal separation has 
taken place between what may be called the “ureteric” 
region of the genito-urinary passage and the “genital” 
region. The first is taken into the bladder and becomes 
connected by a longer or shorter “cystic urethra” with 
the latter, which is converted into the longer or shorter 
vagina. In the Marsupial the same general modification 
has taken place; but the “ genital cornua” become im- 
mensely elongated, and give rise to the so-called “double” 
vagina. 

Lastly, the marsupium, where it exists, is a no less 
special feature of the Marsupialia, and, like the pecu- 
liarities of the female genital organs, appears to be 
related with the abnormally early birth of the foetus. 
Among the higher Mammalia, it is well known that the 
fcetus is born in a relatively much earlier state in some 
cases than in others, even among closely allied species. 
Thus Rabbits are born hairless and blind, while Hares 
are born hairy and with their eyes open. I think it 
probable, from the character of the pes, that the primitive 
forms, whence the existing Marsupialia have been derived, 
were arboreal animals ; and it is not difficult, I conceive, 
to see that with such habits it may have been highly 
advantageous to an animal to get rid of its young from 
the interior of its body at as early a period of develop- 
ment as possible, and to supply it with nourishment 
during the later periods through the lacteal glands, 
rather than through an imperfect form of placenta. __ 

However this may be, the characters of the existing 
Marsupialia leave no doubt on my mind that they are 
greatly modified members of the metatherial type; and I 
suspect that most, if not all, of the Australian forms are 
of comparatively late origin. I think it probable that the 


Fan. 6, 1881] 


great majority of the Metatheria, of which I doubt not a 
great multitude will shortly be discovered in Mesozoic 
formations, differed widely from our existing Marsupials; 
not only lacking the pouch, as do some existing “ Marsu- 
pialia,” but possessing undivided vagina, and probably 
bringing forth their young, not earlier than existing 
Carnivores and Rodents do, the nutrition of the foetus 
during prolonged gestation being provided for, in all 
probability, by an umbilical placental apparatus, and its 
respiration by a non-placental allantois. 

In the remaining group of the Mammalia, hitherto 
spoken of as the “higher Mammalia :”— 

1. The mammary glands are provided with teats." 

2. The cloaca has usually disappeared. Sometimes, 
however (Beavers, Sloths), a shallow cloaca is present, 
especially in the female. 

3. The openings of the ureters are always entocystic ; 
but their position varies greatly, from close to the neck 
(e.g. Sorex) to the anterior end of the bladder (e.g. Hyvax). 

4. There is a distinct vagina, which is almost always 
undivided. The oviducts are differentiated into uterine 
and Fallopian portions. 

5. The penis is usually large, the bulb single or partially 
divided, and the corpora cavernosa almost always.directly 
attached to the ischia. 

6, The vertebra have epiphyses. 

7. The malleus is usually small, the incus relatively 
large, the stapes stirrup: shaped. 

8. The coracoid is almost always much reduced, and it 
is ankylosed with the scapula. 

g. The iliac axis makes a small angle with the sacral 
axis ; and there is no epipubis, or only a fibrous vestige 
of it. 

to, The corpus callosum and the anterior commissure 
vary widely. In such forms as L7rtnaceus and Dasypus 
they are:almost Monotreme-like. 

11. The foetus is connected with the uterus of the mother 
by an allantoic placenta. The umbilical sac varies in 
size, and in some lower forms (e.g. Zepzs) it is, at first, 
highly vascular, and perhaps plays a quasi-placental part 
during the early stages of development. 

It is obvious that, in all these respects, we have the 
mammalian type in a higher stage of evolution than that 
presented by the Prototheria and the Metatheria. Hence 
we may term forms which have reached this stage the 
Eutheria. 

It is a fact, curiously in accordance with what might be 
expected on evolutionary principles, that while the exist- 
ing members of the Prototheria and the Metatheria are 
all extremely modified, there are certain forms of living 
Eutheria which depart but little from the general type. 
For example, if Gynura possessed a diffuse placenta- 
tion, it would be an excellent representative of an undif- 
ferentiated Eutherian. Many years ago, in my lectures at 
the Royal College of Surgeons, I particularly insisted on 
the central position of the Insectivora among the higher 
Mammalia ; and further study of this order and of the 
Rodentia has only strengthened my conviction, that any 
one who is acquainted with the range of variation of 
structure in these groups, possesses the key to every pe- 
culiarity which is met with in the Primates, the Carnivora, 
and the Ungulata. Given the common plan of the 
Insectivora and of the Rodentia, and granting that the 
modifications of the structure of the limbs, of the brain, 
and of the alimentary and reproductive viscera, which 
occur among them, may exist and accumulate elsewhere, 
and the derivation of all the Autheria from animals 
which, except for their simpler placentation, would be 
Insectivores, is a simple deduction from the law of 
evolution. 

There is no known Monotreme which is not vastly 
more different from the Prototherian type, and no Marsu- 


1 The only exception known to me is the Cape Mole (Chrysochioris), 
which, according to Peters, has none. 


NATURE 


229 


pial which has not far more widely departed from the 
Metatherian type, than Gymnura, or, indeed, Erinaceus, 
have from the Eutherian type. 

The broadest physiological distinction between the 
Prototheria, the Metatheria, and the Eutheria respectively 
lies in the differences which the arrangements for pro- 
longing the period of intra-uterine and extra-uterine 
nutrition by the parent present in each. The possibility 
of a higher differentiation of the species is apparently 
closely connected with the length of this period. Simi- 
larly, the broadest morphological distinction which can 
be drawn among the £w¢heria lies in their placentation, 
All forms of deciduate placentation commence by being 
non-deciduate, and the intimate connection of the foetal 
with the maternal structures is subsequent to their loose 
union. Hence Eutherza, with deciduate placente, are in 
ahigher stage of evolution than those with non-deciduate 
placente. 

In discussing the relations of the various existing 
groups of the higher Mammalia with one another, it 
would be a mistake to attempt to trace any direct genetic 
connection between them. Each, as the case of the 
Equidz suggests, has probably had a peculiar line of 
ancestry ; and, in these lines, Eutherian forms with deci- 
duate placentation constitute the latest term, Eutherian 
forms with non-deciduate placentation the next latest, 
Metatherian forms the next, Prototherian forms the 
earliest among those animals which, according to exist- 
ing definition, would be regarded as Mammals. 

The accompanying Table (p. 230) presents, at a glance, 
the arrangement of the Mammalia in accordance with the 
views which I have endeavoured to express. The sign O 
marks the places on the scheme which are occupied by 
known Mammals ; while X indicates the groups of which 
nothing is known, but the former existence of which is 
deducible from the law of evolution. 

I venture to express a confident expectation that investi- 
gation into the Mammalian fauna of the Mesozoic epoch 
will sooner or later fill up these blanks. But if deduction 
from the law of evolution is to be justified thus far, it 
may !e trusted much farther. If we may confidently 
expect that ELohipjpus had a pentadactyle claviculate 
ancestor, then we may expect, with no less confidence, 
that the Profotheria proceeded from ancestors which were 
not mammals ; in so far as they had no mammary glands, 
and in so far as the mandible was articulated with a 
quadrate ‘bone or cartilage, of which the malleus of the 
true mammal is the reduced representative. Probably 
also the corpus callosum had not apreared as a distinct 
structure. 

Our existing classifications have no place for this “ sub- 
mammalian’? stage of evolution (already indicated by 
Haeckel under the name of Promammaile). It would be 
separated from the Sauropsida by its two condyles, and 
by the retention of the left as the principal aortic arch ; 
while it would probably be no less differentiated from the 
Amphibia by the presence of an amnion and the absence 
of branchiz at any period of life. I propose to term the 
representatives of this stage Wypotherta ; and I do not 
doubt that, when we have a fuller knowledge of the ter- 
restrial Vertebrata of the later palaeozoic epochs, forms 
belonging to this stage will be found among them. Now, 
if we take away from the Hypotheria the amnion and the 
corpus callosum, and add the functional branchiz—the 
existence of which in the ancestors of the Mammalia is 
as clearly indicated by their visceral arches and clefts, 
as the existence of complete clavicles in the ancestral 
Canidz is indicated by their vestiges in the dog—the 
Hypotheria, thus reduced, at once take their place among 
the Amphibia. For the presence of branchiz implies 
that of an incompletely divided ventricle and of nume- 
rous aortic arches, such as exist in the mammalian 
embryo, but are more or less completely suppressed in 
the course of its development. 


230 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


Thus I regard the Amphibian type as the representative 
of the next lower stage of vertebrate evolution ; and it is 
extremely interesting to observe that even the existing 
Amphibia present us with almost every degree of modi- 
fication of the type, from such forms as the oviparous, 
branchiate, small-lunged .Szvedouw and Menobranchus, 
which stand in the same relation to it as Gymnura to 
the Eutheria, to the exclusively air-breathing Salaman- 
ders and Frogs, in which the period of intraovular deve- 
lopment, either within the uterus itself or in special 
receptacles, may be as much prolonged as it is in the 
Mammalia. 

A careful study, on full materials, of the development 
of the young of such forms as A/ylodes will probably 
throw great light on the nature of the changes which 
ended in the suppression of the branchiz, and the deve- 
iopment of the amnion and of the extra-abdominal part 
of the allantois in the foetus of the higher Vertebrata. 

The recent researches of Boas! on the structure of the 
heart and the origin of the pulmonary arteries of Cera- 
todus fell into my hands when I happened to be working 
afresh at the subject, and had arrived, so far as the heart 
is concerned, at results which are entirely confirmatory of 


Stages of 


Evolution. MAMMALIA. 


PRIMATES. 


1. Teats. deciduate. O 


2. Allantoic placenta. 

3. Ureteric apertures ento- 
cystic. 

4. Small malleus. 

5. Reduced coracoid. 

6. Epipubis rudimentary 
or absent. 

7. Two occipital condyles 
and an osseous basi- 
occipital. 

8. Amnion present. 

g. A corpus callosum. 

10. No branchiz. 


EUTHERIA ..., Placenta. 


LeMmu- 
non-deci- ROIDEA. 
) duate. x Marsu- O 
3) 4, 5, 7) 8, 9, 10, as( | pPracta. | 
above. yeprcrocceera = s oO 6 
(ai. and vi. as below. ) 
7, 8, 9, 10 as above. 
i. No teats. 
ii. No allantoic placenta. 
iii. Ureteric apertures hypo- Zs 
cystic. a 4 
iv. Large malleus. 
y. Complete coracoid. 
vi. Large epipubes. i 
75 8, 9, 1s, il., tii, iv, V., Vi. 
as above. 
a. No mammary gland. 
6. Mandible articulating 
with quadrate. 
ec. No corpus callosum. 


METATHERIA.? ” 


PROTOTHERIA 


HYPoTHERIA. 


Suppose the limbs and the genital ducts of the Chovd- 
richthyes-stage to be undeveloped, and let the two nasal 
sacs be represented by a partially divided sac with a single 
external aperture, the result will be a still lower grade of 
vertebrate life, which may be termed JZyzichthyes, repre- 
sented only by the greatly modified Lampreys and Hags 
of the existing fauna. 

Finally, let the head retain its primitive segmentation, 
and the heart its primitive character of a contractile tube, 
and we reach, in the HyPichthyes, a stage of simplification 
of the vertebrate type, from which it would be difficult to 
remove any essential feature without reaching a point at 
which it is questionable whether an animal should be 
called “‘vertebrate.”” This stage is at present repre- 
sented only by a singularly modified form, the living 
Amphioxus. 


Thus, in the order of evolution all the Vertebrata | 


hitherto considered may be arranged in nine stages :—1, 
that of the yfichthyes ; 2, that of the Myzichthyes ; 3, that 
of the Chondrichthyes ; 4, that of the Herpetichthyes, 5, 
that of the Amphibia, 6, that of the Hypotheria,; 7, that 
of the Prototheria,; 8, that of the JZefatheria; and, 9, 


* “Ueber Herz und Arterienbogen bei Cevatodus und Protepterus,”’ 
Merpth. Fahrbuch, 1880. . 


Ro- 
DENTIA. SCIDEA. 


| his. This wonderful creature seems contrived for the 
illustration of the doctrine of evolution. Equally good 
arguments might be adduced for the assertion that it is 
an amphibian or a fish, or both, or neither—the reason 
of this being that, as it appears to me, Cervatodus is an 
extraordinarily little modified representative of that parti- 
cular stage of vertebrate evolution of which both the 
typical Fishes and the typical Amphibia are special 
modifications. I think it will be convenient to have a 
name for the representatives of this stage, and I propose 
that of Herpetichthyes. 

If we were to take away from Cerafodus the membrane- 
bones of the heart and the pneumatoccele, and slightly 
simplify the structure of the heart, the result would be an 
animal which would undoubtedly be classed among the 
Chimeroidei ; and if, in such a Chimeroid, the lamellar 
septa of the branchiz were not reduced, as they are 
in the Chimeroidez, while the opercular fold remained 
undeveloped, the product would be a little modified 
representative of the Selachian group, to which, among 
actually known forms, Heptanchus and Cestracion present 
the nearest approximations. Vertebrated animals in this 
stage of evolution may be termed Chondrichthyes. 


PRoBo- Carni- CHet- EDpDENTATA. 
VORA. ROPTERA. Ovycteropa. 
O 


Bie Ss sic 


Hyra- INSECTI- 
COIDEA. VORA. 


O O 


1 
| 


| 
| 


SIRENIA. Manis. 
Oo 


x x x x * x x x 
| 


| Mono- 
TREMATA 
x 10} 


x —————- x - 


that of the Zw¢heria. All these stages, except that of the 
Hypotheria, are represented by existing groups of verte- 
brated animals, which, in most cases, are composed of 
greatly modified forms of the type to which they belong, 
only the Amphibia and the Eutheria exhibiting near 
approximations to the unmodified type in some of their 
existing members. 

It will be observed that I have omitted to mention the 
Ganoid and the Teleostean Fishes and the Sauropsida. 
I have done so because they appear to me to lie off the 
main line of evolution—to represent, as it were, side 
tracks starting from certain points of that line. The 
Ganoidei and the Teleostei I conceive to stand in this 
relation to the stage of the Herpetichthyes, and the 
Sauropsida to the stage of the Amphibia. ¥ ink 

There is nothing, so far as I can see, in the organization 
ot the Ganoid and Teleostean fishes which is not readily 
explicable by the application of the law of evolution to 
the Herpetichthyes. They may be interpreted as effects 
of the excessive development, reduction, or coalescence 
of the parts of a Herpetichthyan.! 


™ That the heart of Buéirzuus affords a complete transition between the 
characteristically Ganoid and characreristically Teleostean heart, has re- 
cently been proved by Boas (Morphol. Jahrbuch, 1880). Thus the last rem- 


nant of the supposed hiatus between the Ganoids and the Teleostean vanishes. 


Fan. 6, 1881 | 


NATURE 


235 


Similarly, the suppression of the branchiz, the develop- 
ment of an amnion, and of a respiratory extra-abdominal 
allantois, and that enlargment of the basioccipital re- 
latively to the exoccipitals which gives rise to a single 
skull-condyle, is all the change required to convert an 
Urodele amphibian into a Lizard. It is needless to re- 
capitulate the evidence of the transition from the Reptilian 
to the Bird type, which the study of extinct animal- 
remains has brought to light. 

The scheme of arrangement of the Vertebrata which 
naturally flows from the considerations now brought 
forward will stand thus :— 


Representative Groups. 


Stages of Evolution. 


9. Extheria........ Monodelphia. 
O 
8. Metatheria ..... Marsupiala 
O 
7. Protother ids... Monotremata. 
oO 
6. Hy potheria sw. Mvccseccseovsncer Sauropsidal Reptilia 
5. Amphibia se AMphibia seeresseree 
oO 
4. Herfpetichthyes. REO he is x aa Osteichthyes\ Forest. 
3. Chondrichthyes. Chimeroidet w+. SC ees x 
16) 
Selachti. ore x 
= oO 


n 


. Myzichthyes .. Marsipobranchiz... 


1. Hyfichthyes ow. Rherprevbricncke. x 

It appears to me that everything which is at present 
known respecting the Vertebrata of past epochs agrees 
with the assumption that the law which expresses the 
process of ancestral evolution of the higher Mammalia is 
of general application to all the Vertebrata. If this is 
admitted, I think it necessarily follows that the Verte- 
brata must have passed successively through the stages 
here indicated, and that the progress of discovery, while 
it will obliterate the lines of demarcation between these 
stages, and convert them into a continuous series of 
small differentiations, will yield no vertebrate form for 
which a place does not exist in the general scheme. 


NOTES 


Dr. JOHN STENHOUSE, F.R.S., died on December 31, in the 
seventy-second year of Lis age. He was a native of Glasgow, 
where he was educated and long resided. A pupil of Graham 
and of Liebig, he devoted all his time to research work in the 
domain of organic chemistry. He was a Royal Medallist of the 
Royal Society, LL.D. of Aberdeen, and one of the founders of 
the Chemical Society. On removing to London he was appointed 
Lecturer on Chemistry in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, 
but was obliged to resign in 1857, owing to a severe attack of 
paralysis. This however did not deter him from continuing 
his scientific studies, which were a labour of love to him. He 
was the inventor of the charcoal respirator, of the charcoal venti- 
lator for sewers, and of a process for rendering fabrics water- 
proof by means of paraffin. In 1865 he succeeded Dr. Hofmann 
as non-resident assayer to the Royal Mint, but was deprived of 
the appointment when the office was abolished by Mr. Lowe in 
1870. 


ON the 3rd inst. Mr. John Thomas Towson died at his residence 
in Liverpool, in his seventy-seventh year, Mr. Towson was con- 
nected with the early history of photography, but in 1846 he devoted 
his thoughts to navigation, especially to determining the quickest 
routes across the ocean to distant countries. With this object he 
constructed a set of tables for facilitating the practice of great 


circle sailing, and at the British Association in 1854 Mr. Towson 
aided Dr. Scoresby in directing the attention of the scientific 
section to the importance of investigating more fully the subject 
of the deviation of the compasses on board iron ships. The 
result of this discussion was the formation of the Liverpool 
Compass Committee. The observations and the deductions 
resulting from them were embodied in three reports, ‘‘ presented 
to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.” 
In 1863 Mr. Towson was instructed by the Board of Trade to 
prepare a manual on the deviation of the compass, which was 
subsequently published at the expense of the Board, under the 
title of ‘ Practical Information on the Deviation of the Compass ; 
for the use of Masters and Mates of Iron Ships.” 


WE are glad to learn that Prof. MacOwan, late of Gill College, 
Somerset East, has accepted the post of Director of the Botanic 
Garden, Cape Town. He will also lecture at the South African 
College. The appointment of a man whose long and enthusiastic 
devotion to South African botany has earned him a wide reputa- 
tion is to the credit of the Cape Government, and is of good 
omen for the scientific future of the Cape Botanic Garden. This 
has never yet attained the position which it would naturally 
derive from the resources of one of the most interesting floras in 
the world. 


Dr. W. FEDDERSEN of Leipzig is preparing a supplement to 
Poggendorfi’s well-known biographical dictionary. Many of 
our readers will receive during the next few days circulars asking 
them to answer a few questions as to their scientific life and 
labours. As the great utility of such a work lies in the com- 
pleteness of the information it supplies, we trust that every one 
will fill up the answers to the questions as completely as is in his 
power, and that neither false modesty nor carelessness will create 
a gap in the work. 


PROF. CORFIELD’s lectures on Health to ladies will commence 
to-day, January 6, by an Introductory Lecture at 3 p.m., and 
will be continued on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same hour. 
Ladies are admitted free to the Introductory Lecture. 


HERR Ropert OPPENHEIM of Berlin announces the forth- 


coming publication of a ‘‘Grundriss der Anatomie des 
Menschen,” by Prof. Ad. Pansch of Kiel. 


THE Reale Istituto Lombardo has awarded two sums of 1500 
lire, on the Brambilla foundation, (1) to the Milanese Committee 
of Animal Vaccination for founding a vaccinogenic establish- 
ment in Milan; and (2) to S. Bassolini for establishing in Milan 
a manufactory of white-lead colours and varnishes. On the 
Fossati foundation a sum of 2000 lire has been awarded to Dr. 
Golgi for studies on the fine anatomy of central organs of the 
nervous system ; and 1000 lire to Drs, Tenchini and Staurenghi 
for researches in the anatomy of the cerebellum, the Pons Tarini, 
&c. A list of prizes now open to competition will be found in 
the Rendiconti of the Institute, vol. xiii. fasc. xviii. The sub- 
jects have nearly all been previously published. (We note that 
one is ‘‘Studies on the Telephone.”) The prizes vary in value 
from 500 to 4000 lire. Foreigners may compete, and memoirs 
must be written in Italian, French, or Latin. 


THE Transit of Venus Commission has already met at the 
French Academy of Sciences, as usual under the presidency of 
M. Dumas, but no resolution was come to. A number of 
scientific men have already offered themselves as observers. 


BARON NORDENSKJOLD arrived at St. Petersburg on Saturday, 
and was received at the station by the Swedish Ambassador and 
delegates from the Russian societies. In the course of the day 
he was received at the Foreign Office, and is to be fed by the 
Municipality and the learned societies. 


232 


NATURE 


| Fan. 6, 1881 


THE dates for some of the papers which will be read at the 
Society of Arts before Easter next have been announced. The 
following are set down for the ordinary meetings (Wednesday 
evenings) :—January 12: A Sanitary Protection Association for 
London, by W. Fleeminz Jenkin, F.R.S, (On this evening 
Prof. Huxley will preside.) January 19: Cau:es of Success and 
Failure in Modern Gold-Mining, by A. G. Lock. February 23 : 
Recent Advances in Electric Lighting, by W. H. Preece. 
March 2: Flashing Signals for Lighthouses, by Sir William 
Thomson, F.R.S. Marchg: Improvements in the Treatment 
of Esparto for the Manufacture of Paper, by William Arnot, 
F.C.S. March 16: The Manufacture of Aérated Waters, by 
T. P. Bruce Warren. In the Indian Section (Friday evenings), 
the following will be read :—January 21: Forest Conservancy 
in India, by Sir Richard Temple, Bart., G.C.S.I. February 
11: The Gold-Fields of India, by Hyde Clarke. March 4: The 
Results of British Rule in India, by J. M. Maclean, March 25 : 
The Tenure and Cultivation of Land in India, by Sir. George 
Campbell, K.C.S.1., M.P. The dates and Papers for the Foreign 
and Colonial Section (Tuesday evenings) will be :—February 1: 
The Industrial Products of South Africa, by the Right Hon. 
Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, Bart., G.C.B., &c. February 
22: The Languages of South Africa, by Robert Cust. March 
15: The Loo Choo Islands, by Consul John A, Gubbins. 
April 5: Trade Relations between Great Britain and her De- 
pendencies, by William Westgarth, For the Applied Chemistry 
and Physics Section (Thursday evenings) the arrangements are 
as follows :—January 27: A New Mechanical Furnace, and a 
Continuous System of Manufacturing Sulphate of Soda, by 
James Mactear. February 24; Deep-Sea Investigation, and 
the Apparatus used in it, by J. G. Buchanan, F.R.S.E., F.C.S, 
March 24: The Future Development of Electrical Appliances, 
by Prof. John Perry. 


Various earthquake shocks in Roumania, Transylvania, 
Hungary, &c., in the latter days of December, are reported ; in 
Bucharest, on the 23rd of that month at 11.20 a.m., and on the 
25th at 5.45 p.m. ; in Tultscha also, on the 25th, at 5.25 p.m, 
(direction north-west to south-east); in Fokschau, at 5.5 p.m., 
pretty stronz, duration 8 sec. ; in Tecuciu at 4.51 pm., two 
strong shocks, the first lasting 2 sec.; the second 4 sec. ; in 
Washui (near Tassy), a very violent undulatory shock; in 
Silistria (Bulgaria), at 3.22 p.m., 20 shocks lasting mm. 20s. ; in 
Homorod (Hungary), at 4.18 p.m., duration 5s., direction west 
to east; in Foldvar (Hungary), at 4.20 p.m., direction north- 
west to south-east. At the same time shocks were felt at various 
places in the south-east of Transylvania. 


Ir may be useful to some of our readers to know that the 
Library of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Elec- 
tricians is open to members of all scientific bodies, and (on 
application to the librarian) to the public generally. The library 
is opea daily between the hours of 11,0 am. and 8.0 p.m., 
except on Thursdays and on Saturdays, whea it closes at 
2,0 p.m. 


“WHITAKER’s ALMANAC” is undoubtedly a most useful 
publication ; but in the larger edition there is a supple‘nent of 
miscellaneous information which seems to us to require looking 
after. Among other things there is a variety of items more or 
less connected with science. There is a ‘¢ Scientific Summary ” 
consisting of nine lines of introduction (in which the only 
geological fact mentioned is the discovery of some fossil remains 
in Essex), followed by selected subjects of general interest, in- 
cluding such items as ‘Steam Power in Germany,” “ Forests in 
Russia,” ‘‘ The World’s Gold and Silver,” ‘American Railroad 
Progress,” all looking like so many random newspaper cuttings ; 
but no mention of perhaps the most brilliant scientific event of the 
year—Mr, Graham Bell’s ‘‘ Photophone.” Jn another part of the 


supplement we have two pages on the ‘‘ Progress of Astronomical 
Science” ; why this is not included in the ‘‘ Scientific Summary ” 
the editor perhaps knows. <A page is devoted to ‘ Radiant 
Points of Shooting Stars,” two to the ‘‘ Year’s Weather,” three 
to ‘‘ Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions,” and three to ‘‘ Geo- 
graphical Discovery.” The writer of the last-mentioned actually 
places Mr. Leigh Smith’s yacht voyage to Franz Josef Land as 
“the most remarkable geographical event’? of a year which 
witnessed the successful conclusion of Mr, Joseph Thomson’s 
remarkable African Expedition, because he thinks it opens up 
‘“a new and apparently feasible route for future Polar research : ” 
does he not mean searvch ? Evidently the supplement to this 
‘‘ Almanac” stands in need of editing, and as the whole work 
is to be reset for next year, perhaps this part will be brought up 
to the level of the rest of the work. 


THE Annuaire of the Bureau des Longitudes for 1881 has 
been issued by Gauthier-Villars. As usual, it is full of informa- 
tion on a great variety of subjects more or less connected with 
science. 


Land and Water states that the late Mr. Frank Buckland has 
bequeathed his valuable Museum of Economic Fish Culture to 
the nation; and on the de cease of Mrs. Buckland asum of 5000/. 
will revert to the nation, to be applied for the purp se of founding 
a professorship of econo nic pisciculture in connection with the 
Buckland Museum and the Science and Art Department at South 
Kensington. 


A Scotcu Fisheries Improvement Association has been formed 
for the purpose of making an effort to improve by various means 
the fisheries of the Scotch rivers, which have in recent years con- 
siderably deteriorated. The president is the Duke of Sutherland, 
and the chairman of the provisional committee Mr. David Milne 
Home. 


WE have received a copy of the regulations issued by the 
French Minister of Posts and Telegraphs for the International 
Congress and Exhibition of Electricity, to be opened at Paris 
next September. Those interested in the Congress should apply 
to M. le Commissaire Général de l’Exposition Internationale 
d’Electricité, at the Palace of the Champs Elys¢es, porte No. IV., 
Paris. 


Mr. INNES ROGERS, inaletter tous, calls attention to a list of 
bamboos published in vol. i. of the Garden, which are found to be 
hardy under cultivation, and to the fact that several kinds, chiefly 
from China and Japan, grow in Battersea Park, Kew Gardens, &c. 
He further instances as hardy plants a Cactus from the Rocky 
Mountain, Begonia from the Andes, the well-known Chamerops 
excelsa, Ficus repens, and a Mesembryanthemum acclimatised at 
Scilly, and believes that the fixity of continents through long 
geological periods would cause tropical species in spreading to 
adapt the nselves to temperate conditions. He thinks that the 
Gulf Stream may have brought tropical seeds to Bournemouth, 
and that a most trifling change of climate would have made them 
thrive there. 


A NEw illustrated archzological review will soon be published 
at Naples by MM. Augusto Mele and Enrico Abeniacco, It 
will be in French, and its title will be ‘‘ Pompeii.” The object 
of the new publication is to excite in wider circles a vivid interest 
for the excavations at Pompeii, Herculaneum, &c., as well as 
for archeology generally. 


In the Austrian ‘‘ Engineers and Architects Union” at 
Vienna, a new aéronautical department has been created, with 
the object of discussing and solvinz aéronautical problems and 
questions both theoretically and in practice, as well as making 
the necessary experiments. The application of aéronautics. to 
meteorological science forms a special study of the department. 


Fan, 6, 1881 | 


‘NATURE 


233 


To the October number of Symons’s Monthly Meteoro'ogical | over the valley below. There were several peals of thunder, but 


Magazine Col, Foster Ward writes describing some remarkable 
hailstones that fell during a sli ht thunderstorm at Pzr‘en! irchen, 
Bavaria, at 6 p.m. on August 21. He was on a mcuntain about 


there was no visible lightning, owing, he concludes, to the sun’s 
brightness. ‘‘On arriving near home, I met a friend who told 
me it had been hailing ‘tadpoles’ and ‘acidulated drops,? 


3000 feet above tke village, and saw the cloud (a small one) pass | There had been little or no rain and no visible lightning, and 


the hailstones fell at intervals and about six feet apart. There 
were very few of them, my family only picking up twenty in a 
space occupied by a full-sized lawn tennis court. My son made 
a sketch of their shape and size, which I inclose. The greater 
part were of the ‘tadpole’ shape and were clear as glass, perfectly 
round, the five knobs being at equal distance from one another. 
The flat stones had more or less a slight nucleus of snow in the 
convex portion of the stone. My wife and three daughters, and 
two ladies staying with us, say that the stones looked just like a 
lady’s hand looking-glass, with a knob at the top and on either 


side for ornament. More than twenty, perhaps thirty, were 
picked up of this shape. Of these about two-thirds were 
studded, the rest plain, with only the tail or handle, the thinnest 
part of it being near the body of the stone, asin sketch. The 
studs were all symmetrically placed. There were from three to 
five infeach stone besides the handle. When there were less than 
five_they occupied the same positions as if the five had been 
comjlete. In some cases the handle appeared to have been 
knocked off. The drops were more numerous, were a// of same 
shape, convex at the top, the bottom being concave (like a small 
china painting palette).” 


THE total completion of the St. Gothard tunnel will very 
likely take place in July of this year; the railway is to le 
opened on July 1, 1882, The mail-bags are even now carried 
through the tunnel by messengers when ro-gh weather prevails 
upon the mountain. On December 21 the first mail-bag was 
so carried through the tunnel, and it took four hours to convey 
it from CErschenen to Airolo. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


Av the Second International Polar Conference at Berne all 
the leading nations of Europe were represented except England. 
The leading stations have been definitely decided on. Austria 
undertakes to establish a station in northern Novaya Zemlya, 
at the expense of Count Wilczek; Denmark has selected 
Upernivik ; Germany New Georgia for the Antarctic, and Jan 
Mayen or East Greenland for the Arctic regions; Norway, 
Bossekop in Finmark ; Holland the south-east coast of Novaya 
Zemlya, or the coast of Siberia, between the mouth of the 
Yenissei and Cape Taimyr; Russia has selected two stations, 
the mouth of the Lena and the New Siberian Islinds. Even 
Switzerland, which has not even a sea-board, hopes to take part 
in the international movement, by establishing a station at 
Mossel Bay, in Spitzbergen. The expedition :o be sent out by 
Italy to the Antarctic region under Lieut. Bove is to some extent 
connected with this scheme, and no doubt France will ultimately 
be compelled to take her part. As to England, there has hitherto 
been no sign that as a nation she is even interested in a scheme 
so full of important issues for science and navigation. 

IN arecent paper to the R- Accademia dei Lincei, Signor Guido 
Cora, a member of the International Polar Commi tee, urges 
the importance of the enterprise under consideration, and of 
Italy sharing in it. He considers the Antarctic zone as the 
more suitable one for Italy, as being nearer regions where Ita- 
lians form a Jarge portion of the population aud conduct an 
extensive commerce ; moreover the south has a brilliant record 
of geographical exploration by Italians in the sixteenth century, 
and the recent project of an Antarctic exploring expedition has 
drawn enthusiastic attention. For the temporary scientific 
observatory which the Italian Government is recommended to 
plant in 1882 (in harmony with the large scheme), S. Cora 
suggests one or other of three places:—1. Port Spence, on the 
east coast of Coronation Is'and in the Southern Orkneys, at 
about 60° 50’ S. lat., and 45° 45’ W. long. 2. Cape Look- 
out, on the south coast of Elephant Island, in the north-east 
part of the Southern Shetland group, at about 61° 17’ S. lat’ 
and 55° 15’ W. long. (a station at either place would serve well 
as a base of operations for the Italian Exploring Expedition), 
3. In the case of means being inadequate for a station at either 
of the two places named, S. Guido recommends some one of 
the islands close to Cape Horn, Supposing that the transport 
would be by a Government vessel destined to the naval station 


234 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


in South America, it is calculated that the cost of the observatory 
would amount to 70,000 or 80,000 lire, of which 10,000 would be 
for instruments, and the remainder would provide three dwelling- 
houses, salaries of four scientists, two assistants, and two ser- 
yants, food, &c. This is calculated for an absence of sixteen 
months, twelve of which would he occupied in observations. 


Tuer Geographical Society’s Proceedings this month contains 
three papers relating to Africa, the rst of which is Sir Bartle 
Frere’s, on Temperate South Africa. This, as now printed, 
embodies some useful statistical information and is illustrated by 
a general map of South Africa, The other two pipers bring 
some additions to our knowledge of the geography of West 
Africa, Mr. Comber giving a short sketch of his recent journeys 
in the interior of Congo, and Mr. Milum an account of his 
travels in the Niger region. The firmer is accompanied by an 
excellent map of the neighbourhood of San Salvador and of the 
course of the River Congo from Sranley Pool to the sea, The 
final report of the Executive Committee of the African Explora- 
tion Fund is published, together with a statement of receipts 
and expenditure. In the Geographical Notes extracts are given 
from a letter by Mr. Hore of Ujiji, on the long-continued rise of 
the waters of Lake Tanganyika, which he seems to connect with 
earthquake-movements. Mr. Hore is shortly about to return to 
England, so that we shall probably hear more on this subject 
before long. Among the other notes we may call attention to 
these on the River Okavango, the survey of Eastern Palestine, 
and the United States’ Survey operations in the neighbourhood 
of Behring Strait. Increased attention, we note, is being paid 
to the proceedings of foreign geographical Societies, those of 
the French Society being very fully reported. 


M. Vossion, who, it will be remembered, spent some time in 
Burmah, and not long since read papers on that country before 
the French Geographical Societies, has lately gone to Egypt to 
take up the Vice-Consulship of Khartum. During his stay there 
he is to pay special attention to the slave trade, and to the best 
means of opening up commercial relations with the Sudan. 


Carr. SERRA-CARRACIOLI left Naples on November 23, 1880, 
for the Bay of Assab, having undertaken a mission, under the 
auspices of the Club Africano, to inquire into the possibility of 
developing commerce there and with the natives of the interior, 
The Club Africano is desirous of establishing pearl, mother-of- 
pearl, and sponge fisheries in the Bay of Assab, While funds 
are being raised for more extensive operations, this expedition is 
sent out to make a careful survey of the region, to form a depot 
for further expeditions, whether commercial or scientific, and to 
make other preparations. The expense is expected not to 
exceed 600/. It is also stated that the Italian Geographical 
Society have made arrangements for the establishment of a 
meteorological station at the Bay of Assab. The October part 
of the Bolktino of the Italian Geographical Society contains a 
long and valuable memoir by Signor C, de Amezaga on Assab, 


AT the last meeting of the Lyons Geographical Society M. 
Coillard gave an interesting account of his twenty years’ experi- 
ences in South Africa. He was engaged for some time on a 
missionary expedition in the Upper Zambesi region, and was 
probably the means of saving Major Serpa Pinto’s life, afterwards 
accompanying him in some of his explorations. As no particulars 
have yet been pu li-hed of M. Coillard’s geographical work in 
this region, it is 10 be hoped that his paper will be given in full 
in the Lyons Socicty’s Bulletin. 

IN last week’s A/isszons Catholigues we have the concluding 
instalment of some interesting aud vseful papers ‘by the Bishop 
or Vancouver, enitled ‘‘ Une Visite Pastorale dans Je Territoire 
d’Alaska.” Pére Montiton’s notes on the traditions and customs 
of the Sandwich Islands are also c intinued. 

THE January nu uber of Good Words contains the first of a 
series of ‘paper’ by Mr. Jose»h Thomson on his experiences 
during his recent journey in East Central Africa. The present 
instalment deals with the preparatory journey which he made 
wih Mr Keith ohnston to Usam»ara, and furnishes interesting 
notes on the country traversed. 

Tue Alexandria Correspondent of the Daily Mews tells us 
that M, Chower, formerly a newspaper correspondent in Turkey, 
Kurdistan, Armenia, and Albania, started on December 31, 
“to explore Africa from north to south, from Alexandria to the 
Cape of Good Hope.” Son voyage. 


THE death is announced of Dr. Fr. Mook, the well-known 
African traveller, who accompanied Dr. E. Riebeck on his 


expedition, which started in August last for the East. Dr, Mook 
died at Jaffa shortly before Christmas. 


WE have received parts 17 to 22 of the new edition of Stieler’s 
Hand-Atlas, with three supplementary parts containing in eight 
sheets a very fine map of the Basin of the Mediterranean Sea. 

THE Dutch Committee, which arranged the North Polar 
Expeditions of the last few years, held a general meeting at the 
Hague a short time ago, when the resolution was passed to collect 
funds for the organisation of a fourth Arctic expedition. In the 
meantime the Committee will endeavour to have a steamer built 
for this purpose. 


ON HEAT CONDUCTION IN HIGHLY 
RAREFIED AIR* 


HE transfer of heat across air of different densities has been 
examined by various experim ntalists, the general result 
being that heat conduction is almost independent of pressure. 
Winkelmann (Fogg. Anz, 1875, 76), measured the velocity of 
cooling of a thermometer in a vessel filled with the gas to be 
examined. The difficulty of these experiments lies in the circum- 
stance that the cooling is caused not only by the conduction of 
the gas which surrounds the cooling body, but that also the 
currents of the gas and, above all, radiation play an important 
part. Winkelmann eliminated the action of currents by altering 
the pressure of the gas between 760 and 1 millim. (with decreasing 
pressure the action of gas currents becomes less) ; and he obtained 
data for eliminatirg the action of radiation by varying the dimen- 
sions of the outer ves el. He found that, whereas a lowering of 
the pressure from 760 to 91°4 millims. there was a change of 
only 1°4 per cent. in the value for the velocity of cooling, on 
further diminution of the pressure to 4°7 millims, there was a 
further decrease of II per cent., and this decrease continued 
when the pressure was further lowered to 1°92 millim. 

About the same time Kundt and Warburg (Pozg. Ann. 1874, 5) 
carried out similar experiments, increasing the exhaustion to much 
higher points, but without giving measurements of the pressure 
below 1 millim. They inclcsed a thermometer in a yvlass bulb 
connected with a mercury pump, and heated it to a higher tem- 
perature than the highest point at which observations were to be 
taken; then left it to itself, and noted the time it took to fall 
through a certain number of degrees. They found that between 
10 millims. and 1 millim. the time of coolmg from 60° to 20° was 
independent of the pressure; on the contrary, at 150 millims. 
pressure the rate was one-and-a-half times as great as at 750 
millims. Many precautions were taken to secure accuracy, but 
no measurements of higher exhaustions being given the results 
lack quantitative value. 

It appears, therefore, that a thermometer cools slower in a so- 
called vacuum than in air of atmospheric pressure. In dense air 
convection currents have a considerable share in the action, but 
the law of cooling in vacua so high that we may neglect convec- 
tion has not to my knowledge been determined. Some years ago 
Prof. Stokes suggested to me to examine this point, but fiuding 
that Kundt and Warburg were working in the same direction it 
was not thought worth going over the same ground, and the 
experiments were only tried up to a certain point, and then set 
aside. The data which these experiments would have given are 
now required for the discussion of some results on the viscosity 
of gases, which I hope to lay before the Society in the course of 
a few weeks; I have therefore completed them so as to embody 
the results in the form of a short paper. 

An accurate thermometer with pretty open scale was inclosed 
in a rh inch glass globe, the bulb of the thermometer being in 
the centre, and the stem being inclosed in the tube leading from- 
the glass globe to the pump. 

Experiments were tried in two ways :— : 

I. The glass globe (at the various exhaustions) was immersed 
in nearly boiling water, and when the temperature was stationary 
it was taken out, wiped dry, and allowed to cool in the air, the 
number of seconds occupied for each sink of 5° being noted. 

II. The globe was first brought to a uniform temperature in a 
vessel of water at 25°, and was then suddenly plunged into a 
large vessel of water at 65°. The bulk of hot water was such 
that the temperature remained sensibly the same during the con- 
tinuance of each experiment. The number of seconds required 
for the thermometer to rise from 25° to 50° was registered as in 
the first case. 


= Abstract of a Paper read before the Royal Society by William Crookes, 
F.R.S., December 16, 1880. 


Fan. 6, 1881] 


It was found that the second form of experiment gave the 
most uniform results ; the method by cooling being less accurate, 
owing to currents of air in the room, &c, 

The results are embodied in the following Table :— 


(Rate of Heating from 25° to 50°) 


TABLE I, 


Seconds occu- Total number 


Pressure. Temperatute. pied in rising of seconds 

each 5°. occupied. 
760 millims. 25° fo) fe) 
25 to 30 15 15 
30 to 35 18 33 
35 to 40 22 55 
40 to 45 27 $2 
45 to 50 39 121 
I millim, 25° fo} fo) 
25 to 30 20 20 
30 to 35 23 43 
35 to 40 25 68 
40 to 45 34 102 
45 to 50 48 150 
620 M.? Pi fo) fo) 
25 to 30 20 20 
30 to 35 23 43 
35 to 40 29 72 
40 to 45 37 109 
45 to 50 53 162 
117 M. 25a ° fo) 
25 to 30 23 23 
30 to 35 23 46 
35 to 40 32 78 
40 to 45 44 122 
45 to 50 61 183 
59 M. 25° fo) fo) 
25 to 30 25 25 
30 to 35 3° 55 
35 to 40 36 9 
40 to 45 45 136 
45 to 50 67 203 
23M. 25° ° fo) 
25 to 30 28 28 
30 to 35 33 61 
35 to 40 41 102 
40 to 45 55 157 
45 to 50 7o 227 
12M. 25" fo) fo) 
25 to 30 30 30 
30 to 35 37 67 
35 to 40 41 108 
40 to 45 58 166 
45 to 50 86 252 
5M. 25° ° fo) 
. 25 to 30 38 38 
30 to 35 43 81 
' 35 to 40 54 135 
40 to 45 70 206 
45 to 50 116 322 
. 2M. 25° fo) fo) 
25 to 30 4! 41 
30 to 35 5! 92 
35 to 40 65 157 
40 to 45 go 247 
4 45 to 50 165 412 


; There are two ways in which heat can get from the glass globe 
to the thermometer—(r) By radiation across the intervening 
space ; (2) by communicating an increase of motion to the mole- 
cules of the gas, which carry it to the thermometer. It is quite 
conceivable that a considerable part, especially in the case of 
heat of low refranvibility, may be transferred by ‘‘ carriage,” as 
I will call it to distinguish it from convection which is different, 
_and yet that we shuld not perceive much diminution of trans- 
ference, and consequently much diminution of rate of rise with 


* M =nillionth of an atmesphere. 


NATURE 


235 


increased exhaustion, so long as we work with ordinary exhaus- 
tions up to I millim. or so. For if, on the one hand, there are 
fewer molecules impinging on the warm body (which is adverse 
to the carriage of heat), yet on the other the mean length of path 
between collisions is increased, so that the augmented motion is 
carried further. The number of steps by which the temperature 
passes from the warmer to the cooler body is diminished, and 
accordingly the value of each step is increased. Hence the 
increase in the difference of velocity before and after impact 
may make up for the diminution in the number of molecules 
impinging. It is therefore conceivable that it may not be till 
such high exhaustions are reached that the mean length of path 
between collisions becomes comparable with the diawneter of the 
case, that further exhaustion produces a notable fall in the rate at 
which heat is conveyed from the case to the thermometer, 

The above experiments show that there zs a notable fall, a 
reduction of pressure from 5 M. to 2M. producing twice as much 
fall in the rate as is obtained by the whole exhaustion from 760 
millims. to 1 millim. We may legitimately infer that each 
additional diminution of a millionth would produce a still greater . 
retardation of cooling, so that in such vacua as exist in planetary 
space the loss of heat—which in that case would only take place 
by radiation—would be exceedingly slow. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Journal de Physique, December, 1880,—Note on magic 
mirrors, by M. Bertin.—On some applications of articulated 
systems, by M. Robin.—Experiments on the discharge in rare- 
fied gases, by M. Righi.—Notice on the life and works of M. 
Almeida. 


Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, November 15. 
—Meteorological véswmé of the year 1879 for Geneva and the 
Great St. Bernard, by M. Plantamour.—Disinfection of vehicles, 
plants, collections of natural history, and various objects with 
anhydrous sulphurous acid, by Dr. Fatio—Observations on a 
memoir of M. Schonn, by M. Soret.—On the phenomenon of 
hydration in peptonisation of albuminoid substances, by Dr. 
Danilewsky.—Notes on the winds of mountains, by M. Pittier. 
—Case of diplopia, by Prof. Wartmann, &c. 


Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. Rendiconti. 
vol, xiii. fasc. xviii., November, 1880,—This number contains 
lists of prizes awarded and offered. 


Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincet, vol. v. fasc. 1 (December 
5, 1880).—New studies on the nature of malaria, by SS. Cuboni 
and Marchiafava.—Graphic determination of the elastic force 
relative to plane elements passing through a point, by S. Modi- 
gliano.—On the geological nature of strata met with in the tubular 
foundations of the new iron bridge built on the Tiber at Ripatta, 
and on the Uxio sinuatus, Lamk., there found, by S. Meli.— 
On the structure of the envelope of the ova of some fishes, by 
S. Lepori.—On the preservation of man in countries of malaria, 
by S. Tommasi-Crudeli.—On bilinear ternary forms, by S. 
Battaglini—On the projected stations for systematic physical 
observations in polar regions, by S. Cora,—On a cebocephalic 
caprine monster, by S. de Sanctis.—On the recent restoration of 
the scholastic and tomistic philosophy, by S. Ferri. 


. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Photographic Society, December 14, 1880.—J. Glaisher, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Papers were read by Prof.T. E. 
Thorpe, F.R.S., on a simple and expeditious method of pre- 
paring pyrogallol for dry plate development. The method 
proposed is to put dry gallic acid and glycerine into a flask, 
which is then heated to 200° on a sand tray, as long as bubbles 
of carbon dioxide are seen to be formed in the liquid. The 
gallic acid soon dissolves and is entirely converted into the 
theoretical quantity of pyrogallol, viz., 80 per cent.—By Capt. 
Abney, R.E., F.R.S., iodide and ammonia in gelatine emul- 
sions. It was stated that iodides in gelatine bromide emulsion 
kept the silver salts from being deposited upon the shadows, as 
also that there is freedom from decomposition of the film, 
and tendency to red fog, and more light can be used in preparing 
and developing the plates.—And also by Capt. Abney on a 
photographic sunshine recorder. This consisted of a semi-cylin- 
drical box with a flat lid, in the centre of which is a small hole ; 
round the inside of the cylinder strips of sensitive paper are 


236 


fixed ; the instrument is then so placed that the sun, the h le, 
and the cen‘re line of the paper ar: in the same plane, so that as 
the sun moves its track will be recorded on the paper. 


Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, January 3.—A paper 
on the early destinies of man was read by Mr. J. E. Howard, 
F.R.S., F.L.S., &c., in which he considered them in relation to 
science, to philosophy, and also to religion, and gave an analysis 
of the various known traditions in regard to the early history of 
man in all ages and in all countries. 


MANCHESTER 


Literary and Philosophical Society, December 14, 1880.— 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., president, in the chiir.— 
Boulder stones as grave stones. The president, when visiting 
Ashton-under-Lyne the other day, observed in the churchyard 
on the Manchester Road a greenstone boulder used as a 
tombstone over the grave of a son of an alderman of that 
borough. This is the first instance where he had seen a boulder 
stone used for such a purpose, and it is one where they may not 
only be preserved, but exhibited to the public.—The lard 
sub-idence at Northwich, by Thomas Ward.—Some endeavours 
to ascertain the nature of the insoluble form of soda existing in 
the residue left on causticising sodium carbonate solutions with 
lime (Part ii.), by Watson Smith, F.C.S., Assi-tant Lecturer 
on Chemistry in the Owens Colleze, and W. T. Liddle. 
Communicated by Prof. C. Schorlemmer, F.R.S. 


Paris 


Academy of Sciences,- December 27, 1880.—M. Edm. 
Becquerel in the chair.—M. Faye presented the Annuaire du 
Bureau des Longitudes for 1881, and noted the improvements. 
—On the series of Fourier and other analytical representations 
of functions of a real variable, by M. Hermite.—On the velocity 
of propagation of light, by M. Cornu, He controverts M. Gouy’s 
ideas,—On the chlorhydrates of metallic chlorides, and on the 
reduction of chlorides by hydrogen, by M. Berthelot. These 
chlorhydrates play an important part in chemical mechanics, by 
rea-on of their considerable heat of formation and their state of 
dissociation.—On an oxygenated base derived from aldol, by 
M. Wurtz.—Effects of tearing out the intracranial part of the 
glossopharyngeal nerve, by M. Vulpian. This action does not 
(in the cat) appreciably affect the influence of nerves which act 
as direct vaso-dilators on the mucous membrane of the buccal 
cavity, except as regards the effects of excitation of the nerve 
itself on the posterior rezion of the dorsal face of the tongue,— 
Observations on some animals of Madagascar, by M. Milne- 
Edwards. This relates to an important collection of mammalia 
and birds by M Humblot, sent to the Museum of Natural His- 
tory They show the modifications of species well. M. Hum- 
blot has sent to the menagerie two living Aye-Ayes, two Makis, 
&c. (offering many points of interest).—Order of production of 
the first vessels in the ear of Zoli (first part), by M. Trécul. 
—M. Sella was elected Correspondent in Mineralogy in ro a of 
the late Prof. Miller, and Mr. Warren De La Rue in Astronomy 
in room of the late Mr. MacLear.—Observations on phylloxera, 
by M. Lichtenstein. He indicates ten or eleven animal parasites 
of phylloxera, but doe; not regard any of these hopefully as a 
means of stopping the disease. He is studying the effect of 
inoculation with cryptogams ; the results are not yet decisive, 
—Determination of the time of rotation of Jupiter, by M. 
Cruls. From observations of the spot at Rio Observatory during 
1083 rotations he obtains the number gh. 55m. 36s. in mean 
solar time. Mr. Pratt, at Brighton, got the number gh. 55.. 
33°91, from 321 rotations. Thus the time of Jupiter’s rotation 
seems to be known to within a second.—On Hartwig’s comet 
(@ 1880), by MM. Schulhof and Bossert. They consider the 
period 622 years must be rigorously excluded.—Solar observa- 
tions at the Royal Observatory of the Roman College durin + the 
third quarter of 1880, by P. Tacchini. There was increased 
activity. The number of spots was doable that in the preceding 
quarter, and there was hardly a day without them, The number 
of facule in September was extraordinary. In the case of the 
protubera ices (also more frequent) there was a maximum in each 
hemisphere between 50° and 60° and another between 20° and 
40°.—Observations on Swift’s comet (¢ 1880) at the Royal 
Observatory of the Roman College, by P. Tacchini.—On the 
contact of conics and surfaces, by M. Montard.—On a new 
method of producing intermittent luminous siznals, by M, 
Crova, M. Leverrier and he used in 1870-71 a very similar 
arrangement to M. Mercadier’s. They found that they must 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 6, 1881 


use oxygen under weak pressure and give the pipe a wide orifice ; 
als» that the key must be pressd.and released very, suddenly. —On 
a new electrodynamic theorem, by M. Cabanellas.—Regulator 
of pressure for vapours, by M. D’Arsonval. The triple problem 
here solved is (1) keeping constant, in a boiler, the pressur: of 
a given vapour whatever the discharge ; (2) using tae combustible 
gas only in proportion to the vapour expended ; (3) making the 
instrument quite automatic without danger of explosion. There 
is a me abrane of cavutchoue between two metallic rings; its 
lower surface is in contact with the vapour, and on its upper 
rests a metallic disk with rod and lever like that of a safety valve. 
At the upper surface of the disk debouches a tube which brings 
the gas ; there is another tube above through which the gas goes 
to the boiler.—On a new derivative of sulphide of nitrogen, by 
M. Demareay.—On a platinous hypophosphite, by M. Engel. 
This is got by action of phosphuretted hydrogen on tetrachloride 
of platinnm.— On borotungstates of sodium, by M. Klein.—On 
some facts relative to the transformation of chloral into meta- 
chloral, by M. Bryasson.—On the products of oxidation of 
cholalic acid.—On the excretion by urine of sulphur incompletely 
oxidised, in various pathological states of the liver, by MM. 
Lépine and Flavard.—On visual sensibility and its relations 
with luminous and chr matic sensibility, by M. Charpentier. 
What he calls visual sensibility corresponds to visual acuteness, 
but while the latter is expressed by the smallest angle under 
which one can recognise as distinct two luminous points; the 
former is expressed by the smallest quantity of light 
which renders those two points distinct. 
increasing complexity is, luminous sensibility, chromatic 
sensibility, visual sensibility—On the distribution of light 
in the solar spectrum (spectrum of Daltonians), by MM. 
Mace and Nicati. These observations appear to give certain 
proof of the existence of two distinct kinds of Daltonians; also 
to support the Younz-Helmholtz theory of colours, and to con- 
tradict Hering’s.—Reactions of the motor-zone of the brain in 
animals paralysed by curare, by MM. Couty and De Lacerda.— 
On passage of red corpuscles into the lymphatic circulation, by 
M. Laulaine. This is effected by obliteration of veins. The 
effect appears in about twelve hours, and the number of cor- 
puscles increases to about the fortieth hour.—On the internal 
and external sheaths of hvirs, by M. Renaut.—New researches 
on the organs of touch, by M. Ranvier. By observing the 
tactile corpuscles in infants and children he has come to a better 
ap reciation of their structure.—On the sensitive nerve-termina- 
tion in the skin of some insects, by M. Viallanes, Examining 
larvee of AZusca and Lvistalis, he finds under the hypodermis 
an extremely rich plexus of ganglionic cells, connected oa one 
hand with the chief nerve-centres, and on the other with sensi- 
tive terminal nerve-branches.—On the sensorial cylinders of the 
internal antenna of crustaceans, by M. Jourdain. While these 
have undoubtelly the characters of an organ of sense, they 
cannot (anatomically, and independently of all physiological ex- 
periment) be said to be affected with olfaction.—Marine mol- 
lusca living on the coasts of Campbell’s Island, by M. Filhol.— 
Examination of the marine fauna of the upper sands of Pierre- 
fitte near Etampes, by M. Meunier.—On the age of upheaval of 
the district of Bray, by M. Dollfus.—On the crystalline schists 
of Brazil and the red earths which cover them, by M. Gorceix. 


CONTENTS 


Dr. GUNTHER ON FisHes (With Illustrations) 


Pace 
213 


SucpHuric Acip AND ALKALI. By Prof. H. E. Roscoz, F.R.S.. . 215 
Our Book SHELF :— 
Kaltbrunner’s ‘‘ Aide-Mémoire du Voyageur” . . . . « « © 217 
Let revs TO THE EDITOR :— 
Geological Climates—ALFrep R. Wattace; H. Kinc . . - . 217 
Temperature of the Breath.—C. J. McNaLty ..... . - 217 
Selenitum.—W. M. C. (With Diagram) . . . . ++. 218 
Experiments with Vacuum Tubes.—J. T. BorroMLey . 218 
M dern Use of Ancient Stone Implements +D. BuppE . . - 218 
Pile Dwellings.—S. E. Peau (With Illustration). ._. + « « 218 
Landslip»—The Cheshire’ Subsidences.—T. MELLARD READE. 219 
Animal’Reasoning.—K. P. 2 </> "oes SE ey eee, 
Ozone.—J. RanD CaPpRON . . . Qe +) 219 


Tue [npOo-CHINESE AND OcEANIC RaceEs—TyPes AND AFFINITIES, 


Il. By A. H. Keane (With Illustrations). . . . « -_« « + 220 
Groxiocy or Bosnta aND HeErzsGovina. By Prof. Arcn, Gaikir, 

BeRSE oho. 5.) 0) ceptor vend mene) ate Demee: a Acu nel yo Sun eanemmnaons 
MicHer Cuastes By R.TuckeR ~ «© + « + «© « # « + = = 225 
Pror. Huxtey on Evorution, I. . . - . «+ «© «@ «© © = © 227 
NOTES... as Tel SRM 8} oo! 0. on 
G&OGRAPHICAL:NOMES(G- Wael Sel + is + + Me One) ob fe 9238 
On Heat Conpuction In Hicuty Rareriep Arr. By WiLLIAM 

Crooxes,;F-RUS qeptece cs oe, ee es le et le) iy ene 234 ; 
ScrenTriic SERIALS Meee 2 eo ee se cgay a) conn enaS 


SocreTigs AND ACADEMIES =. « + «© « «+ «© » © + © e© = ® 


ee 


The order of-_ 


j 


f 


NA Ve CG, R ie 


237 


THURSDAY, JANUARY 


13, 


BAROMETRIC CYCLES 


BOUT twelve years ago Mr. Baxendell of Man- 
chester gave evidence of a connection between the 
convection-currents of the earth and the state of the sun’s 
surface, and the subject has since been much discussed 
by meteorologists from various points of view. 

Amongst these Mr. Meldrum of the Mauritius Obser- 
vatory has brought forward much evidence in favour of a 
connection between sun-spots on the one hand and rainfall 
and cyclones on the other. Still more recently the Indian 
“meteorologists, including the names of Messrs. Archibald, 
Blanford, Broun, Charles and Frederick Chambers, 
Eliot, and Hill have studied with much success the 
abnormal. variations of barometric pressure in the tropics. 
Of these the researches of Mr. F. Chambers are parti- 
cularly interesting’ as exhibiting a very close relation 
between such barometric fluctuations and the state of the 
sun’s surface. 

The chief principle underlying these investigations is 
sufficiently obvious. We know that the marked differ- 
ences in barometric pressure which exist between various 
portions of the earth’s surface must be due to the sun; if 
therefore the sun be in reality variable we should natur- 
ally expect these differences to vary likewise in such a 
way as to be strengthened when the sun is most powerful 
and weakened when he has least influence. In accord- 
ance with this way of regarding things, Mr. Chambers in 
1876 pointed out that the abnormal variations of the 
monthly mean barometric pressure at Bombay in that 
year were mainly variations in the intensity of the usual 
seasonal movements, while in 1877 he attributed the uni- 
formly high barometric pressure and the deficient rainfall 
of that year to a weak development of the equatorial belt 
of minimum pressure, probably induced by a diminution 
of the solar heat. 

In a diagram attached to his first communication Mr. 
Chambers compares the curve of solar-spotted area with 
other curves denoting the barometric pressure at various 
widely-distributed tropical stations, from which we can 
clearly see that there is a very marked resemblance 
between the salient points of the various curves on the 
hypothesis that a large amount of sun-spots corresponds 
to a low barometer. But besides this it appears that the 
epochs of maximum and minimum barometric pressure 
lag considerably behind the corresponding epochs of 
minimum and maximum solar-spotted area, and that this 
lagging behind is greater for easterly than for westerly 
stations, or in other words the abnormal barometric varia- 
tions in the tropics may be said to travel at a very slow 
rate round the earth from west to east. 

Perhaps the subject of greatest practical importance in 
these communications is the discussion regarding Indian 
famines and their connection with sun-spot minima—a 
connection first brought to light by Dr. Hunter. Mr. 
Chambers sums up his conclusions on this point as 
follows :— 

1. Variations of the solar-spotted area are succeeded 
months afterwards by corresponding abnormal barometric 
* See NaTurE, November 25 and December 2, 1880, 

VoL, xxi11.—No. 585 


variations, a high barometer corresponding toa minimum 
of sun-spots. 

2. Famines follow in the wake of curves of high baro- 
metric pressure. 

Finally two methods are indicated by which early 
intimation of the approach of those meteorological dis- 
turbances which are attended by famines may possibly 
be obtained. 

1. By regular observation of the solar-spatted area, and 
early reduction of the observations, so as to obtain early 
information of current changes going on in the sun. 

2. By barometric observations at stations differing 
widely in longitude and the early communication of the 
results of stations situated to the westward. 

While it thus appears that the evidence in favour of a 
connection between the state of the sun’s surface and the 
meteorology of the earth is continually acccumulating it 
may not be amiss to review briefly the present position of 
the problem. 

In the first place Mr. Meldrum, as already mentioned, 
has given evidence that in numerous stations the rainfall 
is greater about times of maximum than about times of 
minimum sun-spot frequency. 

Secondly. Through his labours and those of M. Poey 
we have reason to believe that there are more cyclones in 
the Indian Ocean and hurricanes near the West Indies 
during times of maximum than during times of minimum 
sun-spot frequency. 

Thirdly. There is the connection between the baro- 
metric fluctuations of the tropics and the state of the 
sun’s surface which has just been pointed out. 

Fourthly. From investigations in which I have been 
recently engaged there is reason to suppose that sun-spot 
inequalities of short duration are followed by corre- 
sponding inequalities in the diurnal temperature range of 
Toronto in such a way that a large amount of sun-spots 
slightly precedes a large temperature range. 

Fifthly. To go from meteorology to magnetism there is 
the well-known connection first observed by Sabine, in 
virtue of which the diurnal oscillations of the magnet are 
greatest about times of maximum sun-spots. And I may 
add that magnetic maxima lag behind sun-spot maxima, 
while there are also indications that magnetic weather, 
like meteorological weather, travels from west to east. 

We thus perceive how strong the evidence is in favour 
of some connection between the state of the sun’s surface 
and terrestrial meteorology, while at the same time it is 
unmistakably indicated by all elements that this connec- 
tion is of such a nature as to imply that the sun is most 
powerful when there are most spots on his surface. Add 
to this that the spectroscopic observations of Lockyer 
and others tend in the same direction, as well as such 
actinometric results as we have been able to procure, chiefly 
through the labours of Mr. J. H. Hennessey at Dehra 
Dhoon and Mussoorie. 

In fine this hypothesis is rapidly emerging, if indeed it 
has not already emerged, from the regions of mere 
conjecture. 

But here it is necessary to bear in mind the following 
considerations. Prof. Stokes has pointed out that the 
problem before us really involves two questions, which 
may be stated as follows :—Firstly, do the changes which 
take place in the sun’s surface correspond to changes in 

M 


238 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 13, 1881 


the meteorology and magnetism of the earth, and if so, 
does an increase of spotted area denote an increase of 
solar activity, or the reverse? 

This question, I have already remarked, seems to be 
rapidly emerging from the realms of mere conjecture. 
But there is still another question, for we have to inquire 
whether these recognised solar inequalities bear all or 
any of the marks of a true periodicity. Now this is 
still sd judice, while at the same time it is a point of 
very great practical importance. For if the solar ine- 
qualities be found on investigation to present none of the 
marks of a true periodicity, we can hardly hope ever to 
be able to hazard a prediction regarding the state of the 
sun, and our knowledge of the eleven-yearly period, as it 
is called, will continue to remain very much the same as 
at present. But on the other hand, if we find that there 
are true solar periods and succeed in disentangling them, 
we may hope to arrive at some measure of predicting 
power. As I have said, this question is still unsettled, 
and will of course present itself in different ways to dif- 
ferent observers. Meanwhile all we can do is to observe 
and register the actual state of the sun’s surface, and 
inasmuch as the meteorological occurrences of greatest 
practical issue do not precede but follow solar phenomena 
by several months or more, we may thus arrive at a limited 
amount of practical prevision. 

I do not however feel sure that the method of doing 
this which Mr. Chambers has indicated is in reality the 
best, for I should imagine that unexceptionable observa- 
tions of the sun’s intrinsic heat-giving power, if these 
could be obtained, would furnish a more trustworthy 
instrument of prevision than the sun-spot record. 

Then with regard to indirect observations. No doubt 
those of the barometer are very immediately connected 
with the occurrences which we wish to foresee, but yet I 
think it possible that well-selected magnetic observations 
might ultimately be found to follow more quickly upon 
solar changes as well as to indicate with a less amount of 
local influence the true state of the sun. 

These however are points that can only be settled by 
future research. Meanwhile it is extremely gratifying to 
all who take an interest in this subject to reflect that it is 
engrossing the attention of observers in all parts of the 
world. BALFOUR STEWART 


LIFE OF LIVINGSTONE 
The Personal Life of David Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L. 
Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspond- 
ence tn the Possession of his Family. By William 
Garden Blaikie, D.D., LL.D., New College, Edin- 
burgh. Portraitand Map. (London: Murray, 1880.) 
HEN the news of Livingstone’s sad death on the 
swampy shore of Lake Bangweolo reached this 
country, and when his body was brought home by his 
faithful followers to be honoured.as the nation honours its 
greatest and best ; and again on the publication of his 
“Last Journals,” we spoke in some detail of the great 
work he accomplished, and expressed our opinion as to 
the position which that work had earned for him. The 
years that have elapsed since Livingstone died at his 
post have only confirmed the judgment of the nation ; 
and now that Dr. Blaikie’s admirably-compiled “ Personal 


Life” enables us to fill up the portrait, it will be seen that 
the man was as great as his work. Necessarily the mis- 
sionary and religious side of Livingstone’s character and 
work occupies a large place in this volume; this was to 
be expected from a writer who is a prominent leader in 
the Free Church of Scotland. But we do not think there 
is any excess in this direction; these were genuine and 
ever-present aspects of the character of the man, and Dr. 
Blaikie does not give them place at the expense of any 
other feature. He has honestly endeavoured to give us a 
complete portrait of his hero, and in this we think he has 
decidedly succeeded. Simplicity and transparency were 
marked features in Livingstone’s character from first to 
last ; delight in simple joys, a boyish love of fun, tender 
ness of heart and all-embracing charity, strong natural 
affection, the yearnings of which he could and did sacri- 
fice to his still stronger sense of duty, the whole dominated 
by an all-conquering determination and perseverance in 
accomplishing the work which he believed was “ given 
him to do.” This is the impression which Dr. Blaikie’s 
“ Personal Life’’ gives, and in this it only confirms the 
impression which is conveyed by a study of Livingstone’s 
own narratives. 

Dr. Blaikie, however, tells us many things which must be 
new to most of those who knew Livingstone only through 
his works. We learn here how well qualified he was for 
the work which from early years he seems to have set 
before himself. Livingstone came of a good stock, which, 
though humble, knew of and had some pride in its 
ancestry. One ancestor fought at Culloden on the side 
of Prince Charlie, for on the mother’s side he had some 
Highland blood in his veins. But the impulsive and sad 
temperament of the Celt was considerably modified by 
the practical and hopeful features of the Teutonic blood 
of his father. The latter was a type of the devout, 
rigidly honest, intelligent, and comparatively well-read, 
humble Scotchman, while the mother held the love and 
respect of her son to the end of her life. The family were 
poor, and all had to work hard; and early in life young 
Livingstone had to begin to earn his living in a cotton- 
mill at Blantyre, near Glasgow, where he was born March 
19, 1813. With his first wages he bought a copy of 
Ruddiman’s “Latin Rudiments,” and thus early, it is 
evident, his aspirations went beyond the cotton-mill. His 
hours were long, but while attending to his “jenny,” and 
till late at night, after his day’s work was over, he conned 
his Ruddiman and other books to qualify himself for a 
University course. His thirst for reading was great, and 
he devoured all the books that came within his reach. 
Natural science also had its attractions for him, which 
he indulged by scouring the country when he had time 
in search of natural history specimens. Dr. Blaikie tells 
of Livingstone’s ‘“ conversion’’ when he was a young 
man. This, in his case, means that what was instinctive 
action became thenceforth settled and conscious pur- 
pose. It was doubtless a proud day both for father and 
son when the former walked with the latter to Glasgow to 
see him settled in a humble lodging in order that he might 
attend the classes at Anderson’s College. Livingstone 
never intended to be a clerical missionary ; medicine was 
the subject of his study in Glasgow, and it was as a 
medical missionary he intended to accomplish the work 
of his life. It was only to please his friends and the 


Fan. 13, 1881] 


London Missionary Society he consented to “ ordination.” 
Chemistry seems to have been a favourite subject with 
him at ccllege, and Dr. Blaikie narrates an interesting in- 
cident in which Livingstone and James and William (now 
Sir William) Thomson and Lyon Playfair met together 
at James Young’s (now of Kelly) rooms, to witness 
some chemical experiment. Having been accepted by 
the London Missionary Society, Livingstone went to 
London to complete his medical studies, get some 
lessons in theology, and learn to preach. His failure in 
the latter accomplishment nearly led to his final rejection, 
and no doubt determined the Society to send him to the 
rough and humble field of Africa, instead of to China, on 
which his heart was set. The decision must be regarded 
as in every respect fortunate, though Livingstone had 
been some time in Africa ere he got over his disappoint- 
ment. He went out to his work in Africa in 1841, and 
how anxious he was in every way to qualify himself for 
that work is shown by the fact that he got the captain of 
the ship in which he sailed to teach him the use of the 
quadrant and how to take lunars. With a few more 
lessons in taking observations from Sir Thomas Maclear 
at the Cape, he became an adept in this kind of work, 
and Sir Thomas afterwards expressed his astonishment 
at the almost perfect accuracy of Livingstone’s observa- 
tions in this department. He left the Cape as soon as he 
could and made for Moffat’s station at Kuruman. Still 
further north he went, about 250 miles, and settled for 
some time among the Bechuanas, over whom, as over all 
other natives with whom he came into contact, he soon 
acquired great power and influence. His idea of a mis- 
sionary’s work was very practical, and rapidly developed 
and expanded, after he set foot in Africa. From the first 
he gave attention to geography, and his early letters are 
full of geographical details, illustrated by little sketch 
maps. How early his mind was attracted by the scientific 
questions connected with the geography of Africa will be 
seen from the following passage from the work before 
ste 


“The progress of medical and scientific work during 
this period is noted in a letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett, 
dated 30th June, 1843. In addition to full details of the 
missionary work, this letter enters largely into the state 
of disease in South Africa, and records some interesting 
cases, medical and surgical. Still more interesting, per- 
haps, is the evidence it affords of the place in Living- 
stone’s attention which began to be occupied by three 
great subjects of which we shall hear much anon—Fever, 
Tsetse, and ‘ the Lake.’ Fever he considered the greatest 
barrier to the evangelisation of Africa. Tsetse, an insect 
like a common fly, destroyed horses and oxen, so that 
many traders lost literally every ox in their team. As 
for the Lake, it lay somewhat beyond the outskirts of his 
new district, and was reported terrible for fever. He 
heard that Mr. Moffat intended to visit it, but he was 
somewhat alarmed lest his friend should suffer. It was 
not Moffat but Livingstone, however, that first braved the 
risks of that fever swamp. 

“A subject of special scientific interest to the mis- 
sionary during this period was—the desiccation of Africa. 
On this topic he addressed a long letter to Dr. Buckland 
in 1843, of which, considerably to his regret, no public 
notice appears to have been taken, and perhaps the letter 
never reached him. The substance of this paper may, 
however, be gathered froma communication subsequently 
made to the Royal Geographical Society (see Journal, 
vol. xxvii. p. 356) after his first impression had been con- 


NATURE 


Se na 


Ao) 


firmed by enlarged observation and discovery. Around» 
and north of Kuruman, he had found many indications 
of a much larger supply of water in a former age. He 
ascribed the desiccation to the gradual elevation of the 
western part of the country. He found traces of a very 
large ancient river which flowed nearly north and south 
to a large lake, including the bed of the present Orange 
River ; in fact he believed that the whole country south 
of Lake ’Ngami presented in ancient times very much 
the same appearance as the basin north of that lake does 
now, and that the southern lake disappeared when a 
fissure was made in the ridge through which the Crange 
River now proceeds to the sea. He could even indicate 
the spot where the river and the lake met, for some hills 
there had caused an eddy in which was found a mound 
of calcareous tufa and travertine, full of fossil bones. 
These fossils he was most eager to examine, in order to 
determine the time of the change; but on his first visit 
he had no time, and when he returned he was suddenly 
called away to visit a missionary’s child, a hundred miles 
off. It happened that he was never in the same locality 
again, and had therefore no opportunity to complete his 
investigation.” 


It was not likely that a man whose mind was filled with 
such problems would be content to settle down to the 
dull routine of the work of a common missionary, and 
count his success by the tale of doubtful “conversions” 
he could “send home to his constituents. He kept 
moving onward from one station to another, getting 
further and further into the interior, gaining the love of 
the natives and the hatred of the Boers. By his example 
more than by direct teaching he showed the people the 
beauty of right living, and taught them many industrial 
arts which some of them have not lost till this day. But 
his longing was ever northwards, and his eager desire to 
solve the mystery of Lake ‘Ngami. It was not till 1849 
however that he was able to visit the lake, and his account 
of the visit first brought him permanently into notice as 
a working geographer. This may be said to have ended 
the first stage of Livingstone’s career, that in which the 
missionary was predominant. It seems to us, however, 
doubtful whether Livingstone ever intended definitely to 
settle down to the life of a missionary. Even from the~ 
beginning, we think, he must have had some vague idea 
of combining the function of missionary and explorer, 
always, however, with the one great object in view of 
bringing Africa under the influences of civilisation and 
Christianity. Shortly after the "Ngami excursion he 
became a missionary at large. Returning to Cape Town, 
he sent home his wife and children, and prepared himself 
for the great work of exploring the Zambesi. Proceeding 
northwards to Linyanti in 1852, he set out on that 
ever memorable journey to Loanda and across the 
continent to Quilimane, which stamped him as one 
of the greatest explorers of all time. The story 
of this and of his subsequent work in the region 
of Lake Nyassa, and of his many years’ wandering 
all over Central Africa, he has told himself, and Dr. 
Blaikie wisely refrains from introducing more of it than 
is really necessary to hold together the narrative of his 
Personal Life. All that Livingstone has done for Africa it 
is not easy to estimate. It is he more than any other 
explorer who has filled up the great white blank in the 
maps of our schoolboy days. His geographical instinct 
was surer than that of any other man; only once was it 
seemingly at fault, when he wandered away by Lake 


240 


NATURE 


[Fan. 13, 1881 


Bangweolo seeking for the “ fountains of the Nile’’; and 
D> & > 


that one mistake cost him his life. Men like Sir Thomas 
Maclear, Prof. Owen, and Sir Roderick Murchison testify 
to the high value of his observations in various depart- 
ments of science; and it is due to his example and 
initiative that Africa is now covered with an army 
of explorers. Livingstone was a man who was consumed 
with a definite and noble purpose, which he firmly be- 
lieved it was his duty to carry out unto death. In doing 
so he was bound to give offence, and he did make 
enemies ; and so must every man who is able to conceive 
a great purpose and possesses strength of will and energy 
of physique sufficient to carry it out. Had he been 
weakling enough to be swayed by the scruples of others 
he would never have left Cape Town. No great work 
was ever yet accomplished without sacrifice ; and we have 
here mainly to do with the work which Livingstone 
accomplished for science. That work is the highest of 
its kind, and had Livingstone been either a Byron or a 
Napoleon in character, the value of that work would not 
have been less. Fortunately it is clear from Dr. Blaikie’s 
pages—which consist largely of Livingstone’s own journals 
and letters—what indeed was pretty clear before, that 
Livingstone was a pure and tender-hearted man, full of 
humanity and sympathy, simple-minded as a child, 
with a healthy ambition to do a great work for Africa 
and for science, and with energy and courage sufficient to 
carry it out. The motto of his life was the advice he 
gave to some children he addressed in a humble Scotch 
meeting-house when he returned from his first great 
journey and found ,himself a great man—“ Fear God 
and work hard.” 


SALVADORI’S ORNITHOLOGY OF 
NEW GUINEA 


Oruttologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche di Tommaso 
Salvadort. Parte prima. 1 vol. 4to. 540 pp: 
(Torino, 1880.) 

] N the second volume of the Linnean Society’s Yournal 

of Proceedings, published in 1858, will be found an 
article by Mr. Sclater on the Birds of New Guinea, 
which gives in a few pages a summary of the then 
existing state of our acquaintance with this subject. 

The bulky quarto now before us, to be followed by three 

or four other similar volumes, is no bad evidence of the 

vast mass of additions that has been made to our know- 
ledge of the Papuan avifauna since that period. 

In 1857 the only modern authorities on the birds of 
New Guinea were the naturalists of the French circum- 
navigating expeditions, who had explored the vicinity of 
Havre Dorey in the northern peninsula of the island, and 
the collectors for the Leyden Museum, who had visited 
Lobo Bay and other points on the south coast. Although 
much is still wanting to complete our knowledge of the 
Papuan avifauna, much has been done since those days. 
In 1858 our famous countryman Mr. Wallace passed 
some months at Havre Dorey, and made excellent collec- 
tions in every branch of zoology. Moreover in the 
neighbouring island of Batchian Mr. Wallace was fortu- 
nate enough to come across a new form of paradise bird— 
one of the few recent additions to this remarkable group 
—which was deservedly named after its discoverer, 


4 


Semioptera wallacit, Mr. Wallace was also the first 
of modern explorers to visit the Arroo Islands—which 
belong strictly to the same fauna as New Guinea, and in 
his well-known work on his “ Travels in the Malay Archi- 
pelago” has given us a most interesting account of the 
habits of the paradise birds as there observed, and of the 
manner in which the natives procure their specimens. 

After Mr. Wallace the Italian travellers D’ Albertis and 
Beccari were the next to visit New Guinea, and succeeded 
in carrying their investigations further into the unknown 
interior than it had been hitherto believed possible to 
penetrate, The ascent of the Arfak Mountains was 
first accomplished by D’Albertis in 1872, and Beccari 
succeeded in making the same dangerous journey some 
years later, besides visiting many localities on the north 
coast which had not been previously explored. Both 
these naturalists were active collectors of birds, and 
transmitted large collections to Europe. In 1875 and 
the following year D’ Albertis turned his attention to the 
southern portion of New Guinea, and during his excur- 
sions up the Fly River made fresh additions to our know- 
ledge of Papuan ornithology. In the meantime a German 
naturalist, Dr. A. B. Meyer of Dresden, was engaged on 
new explorations on the shores of the great Bay of 
Geelvinck, and did not fail to make considerable additions 
to the rich avifauna of that district. 

While Prof, Salvadori has not neglected to consult every 
existing authority on Papuan ornithology, and, we believe, 
to visit every European museum which contains speci- 
mens from the Papuan region, it is mainly upon the large 
series accumulated by his countrymen D’Albertis and 
Beccari, to which must be added the numerous specimens 
obtained by the hunters of Heer A. A. Bruijn of Ternate, 
that his present labour is based. ‘These collections, or at 
any rate all the important portions of them, have passed 
into the Museo Civico of Genoa, either through the 
liberality of the Marquis G. Doria, the founder of that 
institution, or through assistance given by the Italian 
Government. Their extent may be judged of from the fact, 
stated in the preface to the present volume, that they 
contained no less than 9539 specimens, which have thus 
come directly under Prof. Salvadori’s observation, besides 
the examples examined in the Museums of Paris, London, 
Leyden, Bremen, Berlin, Dresden, and Vienna, which, as 
already stated, our author has visited for the purpose of 
preparing his work. It is evident therefore that materials 
did not lack, and Prof. Salvadori’s well-known abilities as 
an ornithologist give us every confidence that these 
materials will have been well used. 

Such indeed is doubtless the fact. If the succeeding 
volumes of the “ Ornitologia della Papuasia’’ shall be ex-_ 
ecuted in the same style as that in which the first volume 
has been prepared, there can be no question that a most 
important work will have been accomplished. Not only 
is every species fully and accurately described, but its 
complete synonymy is given, a detailed list of the speci- 
mens from various localities and remarks on their differ- 
ences are added, and, in fine, every necessary particular is 
given that cAn contribute to a perfect history of the 
species. Would that other geographical works on ornith- 
ology were carried out with equal exactness and similar 
strict attention to details ! 

In conclusion we have only to express our thanks to 


Fan. 3, 1881] 


NATURE 241 


Prof. Salvadori for the admirable way in which he has 
commenced his laborious task, and to express our hope 
that he may bring it to a successful conclusion. In Mr. 
Gould’s great work on the “ Birds of New Guinea” we 
have a series of magnificent illustrations of all the more 
remarkable forms of Papuan ornithology. Such a work 
as that of Prof. Salvadori’s was much wanted in order to 
perfect our knowledge of the history and literature of this 
attractive subject. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


An Elementary Treatise on the Integral Calculus, con- 
taining Applications to Plane Curves and Surfaces; 
with numerous Examples. By B. Williamson, F.R.S. 
(London : Longmans, 1880.) 


OF a ¢hird edition we need only remark that it is a carefully 
revised issue of the second, and point out the few impor- 
tant additions that have been made. In the discussion 
of Frullani’s theorem (§ 119), a simple shape of the for- 
mulz, due to Mr. E. B. Elliott, is given, and reference 
made to other articles on multiple definite integrals by 
the same gentleman (and by Mr. Leudesdorf) in the 
Educational Times (1875) and in the Proceedings of the 
London Mathematical Society, 1876-7. A new article 
(1192) gives a proof of a simple character, by Zolotareff, of 
the remainder in Lagrange’s series. § 147 contains a re- 
markable extension of Holditch’s theorem, due to Mr. 
Elliott (less. of Math. February, 1878), and § 147a 
gives the “ singularly elegant ” theorem discussed by Mr, 
Kempe (Mess. of Math. July, 1878), to which reference 
is made in Prof. Minchin’s letter in NATURE (December 
23, 1880), in which he proves these theorems from other 
“considerations. Various insertions of a minor character 
increase the volume by more than twenty pages. A good 
feature of the present edition is an index at the end of 
the work. 


Botantsches Centrallatt. Herausgegeben von Dr. O. 
Uhlworm. Band i., Quart. 1-4. (Cassel: Fischer, 1880.) 


WE are now able to record the completion of the first 
volume of this valuable serial, a monument of extraor- 
dinary energy on the part of the editor and his band of 
assistants. The aim of the publication is to give an 
abstract or 7éswmé of every important contribution to 
botanical science published in the scientific serials of the 
Continent of Europe, Great Britain, and America; and, 
as far as we have been able to judge, the undertaking has 
been carried out with great judgment and completeness. 
Original works are also not neglected. Appearing much 
more promptly than Just’s “ Jahrbuicher,’’ the “ Central- 
blatt’”’ is indispensable to any one who desires to keep 
abreast of any department of botanical science. 


Botany for Children: an Illustrated Elementary Text- 

. Book for Junior Classes and Young Children. By the 

| Rev. George Henslow, M.A., F.L.S., &c. (London ; 
Edward Stanford, 1880.) 


WE do not think that botany can be taught wijh advan- 
tage to children from books. No method of teaching 
seems so well adapted to the wants of junior students as 
that of demonstration. A flower pulled to pieces by the 
student and the parts and their importance intelligently 
explained by the teacher forms a lesson far more valuable 
than any to be got from a text-book. With a few such 
demonstrations from easily-obtained flowers, taken as 
they present themselves, most of the elementary facts 
regarding flowering plants can be readily mastered, while 
the habits of observation and the facility of dissecting 
thus obtained are invaluable to the student. It is, we fear, 
too much the habit in teaching botany to make the 


student prepare a lesson from the text-book as if it were 


spelling or history. This is really what should be most 
carefully avoided, although there must be a great tempta- 
tion to proceed with the book lIesson when the plant is 
not obtainable. Mr. Henslow states in his preface : “‘ The 
descriptions of flowers in this book are intended to form 
botanical reading-lessons, specimens of the flowers being 
at the same time placed in the hands of the pupils, who 
are required to dissect and examine them carefully, and 
be sure they see and understand each special part noticed 
in the text.” When used in accordance with the direc- 
tions laid down by the author, the book seems an 
excellent one, and calculated to serve its: purpose well, 
although some very important types have been omitted 
for want of space. As we have known children to work 
out the structure of flowers for themselves by means of 
this little book and to enjoy the exercise, we believe the 
work will be deservedly popular. The illustrations are 
rather coarse, but on the whole characteristic and often 
give details of structure sometimes omitted from much 
larger works. 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that it 
1s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Geological Climates 


I now proceed to justify my statement, which has caused 
Mr. Wallace great surprise, viz. :— : 

“Tt is impossible to suggest any rearrangement of land and 
water which shall sensibly raise the temperature of the west of 
Europe, or sensibly depress the temperature of the east of North 
America.” 

It is proverbially difficult to prove a negative, and the only 
way to do so in this case is to show that any given redistribution 
of Jand and water is incapable of producing the effects ascribed 
to it. 

IT have already shown that Mr. Gardner’s proposed redistribu- 
tion by means of a land connection between Greenland and 
Europe would fail to benefit the west of Europe. In lke 
manner I shall now demonstrate that Mr. Wallace’s redistribution 
of land and water is quite inadequate to raise the temperature of 
the west of Europe, 

Mr. Wallace’s proposal is to introduce two new Gulf Streams 
into the Arctic Ocean, in addition to the present Gulf Stream. 

Y. The first of there additional Gulf Streams would be the 
Kuro-siwo, admitted through a widened Behring’s Strait, the 
effect of which, he estimates, would be /o prevent altogether the 
Sormation of ice in the Arctic Sea. 

2, The second additional Gulf Stream is provided by allowing 
the waters of the Bay of Bengal and of the Arabian Sea an 
outlet to the north through the Caspian depression into the 
Arctic Ocean. The effect of this second Gulf Stream, he esti- 
mates, would be ¢o vase the temperature of the Polar ocean from 
15° F. to 20° &. above the freezing point of water. 

This mode of raisirg the temperaiure of the Arctic regions, so 
as to allow of the growth of their Miocene flora, occurred to me 
when speculating on the former high temperatures of these lati- 
tudes, but I rejected it as inadequate to account for the change 
of climate required for the following reasons. But before giving 
these reasons I w’sh to add that Mr, Wallace has given two 
precice statements involving quantitative results, without giving 
the numerical grounds on which he made those statements. 

The fu llowing are the grounds on which I deny ihe adequacy 
of Mr. Wallace’s causes of change of climate :— 

(2) Air and Water.—Warm winds and cold winds are in 
themselves of little consequence in influencing climate, except 
they blow over a large expanse of warm or cold water ; they are 
in fact only heat and cold carriers for the water. The specific 
heat of water is more than four times that of air, and water is 815 
times heavier, bulk for bulk ; therefore one cubic mile of water 
will ccntain as much heat as 3260 cubic miles of air at the : ame 


242 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 13, 1881 


temperature. From this it follows that the temperature of the 
air at the surface of the sea corresponds with the surface- 
temperature of the water, This has been fully confirmed 
by observations made in every latitude, which show that the 
difference of temperature between the air and sea is never more 
than one or two degrees Fahrenheit. 

(4) Gulf Sitream.—The temperature of the air above the Gulf 
Stream is :— 


62° F. at latitude 40° 45° F. at latitude 60° 
53 » 50" 35» pak 


and the quantities of water contained in the Gulf Stream are :— 


36 cubic miles per hour at latitude 50° 
36 ” ” ” 60° 
24 ” ” ” 79 

The mean annual temperatures of the several latitudes, in the 
northern hemisphere, are, taken all round the globe— 


29 3° F. at latitude 60° 4°5° F. at latitude 80° 
14°45 i 0°0,, 9» 9” 


From this it is-evident that the Gulf Stream is inadequate to 
keep the temperature of the Polar cap, from the Pole to 60° lat., 
above the freezing-point of water; so that if the heat and cold 
were uniformly distributed, the whole of this great area would 
be permanently frozen over, the thickness of the ice being 
greatest at the Pole, and least at lat. 60°. . 

This ideal ice-cap (on the supposition of uniformly distributed 
heat and cold) represents accurately the amount of heat that must 
b2 introluced into the Arctic regions before their temperature 
rises to that of the freezing point of water. Its southern limit 
is lat 58° 51’, where the mean annual temperature all round 
the globe is 32° F. 

The thickness of this ideal ice-cap at the Pole is unknown, but 
from what we know of the paleeocrystic ice of Bank’s Land and 
Grinnel Land must be measured by hundreds of feet ; and its 
mean temperature must be at least 20° F. below the freezing 
point of water. 

Mr. Wallace has put forward the supposition that the intro- 
duction of ‘an equal proportion of the Kuro-siwo (to that of 
the Gulf Stream) would prevent the formation of sea-ice in the 
Arctic Sea. Before this could happen, the Kuro-siwo must first 
melt the ice-cap, and then keep it from freezing again, 

To show how inadequate this supposition is, I shall calculate 
what the Gulf Stream has already done, and then show what the 
Kuro-siwo could do. 

Let us suppose that the whole heat of the Gulf Stream, 
passing northwards through the parallel of 70° N., is employed 
in melting a supplementary ice-cap extending from the Pole to 
7o° N. and that this supplementary ice-cap is at the temperature 
of 32° F. only (mere zce-sludge) ; I find the thickness of ice melted 
is only 5°874 feet! yearly. 

If therefore the Gulf Stream were cut off by a barrier at 70° 
N. lat. an additional growth of ice at 32° F. less than 6 feet 
thick might grow upon the area from the Pole to 70° N. lat. 

Of cour-e the Gulf Stream expends its heat in melting local 
ice in the Spitzbergen and Barentz Seas, and perhaps still further 
east in summer along the Siberian coast, and not in melting the 
supplemeatal ice-cap I have imagined ; nevertheless the whole 
work done by it does not exceed the melting of the ice-cap from 
the Pole to 70° lat., and of a uniform thickness of 5°874 feet. 
In other words, the work done by the Gulf Stream north of 
70° lat. is equivalent to the meltinz of 4382 cubic miles of ice at 
32° F., which represents a definite quantity of heat. It is how- 
ever much easier to conceive the ice-cap from the Pole to 70° 
lat., of 5°874 feet thick, than 4382 cubic miles of ice. 

As the ice melted between the Pole and 70° lat. has a tem- 
perature of 6° F., instead of 32° F., it is easy to see that the 
thickness of ice-cap melted by the Gulf Stream is 4°813 feet 
instead of 5°874 feet. 

(c) ‘The Kuro-stwo admitted through Behring’s Strait.—Mr. 
Wallace quotes me as stating that the volume of the Kuro-siwo 
is 24 times the volume of the Gulf Stream: I believe it to be so, 
but in the present discussion shall consider it to be only twice as 
great ; for at least one-fifth of it obtains partial entrance into 
Behring’s Strait, and behaves like the Gulf Stream; as appears 
from the lesser rigour of the climate of the Parry Islands, from 


1 IT assume the following data:—Area from Pole to 70° lat. = 4,476,2co 
sq.gr. m.; latent heat of ice-cold water = 144" F.; Gulf Stream = 24 cub. 
miles per hour ; temperature = 35 °5F. 


the open water discovered by Collinson along the northern coast 
of and from the return cold current of the coast o: 

ina. t 

From the calculations I have just given it appears that the 
Kuro-siwo current admitted through a widened Behring’s Strait 
would be competent to melt a thickness of ice-cap extending from 
the Pole to 70° lat., amounting to 9°626 feet. 

I shall leave your readers to judge whether this amount of 
ice-melting justifies Mr, Wallace in asking ‘‘ Suppose that only 
an equal proportion (to that of the Gulf Stream) of the Kuro- 
siwo entered the Arctic Ocean, is it not probable that no sea-ice 
at all would form there?” 

To me this question appears like a proposal to Hercules to 
clean out the Augzean stables with a teaspoon, 

(2) Let us now add on the Mozambique Current, converted 
into a Caspian depression Gulf Stream. Of this current I cannot 
allow Mr. Wallace to appropriate more than half, unless he 
shows cause for a land barrier preventing the other half from 
continuing its present course into the southern hemis,here, there 
to aid in mitigating the climates of the Temperate and Antarctic 
zones. 

The Caspian Gulf Stream will then cut off another slice of 
3°609 feet in thickness from the ice-cap extending to 70° Jat. Is 
this amount of ice-melting sufficient to perform the feat assigned 
to it by Mr. Wallace of ‘‘rai-ing the former [the Polar sea] to 
perbaps 15° or 20° F, above the freezing point” ? 

(e) If there be any truth at all in the power of Gulf Streams 
to modify the climates of the Temperate and Polar zones, the 
southern hemisphere should be warmer than the northern hemi- 
sphere, as it receives three Gulf Streams instead of 1} Gulf 
Streams (without discussing their relative volumes). 

This is the actual fact, as is easily proved, notwithstanding 
the iterated parrot-like statements to the contrary copied from 
text-book to text-book. 

I have shown that, taking the annual mean temperature at all 
longitudes, the cold of the northern hemisphere is represented 
by an ideal ice-cap which is thickest at the north pole and ter- 
minates in the latitude 58° 51’ N., where the mean annual 
temperature is 32° F. 

In the southern hemisphere, the latitude at which the mean 
annual temperature for all longitudes is 32° F., is found at 
62° 41'S. This limit of the ideal southern ice-cap (measuring 
the Antarctic amount of cold) lies nearer to the South Pole by 
3° 50’, or 230 geographical miles, than the corresponding limit 
of the northern ice-cap from the North Pole. 

These limits of ideal ice-cap at the North and South Poles are 
independent of the wholly different question as to which of the 
Poles has the largest volume of ice surrounding it, into which I 
shall not enter at present. 

(f) From what I have proved above it is evident that the 
two return compensating currents from the Arctic seas will still 
consist of ice-cold water, one of which, on the coast of Asia, of 
double the volume of the Labrador current, will reduce the 
climate of China and Northern Japan to a condition compared 
with which the present climate of Hudson’s Bay would be a 
Garden of Eden; and the other would bring the Ural range 
and Eastern Europe into the present condition of Labrador. I 
think it is evident, under these latter conditions, that Bourne- 
mouth would suffer, and not gain, by Mr. Wallace’s arrange- 
ments of land and water. The services rendered to the Arctic 
lands by the two new Gulf Streams would, in my opinion, be 
dearly purchased by the damage done by their compensating 
currents in the sub-tropical latitudes of Eastern Asia and Eastern 
Europe. SAML, HAUGHTON 

Trinity College, Dublin, December 31, 1880 


In NAtuRE, vol. xxiii. p. 169, Mr. Ingram mentions the 
growth of Bambusa metaké in Leicestershire, I have found 
large varieties of bamboo cultivated on a great scale in Northern 
Nippon, where the winter temperature is certainly much 
colder than in England. The northernmost place where I found 
them was the vicinity of Yokobori, about 39° 12’ N., at a small 
distance (twenty-five miles) from the west coast. The nearest 
place to the south where observations were made is Nugata, 
37° 55’, and to the north Hakodate, 41° 46’. The coldest month 
has a temperature respectively of 33°°0 and 27°°3 F. Yusawa 
being situated about 450 feet high, and in the interior, the coldest 
month there must have not over 30°, and a heavy snowfall is the 
rule every winter. Again, on descending the dividing ridge 


Fan. 13, 1881] 


NATURE 


243 


between Jukussina and Yonesawa, I first found large bamboo 
plantations near the last place, about 1000 feet above sea-level, and 
37°55’ N. Between here and Niigata the temperature of the 
coldest month must differ by about 3°, the latter place being 
situated near the sea. This gives about 30° F. for Yonesawa, or 
about the same as at Yusawa. Now in Great Britain, the 
mountainous districts excepted, the mean temperature of the 
coldest month is nowhere lower than 36°. A, WOEIKOF 
St. Petersburg, December 19, 1880 


In my letter (vol. xxiii. p. 194) I inadvertently stated that 
Sequoia cones were composed of from 16 to 20 scales. I in- 
tended to say 16 to 50, which appears to be the maximum 
number in either of the existing species. S. G. 


Chalk 


THE objections urged by Mr. S. N. Carvalho, jun. (vol. xxiii, 
p- 194), to Wallace’s explanation of the deposition of chalk must 
have occurred to every geological reader of ‘‘ Island Life.” There 
are very many other objections to :t, and I trust to be permitted 
to call attention to them in the Geological Magazine, as they are 


probably too purely geological to interest the readers of Neva 
a senGe 


Average Height of Barometer in London 


Tr was stated in your ‘‘ Meteorological Notes” a week or two 
ago in regard to the paper by Mr. H. S. Eaton on the average 
height of the barometer in London, that ‘‘ the series is sufficiently 
extended as to entitle it to be considered one of the most valuable 
we possess in dealing with questions of secular meteorological 
variation.” 

Regarding it in the same light I have thought it worth while 
to apply Mr. Meldrum’s method for discovering the existence 
and character of the secular variation in the sun-spot cycle. 
Taking the period 1811-79 I find the following figures for the 
mean cycles :— 

LONDON 


Annual Barometric Abnormals, Mean Cycles 


Maximum years in fifth line. Maximum years in seventh line. 


Pressure Sun-spots Pressure Sun-spots 

(811-77) (2815-77). (2816-79). (1816-72). 
1, +0°006 — 33°9 —0°005 +23°3 
2. + ‘O16 234 n06 =) “OOK +14°5 
3. + ‘013 Gio) |.) — ‘COL + 48 
Ate OO2 PN en) 28:2) > =.) = “O03 = 
5. — ‘O10 +43°E «.  — °0O5 —19'0 
6. — ‘OIL + 34:2 Be = Yolopi = 3G 
Te — ‘C07, +16'8 + ‘ooo = oye 
8. + ‘oor Ora eerie ct OK —25°4 
9. + ‘coo —14°2 + ‘021 + 18 
10, + ‘oor —24'2 + ‘o10 +30°9 
TOO! ai. = 263 ... — °003 +44'8 


The variation of pres:ure, though not so regular as that I 
worked out for St. Petersburg in 1879, is of an almost exactly 
opposite character, the minimum pressure appearing as in India, 
about the time of maximum sun-spot, and the maximum pressure 
lagging two years behind the epoch of minimum sun-spot. These 
results agree with the known annual rainfall variation in the 
same cycle, which is likewise similar in character to that which 
occurs in the tropics. I would suggest that the marked difference 
between the results for London and St. Petersburg possibly arises 
from the close communication between England and the tropics 
through the medium of Atlantic oceanic and atmospheric 
currents. E, DouGLas ARCHIBALD 


January 4 


Experiments with Vacuum Tubes 


In my letter published in the last number of NATURE I omitted 
to say that we have compared vacuum tubes without electrodes 


with a tube containing water. A tube was filled about nine-tenths 
full of water and then sealed hermetically. It was then applied 
to the prime conductor of the electric machine and electrified in 
the same way as the vacuum-tubes without electrodes, and it was 
found to behave precisely as they did. The water tube became 
charged as a double Leyden jar, positive outside and negative 
inside at the end next the prime conductor, and negative outside 
and positive inside at the other end. A great tendency to 
rupture of the glass was also observed. So far as we have been 
able to see the most perfect vacuum that I have been able to 
obtain with the Sprengel pump has behaved as to frictional elec- 
tricity precisely as a perfect conductor such as water. 

These experiments seem interesting in connection with the 
discoveries of Mr, Crookes as to the properties of a very perfect 
vacuum, No doubt it was known that flashes can be obtained 
within vacuum tubes without electrodes ; but the properties of a 
perfect vacuum as a conductor of electricity has not been hitherto 
sufficiently investigated. J. T. BoTTOMLEY 

Physical Laboratory, the University, Glasgow, January 8 


Oxidation of Quinine, &c. 


In the Chemical Society’s Journal for December, 1880, there 
is an abstract of a paper by Hoogewerf and Van Dorp, pub- 
lished in Ziedig’s Annalen, cciv. 84-118, in which the authors 
describe experiments on the oxidation of quinine, quinidine, 
cinchonine, and cinchonidine. As reference is made in this 
paper to our work upon the same subject in such a manner as 
to lead to the inference that we had copied Hoogewerf and Van 
Dorp, we beg to call attention to the dates of publication of the 
various memoirs relating to the matter. 

In the Berlin Berichte, x. 1936 (close of 1877), Hoogewerf and 
Van Dorp published a preliminary note on the oxidation of 
aniline, toluidine, and quinine, and stated that they had obtained 
amongst other products of oxidation of quinine a nitrogenous 
acid, to which apparently they attached little importance. Of 
this acid they gave no further account. At that time we were 
working at the same subject, and had come to some important 
conclusions, 

As Hoogewerf and Van Dorp’s results contained nothing re- 
lating to quinine in addition to what had been observed by Cloéz 
and Guignet many years previously, we did not consider that they 
were entitled to claim that this field of work should be reserved 
for them. We therefore sent our paper to the Chemical Society, 
before which it was read on January 19, 1878 (see also Berlin 
Berichte, xi. 324). In this paper we stated that the acid obtained 
by us from quinine was probably identical with dicarbopyridenic 
acid. That the acid was a pyridenic acid we had no doubt, but 
owing to the difficulty of purification we had not been able to 
establish its formula with certainty. 

In the Berlin Berichze, xii. 158-161, was published a second 
paper by Hoogewerf and Van Dorp (read before the Berlin 
Chemical Society on January 27, 1879), on the acid obtained 
from quinine, giving no analyses, but stating that the acid was 
éi- and not dicarbopyridenic acid, thus confirming our result in 
its important bearing, viz. the connection between the quinine 
and pyridine series. In the same paper they suggested that an 
acid obtained by them from quinidine and cinchonine was 
identical with the quinine acid. 

Immediately on receipt of the number of the Berlin Berichte 
containing Hoogewerf and Van Dorp’s paper, we forwarded to 
the secretary of the Chemical Society our second memoir, which 
coutained numerous analyses of the acid obtained, not from 
quinine only, but also from the allied alkaloids, quinidine, 
cinchonine, and cinchonidine, together with a full description 
and analysis of all its important salts. That paper was read 
before the Society on February 20, 1879. 

In Liebig’s Annalen, cciv. 84-118 (July 31, 1880), or a year 
and a half after the publication of our second paper, Hoogewerf 
and Van Dorp published analyses of the acid and many of its 
salts, prepared from three alkaloids, the results confirming our 
own in all points. 

Our claim, which the above dates fully substantiate, is to have 
been the first to establish the connection between the quinine and 
pyridine series, and to have proved that the four alkaloids all 
gave the same oxidation product. 

Prof, Butlerow of St. Petersburg, immediately on appearance 
of our first paper, when engaging in work closely connected 
with, but not overlapping ours, wrote suggesting that we should 


244 


NATURE 


| Fan. 13, 1881 


each confine himself to his own branch, at the sme time recog-a | 
nising the importance of our discovery ; and Herr Ko6niz, in a 
paper published in the Berichte, xii. 97, referring to our first 
paper, says: ‘‘Es ist der erste glatte Uebergang der China- 
alkaloide in eine jedenfalls einfachere Substanz—das Pyridin.” 
WILLIAM RAMSAY 
JAMEs J. DoBBIE 


Glasgow University 


The Temperature of the Breath 


Dr. DuDGEON’s first letter under this heading contained the 
suggestion of a friend that his enigmatical thermometric readings 
were to be accounted for by the high temperature ‘* caused by 
the conden.ation of the moisture of the breath by the silk hand- 
kerchief.” The discussion that followed has not only brought 
us back to this solution, but has also furnished us with an 
authoritative expression of opinion that the clinical thermometer 
is not sensitive to pressure. F. J. M. P. first hinted the 
contrary prop sition only to have it thrust aside by Dr. Dudgeon 
with blunt denial, neglected by Dr. Roberts, and finally 
discarded by himself for no other apparent reason than that 
aqueous vapour in condensing liberates heat. Yet I venture to 
as-ert that readings as high as any obtainable by Dr. Dudgeon’s 
method, less the pressure, can be obtained by a very similar 
mode of experimenting, without the developed heat: 1. If the 
bulb of a thermometer, protected by paper or other non- 
conductor, be squeezed in an intermittent manner between finger 
and thumb, it will be found that the mercury can readily be 
made to dance up and down through about a degree on the scale 
with a celerity not attributable to changes of temperature. 2. If 
eighteen inches of cotton thread be tightly wound about the 
bulb, on immersing the thermometer in water it will exaggerate 
the temperature sometimes by as many as 12° F. 3. If a tube 
filled with cacao butter be substituted for the thermometer the 
butter beneath the thread will be longer in melting than that in 
other portions of the tube, a result which I think proves that 
the high readinzs of experiment No. 2 are not temperature, but 
(in the light of No. 1) pressure readings. 

My chief object in writing is to protest on general grounds 
against the treatment accorded to F. J. M. P.’s suggestion, bat 
at the same time I wish to express my opinion that Dr. Roberts’ 
argument would have been strengthened by giving heed to it, 
for I see nothing in /zs account of the interrupted experiment not 
explainable on the pressure hypothesis alone, the descending 
series of readings being perchance due to a yielding of the 
wrappings under prolonged tension, On the other hand I have 
to thank this omission on Dr. Roberts’ part for having induced 
me to test the subject for myself, and thus experience, in 
repeating his experiment, the rare pleasure of scientific surprise 
at seeing the index mount higher and higher above the level of 
my expectations under conditions which left no doubt as to the 
cause beinz a rise of temperature. Dr. Dudgeon has done good 
service by directing attention to a simple experiment which, 
properly interpreted, throws new light on the philosophy of 
clothes, and should prove a telling shaft in the quiver of popular 
science, Wo. McLAurINn 

Islington, December 26, 1880 


In the number of NaTuRE which reached Madras after the 
departure of the inail conveying my letter of the gth inst., I was 
glad to read Dr. W, Roberts’ abundantly full and lucid explana- 
tion of the heat produced by breathing on thermometers enveloped 
in hygroscopic substances. He has, by a very simple method, 
confirmed the view endorsed in my communication in NATURE, 
vol. xxiii. p. 534. 

That the effects of friction and of compression of air are so 
slight that they may be disregarded, has been proved ; and the 
rise has been clearly traced to absorption of aqueous vapeur, It 
has yet to be determined how much of this heat may be accounted 
for by the reduction of aqueous yapour to the fluid state, and 
how much by capillary action and absor, tion of water, with or 
without chemical union, and its reduction to the soli! state—all 
of which may be included in hygroscopic action, This deter- 
mination wou'd involve some intricate investigations which some 
scientific specialist may perhaps find leisure to undertake. That 
more than simple vapour condensation is concerned in the pro- 
duction of hygroscopic heat is shown by the ri-e of temperature 
on adding water to a nonssaturated hygro-c ypic subst ice. 


A scientific colleague has suggested to me that some cases of 
very high axillary temperatures may be explained by the clothing 


| of patients being pressed into the axilla in contact with the 


thermometer. Thus, by folding a banian round a thermometer 
placed in the axilla, I registered a temperature above 100° F. 
while the tempera ure in the bare axilla was 98°3. It is evident 
that recently changed and dri2d clothing and clothing warmed 
by the body of a non-perspiring fever patient would have still 
more effect when pressed clo-ely into a hot and moist axilla, 
Although this point is important mainly to physicians, I venture 
to draw attention to it through your columns on account of its 
connection with the subject of hygro copic heat. 


C. J. McCNALLY 
Madras, December 16, 1880 


Distance of Clouds 


I HAVE conveniently determined the distance of passing clouds 
by a method probably not new, but which I have not seen 
described, 

It consists in ascertaining the velocity with which the shidow 
of a cloud traverses level ground, which is easily observed, and 
of course giv-s the velocity of the cloud itself. 

The angular motion per second of clouds passing overhead is 
simultaneously observed by means of a coarse micrometer in a 
telescope, or with a theodolite. 

The distance is thus obtained with fair approximation. 

Distance = = v being the velocity in feet per second, 
and 2 the number of minutes of are described in ¢ seconds. 

A distant mirror may be advantageously used in determining 
the velocity of the shadow. 

EDWIN CLARK 


Fluke in Calves 


CAN any of your readers account for the following facts?— 
An examination of the liver of some six-weeks-old calves which 
had never touched any food but their mother’s milk showed 
then to be infested with fully-developed Fluke (Déistomz 
hepatica). It is clear that the presence of these flukes does not 
admit of the usual explanation, viz., the ingestion with green 
food or water of mollusca bearing the larva in one of its earlier 
stages. 

I should be grateful if any of your readers could suggest an 
explanation of the mode in which the fluke entered the liver of 
the calf. Is it possible that the larva may hive passed into the 
milk of the mother, and so have entered the stomach of the calf? 

It may interest some of your realers to know that traces of 
fluke were present in the livers of cattle lately killed when in 
high condition. The fluke had apparently been established in 
the liver some consiterable time previous to the slaughter of the 
animals, and bad perished on their attaining to a stite of high 
health and vigour. AEE 


JOHN STENHOUSE, LL.D., F-R.S. 


ips the early morning of the last day of the old year we 

lost one of the few surviving founders of the Chemical 
Society, Dr. John Stenhouse. He was born at Glasgow, 
October 21, 1809, the son of William Stenhouse of the 
well-known firm of calico-printers, John Stenhouse and 
Co. of Barrhead. He was educated first at the Grammar 
School and then at the University of Glasgow, and long 
resided in his native city. At an early age he turned his 
attention to chemistry, and diligently studied that science 
under Graham and Thomson, and subsequently with 
Liebig at the University of Giessen. When he removed 
to London, after the failure of the Western Bank of 
Scotland had deprived him of the fortune bequeathed to 
him by his father, he became Lecturer on Chemistry in 
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, but was obliged to 
resign that appointment in 1857 owing to a severe attack 
of paralysis. Even this affliction however did not dis- 
courage him, and after the lapse of a short time he 
renewed his scientific labours. In 1865 he suzceeded Dr. 


Fan. 13, 1881 | 


NATURE 


245 


Hofmann as non-resident Assayer to the Royal Mint, but 
was deprived of the appointment by Mr. R. Lowe, who 
abolished the office in 1870. 

A pupil of Graham and Liebig, he had all their en- 
thusiasm for scientific investigation, and devoted nearly 
the whole of his time to research work in the domain of 
organic chemistry: the eminence he attained in this 
branch of science is fully recognised, but his contribu- 
tions to our technical knowledge are not so well known. 
He was the author of many ingenious and useful inven- 
tions in relation to dyeing, sugar manufacture, tanning, 
&c., but the greatest and most permanent has been the 
application of charcoal for disinfecting and deodorising 
purposes, which took the form of charcoal air-filters for 
the ventilation of sewers, and the charcoil respirator, 
the best of all respirators, not only for preventing the 
deleterious effects of noxious gases in numerous manu- 
facturing operations, but also for the protection of 
those subject to bronchitis, asthma, and other similar 
diseases. 

It is impossible in our limited space to. give even an 
outline of the numerous investigations which he published 
during his long scientific career, extending as it did over 
a space of more than forty years. The results are em- 
bodied in about 100 papers, published in various scientific 
journals, English and foreign ; they relate in great part to 
what may truly be called “ organic chemistry ”—the che- 
mistry of carbon compounds formed by organised bodies. 
John Stenhouse was LL.D. of Aberdeen; a Fellow of 
the Royal Society, which awarded him the Royal Medal 
in 1871; one of the founders of the Chemical Society ; 
and a Fellow of the recently-established Institute of Che- 
mistry. Of his personal character those who knew him 
intimately could never speak too highly; his death 
will be felt and mourned not only by his many per- 
sonal friends, but also by men of science throughout 
Europe. 


WILHELM HEINTZ 


WE recently recorded the death, at Halle, on December 

I, of Prof. W. Heintz, one of the leading German 
chemists of our day. He was born at Berlin, November 4, 
1817. His earlier university studies were undertaken 
with a view of becoming a pharmacist, but this intention 
was relinquished as the attractions of a more purely 
scientific career were offered to him. In 1844 he received 
the doctor's degree at the Berlin University, and two 
years later he was admitted as privat-docent in the philo- 
sophical faculty of the same university. In 1850 he 
accepted a call to Halle as the successor of the well- 
known Marschand ; and here, after passing five years as 
an extraordinary professor, he was appointed in 1855 to 
the full professorship of chemistry, and the directorship 
of the newly-built laboratory, posts which he occupied at 
the time of his death. 

As a teacher and as a guide to students inclined towards 
chemical research, Prof. Heintz evinced more than 
ordinary capacity, and for a quarter of a century he has 
ably maintained the reputation of Halle among the centres 
of chemical interest in Germany. This reputation is due 
in no small part to his own personal contributions as an 
investigator ; for few chemists of our diy have manifested 
such unwearied energy and long-continued application, 
such thoroughness of work, accuracy of observation, and 
widespread familiarity with fact and theory as are evinced 
in, Heintz’s manifold and diversified researches. 

The earlier portion of his career was directed to the 
solution of problems in physiological chemistry. Among 
his more important researches in this direction mention 
should be made of those on the juice of the Galacto- 
dendron (1845), on kreatin and kreatinin (1847), on lactic 
acid in the gastric juice (1849), on the composition of 


bones, and on cholesterin (1850), on the colouring matter 
of gall stones (1851), on urinary sediments (1862), and 
more especially on the animal and vegetable fats. This 
latter research, extending over a period of about seven 
years, includes exhaustive studies on the physical pro- 
perties of the fats, methods of their separation, their 
chemical constitution and nature, the products of their 
decomposition, &c. His careful observations of the 
melting points and composition of the fatty acids in the - 
pure state and when mixed with each other, form essen- 
tially the basis of our present knowledge on this subject, 
and enabled him at the time to show the composite 
character of various fats which preceding chemists had 
regarded as pure compounds. 

In analytical chemistry Heintz devised a variety of 
methods and modifications of methods, amongst which 
mention may be made of his contributions on the esti- 
mation of sulphur in organic bodies, on the separation of 
magnesia from the alkalies, on the analysis of ashes 
(1847), on the determination of urea and uric acid, on 
the detection of gall (1848), on the determination of 
nitrogen (1851), on the estimation of phosphoric acid, and 
numerous analytical data. 

In inorganic chemistry his researches were chiefly con- 
fined to studies on a variety of phosphates, on bismuth 
and uranium salts, on the preparation of cesium and 
rubidium compounds (1865), on the combustion of am- 
monia in oxygen (1864), on the silicates of the alka- 
line metals, and to the examination of the minerals 
margarite, stassfurtite, carnallite, aluminite, and boracite, 
the latter of which he prepared artificially (1860). 

It is however in the field of pure organic chemistry 
that Heintz’s discoveries have been most numerous and 
important. They commence with his investigation on 
saccharic acid, begun in 1844 and resumed in 1858-1860, 
to which we owe a great measure of our knowledge of 
this acid, and especially of its salts and ethers. This 
was followed in 1856 by a study on the action of chloride 
of sulphur on the salts of organic acids, in which he 
recorded the unvarying and simultaneous formation of 
chlorides and sulphates at the expense of the organic 
salts. In 1859 he began his extensive research on glycollic 
acid, which occupied much of his time until 1872, by 
exposing monochloracetic acid to the action of various 
sodium alcoholates, obtaining thereby the different ethers 
of glycollic acid; thus with sodium ethylate : 
CH,.OC,H,; 
CH,Cl. COOH + NaOC,H, = NaCl+ | ; 

COOH 


By means of this prolific reaction he obtained a number 
of interesting derivatives of the acid in question. Closely 
allied to them were the acid ethers of glycollic acid, 
obtained by submitting mono shloracetic ethers to the action 
of salts, or by acting upon glycollic ethers with such 
bodies as phosgene or chlorocarbonic ether. Among 
the other important compounds discovered by him in 
this group are glycolamide, glycol-ethyl-amide, digly- 
collic acid—O(CH,. COOH),— obtained by the action of 
sodium hydrate on monochloracetic acid, diglycoll-dia- 
mide, diglycollamic acid, &c. During this same period 
he made noteworthy investigations on tke ethyl-amines, 
on sulphocyan-acetiz acid and its derivatives, on nitrate 
of ethyl, on ethyl-hydantoin, on lactic acids, and on 
the amido-acids obtained from chloropropionic and iodo- 
propionic acids by the action of ammonia. With 1874 
commences his last important research—that on the 
aceton bases, the simplest of which result from the action 
of ammonia on aceton. While forced to overcome mani- 
fold difficulties in the prosecution of this investiga- 
tion, Heintz succeeded in isolating a number of novel 
and important compounds, especially interesting from a 
theoretical point of view. The leading forms embraced 
in this new group are diacetonamine, triacetonamine ; 
the corresponding alcoho] bases dia:eton-alcamine and 


246 


triaceton-alcamine ; benzal-diacetonamine ; amido-tri- 
methyl-oxybutyro-nitrile resulting from the action of prus- 
sic acid on diacetonamine; and amido-dimethyl-acetic 
acid, obtained by the oxidation of diacetonamine ; while a 
paper published a few months since describes a new 
aceton base containing sulphur. Prof. Heintz’s activity 
was manifested up to within a few months of his death. 
In addition to the paper just alluded to his contributions 
to chemical literature during the year just closed include 
articles on triaceton-diamine, on the existence of aceto- 
nine, on two compounds of urea with chloride of gold, 
and on diethidene lactamic acid. 

Prof. Heintz was the recipient in 1862 of thehonorary 
degree of M.D. from the University of Konigsberg in 
recognition of his services to physiological chemistry. In 
1876 he was elected an honorary member of the London 
Chemical Society. AE 1815 ING 


SMOKE ABATEMENT 


MEETING was held in the Egyptian Hall at the 
Mansion House on Friday last, under the presi- 
dency of the Lord Mayor, to consider the best means of 
remedying the evils arising from the present smoky 
condition of the atmosphere of London. Among those 
present were Mr. G. J. Shaw-Lefevre, M.P. (First Com- 
missioner of Works), Mr. W. Spottiswoode (President of 
the Royal Society), Dean Stanley, Sir U. Kay-Shuttle- 
worth, Dr. Farquharson, M.P., Mr. Ernest Hart (Chair- 
man of the joint committee of the Health and Kyrle 
Societies), Col. Festing, R.E., Dr. Alfred Carpenter, and 
Prof. Chandler Roberts. 

Mr. Ernest Hart, in explaining the objects of this 
movement, said that some practical advance had already 
been made. It was not pretended that fogs could be 
prevented; but since smoke added opaqueness and cor- 
rosive and other deleterious qualities to London fogs, 
much might be done to diminish the discomforts and 
evils we suffered from this cause. Having described the 
objects proposed to be attained by an exhibition of 
apparatus and smokeless fuel, he gave the results of some 
calculations in order to bring home to the minds of his 
hearers the enormous waste of money involved in the 
present arrangements for heating houses. 

Mr. Spottiswoode stated that a committee of the Royal 
Society had been appointed to investigate the facts con- 
nected with the formation of fog; but while we looked to 
science to tell us what was wanted to improve our atmo- 
sphere, we looked to the legislature to carry out those 
effectual preventive measures which all hoped would some 
day or other be devised. Nevertheless, without the 
strenuous aid and co-operation of every householder the 
best legislation could be turned to but little account. In 
conclusion he moved, “ That it is the opinion of this 
meeting that the smoky condition of the atmosphere of 
London -injuriously affects the health and happiness of 
the community, besides destroying public buildings, 
deteriorating perishable fabrics, and entailing in various 
ways unnecessary expenditure.” 

Sir Frederick Pollock seconded the resolution, and 
urged that much might be done if every one who had an 
old fire-grate to replace would provide one of an approved 
and reaily more economical pattern. 

Mr. G. J. Shaw-Lefevre moved, ‘‘ That this meeting is 
further of opinion that the injurious effects of fog are 
largely due to the quantities of smoke given forth from 
the chimneys of furnaces, manufactories, and steam- 
vessels, as well as dwelling-houses, and that the smoke in 
the metropolis might, without any considerable difficulty, 
be greatly lessened by the better enforcement of the 
existing law, by the introduction of amended legislation, 
and by the general use in all descriptions of premises, 
including dwelling-places, of proper smoke-preventing 
apparatus, improved household stoves and grates, or of 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 13, 1881 


smokeless fuel.” As the head of the public department 
responsible for the public works of this great metropolis, 
he need hardly assure those present that he was deeply 
impressed with the importance of the subject under dis- 
cussion. The importance of pure water was often insisted 
upon, but surely pure air was even more important. Yet, 
for years past, it must be admitted that the air of London 
had been getting worse, and fogs were denser and of 
longer duration than formerly, even invading the summer 
months. There could be no doubt that forty or fifty 
years ago London was famous for its roses; now it was 
impossible to get the rose to blossom here, and it was all 
but impossible to get any of the conifers to grow in the 
darkness of the London atmosphere. He should, how- 
ever, deprecate any hasty attempts to legislate. Much 
might be done by the extension of the existing Acts 
relating to the abatement of the nuisance from smoke, 
and he thought Government might be rightly called upon 
to give some additional facilities for the purpose of 
enforcing those Acts. It was monstrous that in these 
days so many factories should not be consuming their 
own smoke, and, since there was a great economy in the 
use of appliances which prevented this waste of fuel, 
there was no hardship in enforcing the Act. When they 
came to the question of the domestic consumption, he 
thought it would not be wise to attempt to interfere 
by any legislation. They must rather trust to per- 
suasion and example and inducements. His own hope 
was in the introduction of some other heat-giving appa- 
ratus. Doubtless the substitution of anthracite for north- 
country coal would be an advantage ; but he did not see 
the means of persuading the enormous mass of house- 
holders to use the smokeless coal unless it could be dis- 
tinctly proved to them that there would be economy in 
the change. He would suggest that it might be worth 
while for the gas companies to turn their attention to the 
production of gas for heating purposes. He could not 
help thinking that the time was not very far distant when 
not only our streets and public buildings, but also our 
private houses, would be lighted by electricity. There 
were non-luminous gases suitable for heating purposes, 
which might be made at a much less cost than the gas at 
present supplied for lighting. From a friend he had 
learnt that water-gas, which could be made at a low rate, 
was used in many towns in America for heating purposes. 
Every one could do something to help forward this good 
work of abating smoke, and for himself he would promise 
to use his efforts in the department with which he was 
connected to diminish the nuisance from smoke. When 
he mentioned that some 20,000 tons of coal were pur- 
chased annually by the department, the meeting would 
appreciate the extent to which the public offices added to 
the smoke in the atmosphere of the metropolis. He 
hoped the time would not be far distant when they would 
have restored the atmosphere of London to its early 
purity, the blossom to our London roses, and the bloom 
to the cheeks of our London children. 

Dr. Alfred Carpenter urged that this was a question 
particularly affecting the middle class and the poor, the 
waste of fuel at present being deplorable. He moved 
“That this meeting approves the proposal of the joint 
Committee of the National Health and Kyrle Societies 
to hold an exhibition, by permission of Her Majesty’s 
Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 and the other 
authorities, in buildings erected for the International Ex- 
hibition of 1862, of the various smokeless coals and other 
fuels, and of various appliances applicable to household 
and manufacturing purposes for the reduction of smoke, 
and to test the same, in order to demonstrate for publie 
information the means practically available to secure that 
object. This meeting is of opinion that the investigation 
and testing should precede any application for amend- 
ment of the existing Smoke Acts, or for new legislation 
in regard to smoke from dwellirg-houses.” 


Fan. 13, 1881] 


NATURE 


247 


THE INDO-CHINESE AND OCEANIC RACES— 
TYPES AND AFFINITIES? 
III. 

{Bl the accompanying series of illustrations the late King 

of Camboja (Fig. 14) and the Stieng of the forest region 
east of the Me-Khong, between 12°-13° N. lat. (Fig. 15), 
may |e compared, on the one hand, with the famous 
statue of the leprous king, Bua-Sivi-i Miwong (Fig. 16), 
the traditional builder of the temple of Cngkor-Vaht, and 
on the other with the first King of Siam and his late 
Queen (Figs. 17 and 18). Here the resemblance of Figs. 
14, 15, 16 to the European type and difference from the 
Mongoloid Siamese (17 and 18) is too obvious to need 
further comment. For these illustrations from Mouhoi’s 
“ Travels in Siam, &c.,’’ I am indebted to the courtesy of 
the publishers, Messrs. Murray, Albemarle Street. 

The Caucasian element in Indo-China differs from the 
Mongoloid quite as much in speech as it does in other 
respects. Here the Mongol races, as already stated, all 
speak monosyllabic toned languages ; but the Cambojans 
and kindred peoples all speak polysyllabic untoned lan- 
guages, a fact scarcely yet recognised even by the best- 
informed philologists. Taking the Khmér as the typical 
language of this group, it will be convenient here to 
establish its polysyllabic character, reserving the question 
of its true affinities till we come to the allied races of 
Malaysia and Polynesia. The se-called monosyllabic or 
isolating family of languages—Chinese, Tibetan, Anna- 
mese, Siamese, Laos, Khasia, Shan, Burmese, Khyeng, 
Karen, Talaing, Kuki, and most of the innumerable 
Himalayan dialects—must all be regarded as at present 
reduced to a state of profound phonetic decay. Whether 
originally they were all essentially monosyllabic, pos- 
sessing, like the Aryan, roots of one syllable only, it is 
very difficult to say ; but it seems certain that they were 
not originally toned. In fact there can be no reasonable 
doubt that the tones are a later development, worked out 
unconsciously to preserve distinctions between words that 
had assumed the same- form by loss of initial or final 
letters. Thus in Chinese the final letters 7, %, 4, have 
disappeared in the correct Mandarin dialect, causing roots 
like kom, kok, kot, kop all to assume the form of £o, toned 
four different ways according to the sense. 

This principle, which, combined with the absence of 
inflection or root modification, constitutes the very 
essence of the monosyllabic system, pervades the whole 
family. But it is absolutely umsnown in the Khmér group, 
in which words, whether monosyllables or polysyllables, 
are always uttered without intonation, as in all other 
languages. Its polysyllabic character was not recognised 
by Francis Garnier, but it has been abundantly demon- 
strated by Bouillevaux and Aymonnier, and will be made 
evident further on. But because the Cambojans are of 
Caucasian, and their speech of polysyllabic, type, it does not 
follow that the Cambojan must be an Aryan language. As 
already pointed out, within the Caucasian ethnical, there are 
several fundamentally distinct linguistic groups, which are 
now past reconciliation. Toattempt to affiliate Cambojan 
with Sanskrit must necessarily end in failure, as did 
Bopp’s attempt to include the ‘‘ Malayo-Polynesian” in 
the Aryan family. It must always be remembered that 
man is at least a quaternary, if not a tertiary animal, 
consequently that human speech is probably several 
hundred thousand years old. This period has been too 
short to evolve more than perhaps three or four really 
distinct physical types, but it has been long enough to 
evolve perhaps hundreds of really distinct linguistic types, 
many now extinct, some lingering on in contracted areas 
and remote corners, several, like the Sorb of Lusatia and 
the Pyrenean Basque, actually dying out, some few, like 
the Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and especially English, 
absorbing most of the rest, and threatening to divide the 
world between them. 


* Continued from p. 224. 


B.—CAUCASIAN TYPE—(Continuea) 


V. CCEANIC BRANCH: Jndonesian and Sawatort, or 
Eastern Polynesian Groups. 


All the Oceanic peoples, other than the dark races of 
Class A, are commonly grouped together under the col- 
lective term “ Malayo-Polynesian.’’ By this name are 
consequently understood all the yellow, brown, or olive- 
brown inhabitants of Malaysia and the Indian and Pacific 
Oceans, that is to say, all varieties of Malays in Malacca 
and the Dutch East Indies,the Malagasy of Madagascar, 
the Philippine Islanders, the Micronesians, the natives of 
Formosa and the large brown Eastern Polynesians. The 
expression was originally proposed by William von Hum- 
boldt, merely in a linguistic sense, to designate the group 
of fundamentally connected languages, which really prevail 
amongst all these widely diffused peoples. But, like 
Aryan and so many other similar terms, it gradually 
acquired an ethnical meaning, and most ethnologists now 
take it for granted that there is a Malayo-Polynesian race, 
as there is a Malayo-Polynesian speech. But such is not 
the case, and as on the mainland, so in the Oceanic area, 
the presence of the two distinct Caucasian and Mongolian 


types must be recognised and carefully distinguished. It 
seems hopeless to do this as Jong as the misguiding ex- 
pression Malayo- Polynesian continues to figure in scientific 
writings. While retaining Malay for the typical olive-brown 
Mongolian element in the Eastern Archipelago, I have 
elsewhere proposed /zd@o-Pacific for the brown Caucasian 
element in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and Sawazoré 
for the large brown Polynesians, constituting the eastern 
and most important branch of that element. 

It has already been remarked that the Caucasians are 

the true autochthones of Indo-China. They seem to 
have also preceded the Mongol migration to the Archi- 
pelago, no doubt driven thither by the continual pressure 
of the Mongols advancing southwards and eastwards 
from High Asia. In the Archipelago they occupied 
chiefly the large islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Gilolo, and 
Celébes, here probably exterminating the aboriginal 
Negrito tribes. But here also they were followed by 
the Mongols from the mainland, with whom some amal- 
gamated, producing the present mixed races of Western 
- Malaysia, while others migrated eastwards to their pre- 
sent homes in the Eastern Pacific. Here they occupy 
almost exclusively all the islands east of a line running 
from Hawaii through Samoa to New Zealand, those 
groups included. West of that line they are found mostly 
blended with the Melanesians, as explained in Section IL, 
but also in a pure state at a few isolated spots such as 
the Ellice and Pheenix Islands, Rotuma and Uvea in the 
Loyalty group. They are also found blended with the 
Malay and other elements in Micronesia. 

That this Jarge brown race reached the Pacific from 
the west there can be no reasonable doubt, and this view 
is now consequently held by Hale, Flower, Whitmee, de 
Quatrefages, and most recent ethnologists. F. Muller 
and de Quatrefages have even identified their legendary 
Pulotu, or Western Island of the Blest, with Awro in 
Malaysia, which is accordingly taken as their probable 
starting-point. But from whatever place they set out, 
they seem to have settled first in Samoa, which may 
therefore be taken as their second point of dispersion. 
“From this centre, and more particularly from the Island 
of Savaii, the principal of the group, their further migra- 
tions may be traced with some certainty from archipelago 
to archipelago through the uniform traditions of the 
various groups. In these traditions Savaii! is constantly 

t ‘This word Savazi has by some been identified with ¥ava. But the 
primitive form seems undoubtedly to have been Savaiki, in which both 
s and & are organic. On the other hand Java is the Sanskrit Vavak 
for Diavah, the two-stalked barley, where the in tial organic is d, dropped 
as inthe Latin Yanus t.r Dianus (rou. dur) Besides, although there 
are many Sanskr.t words in the Malay dialects, there are none in the 


Suwa o i, the Cauca iaus having miyrat-d easiwards | ng before the appear- 
Hence a'th ugh they may have 


{ ance of the Hindus ia the Arch-ypelago. 


- 48 NATURE [ Fan. 13, 1881 


Mi t=. DD nen np a a ee 


referred to under diverse forms as the original home of 
the race, or otherwise persists, as shown in the subjoined 
list, which will also serve to illustrate the permutation of 
letters in all these closely-connected dialects :— 


SAVAIKI,.—Organic Sawaiori form of the word. 
SAVAII.—The Samoan form;: here still the name of 
the island referred to in the Sawaiori traditions. 
HAVAII.—The Tahitian form; here “the universe,” 
“the world” in the national odes; also the old 
capital of Raiatea Island. 

AVAIKI.—The Rarotonga form; here “the land under 
the wind.” 

HAWAIKI.—The Maori form; here the land whence 
came the first inhabitants of New Zealand. 


Fic. 14.—Caucasian Type, Indo-China. King of Camboja, 


TRAN 


Ha | HRA 
Lee MR 


i) 


Fic. 16.—Caucasian Type, Indo-China. Statue of the Leprous King, 
founder of Ongkor-Vaht, Camboja. 


HAVAIKI.—The Marquesas form; here ‘‘the lower 
regions of the dead.” Over the victims in human 
sacrifices are uttered the words, “To fenua Ha- 
vaiki” = Return to the land of thy forefathers. 

HAwau.—The Sandwich form; here still the chief 
island of the group. 

HEAVAI,—The form in chart published by R. Forster in 
vol, v. of Cook’s Second Voyage, and based on 
information furnished by Tapaia, a native of Tahiti, 
who had no personal knowledge of Samoa. 

HEAWIJE.—The form given by Cook in his account of 
his first visit to New Zealand (1770).?” 


started from Java, they could not have carried its present name with them 
I note that Prof. Sayce now identifies anus with the Etruscan 4 i, ac- 
counting for the ¥ by assimilation with Faxua (Academy, August 21, 1880). 
But is not Yanna itself a derived form from Yanws, whence also 
Januarius ? ! 

. f « «Philology and Ethnology of the Inter-Oceanic Races,” by A. H. 
Fic. 15.—Caucasian Type, Indo-China. Stieng Savage, Ccchin China. Keane, in Stanf_rd’s ‘‘ Australasia,” 1879. 


aoe 


URNS 
api Hin 
UNH YS 


Fan, 13, 1881 | 


NATURE 


249 


Dates have even been assigned for these various migra- 
tions. Thus we are told that the Polynesians made their 
appearance in the Marquesas Islands about the beginning 
of the fifth century A.D., in Tahiti about 1100, in Raro- 
tonga about 1200, in New Zealand about 1400, and so on. 
But all this, depending on the oral genealogies. of the 
chiefs, and other equally unreliable data, must be regarded 
as pure conjecture. More probable is the statement that 
the race appeared in Malaysia 
over a thousand years before 
any mention occurs of Malays in 
that region. Atthe same time it 
is idle to attempt assigning dates 
to strictly prehistoric events, 
with the correct sequence of 
which we are more concerned. 

The Sawaiori are one of the 
finest races of mankind, Cau- 
casian in all essentials, and with- 
out a trace of Mongolian blood. 
Observers, from Cook to the 
members of the Cha/lenger Ex- 
pedition, are unanimous in de- 
scribing them as distinguished 
by their fine symmetrical pro- 
portions, tall stature, handsome 
and regular features. Cook gives 
the palm to the Marquesas 
Islanders, who, “ for fine shape 
and regular features, surpass all 
other natives.” The Samoans 
and Tahitians are very little in- 
ferior, and even of the Tongans 
(Friendly Archipelago) Lord 
George Campbell remarks :— 
“There are no people in the 
world who strike one at first so 
much as these Friendly Islan- 
ders. Their clear, light copper- 
brown coloured skins, yellow and 
curly hair, good-humoured and 
handsome faces, their ‘oud enx- 
semble, formed a novel and 
splendid picture of the gems 
homo, and as far as physique and 
appearance goes they gave one 
certainly an impression of being 
a superior race to ours.” Their 
average height is five feet ten 
inches, ranking in this respect 
next to the Tehuelches of Pata- 
gonia; they have smooth but 
not lank hair, often curly and 
wavy, and Mr. Staniland Wake 
has recently shown that, against 
the commonly-received opinion, | 
the beard is naturally full, though 
often artificially removed. Add 
to all this a cheerful joyous 
temperament, a frank and truth- 
ful disposition and kindly nature, 
and you have a type as dif- 
ferent as it is possible to im- 
agine from the Mongolian, and 


and Malays are grouped together under the collective 
designation of ‘‘ Malayo-Polynesians,” as if they were 
merely two varieties cf a common stock. All they have 
in common are one or two cranial features, of no par- 
ticular value as racial tests, at least when taken apart, 
and the elements of their language, which we shall see is 
in this instance no racial test at all. The trueaffinities of 
the Sawaiori are with the Caucasians of Indo-China, and 
with that fairelement in Malaysia which Dr. Hamy proposes 


Fics. 17, 18.—Mongoloid Types, Indo-China, 


consequently from the true Malay. Yet the Sawaiori | Polynesians. 


'and usages, they stand almost quite apart. 
| such a decided stamp of a Polynesian tribe that one feels 


to group as Indonesians, and whose relations to the Eastern 
Polynesians he has. been one of the first to perceive. 
Noteworthy amongst these Indonesians, Pre-Malays, or 
Indo-Chinese Caucasians still unaffected by Mongol in- 
fluences in the Archipelago are the Mentawey Islanders, 
who, though occupying the Pora Group some seventy miles 
off the west coast of Sumatra, are none the less closely 
related in physique, language, and customs, to the Eastern 


King and Queen of Siam, 


On this point the testimony of C. B. H. 
von Rosenberg is decisive. “On a closer inspection of 
the inhabitants the careful observer at once perceives 
that the Mentawey natives have but little in common with 
the peoples and tribes of the neighbouring islands, and 
thus as regards physical appearance, speech, customs, 
They bear 


far more inclined to compare them with the inhabitants 
of the South Sea Islands.” 


250 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 13, 1881 


From this point of view it will be instructive to com- 
pare the native of Pora, Mentawey Group (Fig. 19), with 
the Battas of Pak-Pak, Sumatra (Figs. 20 and 21), all 
from von Rosenberg’s “ Malay Archipelago,” vol. i. pp. 
56 and 192. Owing to their splendid physique and 
“Caucasian features” Junghuhn and Van Leent take 


Fic. 19.—Caucasian Type, Malaysia. Mentawey Islander, 


these Sumatran Battas as the typical unmixed or pre-Malay 
element in the Archipelago, whom they would accordingly 
group collectively as the Batta race. The form Battak 


often occurs, but this is simply the plural of Batta, so that | 


to write Battaks, as many do, is a solecism. Compared 
with the Malays proper, the Battas are tall and muscular, 


Fic. 20.—Caucasian Type, Suma.ra. Native of Batta Land. 


with regular features, less prominent cheek-bones, light- 
brown complexion, with a ruddy tinge on the cheeks, 
finer hair, often brown and wavy, thicker beard. When 
in Jilolo in 1876 M. Achille Raffray met some so-called 
“Alfuros” of Dodinga, who might be taken as typical 
specimens of this Batta or Indonesian race (Tow? du 


Monde, April 12, 1879, p. 234). We therefore separate 
this Batta, Indonesian or Pre-Malay element in the 
Archipelago from the Malay element proper, affiliating 
the former to the Indo-Chinese and Eastern Pacific 
Caucasians, the latter to the Indo-Chinese Mongolians. 
Whether the Caucasians are found in other parts of East 


a ade 


Native of Pak-Pak, Batta Land. 


a] 


Fic. 21.—Caucasian Type, Malaysia. 


Asia is a question that cannot here be discussed, but it 
may be remarked that even the cautious Topinard ventures 
to include “the Ainos of Japan, the Miau-Tz’ and the 
Lolos of Yunnan in the European group’’ (“ Anthropo- 
logy,” p. 476). 
C. MONGOLIAN TYPE 
VI. CONTINENTAL BRANCH: Judo-Chinese Group. 
VII. OCEANIC BRANCH: Malayan Groups. 
The main features of the continental branch of this 


division are too well known to need special comment 
here. What we are more immediately concerned with is 


| its relation to the Oceanic section, and this relation will 


come out the more clearly if both are treated together. 
To avoid misconception, it may be well to observe that 
a portion only of the Continental branch is comprised in 


| the Indo-Chinese group; for there are many other groups, 


such as the Mongolian proper, the Manchurian, the Tatar 
or Tirkic, the Japanese, the Corean, the Finnic scattered 
over the greater part of Asia and penetrating westwards 
to the Baltic seaboard and Middle Danube basin. All 
these must be held, apart from the question of miscigen- 
ation, to belong to one primeval stock, constituting the 
Yellow or Mongolian division of the human family. We 
are all familiar with its essential characteristics : flat and 
broad features, prominent cheek-bones, short broad and 
flat nose, black almond-shaped and oblique eyes, long 
black and lank hair nearly cylindrical in section, little or 
no beard, low stature averaging about 5 feet 4 inches, dirty 
yellow or tawny complexion, slightly prognathous and 
more or less brachycephalous head. 

This description corresponds substantially with the 
ordinary Malay type, such as we see it in Java, Bali, 
Madura, many parts of Sumatra, round the coast of 
Borneo, and in the peninsula of Malacca. The true 
aborigines of this region, as shown in a previous section, 
were the Negritos; consequently the Malays, like the 


Fan. 13, 1881] 


NATURE 


251 


pre-Malays or Caucasian Indonesians, are here intruders. 
Intruders trom where? Obviously from where the type 
exists, the neighbouring Indo-Chinese peninsula. What 
then becomes of the Malay as a primary division of 
mankind? As such it can no longer be recognised in 
anthropology, and must sink to the position of a mere 
variety of the Mongol type. The so-called true Malay 
or typical Malay is essentially a Mongolian, and the like- 
ness between the two has not failed to strike all careful 
observers. ‘The Malayan race,” says Wallace, “as a 
whole undoubtedly very closely resembles the East Asian 
populations from Siam to Manchuria. I was much struck 
with this, when in the Island of Bali I saw Chinese 
traders, who had adopted the costume of that country, 
and who could then hardly be distinguished from Malays; 
and on the other hand I have seen natives of Java who, 
as far as physiognomy was concerned, would pass very 
well for Chinese.” Hence De Quatrefages rightly rejects 
the claim of the Malays to be regarded as a fundamental 
type. “All polygenists,” he remarks, “have regarded 
the Malays as one of their Auman species ; Many mono- 
genists have considered them as one of the principal 
races. I showed long ago that in reality they are only a 
mixed race in which white, black, and yellow elements 
are associated.” 

The last clause of this sentence gives the true solution 
of the problem. The inhabitants of Malaysia consist 
not of one, nor even of three distinct races, but of three 
races variously interming ed, the yellow or Mongolian, 
and the white or Caucasian chiefly in the west, these two 
and the black or Paptian chiefly in the east. As the 
fusion of yellow, white, and black produces the so-called 
“ Alfuros’’ in the east, so the fusion of yellow and white 
produces the so-called Malays in the west. The more 
the yellow prevails the near.r do the Malays approach 
the Mongol type; the more the white prevails the nearer 
do they approach the Caucasian type, until in some 
places they seem to be no longer distinguishable from 
the Mongols, in others from the Caucasians. The 
Javanese are taken for Chinese by Wallace, just as the 
Mentawey Islanders are taken for Sawaiori or Eastern 
Polynesians by von Rosenberg. Under these circum- 
stances it is not surprising that those who seek for unity 
in the Archipelago should meet with nothing but confusion, 
Prof, Flower comments on the divergent characteristics 
presented by the Malayan crania, remarking that “ there 
is certainly no very great conformity in the characters of 
the skulls in our collections which are said to belong to 
Malays.’ This must always be the case until we come 
to an understanding as to the meaning of the term Malay, 
which after all is far more a national and linguistic than 
a racial expression. Procecding on the groundless 
assumption of a common Malay type in Oceanica, 
Welcker arrived at the subjoined astonishing results 
from cranial measurements in Micronesia and Malaysia 
alone :— 

Length of Skull 100 
Index of Index of 


breadth. height. Difference. 
Caroline Islanders 63 74 +6 
SSAIEMCOS eee eet been 74: 79 +5 
Dyaks of Borneo 75 77 +2 
Balinese 605 76 77 +I 
Amboynese ... vith 77 +0°4 
Sumatran 77 78 +1 
Macassar 78 78 -0'5 
Javanese 79 80 +04 
Buginese 79 80 +04 
Menadorese .., oO 81 +1 
Madurese ... ... ... 82 82 - Ol 


Yet even here Sumatran is taken as a unit, although it is 
not hazarding too much to say that a comparison of 
Atyeh, Batta, Palambang, Janebi, Siak, Menangkabu, 
Korinchi, Rejang, Lampung, and other crania from that 
island alone would probably yield almost as many dis- 


crepancies as are revealed in this table. There is in fact 
less uniformity of type in Malaysia alone, with a popula- 
tion of some 25,000,000, than in the whole of China and 
Mongolia with a probable population of 400,000,000, 
A. H. KEANE 
(To be continued.) 


A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
CONIFER&A 
Il. 


GINKGO (Linnzus) 


eee perhaps better known name of this genus is 
Salisburia (Smith), but the Linnaean name, adapted 
from the Chinese, has unfortunately priority. The genus: 
contains only one existing species, the gigantic Ginkgo 
biloba of Northern China and Japan. It is classified with 
the Taxez, is dicecious, and the flabelliform leaves are 
deciduous, leathery, very variably lobed, and of all sizes 
up to an extreme of five inches across. The fruit, about 
an inch in diameter, is drupaceous, on a slender foot- 
stalk, composed externally of a fleshy layer, and internally 
of a hard light-coloured shell, and is somewhat unsym- 
metrical, owing to the abortion of one of the seeds. The 
foliage is like that of the maidenhair fern, but the petiole 
is stout, often three inches long, and distinctly articulated 
at the base. An important characteristic in recognising 
the fossil leaf, besides the petiole, is that however irregu- 
larly they may be lobed, they are almost invariably 
primarily bilobed. 
Though so restricted a genus now, its ancestry is 
perhaps more venerable than that of any other forest 
tree. The Carboniferous fruits Trigonocarpus and Noeg- 
gerathia are believed by both Hooker and Saporta to have 
belonged to some ancestral form, and even the foliage of 
the latter, Psygmophyllum of Schimper, approaches nearly 
to that of Ginkgo. Baieria, beyond doubt a close ally, 
appears in the Permian, and Ginkgo in all probability in 
the bilobate Jeanpaulia of the Rheetic of Bayreuth, but 
the group did not reach its maximum until the Jurassics. 
A few species have been described in other works, but 
Heer’s Jurassic flora of Eastern Siberia (“Flora foss. 
Arctica,’ vol. iv.) contains by far the most important 
contribution to their past history. Five genera are 
placed in the groups: Phenicopsis, Ginkgo, Baierta, 
Trichopitys, and Czekanowskia, but there is no special 
character uniting the latter to Ginkgo, although it is no. 


doubt coniferous. The remains are clusters of occasion- 
ally forked acicular leaves, sheathing at the base in 
imbricated scales. The leaves widen in most specimens 
here and there into bead-like expansions, inferred to 
have been caused by some extinct type of parasitic 
fungus. It is thought by Heer that a detached stem 
bearing shortly petiolated double seeds or nuts may be 
their fruit. Phcenicopsis is a cluster of separate leaves, 
also sheathing in scales at the base, but forming a fine 
palm-like foliage, thought by Heer to unite Cordaites and 
Baieria, yet without any direct affinity with Ginkgo. 

The most aberrant of the genera obviously belonging 
to the group is Trichopitys of Saporta. In this the 
leaves were smaller, with fewer veins, and the parenchyma 
reduced to a narrow expansion margining each vein. 
Although so extreme a modification of the normal type, 
T. setacea’ possesses the characteristic bilobation and 
petiole. Its affinity is best traced through G. concinna, 
which is similar, but with the segments of the leaves 
expanded to receive two to three veins each. 

G. sibirica and G. lepida are separated 
grounds not supported by the illustrations, and when 
united furnish the chief and most abundant leaves in the 
deposit. These are nearly as large as in the existing 
species, but more digitate, and with about five veins to 

17. pusilla probably belongs to some other division of the vegetable 
j kingdom. 


on trivial 


252 


NATURE 


| fan. 13, 1881 


each segment. They have the venation, bilobation, and 
petiole of Ginkgo, yet approaching in their larger leaves 
to Baieria. Other similar species (?) diminishing in size 
are G. schmidtiana, with about six segments, G. flabellata, 
with fourteen or fifteen segments, and G. fusz//a, with a less 
number, and barely an inch across the base. These three 
might probably be united into a single species. The 
remaining form from Siberia, G. Auttonz, is less divided, 
having but four rounded segments, and is in that respect 
a nearer approach to the existing one. 

The nearest, however, is G. digztata from the Jurassic 
of Spitzbergen, which, but for smaller size and thicker 
petiole, might be placed in the existing species. Leaves 
from Scarborough, said to be of the same species, are 
larger. G. ztegriuscula is evidently the smaller and less 
lobate leaf of the same species, and the author has besides 
taken the unnecessary care to establish five duly named 
and lettered varieties, thus clearly showing that he had 
formed no adequate conception of the extent to which the 
leaves of the existing tree may vary, even on the same 
branch. His species should be reduced, the excessive 
subdivision being a disadvantage and rendering the work 
unwieldy. The author also changes the classification of 
the Coniferze between the second and third volumes, and 
the name for this genus between the third and fourth 
volumes, without explanation or notice, which, in a work 
addressed especially to geologists, is an inconvenience. 

The third genus, Baieria, possesses a larger and more 
palm-like leaf, averaging nearly five inches in radius, 
primarily bilobed, each lobe forking either once or twice, 
the ultimate segments being of uniform width and pos- 
sessing four parallel veins each. The leaf tapers to the 
petiole, which is not preserved in the engraved specimens, 
The bilobation and venation connect it sufficiently with 
Ginkgo, and the persistence of these characters through- 
out the whole group, which would hardly have been 
suspected to have a morphologic value, is peculiarly 
remarkable. 

There is a marked diminution in the group in the 
Cretaceous. Baieria from the Komeschichten is limited 
to vestiges of stunted form placed among the ferns, while 
Ginkgo appears in a starved species with small leaves 
and short thick petiole, described as Adiantum for- 
mosun, and by fragments from the Upper Cretaceous 
Ataneschichten, inappropriately named G. primordialis. 

In the Arctic Eocenes (Miocenes of Heer) Ginkgo has 
only, and that very sparingly, been met with in Green- 
land. This variety so resembled G. adtantoides of the 
Italian Miocenes, that Heer almost directly abandoned 
his specific name grimordialis, and became doubtful 
even whether both should not be united with the existing 
species. 

The small fragments figured in the Miocene Baltic flora 
are inconclusive, and we only again meet with it in the 
Miocenes as far south as Italy, the South of France, and 
the Mississippi! It has been said to occur in English 
Eocenes by Heer, who wrote upon the tracing of an 
Adiantum from Bournemouth, ‘‘ this is a Ginkgo,” and 
by Ettingshausen, who considers four seeds from Sheppey 
to belong to it, alchough less than half the size of those 
of the present Ginkgo, and rather materially differing. 
Its absence otherwise in British and in French Eocenes, 
and in the Swiss and Austrian Tertiaries, is ascertained, 
for the occurrence of so distinctly-marxed and easily- 
preserved a leaf could not well be overlooked. 

The very strongly-marked and exceptional characters 
of Ginkgo, shared by the allied extinct genera, the remote- 
ness of its origin in the Carboniferous, its extensive de- 
velopment in the Mesozoic, and persistence through so 
many ages, seems to render it desirable to separate them 
from the Taxee into a distinct tribe. Already dying out in 
the Cretaceous and lingering through the Tertiaries in a 
single species, its existence now is a mere survival. 


* Since writing the above, Saporta inf srms me that the supposed Miss‘ssippi 
species is really a Lygodium. 


_Its hone has been from time to time within the Arctic _ 
circle, yet it is scarcely proved, as Saporta says, that it 
actually originated there. The leaf of G: dgétata from 
the Scarborough oolite, figured by Schimper, is far larger 
than any figured from Spitzbergen, and neither the 
foliage nor the fruit of the northern fossil Ginkgo, it 
appears, ever at any time approached those of the 
existing tree in its native habitats. It is now indigenous 
to the northern provinces of China, and must therefore 
be capable of withstanding a rigorous climate; yet the 
conditions in Western Europe do not appear to favour 
the ripening of its seed in hizher latitudes than the 
South of France. 

Its distribution during the Tertiaries is instructive, 
and Saporta’s explanation, that it existed in the north 
during the warm Eocene and pre-Eocene times, and 
descended thence across Europe as the temperature de- 
creased, on the approach of the Miocene time, is the 
only one that explains the facts. To suppose with Heer 
that the same species lived contemporaneously and at 
the same level in Italy and in Disco is absurd, and would 
presuppose a uniformity of climate such as no natural 
causes could have produced at so recent a geological 
period. J. STARKIE GARDNER 


NOTES 


THE Roman Academy of Sciences has awarded half of the ~ 
King Humbert Prize, now awarded for the first time, to the 
German astronomer, Dr. Wilhelm Tempel, director of the Acetri 
Observatory at Florence, for his observations on nebulz. 


DeEAtH is levying heavy contributions from the students of 
entomolegy in France, more especially as regards the oldest and 
best known. We very recently had occasion to notice the 
decease of Etienne Mulsant, at a ripe age. Now, we regret to 
have to announce the death of Achille Guenée of Chateaudun, 
whose name is probably more known in England than is that of 
any other French entomologist. He died on the 30th ult. (his 
colleague and fellow-worker, Dr. Boistuval, died on December 
30, 1879), in his seventy-second year. Guenée was a lepi- 
dopterist. His publications are very numerous. The most 
important of all are the six volumes of the series termed the 


' Suites a Buffn’’ on some of the principal families of the 


Lepidoptera of the world, which appearei from 1852 to 1857. 
These volumes formed a basis for future students of Lepidoptera, 
and largely influenced those of them amongst our own countrymen. 
The town of Chateaudun occupies a not unimportant position in 
the history of the Franco-Prussian war, Guené-’s house was 
occupied by the Prussian troops. He himself took refuge in 
Geneva, and, true to his predilections, studied the Lepidoptera in 
the collection of the museum of that city; the results of his 
investigations were published. We believe that when circum: 
stances permitted his return, his own collections were found to 
have suffered very little damage at the hands of his unbidden 
guests. He was an officer of the French Academy. Our 
Entomological Society of London elected him one of its honorary 
members many years ago; and his friends amongst Englishmen 
were not few. 


Joun DuNCAN, a poor Aberdeenshire weaver, has presented to 
the University of Aberdeen his herbarium of nearly 1200 British 
plants, gathered by him all over the country from Northwnber- 
land to Banff, while acting as a harvest labourer. The story of 
Duncan was told in Good Words for 1878, by Mr. William Jolly, 
and now it would seem that the poor and intelligent weayer is so 
reduced in circumstances as to be compelled to accept parochial 
relief. Surely the University of Aberdeen ought to do something 
for him ; and possibly some of our readers may care to send a 
trifle to John Duncan, Droughsburn, by Alford, Aberdeenshire. 


Fan. 13, 1881] 


Le1PziG is at last to have a zoological garden. A number of 
citizens intend to form a company for the purpose of establishing 
a zoological garden on an area of twenty acres, with conserva- 
tories, &c. The civic authorities of Leipzig have given their 
consent, and pointed out a suitable place in the immediate 
environs of the city. 


THE base of the Mont Cenis tunnel at the French entrance 
shows such ominous signs of sinking that the Paris-Lyons 
Mediterranean Railway Company intend to have another entrance 
to the tunnel bored, which is to be situated at about 1 kilometre’s 
distance from the present entrance, and is to reach the old 
tunnel at a spot about 600 metres from its mouth, The work 
has already been commenced, 


VisiToRs to the Brighton Aquarium will regret to hear of the 
death of the fine male sea-lion ( O¢arta stelleri ?), so long an inmate 
of the Institution. Mr, A. Crane sends us some details about 
the animal. Poor ‘‘Jack’s” very sudden death is attributed to 
disease of the heart. The left lobe of that organ was found 
ruptured and in a state of complete collapse. His female com- 
panion is still in good health, The first offspring of the pair, a 
male cub, was born in the spring of 1877 ; the second, a dead 
female, in the following year. Jack was probably about twelve 
years of age at his death, His length was 8 feet 5 inches, 
maximum girth 5 feet 3 inches; fore-feet 4 feet 2 inches, and 
hind flippers 17 inches; greatest circumference of the head 
2 feet 10 inches, frontal 2 feet 2 inches, round the jaws, under 
the eyes, 17 inches; weight of skin 1 cwt., of lungs 22 lbs, 
As the skeleton will be preserved in the Institution z olozists 
will be able to finally determine by means of the skull the exact 
species to which this male belonged. The cub born of this pair 
is now four years old, a fine animal 6 feet long and much 
larger than his somewhat diminutive and flat-headed mother, to 
whom at present he bears most resemblance, the extraordinary 
prominence of the frontal bones of the skull characterising his 
male parent being as yet undeveloped. The tanks, Mr. Crane 
states, are in excellent condition, and the growth of sponges, 
tunicates, and development of invertebrate life generally is very 
remarkable. In fact to a qualified histolozist and embryological 
student they would furnish ample material for a vacation, and 
doubtless yield interesting results. Facilities for study, we are 
informed, would be willingly accorded by the Management. 


Pror, E. MoRREN’S Correspondance botanique grows in size 
and in completeness, We have now before us the eighth is,ue 
(October, 1880) of this most useful botanical directory. In 
Europe and the United States the list of botanists, official and 
others, is now very full and complete; and scarcely any quarter 
of the globe can be named which is not represented by one or 
two names. Every working botanist should have it on his 
library table. 


Av a quarter to 5 p.m. on January 5 a somewhat violent shock 
of earthquake was felt at Agram. It lasted about three seconds. 
The ground rose in wave-like curves as the shock passed over. 
On the previous night two slight shocks were experienced. 


THE Zimes Bucharest correspondent, under date January 4, 
describes a curious result following the recent earthquake which 
passed under that city. The soil of Bucharest is a rich, black, 
porous vegetable mould, very springy under pressure, and 
carriages passing in a street cause a strong vibration in the 
adjacent houses. The Grand Hotel Boulevard, however, was 
an exception to this general rule, and in the correspondent’s 
room, facing the principal street, on which there is a heavy 
traffic, he never could feel any sensible effect from passing 
vehicles. During the recent earthquake the windows and 
crockery in less massively constructed buildings rattled very 
sensibly, whereas there was no audible sound produced in the 


NATURE 


250 


hotel mentioned. Since the earthquake shock, however, this 
state of things has changed entirely, and every vehicle passing 
the hotel causes vibration in the whole building, The singular 
part of this change consists in the fact that the effect produced 
by the vehicle is precisely the same as that accompanying the 
earthquake. It is not a jar as previously produced in other 
buildings, but a sawing motion similar to that described in the 
correspondent’s telegram relating to the late shock of earthquake. 
This movement is so great as to cause pictures to sway back- 
wards and forwards on the walls, and it is equally perceptible in 
the rear corner rooms farthest from the street. The hotel is of 
brick, covered outside with mastic, which would show at once 
any crack in the walls. He has carefully examined the exterior 
of the building and there is not a crack init. Hence, he thinks, 
this change in the solidity of the structure appears to be due to 
some effect produced in the earth underneath the building by the 
shock of earthquake. 


THE Daily News Rangoon correspondent, writing on December 
10, states that they had another shock of an earthquake in Bu-mah 
three days before the same day on which Agram was revisited. 
In Rangoon it was not severe, but the tremulous motion lasted 
for fully a minute and a half, and was sufficiently strong to set 
pictures swinging and rattling against the walls. Like those 
which preceded it, the shock travelled from south to north, and 
was felt more violently elsewhere, though in no case so intensely 
as to cause serious damage. 


On the 6th inst., at 4.30 a.m, Berlin tine, a pretty strong 
shock of earthquake was felt at Rousdorf. 


Dr. KRISHABER of 41, rue de la Bienfaisance, Paris, writes to 
ask if any of our readers can give him information as to the 
causes of death in monkeys in a wild state. 


THE appearance of the phylloxera in the Crimea has been 
the subject of a communication, by M, Porchinsky, to the St. 
Petersburg Entomological Society. It has appeared probably in 
consequence of vines’ having been imported from France, and 
has extended hitherto very slowly in small concentric circles. 
As the vineyards are situated on the southern coast of the Crimea 
in the shape of a narrow strip at the foot of the mountains, M. 
Porchinsky thinks that the devastating insect will not cause 
much destruction. But if it appeared on the Caucasus, especially 
among the numberless wild vineyards of that country, it might 
completely destroy the whole of the vines in the valleys of the 
Rion and Kura rivers. 


Mr. F. W. Putnam has made a communication to the Essex 
(U.S,) Institute of peculiar interest on ‘‘ The Former Indians of 
Southern California, as bearing on the origin of the Red Man in 
America.” He called attention to the facts relating to the 
antiquity of man on the Pacific coast, and to the importance of 
the discovery in California of human remains and of the works 
of man in the gravel, under beds of volcanic material, where 
they were associated with the remains of extinct animals, and to 
the necessity of looking to this early race for much that it seems 
otherwise impossible to account. He thought that what is 
called the ‘‘Eskimo element,” in the physical characters and 
arts of the southern Californians, was very likely due to the 
impress from a primitive American stock, which is probably to 
be found now in its purest continuation in the Innuit. In this 
connection he dwelt upon the probability of more than one type 
of man. In following out this argument he called attention to 
the distinctive characters in different tribes of Indians on the 
Pacific coast, and stated his belief that they had resulted from 
an admixture of the descendants of different stocks, The 
Californians of 300 years ago, he thought, were the result of 
developmient by contact of tribe with tribe through an immense 
period of time, and that the primitive race of America, which 


254 


was as likely autochthonous as of Asiatic origin, had stamped its 
impress on the people of California. The early men of America 
he believed were dolichocephali, and the short-headed people he 
thought were made up of a succession of intrusive tribes in a 
higher stage of development, which in time overran the greater 
part of both North and South America, conquering and absorbing 
the long-headed people, or driving them to the least desirable 
parts of the continent. He thought that the evidence was con- 
clusive that California had been the meeting ground of several 
distinct branches of the widely-spread Mongoloid stock ; for in 
no other way could he account for the remarkable commingling 
of customs, arts and languages, and the formation of the large 
number of tribes that existed in both Upper and Lower Cali- 
fornia when first known to the Spaniards. Mr. Putnam then 
gave a review of the arts of the Californians and the physical 
characters and customs of the people, showing that, notwithstand- 
ing the absence of pottery, the tribes, when first known, had 
passed through the several stages of savagery and had reached 
the lower status of barbarism of the ‘‘ ethnical periods” given 
by Morgan. 


ProF. SCHAFER’S course of eleven lectures on the Blood at 
the Royal Institution will begin on the 25th instant instead of 
the 18th. Mr. Francis Hueffer’s course of four lectures on the 
Troubadours will begin on the 27th instant instead of the 2oth ; 
and Prof, Sidney Colvin’s course of four lectures on the Amazons 
will begin on the 29th instant instead of the 22nd, 


ParT 2 of vol. vii. of the ‘‘ Natural History Transactions of 
Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne” has just 
been issued (Williams and Norgate), The part contains an 


WA TORE 


interesting memoir of the late Mr. W. C. Hewitson, F.L.S., by | 


Dr. Embleton, accompanied by a good photograph. There is a 
long paper by Mr. Hugh Miller on Tynedale Escarpments, their 
pre-glacial, glacial, and post-glacial features. 


HERR E. REYER has published a little pamphlet containing 
some interesting notes on the history of tin. 


AT the meeting of the Eastbourne Natural History Society of | 


December 17, 1886, Mr. Charles Foran read ‘‘ Notes on some 
of the Beetles of the Cuckmere District.” 


THE Municipal Council of Paris has given authority to the 
Lontin Company to light the Place du Carrousel with electricity, 
A contract has been signed by the Lyons and Mediterranean 
Company for illuminating, by the Lontin light, all the principal 
railway stations on their system. Experiments have been tried 
at Marseilles and have been carried out successfully. 


From January 1 L’Llectricité and La Lumiere Electrique, 
two French electrical papers, will appear every week instead of 
every fortnight. 


THE German Society of Eastern Asia, having its headquarters 
at Yokohama, has sent us the last four parts of its Mitthetlungen, 
This Society is evidently doing a very useful work in collecting 
information on a great variety of subjects connected especially 
with Japan. The parts sent us contain parers on such subjects 
as Japanese proverbs, diseases, songs, population statistics, 
mining, cremation, the ‘‘Go” game, coins, and the chalk forma- 
tion of Yedo. Asher and Co. of Berlin are the European agents 
of the Society. 


WE find in the Journal de Genéve the following figures as to 
the very warm winter which is experienced during this year on 
the shores of Lake Leman, as compared with the unusually cold 
winter of the year passed. In December, 1$79, the maximum 
daily temperature at Geneva was only fiye times above zero, and 
the average was +6°'4 Cels., whilst the averape of the maximum 
‘emperatures of the remaining twenty-six days was —4°'5 Cels. 


[ Fan. 13, 1881 


As to the minima they were only twice above zero, and their 
average was +2°'9, whilst the average of the remaining twenty- 
nine minima was —9°°7._ In December, 1880, the thermometer 
was only six times below the melting-point, and the average of 
the cold minima was —0°*7, whilst the average of the minima 
for the other twenty-five days was +3°°8. As to the maxima 
they fell below zero, and their average is as high as +9°1. The 
greatest cold experienced during December, 1879, was —15° 
Cels., and only — 1°°5 in 1880; the warmest temperature observed 
during December, 1879, was +8°'9, and +13° Cels. in 1880. 


A TEA plantation was established last year by Count d’Amigo 
upon his estates, situated near Messina. The tea plant is said 
to thrive perfectly well there, and its leaves are said to be in no- 
wise inferior to those of the Chinese plant. In order to dry 
them in a rational manner and to prepare them for export as 
well as for home consumption, a Chinese expert is to become the 
manager of the Messina plantations. 


THE Wissenschaftliche Centralverein at Berlin held its annual 
general meeting on December 13, 1880. The secretary, Dr 
Max Hirsch, in his yearly report stated that the principal efforts 
of the Society had been directed towards furthering the progress 
of the Humboldt Academy, which was founded by the Society 
some two years ago, and which since that time shows a total of 
ninety-two courses of lectures, which were delivered before 3366 
students and a still larger number of ‘‘ hospitanten,” z.e. casual 
students, Apart from these lecture-courses the Society has for 
this winter arranged for a number of single lectures by eminent 
men of science. The establishment of a large reading-room is 
also planned. 


A YounG Men’s Society for Home Study has been started in 
the United States. The aim of the Society is to guide and 
encourage young men desirous of systematic study and reading 
at home by opening to them, by means of correspondence, sys- 
tematic courses in various subjects. Courses uf reading and 
plans of work are arranged, from which men may select one or 
more, according to their taste and leisure, and aid is given them, 
from time to time, through directions and advice. The courses 


| offered by the Society at present (more may be added as the 


demand for them becomes known) are: Course 1. American 
and English History. Course 2. English Literature. Course 
3. German Literature. Course 4. Natural Science: Sec. 1, 
Botany ; Sec. 2, Zoology ; Sec. 3, Geology. Course 5. Mathe- 
matics. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder is head of the Natural Science 
Department. 


THE simplest post-office in the world is in Magellan Straits, 
and has been established there for some years past. It consists 
of asmall cask, which is chained to the rock of the extreme 
cape in the straits, opposite Tierra del Fuego. Each passing 
ship sends a boat to open the cask and to take letters out and 
place others into it. The post-office is self-acting therefore ; it 
is under the protection of the navies of all nations, and up to the 
present there is not one case to report in which any abuse of 
the privileges it affords has taken place. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


WINNECKE’S COMET.—Reference has been already made in 
this column to the very unfavourable circumstances attending 
the actual return to perihelion of the short-period comet of 
Winnecke, and so far there is no intimation of its having been 
detected even with telescopes of the greatest optical capacity. 
Indeed, as will be seen from Prof, Oppélzer’s communication in 
the Astron. Nach, No. 2326, though he gave an accurately- 
computed ephemeris extending to January 24, he considered the 
chance of perceiving the comet a very remote one, The peri- 
helion passage took place on December 4, and the intensity of 
light is now very small, not greater than half that at the date of 
the last observation in 1858. The comet sets less than 1h. 45m, 


Fan. 13, 1881 | 


after the sun. The later positions in Prof. Oppdlzer’s ephemeris 
are as follows :— 


12h, Berjin M.T. 


R.A. N.P.D. Log. distance 
We iy Gh F; i from Earth. 
January 16 ... 21 29 12 109 4174... 0°2836 
18 ... 29 38 18 109 <937) ==. (0°2875 
2008. 20 47) 12 108 36'°9 ... 0'2916 
22eet QUES Shae e.. eLOSMMES Tee fe. 18022050) 
Zhe. p22) AL 236 107 28°6 0°3002 


Swirt’s ComMET.—Mr, Common, with his reflector of three 
feet aperture at Ealing, has observed this comet for position as 
late as January 5, when it was not yet considered the extremum 
visible in the instrument. Accurate observations were made by 
Mr. Lewis Boss at the Dudley Observatory, Albany, U.S., on 
October 11, the night after discovery, so that there will be a 
good extent of observation upon which to determine the orbit 
at this appearance. 


MINIMA OF ALGOL.—The following epochs of geocentric 
minima of Algol are deduced from Prof, Schonfeld’s elements. 
That very sensible perturbitiois have taken place during the last 
few years is shown by a comparison of these elements with the 
observations of Prof. Julius Schmidt of Athens; thus the mean 
errors since 1875 are, for 1875°76 — 4°8m. ; 1876°76 + 19°4m. ; 
1877°73 + 408m. ; 1878°78 + 21°3m. The star is well de- 
serving of attestion during the present year. 


G.M.T. G.M.T. 

h. m. h. m. 

January 21... ... 18 20 | February 13 ... 16 54 

PES aoe hoeeiy eC) | LO ese. rade hoes 

oy Pernt Cee Ie LTS) TQ) ce aes LORS) 

30)" wp. Hes) 848 PP, ees 7 22 
February 2 ey) 


CERASKI’s VARIABLE IN CEPHEUS.—A series of minima of 
this star visible in Europe commences about January 13, con- 
unuing until May. The period may be taken = 2°492913d. or 
2d. rth. 49°795m., and if we reckon from the second minimum 
completely observed by Prof. Schmidt on October 18, 1880, we 
shall find a minimum on January 18 at 17h, 41m. G, M. T., 
and successive visible epochs may be inferred by adding 
41. 23h. 39°59m. 


ELONGATIONS OF MiMas.—According to the elements pre- 
viou-ly adopted in this column for indicating approximately the 
tines of greatest elongations of this very difficult object, the 
satellite would be at the western extremity of its apparent orbit 
at the followins Greenwich times :— 


h. m. h. m. 
January 19... II 5 January 22 6 56 
20) =.) 19) 42 23 5e33 

OTe =r Sa) 


The elements upon which Prof, Newcomb’s manuscript tables 
adopted in the American Ephemerts for 1882 and 1883 are 
founded appear to give the times of the elongations later by 
some forty minutes. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, PARIS.—The recent election of 
Dr. Warren De La Kue as Correspondent of the Academy of 
Sciences of the Institute of France, Section of Astronomy, in 
place of the late Sir Thomas Maclear, nearly completes the usual 
number of correspondents in this section, upon which several 
vacancies had existed for some time. The roll is now as follows, 
taking the nawes in alphabetical order :—Adams (Cambridge), 
Cayley (Cambridge), De La Rue (London), Gyldén (Stockholm), 
Hall (Washington), Hind (London), Huggins (London), Lockyer 
(London), Newcomb (Washington), Oppolzer (Vienna), Planta 
mour (Geneva), Roche (Montpellier), Schiaparelli (Milan), 
Stephan (Marseilles), and Struve (Pulkova), The Astro- 
nomer- Royal is one of the eight Foreign Associates of the 
Academy. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


WE are glad to learn that the rumour of the murder of Herr 
Hildebrandt in Madagascar is unfounded. 


THE first number of the menoics (Zapiski) of the West 
Siberian Branch of the Russian Geographical Society contains 
valuable papers by M. Kostroff on witches in the Government 
Tomsk ; by M. Grigorovsky, on the peasantry in the Narym 


NATURE 


255 


district ; by M. Pyevizoff, on his journey through Djoungaria, 
with a map; and by M. Balkashin, on trade wa the Ob River 
with Europe during the years 1877 and 1878. 

AT one of its recent meetings the Russian Geographical So- 
ciety discussed the proposal of Mr, Fleming, transmitted to the 
Society by the Governor-General of Canada, as to the adoption 
of a universal time and of a universal first meridian. As to the 
suggestion to have a cosmopolitan noon at the same moment 
over the surface of our globe, the Society thinks that it would 
meet with a mass of difficulties as to its application in daily 
life ; but the advantages which a universal time would afford 
being very great, the Society expresses the wish that the whole 
question be earnestly discussed and studied by learned socie- 
ties. As to the first meridian, the Society, which already dis- 
cussed the question in 1870, maintains its former resolution, 
namely, that the meridian of Greenwich, or at least that of 
Behring Strait, 180° distant from that of Greenwich, should be 
accepted by the whole civilised world as a first meridian. 


WE have received the annual reports for 1879 of the Siberian, 
Orenburg, and Caucasian branches of the Russian Geographical 
Society, which has had the happy idea to publish all the reports 
together in one volume, thus rendering accessible for the general 
reader who knows Russian this most valuable geographical 
information, formerly disseminated in local publications. The 
oldest of these branches, the East Siberian, has endured 
heavy losses during the great fire at Irkoutsk. Its rich z10- 
logical, botanical, geological, and ethnographical collections 
were all destroyed by fire: the beautiful head of a 
Rhinoceros tichorhinus, just received from Verkhoyansk, the 
rare collection of samples of gold from all the gold-mines of 
Eastern Siberia, palzeontological collections not yet described, 
and so on, as well as the 10,230 volumes of its rich library, and 
collections of old records, were all destroyed by fire. Several 
scientific bodies, Russian and foreign, have already sent their 
publications and duplicates from their libraries, so that the 
museum and library already are in way of reconstitution. 


THE third volume of the ‘‘ Rajputana Gazetteer” has just 
been issued from the Government press at Simla. The various 
sections into which it is divided are contributed by Capt. C. E. 
Yate, Major C. A. Baylay, and Major P. W. Powlett, and treat 
of general topography, history, population, trade, towns, &c. 
Mr. J. F. Baness, the chief draughtsman in the geographical and 
drawing branch of the Survey of India, has in the press at 
Calcutta a work entitled ‘‘ Index Geographicus Indicus.” It 
will be published in one volume, with eight coloured maps, and 
will comprise a list, alphabetically arranged, of the principal 
places in our Indian Empire, accompanied by much statistical, 
political, and descriptive information, 


A SERIES of papers is commenced in last week’s issue of Zes 
Missions Catholiqgues, on the manners, customs, and religion of 
the races of the Caucasus. 


The new number of the Aud/etin of the Commercial Geo- 
graphical Society of Bordeaux contains a useful paper on Japan, 
by M. E. Labrone. 


THE Palestine Exploration Society have decided to undertake 
the exploration of Palestine east of the Jordan, 


OBSERVATIONS ON ANTS, BEES, AND 
WASPS* 


Power of Communication by something approaching to Language. 


[N my previous papers many experiments have been recorded, 

in which I have endeavoured to throw some light on the 
power of communication possessed by ants. It is unquestionable 
that if an ant or a bee discovers a store of food her comrades 
soon flock to the treasures, although, as I have shown, this is by 
no means always the case. But it may be argued that this fact 
taken alone does not prove any powe: of communication at all, 
An ant observing a friend bringing food home might infer, with- 
out being told, that by accompanying the friend on the return 
journey she might also participate in the good things. 1 have 
endeavoured to meet this argument in my third paper (Zzxm, 
Journ. vol. xii, p. 466) by showing that there was a marked 

t By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., F.L.S., D.C.L., LL.D., 
Vic>-Chancellor of the University of London, Read at the Linnean 
Society, Juze 17. Abstract. 


250 


difference in the result, if on experimenting with two ants one 
had access to a large treasure, the other only to a small one. 

It also occurred tome that some light would be thrown on the 
question by compelling the ant who found the treasure to return 
empty handed. If she took nothing home and yet others re- 
turned with her, this must be by some communication having 
passed. It would be acase in which precept was better than 
example. 

I selected therefore a specimen of Aé/a Zestaceo-filosa, belonging 
to a nest which I had brought back with me from Algeria, She 
was out hunting about six feet from home, and I placed before 
her a large dead bluebottle fly, which she at once began to drag 
to thenest. I then pinned the fly to a piece of cork, in a small 
box, so that no ant could see the fly until she had climbed up the 
side of the box. The ant struggled, of course in vain, to move 
the fly. She pulled first in one direction and then in another, 
but, finding her efforts fruitless, she at length started off back to 
the nest empty-handed. At this time there were no ants coming 
out of the nest. Probably there were some few others out 
hunting, but for at least a quarter of an hour no ant had left the 
nest. My ant entered the nest but did not remain there; in less 
than a minute she emerged accompanied by seven friends. I 
never saw so many come out of that nest together before. In 
her excitement the first ant soon distanced her companions, who 
took the matter with much sang /rod, and had all the appearance 
of having come out reluctantly, or as if they had been asleep and 
were only half awake. The first ant ran on ahead, going straight 
to the fly. The others followed slowly and withmany meander- 
ings ; so slowly, indeed, that for twenty minutes the first ant was 
alone at the fly, trying in every way to move it. Finding this 
still impossible, she again returned to the nest, not chancing to 
meet any of her friends by the way. Again she emerged in less 
than a minute with eight friends, and hurried onto the fly. They 
were even less energetic than the first party ; and when they 
found they had lost sight of their guide they one and all returned 
to the nest. In the meantime several of the first detachment 
had found the fly, and one of them succeeded in detaching a leg, 
with which she returned in triumph to the nest, coming out again 
directly with four or five companions, These latter, with one 
exception, soon gave up the chase and returned to the nest. I 
do not think so much of this last case, because as the ant carried 
in a sub-tantial piece of booty in the shape of the fly’s leg, it is 
not surprising that her friends should some of them accompany 
her on her return; but surely the other two cases indicate a 
distinct power of communication, 

Lest however it should be supposed that the result was acci- 
dental, I determined to try it again. Accordingly on the follow- 
ing day I put another large dead fly before an ant belonging to 
the same nest, pinning it to a piece of cork as before, After 
trying in vain for ten minutes to move the fly, my ant started 
off home. At that time I could only see two other ants of that 
species outside the nest. Yet in a few seconds, considerably less 
than a minute, she emerged with no less than twelve friends. As 
in the previous case, she ran on ahead, and they followed very 
slowly and by no means directly, taking in fact nearly half an 
hour to reach the fly. The first ant, after vainly labouring for 
about a quarter of an hour to move the fly, started off again to the 
nest. Meeting one of her friends on the way she talked with her 
a little, then continued towards the nest, but after going about a 
foot, changed her mind, and returned with her friend to the fly. 
After some minutes, during which two or three other ants caine 
up, one of them detached a leg, which she carried off to the nest, 
coming out again almost immediately with six friends, one of 
whom, curiously enough, seemed to lead the way, tracing it, I 
fresume, by scent. I then removed the pin, and they carried 
off the fly in triumph. 

These and other experiments certainly seem to indicate the 
possession by ants of something approaching to language. It is 
impossible todoubt that the friends were brought out by the first 
ant ; and as she returned empty-handed to the nest, the others 
cannot have been induced to follow her merely by observing her 
proceedings. I conclude, therefore, that they | ossess the power 
of requesting their friends to come and help them. 

Recognition of Relations—In wy la-t paper (Linn. Fourn, 
vol. xiv, p. 611) I recorded some experiments made with pupe, 
in order if possible to determine how ants recognised their nest 
companions. The general result was that pupe tended by 
strangers of the same species, and then after they had. arrived 
«t maturity put into the nest from which these strangers had been 
taken, were invariably treated as interlopers and attacked. On 


NATURE 


[| Fan. 13, 1881 


the other hand, if they were tended by ants from their own nest, 
and then after arriving at maturity put back in their own nest, 
they were invariably recognised as friends ; and lastly, if as pupze 
they were tended by strangers, but then after arriving at maturity 
put back in their own nest, they were generally received as 
friends. In all these experiments, however, the ants were taken 
from the nest as pupze, and though I did not think the fact that 
they had passed their larval existence in the nest could affect the 
problem, still it might do so. I determined therefore to separate 
anest before the young were born, or even the eggs laid, and 
then ascertain the result. Accordingly I took one of my nests, 
which I began watching on September 13, 1878, and which con- 
tained two queens, and on February 8, 1879, divided it into 
halves, which I will call A and B, so that there were approximately 
the same number of ants with a queen in each division. At this 
season, of course, the nest contained neither young nor even 
eggs. During April both queens began to lay eggs. On July 
20 I took a number of pupz from each division and placed each 
lout ina separate glass, with two ants from the same division. 
On August 30 I took four ants fiom the pupz bred in B, and 
one from those in A (which were not quite so forward), and after 
marking them as usual with paint, put the B ants into nest A, 
and the A ant into nest B. They were received amicably and 
soon cleaned. Two, indeed, were once attacked for a few 
moments, but soon released, On the other hand, I put two 
strangers into nest A, but they were at once killed. For facility 
of observation I placed each nest in a closed box. On the 31st 
I carefully examined the nests and also the boxes in which I had 
placed them. I could only distinguish one of the marked ants, 
but there were no dead ants either in the nests or boxes, except 
the two strangers. 

Some further experiments led to similar results. 

These observations seem to me conclusive as far as they go, 
and they are very surprising. In my experiments of last year, 
though the results were similar, still the ants experimented with 
had been brought up in the nest, and were only removed after 
they had become pup. It might therefore be argued that the 
ants having nursed them as larva, recognised them when they 
came to maturity ; and though this would certainly be in the 
highest degree improbable, it could not be said to be impossible. 
In the present case, however, the old ants had absolutely never 
seen the young ones until the moment when, some days after 
arriving at maturity, they were introduced into the nest ; and yet 
in all ten cases they were undoubtedly recognised as belonging 
to the community. 

It seems to me therefore to be established by these experi- 
ments that the recognition of ants is not personal] and individual ; 
that their harmony is not due to the fact that each ant is indi- 
vidually acquainted with every other member of the community. 

At the same time the fact that they recognise their friends even 
when intoxicated, and that they know the young born in their 
own nest even when they have been brought out of the chrysalis 
by strangers, seems to indicate that the recognition is not effected 
by means of any sign or password. 

Workers breeding.—In my last paper I brought forward some 
strong evidence tending to show that when workers laid eggs 
they always produced males. This is, however, a physiological 
fact of so much interest that I have carefully watched my nes‘s 
this year also, to see what further light they would throw cn the 
subject. In six of those which contained no queen eggs were 
produced, which of course must necessarily have been Jaid by 
workers belonging to Lasius niger, Formica cinerea, Formtca 
fusca and Polyergus rufescens. 

The result was that in five of these nests males have been pro- 
duced, and in nct a single case has a worker laid eggs which 
have produced a female, either a queen or a worker. Perhaps I 
ought to add that workers are abundantly preduced in those of 
my nests which possess a queen, Again, as in previous years, so 
this season again, while great numbers of workers and males 
have come to maturity in my ne-ts, not a single queen has been 
produced. We have, I think, therefore, strong reason for con- 
cluding that, as in the cace of bees, so also in ants, some special 
food is required to develop the female embryo into a queen. 

As to Hearing and Experiments with Telephone—In order 
to ascertain if possible whether ants made any sounds which 
were audible to one another, I 1hought I would try the tele- 
phone. Accordingly I looked for two ants’ nests (Zasius niger) 
not far from one another, and then, after disturbing one 
of them, had a telephone held just over it. I then held the 
second telephone close over the other nest, each telephone being 


Fan. 13, 1881] 


perhaps one to two inches above the ground. If the disturbed 
ants made any sound which was transmitted by the telephone, the 
ants in the other nest ought to have been thrown into confusion, 
I could not, however, perceive that it made the slightest differ 
ence to them. I tried the experiment three or four times, always 
with the same result. I then put some syrup near a nest of Z. 
niger, and when several hundred ants were feeding on the syrup 
I blew on the nest, which always disturbs them very much. 
They came out in large numbers and ran about in great excite- 
ment. I then held one end of the telephone over the nest, the 
other over the feeding ants, who, however, took not the slightest 
notice. I cannot, however, look on these experiments as at all 
conclusive, because it may well be that the plate of the telephone 
is too stiff to be set in vibration by any sounds which ants could 
produce. 

On the Treatment of Aphides.—Our countryman Gould, whose 
excellent little work on ants! has hardly received the attention 
it deserves, observes that ‘‘the queen ant [he is speaking of 
Lasius flavus] lays three different sorts of eggs: the slave, 
female, and neutral. The two first are deposited in the spring, 
the last in July and part of August ; or, if the summer be ex- 
tremely favourable, perhaps a little sooner. The female eggs 
are covered with a thin black membrane, are oblong, and about 
the sixteenth or seventeenth part of an inch in length. The 
male eggs are of a more brown complexion, and usually laid in 
March.” 

Here however our worthy countryman fell into an error, the 
eggs which he thus describes not being those of ants, but, as 
Huber correctly observed, of Aphides.2 The error is the more 
pardonable, because the ants treat these eggs exactly as if they 
were their own, guarding and tending them with the utmost care. 
I first met with them in February, 1876, and was much asto- 
nished, not being at that time aware of Huber’s observations. I 
found, as Huber had done before me, that the ants took the 
greatest care of these eggs, carrying them off to the lower cham- 
bers with the utmost haste when the nest was disturbed, I 
brought some home with me and put them near one of my own 
nests, when the ants carried them inside, That year I was 
unable to carry my observations further. In 1877 I again pro- 
cured some of the same eggs, and offered them to my ants, who 
carried them into the nest, and in the course of March I had the 
satisfaction of seeing them hatch into young Aphides. M. 
Huber however does not think these are mere ordinary eggs. 
On the contrary he agrees with Bonnet ‘‘that the insect, in a 
state nearly perfect, quits the body of its mother in that covering 
which shelters it from the cold in winter, and that it is not, as 
other germs are, in the egg surrounded by food, by means of 
which it is developed and supported. It is nothing more than 
an asylum of which the Aphides born at another season have 
no need ; it is on this account some are produced naked, others 
enveloped in a covering. The mothers are not then truly 
oviparous, since their young are almost as perfect as they ever 
will be, in the asylum in which Nature has placed them at their 
birth.” * 

This is, 1 think, a mistake. This is not the opportunity to 
de cribe the anatomy of the Aphis; but I may observe that I 
have examined the female, and find these eggs to arise in the 
manner so well described by Huxley in our 7yazsactions,* and 
which I have also myself observed in other Aphides and in allied 
genera.° Moreover I have opened the eggs themselves, and 
have also examined sections, and have satisfied myself that they 
are true eggs containing ordinary yelk. If examined while still 
in the ovary the germ-vesicle presents the usual appearance, but 
in laid egys I was unable to detect it. So far from the young 
insect being ‘‘nearly perfect,” and merely enveloped in a pro- 
tective membrane, no limbs or internal organs are present. 
These bodies are indeed real ova, or pseudova; and the young 
Aphis does not develop ia them until shortly before they are 
hatched. 

When my eggs hatched I naturally thought that the Aphides 
belonged to one of the species usually found on the roots of 
plants in the nests of Zastws flavus. To my surprise, however, 
the young creatures made the best of their way out of the nest, 
and indeed were sometimes brought out by the ants themselves. 
In yain I tried them with roots of grass, &c. ; they wandered 

x “An Account of English Ants.’ By the Rev. W. Gould, 1747, p. 36. 


* My lamented friend Mr. Smith also observed these eggs (Entom. 
Annual, 1871). He did not however identify the species to which they 
belonged. 

3 ‘* The Natural History of Ants.” By M. P. Huber, 1820, p. 246. 

4 Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxii, 1859. 

5 Philosophical Transactions, 1859. 


NATURE 


257 


uneasily about, and eventually died. Moreover they did not in 
any way resemble the subterranean species. In 1878 I again 
attempted to rear these young Aphides ; but though I hatched a 
great many eggs, I did not succeed. This year however I have 
been more fortunate. The eggs commenced to hatch the first 
week in March. Near one of my nests of Zasius flavus, in which 
I had placed some of the eggs in question, was a glass contain- 
ing living specimens of several species cf plant commonly found 
on or around ants’ nests, To this some of the young Aphides 
were brought by the ants. Shortly afterwards I observed on a 
plant of daisy, in the axils of the leaves, some small Aphides 
very much resembling those from my nest, though we had not 
actually traced them continuously, ‘They seemed thriving, and 
remained stationary on the daisy. Moreover, whether they had 
sprung from the black eggs or not, the ants evidently valued 
them, for they built up a wall of earth round and over them. 
So things remained throughout the summer; but on October 9 
I found that the Aphides had laid some eggs exactly resembling 
those found in the ants’ nests; and on examining daisy-plants 
from outside I found on many of them similar Aphides, and 
more or less of the same eggs. 

I confess these observations surprised me very much. The 
statements of Huber have not indeed attracted so much notice 
as many of the other interesting facts which he has recorded ; 
because if Aphides are kept by ants in their nests, it seems only 
natural that their eggs should also occur. The above case how- 
ever is much more remarkable. Here are Aphides, not living 
in the ants’ nests, but outside, on the leaf-stalks of plants. The 
eggs are laid early in October on the food-plant of the insect. 
They are of no direct use to the ants, yet they are not left where 
they are laid, where they would be exposed to the severity of 
the weather and to innumerable dangers, but brought into their 
nests by the ants, and tended by them with the utmost care 
through the long winter months until the following March, when 
the young ones are brought out and again placed on the young 
shoots of the daisy. This seems to mea most remarkable case 
of prudence, Our ants may not perhaps lay up food for the 
winter, but they do more, for they keep during six months the 
eggs which will enable them to procure food during the following 
summer. 

No doubt the fact that our European ants do not generally 
store up food in the usual way is greatly due to the nature of 
their food. They live, as we know, partly on insects and other 
small animals which cannot be kept fresh; and they have not 
learnt the art of building vessels for their honey, probably 
because they are not kept in cells like those of the honey-bee, 
and their pupze do not construct firm cocoons like those of the 
humble-bee. 

Moreover it is the less necessary for them to do so, because if 
they obtain access to any unusual store of honey, that which 
they swallow is only digested by degrees and as it is required ; 
so that, as the camel does with water, they carry about with them 
in such cases a supply of food which may last them a considerable 
time. They have moreover, as we know, the power of regurgi- 
tating this food at any time, and so supplying the larvze or less 
fortunate friends, Even in our English ants the quantity of food 
which can be thus stored up is considerable in proportion to the 
size of the insect; and if we watch, for instance, the little 
brown garden-ant (Zastws niger) ascending a tree to milk their 
Aphides, and compare them with those returning full of honey, 
we shall see a marked difference in size. 

We have, indeed, no reason to suppose that in our English ants 
any particular individuals are specially told off to serve as recep- 
tacles of food. W. Wesmael, however, has described ! a remark- 
able genus (AZyrmecocystus mexicanus), brought by M. de Normann 
from Mexico, in which certain individuals in each nest serve as 
animated honey-pots. To them the foragers bring their supplies, 
and their whole duty seems to be to receive the honey, retain it, 
and redistribute it when required. Their abdomen becomes 
enormously distended, the intersegmental membranes being so 
much extended that the chitinous segments which alone are 
visible externally in ordinary ants seem like small brown trans- 
verse bars. The account of these most curious insects given by 
MM. de Normann and Wesmael has been fully confirmed by 
subsequent observers; as, for instance, by Lucas,? Saunders,* 
Edwards,* Blake,© Loew,® and McCook. 


t Bull. del’ Acad. des Sci. de Bruxelles. 
2 Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, v. p. 111. 

3 Canadian Entomologist, vol. vii. p. 12. 
4 Proc. Californian Academy, 1873. 


5 Tbrd. 1874. 
6 American Nat. viii. 1874. 


258 


On one very important point, however, M. Wesmael was in 
error ; he states that the abdomen of these abnormal individuals 
“(ne contient aucun organe ; ou plutot, il n’est lui-méme qu’un 
vaste sac stomacal.” Blake even asserts that ‘‘the intestine of 
the insect is not continued beyond the thorax,” which must 
surely be a misprint; and also that there is no connection 
*¢between the intestine and the cloaca”! These statements, 
however, are entirely erroneous; and, as M. Forel has shown, 
the abdomen does really contain the usual organs, which, how- 
ever, are very easily overlooked by the side of the gigantic 
stomach. 

I have now the honour of exhibiting to the Society a second 
species of ant, which has been sent me by Mr. Waller, in which 
a similar habit has been evolved and a similar modification has 
been produced. The two species, however, are very distinct, 
and the former is a native of Mexico, while the present comes 
from Adelaide in Australia, The two species, therefore, cannot 
be descended one from the other; and it seems inevitable that 
the modification has originated independently in the two species. 

It is interesting that, although these specimens apparently 
never leave the nest, and have little use therefore for legs, man- 
dibles, &c., the modifications which they have undergone seem 


almost confined to the abdominal portion of the digestive organs. | 
The head and thorax, antenne, jaws, legs, &c., differ but little | 


from those of ordinary ants. 

CAMPONOTUS INFLATUS, n, sp. 

Operaria, Long. 15 mill. Nigra, tarsis pallidioribus; sub- 
tiliter coriacea, setis cinereo-testaceis sparsis ; antennis tibiisque 
haud pilosis ; tarsis infra hirsutis ; mandibulis punctatis, hirsutis, 
sexdentatis ; clypeo non carinato, antice integro ; petioli squama 
modice incrassata, antice conyexa, postice plana emarginata. 

Hab. Australian, 

The colour is black, the feet being somewhat paler. The 
body is sparsely covered with stiff cinereo-testaceous hairs, 
especially on the lower and anterior part of the head, the 
mandibles, and the posterior edge of the thorax. The head and 
thorax are finely coriaceous, 

The antennz are of moderate length, twelve-jointed; the 
scape about one-third as long as the terminal portion and some- 
what bent. At the apex of the scape area few short spines, 
bifurcated at the point. At the apex of each of the succeeding 
segments are a few much less conspicuous spines, which decrease 
in size from the basal segments outwards. The antenna is also 
thickly clothed with short hairs, and especially towards the apex 
with -leaf-shaped sense-hairs. The clypeus is rounded, with a 
slightly developed median lobe and a row of stiff hairs round the 
anterior border; it is uot carinated. The mandibles have six 
teeth, those on one side being rather more developed and more 
pointed than those on the other, They decrease pretty regularly 
from the outside inwards. The maxillee are formed on the usual 
type. ~The maxillary palpi are six-jointed, the third segment 
being but slightly longer than the second, fourth, or fifth ; while 
in Myrmecocystus the third and fourth are greatly elongated. 
‘The segments of the palpi have on the inner side a number of 
curious curved blunt hairs besides the usual shorter ones. The 
labial palpi are four-jointed. The eyes are elliptical and of 
moderate size. The ocelli are not developed. 

The thorax is arched, broadest in front, without any marked 
incision between the meso- and metanotum; the mesonotum 
itself is, when seen from above, very broadly oval, almost 
circular, rather broader in front and somewhat flattened behind. 
The legs are of moderate length, the hinder ones somewhat the 
longest. The scale or knot is heart-shaped, flat behind, slightly 
arched in front, and with a few stiff, slightly diverging hairs at 
the upper angles, The length is about two-thirds of an inch. 


ON THE THERMIC AND OPTIC BEHAVIOUR 
OF GASES UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF 
THE ELECTRIC DISCHARGE? 


PROF. E. WIEDEMANN has undertaken an exact calori- 
metric investigation of the electric discharge through gases, 
and in spite of the serious difficulties which he had to encounter, 
he has already obtained valuable and important results. As a 
source of electricity, Topler’s machine was used; but we must 
refer to the original paper for all details of experimentation. 
Three series of observations were made. In the first the total 
heat generated in a given time in the whole vacuum tube was 
measured, In the second series the capillary part only was 


* By Eilhard Wiedemann. (Wied. Ann., x. p. 202.) 


NATURE 


| Fan. 13, 1881 


examined, and in the third the thermal behaviour of the regions 
in the neighbourhood of the electrodes was investigated. The 
result of the first series is summed up as follows :—With de- 
creasing pressure the total quantity of heat generated at first 
decreases, reaches a minimum, and then increases again. In 
hydrogen the amount of heat generated is smaller than in 
atmospheric air, % 

A smaller amount of heat developed corresponds to a larger 
number of discharges in a given time, and hence to a smaller 
potential at the moment the discharge begins to pass. The 
results of Prof. Wiedemann are therefore, as he points out, in 
accordance with those of Messrs. De La Rue and Hugo Miller, 
who found that the difference of potential necessary to cause a 
discharge passes through a minimum as the pressure decreases. 

Somewhat more complicated results were obtained when ‘an 
air-break was introduced into the circuit. In that case the air- 
break determines the difference of potential necessary to produce 
a discharge ; but if the whole quantity of electricity would pass 
suddenly when that potential has been reached, and before it has 
had time to sink, the amount of heat generated would be inde- 
pendent of the pressure in the vacuum tube. This however is 
not the case; but the result is intermediate between that ob- 
tained when no air-break exists, and that which would he 
obtained on the above supposition. 

The following results were obtained in the experiments in 
which the capillary part of a vacuum tube only was introduced 
into the calorimeter :— 

I, The heating effect in capillary tubes at pressures above 
I mm. is almost independent of the quantity of electricity pass- 
ing with each discharge, and nearly proportional to the total 
amount of electricity which passes. 

2. The heating effect is almost the same whether the positive 
or negative electrode of the tube is connected with the machine 
(the other electrode being connected with the earth), although 
the number of discharges passing in a given time is different. 

3. With decreasing pressure the heat generated decreases very 
rapidly without passing through a minimum. 

4. The heating effect is independent of the shape of the elec- 
trodes. Some results obtained by Prof. G. Wiedemann, who 


| had found that in tubes of different widths the same amount of 


heat is generated by the same current, were confirmed. 

Calorimetric measurements made near the electrodes showed : 

1. The heating effect near the positive electrode decreases 
with decreasing pressure rapidly. At very low pressures a small 
increase is sometimes observed. 

2. The heating effect near the negative electrode decreases first 
with decreasing pressure, and then increases rapidly. 

The heating effect near the positive electrode shows some 
anomalies when an air-break is introduced, the amount of heat 
generated being considerably increased. 

Some measurements were reduced to an absolute scale, and 
showed that the total amount of heat generated is very large. 
Taking account of the number of discharges, and assuming that 
after each discharge the gas returns to its original state, the 
temperature in the capillary part of the tube must have been 
about 2,000° C. at 15mm. pressure, and about 1,100° C. at 
5mm. pressure, If the width of the tube was increased ten 
times, the temperature would only be about 100° C., and this 
confirms the result obtained by Prof. Wiedemann in a former 
investigation, that gases may become luminous under the 
influence of the electric discharge at a comparatively low 
temperature, 

In another part of the paper Prof, Wiedemann treats of a very 
important problem, When his tubes were filled with hydrogen, 
and an air-break was introduced in the circuit, the spectrum of 
the luminous gas changed suddenly at a given point. According 
to a now generally accepted hypothesis this change of spectrum 
is always accompanied by a change in the molecular constitution 
of the gas ; and it is to be expected therefore that heat is either 
absorbed or given out by a gas when its spectrum changes. This 
heat Prof. Wiedemann has endeavoured to measure. Let us 
imagine, for instance, that the current has to do the work of de- 
composing the molecules of a gas. The moment the discharge 
has passed, recomposition will take place, and the heat then 
generated was measured by Prof. Wiedemann. Some of the 
suppositions on which the calculations are based might require 
further investigation, but the assumptions made are supported, 
and to a certain extent proved by the fact that the heat necessary 
to change the band-spectrum into the line-spectrum was found to 
be independent of the pressure and cross-section of the tube. It is 


Fan. 13, 1881 | 


clear that Prof. Wiedemann’s line of investigation would afford 
an absolute proof that the changes of spectra are really due to 
the causes to which they are now hypothetically referred by the 
majority of observers. It is however rather unfortunate that in 
the particular case under discussion the chemical origin of the 
band-spectrum has not been settled to the general satisfaction of 
all observers, A good many of them believe the spectrum to be 
due to a hydrocarbon, and in that case Prof. Wiedemann would 
simply have measured the heat of combustion of hydrogen and 
carbon. No doubt Prof. Wiedemann will extend his measure- 
ments to other gases for which the spectroscopic difficulties have 
been more satisfactorily settled. 

Prof, Wiedemann has also investigated some phenomena in 
vacuum tubes, which have also been partly discussed by other 
observers, ‘Thus under certain conditions more exactly investi- 
gated by Messrs. Spottiswoode and Moulton, it is known that a 
conductor of electricity brought near a vacuum tube will deflect 
the discharge. Prof, Wiedemann finds, as had already been 
previously noticed by Mr. Goldstein, that the point touched by 
the conductor behaves like a negative electrode. It is known 
that as a rule the rays proceeding from a negative electrode are 
propagated in straight lines, and do not turn round a corner. 
An experiment however is mentioned by Prof. Wiedemann, in 
which an exception to this rule seems to take place; but Prof, 
Wiedemann himself suggests that secondary phenomena might 
have influenced the result. Perhaps an explanation is to be 
found in the fact proved by Mr. Goldstein, that when two tubes 
of different width are fused together the point of junction 
behaves like a negative electrode. 

Some experiments were made to show that the rays producing 
the phosphorescence can traverse the positive discharge ; also 
to prove that when the pressure is very small the shape of the 
electrodes has a great influence on the number of discharges and 
on the other phenomena attending them. 

Prof. Wiedemann winds up with some interesting speculations 
on the nature of the discharge of electricity through gases, but 
it was our object to give an account only of his experimental 
results, A theoretical discussion would lead us too far, as we 
should have to take account of other writings which have lately 
appeared, We may return to this part of the subject on another 
occasion, It is evident from the account we have given that 
the calorimetric methods employed by Prof. Wiedemann have 
enabled him to take a very material step towards the elucidation 
of a difficult problem, and we may hope for another series of 
his valuable measurements. ARTHUR SCHUSTER 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


EDINBURGH.—The Baxter Physical Science Scholarship of 
116/., conferred by the University of Edinburgh on the most 
eminent B.Sc. who has taken his degree during the present or 
the preceding year, has been awarded to Mr. D. Orme Masson, 
lecturer on Chemistry at University College, Bristol, who is pre- 
vented from accepting it in consequence of holding his present 
appointment. 


THE system of Fellowships in the Johns Hopkins University is 
of considerable interest. Twenty Fellowships, each yielding five 
hundred dollars, are annually open to competition in this Uni- 
versity. The system of Fellowships was instituted for the pur- 
pose of affording to young men of talent from any place an 
Opportunity to continue their studies in the Johns Hopkins 
University, while looking forward to positions as professors, 
teachers, and investigators, or to other literary and scientific 
vocations. The appointments have not been made as rewards 
for good work already. done, but as aids and incentives to good 
work in the future ; in other words, the Fellowships are not so 
much honours and prizes bestowed for past achievements, as 
helps to further progress, and stepping-stones to honourable 
intellectual careers. They have not been offered to those who 
are definitely looking forward to the practice of either of the 
three learned professions (though such persons have not been 
formally excluded from the competition), but have been bestowed 
almost exclusively on young men desirous of becoming teachers 
of science and literature, or determined to devote their lives to 
special branches of learning which lie outside of the ordinary 
studies of the lawyer, the physician, and the minister. Every 
candidate is expected to submit his college diploma or other 
certificate of proficiency from the institution where he has been 
taught, with recommendations from those who are qualified to 


NATURE 


259 


speak of his character and attainments. But this is only introduc- 
tory. He must also submit, orally or in writing, such evidence 
of his past succe-s in study and of his plans for the future, 
together with such examples of his literary or scientific work as 
will enable the professors to judge of his fitness for the post. 
The examination is indeed in a certain sense competitive ; but 
not with uniform tests, nor by formal questions and answers sub- 
mitted to the candidates, First, the head of a given department 
considers, with such counsel as he may command, the applicant’s 
record. The professors then collectively deliberate on the nomi- 
nations made by individual members of their body. The list 
upon which they agree, with the reasons for it, is finally sub- 
mitted by the president of the University to the Executive 
Committee, and by them to the trustees for final registration and 
appointment. [By all these precautions the highest results which 
were anticipated have been secured. A company of most pro- 
mising students has been brought together, and their ability as 
teachers and scholars has been recognised by the calls they have 
received to permanent and attractive posts in different parts of 
the country. 


A SPECIAL feature of Russian universities is that the students 
mostly belong to the poorer classes, and that they earn the means 
of existence by teaching or by translating foreign works for the 
monthly reviews. Thus, at the same time as the foundation 
stone of the Siberian University was laid at Tomsk, a subscrip- 
tion was raised for the erection of a building in which gratuitous 
lodgings might be given to students. The well-known explorer 
of Western Siberia, M. Yadrintzeff, immediately after his return 
from his last journey, delivered a series of lectures on the scenery 
of Altay, to raise funds for that purpose. 


THE new university at Tomsk will be most liberally endowed. 
Up to the day of laying the foundation-stone 354,000 roubles 
(about 53,000/.) had been received for the building, 100,000 
roubles (15,000/.) for teaching utensils, and 31,000 roubles (4600/. ) 
for stipendia. A library of more than 35,000 volumes is ready, 
and only waiting the building of the necessary apartments to 
house it. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Trimen’s Fournal of Botany, October, 1880—-January, 1881.— 
Among the more valuable articles in the most recent numbers of 
this journal may be mentioned :—MMusci preteriti (new or badly- 
described mosses), by R. Spruce.—An account of the Acan- 
thaceze of Dr. Welwitsch’s Angolan herborium, by S. Le M. 
Moore, with descriptions of a number of new species.—O. 
Manihot Glaziovit, the plant aftording Ceara india-rubber, by 
Dr. Trimen.—On a collection of Madagascan ferns, by J. G. 
Baker.—On Chara obtusa (stelligera Bauer), a species new to 
Britain, by H. and |, Groves.—The history of the scorpioid 
cyme, by Dr. S. H. Vines.—On the plants of North Aran 
Island, co. Donegal, by II. C, Ilart; with a number of interest- 
ing shorter notices and articles. 


Fournal of the Royal Microscopical Society, vol. iii. No. 6 for 
December, with special index number, contains—The Transactions 
of the Society. —Charles Stewart, on some structural features of 
Echinostrephus molare, Parasalenia gratiosa, and Stemopneustes 
variolaris, with plate 20.—Dr. H. Stolterfoth, on the diato- 
macez in the Llyn Arenig Bach deposit.—Dr. G. W. Royston- 
Pigott, on a new method of testing an object-glass used as a 
simultaneous condensing illuminator of brilliantly reflecting 
objects such as minute particles of quicksilver.—The record of 
current researches relating to invertebrata, crvptogamia, micro 
scopy, &c.—The year’s journal forms a volume of over 1100 
pages, of which less than 200 are filled with the Transactions of 
the Society, and over 80c with the increasingly useful record. 
With the February number will commence a new series. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Zoological Society, January 4.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr Sclater exhibited 
and made remarks on a skin of the Southern Merganser (JZergzs 
australis) from the Auckland Islands, belonging (o the collection 
of Baron Anatole von Hiigel.— Prof. A. Newton, M.A., F.R.S., 
exhibited on behalf of Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, F.M.Z.S., 
an egg of Coriama cristata, laid last summer in the Jardin des 


- 260 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 13, 1881 


Plantes, and possibly the first ever seen of which the parentage 
was certainly known, though an egg, also exhibited by Prof. 
Newton, had been for many years in the collection of Mr. H. F. 
Walter.—Dr. Albert Giinther, F.R.S., read an account of the 
zoological collections made by Dr. R. W. Coppinger, R.N., 
during the survey of H.M.S. A/er¢ in the Straits of Magellan 
and on the coast of Patagonia, and called attention to the most 
remarkable species repre. ented in the various groups, which had 
been worked out by himself and his assistants in the Zoological 
Department of the British Museum. Dr. Giinther also called 
rttention to several interesting cases of the similarity of forms in 
these collections to known forms of the Arctic regions and of the 
Australian seas, —A communication was reid from Prof. J. O. 
Westwood, containing the descriptions of some new exotic 
species of moths of the genera Castnea and Saturnia.—A second 
paper by Prof. Westwood contained observations on two Indian 
butterfl'es— Papilio castor and P. follux.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
F.R.S., described the skull of a very large elephant :eal 
(Macrorhinus leoninus), lately received in the Museum of the 
College of Surgeons from the Falkland Islands, and discussed 
the questions of affivities and systematic position of this animal 
among the Pinnipeds. Prof, Flower arrived at the conclusion 
from an examination of its dental, cranial, and limb characters, 
and from some other points in its anatomy, that the elephant 
seal is the member of the group the farthest removed from the 
terrestrial carnivora and showing most cetacean analogies. He 
also considered that at present there is no evidei ce of the exist- 
ence of more than one species of the genus,—Dr. A. Giinther 
read some notes on the species of insectivorous mammals 
belonging to the genus RAynchocyon and Petrodromus, and 
described two new species of the former genus, proposed to be 
called 2. macrurus (from the Rovuma River), and &. chrysopygus 
(from the Mombaga River). 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, January 3.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—M. Jamin was elected Vice-President for 1881, and 
MM. Decaisne and Edm. Becquerel were elected Members of 
the Central Administrative Committee.—M. Becquerel gave 
information as to the Academy’s publications, and the changes 
among members and correspondents. Two members have died 
during the year, M. Chasles and General Morin; and seven 
correspondents, MM. Borchardt, Peters, Lissajous, Favre, 
Miller, Schimper, and Mulsant.—The following papers were 
read :—On magnetic oxide of iron, by M. Berthelot. The heat 
liberated in fixation of oxygen by iron decreases (for a given 
quantity of oxygen) as we pass from the protoxide to the mag- 
netic oxide, then to the peroxide.— Researches of M. Fourier on 
the fall of the barometer in cyclones, by M. Faye. M., Fournier 
gives a formula for the progress of the barometer, and shows its 
validity by observations at the Island of Réaunion.—Mr, Gould 
was elected Correspondent in Astronomy, in room of the late 
M. Peters.—On observations of the satellites of Jupiter at 
Toulouse Observatory in 1879, by M. Baillaud.—On a proces 
of astronomical observation for the ue of voyagers, dispensing 
with the measurement of angles for determination of latitude and 
of sidereal time, by M. Rouget. This is by observing two stars that 
have at a given moment the same altitude ; combining such observa- 
tions in pairs, and noting the interval between the two phenomena, 
&e.—Determination of the lines of curvature of all the surfaces 
of the fourth class, correlatives of cyclides, which have the 
circle of infinity for double line, by M. Darboux.—Measurement 
of the electromotive force of batteries, by M. Baille. He uses 
a torsion balance having a long wire (2*7om.) of annealed silver, 
and a lever with balls of gilt copperat each end. Similar balls 
are fixed at the angles of a rectangle, and diagonal pairs are in 
communication with each other. The lever, placed at equal 
distance from the fixed balls, is connected through the torsion 
wire with the + pole of a battery, the other pole being to earth. 
One pole of the pile to be measured is connected with the fixed 
balls. The deflections are read by reflection of an illuminated 
glass scale, The apparatus is enclosed in a metallic case con- 
nected with the ground, A thick envelope of wood-shavings is 
used to exclude disturbances from heat.—On the velocity of 
light : reply to M. Cornu, by M. Gouy.—Study on spectropho- 
tometers, by M. Crova. Two spectra from different sources may 
be easily compared by covering half the slit of a photometric 
spectroscope with a small rectangular prism, the edge of which 
cuts the slit normally into two equal parts ; one half receives one 
of the lights directly, the other, by total reflection, the other 
light placed laterally. Aberration can be corrected with a 


cylindrical lens. The elliptic polarisation from total reflection 
may be suppressed, by replacing a simple prism by two total reflec- 
tion prisms superposed in contact.—On a method of reproducing 
speech in electric condensers, and particularly in the singing con- 
denser, by M. Dunand. He connects one pole of a battery with 
one end of the induced wire of the coil, the other pole with one 
armature of the condenser, while the second armature is attached 
to the other end of tke induced wire. (In the circuit of the 
primary coil are a battery and carbon microphone). In this way 
speech may be reproduced with perfect distinctness. The con- 
denser giving the best effects was 006m. in length of side; it 
contained thirty-six sheets of tin-foil. For the auxiliary battery 
two or three (Leclanché) elements will give weak articulate 
sounds, The intensity increases with increase of the number of 
elements, but not proportionally. The current of the auxiliary 
coil does not traverse the condenser.—M, du Moncel made some 
remarks on the subject.—On the vapour-density of iodine, by 
MM. Crafts and Meier. They study the variation of the density 
with the tension and with the temperature. The facts agree with 
the hypothesis of progressive dissociation.—On the direct pre- 
paration of c)ilorised and bromised derivatives of the methylic 
series, and especially of chloroform and bromoform, by M. 
Damoiseau.—On the functions of the small oblique muscle 
of the eye in man, by M. Fano.—Facts for the study 
of formation of fogs, by M. André. This relates to a 
case in which a high barometer was observed to sink suddenly 
(with rain), while a fog present disappeared; with slow 
rise of the barometer the fog reappeared.—New eruption 
of Manua-Loa (Hawaiian Islands), by Mr. Green. This 
was on November 9.—On the formation of a thin layer 
of ice on the sea observed at Smyrna during the winter of 
1879, by M. Carpentin. A slight breeze seems to have driven 
the waters of the Guedyzé against the quays of Smyrna, and 
there formed a thin layer on the surface, which froze in a com- 
plete calm on a clear night.—On a new use of electricity, by M. 
Grandt. This is, propelling vessels. A steam-engine drives 
one or more electro-dynamic induction apparatuses ; the current 
is sent through a voltameter ; the gases are conducted to an 
orifice in the keel, and exploded by an induction spark, with 
proyulsive effect. 


CONTENTS 


Barometric Cyctes. By Prof. BALFouR STEWART . ... | ~ 
LiFe OF LIVINGSTONE <0. ie, <0) orisis! Gal (ef iv! tone ae eet = 
SALVADORI’S ORNITHOLOGY OF New GUINEA. . - - 6 = = «© «© 
Our Book SHELF :— 
Williamson’s ‘‘ Elementary Treatise on the Integral Calculus, con- 
taining Applications to Plane Curves and Surfaces ; with 


Numerous!Eyamples’” = 012) |e wiel el le7.e) cel tn tee Ee 
“* Botanisches Centralblatt”” . ogc peck shy Sl eee ae a te 
Henslow’s ‘* Botany for Children: an Illustrated Elementary Text- 
Book for Junior Classes and Young Children”. . . me a 4 
LeTTEers TO THE EDITOR :— 
Geological Climates.—Prof. Sami. HauGuton, F.R.S.; Dr. A. 
Wonrikor;/J.S.G. 50s 5 2: ve) my) 6. to) (n) vo) emo 
Chalki—Ji'S1G. 8 et ra el a fos ee oD 
Average Height of Barometer in London.—E. DouGtas ARCHI- 
BALD 0. © je. sce. sieeie. © ve Lee ene: (oy son tenet anor 
Experiments with Vacuum jTubes.—J. T. BorroMLey enor 
Oxidation of Quinine, &c.—Dr. W1Lt1am Ramsay and JAmes J. 
DOBBIE (e, at~ a isi el xe), reals Yom athe” 2th ele tof Nene eae Oe 
The Temperature of the Breath,—Dr. WM. McLaurin; Dr. C. J. 
McNALLY:, «-is 6 sc tr ee) of inl a, lelne) vehi eilt = Mites) nea 
Distance of Clouds.—Epwin CLARK. + . + «© «© «© « «= 244 
Plukeiini@alves:—A*) BS.) 0S) oct ce ew le) > eto Beery 
Joun SrenuousE, LL.D., F.R.S. . ct Nei a Soe a5 244 
WILHELMSMEINDZ) "oie lc! (sf (a, el smtie eho coly =p cane Sa) 245 
SMOKEVABATEMENT ¢ ps 0 ¢ cs 6 ce) of cllgge ou tel etmannenmrza es 
Tue Inpo-CHINESE AND Ockanic RacEs—Typrres AND AFFINITIES, 
III. By A. H. Keane (With Iilustrations). . . . 6 « . « = 247 
A CHAPTER IN THE History OF THE ConiIFER#,II. By J. STARKIE 
(09.05 )\0:). a PES eh oe Go 0 - 20 
NOTES de et Become! eta) ie nea fo . owl hte SD SEER SS Welt atone mea 
Our ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 
Winnecke'siComet -< “.) ~~, %, © ellie oye) (eluie) coe 254 
Swiftis'Gometic, s. <2 » 1.6 «1s se) jel hopete! (0! nls aie iiiDwEEmEDS 255 
Minima of Algol . Pee CR sy OO. ceo ony #255 
Ceraski’s Variablein Cepheus . ». «+ + « + © © © «© «© © + 255 
Elongation of Mimas . s . 6 «© © © «© © © © e «© = = 255 
The Academy of Sciences, Paris . «+ + . ass 
GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES - 2) jo) fen emey is) vo) eats es) == ea 
OBSERVATIONS ON ANTS, BEES, AND Wasps. By Sir Joun Luppock, 
Bart}, FeRiS.. <3) Aba. Jer Ee dey rete: ior ip) ie 
On THE THERMIC AND Optic BEHAVIOUR OF GASES UNDER THE 
INFLUENCE OF THE Exectric DiscHarcE. By Dr. ARTHUR 
SCHUSTER, FSR.S.. sys el eu ice ets) el = lo! te Kem ollie) eal eae 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTRLLIGENCR . - + a wolaten ea 259 
ScrENTIFIC SERIALS - . 5 «© © © © © © © 0 © © «© » + 259 
. ar + 259 


SocreTIgzs AND ACADEMIES . - 


VATERL 


261 


THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1881 


NORTH AMERICAN PINNIPEDS 


History of the North American Pinnipeds : a Monograph 
of the Watruses, Sea-Lions, Sea-Bears, and Seals of 
North America. By J. A. Allen, Assistant in the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. 
(Washington: Government Press, 1880.) 

HIS bulky octavo volume forms No. 12 of the mis- 
cellaneous publications of the Department of the 

Interior, United States Geological and Geographical 

Survey of the Territories, which is under the charge of 

F. V. Hayden. It is a most important contribution to 

the life-history of the species of American Pinnipeds, for 

which the zoologist as well as the merchant may well 
thank both Mr. Hayden and Mr. Allen. 
It is not an easy task to analyse a closely-printed volume 


of neatly 800 pages, but still we trust to be able to give our | 
readers some notion of the general contents of this interest- | 


ing work, Of the mammais, leading an essentially aquatic 
existence, the furred and fin-footed group have always had 
an importance and interest for mankind. The existing 
Pinnipeds constitute three very distinct families—these 
are the Walruses, the Eared Seals, and the Earless Seals. 
The first two are far more nearly allied than are either of 
these with the third. The Earless Seal is the lowest or 
most generalised group. The Walruses are really little 
more than thick clumsy fat forms of the Eared Seal 
group, with immensely developed canine teeth, and 
skulls modified so as to bear these. All the Pinnipeds 
have a high degree of brain development, and are easily 
domesticated under favourable conditions ; they manifest 
strong social and parental affections, and they defend their 
young with great courage. They are, almost without 
exception, carnivorous, mostly feeding on fish, mollusks, 
and crustacea. While the Eared Seals are polygamous, 
the males greatly exceeding the females in size, the 
Walruses and the Earless Seals are thought to be mono- 
gamous, and there is very little difference between the 
size of the sexes. The polygamous species usually resort 
in large numbers to favourite breeding-grounds, the young 
are born on dry ground, and are at first unable to swim; 
while the monogamous forms do not so uniformly resort 
to particular breeding-grounds on land, and they leave 
the water only for short intervals. As a group the 
Pinnipeds are very distinctly characteristic of the Arctic, 
Antarctic, and temperate portions of the globe ; very few 
range into tropical waters, and only one species can be 
said to be strictly tropical. While the Seals, Eared and 
Earless, are abundantly represented on both sides of 
the Equator, the Walruses are only to be found within 
the colder portions of the Northern Hemisphere. Of 
the family of the Walruses but two living species belong- 
ing to the genus Odobznus are known, the one, 0. 
rosmarus, being the Atlantic Walrus; the other, O. odesus, 
the Pacific Walrus. The history of both species is here 
given at length: first a full synonymy is given; then 
the general history, accompanied by figures; then habits, 
products, food, and enemies. Among the figures given are 
those of Elliott of the head of the Pacific species, which 
give an idea of the uncouth facial aspect and of the 
VoL. xx1t1.—No. 586 


strangely-wrinkled skin; but it is a pity that none of 
Elliott’s representations of an adult form were reproduced 
from his work on Alaska, published in 1879, and of which 
only one hundred and twenty-five copies were printed. 
Capt. Cook’s description of this species is still one of the 
best extant—a species that may soon disappear if the 
annual slaughter of ten to twelve thousand animals is 
allowed to continue. 

Thenumber of genera and species among the group of the 
Eared Seals has fluctuated immensely even within the last 
ten years. The views of Gray and Peters have repeatedly 
changed on this subject, “greatly,” the author writes, “in 
the case of Gray, out of proportion to the new material 
he had examined.” In Peters’ latest enumeration he gives 
thirteen species : five are Hair Seals, or Sea-lions, eight 
are Fur Seals, or Sea-bears. Mr. Allen enumerates nine— 
two with doubt. Five are Hair and four Fur Seals. A good 
deal of this discrepancy doubtless arose from writers not 
having learnt to distinguish the sexes, and from their not 
making due allowance for the great changes in contour 
and details of structure that result in the skulls of these 
animals from age. The most striking fact in respect of 
the distribution of the Eared Seals is their entire absence 
from the waters of the North Atlantic. The Fur and 
Hair Seals have nearly the same geographical. dis- 
tribution ; but though commonly found frequenting the 
same shores, they generally live apart. They are about 
equally and similarly represented on both sides of 
the equator, but are confined almost wholly to the tempe- 
rate and colder latitudes. The Hair Seals have coarse 
hard stiff hair, and are wholly withcut soft under-fur, 
the abundant presence of which in the Fur Seals it is 
which makes their skins so valuable as articles of 
commerce. 

The Eared Seals are all gregarious and polygamous. 
Their breeding-places have received the strangely in- 
appropriate name of “rookeries.” The strongest males 
generally secure to their lot from twelve to fifteen 
females. During the breeding season the males remain 
wholly on land, and they will suffer death rather than stir 
from their chosen spot. They thus sustain fora period 
of several weeks a continual fast. Steller’s account, 
given nearly a century ago, applies still to nearly all the 
species. The “sea-fur” of the furriers is obtained from 
these Eared Seals with the under-fur. Fortunately the 
destruction of the Fur Seals at the Aleutian Islands, where 
at one time these seals were killed at the rate of 200,000 
a year, has now been placed under rigid restrictions, and 
the same systematic protection ought to be afforded to 
them at all their stations. In 1877 Mr. Elliott calculated 
that the number—owing to the Government regulations— 
of Seals on the Alaska Islands had increased so as to 
leave 660,000 breeding females to be added to the original 
stock, and that the total number would not be much less 
than 1,800,000, 

The description of the Earless Seals forms nearly one 
half of the volume. The technical history of the group 
is given at length and is most interesting. The genus 
Phoca of Linneus embraced four species now placed in 
four distinct genera and in three families. Since then 
103 distinct specific and varietal names have been be- 
stowed upon what our author considers as sixteen species. 
These are located in three sub-families and placed in 

N 


262 


eleven genera. Copious synonymic details are given. 
Of the restricted genus Phoca, three—P. vitulina, P. 
Groenlandica, and P. fetida—are marine, and frequent 
the northern oceans, never descending anywhere near to 
the equator. A fourth, P. Casfica, is found in the Aral 
and Caspian Seas, and a fifth, P. S7ézrica, is from Lakes 
Baikel and Oron. Monachus albiventer occupies an 
intermediate position (Mediterranean, Madras, and 
Canary Islands) between these northern forms and the 
Antarctic species, such as Macrorhinus leoninus, Ogmor- 
rhinus leptonyx, Ominatophoca rossi,and the like. All 
the species have strong social instincts, and are almost 
unsurpassed in their affection for their young. Most of 
them are gregarious ; few of them are in the least fero- 
cious; they are in general patient and submissive crea- 
tures, quite harmless to man. Fond of basking in 
sunshine, they spend a good deal of their time out 
of the water, on bank, rock, or ice. They are very 
voracious, eating fishes, or in lack of these, mollusks 
and crustacea. 
seals take to the water reluctantly, and have to be 
actually taught to swim by their parents. The young 
of some species remain on the ice until they are from 
two to three weeks old, or until they have shed their 
first soft woolly coat of hair ; their cry is more of a bark 
than a roar; that of the young is a kind of tender bleat, 
putting one in mind of the cry of a young child. Dr. 
Murie (Prac. Zool. Soc. London, 1870) has characterised 
three distinct modes of terrestrial locomotion among 
these Seals, from which it would appear that the Phocine 
Seals generally have considerable power of movement 
upon land. 

The Seal-hunting districts are described at length ; the 
oil and skins of these Seals having a large commercial 
importance. The Dundee sealers took in 1876 nearly 
40,000/. worth. The habits of the various species form 
a most interesting portion of this division of the volume, 
and the author seems to have ransacked every treatise on 
the subject so as to make his own complete. This his- 
tory of the North American Pinnipeds will long remain 
a perfect monograph of a valuable and important group 
oi mammalia. 


CATALOGUE OF NEWCASTLE LIBRARIES 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public Libraries. Catalogue of the 

Books in the Central Lending Department. Compiled 

by W. John Haggeston, Chief Librarian. (Newcastle- 

upon-Tyne: 1880.) 

O portion of a book draws more heartfelt commenda- 

tion or more earnest rebuke from a critic who has 

read it, not for the purpose of criticising, but for that of 

using its information, than the index, Only the reader 

who picks up a book for recreation and amusement feels 

at all independent of it; and even he appreciates its 

importance if any future reference is required. And if a 

good table of contents is so requisite in the case of a 

single book, how far more so must one be in a large 
library. 

We have here a new catalogue of a new library, a 
selection of 20,000 volumes of books chosen for their 
readable value only (which perhaps justifies the omission 
of all dates of publication of the books, which would be a 


NATURE 


Strange though it may seem, the young | 


| Fan. 20, 1881 


fault in a catalogue of most libraries), and consequently 
we may look to it as a model of what a catalogue should 
be. And we shall not be disappointed. It is drawn up 
on the same scientific principles worked out so fully in Dr. 
Billing’s catalogue of the U.S. Surgeon-General’s Office, 
which we noticed lately ; and these so well worked out too, 
that really it is a table of contents of the library; the 
matter contained in the volumes of the latter as well as 
their titles aze all laid before us. Each work is entered 
under the author's name, under the title, and, in cases 
where that title is compound, under each of the subjects 
it may include. Under the heading of each principal 
subject treated a reference is again given to the work 
with its library number, and so numerous are these cross 
references that on an average every volume throughout 
the library appears four times over. Indefinite titles are 
rectified by a summary being given, in a smaller type, of 
the matters discussed. 

Catalogues which limit themselves rigidly to the con- 
tents of the title-page abandon all attempts at complete- 
ness, since many titles do not even pretend to express the 
subjects of the book (need we cite Mr. Ruskin’s?), and 
many equally fail in the attempt. As the field of literature 
increases, and not even a librarian can keep himself 
acquainted with the ground gone over by all the books 
under his care, a subject-catalogue as well as an author- and 
title-catalogue becomes a necessity, and, if it is well drawn 
up, though it 1raay cost both money and time, they will 
be well spent. Volumes that appear unattractive enough 
to the general reader, and are far too numerous for the 
ordinary student to search through, become suddenly, 
through a subject-catalogue, of the greatest value to both 
of them. The books in a library whose contents are thus 
laid open to its frequenters will be read with profit much 
greater than would a considerable fraction more books 


| whose title-page was all the introduction their readers 


had to them. 

And the saving of time when it is completed will be 
immense. It will save the time of the librarian by pre- 
venting hundreds of inquiries being made at all, and still 
more by strengthening the hands of his assistants, who 
will be capable of working his catalogue to the utmost 
and answering a very large proportion of such inquiries 
as are made by readers who may be awkward at it; it 
will save the time of the busy man, who wants his infor- 
mation at once; it will save the time of the student who 
wants the most recent information which he can get ; 
and it will'save the time of all by making fewer changes 
of books necessary. 

All this is doubly important in a Free Library, because, 
as any one taking an interest in these institutions will 
have marked, those of its readers who do not confine 
themselves to novels seldom take out books for the mere 
pleasure of reading, as the higher classes do. Reading has 
not yet become a recreation to them, but they go to the 
library as to a great encyclopeedia to get information on 
certain subjects, often of the most technical character ; 
and a catalogue that directs them to the very book they 
want doubles and trebles the value of the library to them. 
They have no time to read all the critiques and résumés 
of new books with which the press teems, and which make 
| the style and contents of many such works familiar to 
readers of periodicals who may never have seen the works 


Yan. 20, 1881 | 


NATURE 


263 


themselves. Where hundreds go in an evening for books 
it is impracticable to allow them access to the shelves of 
the library to select them; while in an ordinary bare list 
of titles it is impossible for them to judge which book in 
a column will be found the one most to their require- 
ments. 

Like Dr. Billings, our Newcastle librarian has fully 
worked out a most important branch of a subject-catalogue. 
Magazine literature in these days has become far too im- 
portant to be treated byeither a thrifty librarian or ar. inquir- 
ing student as “fugitive” and “ephemeral.” All the newest 
science now appears first in journals, and all leaders of 
thought give their first expression of it in magazines and 
reviews. In this new catalogue therefore we are much 
pleased to see that not only is each volume of all important 
periodicals entered separately with its list of articles, but, 
as we have said, under the head of each subject a reference 
is given to all of such articles as bear upon it. By this 
means students who have read a standard work published 
a few years ayo upon any subject will be not only guided 
but stimulated into reading the latest researches or 
theories which these publications contain. It is perhaps 
going beyond our subject, but we cannot help noticing 
how convenient for this important purpose a card-catalogue 
at a library is; in which cards containing the subject of 
each article down to the last number of all the magazines 
have been dropped into their places. Such an arrarge- 
ment would make many students feel a printed catalogue 
to be ancient by the time it was published. 

The selection of books as a whole is admirable—though 
of course few selections have been made under such 
favourable circumstances. We are rather surprised in so 
large a list to note the absence of books like Boyd 
Dawkins’s “‘ Cave-Hunting” and “Early Man in Britain,”’ 
Clifford’s ‘‘ Lectures and Essays,’’ Croll’s “ Climate and 
Time,” Moseley’s “ Naturalist on board the Challenger,” 
and Sir Wyville Thomson’s book; Heeckel’s ‘‘ History of 
Creation” and ‘‘ Evolution of Man”; Schliemann’s “ Troy” 
and Cesnola’s “ Cyprus’’ ; Wallace’s ‘‘ Geographical Dis- 
tribution of Animals,’ &c. And if some of these are so 
costly as to be confined to the Reference Library, as is 
probably the case here, still we are sorry to miss Wallace’s 
“Tropical Nature,” and R. Jefferies (“The Gamekeeper 
at Home ”) with his series of books teaching men to open 
their eyes as they move about the fields and lanes. 

The printing is a credit to both printer and editor, It 
is almost as funny as the “Ingoldsby Legends”’ to read 
“Life and Remains of Dean Hook,” by Barham! but it 
is plainly a slip, and the smallest errors are very scattered, 

The Rules and Regulations are clumsy to enforce, which 
indeed will probably not be attempted, at any rate for 
long. The annoyance of having to get a guarantor prac- 
tically shuts out many whose hitherto idle life might have 
taken a fresh start if books had been put into their hands 
freely. We have been very pleased to see that several 
large libraries have done away with this irritating system 
without any loss of property, and it seems a step back- 
wards when a new institution like this starts with more 
rigid and inconvenient rules than many others. Indicators 
are capital things in libraries to which each reader goes 
for his own book as at a university, but only very few of 
the hundreds who exchange books every night at a 
flourishing Free Library are at all able to work with 


them. Children are the usual messengers, not high 
enough to consult an Indicator of 20,000 volumes. It is 
an unmerciful rule that borrowers should return their 
books personally, and a downright unreasonable one that 
every book must be returned in a fortnight (Rule 17), NOT 
to be re-issued the same day (Rule 16), although we are 
told (p. vi.) that three-volume works are issued complete. 
Few Free Library readers can get through 600 or 800 
pages in a fortnight. And surely it was not necessary to 
threaten each person who consults the catalogue with 
imprisonment wth whipping if he defaces a book! It 
may be necessary to make such Draconian laws, but they 
should be brought forward to intimidate gross offenders, 
not flourished in the face of all whom we wish to attract. 
Such severe rules repel sensitive people, while from their 
very familiarity they lose their effect on the careless. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Botanische Jahrbiicher fiir Systematik Pflanzengeschichte 
und Pflanzengeographie. Herausgegeben von A. Engler. 
Erster Band, zweites Heft. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engel- 
mann, 1880.) 


THIS part includes four papers. The first is by W. O. 
Focke, on the natural divisions and geographical distri- 
bution of the genus Rubus. The characters chiefly 
discussed are :—1. Mode of growth or habit. 2. Forms 
of leaf which are very numerous: the duration of the 
leaf being also variable. 3. Characters derived from the 
stipules, which are considered of great value. 4. In- 
florescence ; and 5. the Structure of the flower. The 
number and size of the parts of the calyx and corolla vary, 
as also the colour of the corolla. The stamens vary in 
closely allied species, and while most of the species are 
hermaphrodite, some are unisexual. The structure of the 
gyncecium is very varied, the number of carpels being 
five or six in some, as in &. dalibarvda, or above 100, as 
in R. vosefolius. The hairs (trichomes) on the different 
parts of the plant are very numerous and remarkable for 
the variety of structure shown; no other group, except 
perhaps some Solanacez, approaching the Rubi in this 
particular. In regard to the geographical distribution 
the most important points are :—1. The characteristic 
difference in the Rubi of Eastern Asia and Europe. 2. 
The predominance of European forms in the Atlantic, 
and of East Asian forms on the Pacific side of America. 
3. The occurrence of south Chinese and north Indian 
types in Mexico and Peru. These peculiarities Focke 
would explain on geological grounds. 

The second paper is by Franz Buchenau on the distri- 
bution of Juncaceze over the world. The author gives a 
complete list of the species of the genera Juncus: Luzula, 
Rostkovia, Marsippospermum, Oxychloé, Distichia, and 
Prionium, and a table showing their distribution into 
regions nearly corresponding to those of Grisebach. 

Koehne, in the third paper, gives the first portion of a 
monograph of the Lythracez, including a key to twenty- 
one genera. He admits and then describes thirty-one 
species with numerous varieties of Rotala (Ammania, 
Linn., Benth., and Hooker). 

The last paper is by Engler. Contributions to the 
knowledge of the Aracez, in which he describes some 
new Araceze from the Indian Archipelago and Mada- 
gascar, and also directs attention to the cultivation of 
Zamioculcas Loddigesit from the detached leaflets of the 
remarkable pinnate leaf of the plant. A swelling occurs 
at the base of the leaflet, and in a few days a small tuber 
is produced which develops two buds, below each of which 
roots are formed. The plant has been propagated in this 
way by Herr Hild of the Kiel Botanic Garden, 


264 


NAIORE 


| Fan. 20, 1881 


The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland. By Dr. Francis 
Day, F.L.S., &c. (London: Williams and Norgate, 
1880.) 


‘THIS work is to be issued in nine parts, of which the first, 
containing sixty-four pages of text and twenty-seven 
plates, is now published. Waiting until the completion of 
the work for a more extended notice, we may for the present 
mention that in it the author purposes to give a natural 
history of the fishes known to inhabit the seas and fresh 
waters of the British Isles, with remarks on their economic 
uses and on the various modes of their capture, and that 
an introduction to the study of fishes in general is 
promised. 

The synonymic lists of the species are given in great 
detail ; the descriptive diagnoses treat of internal pecu- 
liarities as well as of external form; a good many 
interesting details appear under the headings of Habits, 
Means of Capture, Baits, Uses. The plates are from 
drawings by the author, and are very excellent. 


A Manual of the Infusoria. By W. Saville Kent, F.L.S. 
(London; David Bogue, 1880.) 


THIS sometime promised work has now advanced so far 
in its publication as the third part; when completed it 
will merit a somewhat lengthened notice, as the most 
important work on the subject which has issued from the 
British press. It is intended to include a description of 
all known flagellate, ciliate, and tentaculiferous Protozoa, 
British and foreign, and an account of the organisation 
and affinities of the Sponges. Each part (roy. 8vo in 
size) contains over 140 pages and eight plates. The 
general get-up of the work is magnificent, rather too 
much so for the poor student, already weighed down by 
the burden of the parts of Stein’s “ Infusionsthiere,” but 
very pleasant for the book fancier, and forming an im- 
posing shrine wherein to inclose the records of these 
early-life forms. 

The first five chapters (pp. 1-194) are introductory, | 
treating of the general history of the group: on the sub- 
kingdom Protozoa, on the nature and organisation of the 
Infusoria, on spontaneous generation, on the nature and 
affinities of the sponges. The sixth chapter treats of the 
systems of classifications of the Infusoria, adopted by 
various authorities, from the time of O. F. Miiller to the 
present date. The seventh chapter commences the 
systematic description of the Flagellata. The third part, 
just published, carries the work as far as the 432nd page 
and to the twenty-fourth plate. 


A Complete Course of Problems in Practical Plane 


Geometry .. . with an Introduction to Elementary 
Solid Geometry. A New, Revised, and Enlarged 
Edition. By J. W. Palliser. (London: Simpkin, 


Marshall, and Co., 1881.) 


THIS is a cheap manual, the cost of which can be easily 
met by any artisan desirous of studying the subject, while 
at the same time its contents enable it to fully satisfy the 
wants of all examinees in first, second, and third grade 
and similar papers of the Science and Art Department 
Examinations. The figures are very clearly drawn, well 
showing given, constructional and required lines ; the 
form of the page enables four propositions to be fully 
treated of with the accompanying figures in four spaces 
oneach page. In the constructions we do not look for 
novelty, but we have conciseness and great clearness 
generally prevailing. Here and there elegance of expres- 
sion is sacrificed to brevity (“for all the Government 
examinations, the requirements of which this is a text- 
book, the same rules will apply, with exception of Nos. 1 
and 6”). We have detected only three points which call 
for our notice : in Prop. 12 it strikes us as being simpler 
to use the same radius throughout, thus doing away with 
the necessity of taking two cases, as Mr. Palliser does ; in 
Prop. 37, ote, it is necessary to add how the point is 


obtained ; in Prop. 212 the letter E is made to do double 
com in the proof. We can confidently recommend the 
ook, 


Bericht tiber die Thiatigheit der Botanischen Section der 
Schlesischen Gesellschaft im Fahy 1877. Erstattet von 
Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Cohn. 


Most of the papers in this part are in abstract; a few 
however are given at some length, and are of considerable 
interest. The additions to the phanerogamous Flora of 
Silesia and the record of new localities for rare plants 
occupy a considerable part of the pamphlet. Perhaps 
the most interesting paper is that on the Date-palm and 
Palm-forest at Elche in Spain, by General von Schweinitz. 
The palms there grow to a height of from seventy-five to 
eighty feet. The plants grow for about 100 years, then 
become stationary, and next decay. Each tree bears 
from the fifth year two to five bunches of fruit, each with 
from 500 to 600 dates, the weight of dates yielded by one 
tree being sometimes three centners. Many of the papers 
in this part are contributed by Goeppert and Cohn, and deal 
with all departments of botany. Dr. Thalheim describes 
a series of models of diatoms made in paraffin and 
glycerine soap, which exhibited the structure of all the 
chief groups of this order of plants. + 


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. No 
notice ts taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that it 
ts impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.| . 


Dr, Carnelley’s Hot Ice 


THE remarkable observation made by Dr. Carnelley that ice 
in a vacuum is very permanent, even though surrounded by and 
apparently in contact with very hot bodies, has caused him to 
suppose and maintain that the ice itself is at a high temperature ; 
a supposition which has been apparently confirmed by preliminary 
calorimetric determinations. This proposition has naturally met 
with a good deal of scepticism, and certainly requires ample and 
cautious verification ; but I venture to think that there is nothing 
in it contradictory to our present knowledge of the properties of 
matter, though if verified (as, for the reasons to be stated, I fully 
believe it will be) it constitutes an important addition to that 
knowledge. 

The notions which have occurred to me have made the essential 
part of the phenomenon so much clearer to myself that I fancy 
they will not be uninteresting to your readers. 

By the term ‘‘ vapour-tension ” at a given temperature I mean, 
as I believe is usual, the pressure at which a liquid and a vapour 
can exist permanently together at that temperature, or the maxi- 
mum pressure which the vapour is able to exert at that tempera- 
ture, or the vapour pressure under which a liquid ceases to 
evaporate, or the total pressure at which it begins to boil. By 
the term ‘‘boiling-point ” I mean the temperature of a liquid 
under a total pressure equal to its vapour-tension. ‘ 

Now in order that a solid may sublime or pass directly into 
the vaporous condition without melting, it must be either at a 
temperature below the melting-point, so that no liquid attempts 
to form, or else at such a temperature that any liquid formed 
shall instantly evaporate ; which it would certainly do if it were 
above the boiling-point, that is if the total pressure on it were 
less than the vapour tension. ; 

A solid, under either of these circumstances, gives off vapour 
from its free surface at a rate depending on, but not necessarily 
proportional to, the supply of heat ; for there is no definite sub- 
liming point fora solid, any more than there is a definite eya- 
porating point for a liquid, so that the temperature of the solid 
need not remain constant. When a liquid is evaporating, the 
more you heat it the faster it evaporates, but not at a compen- 
sating rate, and the temperature rises as well: if this be true 
for a liquid, much more will it be true for a solid, whose 


Fan. 20, 1881 | 


NATURE 


265 


evaporation is always more encumbered, partly, no doubt, 
because its evaporating surface is a fixture, The only 
limit to the rise of temperature of a liquid is its boiling, but 
if this be prevented it may get superheated; and, [unless the 
solid boil (¢.e. disintegrate internally) it can become superheated 
to any extent. The possibility of this internal disintegration we 
will examine directly, but at present we will consider it practi- 
cally 77. Ne 

Let us grant then that a subliming solid always rises in tempe- 
rature if heated at a sufficient rate, and Dr. Carnelley’s proposition 
follows. 

We have seen that no liquid can exist at temperatures below 
its freezing- or above its boiling-point, so that if we wish to 
prevent the possibility of its existence, we need only make these 
two points.scoincide. This can always be done by diminishing 
the pressure, for the boiling-point of all substances is greatly 
affected by changes of pressure, while the freezing-} oint is only 


slightly altered, and even, in the case of ice, in: the opposite | 


direction. : ; : 
Start then with the solid below its melting-point, and reduce 


the pressure on it till the boiling-point coincides with, or passes 
below the melting-point. There is now no region where liquid 
can exist, and the solid must therefore sublime; but, by our 
supposition, a subliming solid if heated will get hot, hence the 
solid may now assume any temperature you please ; and the 
hotter it gets the more pressure may be brought to bear upon it 
without causing it to melt, z.e, the pressure may be allowed to 
increase to anything short of the vapour-tension at the new 
temperature. If heated sufficiently, then the whole atmospheric 
pressure may be let in, and no melting will occur. All that is 
necessary is that heat shall be supplied at a sufficient rate to 
compensate for the rapid evaporation (which however will not 
be so rapid as in the vacuum), and to prevent its temperature 
falling to the boiling-point ; for if it reached this, part (or all) 
would quickly liquefy, and the whole fall to (or towards) the 
melting-point. 

Thus we have the remarkable proposition that if, by the pro- 
cess of lowering the boiling-point to coincide with or pass below 
the melting-point, we manage to get ice across the gap which 
ordinarily separates the-e two points, it may be heated to 120° 
or to any other temperature; and that when at 120° it will be 
permanent, and will not melt even under the whole pressure of the 
atmosphere. To prevent its melting you must keep on heating 
it: if allowed to cool to 100’, five-eighths of it will be instantly 
crushed to water, and the whole will be at o° (assuming, what 
is not likely to be correct, that the specific heat of hot ice is 4). 

There is still the question of the possibility of internal melting 
or sublimation to be considered. 

Now I suppose that if a solid is perfectly homogeneous, a 
change of state in its interior would with great difficulty oceur, 
and the solid might readily be superheated. But an excess of 
pressure at any point, such as would be produced by a bubble of 
air, would readily determine a melting-centre. In Prof. Tyn 
dall’s ice-flower experiment the nuclei are probably minute 
bubbles of air, and the ice walls of the cavities so produced are 
subject to the pressure of this air in addition to that of the 
vapour ; and accordingly melting sets in and spreads. But Dr. 
Carnelley’s ice is formed 7 vaczo, so that no air-bubbles are pos- 
sible, and the only nuclei that can properly exist are little 
bubbles of enclosed vapour ; and these, [ imagine, can scarcely be 
absent. Let us inquire then what can bappen in the case of one 
of these bubbles when the temperature of the ice is raised either 
by radiation or conduction. Initially, while the temperature is 
constant, the vapour is saturated ; but no liquid is formed because 
this temperature is below the melting-point. When heat is 
applied, the ice, being less diathermanous than the vapour, will 
get heated first, and so long as the temperature keeps rising it will 
always be a little hotter than the vapour, which consequently is 
not quite saturated, and the pressure it exerts is less than the 
“‘vapour-tension” (ze. the temperature is above the boiling point), 
and no water can be formed. ‘The cavity will of course enlarge 
by sublimation, but very slowly, much more slowly in fact than 
outside, if a vacuum is there artificially maintained. 

But if cooling be permitted the ice will cool the fastest ; and 
the vapour at once becomes over-saturated and condenses, The 
temperature is now below the boiling-point, and liquefaction 
instantly sets in and rapidly spreads, the ice consuming its own 
heat in the process. 

Internal disintegration therefore will not occur while the tem- 
perature is rising, but it will set in at a great pace if it be allowed 


to become stationary or to fall, unless there be an utter absence 
of nuclei, If the temperature rises very high the pressure of the 


| internal vapour will of course be great, and ultimately might 


even. be able to burst the ice, but this would scarcely occur under 
several atmospheres. 

It would be interesting if Dr. Carnelley would kindly try the 
following experiments :— 

1. Heat ice 77 vacuo with a pressure gauge, and, still heating 
it, stop the passage to the condenser so that the pressure is 
allowed to accumulate, and note the pressure and temperature 
when collapse occurs. 

2, Heat ice up to any temperature, and, still maintaining a 
good vacuum, remove the supply of heat, and see if the ice does 
not collapse. 

3. Heat the ice up to 120°, and, still heating it, let in the atmo- 
sphere gently (but make the air come in through hot pipes, or it 
will melt the ice), and see if the ice does not last rather longer 
than it would have done in the vacuum, because the evaporation 
will be more obstructed. But if the second experiment succeed, 
the temperature must never be allowed to fall much or to remain 
stationary long, 

Finally, it is important to point out explicitly that the Carnelley 
experiment has no bearing on the change of the melting-point of ice 
with pressure. Our knowledge on this point remains asit was, viz. 


that the value of a about zero ceatigrade is — ‘0071 ; that is to 
G 


say, the melting-point rises and falls about ‘oo71° centigrade per 
atmosphere of pressure decrease or increase. 

Of course this number is not absolutely constant, but its varia- 
tion with pressure is very slight, and moreover has no bearing 
on the Carnelley experiment, as was naturally but erroneously 


.supposed by Prof, Pettersson in the Berichte (18), and T believe 


also by Prof. Ayrton at the Chemical Society, though I had not 
the pleasure of hearing his remarks. 
University College, London OLIVER J. LODGE 


Note.—W ith reference to the above second experiment and 
the reasoning which suggested it, it is important to remark that 
I have all along assumed that the vapour-tension of ice at any 
temperature is precisely the same as that of water at the same 
temperature. But Prof. Foster considers it possible that the 
vapour-tension of ice may be less than that of water, and would 
hence explain the permanence of vapour inside an ice-cavity 
without attending to whether the temperature were rising or falling, 
provided it were not falling too fast. This would be a most 
important fact to discover and verify ; but I think the Carnelley 
experiment in its present form does not inform us concerning its 
truth or falsity, 

Another thing it may be interesting to note is the rate of 
variation of boiling-point with pressure at different temperatures, 
which can be calculated on thermodynamic principles (after 
Prof. James Thomson) from empirical data for the latent beat 
of steam, and for the density of saturated steam at any tempe- 
rature, 

It is, at the temperature @ and the pressure 4,— 

do _ @ 

dp  273X °c008 X (796'2 — *695 0) 7p 
a fraction which has the value 28 at 100° C., and 2180 at o° C. : 
these numbers represent the rate of rise or fall of boiling- 
point in centigrade degrees per atmosphere increase or decrea<e, 

Integrating this equation, we get the value of the vapour- 
tension f of water in atmospheres (mezadynes per square centi- 
metre) at any absolute temperature @, viz :— 


ae (ie 318 i 1 ~1)} 
log’p = 9°1728 ) “695 log == + 7962 ( -) 5 


the logarithms being to the base e. 


On the Spectrum of Carbon 


I HAVE a great respect for Dr. Watts’s spectroscopic work, 
nevertheless the experiments he has described in NATURE, 
vol, xxiii. p. 197, appear to me singularly inconclusive for the 
purpose for which he has adduced them, How could any one 
expect to get a tube of gas free from hydrocarbons when the 
joints were of india rubber and melted paraffin? I have long 
since found it necessary to forego rubber joints if I would 
exclude hydrogen, Salet has shown that the hydrocarbons from 
the blowpipe-flame used in sealing in wires, &c., and the last 
traces of dust, can only be removed from tubes by burning them 
out in a current of oxygen. ut more than this, I have found 


266 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 20, 1881 


that even with joints’ all made by fusion of the glass it was well 
nigh impossible to get rid entirely of hydrogen. Mr. Crookes 
has, I believe, found that the last traces of moisture adhering to 
glass can only be expelled by heating to the softening point of 
the glass. This tallies with my own experience. In a series of 
experiments on the ultra-violet water spectrum I had occasion to 
photograph the spectra of sparks in sundry gases wet and dry, 
and found that in gases which had been passed through a tube 
full of phosphoric anhydride the water-spectrum still appeared 
strongly. Even when the gas had been passed very slowly 
through two tubes each half a meter long filled with calcium 
chloride, and then through a similar tube full of phosphoric 
anhydride, and the part of the tube where the wires were sealed 
had been heated strongly for a long time, while the current of 
gas was passing, traces of the water spectrum still often ap- 
peared. But Dr. Watts did not see the hydrogen lines in his 
tube, My difficulty has always been to avoid seeing them when 
the pressure of the gas was sufficiently reduced and a large 
condenser used with the induction coil. True: tubes of gas may 
not always show them even when hydrogen is known to be 
present. The spark takes a selected course of its own, and does 
not always light up all that is in the tube. Carbonic oxide does 
not generally show oxygen lines, and in tubes exhausted by a 
Sprengel pump the lines of mercury do not usually appear until 
the pumping has been carried far. A real test would be to see 
whether when the spark gives the line-spectrum of carbon the 
hydrogen lines do not also appear, The experiment with naph- 
thaline Prof. Dewar and I have repeated and discussed else- 
where, so I will say no more on it than this, that purity in 
regard to chemicals is a relative rather than an absolute quality, 
and that it is only from a long series of experiments chosen with 
a view to eliminate the effects of accidents of all kinds that any 
safe induction in this kind of spectroscopy can be reached. 
Cambridge, January 4 G, D. LiveInG 


[To save time we submitted Prof. Liveing’s letter to Mr. 
Watts, who sends the following reply.—ED. ] 


I SEE no reason why india-rubber stoppers may not be used in 
the construction of an apparatus to be filled with a gas a¢ atmo- 
spheric pressure, or nearly so. The case would be altogether 
different if we were concerned with the construction of a vacuum 
tube, and I take it that most of these statements of the difficulty 
of getting rid of the last traces of moisture and of hydrocarbons 
adhering to the glass refer to cases where the pressure is to be 
only a few millimetres. But when a current of cyanogen at 
atmospheric pressure, made from dried mercuric cyanide, is 
passed through a U-tube filled with phosphoric anhydride, the 
gas is surely dry to all intents and purposes (I do not say that the 
glass would not give off traces of moisture, &c., if the pressure 
were to be reduced to an extreme point); at least there can be 
so little hydrogen present in the tube that to ascribe the spectrum 
given by the tube to the hydrogen present in it is to adopt an 
extreme hypothesis, which must be supported by cogent experi- 
mental evidence before it can be accepted. 

But if the defect of the experiment be in the use of india- 
rubber there can be no great difficulty in constructing the appa- 
ratus entirely of glass, and if we are to give up the view that the 
groups 6 (5165 to 5082) and y (5635 to 5478) are due to carbon, 
it must be shown that they are not present in the spectrum of 
the spark in cyanogen at atmospheric pressure when sufficient 
precautions are taken to obtain the gas pure. I have never 
examined the spectrum of the spark in cyanogen without seeing 
them, and have every confidence that Prof. Liveing will still 
find them there after he has taken all the precautions he may 
think necessary. 

But admitting for the sake of argument the justice of Prof, 
Liveing’s contention that the cyanogen in my experiment con- 
tained a trace of hydrogen and that the naphthalin contained a 
trace of nitrogen, then this seems to be the theory offered for our 
acceptance—that the spark in nitrocarbon gas containing a trace 
of hydrogen gives the lines of hydrocarbon, and that the spark 
in hydrocarbon gas containing a trace of nitrogen gives the lines 
of nitrocarbon. Does Prof. Liveing hold doth of these hypotheses 
to be reasonable ? W. M. Watts 


Geological Climates 


‘THE letter of Prof. Haughton in last week’s NATURE so 
bristles with figures and calculations that some of your readers 


may feel a little puzzled and may be unable to detect the fallacies 
that lurk among them. The question is far too large a one to be 
fully discussed in your columns. I shall therefore confine myself 
to pointing out the erroneous assumptions and false inferences 
which vitiate all the learned Professor’s calculations, having done 
which my own theory will remain, so far, intact. 

The whole argument against me is based upon an ‘‘ ideal ice- 
cap,” extending from the Pole to lat. 60°. A considerable but 
unknown thickness is given to this imaginary field of ice, and it 
is then calculated that the three great ocean streams, even if 
admitted to the Arctic area in the manner I suggest, would not 
get rid of this mass of ice. There are however several important 
misconceptions and illozical deductions underlying the whole 
argument, and when these are exposed the results, however 
accurately worked out, become completely valueless. 

We first have it stated that if heat and cold were uniformly 
distributed over the Polar regions the whole would be per- 
manently frozen over, and an ice-cap be formed of great but 
varying thickness, diminishing from the Pole to about lat. 60°. 
But even this preliminary statement is open to serious doubt; for 
ice cannot be formed without an adequate supply of water, and 
over a large part of the Polar area no more snow falls than is 
annually melted by the sun and by warm southerly winds blowing 
over the heated land-surfaces of Asia and America, Admitting 
however that any such ice-cap could be formed, it would certainly 
not form in ove year but by the accumulations of a long series of 
years ; and any estimate of the /ofa/ heat required to melt it has 
no bearing whatever on the azxual amount that would be 
sufficient, since this depends solely on the av2rage thickness of 
the ice annually formed, of which Prof, Haughton says nothing 
whatever, 

The amount of rainfall in the Arctic regions (mostly in the 
form of snow) is certainly very small. It is estimated by Dr. 
Rink to be only twelve inches in Greenland, and this is probably 
far above the average. All that falls on the inland plains of 
Asia, Europe, and America is however melted or evaporated by 
the action of the sun and air far from the influence of the Gulf 
Stream, The thickness of ice formed annually over the whole 
area of the Arctic Ocean I have no means of estimating. In 
open water in very high latitudes it may be considerable, but 
perennial ice-fields can only increase very slowly. I should 
therefore very much doubt if the thickness of ice now formed 
annually over the whole Arctic area averages nearly so much as 
five feet ; and Prof. Haughton himself calculates that our own 
Gulf Stream is now capable of melting this quantity. 

The first assumption, therefore—that the amount of heat 
required to be introduced into the Arctic regions in order to raise 
their mean temperature above the freezing-point is ‘‘ accurately 
measured ” by the amount required to melt an ‘‘ice-cap ” covering 
the whole area to a thickness of several hundred feet—is grossly 
erroneous ; and it is so because it takes the hypothetical accumu- 
lated effects of many years Arctic cold under altogether impossible 
conditions, and then estimates the amount of heat required to 
melt this whole accumulation in ove year ! 

But we find a second and equally important error, in the 
assumption (involved in all Prof. Haughton’s arguments and 
figures) that all the ice of the alleged ‘‘ideal ice-cap”’ must be 
melted by that portion of the Gulf Stream which actually enters 
the Polar area, where its temperature is taken to be 35 F. or 
only 3° above the melting point of ice. A large quantity of the 
Arctic ice, however, even now floats southward to beyond lat. 50° 
in both the Atlantic and Pacific, and is melted by the warmer 
water and atmosphere and the hotter sun of these lower latitudes, 
Now, as it is an essential part of my theory that much of Northern 
Asia and North America were under water at those early periods 
when warm climates prevailed in the Arctic regions, it is clear 
that whatever Arctic ice was then formed would have a freer 
passage southwards, and as the south-flowing return currents 
would then have been more powerful and more extensive than at 
present, a much larger proportion of the ice would have been 
melted by the heat of temperate instead of by that of Arctic seas. 

Prof. Haughton admits that the Kuro Siwo and the Mozambique 
currents together, if they entered the Polar seas, would be equal to 
the melting of a layer of ice more than thirteen feet thick over 
the whole area down to lat. 70°. But if our own Gulf Stream 
is sufficient to get rid of the whole of the ice that now forms 
annually—as Prof. Hauzhton’s figures show that it would pro- 
bably be, and as it would be still more certainly were Greenland 
depressed, thus ceasing to be the great Arctic refrigerator and 
ice-accumulator—then the heat of the other two currents would 
be employed in raising the temperature of the Arctic seas above 


Fan. 20, 1881 } 


NATURE 


267 


the freezing-point ; and if we take the area of the water as 
about equal to that of the land, we shall have heat enough to 
raise the whole Arctic ocean to a depth of full 180 feet more 
than 20° F., or to a mean temperature of 52° F., and as this 
would imply a still higher surface temperature it is considerably 
more than I require. 

Unless therefore Prof. Haughton can prove that the amount 
of ice now forming avzually in the Polar regions is very much 
more than an average of five feet thick over the whole area, his 
own figures demonstrate my case for me, since they prove that the 
rearrangement of land and sea which I have suggested would 
preduce a permanent mild climate within the Arctic circle and 
proportionally raise the mean temperature of all north-temperate 
lands. 

Briefly to summarise my present argument :—Prof, Haughton’s 
fundamental error consists in assuming that the true way of 
estimating the amount of heat required in order to raise the 
temperature of the Polar area a certain number of degrees is,— 
first, to suppose an accumulation of ice indefinitely gveazer than 
actually exists, and then to demand heat enough to melt this 
accumulation anxnually. The utmost foss2d/e accumulations of 
ice in the Arctic area, during an indefinite saber of years, and 
under the most adverse physical conditions imaginable, are to be 
all melted in ove year ; and the heat required to do this is said 
to be the ‘‘accurate measure” of that required to raise the 
temperature of the same area about 20°, at a time when there 
were no such great accumulations of ice and when all the physi- 
cal conditions adverse to its accumulation and favourable to its 
dispersal were immensely more powerful than at present! 

When this fundamental error is corrected, it will be seen that 
Prof, Haughton’s calculations are not only quite compatible 
with my views, but actually lend them a strong support. 

ALFRED R, WALLACE 


By the courtesy of Mr. Ingram I am enabled to say that the 
tree at Belvoir supposed to be Araucaria Cunninghami is in 
reality, as surmised by Capt. King, Cunninghamia sinensis. 
The Cunninghamia is a native of Southern China, whence it 
has been introduced into Japan. In this country it was origin- 
ally grown under glass, but, as the instance at Belvoir illustrates, 
such protection is not absolutely requisite. The tree is however 
somewhat tender, and so far as I know has never produced its 
cones in this country in the open air. 

As to the Bamboos bardy in this country, it may be well to 
warn those who are not familiar with the plants not to expect to 
see the gigantic and rapidly-growing grasses that go under this 
name in the tropics. Rarely indeed do they attain in this country 
the dimensions even of the Avuxdo donax, so familiar to travellers 
in Italy. As accuracy of nomenclature is proved in this and the 
foregoing instance to be a matter of much moment, it may be 
well to say on the authority of the late General Munro that the 
Himalayan plant commonly grown in gardens as drundinaria 
falcata is more correctly called Thamnocalamus Palconeri, that 
the Bambusa gracilis of gardens is the true Arundinaria falcata 
of the Himalayas, and that the Japanese Bamdusa metaké is 
Arundinaria japonica. General Munro’s monograph of this 
group is to be found in the twenty-sixth volume of the Zyamsac- 
tions of the Linnean Society, part 1, 1868, while his remarks 
on the cultivated species may be found in recent volumes of the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, particularly in vol. vi. 1876, p. 773. 

The simultaneous flowering of Thammnocalamus Falconeri a few 
years ago in all parts of Europe created much attention, and was 
indeed a remarkable illustration of hereditary tendency mani- 
fested under very varied climatal conditions. The flowering 
of this grass was by no means looked on with unmixed gratifica- 
tion, as it entailed as a consequence the death or protracted 
enfeeblement of the plant. 

A visit to Kew or to any of our larger nurseries will suffice 
to show that there are other Bamboos (that is, grasses belonging 
to the group Gaméusee, if not true Bambusas) which are hardy 
enough to withstand even such rigorous winters as those of 
1878-9 and 1879-80. MAXWELL T, MASTERS 


Climate of Vancouver Island 


THE letters on this subject which have appeared in NATURE 
(vol. xxiii. pp. 147, 169), have reminded me of a ‘‘ Prize Essay 
on Vancouver Island. By Charles Forbes, Esq, M.D., 
M.R.C.S.Eng., Surgeon Royal Navy,” which was published by 
the Colonial Government in 1862. It consists of sixty-one 


closely-printed octavo pages and eighteen pages of Appendix ; 
the latter containing several Tables on the Meteorology of the 
Colony. 

The following is a portion of the ‘‘ Abstract of Meteorological 
Observations, taken at the Royal Engineer Camp, New West- 
minster, during the year 1861, by order of Col. R. C. Moody, 
R,E., Commanding the Troops. Lat. 49° 12’ 47” N., Long. 
122° 53 19’ W.” (p. 3, Appendix) :— 

Max. temp. of air in shade at 9.30 a.m., July 9, 74°3° F. 


” » 9 3-39 p-m. 5, 840 ,, 
Mean > 9.30 a.m. 48°8 ,, 
” ” ” 3-30 p.m. 52°2 55 
Min, = $5 9.30 a.m., Jan. 21, 20°0 ,, 


» 5 co 3.30 p.m., Dec. 23, 24°0 ,, 
Min. temp. on grass on January 21 LO;OMRs 
All the observations were made at 9.30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. 
daily throughout the year. WM, PENGELLY 
Torquay, January 6 


Dimorphic Leaves of Conifers 


It is now generally believed that some of the varying forms 
assumed by individual plants or animals in the course of their de- 
velopment are asit were the reflex of an ancestral state of things. 
From this point of view the different forms of leaves assumed by 
some Araucarias, as well as by many other conifers, become of 
particular importance. The Retinosporas now so common in 
our gardens and on our balconies represent an immature stage ot 
some Thuya, the proof of which statement is occasionally furnished 
by the plants which suddenly assume the foliage characteristic of 
that genus. In various species of juniper, notably in the Chinese 
juniper, two forms of leaf representing the juvenile and the adult 
condition occur together on the same branch, 

Assuming that the juvenile, or ‘‘ larval” forms, as they have 
been called, do really represent previous conditions in the history 
of the species, it might be expected that some of the fossil coni- 
fere would be characterised by the possession of this larval 
foliage to the exclusion of any other. But if I mistake not both 
forms of foliage have been met with in fossil as in recent conifers, 
and the pedigree of these plants is by so much the more pushed 
back. 

The resemblance in the form and arrangement of the adult 
leaves in some Thuyas and allied plants to the disposition of the 
leaves in Selaginella should not be overlooked in this connection 
nor the close resemblance between the foliage of some species of 
Lycopodium proper and the ‘‘ larval” leaves of many conifers 
as above referred to, MAXWELL T, MASTERS 


Dust and Fogs 


THE meteorological conclusions of Mr, Aitken’s important 
paper, published in NATURE, vol, xxiii, p. 195, will, if adopted 
without further examination, even temporarily, exercise an un- 
fortunate influence upon the present attempts to rid the atmo- 
sphere of our large towns of their ever-recurring fogs, glooms, 
and mists, and those conclusions certainly are not supported by 
such evidence as we already have as to the production of fogs on 
a great scale, however much indicated by experiments in the 
laboratory. It is stated that, ‘‘It having been also shown that 
all forms of combustion, perfect and imperfect, are producers of 
fog nuclei, it is concluded that it is hopeless to expect that, 
adopting more perfect forms of combustion than those at present 
in use, we shall thereby diminish the frequency, persistency, or 
density of our town fogs.” Now, first as to frequency : what are 
the facts with regard to localities differing in their methods or 
materials for producing heat? Every one living in or near 
London knows that fogs, thick mists, and dark days are far more 
frequent within than without its circumference, and _experi- 
ment has shown that sunshine is both less frequent and much 
less intense within the metropolis, And, according to Mr, 
Aitken’s theory, something of the same kind ought to be observed 
wherever large quantities of fuel are burned, whether smokeless 
or not. Thus, the large towns of the Continent, where wood 
and charcoal are in general use, would have their peculiar urban 
fogs. But they are free from any fogs beyond those which are 
common to the country. And Paris, before coal was much used, 
ought to have been distinguished by more frequent fogs than the 
surrounding country. But it was not so marked out. No oasis 
of fog prevailed there when the sun shone brightly beyond its 
precincts, as in our own capital, And Philadelphia, which burns 


268 


NATURE 


[Fan. 20, 1881 


anthracite, ought not to rejoice in a pure and transparent 
atmosphere. 

Similarly, the South Wales coal and iron districts would be 
centres of fog-clouds and mist, like Birmingham and Newcastle. 
But they are as free from fog as the “purely pastoral valleys of 
Wales. 

Next, as to persistency. Early in the morning of January 31 
last, in some districts of London the fog extended considerably 
above the tops of the houses, in others only about ro or 20 feet 
from the ground in any intensity. Where the fog extended high 
the smuke mixed with it and produced a yellow fog, but where 
it remained low the smoke escaped into the upper air and drifted 
away, leaving a white fog below, so pure as to be a very unusual 
phenomenon at 10 a.m. in a London street. Now it was remark- 
able, that wherever the white fog prevailed in the morning, the 
sun soon obtained the mastery and dispelled it more or less, but 
in the smoke-obscured districts a dark yellow fog continued 
throughout the day. 

White fogs may doubtless be exceedingly dense. 
an admixture of smoke increase its density ? 

A humid atmosphere is not necessary for the production of 
mist and haze. The frequent long-continued prevalence of blue 
haze over the whole country, not excepting the east coasts, in the 
driest east winds of spring, would be a subject deserving investi: 
gation. They sometimes extend to a height much above the 
tops of our highest mountains. Experiments such as those of 
Mr. Aitken will, we may hope, ultimately solve this problem of 
meteorology. R. RussELL 


But will not 


Low Temperature 


THE reading of the thermometer here last night, January 15, 16, 
was the lowest ever recorded at this observatory in the course of 
thirty-three years. The reading was 4°6 F., the previous 
minimum having occurred on December 24, 1860, when the 
mercury stood at 6°°7 F. S. J. Perry 

Stonyhurst Observatory, January 16 


A “Natural” Experiment in Polarised Light 


BREAK off a plate of ice and hold it between the sky and a 
pool of water. Its reflected image will show the beautiful 
colours due to polarised light. The incident rays should come 
from a part of the sky about go” from the sun, and reflection 
should take place at the polarising angle for water, and the plate 
will probably require adjusting to bring out the maximum effect. 
Water, vaporous, solid, and liquid, thus furnishes us with polariser, 
crystal, and analyser I do not remember to have read any 
account of this very simple experiment, for which Nature provides 
all the materials. Cuas. T, WHITMELL 

9, Beech Grove, Harrogate, January 10 


STATICS AND DYNAMICS OF SKATING 


iho (oS years ago, when skating was but in its infancy. 

skates were made of bone, and if they could be 
made to stay on the feet they were considered to answer 
their purpose sufficiently well. 

More recently iron runners with wooden beds came into 
use, and accuracy of adjustment on the foot, horizontally 
and longitudinally, was made easier by means of leather 
straps and a screw passing into the heel of the boot ; and 
these adjustments, made haphazard, were quite sufficient 
for the skating of those days, namely forward skating. 

Within the last twenty years however skating has made 
enormous strides, back skating becoming an essential 
qualification of a finished skater; and hence not only 
more perfect forms of s‘:ate are demanded from the 
maker, but also the adjustment of them on the boot be- 
comes an important part of his duty. 

There are three points to be attended to in the adjust- 
ment of the s\ate, besides the obvious one of placing the 
skate medially on the foot. 

1. Height of foot off the ice where the greatest breadth 
of the sole of boot occurs. 

2. Height of foot off ice at the heel. 

3. Position of the skate longitudinally or lengthwise 
on the foot. 


First. The height of the foot from the ice should be 
such as will enable the skater to lean over sufficiently 
when on a curve, and such that he may be able to geta 
powerful enough stroke. If he is too low the edge of the 
boot will come in contact with the ice in leaning overt 
and also in taking a stroke: a fall ensuing in the firs, 
case, and a disagreeable and dangerous overstrain in the 
second. To avoid these the sole of the boot should sub- 
tend an angle at the bottom of the runner of about 96 
deg. z.e. for a sole 33 inches broad the edge of the runner 
should be 14 inch from the sole, instead of varying from 
12 to 1} inch, which are the heights of skates commonly 
met with, 

This angle of 96 deg. will be found to clear the ice in 
both striking and leaning over for most skaters, and any 
greater height than is given by this angle should not be 
used, as it is not necessary, and only throws an additional 
strain on the ankle. 

Second. The height at the sole having been fixed, the 
next point is what should be the height at the heel? In 
fact is the foot to be parallel to the skate, or is it to rest 
on an incline? 

Dove was the first person, in his ‘ Skater’s Monitor,” 
published in Edinburgh in 1846, to write on the position 
of the skate on the foot, summing up his remarks by 


saying, “Level woods then are for shoes whose heels 
Fig.6. bf 3 Fig. Fig.2. 
es af ee 2 
Fig. 7. eo if 
a ae yk 


VE 


and soles are equally prominent, but high heels must be 


sunk into the skate-woods.” This was quite correct at 
that time, when back skating was little practised, and 
when the skate which was then worn was made very flat, 
in fact almost straight at and near the heel. Now, by 
universal consent for figure-skating, the iron is made a 
segment of a single circle from toe to heel, 73 feet 
being the radius. Yet, notwithstanding these changes, 
Vandervell and Witham, as lately as January, 1880, in 
their “Figure Skating,’’ recommend the very same 
parallelism of the foot to the skate instead of parallelism 
of the top of the blade to the ice, as it should be for 
modern skating, as I shall subsequently show. 

In Fig. 1 is shown the result of adopting Dove’s or 
Vandervell and Witham’s position, ze. no heel. It 
might be thought that a person standing on a curve 
would balance comfortably at the middle of the curve, 
but this cannot be, for a person standing naturally on a 
level surface does not distribute the weight of his body 
equally over the length of his foot, but by far the greater 
part comes on the heel, and therefore the centre of pres- 
sure of his body is nearer the heel than the toe, and con- 
sequently if he is standing on a curve the curve must roll 
up in front and down behind till the upward pressure of 
the ice just passes through the centre of pressure of his 
body. The point of contact of the skate on the ice will 
therefore not only be much behind the centre of the 
skate, but will be a little behind the centre of pressure of 
his body when standing on a level surface, as he now 


Fan. 20, 1881 | 


NATURE 


269 


rests on an incline. Of course the footstocks of the 
skates being too low behind would produce the same 
effect as too low a heel to the boot, z.e. throw the balance 
too far back. EME 

Fig. 2 shows the position the skate will have on the ice 
if the heel is too high, z.e. the centre of pressure is thrown 
too far forward, and consequently the skate must roll up 
behind in order to get the proper balance. 

In Fig. 3 is shown a skate in the proper position on the 
ice, z.c. with the heel raised so high as to throw the centre 
of pressure on the centre of the foot and skate. 

The proper height of the heel of the boot to obtain this 
result will depend on whether the footstocks of the skates 
are level, as they ought to be, and the exact height will 
vary with different individuals, depending fon whether 
they naturally stoop or lean well back, and probably also 
onthe boots they are in the habit of walking in, and 
therefore can only be determined accurately by trial ; but 
a half-inch heel is by no means too low for most persons. 

Third. With regard to the adjustment of the skate 
longitudinally, Figs. 4 and 5 will show the obvious effects 
of not fixing the skate properly on the foot ; in Fig 4 the 
skate being put too far forward, and in Fig. 5 too far 
back. 

Having now shown how to procure the balance on any 
desired part of the skate, it only remains to be shown 
why the [position of the skate, with the balance on the 
centre as in Fig. 3, is the proper one; and as the effects 
of the various positions are most evident in skating turns, 
I shall confine myself entirely to them, commencing by 
giving the theory of turns, which I believe has never been 
satisfactorily explained. 

It is impossible in a few words to describe accurately 
and fully the forces which come into action in making a 
turn, but my object will be attained by describing what 
I consider the basis of the whole theory of turns, namely, 
that a turn is not a twist round of the body made by the 
skater at the moment of the turn, but the turning round 
of the body is the result of a reaction of the ice on the 
skater caused by his putting his skate (by rolling on to 
the toe or heel) in such a position as to make that part 
of the skate bite or grip the ice, producing a force oppo- 
site, though not directly opposed, to his direction of mo- 
tion, but parallel to it. The direction of this reaction is 
shown by the arrow a in Fig. 6, and being exerted at 
some distance from the body, it necessarily tends to turn 
the body round in the direction of the arrow 4. It will be 
evident that the greater the distance of the point of appli- 
cation of this force from the curve the skater is describ- 
ing, the greater will be the cowf/e tending to turn round 
the body. 

This action can be shown by means of a disk of lead ¢, 
in Fig. 8, with a light rod through it. If this be made to 
roll on a table, and a force be applied to the rod at @ by 
means of the finger, the action of reversing the body and 
preserving the same inclination will be distinctly shown. 
Suppose the skater then about to make a back turn, and 
that he balances near the heel of his skate as in Dove’s plan, 
then, as he can only roll a very little further back, as he is 
already on the heel of his skate, the leverage, and hence 
the couple tending to turn him round, will be almost 7/7, 
the cusp he makes being of the shape shown in Fig. 7, 
instead of being of the shape shown in Fig. 6, and conse- 
quently if he is to turn round in time he must give his 
body a wrench round, which is of course very inelegant, 
and very difficult to accomplish. If the balance is on the 
heel the cusps of the forward turns are much larger than 
the cusps of the back turns, thereby tending to make 
the back turns more difficult than is necessary; but even 
with the balance on the centre of the skate back turns will 
be more difficult than forward turns, as the formation of 
our bodies prevents the bending up of the foot more than 
a few degrees, even with a boot off, whereas we can bend 
it down 40 deg. easily. 


With the balance on the centre of the skate back turns 
can be performed without any wrench or swing of the leg— 
a thing that is physically impossible if the balance is on 
the heel, as it must be in Dove’s or Vandervell and 
Witham’s plan. CHARLES ALEX. STEVENSON 


JOHN DUNCAN; THE ALFORD WEAVER AND 
BOTANIST 


©* the last day of 1880 the University of Aberdeen 

was presented with a herbarium of 1131 specimens 
of the British Flora, gathered, preserved, named, and 
localised by an aged country weaver who lives near 
Alford in Aberdeenshire. He is no ordinary man, as the 
accumulation of such a botanical collection is alone 
sufficient to prove. It represents a portion only of the 
scientific labours of nearly fifty years—for much of these 
have been destroyed by time and the moth. This 
remarkable man, who is now a pauper on the parish 
which has been the scene of his unextinguishable scien- 
tific enthusiasm, should be better known to the scientific 
world, and a short sketch of his life and labours may not 
be unacceptable to the readers of NATURE. 

John Duncan was born on December 24, 1794, so that 
he is now in his eighty-seventh year. His parents were 
very poor, and could afford him only the merest rudiments 
of even the three R’s as then taught, for his education 
had to be sacrificed to the pressure of penury. He learnt 
to read by laboriously spelling his way through the text 
in church; his writing has ever been very rude, but dis- 
tinct; and his spelling is such an example of the phonetic 
as would delight Mr. Pitman. He was early sent to work 
and became a “customer weaver,’’ making into cloth the 
flax and wool sent to his home by his neighbours, and 
such he has remained ever since. He married early in 
life, and had a son and two daughters ; but his wife died 
more than thirty years ago, and all his family have gone, 
he remaining as the sole survivor. During the greater 
part of his long life he has dwelt in the valley of the Don, 
near Alford, and for nearly thirty years in the same 
cottage at Droghsburn, in the pleasant hollow of the 
Leochel, five miles above that village. This cottage 
forms one end of a line of dwellings, the other belonging 
to a ditcher’s family who prepare his simple meals. He 
occupies a single room, filled with the looms and other 
implements of his trade, open to the thatched roof, his 
bed resting on some deals laid across the rafters, and 
reached by means of a ladder. In this narrow space 
John Duncan has lived for twenty-eight years, a solitary 
man, in serene contentment, upright and religious, work- 
ing laboriously for an honest living, cheered only by the 
friendship of a few, his love of books and his devotion to 
the study of plants, which he has prosecuted with a 
single-minded enthusiasm that is as rare as it is beautiful. 
I visited him about three years ago and spent two days 
in his company, having long wished to do so from what I 
had heard of him from his dearest friend and fellow 
student, Charles Black. I found him in good health, 
working hard at his craft with sturdy and admirable 
independence, visited only by afew disciples whom he 
had inspired with a love of himself and the plants, 
unknown, self-contained, and happy even on the verge of 
want. I examined his plants, talked of their history and 
the crowding memories they recalled of countless wander- 
ings in their search, saw his books on botany, theology, 
and general literature, which are unusually numerous and 
costly for a poor man, conversed with him on many sub- 
jects, chiefly connected with his studies, and his intimacy 
with Charles, whose friendship is now the chief comfort 
of his age; and I left him charmed, inspired and rebuked 
by his life, character, enthusiasm and wise contentment, 
the result of unwearied devotion to higher pursuits. 

Some interest in the solitary student was roused by an 


270 


NATURE 


| Fan, 20, 1881 


account I then gave of him. This account appeared in 
Good Words for April, May, and June, 1878, with pictures 
of himself and his cottage. It has recently been incor- 
porated in whole into “ Leaders of Men,’ by H. A. Page 
(Marshall, Japp, and Co., London); and he was visited 
by not a few kindly spirits whose open-handedness 
lightened somewhat the growing pressure of age and 
want. Since then he has worked at his loom, winning his 
daily bread with heroic struggle, till a short time ago, 
when decaying power andjsome paralytic touches, in his 
eighty-sixth year, compelled him reluctantly to give it up 
andiremove from his small but honourable workshop and 
study to be kindly tended by the ditcher’s widow. Many 
years ago his hard-won earnings—for he was always a 
most careful man—were dissipated through domestic 
causes over which he had no control, attended with heavy 
griefs. Since then his growing age has barely enabled 
him to live more than from hand to mouth, and now for 
some time he has had to do what must be inexpressibly 
keen to an independent soul like his, to accept trom the 
parish a pauper’s portion. 

From his earliest days, when he used to play upon the 
green cliffs of the high conglomerate coast of Kincardine, 
John Duncan had an intense love of plants, and long 
before he began their scientific study collected them for 
their medicinal uses, guided by Culpepper’s ‘‘ Herbal.” 
It was not till he was forty years of age, when he was 
introduced in 1835 to Charles Black, that he commenced 
the study of botany as a science. Charles was a remark- 
able man, of great individuality and ability, and though 
twenty years his junior, at once gained over him an 
ascendency of the best kind, and inspired him with an 
ardent friendship that has been the sweetest solace of his 
long solitude. He still lives as the gardener he was then, 
a botanist, geologist, ornithologist, numismatist, scientific 
student, theologian, and omnivorous reader at Arbigiand 
in Dumfries, near the mouth of the Nith. When these 
two men met, Charles was settled as gardener near 
Alford, and under his guidance John at once began the 
systematic study of botany. They soon conquered the 
flora of the Vale of Alford ; the curious peak of Ben-a-chie, 
where they found at an early date the Azbus chamemorus, 
or cloudberry, being a favourite haunt. John, having his 
time, as a home weaver, more at his own command, by 
and by extended his excursions to greater distances, and 
before very long did the most of the county. The 
enthusiasm with which these two humble men prosecuted 
their studies was wonderful, the morning light often 
surprising them at their work of classifying, drying, and 
arranging their accumulating treasures. The want of 
text-books of the science was sorely felt by them, and 
excited them to ingenious devices to supply it; a certain 
country inn, for example, being frequented by them, not 
for convivial purposes, but to obtain a sight of “ Hooker,” 
which had belonged to the innkeeper’s dead son. The 
details of John’s continued studies under poverty, diffi- 
culty, and trial are interesting and honourable, but these 
cannot be given here. In order to extend his knowledge 
of botany and the flora of Scotland he used to take 
harvest work in different parts of the country, studying in 
succession the plants of each district, till he had in this 
way traversed the most of the land from Northumberland 
to Banff, except some parts of the West and the High- 
lands; bringing home specimens living and dead, 
planting the one in his own neighbourhood, and adding 
the other to his rapidly-increasing herbarium. His 
knowledge of plants was minute and scientific, and the 
abundant technical terms were used with ease and in- 
telligently understood by the help of a Latin dictionary he 
had purchased for the purpose ; nor was it confined to mere 
technicalities, but extended to an unusual acquaintance 
with their habits, history, and uses. His collection of 
botanical works is surprisingly large and valuable, all 
purchased by his own hard-won earnings. His memory 


being as strong as his use of the pen was weak, he did 
not write down any details of the plants thus collected, 
but he could tell all these when asked with unerring 
precision, as well as relate the varied incidents, inter- 
esting, humorous, happy or hard, connected with their 
discovery. The names and localities have however been 
successfully obtained from him and written down, by the 
help of one of his disciples, Mr. J. M. B. Taylor, of 
Aberdeen, who prepared the herbarium for the University. 

John kept his collection neatly laid down in volumes 
made by himself of newspapers of the period, of tea 
paper, which he thought a good protection against moths, 
and of other homely materials scented with camphor. 
Many of them of course decayed or were destroyed 
during the forty and more years they were in his 
possession, but even after discarding all imperfect 
specimens there remained 1131 plants now fully named, 
localised, and arranged by Mr. Taylor from John’s 
unfailing memory. They are divided in four books, put 
together by John himself. 

1. A general collection of some 500 specimens includ- 
ing ferns arranged according to the Linnazan system, 
100 of which are described by Prof. Dickie, author of the 
“Flora of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine,” as rare or 
very rare. 

2. An almost perfect collection of the flora of the Vale 
of Alford, many of the plants now uncommon. 

3. Specimens of about 50 of the grasses from the Alford 
district. 

4. Specimens of some 50 of the Cryptogamia of the 
district, chiefly mosses and lichens. 

John never possessed above a few of ¢he very rarest of 
our British plants, not having visited the higher moun- 
tains and outlying regions where only such are found, but 
had been fortunate in obtaining a large number of local 
and very local, rare and very rare species. They were 
mainly found along the eastern half of the country from 
Banff to Northumberland, excluding the Highlands. 

Such is a very slight sketch of the life and labours of 
this remarkable weaver. The presentation of his herbarium 
has revealed the sad fact that, independent and toil-worn 
as he has ever been, even to nigh eighty-six, he has been 
lately compelled to bear the pain and shame of depending 
on the parish for his daily bread. His books are of value, 
and would alone fetch a considerable sum; but these, the 
dear companions of his life, he cannot bring himself to 
part with, though now unable to enjoy more than a sight 
of them. His beloved plants he would not barter for 
heaps of gold, and he has therefore presented them to 
Aberdeen University, there, it is to be hoped, not only to 
do good educational work, but to exercise an inspiring 
impulse over many generations of students privileged to 
examine these far-fetched treasures. 

An appeal has recently been publicly made in favour of 
the aged botanist, to enable him to spend his few remain- 


| ing days in comfort and independence, supported by the 


free-will offerings of the scientific and generous, which 
have been amply won by scientific work admirably 
achieved. Scientific societies throughout the country 
could not better aid research than by recognising his 
merit, and making a contribution for such a worthy 
object. Shortly after my account of him in Good Words 
the Largo Field Naturalists’ Club elected John an 
Honorary Member, and the same has been recently done 
by the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club, which 
also made a donation to him of 52, examples that might 
be honourably followed by other societies. A lively 
interest has been excited in his case, and has been 
already substantially expressed. It is devoutly to be 
hoped that such a man will not be allowed to go down to 
his grave dishonoured and neglected." 
WILLIAM JOLLY 

t Subscriptions may be sent to William Jolly, H.M. Inspector of Schools, 

Inverness. 


Fan. 20, 1881 | 


THE INDO-CHINESE AND OCEANIC RACES— 
TYPES AND AFFINITIES} 
IV. 

HERE are the Raja of Gorontalo, N. Celébes (Fig. 22), 

the chief of Sendegeassi, S. Nias, West Coast Sumatra 
(Fig. 23), and two natives of Jilolo (Fig. 24), all sup- 
posed to be more or less typical Malays whom it will be 
profitable to compare with Figs. 19, 20, 21, representing 
the Caucasian pre-Malay or Indonesian element in the 
Archipelago. In Fig. 25 we have Mohamed-Yamalal- 
Alam, Sultan of the Sulu Archipelago. who was compelled 
to accept Spanish supremacy in 1876. He is a pure 
Malay about thirty-four years old, like most of his sub- 
jects presenting a fine type far superior to that of the 
Malays of Malacca. Yet the Mongoloid element is un- 
mistakably betrayed, especially in the high cheek-bones, 
presenting such a striking contrast to the regular European 
features of the Indonesians (see Figs. 19, 20, and 21). The 
portrait is from a photograph forwarded to France by 
MM. Montano and Rey, and originally published in La 
Nature, April 3, 1880. 

But if we must speak with great hesitation and much re- 
serve of a common Malay type, we can speak all the more 
confidently not only of a common Malay speech, but of a 
common “ Malayo-Polynesian,” and even of a common 
Indo-Pacific speech. Indeed the chief objection to the 
linguistic expression Malayo-Polynesian is that it is no 
longer sufficiently comprehensive. In the alternative 
Indo-Pacific, which, on the analogy of Indo-European, I 
have proposed as a substitute, the first component must 
be taken in two senses, so as to include both the Indian 
Ocean and a portion of Further India. When Fr. Miller 
wrote: “So much remains certain, and will never by the 
most brilliant and cogent reasonings be disproved: the 
Malayo-Polynesians are connected with no Asiatic people,” 
he had in his mind not so much the “ Malayo-Polynesian 
race” as the Malayo-Polynesian language. In this sense 
the statement was true enough according to his lights. In 
common with other eminent philologists he entirely over- 
looked Cambojan, or from insufficient data probably 
regarded it as a monosyllabic-toned language allied to the 
Indo-Chinese family. He consequently considered it as 
fundamentally distinct from the Malayo-Polynesian group, 
which is admittedly polysyllabic and untoned. But we 
have already seen in Section IV. that Cambojan or 
Khmér is not a member of the Indo-Chinese family, and 
that it is polysyllabic and untoned, like all other known 
forms of speech. In the above-quoted paper “On the 
Indo-Chinese and Inter-Oceanic Races and Languages” 
(pp. 15-22) I further show that the true affinities of Khmér 
are with the Malayo-Polynesian tongues, the whole 
forming a vast linguistic family stretching from Mada- 
gascar to Easter Island, west and east, from Hawaii to 
New Zealand, north and south, and with its basis still 
resting on the Indo-Chinese peninsula, where it originated, 
and whence it has been diffused throughout the Oceanic 
area withthe migrations of the Mongolo-Caucasian races. 
Here it has long reigned supreme, continually encroaching 
upon and surrounding, as in so many detached enclaves, 
the diverse Negrito and Papiian tongues, but itself now 
threatened with extinction by the advancing Siamese and 
Annamese on the mainland, and by the still more 
aggressive English in Polynesia. 

All the arguments establishing the intimate connection 
of the Cambojan and Malayan languages need not be 
repeated ; but that based on the principle of modifying 
infixes has attracted so much attention, and is in itself so 
interesting, that the readers of NATURE will perhaps be 
glad to have it here resumed :— 

“Common to the Khmér and Malaysian tongues is 
one feature so peculiarly distinctive as of itself alone 
almost sufficient to establish their common origin. This 
is the use of identical infixes, which, though forming a 


* Continued from p. 251. 


NATURE 


275 


marked characteristic of Khmér, Malay, Javanese, Tagala, 
Malagasy, and other members of this group, has not yet 
been generally recognised, . . . The infixes in question 
are always the same, the liquids 7 and x, and even mn, 
with or without the connecting vowels a, 0 with m; a, Z 
with z, Thus :— 


IN KHMER: mm, am, om, mn, n. 
Slap, dead ; samlap, to kill. 
Sruoch, pointed ; samrudch, to point. 
Thleak, to fall; tomleadk, to throw down. 
Rolém, to fall; romlom, to knock down. 
Chereap, to know; chumreiap, to show, teach, make known. 
Kur, to draw; Komnur, a design. 
Srek, to cry; samrek, a shout. 
Ché, to share; chamnek, a part or portion. 
Sauk, to corrupt; samnauk, a bribe. 
Pram, to publish ; bamram, a notice. 
Pang, to wish; bamnang, a wish. 
Rep, to confiscate ; rombep, seizure, thing seized. 
Ar, tosaw; Anar, a saw. 


IN MALAGASY: 77, om. 
Hanina, food ; homana, to eat. 
Tady, twisted, a rope; tomady, strong, 
Taratra, glaring ; tomaratra, transparent. 
Safotra, overflown ; somafotra, brimful. 
Sany, likeness ; somany, like. 
Safy, spying ; somafy, sight of distant object. 
Vidy and vinidy, bought, 
Vaky and vinaky, broken. 


IN MALAYSIAN : uw, Gm, in. 
Javanese. 
Rayah, to bereave ; rinaya, to be bereft. 


Hurub, flame ; humurub, to flame. 

Balinbin, a small fruit; binalinbin, a round gem. 
Tagala. 

Basa, to read ; bumasa, to make use of reading. 

Kapatir, brother ; kinapatir, brotherly. 

Tapay, to knead ; tinapay, bread. 

Guntin, shears ; gamuntin, to cut with shears. 


Malay. 
Palu, to beat ; pamalu, a club. 
Pukul, to strike ; pamukul, a hammer. 
Sipit, to grasp ; sinipit, an anchor, 
Padam, to extinguish ; pamadam, an extinguisher. 
Pilih, to choose ; pamilihan, choice” (pp. 20-1). 


This characteristic, of which nothing but the faintest 
echoes occur in any other linguistic system, is obviously 
one that is incapable of being borrowed, as prefixes and 
suffixes may occasionally be borrowed. Hence it must 
be regarded as an organic principle developed in the 
primitive speech before its differentiation into the various 
Oceanic branches, whose common origin seems thus to 
be established beyond question. The theory of such a 
remarkable feature being evolved independently at several 
points in this linguistic area and in no other cannot be 
seriously entertained. 

Here therefore we have one type of speech everywhere 
common to two racial types, and the question arises, how 
all the Malayan peoples have come to speak exclusively 
polysyllabic untoned tongues, while their nearest kindred, 
the Mongoloid peoples of Indo-China, still speak exclusively 
monosyllabic toned languages. To explain this pheno- 
menon we must remember that, as already pointed out, 
the polysyllabic-speaking Caucasians preceded the mono- 
syllabic-speaking Mongols both in Farther India and in 
the Archipelago. Hence when the Mongols quitted the 
mainland they found the islands occupied by the Cau- 
casians, with whom they amalgamated, and whose speech 
they adopted. Similar instances, though perhaps not on 
such a large scale, have occurred often enough elsewhere, 
even in historic times. Thus the Mongolo-Tatar Aima‘s 
and Hazaras of North Afghanistan all now speak 


av? 
a 


Persian; the Ugro-Finnic Bulgarians have been Slavon- 
ised in speech since the tenth century ; the Northmen of 


the Lower Seine valley entirely forgot their Norse tongue | 


within two generations, and many of the early English 
settlers in Ireland rapidly became “ Hiberniores ipsis 
Hibernicis,’’ more Irish than the “‘ Irishry’’ themselves. 
Special causes, arising from the utterly antagonistic 
nature of toned and untoned languages, must have accele- 


Fic. 22,—Malayan Type, Celebes. King of Gorontalo. 


rated the process of assimilation in Malaysia, where | 


nevertheless its universality still remains a remarkable 
circumstance. For it is undoubtedly surprising that not 
a single Malay community should have succeeded in 
retaining its original monosyllabic speech, and still more 
surprising to find that every trace of monosyllabism had 
already disappeared, at least from Java, Madura, and 
Bali some two thousand years ago. The old Kawi 


Fic. 24.—Malayan Types, 


many others, community of speech in no way involves 
community of descent, for we have just seen that the 
language now spoken by the Malay races was in all 
probability imposed upon them by their Caucasian pre- 
decessors in the Archipelago. On the other hand there 


NATURE 


Jilolo. 


| Fan. 20, 1881 


| 
| language current in those islands and reduced to writing 
by the Buddhists at that remote period is as genuine 
|a polysyllabic tongue as its modern representatives, 
Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, and Balinese. 
The eastern or Sawaiori branch differs greatly from the 


| 


| 


Fic. 23 —Malayan Type, Sumatra. Chief of Sendegeassi, Nias Island. 


western or Malaysian, with which it has now really little 
in common beyond the fundamental elements. But these, 
after a separation of probably many thousand years, are 
still numerous enough to establish beyond all doubt their 
primeval unity. In this instance, however, as in so 


Mother and Daughter, Dodinga. 


is no reason to suppose that the Eastern Polynesians ever 
spoke any other than their present language, its resem- 
blance to the Malay being due not to their relationship 
with the Malay people, but with the Indonesian Cauca- 
| sians, from whom the Malays borrowed their speech. 


— 


Fan. 20, 1881 | 


NATURE 


2 


o 


27 


Like the other members of the family Sawaiori is agglu- 
tinating, but it occupies a very primitive or undeveloped 
position in that order of speech. Thus it betrays very 
slight traces of the infix principle, but it possesses as a 
prefix the same particle »a, which in Cambojan and its 
Malaysian congeners appears as an infix. In Samoan, 
for instance, faz = to do, but mafai = to be able; 
sasa‘a = to spill, masa‘a = spilt ; “ig? = to pour out, 
maligi = to be poured out ; fas7 = to split, mafas¢ = to 
be split off; faé = to break, mafati = to be easily 
broken ; /ola to spread out, mafola = 

to be spread out; ygaegae = to shake, rite 
magaegae = to be loose; goto = to sink, ; 
magoto = to be sunk or waterlogged, and 
so on, generally in an intransitive or passive 
sense. 

But the chief peculiarity of the Sawaiori 
tongues is their extremely simple phonetic 
system, comprising no more than fifteen 
letters (five vowels and ten consonants), with 
no closed syllables or combinations of two 
or more consonants without an intervening 
vowel. Hence the strange forms assumed by 
English and other European words in the 
mouths of the natives. When he visited 
Tahitiin 1769 to observe the transit of Venus, 
Cook tells us that “after great pains they 
found it utterly impossible to teach the 
Indians to pronounce their names... . 
They called Capt. Cook, Toote ; Mr. Hicks, 
Hete ; Molineux they renounced in absolute 
despair, and called the master Boba, from 
his Christian name Robert; Mr. Gore was 
Toarro; Dr. Solander, Torano; and Mr. 
Banks, Tapane; Mr. Green, Eteree; Mr. 
Parkinson Patini; Mr. Sporing, Polini ; 
Petersgill, Peterodero; and in this manner 
they had now formed names for almost every 
man in the ship” (Fzrs¢ Voyage). 

To resume: in the Indo-Chinese and 
Oceanic regions we have altogether five dis- 
tinct types—three dark (Negrito, Paptan, 
and Austral, with the doubtful Tasmanian), 
one yellow (Mongolian), and one brown 
(Caucasian). These, with their various rami- 
fications and interminglings, give the seven 
main divisions of our scheme, which may 
now be expanded and complemented as 
under. Here, for reasons fully specified, 
the familiar term “‘ Malayo-Polynesian” dis- 
appears, and Malay itself sinks to the position 
of a variety of the Mongolian type.  Al- 
though grouped with the Oceanic branch of 
this division, it should be noted that the 
Malays also occupy most of the peninsula 
of Malacca. But they seem to be intruders 
in this region, the true aborigines of which 


B.—CAUCASIAN TYPES (Fair and Brown) 


IV. CONTINENTAL BRANCH.—Khmeér or Cambojan Group : 
Khmers proper, Khmérdom, Charay, Stieng, Cham, 
Banhar, Xong, Khang, &c. 


V. OcEANIC BRANCH.— Indonesian Group: Battas of 
Sumatra, Dyaks of Borneo and Celebes, some “Al- 
furos” of Ceram and Gilolo, Mentawey Islanders. 
Sawaiori or Eastern Polynesizn Group: Samoa, 
Tonga, Tahiti, Marquesas, Tuamotu, Maori, Hawaii, 
Tokelau, Ellice. 


are the Negrito Samangs, and in any case 
their real home in historic times is the 
Eastern Archipelago. 
A.—DARK TYPES 
I. NEGriITO.—Aetas of the Philippines ; Andamanese 
Islanders ; Samangs of Malacca; Kalangs of Java: 
Karons of New Guinea. 


II. PApOAN.—1. Central Branch: Paptans proper of New 
Guinea and adjacent islands, Mafors, Arfaks, Koiari, 
Koitapu, Waigiu, Aru, Salwatty, Mysol, Gebi, &c. 
2. Eastern Branch : Sub-Paptians East (Melanesians), 
Admiralty, Louisiade, New Britain, New Ireland, 
Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, Loyalty, New 
Caledonia, Fiji. 3. We tern Branch: Sub-Paptan, 
West (‘‘ Alfuros”): Floris, Ceram, Buru, Timor, 
Parts of Gilole, Banda, Wissa, Savu, &e. 


Ill, AusTRAL.—Australians, Tasmanians (?). 


Fic, 25.—Malayan Type, Sulu Islands. 


The present Sultan of Sulu. 


C.—MONGOLIAN TYPES (Yellow and Olive Brown) 

VI, CONTINENTAL BRANCH.—Indo-Chinese Group : Chinese, 
Annamese, Tibeto-Burmese, Thai (Siamese, Laos, 
Shan, Khamti), Khasia, Khyen, Karen, Kuki, Naga, 
Abom, Mishmi, Bhod. 

VII. OcEANIC BRANCH.—Malayan Groups: Malays Proper, 
Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese, Macassar, 
Bugi; Malagasy of Madagascar ; Tagalo-Bisayans of 
Philippines ; Formosan Islanders ; Mikronesians 
(Pelew, Carolines, Ladrones, Marshall, Gilbert 
Iands). 


It thus appears that the three great divisions of man- 
kind (A, B and C) are in fossession of an ethnical 
| region which some anthropologists have regarded as the 


274 


NATURE 


| Fan. 20, 1881 


cradle of the human race. 
poid apes of equatorial Africa—gorilla and chimpanzee— 
are dolichocephalous, while those of Malaysia—orang-utan 
and gibbon—are brachycephalous, certain polygenists 
have suggested that the former may be the progenitors 
of the dolichocephalous Negroes, the latter of the brachy- 
cephalous Negritos. But we have seen that the Paptians 
of the extreme east (New Hebrides, Fiji, &c.) are also 
dolichocephalous, and even of a more pronounced type 
than the natives of Sudan. On the other hand, the 
Obongos, Akkas, and other pigmy tribes of Central 
Africa appear to be brachycephalous,’ so that the theory 
fails at both extremes, Fiji and the Gaboon. Assuming 
however that mankind may have been evolved in the 
Eastern Archipelago or in some now submerged adjacent 
lands, and bearing in mind the relative value attached to 


the idea of race, as implied in our definition of species, | 


the present conditions might still admit of explanation. 
In the Andamanese Islanders, whom Prof. Flower justly 
regards as of an “infantile type,” and in the Javanese 
Kalong, whose features von Rosenberg describes as the 
most decidedly ape-like he had ever seen, we would have 
still zw sé#u the earliest extant representatives of primeval 
man. Migrating westwards across a now lost “ Lemuria,” 
this primitive Negrito race may have reached equatorial 
Africa, where it is still represented by Du Chaillu’s 
Obongo, Lenz’s Abongo or Akoa, Schweinfurth’s Akka, 
and where it may under more favourable conditions have 
become differentiated into the Negro of Sudan. Migrating 
eastwards across a continent of which the South Sea 
Islands are a remnant, the same Negritos may have 
similarly become slowly differentiated into the present 
Paptiian or Melanesian peoples of those islands. Mi- 
grating northwards, before the severance of the Archi- 
pelago from the mainland, they reached Malacca and 
the Deccan, where they may still be represented by the 
Maravans and other low castes of that region. Moving 
thence over the Asiatic continent, they became under 
more temperate climes differentiated, first probably into 
the yellow Mongol, and then through it into the fair 
Caucasian type. But however this be, the subsequent 
migrations of the Mongols and Caucasians to the Archi- 
pelago, as above set forth, was probably, after all, but a 
return under new forms to their old homes. Here their 
mutual interminglings have again evolved fresh types 
and sub-types, producing a chaos of races whose true 
affinities I have endeavoured in these papers to elucidate, 
while fully sensible that in all such inquiries the last word 
still must be, fe/z2 gui Potuit rerum cognoscere causas. 
A, H. KEANE 


THE PHOTOPHONE 


28 following calculation, made with the view of 

examining whether the remarkable phenomena 
recently discovered by Prof. Bell could be explained on 
recognised principles may interest the readers of NATURE. 
I refer to the w7-e/ectrical sounds produced by the simple 
impact of intermittent radiation upon thin plates of various 
substances. 

It has been thought by some that in order that a body 
exposed to variable radiation may experience a sensible 
fluctuation of temperature its rate of cooling must be rapid. 
This howeverisa mistake. The variable radiation may be 
divided into two parts—a constant part, and a periodic 
part—and each of these act independently. Under the 
influence of the constant part the temperature of the body 
will rise until the loss of heat by radiation and conduction 
balances the steady inflow; but this is not appreciable by 
the ear, and may for the present purpose be left out of 

cs The Akkas certainly; but Lenz seems to think that the Abongos are 
dolichocephalous, so that this point remains still to be settled. Dr. Barnard 
avis however in his 7/esaurus Craniorum recognises brachycephaly in 


equatorial Africa, four out of eighteen skulls in his collection from this region 
being distinctly brachycephal us. 


2 | 
Observing that the anthro- 


account. The question is as to what is the effect of the 
periodic part of the whole radiation, that is, of a periodic 
communication and aéstraction of heat which leaves the 
mean temperature unaltered. It is not difficult to see 
that if the radiating power of the body were sufficiently 
high, the resulting fluctuation of temperature would 
diminish to any extent, and that what is wanted in order 
to obtain a considerable fluctuation of temperature is a 
slow rate of cooling in consequence of radiation or 
convection. 

If @ denote the temperature at time 4 reckoned from 
the mean temperature as zero, g be the rate of cooling, 


| £ cos ff the measure of the heating effect of the incident 


radiation, the equation regulating the fluctuation of tem- 
perature is— 


aé = 

Wit 29 = Z cos pe. 
Thus— 

Ae Ecos (pf+e) 


MPEP? 
showing that if # and Z be given, @ varies most when 
T=: 

Let us suppose now that intermittent sunlight falls 
upon a plate of solid matter. If the plate be transparent, 
or absorb only a small fraction of the radiation, little 
sonorous effect will be produced, not merely because the 
radiation transmitted is lost, but because the heating due 
to the remainder is nearly uniform throughout the sub- 
stance. In order that the plate may bend, as great a dif- 
ference of temperature as possible must be established 
between its sides, and for this purpose the radiation should 
be absorbed within a distance of the order of half the 
thickness of the plate. If the absorption be still more 
rapid, it would appear that the thickness of the plate may 
be diminished with advantage, unless heat conduction in 
the plate itself interferes. The numerical calculation 
relates toa plate of iron of thickness d. It is supposed 
that g is negligible in comparison with 2, ze. that no 
sensible gain or loss of heat occurs in the period of 
the intermittence, due to the fluctuations of temperature 
themselves. 

If the posterior surface remains unextended the exten- 
sion of the anterior surface corresponding to a curvature 


p is Lp and the average extension is = Let us in- 
quire what degree of curvature will be produced by the 
absorption of sunlight during a time ¢, on the supposition 
that the absorption is distributed throughout the substance 
of the plate, so as to give the right proportional extension 
to every stratum. 

If H¢ denote the heat received in time ¢ per unit area, 
c the specific heat of the material per unit volume, e the 
linear extension of the material per degree centigrade, 
then 

I hive de 


p Baae 

In the case of sunshine, which is said to be capable of 
melting 100 feet of ice per annum, we have approxi- 
mately in C. G. S measure 


AT t = 008 7. 
I et 
Thus 5 — OG at 


For iron ¢ = ‘000012, ¢ = °86. 


Thus if = 31 (ofa second), d = ‘o2 cents. 


I -6 
SST SY E.G 
p 

This estimate will apply roughly to a period of inter- 
mittence equal to sisth of a second, ze. to about the 
middle of the musical scale. If the plate be a disk of 
radius 7, held at the circumference, the displacement at 


Fan. 20, 1881] 


the centre will be = or 567° X 10-8, In the case of 


a diameter of 6 centimetres this becomes 50 X 10-°. 
Five-millionths of a centimetre is certainly a small 
amplitude, but it is probable that the sound would be 
audible. In an experiment (made, it is true, at a higher 
pitch) I found sound audible whose amplitude was less 
than a ten-millionth of a centimetre.‘ We may conclude, 
I think, that there is at present no reason for discarding 
the obvious explanation that the sounds in question are 
due to the bending of the plates under unequal heating. 
January 13 RAYLEIGH 


NOTES 


WE regret to learn of the death of the Rev, Humphrey Lloyd, 
D.D., Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, on the 17th inst., at 
the age of eighty-one years, Dr. Lloyd’s contributions to 
scientific literature have been many and important, and to these 
and to his career generally we hope to refer at length in our next 
number, 


Pror. HuxLey has been appointed to the Inspectorship of 
Fisheries vacant by the death of Mr. Frank Buckland. 


THE Queen has been pleased to confer a pension of 200/, 
upon Mr, Alfred Russel Wallace. 


THE election of Dr, B. A. Gould of Cordoba in the place of 
the late Prof. C. A. F. Peters, director of the Observatory at 
Kiel, as Correspondent of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, 
completes the authorised number in the section of Astronomy. 


York has already begun to make preparations for the 51st 
meeting of the British Association in that city on August 31 next. 
A meeting is to be held on the 26th inst. to appoint a reception 
committee and take other steps in connection with the approach- 
ing visit of the Association. ‘The local secretaries are the Rev. 
Thomas Adams and Dr. Tempest Anderson, 


THE well-known collection of fossils formed by the late Mr. 
E. Wood of Richmond, Yorkshire, has been purchased by Mr, 
William Reed, F.G.S., of York, and by him presented to the 
Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, York. The 
collection consists of about 10,0co specimens, and is specially 
rich in fossils from the Carboniferous rocks. 


THE great soirée of the Paris Observatory will take place on 
February 5. One of the features of the display will be a series 
of vacuum tubes exhibiting the spectral peculiarities of the 
several gases inclosed, 


Dr. Fritscu, Professor of Zoology at the University of 
Prague, has sent us a specimen of a cast, taken by the galvano- 
plastic process, of a skeleton of one of the extraordinary Laby- 
rinthodont reptiles, described by him in his work, ‘‘ Fauna der 
Gaskohle der Permformation Bohmens.” As the matrix in 
which these skeletons are found contains much pyrites, it soon 
crumbles away on exposure to the air. By this process of Dr. 
Fritsch’s the specimens however may be examined, even when 
magnified twenty-fold, and all little minutiz of the skeleton 
can be seen. Complete sets of these galvano-plastic casts, re- 
presenting all the more important reptile remains found, can 
be had on application to Prof, Fritsch, 


In Siberia, a country so rich in gigantic fossils, the body of a 
colossal rhinoceros has been discovered in the Werchojanski 
district. It was found on the bank of a small tributary to the 
Jana River, and was laid bare by the action of the water. 
Similar to the mammoth washed ashore by the Lena River in 
1799, it is remarkably well preserved, the skin being unbroken 
and covered with long hair, Unfortunately only the skull of 

Proc. Roy. Soc, 1877. 


NATURE 


275 


this rare fossil has reached St, Petersburg, and a foot is said to 
be at Irkutsk, while the remainder was allowed to be washed 
away by the river soon after it had been discovered. The inves- 
tigation of the skull gave the interesting result that this rhinoceros 
(2X. Merckit) is a connecting form between the species now existing 
and the so-called Rhinoceros tichorrhinus, remains of which are 
not unfrequently found in the gravel strata of Eastern Prussia. 
It is supposed that R. Merchii is the now extinct inhabitant of 
the eastern part of Siberia. 


HERR JULIUS GILLIS, a wealthy merchant of St. Petersburg, 
offers a prize of 1000 florins for a popular work on ‘ Kant’s 
Views on the Ideality of Time and Space.” Herr Gillis will 
not only pay the cost of publishing of the work which obtains 
the prize, but will also let the author have the profits its sale may 
realise. Details regarding this matter can be obtained from 
Last’s Literary Institute at Vienna. 


Mr. WarrkEN DE LA RUE will, on Friday next, the 21st inst., 
deliver his discourse at the Royal Institution on ‘‘The Pheno~ 
mena of the Electric Discharge with 14,400 Chloride of Silver 
Cells.” Prof, Schafer will give the first of a course of 
twelve lectures on the Blood, on Tuesday next (January 25); 
Mr. Francis Hueffer, the first of a course of four lectures 
on the Troubadours, on Thursday next (January 27); and Mr. 
Sidney Colvin the first of a course of four lectures on the 
Amazons, on Saturday next (January 29), The next Friday 
evening discourse will be given by Dr, Arthur Schuster, on the 
Teachings of Modern Spectroscopy, on January 28, 


Mr. E. T. SACHS sends us some interesting notes from Bata- 
via :—‘‘ Within the past month I have been so lucky as to make 
what I hope is a very interesting if not remarkable discovery. 
On the Island of Biliton, 200 miles from here, I found a fresh- 
water fish which produces its young Ziving from tts mouth. I 
am quite prepared for the cry of incredulity that will be raised ; 
but I conducted my observations with living fish and closed 
doors, and what I assert is undeniable: the eggs are hatched in 
the lower portion of the head of the fish, and are projected out 
at the mouth and from nowhere else. I have secured several 
specimens, which I shall send to Dr. Giinther, who will of course 
at once set the matter at rest. I also got on Biliton a butterfly, 
which is either a new Thecla or else it is the male of the pretty 
Myrina nivea peculiar to the island, I fancy it must be the 
latter. I was only three weeks on the island on other business, 
and was never two miles from the shore, so I have reason to be 
satisfied with my trip. I mean to go again next May or there- 
abouts, and go into the interior, and also try to get some living 
fish to breed from in Batavia... . There is a Dr, Schluyter 
here who is working hard at invertebrates. He is just busy on 
the tri-pang family, and will no doubt produce a fine monograph, 
He gets some fine crustaceans from the Straits of Sunda, I 
have shown him my fish, and he knows nothing of it.” 

On the subject of crickets Mr. Sachs writes :—‘‘ These are 
sold in the markets in Batavia, inclosed in small bamboos, 
There is not much superstition about it, as little ticklers (pieces 
of stick with a bunch of plants analogous to our broom tied 
on the end) are sold with it wherewith to stir up the unfortunate 
insect when it doesn’t chirp, Only children buy them.” 

A sHArP shock of earthquake was felt at Peshawur at 4 a.m, 
on December 10. The atmosphere was clear at the time ; small 
drafts and eddies of cold wind followed the shock. The 
previous evening there had been a few drops of rain, the first 
for three months. The temperature was rather warmer than it 
had been, owing to the sky being more overcast. A smart 
shock was felt at the Bridge of Allan, near Stirling, on the 
morning of the 12th, about seven o'clock, There was a severe 
shock at Thurgau on the night of the 13th, accompanied by 
underground noises, 


276 


IAT ORE 


‘ 


| Fan. 20, 1881 


THE difficulties of the old Paris Municipal Council with the 
gas company were not adjusted before its dissolution, We 
believe that the new Municipal Council is sure to accept all 
the proposals coming from any gas company which has proved 
practically by some previous experiments the value of their system, 
and are willing to accept a remuneration proportional to the 
quantity of light produced on a scale similar to the Lontin agree- 
ment, viz. 10 deniers for each 120 or 130 sperm candles, 


THE French Government has appointed an engineer of the 
Ponts et Chausées. M. de Villier du Terroge, to report on the 
possibility of establishing in Paris underground railways. The 
difficulty is in the length of the tunnels to be excavated, which will 
be greater than on the Metropolitan Railway, and the necessity 
of procuring smoke-consuming engines. 


ON the 7th inst. a silver tea and coffee service was presented 
by the Mayor of Liverpool, in the name of a large number of 
subscribers, to Mr. A. Norman Tate for his disinterested efforts 
to promote scientific education in that city. 


A GENERAL Horticultural Exhibition will be held at Frank- 
fort-on-Main from May 1 to October 1 this year. Particulars 
may be obtained by applying to ‘‘ Die Gartenbau Gesellschaft ” 
at Frankfort-on-Main, 


THE Electric Railway, constructed by Siemens and Halske, 
between the Anhalter Station, in Berlin, and the suburban 
village of Lichtenfeld, has been satisfactorily completed, and 
will be opened to public traffic on the Ist of next month. 


A NEW electric lamp has been brought out in Paris; it is a 
combination of the Werdermann with a perforated carbon filled 
by an insulating medium, It is said to work well. 


AT a meeting of the Council of the Epping Forest Naturalists’ 
Field Club, held on Saturday evening, January 8, the following 
resolution was passed on the motion of Mr, Francis George 
Heath, seconded by Mr. N. F, Robarts, F.G.S,—‘*‘ That the 
Council of this Society, on behalf of the large section of the 
population of London interested in the pursuit of Natura 
History, desires to record an emphatic protest against the pro- 
posal of the Great Eastern Railway Company to carry a line 
across Epping Forest, believing that it is wholly unnecessary for 
the Railway to take the route projected, and that it would not 
fail to prejudicially affect the advantages secured by the Epping 
Forest Act, which directs that the forest is to be preserved as far 
as possible in its natural aspect.” 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


JANsON’s STAR OF 1600,—The so called Nova of 1609, which 
is 34 Cygni of Flamsteed, and P Cygni of Schoénfeld’s catelogues 
of variable stars, was discovered by Wilhelm Janson, a pupil of 
Tycho Brahe’s, and entered upon his globe in that year. It has 
been erroneously stated in some astronomical works (as in 
Cassini’s ‘‘Elements d’Astronomie) that Kepler was a co- 
discoverer of this star, of which he himself informs us to the 
contrary in his treatise, ‘* De stella tertii honoris in Cygno, que 
ad annum MDC fuit incognita necdum extinguatur, Narratio 
astronomica” ; this is appended to his well-known work, ‘‘ De 
stella nova in pede Serpentarii,” published at Prague in 1606. 
At p. 154 we read, ‘‘ Cum mense Majo anni 1602 primum literis 
monerer de novo Cygni phznomeno,” &c., while at p. 164 
Kepler says distinctly that Janson was the discoverer, ‘‘ Primus 
est Gulielmus Jansonius, qui hanc novam a se primim anno 
1600, conspectam profitetur inscriptum in globum czelestem anno 
1600 editum facta.” Kepler gave the position of the star for the 
end of 1600 in R.A. 300° 46’, Decl. + 36° 52’. He observed it 
during nineteen years, it became fainter in 1619, and disappeared 
in 1621, though Fortuni Liceti dates a reappearance in the same 
year. In 1655 Dominique Cassini observed it again ; it increased 
during five years, until it attained the third magnitude, and 
afterwards diminished. On the testimony of Hevelius, it re- 
appeared in November, 1665, it was again faint in the following 


year, but subsequently brightened without reaching the third 
magnitude, in 1677 and 1682, it was only of the sixth magnitude. 
Cassini says on June 24, 1715, a star of this magnitude was seen 
in the position of P (Bayer) equal to the three which are near 
that marked 4 in Cygnus by Bayer. 

Edward Pigott was at some pains to elucidate the history of 
this star in a communication presented to the Royal Society in 
1786 (Philos. Trans. vol. \xxvi. p. 189). He says he had 
minutely examined the observations made in the previous century 
with the following results as to the star’s fluctuations :— 

1. Continues at its full brightness for about five years. 

2. Decreases rapidly during two years. 

3 Invisible to the naked eye for four years. 

4. Increases slowly during seven years, 

5. All these changes, or its period, are completed in eighteen 
years. 

6. It was at its ménzmwm at the end of the year 1663. 

It does not always increase to the same degree of brightness, 
being sometimes of the third, and at other times only of the sixth 
magnitude. He adds that he was entirely ignorant whether it 
were subject to the same changes since the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, as he had not met with any series of obser- 
vations upon it. 

It cannot be said that Pigott’s conclusions (which Schonfeld 
appears tu think are only indifferently supported by the observa- 
tions upon which they are stated to be founded) have received 
any confirmation since his time. If in the absence of systematic 
series of observations we consult the catalogues of the present 
century, we have the following estimates of magnitude amongst 
others :—Piazzi, 5°6; Bessel, 6°7 (on September 14, 1825) ; 
Argelander’s Uranometria, 5; and Durchmusterung, 5°3 ; 
Yarnall, 5°2; Radcliffe observations, 1870, 5°8. But in view of 
the undoubted variation in the brightness of this star in past 
times, more regular observation seems desirable. Has it ever 
been carefully examined under the spectroscope? Its light has 
a strong yellow cast. Madler found no appreciable proper 
motion. ‘The star occurs in the second Radcliffe catalogue, and 
in the Greenwich catalogue of 1864. The position carried back 
to Kepler’s epoch from these authorities is in close accordance 
with that given in his treatise. 


THE NEw Cape CATALOGUE.—At the meeting of the Royal 
Astronomical Society on the 14th inst. the Radcliffe observer, 
Mr. E, J. Stone, laid upon the table the complete sheets of his 
great Catalogue of Southern Stars, observed during his superin- 
tendence of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, which 
has been printed since his return to England. This very im- 
portant work contains the places of between twelve and thirteen 
thousand stars, including, in addition to the stars observed by 
Laeaille, a considerable number of stars falling within similar 
limits of magnitude. ‘‘ A stereographic projection, showing the 
distribution of the stars contained in the Cape Catalogue, 1880, 
between 110° and 180° N.P.D.” has been lithographed by Mr. 
Stone. We believe a number of su<pected cases of large proper 
motion amongst the southern stars disappear under the new 
determination of their positions at the Cape. 


BIOLOGICAL NOTES 


ARCHMOPTERYX MACRURA.—A very able article on this 
strange-feathered animal by Prof. Carl Vogt was read before the 
Saint Gall Meeting of the Congress of Swiss Naturalists, and 
was published in the Revue Scientifique for September, 1879. 
This has been translated in the recently-published number of 
Jbis, with a photograph of Herr Haberlein’s specimen. H. von 
Meyer, in 1861, described this species (under the specific name 
lithographica) from the impression of a ‘‘bird’s” feather in the 
Solenhofen slate. Prof. Owen, oa the discovery by Dr, 
Haberlein of a specimen (imperfect) described it ‘fas he alone 
knows how to do.” The head of this specimen was wanting. 
Dr. Haberlein’s son, about 1875, succeeded in splitting a slab 
so skilfully as to have on one of its halves the whole animal, and 
on the other its impression. This specimen Herr Haberlein‘is 
anxious to dispose of, and it is the one described by Carl Vogt, 
The animal preserved in the slab is of the size of a ringdove. 
The remains described by Prof. Owen belong to the same species, 
but to an example greater by a fifth. It is entire; the head, 
neck, trunk, and hind-quarters are placed in profile, the 
head is bent backwards, so that its top nearly touches 
the back. The wings, uniced at the shoulder girdle, are 


Fan. 20, 1881 | 


NATURE 


277 


spread as if for flizht. The head is small, pyramidal, 
nearly flat. The orbit is large, with the nostril in front of 
it. By means of a lens two little conical and sharp teeth 
are perceived at the end, planted in the upper jaw. On the 
lower surface there is a forked bone to be seen, but Prof. Vogt 
dare not say whether this is the lower jaw or a tongue bone ; 
the bones of the head show clearly that it is a true reptile’s 
head. Its shoulder-girdle proves also to be that of a reptile. 
In fact the head, the neck, the thorax, with the ribs, the tail, 
the shoulder-girdle, and the whole fore-limb, are plainly con- 
structed as in reptiles. The pelvis has probably more agreement 
with that of reptiles than with that of birds. The hind-foot is 
that of a bird, therefore reptilian affinities prevail in the skeleton 
over all others, The fe.thers are those of a bird. The 
remiges of the wings are fixed to the ulnar edge of the arm and 
to the hand ; they are covered for nearly half their length with 
a fine filiform down ; none of them project beyond the others. 
It is possible that at the base of the neck there was a ruff like 
that of the condor, The tibia was clothed with feathers for the 
whole of its length. Archzeopteryx thus wore breeches, as do 
our falcons All the other parts of the body were evidently naked. 
It would thus seem to take its rank neither among birds nor rep- 
tiles. It forms an intermediate type of the most marked kind, 
and confirms in a brilliant way the views of Prof. Huxley, who 
has united birds and reptiles—to form of them under the name 
of Suuropsids, a single great section of Vertebrates. 


EUROPEAN AND NoRTH AMERICAN Birps.—The occurrence 
of North American birds in Europe has always beena subject of 
interest to ornithologists. In the April number (1880) of the 
Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society there is a paper by 
Percy Evans Freke giving a comparative catalogue of the birds 
found in Europe and North America, in which the species of 
North American birds are arranged in columns side by side with 
the same species found at times in Europe. The geographical 
distribution of these species is also given, and the residents, 
which are probably breeders, are distinguished. This list seems 
worked out with a great deal of care. A paper on the same 
subject by Mr. J. J. Dalgleish appears also in tbe April number 
(1880) of the Azéletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, with 
a table giving a ‘‘List of Occurrences of North American Birds in 
Europe.” Great care has evidently been taken in this memoir also 
to secure correctness. On comparison of the lists it would seem 
as if Evans had overlooked Giatke’s paper on Heligoland Birds. 


A GNAT WITH TWO KINDS OF Wives.—Dr. Fritz Miiller 
describes in a late number of Asmos (October) a very remark- 
able two-winged insect which he calls Padtostoma torrentium, 
and which he found at Itajah. The larva were found by 
him under stones and rocks in the little streams with which this 
province abounds. These larvae were carefully watched and 
reared, and the perfect insects on their appearance were found to 
be males and females, but the latter of two well-marked and 
very different types. In the male gnat the eyes occupy nearly 
the whole side of the head, and leave not even room for the three 
ocelli, which are thus forced to the top of a peculiar stalk-like 
body. In one of the two forms of the female the eyes occupy 
the whole length of the head, but leave between them a broad 
belt, which in the second form of female is not half so wide or 
long. In the large-eyed females the parts of the mouth are 
formed after the type of those to be met with in the blood- 
sucking females of the mosquito or horse-fly. But in the small- 
eyed females and in the males this formidable development of the 
parts of the mouth, which enables the large eyed females to feed 
on blood, is wanting, and the former are honey-suckers, obtaining 
this food from the nectaries of several flowers. Along with this 
remarkable difference in the parts of the mouth there is a notable 
difference in the foot-joints, the honey-sucking wives having 
slender feet, with smaller claws than their honey-sucking hus- 
bands ; while the blood-sucking wives have the last foot-joint 
short and wide, furnished on its under surface with a thick pad, 
from which arise strong curved hairs; the claws are also much 
longer. Thus the small-eyed honey-loving form has the more 
simple structure of foot, wh reas the blood-seeker has not only 
the more complicated form of foot, but great eager eyes looking 
about for what they can get to devour. 


THE FUNCTION oF AsPARAGINE,—Boussingault’s researches 
seemed to show that asparagine was a substance comparable to 
urea, the result, like it, of a transfermation of albuminous 
matters, and that this substance made its appearance only in 
seeds during their germination; but from the discovery of this 


substance not only in bitter almonds when the embryo is not yet 
visible ; in the same seeds when completely ripe; in the young 
seeds of the apricot, plum, and cherry, and even in the un- 
opened inflorescences of the pear, M. L. Portes sees reason to 
doubt the propriety of ascribing to it this function. If, he says, 
Boussingault’s experiments show the existence in leguminous plants 
of an asparagine concomitant with the act of germination—which 
might be called blastemic asparagine—there also exists in the 
almond tribeand pear-buds, another form apparently not having any 
physiological connection with the other, which may be referred to 
as ablastemic. In both cases the asparagine is a secondary pro- 
duct ; its formation is in intimate connection with the production 
of new cells, Sweet and bitter almonds gathered in March in 
the middle of France were proved to contain neither sugar nor 
starch, but dextrine was present. Previous analysis allows one 
to affirm that neither sugar nor starch ever existed in them, nor 
as yet were they in the flowering stalk. May it not be admitted 
that the dextrine and glucose which speedily appear have at 
least in part an albuminoid origin? since the seed does not 
contain, nor will it for a long time contain, starch; since the 
young seed shows no sugar ; and lastly, since there is a produet 
of excretion representing the azote of the transformed proto- 
plasmic matter. (Revie Lnternationale des Sciences biologiques, 
October 15.) 


A CAUSE OF THE MoTION or Diatoms.—According to one 
view diatoms move by means of strong osmotic processes, which, 
being more intense in one direction, cause impulsion in the 
other. Some observations by Herr Mereschkowsky supporting 
the latter view are described by him in the Aotanische Zeitung 
(1880, p. 529). He examined two species of Navicula and 
one of Stauridium in sea-water containing many very small 
micrococci, which, near the diatoms, vibrated greatly, but at 
adistance were quite still. It was first evident that the move- 
ments of the diatoms consisted of a straightforward motion, 
then a backward, with a pause between, or of a turning round 
the axis. Then it was noticed that so long as the diatom re- 
mained still, all the actively vibrating micrococci were uniformly 
distributed, whereas, when the diatom moved, the micrococci 
vibrated with excessive activity at the hinder end, as if a strong 
water current entered behind the alga. At the fore end there 
was only a very slight motion of micrococci. When the still state 
was reached the vibration became again equally distributed, and 
on commencement of the backward motion a reverse distribution 
of the vibration was observed, These phenomena (observed also 
in rotation of diatoms) can only be explained, the author con- 
siders, by the hypothesis above stated. 


FUNGAL GROWTHS IN THE ANIMAL Boby.—By experi- 
ments on animals, Herr Grawitz (Virchow’s Archiv, B. 81, p. 
355), has recently proved the following :—1. The well-known 
mould-fungi Aerotium (Asp-rgillus) and Penicillium occur in 
two varieties, which are quite alike in form, but quite different 
physiologically ; the one proving wholly indifferent in the blood- 
system of the higher animals, while the other has all the malig- 
nity of the worst pathogenic fungi known. 2. From any origi- 
nal form both varieties can be obtained by continued cultivation, 
and similarly from either of the two varieties the other may be 
got, in twelve to twenty generations, by systematic cultivation. 
3. The principle of the cultivation is to habituate the fungi 
which live on solid, weakly acid, nutritive substances at a tem- 
perature of about 8° to 20° C., through a series of generations, to 
liquid alkaline albumen ‘solutions, and a heat of 38° to 40° C, 
4. The malignity of the pathogenic mould-fungi consists, in 
acute cases, in their spores, which on reaching the circulation of 
the higher mammals, there germinate, and passing into different 
parts of the body, multiply, and cause local neuroses, and death 
in about three days. In the subacute and chronic cases a reactive 
inflammation occurs in each of the numerous fungus-centres, 
which may cause the death of the hyphee and lead to cure. 5. 
Most of the small mould-accumulations easily seen with the naked 
eye in the kidneys, liver, muscles, and retina, are microscopi- 
cally distinguishable neither by size nor by histological characters 
from fungi of the same species, which have grown on their 
favourite substrata, except that they have only rudimentary fruit- 
stalks, and never attain to the separation of spores. 


BRAIN-WEIGHT.—The weight of the human brain, according to 
arecently-published work by the eminent Munich anatomist Prof. 
Bischoff, is on an average 1362 grammes for man and 1219 gr. for 
woman. The difference ‘between the average brain-weight of 
man and woman thas amounts to 143 gr., <r 10°50 per cent. 


278 


NATURE 


| Fan. 20, 1881 


The brain-weight of man exceeds that of all animals except the 
elephant (4500 gr.) and the larger Cetaceze (2500 gr.). The 
brain-weight of the largest apes is hardly a third of man’s, Prof. 
Bischoff has worked with a considerable amount of material ; 
his data comprise the weights of brain of 559 men and 347 
women. 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


EXPERIMENTS have been made by Herr Glan (Wied. Ann. 
No. 11) as to the action of gases and vapours on the optical 
properties of reflecting surfaces. No such influence (expressed 
in alteration of phases in reflection) is found to exist if the gases 
and vapours do not act chemically on the surfaces, or are not 
precipitated in visible quantity (as when the temperature is below 
the dew point). 

Dr. Fucus describes a new interference photometer (/Vied. 
Ann. No. 11) in which no polarisation of the rays at right angles 
to each other is required. It consists simply of two similar 
isosceles glass prisms joined by their basal surfaces, which enclose 
an air layer variable in thickness by pressure. A diaphragm 
reaches out in prolongation of the surface of junction, The 
observer looks obliquely towards this surface and sees one 
illuminated surface directly through the double prism, the other 
by reflection at the air layer. One light-source is fixed, and the 
other is displaced till the interference bands disappear, 


THE polar differences in luminous phenomena of the discharge 
of electricity through gases were considered by Wiedemann and 
Rihlmann as possibly due, in part at least, to a gas layer (more 
or less condensed) on one electrode, Supposing that other kinds 
of envelopes with like action would essentially affect the pheno- 
mena, Herr Holtz has been able (Wied. Ann. No. II), 
by covering one electrode, e.g. with silk, or placing a stretched 
silk disk before it, to verify this, and ‘almost quite obliterate, in 
some cases, the polar differences. 


IN a recent publication describing electrical researches, by 
Herr Goldstein, in Berlin, that author investigates the phenomena 
which occur when, in a space so far evacuated that the green 
phosphorescent light occurs with the discharge from the cathode, 
there are, not one, but several cathodes. He has met with a new 
form of electrical repulsion, not to be classified either with the 
mechanical repulsion in collision of ponderable masses, or with 
electrostatic or electrodynamic repulsion. (An abstract of the 
memoir appears in Wiedemann’s Beiblitter, No. 11.) 


APPLYING his theory of the potential energy of liquid surfaces 
to great cycle-operations in nature, M. van der Mensbrugghe 
(Bulletin of Belg. Acad., 9 and 10) has lately calculated that if 
evaporation subdivides the liquid of seas into spherules of ¢.¢. 
I-10,000th mm, diameter, each kilogramme of water presents 
a collection of spherules whose total potential energy is equivalent 
to 450 kilogrammetres, 7.e, more than a million times that of a 
sphere of compact water also weighing 1 kilogramme, This 
shows what prodigious quantities of work-units are carried 
virtually into the atmosphere by water vapour, and there is to be 
added the potential energy acquired by this vapour in virtue of 
its weight. The author applies his theory to the effects of con- 
densation, to glazed frost, to phenomena of rivers and waterfalls, 
&c. He anticipates important verifications of it from the 
examination of the Gulf Stream in the Gulf of Mexico projected 
by the United States, and recent soundings have tended to 
confirm it. 


‘ M. Montieny (Bu//. Belg, Acad. 9 and 10) has lately studied the 
effects of making bells vibrate with liquids in them (water, ether, 
alcohol, sulphide of carbon), or when wholly immersed in liquids. 
He found that (1) the sound produced was always more grave 
than the natural sound ; (2) that the lowering of tene was more 
marked in both cases the more dense the liquid (thus it is less 
with ether than with sulphide of carbon) ; (3) that with all the 
liquids tried the alteration in sound of a given bell was much 
more marked when the bell was wholly immersed than when 
merely filled with the liquid; and (4) that in both cases the 
lowering of tone was more marked for grave than for acute 
notes. The general inference is that the rapidity of vibrations 
of a sounding body is considerably diminished by a liquid with 
which its walls are in contact, and that this diminution is more 
sensible when the contact is established on both sides of the 
vibrating body than when only on one side. The mode of 
action is related not only to the density, but to the com- 
pressibility of the liquid, 


sensible with water than with alcohol and ether; the latter 
being less dense and more compressible liquids. The form of 
the bell and the nature of its substance (that is its special elasti- 
city and its density) are shown also to affect considerably the 
pitch of the sound produced in contact with liquids. M, 
Mo: tigny is investigating whether air is a medium of too little 
density and too great compressibility to modify sensibly the 
duration of vibrations of sonorous bodies, 


AT a recent meeting of the Franklin Institute (Journal for 
December), Mr. Griscom described his new electric motor, which, 
weighing about 24 pounds, compares favourably with those of 
the old forms of fifteen times its weight. Its most essential 
advantage is in the field magnets; the shape of which is such 
that all the magnetic lines of force, including those nearest the 
neutral line, are brought into the best possible position for 
effecting the revolution of the armature. If a bar of soft iron is 
pivoted at one end to move in a horizontal plane, and a semi- 
circular magnet is placed concentrically with the circle the bar 
can describe, then a given force is exerted on the bar at a much 
greater distance from the poles when the latter is within the 
semicircle than when it is without. Herein (it is stated):is the 
secret of the power of Mr. Griscom’s motor. The battery is 
inclosed in a strong waterproof box, gives no odour, and very 
little trouble in renewing. It is calculated that it will suffice 
for the sewing of a small family for one year; a professional 
seamstress would exhaust it more rapidly, but always in pro- 
portion to the exact amount of work done, 


A NEW microphone, made by M. Boudet in Paris (Za Mature, 
No. 394), has the general shape of a telephone on a support. It 
comprises a mouthpiece, in which is an ebonite plate 1 mm. thick, 
with a short bar of copper penetrating from its middle a short way - 
into a glass tube in which are six little balls of retort carbon in 
arow ; a second mass of copper following the last, and resting 
on a small spiral spring ina case. The pressure can be varied 
by means of ascrew. The instrument is worked with six Gaiffe 
elements (peroxide of manganese and chloride of zinc) mounted 
in tension, and a Bell telephone. It is said to transmit the 
voice very distinctly without altering its timbre and without 
disturbing sounds being produced. 


IN a note to the Vienna Academy (4zz. December 16) 
Prof. Stefan describes experiments on the influence of terrestrial 
induction in development of an electric current, and the excite- 
ment of the telephone by currents from a rotating coil, The 
coil used was 56 mm. in external diameter, and Ir mm, in 
width. The earth’s influence is best shown by so connecting the 
apparatus with a galvanometer that the circuit is closed during one 
half of the coil’s rotation, and broken during the other half ; if the 
completion of the circuit correspond to the positive maximum of 
the electromotive force of the earth’s magnetism, and the inter- 
ruption to the negative, the galvanometer is positively deflected. 
The deflection may be reduced to zero by displacing the contact, 
and from the displacement and the number of rotations the 
potential may be inferred in absolute measure. Next the tele- 
phone was so connected with the coil that the full alternately 
opposite currents went uninterruptedly through the circuit. This 
gave a simple tone. With 100 rotations per second the hori- 
zontal component of the earth’s magnetism did not suffice to 
excite an ordinary telephone, but it excited one having a 
horse-shoe magnet. (When the intensity of the field was doubled 
the ordinary telephone was also excited.) The tone corresponds 
to the number of rotations. When the coil was rotated 220 
times ina second the ordinary telephone sounded. The tele- 
phone was shown to be less sensitive to currents whose intensity 
periodically changes than to interrupted currents (an ordinary 
telephone sounded with 100 rotations or fewer, when the circuit 
was closed only during a short time of each rotation). 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


AT the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday 
evening a paper was read on the discoveries made by Mr. Leigh 
Smith last year on the coast of Franz Josef Land, including 
also a general sketch of the rest of his voyage in the Ava. Mr, 
Smith appears to have reached the southern shores of Franz 
Josef Land with comparative ease about the middle of August, 
and to have examined it and several islands along a coast-line of 
over 100 miles of previously unexplored ground. The new con- 
tinent, as some would fain believe it to be, does not present an 


The lowering of sound is more | attractive appearance, for the coast-line is described as consisting 


Fan. 20, 188 r] 


of glaciers with dark frowning and flat-topped cliffs, here and there 
reaching to a height of 1200 feet. It was after passing Barents’ 
Hook that new ground was actually broken, and the exploration 
was continued westwards until Mr. Smith succeeded in rounding 
the western headland. The farthest point actually reached by 
the Ziva was in N. lat, 82° 20’, E. long. 45°, and thence the land 
could be seen trending away to the north-west. During the 
voyage a meteorological record was kept, photographs taken, 
and various collections made, chiefly of botanical and geological 
specimens, 


THE January number of Petermann’s Mitthetlungen contains 
an account of a journey from Dufilé to Lur, on the west shore 
of Lake Mwutan-Nzige, by Dr. Emin Bey, in the last months 
of 1879. Herr Clemens Denhardt brings together much valuable 
information on the East African region between Mombasa and 
the Victoria Nyanza, with special reference to the trade-routes, 
accompanied by an excellent map. An article of special 
scientific interest is contributed by Dr. H. Hoffmann on the 
Comparative Phenology of Central Europe. In a series of 
tables and in a map the average time of bloom is shown for 
a very large number of places, with reference to Giessen as 
a standard. There is a very interesting account by Baron 
Nordenskjold of his visit to Behring Island, followed by some 
critical remarks on the vegetative region of the Serra da 
Estrella, by Dr. O. Drude. 


Bulletin, No. 5, 1879, of the American Geographical Society 
contains a paper by General R. E, Colston on “ Life in the 
Egyptian Deserts,” and an amusing lecture by Lord Dunraven 
on ‘‘ Moose and Cariboo Hunting.” 


THE French station of the African Association has been esta- 
blished by M. Savorgnan de Brazza at Nghimi, on the route 
from Machogo to Levumba, in the region of the sources of the 
Ogové, in 1° 30’ S., and about 11° E. from Paris. 

THE publication in which the results of the determination of 
the South American longitudes by electricity have been tabulated 
by American observers has just arrived in Paris. All the posi- 
tions determined by M. Mouchez on the Brazilian coast have 
proved correct within a difference of 14 second of time. These 
determinations were taken by Admiral Mouchez when a subor- 
dinate officer in the French service twenty years ago, by lunar 
distances, occultations, and eclipses. 


THE author of the summary of Geographical Discovery in 
Whitaker's Almanac writes to us in reference to the notice 
on p. 232, that it is not stated that Mr. Leigh Sr.ith’s voyage 
is ‘‘the most remarkable geographical event of the year,” 
to the depreciation of Mr. Thomson’s African journey; ‘‘ but 
that, in spite of the success of the latter, Mr. Smith’s voyage 
would probably be considered by many as the most remarkable 
geographical event of 1880.” We doubt if ‘‘many” would 
hold such an opinion, merely for the reason assigned in the 
Almanac. ‘‘May I be allowed to point out,” he adds, 
‘*that the word ‘research’ means careful search or investiga- 
tion? and that mere searching for the North Pole is not the sole 
object of Arctic voyages?” We are glad the writer is of this 
opinion, though we doubt if Mr. Leigh Smith’s voyage has 
much bearing on Polar ‘‘ research.” 


CHESAPEAKE ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY 


Yn REPORT of the third year’s work at the Chesapeake Zoo- 
logical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University has 
been addressed to the President of the University by Mr. W. K. 
Brooks, Director of the Laboratory. An advance copy of this 
has been sent us, from which we make some valuable extracts, 
The laboratory was opened at Beaufort, North Carolina, on 
April 23, 1880, and closed on September 30, after a session of 
twenty-three weeks, It was supplied with working accommo- 
dations for six investigators, and the facilities which it afforded 
were used by the following six persons :—W. K. Brooks, Ph.D., 
Director; K. Mitsukuri, Ph.B., Fellow in Biology; E. B, 
Wilson, Ph.B., Fellow in Biology; F, W. King, A.M., Pro- 
fessor of Natural Science, Wisconsin State Normal School; H. 
C, Evarts, M.D., Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia ; 
H. F. Osborne, Ph.D., Fellow of the College of New Jersey. 
Beaufort was selected for the third season’s work because it is 
the nearest accessible town south of Baltimore which is favour- 
ably situated for zoological study. The scientific advantages of 
Beaufort are very great; the most important is the great 


NATURE 


279 


difference between its fauna and -that of the northern Atlantic 
coast. 

“The configuration of our coastline,” the Report goes on, ‘‘is 
such that Cape Hatteras, the most projecting point south of 
New York, deflects the warm water of the Gulf Stream away 
from the coast, and thus forms an abrupt barrier between a cold 
northern coast anda warm southernone. The fauna north of this 
barrier passes gradually into that of southern New England, while 
the fauna south of the barrier passes without any abrupt change 
into that of Florida, but the northern fauna is sharply separated 
by Cape Hatteras from the southern, As the laboratory of the 
U.S. Fish Commission and Mr. Agassiz’s laboratory at Newport 
afford opportunities for work upon the northern fauna, it seemed 
best for us to select a point south of Cape Hatteras in order to 
study the southern fauna with the same advantages, and as Beau- 
fort is the only town near the Cape which can be reached with- 
out difficulty, it was chosen as the best place for the laboratory. 
The situation of this town is exceptionally favourable for 
zoological work, for the surrounding waters present such a 
diversity of conditions that the fauna is unusually rich and 
varied.” 

After describing in detail the special characteristics of the 
locality Mr, Brooks goes on to say: 

“*The zoological resources of Beaufort have not escaped the 
attention of American naturalists, and there are few places upon 
our coast, outside of New England, where more zoological work 
has been done. In 1860 Drs. Stimpson and Gill spent a season 
in dredging and collecting in the vicinity of Beaufort, Cape 
Lookout, and Cape Hatteras, and an account of their work was 
published in the American Journal of Science. Dr. Coues, who 
was stationed at Fort Macon during the war, occupied himself 
for two years in collecting the animals which are found here, and 
he published a series of papers on the ‘ Natural History of Fort 
Macon and Vicinity’ in the Proceedings of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. These papers, which were 
continued by Dr. Yarrow, contain copious and valuable notes on 
the habits and distribution of the animals which were cbserved, 
and we found them a great help to us. These two naturalists 
found 480 species of animals in the vicinity of Beaufort. Of 
these 480, 298 are vertebrates, and 182 are invertebrates. Of 
the vertebrates 24 are mammals, 133 are birds, 27 are reptiles, 
6 batrachians, 97 fishes, and 11 selachians. Of the invertebrates 
147 are mollusks, 21 are crustaceans. The list of vertebrates is 
very nearly exhaustive, ard we made no additions to it; but the 
list of invertebrates is obviously very imperfect, and although we 
made no attempt to tabulate the species which we observed, 
there would be no difficulty in enlarging the list twenty or thirty 
fold. 

“ Among other naturalists who have spent more or less time at 
Beaufort I may mention Prof. L. Agassiz, Prof. E. S. Morse, 
Dr. A. S. Packard, Prof. Webster, and Prof. D. S. Jordan. 
Prof. Morse procured most of the material for his well-known 
paper on the Systematic Position of the Brachiopoda on the 
Sand-bars in Beaufort Inlet. 

«J will now attempt to give a very short statement of some of 
the leading points in our own summer’s work. Much of our 
time was spent in studying the development of the Crustacea, 
since this is one of the most important fields for original work 
upon our southern coast. The supply of material is almost 
inexhaustible, and would employ a number of students for many 
years. The life-history of the Crustacea is of great interest in 
itself, and the recent species are so numerous and diversified that 
there is no group of animals better adapted for studying the 
general laws of embryonic development in their relation to the 
evolution of the group. These considerations have led us to 
devote especial attention to this group during this and the 
preceding seasons. One of the published results of the first 
season’s work was 2n illustrated account of the metamorphosis 
of Squilla, a representative of a somewhat aberrant group of 
Crustacea. During the second season a member of our party, 
Prof. Birge, made a very thorough study of the development of 
Panopzus, one of our crabs, and the account of his observations, 
with drawings, was ready for publication several months ago. 
At Beaufort we spent most of our time upon this subject, and 
figured more than 800 points in the development of various 
Crustacea. 

“Among these I wish to call especial attention to our obser- 
vations upon the development of the Sergestide; the least 
specialised of the stalk-eyed Crustacea, This very peculiar group 
was not known to occur upon our coast until we found a few 


280 


NATURE 


[ Zan. 20, 1881 


specimens of one genus at Fort Wool, and the same genus— 
Lucifer—in great abundance at Beaufort, associated with another 
genus which is also new to North America. As nothing what- 
ever was known of the development ‘of Lucifer, we made every 
effort to obtain the eggs and young, and after four months of 
almost fruitless labour we finally succeeded in finding all the 
stages of the metamorphosis, and figured them in a complete 
series of ninety-nine drawings. We also obtained a somewhat 
less complete series of figures of stages in the life history of the 
second Sergestid. Our only motive in this work was the desire to 
filla gap in our knowledge of crustacean development by supplying 
the life-history of a very interesting group of animals, but the 
result was found to have a very unexpected value, since it 
contributes to the discussion of a number of problems in general 
embryology and morphology, and is the most significant crus- 
tacean life history which has ever been studied. 

“*The following are some of the more important points :— 
The egg undergoes total regular segmentation. There is no 
food-yolk, and cleavage goes quite through the egy. There is a 
true segmentation cavity. Segmentation is rhythmical. There 
is an invaginate gastrula, The larva leaves the egg asa Nauplius, 
and passes through a protozoea stage and a schizopod stage. 
The fifth thoracic segments and appendages are entirely wanting 
at all stages of development. 

‘* Another interesting group which was studied is the Porcel- 
lanidz ; the least specialised of the true crabs, The adults of 
our American species are almost restricted to our southern 
waters, although the swimming larve are carried north by the 
Gulf Stream. Within the last two years two northern natu- 
ralists have studied these floating embryos upon the south coast 
of New England, but as they were working upon stragglers so 
far from home, their accounts are incomplete and somewhat 
contradictory. Our advantages at Beaufort enabled us to con- 
tribute towards the solution of this confused subject by raising 
one species of Porcellana from the egg. We also raised six 
other species of crabs from the egg, and made drawings of the 
more important stages of development. One of the species 
which was thus studied is the edible crab. Its metamorphosis 
has never been figured, and although it presents no unusual 
features, its economic importance gives value to exact knowledge 
of its life history. Mr. Wilson also studied the development of 
one sjecies of Pyenogonida, a group of very peculiar Arthro- 
pods distantly related to the spiders. As he has paid especial 
attention to the systematic study of this group, and is now 
engaged in describing the Pycnogonids collected in the Gulf 
Stream by Mr. Agassiz, the opportunity to study them alive in 
the laboratory has been a great advantage to him. 

** Another important investigation is the study by Mr. Wilson 
of the embryology of the marine Annelids. Although the 
representatives of this large group are abundant and widely dis- 
tributed, little was known of the early stages of their develop- 
ment until he procured the eggs of several species and studied 
them at Beaufort. This investigation has shown, among other 
things, that the accepted division of Annelids into two great 
groups, the Oligocheta and Polycheta, is not a natural method 
of classification. The work upon the development of marine 
Annelids was supplementary to an investigation which Mr. 
Wilson carried on last spring at Baltimore, and which he will 
continue this winter, upon the development of land- and fresh- 
water Annelids. 

“* As much time as possible was given this season to the study 
of the hydroids and jelly-fish of Beaufort. The life history of 
several of them were investigated, a thorough anatomical study 
of some of the most important forms was carried on, and nearly 
two hundred drawings was made, It is almost impossible to 
complete a study of this kind ina single season, but if one or 
two more summers can be given to the work, we have every 
reason to hope for valuable results, for although the North 
Carolina coast is the home of many species which are only 
found as stragglers upon our northern coast, and of other species 
which are not known to occur anywhere else, and of some 
genera and families which are new to the North American coast, 
this field has suffered almost total neglect. 

“Nearly three months of the time of two members of our 
party, Mitsukuwri and Wilson, were given to the study of the 
habits, anatomy, and development of Renilla, a compound 
Polyp very much like that which forms the precious coral, but 
soft and without a stony skeleton. The animais which form the 
community are so intimately bound together that the community 
as a whole has a well-marked individuality distinct from that of 


the separate animals which compose it. The compound indi- 
viduality of Renilla is quite rudimentary as compared with that 
of a Siphonophore, and as there is no trace of it in the closely 
allied Gorgonias, it furnishes an excellent field for studying the 
incipient stages in the formation of a compound organism by the 
union and specialisation of a community of independent simple 
organisms, With this end in view the anatomy of the fully- 
developed community was carefully studied, and the formation 
of a community was traced by rearing a simple solitary embryo 
in an aquarium until a perfect community had been developed 
from it by budding. During the process of development the 
law of growth by which the characteristics of the compound 
organism are brought about was very clearly exhibited, and it is 
fully illustrated by nearly one hundred drawings. 

**One of the most interesting results of our work is the 
explanation by Mr. Wilson of the origin of the metamorphosis of 
the larva of Phoronis, a small Gephyrean worm which lives in a 
tube. Several of the most noted embryologists of Europe have 
studied the development of Phoronis, and our knowledge of its 
life history is due to their combined labours. Last summer Mr. 
Wilson reviewed the subject, and added some important points, 
and during the present season he has shown by the comparison 
of a great number of allied forms that the very peculiar meta- 
morphosis admits of an extremely simple explanation. The 
adult is sedentary and confined to its sand tube, while the larva 
is a swimming animal totally different in structure. ‘The change 
from the larva to the adult is very rapid and violent. It occupies 
only a few minutes, and during the change the larva becomes 
turned wrong side out, so that what was internal is external. 
Mr, Wilson’s comparison shows that Phoronis was originally a 
free animal, and that the structural peculiarities which fit the 
adult for sedentary life ina tube are of recent acquisition. The 
larva has however retained its ancestral adaptation to a swimming 
life in order to provide for the distribution of the species. There 
must have been a time, in the evolution of the species, when the 
adult was imperfectly adapted to a sedentary life, and also im- 
perfectly adapted to a swimming life; and if the development 
of the individual were a perfect recapitulation of all the stages in 
the evolution of the species, we should have, between the 
swimming larva and the sedentary adult, a stage of development 
during which the adaptation is not quite perfect for either mode 
of life. It is clearly an advantage for the animal to pass through 
this stage as quickly as possible, or to escape it altogether. The 
peculiar metamorphosis enables the larva to remain perfectly 
adapted to a locomotor life until the occurrence of the sudden 
change which fits it for life in a tube; and Mr, Wilson has 
pointed out the manner in which the metamorphosis has been 
acquired in order to bridge over the period of imperfect 
specialisation. This explanation is somewhat similar to that 
which Lubbock has given of the origin of the metamorphosis of 
insects, and we may hope that the same method of investigation 
will throw light upon the significance of other remarkable 
instances of metamorphosis in the invertebrates. 

“* During the summer the following abstracts of some of the 
more important points in our work have been published in 
scientific journals :— 

The Development of the Cephalopoda and the Homology of 
the Cephalopod Foot. By W. K. Brocks. Amer, Journal of 
Science. 

The Development of Annelids, 
Journal of Science. 

The Rhythmical Nature of Segmentation. By W. K. Breoks. 
Amer, Journal of Science. 

The Origin of the Metamorphosis of Actinotrocha. 
B. Wilson. Amer. Assoc., Boston Meeting. 

Notes on the Medusz of Beaufort. By W. K. Brooks. Amer. 
Assoc., Boston Meeting. 

Budding in Free Medusze. 


By E. B. Wilson. Amer. 
By E. 


By W. K. Brooks. Amer. Nat. 


Development of Marine Polychztous Annelids. By E. B. 
Wilson. Zodlogischer A nzeiger, 2 
Embryology and Metamorphosis of Lucifer. By W. K. 


Brooks. Zodlogischer Anzeiger. 

The Early Stages of Renilla. 
Journal of Science. 

‘* Other abstracts are now in the press, and others are ready 
for publication, 

‘A paper, with four plates, on the ‘Early Stages of the 
Squid,’ is also in the press, and will soon be issued in the 
Memorial Volume of Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural 
History.” 


By E. B. Wilson. Amer. 


Fan. 20, 1881 | 


NATURE 


281 


ELASTICITY OF WIRES* 


"THE experiments described in this paper form a continuation 

of experiments undertaken in connection with the work of 
the Committee of the British Association for commencing secular 
experiments on the elasticity of wires. 

Long-continued application of stretching force increases to a 
very great extent the tensile strength of soft iron wire. Thus in 
experiments described to the British Association in 1879 (see 
Report of the Committee just referred to), a particular very soft 
iron wire was shown to have a breaking weight to p.c. higher if 
the weight necessary to break it is applied half a pound at a time 
per day, than it has if the breaking weight is applied half a pound 
at a time at intervals of saytwo minutes. It was found also that 
this wire, quickly broken, extends before breaking by as much 
as 25 p.c. of its original length ; whereas if thz application of the 
stress is very slow, the extension is not more than 5 or 6, or 
perhaps 8 p.c. Further experiments have been undertaken on 
this subject, and are still in progress. 

Using a continuous arrangement for applying the stretching 
weight and employing some very soft iron wire which had been 
specially prepared, and which was used in former experiments, 
the greatest weight which could be rapidly put on the wire 
without breaking it was determined. It was found that with a 
weight of 41 lbs, gradually applied in 6} minutes the wire 
stretched by 24°4 p.c. of its original length, and broke 18 
minutes after the weight was put on, With the same weight, 
4t lbs., applied in 6} minutes, the wire stretched 22°1 p.c. and 
broke in 24 minutes. With 41 lbs., however, applied in 7 
minutes, the wire stretched 18 p.c., and did not break. This 
weight, therefore, appeared to be just as much as the wire 
would bear with this method of applying the weight. Accord- 
ingly it was applied to a great number of wires for different 
lengths of time for the purpose of hardening them, and arrange- 
ments have been made for keeping a number of wires for very 
long times with this stretching force applied to them. The 
amount of extension produced by the application of the hardening 
stress was observed in each case. 

After the hardening stress had been applied for a certain time 
the additional weight necessary to break the wire was determined, 
and also the additional elongation before breaking, which was 
in all cases almost insensible. The wires seemed permanently set 
in about forty minutes from the time when the hardening stress 
was applied. They did not alter in length till just before they 
broke, when they generally stretched 1 or 2 millimetres on a 
length of about 1,800 mm. The following table shows some of 
the results out of a great many that have already been obtained. 


Time taken! Extension | 
by con- |produced by , 
Hardening} tinuous | application Duration of /Total break- 
Length of | stress. | machine in of hardening hardening | ing weight 
wire used.| applied in japplying the] stress in stress in after 
pounds. hardening p.c. of hours. hardening. 
stress in original 
minutes. length. 
452 Exe Az 6} 24'4 | Broke with 41 Ibs 
” ” 63 22°1 | 
” » 9h 18°7 2 47°44 
i +3 7 17°2 27 47°5 
” ” 8 17°3 17 48°13 
” ” 7s 181 799 52°31 


Curves have also been obtained and were exhibited to the 
Section showing the extension with gradually applied weights 
both of a number of wires and of the different parts of the same 
wire ; also curves showing the extension at different intervals of 
time from the beginning of an experiment in which the wire is 
running down under a weight sufficient to break it finally. 

The author acknowledged the great assistance that he had 
received from Mr. A. C. Crawford and other students the in 
Physical Laboratory of the University of Glasgow. 

Similar experiments are in progress on wires of copper and 
tin, and it is intended to test gold wire very soon, as it will 
probably give interesting results, and results very different from 
those given by soft iron wires. 


* Strength and Elasticity of Soft Iron Wires. Abstract of a Paper read at 
the British Association, by J. T. Bottomley, M.A., F.R.S.E. 


SPECTROSCOPIC NOTES, 1879-80. 


OUBLE Reversal of Lines in Chromosphere Spectrum.—The 

magnesium lines of the 4 group, and the two D-lines of 

sodium have been seen several times (first on June 5, 1880) doudbly- 
reversed in the spectrum at the base of a prominence. 

A bright line first appears in the centre of the widened dark 
lines ; then this bright line grows wider and hazy at the edge, 
and a thin dark line appears in its centre, as shown in the figure. 
The phenomenon lasts usually from ten minutes to an hour, It 
is evidently the exact correlative of the double reversal of the 
bright sodium lines, observable in the flame of a Bunsen burner 
or alcohol lamp under certain circumstances when the quantity 
and temperature of the sodium vapour in the flame are greatly 
increased. 

The H-lines in the Chromosphere and Sun-spot Spectra.—In 
1872 I found the H- and K-lines to be reversed in the spectra 
of prominences and sun-spots, as observed at Sherman, 8000 
feet above the sea. Until recently I have not been able to 
verify the observation, except for a moment during the eclipse of 
1878. During the past summer, however, I have succeeded in 
seeing them again, and with suitable precautions as to shade- 
glass, adjustment of slit to true focal plane for these special 
rays, and exclusion of extraneous light, I have no further diffi- 
culty with the observation, The spectroscope employed has 
collimator and view-telescope each of 1} inches aperture, and 
about 13 inches focal length, and a speculum-metal Ruther- 
furd grating with 17,300 lines to the inch. A shade of cobalt- 
blue glass greatly aids the observation. The solar image is 13 
inches in diameter. 

In the spectrum of the chromosphere, H and K are both 
always reversed. I have never failed to see them. both when 
circumstances were such that %, the nearest of the hydrogen 
lines, could be seen. 

Furthermore, H, in the chromosphere spectrum, is a/ways 
double: that is, a fine bright line always accompanies the prin- 
cipal line, about one division of Angstrém’s scale below. The 
principal line seems to be exactly central in the wide dark shade, 
the other is well within the nebulosity. K on the other hand 
shows no signs of duplicity. 

In the spectrum of a sun-spot H and K are also, both of them, 
generally, though not always, reversed; and the reversal is not 
confined to the spot, but covers often an area many times larger 
in its neighbourhood. 

In the spot spectrum, however, H has never yet been seen 
double. The companion line of H is therefore probably due to 
some other substance than that which produces H and K; a 
substance prominent in the chromosphere, but not specially so in 
the neighbourhood of spots. In view of the recent observations 
of Vogel, Draper, and Huggins, it is natural to think that 
hydrogen is probably the element concerned. If so, it may be 
expected that H will be found doubled in the spectrum of a spot 
which reverses the hydrogen line Z, I have not yet been able to 
test it in this way, as / is rarely seen reversed, though C and F 
occur pretty frequently. 

[Note.—An observation made since my paper was written 
leads me to modify this opinion, that the companion of Hi is 
due to hydrogen, and satisfies me that in all probability both 
H and K must themselves be hydrogen-lines. At II A. M. on 
October 7, 2 bright horn appeared on the S.E. limb of the sun. 
When first seen it was about 3/ or 4’ in elevation, but it rapidly 
stretched up, and before noon reached a measured altitude of 
over 13’ (350,000 miles +) above the sun’s limb. It faded away 
and disappeared about 12.30. It was brightest about 11.30 
with an altitude of about 8’ and at this time both H and K were 
distinctly, and for them, brilliantly reversed in it clear to the 
summit. HH was not double in it to any notable elevation, 
though the companion of H was visible at the base of the 
prominence. The H- and K-lines also showed evidence of 
violent cyclonic action, just as C did. / was only faintly visible 
in the prominence ; F and the line near G were of course strong. 
But no other lines, either of sodium, magnesium, or anything 
else, could be traced more than a very few seconds of are above 
the sun’s limb. I am not able to say how long the H-lines 
continued visible, or to what elevation they extended afterwards, 
as I returned to the C-line to watch the termination of the erup- 
tion. If I remember rightly, this eruption reached a higher 
elevation than any before observed. There was (and is to-day) 
nothing on the sun’s limb visible with the telescope which would 
account for it.—Princeton, October 8.] 


282 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 20, 1881 


Examination of Lines in the Solar Spectrum which are given in 
the Maps as common to Tw or more Substances.—For this purpose 
a spectroscope of high dispersion has been constructed by com- 
bining the grating mentioned above, which has about 4 square 
inches of ruled surface, witha collimator and observing telescope 
each of 3 inches aperture and about 42 inches focal length, 
using magnifying powers ranging from 50 to 200, The apparatus 
is arranged upon a wooden frame-work, and when in use is 
strapped to the tube of the 12-feet equatorial of our observatory, 
so that it is kept by the driving-clock directed to the sun. An 
image of the sun is formed on the slit by an achromatic object- 
glass of 3 inches aperture, in order to increase the light and 
to avoid the widening of the lines due to the sun’s rotation. A 
large prism of about 20° angle was sometimes placed in front of 
this object-glass (between it and the sun) to separate the colours 
before reaching the slit; and in examining the darker portions 
of the spectrum a concave cylindrical lens was sometimes used 
next the eye, like a shade glass, to reduce the apparent width of 
the spectrum and thus increase its brightness. 

The grating is an admirable one, on the whole the best I have 

ever seen. But I have been greatly surprised at its excessive 
sensitiveness to distortion by pressure or inequalities of tempera- 
ture. Although the plate is fully $ of an inch thick, and only 
33 inches square, an abnormal pressure of less than a single 
ounce at one corner will materially modify its behaviour, and 
a quarter of a pound destroys the definition entirely. In fact 
the plate is not naturally exactly flat, and to get its best perform- 
ance it is necessary to crowd a little wedge gently under one 
corner. When it is in good humour and condition, however, 
the performance is admirable ; one could wish for nothing better, 
unless for a little more light in the violet portions of the 
spectrum. 
_ With this instrument I have examined the 70 lines given on 
Angstr6m’s map as common to two or moresubstances. Of the 
7o lines, 56 are distinctly double or triple; 7 appear to be 
single ; and as to the remaining 7, I am uncertain; in most 
cases, because I was unable to identify the lines satisfactorily on 
account of their falling upon spaces thickly covered with groups 
of fine lines, none of which are specially prominent. 

As a general rule the double lines are pretty close, the dis- 
tance being less than that of the components of the 1474 line. 
Generally also the components are unequal in width or darkness, 
or both, though in perhaps a quarter of the cases they are alike 
in appearance. The doubtful lines are the following, designated 
by their wave length on Angstrém’s map: 5489°2, 5425'0, 
5396°I, 5265°8, 4271°5, 4253°9 and 4226°8. I strongly suspect 
5396°1 and 5265°8 (which present no difficulty in identification) 
of being double, but could never fairly split either of them, and 
therefore leave them among the doubtfuls. 

Those which show no signs of doubling, so far as could be 
seen, were: 6121°2, 6064'5, 5019°4, 4585°3, 4578°3, 4249°8, 
and 4237°5. 

In respect to the lines 5019°4, 4585°3 and 4237°5 it is quite 
possible there may be some mistake as to the coincidence, since 
in his ¢addes Thalén gives neither of them as due to iron. An 
accidental strengthening of the dotted line, which, on the map, 
leads up from the symbol of the element concerned, through the 
iron spectrum, would account for the matter, by making the 
line appear on the map as belonging to iron also. 

As the facts stand, therefore, it is obvious that arguments 
which have been based upon the coincidence of lines in the 
spectra of different elements lose much of their force ; it ap- 
pears likely that the coincidences are in all cases only near 
approximations. At the same time this is certainly not yet 
demonstrated. The complete investigation of the matter requires 
that the bright line spectra of the metals in question should be 
confronted with each other and with the solar spectrum under 
enormous dispersive power, in order that we may be able to 
determine which of the components of each double line belongs 
to one, and which to the other element. If in this research it 
should be found that doth of the components of a double line 
were represented in the spectra of two different metals, and the 
suspicion of impurity were excluded, we should then indeed 
have a most powerful argument in favour of some identity of 
material or architecture in the molecules of the two substances 
involved. 

Distortion of Solar Prominences by a Diffraction Spectroscope.— 
Generally, in such an instrument, the forms seen through the 
opened slit are either disproportionately extended, or compressed 
along the line of dispersion. 


illuminated by monochromatic light, the image of the slit, 
formed on each side of the simple reflected image in the focus 
of the view-telescope (which is supposed to have the same focal 
length as the collimator), will have the same width as the slit 
itself only in one special case, not usually realised with a 
reflecting grating. 

If the angle, between the normal to the grating and2ithe 
view-telescope, is ess than that between the normal and the 
collimator, the slit-image will be zarrower than the slit, and a 
prominence seen through it will be compressed in the plane of 
dispersion. If the relation of the angles be reversed, then of 
course the distortion will also be reversed, and we shall have 
extension instead of compression. 

The mathematical theory is very simple. Suppose the colli- 
mator and telescope to be fixed at a constant angle, as in the 
now usual arrangement. 

Let anzle between telescope and collimator = a, 

Angle between telescope and normal to grating = 7. 
Then angle between collimator and normal = x = a—r. 
Also, let space between adjacent lines of grating = s. 
And the order of spectrum observed = 7, 

Then, by principles of spectrum formation, we have 


Ss 
A= 


a eer ee care) 
nT SUM, 


a3 
A being the wave-length of the ray which is in the centre of the 
field of view: 
ar i 
-+sin ky 
s 


whence sin T= 


Differentiating, we have at once 


__cos k 


ar= 


dx, or cosy 

cos 7 cos T 
which reduces to, dr = (cos a + sina tan r) dk. Distortion can 
only disappear in cases when this coefficient of de reduces to 
unity. Special cases— 

1. If += « there is no distortion—but also no dispersion : 
it is the case of simple reflection, 

2. If «=o, the grating being kept normal to the collimator, 
then dr = sec a dk. 

3. If r =o, the grating being kept normal to the telescope 
(which in this case must be movable), then dr = cos a dk. 

4. If a=90°, dr=tan 7 dk. 

5. If a=o, dr=dk, and there is no distortion. 

This is possible only by using the same tube and object-glass 
both for collimator and view-telescope, the grating being slightly 
inclined at right angles to the plane of dispersion, The prin- 
cipal difficulty in this form of instrument lies in the diffuse 
light reflected by the surfaces of the object-glass. It is hoped 
that this may be nearly obviated by a special construction of the 
lens which will throw the reflected light outside of the eyepiece. 


| An instrument on this plan is being made for Prof. Brackett 


by the Clarks, for use in the physical laboratory at Princeton, 
and is now nearly completed. 


Princeton, September 27, 1880 C. A, YOUNG 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
Dr. J. E. Harris (D.Sc. Lond.) has been appointed to the 
vacant Professorship of Natural Philosophy at Trinity College, 
London. 


From the new Calendar of the University College of Wales 
we learn that the present number of students is fifty-seven. We 
see there are classes for most of the branches of science, only 
unfortunately they are all taught by one professor, which, to say 
the least, must be rather hard on him. We hope the college 
will soon be able to have separate teachers, at any rate for the 
physical and biological sciences. 


THE new University Library at Halle has just been opened. 
It is built entirely on the French system, and special precautions 
have been taken with regard to fire. It now numbers some 
200,000 volumes, but there is room for half a million. The cost 
of the building amounts to 400,coo marks (20,000/.). 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


THE American Naturalist for December, 1880, contains :— 


The reason is this: if the slit be ! D. Cope, on the extinct cats of America.—F,. V, Hayden, Twin 


Fan. 20, 1881] 


NATURE. 


283 


lakes and Teocalli Mountain, Central Colorado, with remarks on 
the glacial phenomena of that region.—C. E, Bessey, sketch of 
the progress of botany in the United States in the year 1879.— 
C. S. Minot, sketch of comparative embryology, No. 5; on the 
general principle of development.—The Editor’s Table.—Per- 
manent exhibition of Philadelphia.—Recent literature.—A new 
edition of Packard’s ‘‘ Zoology” is announced.—General Notes. 
Scientific news. Proceedings of scientific societies. 


Revue des Sciences Naturelles, December, 1880, contains : 
Herborisations of Strobelberger about Montpellier in 1620, 
translated, with notes, by M. Kieffer (a complete exgosé of the 
extraordinary plagiarism of Strobelberger, who copied his work 
on the plants of Montpellier almost verbatim from the work of 
Lobel).—M. Doumet-Adanson, on an immense Calamary taken 
near Cette, January, 1880 (Ommastrephes sagittata), This 
specimen was nearly six feet in length, from the end of the body 
to the tops of the arms.—M. S. Jourdain, on the late develop- 
ment of scales in the eels, —E. Dubrueil, catalogue of testaceous 
mollusca collected from the French shores of.the Mediterranean, 
—M. Reitsch, an analysis of Falkenberg’s researches on the 
fecondation and alternation of generation in Cutleria,—F. Fon- 
tannes, on the stratigraphical position of the Pliocene group of 
Saint Aries, in the Western Bas-Dauphiné, and particularly in 
the environs of Hauterives (Dr6me).—Scientific Reports and 
Bulletin. 


Gegenbaur’s morphologisches Jahrbuch, Band 6, Heft 4.—Dr. 
M. vy. Davidoff, contribution to the comparative anatomy of the 
posterior limb masses in fishes, 2nd part (Plates 21, 23); Dr. 
W. Pfitzner, on the epidermis in the amphibia (Plates 24, 25) ; 
J. E. V. Boas, on the conus arteriosus in Butirinus albula and 
in other Teleostei (Plate 26); Dr. H. Rabl-Riickhard, on the 
mutual relations between the chorda, hypophysis and the middle 
ridge of the skull in the embryos of the sharks’, &c., brains (with 
Plates 27, 28); Carl Rabl, on the ‘‘ pedicle of invagination,” 
&c., in Planorbis (Plate 29); Prof. R. Wiedersheim, on the 
duplication of the os centrale in the carpus and tarsus of 
Axolotl (Plate 30); Prof. C. Gegenbaur, critical remarks on 
polydactylism as atavism; short notices; W. Leche, on the 
morpology of the pelvic region in the Insectivora. 


Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, December 15, 
1880.—Tertiary man in Portugal, by M. Choffat,— Monograph 
of the ancient glaciers and the erratic formation of the middle 
part of the Rhone valley, by MM. Falsan and Chantre.—Organic 
dust of the atmosphere, by Dr. Yung.—On the question of 
lowering of the high waters of the Lake of Constance, by M. 
Achard. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Royal Society, January 6.—Observations on the Structure 
of the Immature Ovarian Ovum in the Bird and Rabbit, and on 
the Mode of Formation of the Discus Proligerus in the Rabbit 
and of the ‘‘Egg-Tubes” in the Dog. By E. A. Schifer, 
F.R.S. 

The first part of the paper is devoted to a minute description 
of the young ovarian ova of the bird as seen in sections of the 
ovary of a laying hen, The germinal spot is described as com- 
posed of two distinct substances, namely, a homogeneous matrix 
staining but slightly with logwood and a number of coarse 
granules imbedded in it, which become darkly stained. The 
germinal spot may often be seen to be connected with the wall 
of the germinal vesicle by a network of file filaments (intra- 
nuclear network). Appearances are also described which indi 
cate that two germinal vesicles may be originally present in one 
ovum (?formed by the fusion of two primitive ova), and that 
one of the two may afterwards disappear. 

A network of filaments is also described as existing in the 
yolk, which in some ova shows peculiar condensations of vitel- 
line substance, which simulate nuclei; but the origin and 
meaning of these are left in doubt. Other appearances, as of 
systems of strize, are also mentioned as occurring in larger 
ovarian ova. With regard to the membranes of the ovum the 
author differs from Waldeyer and agrees with Balfour in 
regarding the zona radiata as a product of the protoplasm of the 
ovum, and not as derived from the cells of the follicular 
epithelium. 

The ovarian ovum of the rabbit is next described, and is 
found to agree in most essential particulars with that of the 


bird. The zona pellucida is porous, and allows granules of food- 
material to pass from the epithelium cells of the Graafian follicle 
directly into the vitellus, But it is chiefly in this epithelium 
that the interest centres, for the inner layer of cells of the folli- 
cular epithelium appears to be formed in the peripheral layer of 
the vitellus of the ovum itself, making their appearance first of 
all as mere nuclei (derived in all probability from the nucleus of 
the ovum), around which part of the protoplasm or vitellus of 
the ovum becomes segmented off. This description is compared 
with that which Kuppfer gives of the formation of an inner 
layer of follicular epithelium from nuclei which make their 
appearance in the periphery of the vitellus of the ovum of 
Ascidia canina, and with the observations of Kleinenberg upon 
the formation of a layer of cells from the periphery of the ovum 
of Hydra. 

Finally the gland-like nature of the ovarian tubes in the 
bitch’s ovary is insisted upon in agreement with Pfliiger and 
Waldeyer, and in opposition to the view taken by Foulis, 

January 13.—‘‘On the Forty-eight Co-ordinates of a Cubic 
Curve in Space,” by William Spottiswoode, President R.S. 

In a note published in the Mefort of the British Association 
for 1878 (Dublin), and in a fuller paper in the Zyamsactions of 
the London Mathematical Society, 1879 (vol. x. No. 152), I 
have given the forms of the eighteen, or the twenty-one (as 
there explained), co-ordinates of a conic in space, corresponding, 
so far as correspondence subsists, with the six co-ordinates of a 
straight line in ‘space. And in the same papers J have esta- 
blished the identical relations between these co-ordinates, where- 
by the number of independent quantities is reduced to eight, as 
it should be. In both cases, viz., the straight line and the 
“cubic, the co-ordinates are to be obtained by eliminating the 
variables in turn from the two equations representing the line or 
the conic, and are, in fact, the coefficients of the equations 
resulting from the eliminations. 

In the present paper I have followed the same procedure for 
the case of a cubic curve in space. Such a curve may, as is well 
known, be regarded as the intersection of two quadric surfaces 
having a generating line in common; and the result of the 
elimination of any one of the variables from two quadric equa- 
tions satisfying this condition is of the third degree. The 
number of coefficients so arising is 4 X 10 = 40; but I have 
found that these forty quantities may very conveniently be re- 
placed by forty-eight others, which are henceforwara considered 
as the co-ordinates of the cubic curve in space. 

The number of identical relations established in the present 
paper is thirty-four. But it will be observed that the equations 
are lineo-linear in each of two groups, say the U-co-ordinates 
and the U’-co-ordinates ; and as we are concerned with the ratios 
only of the coefficients, and not with their absolute values, we 
are, in fact, concerned only with the ratios of the U-co-ordinates 
inter se, and the U’-co-ordinates z#tey se, and not with their 
absolute values. Hence the number of independent co-ordinates 
will be reduced to 48 — 34 — 2 = 12, as it should be. 


Mathematical Society, January 13.—S. Roberts, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Miss C. A. Scott and Messrs. J. Parker 
Smith, O. H. Mitchell, Fellow of Johns Hopkins University, 
and T. Craig, U.S. Coast Survey Office, Washington, were 
elected members. Dr. Hirst, in drawing attention to the loss 
the Society had sustained by the death of M. Chasles, gave a 
rapid sketch of that distinguished geometer’s career and work ; 
in lightly touching upon his private life he mentioned how 
gratified M. Chasles had been by the fact that he was not only 
the first Foreign Member of the Society, but for a long time the 
only one. The following communications were made :—On an 
apparently paradoxical relation of the circle, parabola, and 
hyperbola, by A. J. Ellis, F.R.S.—A proof of the differential 
equation which is satisfied by the hypergeometric series, by the 
Rey. T. R. Terry.—On the periodicity of hyperelliptic integrals 
of the first class, by W. R. W. Roberts.—On the tangents 
drawn from a point to a nodal cubic, by R. A. Roberts.—Sur 
une propriété du paramétre de la transformée canonique des 
formes cubiques ternaires, by Signor Brioschi (Milan).—Note on 
a kinematical theorem connected with the rectilinear courses of 
two vessels sailing uniformly, by C. W. Merrifield, F.R.S.—A 
partition-problem connecting the angles of a triangle with the 
angles of the successive pedal triangles, by J. W. L. Glaisher, 
EER.S. 

PARIS 

Academy of Sciences, January 10.—M. Wurtz in the 

chair,—The following papers were read :—On the {conditions 


284 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 20, 1881 


oo 


relative to the theoretic expression of the velocity of light, by 
M. Cornu.—Crystalline substances produced from old medals 
immersed in the thermal waters of Baracci, commune of Olmeto 
(Corsica), by M. Daubrée. Some of these bronze medals had 
merely a dark patina resulting from superficial sulphuration. A 
few others had a thick crystalline crust, the substance being 
apparently a double sulphide of copper and tin (of which the 
nearest natural analogue would be stannine). The water, con- 
taining only 0°3 gr. of mineral matters per litre, has chloride of 
sodium, sulphate of soda, and silica in predominance.—On the 
star-fishes dredged in the deep regions of the Gulf of Mexico 
and the Carribean Sea by the American ship the Blake, by M. 
Perrier. The new collections raise the number of species from 
twenty-seven toseventy, A pretty large number are new generic 
types. —On a class of linear differential equations, the coefficients 
of which are algebraic functions of the independent variable, 
by M. Appell.—On the circulatory apparatus of isopod crusta- 
ceans, by M. Delage.—Phylloxera in California, by M. de 
Lavignon. The old vine-growers say they have always known 
it, and they do not regard it as introduced with plants from 
Bordelais. Its effects are the same in kind as in France, but its 
progress is very slow by reason of absence (apparently) of the 
winged insect, quality of the soil (rich and deep), and 
the existence of an acarian parasite (Zyvoglyphus longior).— 
The Inspector-General of Navigation reported on the varia- 
tions of the Seine at Paris in 1880. The highest water 
was on January 4, the lowe-t on February 3 and 4.—On 
a process of astronomical observation for use of voyagers, &c. 
(continued), by M. Rouget.—On the transformation of reciprocal 
directions, by M. Laguerre.—On the size and variations of 
Purkinje’s images, by M. Crouillebois. It is proved that the 
mechanism of the adaptation consists in a simultaneous modif- 
cation of the curvature of the two faces of the crystalline lens.— 
Thermo-regulator for high temperatures, by M. D’Arsonval. 
This is applicable up to 1200° at least. A regulator like that 
before described has its spice under the membrane connected 
by means of a capillary tube with a short hollow stem which 
can be op:ned or closed with a screw and is connected 
by two tubes with a mercury manometer, and an air-reservoir (of 
glass or porcelain) to be put in the medium that is to be kept 
constant. For temperatures over 300° he opens the stem 
when 1 atm. has been reached, and so lets the manometer come 
back to zero before closing again. A new method of reading 
must then, of course, be adopted.—Investigation of gaseous 
compounds and study of some of their properties with the 
spectroscope, by MM. Hautefeuille and Chappuis. With the 
spectroscope one can follow the isomeric change of ozone into 
oxygen, and prove that its destruction does not give hy ponitric 
acid. Electrification of a dry mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, 
containing at least one-seventh of the former, gives a substance 
not before observed, and having a remarkableabsorption-spectrum, 
It is thought to be fernitric acid, analogous toM. Berthelot’s persz/- 
phuric acid.—On bromides and iodides of phosphorus, by M. Ogier. 
—Rapid stoppage of the rhythmic contractions of the cardiac ven- 
tricles through occlusion of the coronary arteries, by MM. Sée, 
Bochefontaine, and Roussy.—On the application of anatomical 
examination of the blood to diagnosis of disease, by M. Hayem, 
He gives two methods : examination of pure blood, in a thin 
layer, of constant thickness ; and examination of blood diluted 
with a special reagent. The phenomena in certain diseases are 
described.—On the quantity of light necessary to perceive the 
colour of objects of different surfaces, by M. Charpentier. For 
retinal surfaces $3, to 34;¢; mm. square the illumination neces- 
sary to make or perceive colour (once the luminous sensibility is 
obtained) was the same for each colour tried. It may, then, be 
said that for red, yellow, green, and blue the chromatic sensi- 
bility is independent of the retinal surface excited. Influence 
exerted by environment on the form, structure, and mode of 
reproduction of Jsoetes lacustris, by M. Mer.—On the conserva- 
tion of grain in closed reservoirs, by M. Muntz. With renewal 
of air he found about ten times more CO, produced than in a 
closed vessel. The volume of CO, found in contact with air is 
always less than that of O absorbed. The O is chiefly fixed by 
fatty matters. Too dry grain, not giving much of an asphyxiat- 
ing atmosphere, is liable to the ravages of insects. The propor- 
tion of CO, increases rapidly with the degree of moisture. As 
the temperature is raised there is physiological combustion up to 
a point (about 50°), thereafter chemical. Anesthetics, like sul- 
phide of carbon, diminish, without stopping, the formation of 
CO,.—On a simple means of bringing to life new-born infants 


ina state of apparent death, by M. Gozard. He describes a 
successful application of M. Le Bon’s suggestion for young 
asphyxiated animals, immersing in a water-bath heated 45° to 
50°.—M. LBoutigny invited attention to the fact that boiling 
water projected on an incandescent surface instantly falls in 
temperature to 97°. He attributes this cooling to work done in 
production of the spheroidal state. 


BERLIN 


Geographical Society, January 8.—Dr. Nachtigal, presi- 
dent.—The President gave a sketch of the work of the Society’s 
explorers for the past year. It was hoped that Dr. Lenz would 
have been presei t at the meeting, but he had been unable to 
leave St. Louis in Senegal, as yellow fever prevailed there. 
After a long interval letters had been received from Dr, 
Buchner, dated February, May, and July last. He had been 
for six months in Mussumba in Muata Janvo’s kingdom, carry- 
ing on topographical, photographic, and natural history work. 
After sending most of his papers and collections to Angola he 
proceeded northwards, writing on July 1 from Muene Chikambo, 
Dr. Nachtigal then referred to the East African Expedition, 
which, along with Capt. Ramaeckers, has arrived at Tabora, and 
Dr. Rohlf’ party, who on December 12 were at Massowah.— 
Herr Buchter exhibited a large number of photographs and 
drawings from the Upper Nile. 


VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of {Sciences, January 7.—On the 
quantitative relations of electric expansion in glass and caout- 
chouc, by G. Korteweg and V. A. Julius.—Preliminary note on 
decomposition of water, by C. Baudet.—Researches on fats, by 
D. G. Goldschmiedt and M. v. Schmidt.—On an unerystallis- 
able acid obtained from albumen by oxidation with permanganate 
of potash, by E. v. Bruecke. 


CONTENTS 


Norra AMERICAN PINNIPEDS . + - «© «© 0 # «© © © 0 # © 


CATALOGUE OF NEWCASTLE LIBRARIES . « » « + «© © © « » = 262 
Our Book SHELF :— 
“ Botanische Jahrbiicher fiir Systematik Pflanzengeschichte und 
Pflanzengeographie’’ . . . PPemOiow ss ae) Go ay Et 
Day’s ‘‘ Fishes of Great Britainand Ireland” ..... ~ 264 
Kent’s *‘ Manual of the Infusoria” . . . .. - - - =. « 264 
Palliser’s ‘‘Complete Course of Problems in Practical Plane 
Geometry? )s fo ete fon (oe Se fe! fe) eo mdm 
“Bericht iiber die Thatigkeit der Botanischen Section der Schle- 
sischen Gesellschaft im Jahre 1877"",*. . . . . + « x <er64 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Dr. Carnelley’s Hot Ice.—Dr. Ortver J. LopGe . . . . . « 264 
On the Spectrum of Carbon.—Prof. G, D. Liveine, F.R.S.; Dr. 
WiMs WATTS = fo) SB gene ce S a e 
Geological Climates.—ALFrED R. Wattace; Dr. Maxwett T. 
MASTERS . nel E afcc hageke Iypirue Ls) ee tae bce RD 
Climate of Vancouver Island.—Wm. Pencetty, F.R.S. . . . . 267 
Dimorphic Leaves of Conifers—Dr. Maxwett T. MAsTERS 267 
Dust and Fogs.—Hon. R. RussELt . « ss we ee ee + 267 
Low Temperature.—Rev. S. J. Perry, F.R.S. . 9. + 2 + + + 268 
A ‘Natural’? Experiment in Polarised Light—Cuas. T. Wuir- 
ite em SAR OM Ni cmibe owt Oo 0 4 FP 
Stratics AND Dynamics oF SKATING. By CHARLES ALEX. STEVEN- 

SON (With Diagrams) (s0c 8 ee se we) eh ope ne 
Joun Duncan, THE ALFORD Weaver AND Botanist. By WILLIAM 

JOLLY capensis Became. be Asigeie [= 25-0 ows) tee 
Tue Inpo-CHINESE AND Ockanic Races—TyPes AND AFFINITIES, 

IV. By A. H. Keane (With Illustrations). . . . + « « + + 272 
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Archzopteryx macrura_- bulgetite . 2 has > 276 
European and North American Birds; . - - . + + = 277 
A Gnat with Two Kinds of Wives. . - « «© + + + © 277 
The Function of Asparagine. . . . + + - + + + + 277 
A Cause of the Motion of Diatoms. . . - + + + + + + 277 
Fungal Growths inthe Animal Body. - - - + + + + + - 257 
Brain-Weight. = sinc “ocean pheMrenne les) o> °°) >) °) ie ana 
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Spectroscopic NorEs, 1879-80. By Prof.C.A.Younc. . . 28r 
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NABURE 


285 


THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1881 


UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY 


Unconscious Memory, &c. By Samuel Butler. 
(London : David Bogue, 1880.) 


R. BUTLER is already known to the public as the 
author of two or three books which display a 
certain amount of literary ability. So long therefore as 
he aimed only at entertaining his readers by such works 
as ‘‘ Erewhon,” or “ Life and Habit,” he was acting in a 
suitable sphere. 
prompted him to other labours; for in his ‘‘ Evolution, 
Old and New,” as well as in the work we are about to 
consider, he formally enters the arena of philosophical 
discussion. To this arena, however, he is in no way 
adapted, either by mental stature or mental equipment; 
and therefore makes so sorry an exhibition that Mr. 
Darwin may well be glad that his enemy has written 
a book. But while we may smile at the vanity which 
has induced so incapable and ill-informed a man 
gravely to pose before the world as a philosopher, we 
should not on this account have deemed “ Unconscious 
Memory” worth reviewing. On the contrary, as a hasty 
glance would have been sufficient to show that the book 
is bad in philosophy, bad in judgment, bad in taste, and, 
in fact, that the only good thing in it is the writer’s own 
opinion of himself—with all that was bad we should not 
have troubled ourselves, and that which was good we 
should not have inflicted on our readers. The case, 
however, is changed when we meet, as we do, with a vile 
and abusive attack upon the personal character of a man 
in the position of Mr. Darwin; for however preposterous, 
and indeed ridiculous, the charges may be, the petty 
malice which appears to underlie them deserves to be 
duly repudiated. We shall therefore do our duty in this 
respect, and at the same time take the opportunity of 
pointing out the nonsense that Mr. Butler has been 
writing, both about the philosophy of evolution and the 
history of biological thought. 

The great theory which Mr. Butler has propounded, 
and which with characteristic modesty he says seems to 
himself “one, the importance of which is hardly inferior 
to that of the theory of evolution itself’—this epoch- 
making theory is as follows. The processes of embry- 
onic development and instinctive actions are merely 
“repetitions of the same kind of action by the same 
individuals in successive generations.” Therefore ani- 
mals know, as it were, how to pass through their embry- 
onic stages, and, after birth, are taught by instinctive 
knowledge, simply because fas parts of their ancestral 
organisms they have done the same things many times 
before ; there is thus a race-memory as there is an indi- 
vidual memory, and the expression of the former consti- 
tutes the phenomena of heredity. 

Now this view, in which Mr. Butler was anticipated by 
Prof. Hering, is interesting if advanced merely as an 
illustration ; but to imagine that it reveals any truth of 
profound significance, or that it can possibly be fraught 
with any benefit to science, is simply absurd. The most 
cursory thought is enough to show that, whether we call 
heredity unconscious memory, or memory of past states 

VoL. xx111.—No. 587 


Op. 5- 


But of late his ambition seems to have ; 


of consciousness the hereditary offspring of those states, 
we have added nothing to our previous knowledge either 
of heredity or of memory. All that lends any sense to 
the analogy we perfectly well knew before—namely, that 
in the race, as in the individual, certain alterations of 
structure (whether in the brain or elsewhere) when 
once made, tend to remain. But the analogy throws 
no light at all upon the only point which re- 
quires illumination--namely, how is it that, in the 
case of heredity, alterations of structure can be car- 
ried over from one individual to another by means of 
the sexual elements. We can understand in some 
measure how an alteration of brain structure, when once 
made, should be permanent, and we believe that in this 
fact we have the physical basis of memory; but we can- 
not understand how this alteration is transmitted to 
progeny through structures so unlike the brain as are 
the products of the generative glands. And we merely 
stultify ourselves if we suppose that the problem is 
brought any nearer to a solution by asserting that a future 
individual while still in the germ has already partici- 
pated, say in the cerebral alterations of its parent—and 
this in a manner analogous to that in which the brain of 
the parent is structurally altered by the effects of 
individual experience. But Mr. Butler goes even further 
than this, and extends his so-called theory even to 
inorganic matter. He “‘ would recommend the reader to 
see every atom of the universe as living, and able to feel 
and remember, though in a humble way.” Indeed he 
“can conceive of no matter which is not able to remember 
a little’; and he does “not see how action of any kind 
is conceivable without the supposition that every atom 
retains a memory of certain antecedents.” It is hard to 
be patient with such hypertrophied absurdity ; but if the 
bubble deserves pricking, it is enough to ask how it is 
“ conceivable’? that an “ atom,’ even if forming part of 
a living brain, could possibly have “‘a memory of certain 
antecedents,’’ when, as an atom, it cannot be conceived 
capable of undergeing any structural modification. 

So much for Mr. Butler’s main theory. But he has also 
a great deal to say on the philosophy of evolution. “ Op. 
4” was called “ Evolution, Old and New,” and now “ Op. 
5” continues the strain that was struck in the earlier 
composition. This consists for the most part ina strangely 
silly notion that “the public generally’’—including, of 
course, the world of science—was as ignorant of the writings 
of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck as was Mr, 
Butler when he first read the “ Origin of Species.’’ That 
is to say, ‘‘ Buffon we knew by name, but he sounded too 
like ‘buffoon’ for any good to come from him. We had 
heard also of Lamarck, and held him to be a kind of 
French Lord Monboddo; but we knew nothing of his 
doctrine. . . . Dr. Erasmus Darwin we believed to bea 
forgotten minor poet,’’ &c. No wonder, therefore, when 
such was our manner of regarding these men, that we 
required a Mr. Samuel Butler to show us our error. And 
no wonder that Mr. Charles Darwin, who doubtless may 
have peeped into the literature which Mr. Butler has 
discovered, should so well have succeeded in his life-long 
purpose of concealing from the eyes of all men how much. 
he owes to his predecessors. No wonder, also, that Mr. 
Darwin, when he chanced to see an advertisement of a 
forthcoming work by Mr. Butler with the title “ Evolution, 

oO 


286 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 27, 1881 


Old and New,” should have inferred, as Mr. Butler ob- 
serves, “what I was about,” and forthwith began to 
tremble in dismay that at last the Buffoon, the French 
Lord Monboddo, and the forgotten minor poet had found 
a champion to vindicate their claims. For now the hideous 
corruption of the monster was about to be exposed who 
had fed as a parasite upon these “dead men,” till he 
stands before our eyes bloated with honours unde- 
served, and extending “his power of fascination all 
over Europe,” not only “among the illiterate masses 
.... but among experts and those most capable of 
judging.” No wonder then that Mr. Darwin, knowing 
that at last a wise young judge had come to judgment 
and to open the eyes of the “experts,” should at once 
have set about a boo on his own grandfather to disarm 
by anticipation the justice of the avenger. But natural 
as all this unquestionably appears, it scarcely prepares 
us, as it did not prepare Mr. Butler, for the depths of 
deceit and depravity to which Mr. Darwin would “con- 
descend” in order to thwart the arm of justice. Yet the 
fact is that Mr. Darwin entered into a foul conspiracy 
with Dr. Krause, the editor of Kosmos, to slay by in- 
famous means the righteous but damning work of Mr. 
Butler. “The steps,” as he points out, “are perfectly 
clear.’ A whole number of Kosmos was devoted to Mr. 
Darwin and his antecedents in literature, at about the 
time when “ Evolution Old and New” was “ announced ” 
asin preparation. Soon afterwards arrangements were 
made for a translation of Dr. Krause’s essay, and were 
completed by the end of April, 1879. Then ‘ Evolution 
Old and New” came out, was read by Dr. Krause, who 
modified a passage or two in a manner that “he thought 
would best meet ‘Evolution Old and New,’ and then 
fell to condemning that book in a fimale that was meant 
to be crushing.’” So far all was fair enough; but now 
comes the foul play. ‘‘ Nothing was said about the re- 
vision which Dr. Krause’s work had undergone, but it 
was expressly and particularly declared in the preface 
that the English translation was an accurate version of 
what appeared in the February number of Kosmos, 
and no less expressly and particularly stated that 
my book [“ Evolution Old and New’’] was published 
subsequently to this. Both these statements are 
untrue,’ &c. Having discovered this erroneous con- 
spiracy, Mr. Butler wrote to Mr. Darwin for an 
explanation. With almost incredible complacency this 
arch-hypocrite had the hardihood to answer that it ‘is 
so common a practice’’ to modify articles in translation 
or republication, that “it never occurred to him to state 
that the article had been modified,” but that now he 
would do so should there be a reprint. This, as Mr. 
Butler says, “was going far beyond what was permissible 
in honourable warfare, and it was time in the interests of 
literary and scientific morality , . . to appeal to public 
opinion.’ He therefore communicated the facts to the 
Atheneum, expecting as a consequence to raise a “raging 
controversy.” Strange to say, however, the thing fell flat. 
“Not only did Mr. Darwin remain perfectly quiet, but 
all reviewers and /itéévateurs remained perfectly quiet 
also. It seemed. . . as if public opinion rather approved 
of what Mr. Darwin had done.’’ Nevertheless Mr. 
Butler had a salve to his disappointment in that he saw 
“the ‘Life of Erasmus Darwin’ more frequently and 


more prominently advertised than hitherto,’’ and “ pre- 
sently saw Prof. Huxley hastening to the rescue with his 
lecture ‘On the Coming of Age of the Origin of Species.’” 
Truly, therefore, in some, if not quite in full measure, 
Mr. Butler’s “vanity,” as he himself observes, “‘ was well 
fed by the whole transaction’’ ; for he saw by it that Mr. 
Darwin “did not meet my work openly,” and therefore 
that Prof. Huxley had to “hasten to the rescue’’ with a 
Royal Institution lecture. How sweet it doubtless was, if 
Mr. Butler attended that lecture, to think what a large 
proportion of the audience must have seen through the 
whole plot! Enough, surely, to “‘feed”’ any ordinary 
“vanity.” But Mr. Butler’s vanity is inordinate, and so 
requires a more than ordinary amount of nourishment. 
He therefore felt it desirable to give a detailed exposition 
of the whole affair, and this we have in some charmingly 
temperate and judicious chapters of “Op. 5.” 

But to be serious. If in charity we could deem Mr, 
Butler a lunatic, we should not be unprepared for any 
aberration of common-sense that he might display. His 
“Op. 5,” however, affords ample evidence that he is not a 
lunatic, but a man who wants to make a mark somewhere, 
and whose common sense, if he ever had such a thing, 
has been completely blinded by self-conceit. To us, no 
less than to him, “the steps are perfectly clear.” A 
certain nobody writes a book accusing the most illustrious 
man in his generation of burying the claims of certain 
illustrious predecessors out of the sight of all men, In 
the hope of gaining some notoriety by deserving and 
perhaps receiving a contemptuous refutation from the 
eminent man in question, he publishes this book, which, 
if it deserved serious consideration, would be not more 
of an insult {to the particular man of science whom it 
accuses of conscious and wholesale plagiarism, than it 
would be to men of science in general for requiring such 
elementary instruction on some of the most famous lite- 
rature in science from an upstart ignoramus who, until 
two or three years ago, ‘‘considered’’ himself “a 
painter by profession.’’ The eminent man however did 
not administer the chastisement: hence these tears of 
rage and chagrin; hence too the morbid fancying of 
the great man’s discomfort—of the rallying round of 
his friends, Krause’s article, Huxley’s lecture, &c., till 
such an explosive state of feeling was fermented that 
a mere omission to supply a reference to a book was 
magnified into a dark conspiracy—notwithstanding that a 
moment’s thought might have shown how such a con- 
spiracy, even if attempted, would not have been worthy 
of imbeciles. 

But, in conclusion, let us ask what this work on 
“Eyolution, Old and New” contained to produce, as its 
author imagines, such a scare among the leading 
“experts’’ in science. The work kas already been re- 
viewed in these columns (June 12, 1879) by Mr. Wallace, 
who, while fully exposing its weakness, treats the author 
with more consideration than he deserves—doubtless be- 
cause Mr. Wallace is himself so personally associated 
with the theory of “natural selection.” It is therefore 
sufficient for us here to say that “Evolution, Old and 
New,” conveys a confession on the part of its author that 
until two or three years ago he was totally ignorant con- 
cerning the history of biological thought. His attention 
having at length been directed to the fact that some of 


Fan. 27, 1881 | 


NATURE 


287 


the best naturalists had speculated on the probability of 
evolution, he for the first time found, as he innocently 
enough observes, that evolution and natural selection are 
not quite the same thing. Having made this highly 
original discovery, he forthwith proceeds to display a 
feebleness of judgment even more lamentable than his 
previous ignorance. For he concludes that the older 
speculations on the causes of evolution are more satis- 
factory than those advanced by Mr. Darwin. In the 
columns of a scientific journal any comment on sucha 
conclusion might well be deemed superfluous, although 
Mr. Wallace, in his review above mentioned, had the 
courtesy to expose its folly. The older evolutionists 
deserve indeed all honour for having perceived early in 
the day that some theory of descent must be true, even 
though they were not able to find the theory that could 
be seen to be inany measure satisfactory. But aman who 
in the full light of Darwin’s theory can deliberately return 
to “the weak and beggarly elements”? of Lamarck—such a 
man only shows that in judgment he is stilla child. The 
extreme weakness of Mr. Butler’s argumentation has, as 
we have said, already been shown by Mr. Wallace ; but 
it is of more interest to ask what infatuation it 
can have been that led him to suppose “all Europe 
and those most capable of judging” required him as 
an author to make himself ridiculous as an expounder 
of this subject. The answer is not far to seek. As Mr. 
Butler himself has told us, he has vanity, and his vanity is 
not less childish than his judgment. Thus, to give only 
one illustration. Of so much importance does he deem 
his own cogitations, that in the book we are reviewing he 
devotes two chapters, or more than thirty pages, to “ How 
I wrote ‘ Life and Habit,’ ” and “ How I wrote ‘ Evolution, 
Old and New’”; entering into a minute history of the 
whole course of his speculative flounderings. This is the 
only part of the book that repays perusal ; but that this 
part well repays perusal may be judged from the following, 
which we present as a sample :— 

“The first passage in ‘Life and Habit’ which I can 
date with certainty is one on p. 52, which ran as follows : 
.. + ‘“QDo this, this, this, which we too have done, and 
found our profit in it,’ cry the souls of his forefathers 
within him. Faint are the far ones, coming and going as 
the sound of bells wafted on to a high mountain; loud 
and clear are the near ones, urgent as an alarm of fire.’ 
This was written a few days after my arrival in Canada, 
June 1874. I was on Montreal Mountain for the first 
time, and was struck with its extreme beauty. . . . Sitting 
down for a while, I began making notes for ‘Life and 
Habit,’ of which I was then continually thinking, and had 
written the first few lines of the above, when the bells of 
Notre Dame in Montreal began to ring, and their sound 
was carried to and fro in a remarkably beautiful manner. 
I took advantage of the incident to insert then and there 
the last lines of the piece just quoted. I kept the whole 
passage with hardly any alteration, and am thus able to 
date it accurately. ... Early in 1876 I began putting 
these notes into more coherent form. I did this in thirty 
pages of closely-written matter, of which a pressed copy 
remains in my commonplace-book, I find two dates 
among them—the first ‘Sunday, February 6, 1876” ; and 
the second, at the end of the notes, ‘ February 12, 1876,” 

This historical sketch, which is without the smallest 
interest to any one but Mr. Butler himself, winds up with 
the following burst of eloquence :— 


“Here, then, I take leave of this matter for the present. 


If it appears that I have used language such as is rarely 
seen in controversy, let the reader remember that the 
occasion is, so faras I know, unparalleled for the cynicism 
and audacity with which the wrong complained of was 
committed and persisted in. I trust, however, that, 
though not indifferent to this, my indignation has been 
mainly roused, as when I wrote ‘ Evolution, Old and New,’ 
before Mr. Darwin had given me personal ground of 
complaint against him, by the wrongs he has inflicted on 
dead men, on whose behalf I now fight, as I trust that 
some one—whom I thank by anticipation—may one day 
fight on mine.’’ 


Mighty champion of the mighty dead! When our 
children’s children shall read in Westminster Abbey 
the inscription on the tomb of Mr. Samuel Butler, how 
will it be with a sigh that in their day and generation the 
world knows nothing of its greatest men! But as it is 
our misfortune to live before the battle over Mr. Samuel 
Butlers memory has been fought, we respond to his 
abounding presumption by recommending him, whatever 
degree of failure he may have experienced in art, once 
more to “consider” himself “by profession a painter’’ 
—or, if the painters will not have him, to make some 
third attempt, say among the homceopathists, whose 
journal alone, so far as we are aware, has received with 
favour his latest work. GEORGE J. ROMANES 


NEWTON’S BRITISH BIRDS 


A History of British Birds. By the late William Yarrell, 
V.P.L.S., F.Z.S. Fourth Edition, revised by Alfred 
Newton, M A., F.R.S. Part 10, November, 1876; 11, 
September, 1877 ; 12, October, 1878 ; 13, June, 1880. 
(London: Van Voorst.) 

E call this work advisedly ‘‘Newton’s British 
Birds,” although the title-page would seem to 

signify that it is only a fourth edition of Yarrell’s well- 
known “ History.” It is héwever in fact a new book. 

The text has been completely rewritten, and the familiar 

woodcuts and vignettes alone remain to remind one of the 

former author. 

The parts of Prof. Newton’s work now before us con- 
clude the account of the Passeres and contain the com- 
mencement of the history of the British Picarize. We 
need hardly say that the article upon each species is 
worked out in the same careful and accurate way as in 
the former portion of this work. Prof. Newton, as every 
ornithologist knows, is our leading authority on this sub- 
ject, which, during a course of many years of constan 
attention, he has made specially his own. We observe 
with great pleasure the elaborate manner in which the 
distribution of each species is described, not only within 
the area of the British Islands, but also wherever it is 
known to occur on other parts of the world’s surface. We 
may likewise notice the entire absence of misprints and 
the excellence of the type and paper, which do credit 
alike to the author and publisher, and will no doubt 
greatly contribute to extend the circulation of the work. 
Having said thus much, it is with regret that we must add 
one word of discontent, for which we trust Mr. Van 
Voorst and Prof. Newton will alike forgive us. The rate 
of issue of the numbers is so slow that it is difficult to 
calculate when the new edition will be completed. As 
will be seen by the heading of the article, only four parts 


= 288 


WATURE ; 


(7 Qn. 27 1881 


have been published during the four past years. If, as 
we suppose, about twenty more parts are required to 
finish the work, it is manifest that unless the present rate 
. of progress be expedited it will be twenty years before we 
are able to send our new “History of British Birds” to 
the binders. The edition was commenced, we believe, in 
1871. Now thirty years seems rather long for the execu- 
tion of a new edition of any work, even with all the 
improvements which, as we have shown above, the 
present editor has doubtless bestowed upon it We would 
fain ask therefore whether the author and publisher 
cannot manage to move on a little faster. If this cannot 
be done it appears to us that the first portion of the work 
will be almost out of date before the last part is pub- 
lished, and that the subscribers will have good reason to 
complain. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Fahrbiicher fir wissenschaftliche Botanik. Herausgege- 
ben von Dr. N. Pringsheim. Elfter Band, drittes und 
viertes Heft. With twenty-four plates. (Leipzig: W. 
Engelmann, 1877 and 1878.) 

DR. JAKOB ERIKSSON describes in a lengthened paper 
the protomeristem of the roots of Dicotyledons, and 
directs attention to the four great types of structure 
observable in these roots. In the first type the apex 
consists of three separate zones of meristem; the 
plerome, periblem, and dermocalyptrogen. In the second 
type only two zones are present: the plerome and a 
common zone for primary cortex, epidermis, and root- 
cap. In the third type there is a common meristem zone 
from which all the others develop; while in the{fourth 
there are two zones, the periblem and the plerome. Two 
additional types are met with in Monocotyledons : (1) in 
which there are four zones of meristem: calyptrogen, 
dermatogen, peroblem, and plerome; and (2) in which 
there are three zones : the calyptrogen, the plerome, and 
~ a commion zone for cortex and epidermis. 

The germination of Equisetum and Schizzaceze forms 
the subject of two papers, one by Sadebeck and the other 
by Bauke, whose work was arrested by premature death. 
Woronin contributes a paper on the Plasmodiophora 
Brassic@, the remarkable Myxomycete which seems to 
be the. cause of the so-called Hernia of the cabbage 
plant, which has recently attracted so much attention. 

The remaining papers are by Reinke, on A/onostroma 
bullosum and Tetraspora lubrica. Wydler discusses at 
great length the morphology of certain forms of inflores- 
cence, chiefly dichotomous; and lastly there is a paper 
by Pitra on the pressure in stems during the appearance 
of bleeding in plants. The contents of the parts are, as 
will be seen, very varied and deal with many different 
departments of botany, and will be found to sustain the 
reputation of the “Jahrbiicher’’ so long associated with 
the name of Pringsheim. 


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, No 
notice 1s taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 

+ — short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that it 
ws impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Unconscious Memory—Mr, Samuel Butler 


_ WILL you kindly allow me a portion of your valuable space 
in order that I may demonstrate the completely groundless 
character of a series of insinuations which Mr. Samuel Butler 


has made not only against myself, but also against Mr. Charles 
Darwin, in the work which he has recently published, entitled 
“*Unconscious Memory” (Op. 5). 

1. Mr. Butler insinuates that Mr. Darwin caused my essay on 
Dr. Erasmus Darwin to be translated simply in order to throw 
discredit on his work, ‘‘ Evolution, Old and New” (Op. 4), 
which was published in May, 1879. Upon this point I have to 
observe that Mr. Darwin informed me of his desire to have my 
essay published in English more than two months before the 
appearance of Mr. Butler’s book; that the translation did not 
appear earlier is due to the fact that I asked for a delay in order 
that I might be able to revise it. 

2. The assumption of Mr. Butler that Mr. Darwin had urged 
me to insert an underhand attack upon him (Mr. Butler) in my 
sketch, is not only absolutely unfounded, but, on the contrary, I 
have to state that Mr. Darwin specially solicited me ¢o0 fake no 
notice whatewer of Mr. Butler’s book, which had in the mean- 
time appeared. Since however I thought it desirable to point 
out that Dr. Erasmus Darwin’s views concerning the evolution 
of animated Nature still satisfy certain thinkers, even in our 
own day (a fact which must add greatly to Dr. Darwin’s reputa- 
tion), I have made some remarks upon the subject in a conclud- 
ing paragraph, without however naming Mr. Butler. And I 
may here emphatically assert, that although Mr. Darwin recom- 
mended me to omit one or two passages from my work, he 
neither made nor suggested additions of any kind. 

3. Mr. Butler’s assertion that the revision of my translation 
was made ‘‘ by the light”’ of his book is only in so far justifiable 
that I looked over the latter before sending off my work, and 
that my attention was thereby called toa remark of Buffon’s. 
From Mr. Butler’s book I have neither taken nor was I able to 
take the slightest information that was new to me concerning 
Dr. Erasmus Darwin’s scientific work and views, since in it 
practically only one portion of the ‘‘ Zoonomia” is discussed at 
any length, and this portion I had already quoted and analysed, 
while Mr. Butler only refers to one comparatively unimporiant 
part of the ‘‘ Botanic Garden,” and absolutely ignores the 
‘*Phytologia ” and the ‘‘ Temple of Nature.” So that no single 
line of Mr, Butler’s far from profound work was of the slightest 
use to me, 

Mr. Butler’s contention that I have quoted from his book a 
remark from Coleridge is entirely without foundation, I have 
been acquainted with this remark for years, and from th= source 
quoted. It is also quoted in Zoeckler’s work (vol. ii. p. 256), 
mentioned by me on p. 151, which appeared /vior to Mr. Butler’s 
book (Op. 4). The whole of my indebtedness to Mr. Butler 
reduces itself therefore to a single quotation from Buffon, 

4. Finally, as concerns the main accusation that no mention is 
made in the preface of the fact that my essay had been revised 
previously to publication, it is clear, as even a child could not 
fail to see, that this is not due to design, but is simply the result 
of an oversight. It would be simply absurd for a writer inten- 
tionally to attack a publication which appeared subsequently to 
the date indicated on his title-page ; and the so-called falsifica- 
tion, so far from injuring Mr. Butler, could only be most agree- 
able to him, because it might induce the careless reader to fancy 
that no reference whatever was intended to Mr. Butler ia the 
closing sentence. Should however such a reference be clearly 
intended—and to every reader posted up in the subject this could 
not be doubtful—every man of common sense would recognise 
this terrible falsehood to be a simple oversight. 

Be-lia, January 12 Ernst KRAUSE 


Hot Ice 


I VENTURE, in referring to Dr. Lodge’s letter of this week, 
to put before your readers the meaning of the remarks made 
on Dr, Carnelley’s experiment at the Chemical Society by Prof. 
Ayrton, who is now away from England. I understood him to say 
that as Dr. Carnelley’s hot ice is obviously in a condition which 
cannot be represented within the as yet known fundamental 
water surfaces, it is necessary to produce these surfaces beyond 
the places at which, hitherto, abrupt changes have been sup- 
posed to take place in them. He took as an instance the zce- 
water surface which has hitherto been assumed to stop at Prof. 
James. Thomson’s ‘‘triple point,’ and showed that although 
Sir Wm. Thomson’s experiments have proved that it is nearly 
plane for the stable state of water and ice, yet in the imaginary 
district beyond the triple pomt a change of latent heat might 


| give such a change of curvature as to bring this surface into the 
hot-ice region. 


Fan. 27, 1881} 


With Prof. Ayrton I have done for water what Prof. James 
Thomson did for carbonic acid ; we constructed in stiff paper a 
surface or surfaces which represent the relations of f, vand ¢ for 
a given quantity of water-stuff. Three parts of the whole are 
cylindric surfaces and divide space into three regions ; in one of 
them the substance is in the form of ice, in another in the f: rm 
of water, in another in the form of vapour; and they meet in 
Thomson’s triple point. Any one looking at this model must 
feel that Prof. Ayrton was right in looking for the hot-ice state 
in a region bounded by imaginary productions of the a/-zce, the 
all-water, the all-vapour, and the above-mentioned three cylindric 
surfaces beyond their lines of intersection. This is what Prof. 
James Thomson did to indicate the state of water before 
boiling by bumping begins. He assumed that the a//-water 
surface changed into the a//-vafour surface gradually, and 
not through a purely cylindric waéer-vapour surface, and this 
is really what Dr. Lodge himself does for hot ice. That is, he 
imagines the a//-ice surface to chanze into the a//-vapour surface 
gradually, and not by sudden changes through a purely cylindric 
zce-vapour surface. According to Mr. Ayrton the imaginary 
production is even of a more complicated kind than Dr. Lodge 
supposes, as the ice probably changes into unstable water before 
it changes intosteam, There can be no doubt that such imaginary 
productions find their place in the fundamental equation of water, 
but I cannot agree with Dr. Lodge in thinking that we have at 
present an explanation of such unstable conditions, If his 
explanation were satisfactory we ought to be able in the same 
way to explain the unstable position which precedes boiling by 
bumping, and this we cannot do. Where the explanation seems 
to me to fail is in the assumption that the hot vapour filling a 
cavity, being of lower temperature than the surface of the cavity, 
is always at a pressure less than that of saturation, in spite of 
the evaporation goingov. Now when we consider how large the 
surface of a minute-cavity is as compared with its volume, the 
very great increase in bulk when the solid is changed into vapour 
and the lowering of temperature which the surface must undergo 
on account of latent heat, we see that the condition which Dr, 
Lodge assumes to be maintained during the whole experiment 
would be instantaneously destroyed in a very minute cavity. In 
explaining hot ice I am afraid that neither Prof. Ayrton nor Dr. 
Lodge has given us more than Prof. James Thomson has given 
in explaining ‘‘boiling by bumping.” The cause of the pheno- 
menon is a molecular one probably, and must be left to the 
guesses of molecular physicists. JoHN PERRY 

14, Talgarth Road, West Kensington 


Mr. Bottomley’s Experiments with Vacuum Tubes and 
the Aurora 


Mr. BorroMLeEy’s extremely interesting experiments briefly 
described in NATURE, vol. xxiii. pp. 218 and 243, appear to 
have a very important bearing onthe question of atmospheric 
electricity ; for if such high vacua are good conductors of elec- 
tricity we have reason for thinking that the electrical conditions 
of our globe will be very different from what we have been accus- 
tomedtoregardthem. The layers of denser air surrounding the 
conducting matter of the globe will act like the glass of Mr. Bot- 
tomley’s tubes in maintaining by a Leyden-jar-like action any 
difference of potential that there may be between their inner and 
their outer surface. Again, in the piercing of the glass tube by a 
minute spark, we have the analogue of the lightning flash between 
the clouds and the earth ; the insulating layer in each case giving 
way, when, owing to an excessive increase in the surface density 
of the charge at any point, the dielectric stress exceeds the 
limits of the dielectric strength of the medium. The in- 
ternal luminous effects observed by Mr. Bottomley as the 
result of change in the distribution of the external charge 
of electricity will be the pbysical analogues of the aurora, 
with this difference, that they take place in the ultra-gaseous 
interior, whereas in the case of our globe the luminous pheno- 
mena take place in the ultra-gaseous (z.e. highly rarefied) exterior 
regions of the atmosphere. It would be interesting to learn 
whether such discharges present any other analogies with auroral 
phenomena, I shoull be particularly interested in learning 
whether the conditions under which such luminous effects are 
obtained give any support to the theory which I think to be the 
only consistent one, that the aurora is due zo¢ to electrical dis- 
charges from regions of less atmospheric density to regions of a 
greater density (or vice versa), but to electrical discharges ina 
region of pretty uniform (and small) density, and in which 


NATURE 


289 


region differences of electric potential exist. According to this 
view the auroral streaks which appear to be radial should in 
reality lie approximately parallel to the earth’s surface, and not 
stand (as most persons imagine) normal to it. A series of hori- 
zontal parallel lines drawn across the sky in a direction approxi- 
mately north and south would necessarily appear to an observer 
on the earth’s <urface foreshortened into a set of lines diverging 
in fan-like forms at either the north point or the south point of 
the horizon. ‘Their divergence would therefore be apparent 
only, like the “‘ beams” diverging from the sun at sunset on a 
cloudy day, or like the beams of the rayons du crépuscule, or 
like the ‘‘1adial streaks ” which I have pointed out as frequently 
accompanying rainbows. SILvANus P. THOMPSON 
University College, Bristol, January 22 


P.S.—The behaviour of a hollow sealed glass tube containing 
a conducting substance in its interior was noticed just one hun- 
dred years ago by Cavallo, who sealed up a glass tube in which 
mercury was at its boiling-point, thus obtaining a fairly perfect 
vacuum.—S. P. T. 


The Geological Age of the North Highlands of Scotland 


From the abstract of Proceedings of the Geological Society 
(January 5) I learn with surprise that Sir R. Murchison’s inter- 
pretation of the succession of the beds over the region north of 
the Caledonian Canal is disputed, and that the relations of 
the fossiliferous limestone of Durness to the quartzites ‘‘are” 
(according-to Dr. Callaway) ‘‘by no means satisfactorily esta- 
blished, and that their conformity is rendered dubious by a 
marked discordance of strike’; in fact that the limestone lies 
in a synclinal basin amongst the quartzites, so that if the lime- 
stone be of Lower Silurian (‘ Arenig”) age the quartzites and 
schists must be older; this I presume to be the inference Dr. 
Callaway intends to draw, as he says there ‘‘is no proof of the 
Lower Silurian age of the quartzite and newer series of flaggy 
gneiss and schist” constituting the interior mountainous district. 

Having had an opportunity Jast spring of visiting the district 
lying between Lochs Broom and Inchard under the guidance of 
Prof. Geikie and in company with my colleague of the Irish 
Survey, Mr. Symes, I take the opportunity offered by Dr. 
Callaway’s paper of expressing my entire concurrence in the 
interpretation of the structure of the country given by my 
late chief, whose elaborate and graphic descriptions in the 
pages of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vols. 
xv, and xvii.) will, I feel sure, never be invalidated. ; 

After seeing the clear infra-position of the limestone to the 
upper quartzite and schists first in the section at the Bridge of 
Ault-Corry near Ullapool, then in the cliffs near Ullapool, next at 
Inchnadamff and the head of Loch Assynt, then again in 
the Forest of Arkle and the hills bordering Loch Stack, where 
the limestone band is clearly interbedded between the lower and 
upper quartzites, and this latter as clearly passes under the 
schists of the interior, it required no further evidence to prove 
that all these beds belong to one conformable formation ; and 
that the geological age of the whole group is determined by the 
fossils discovered by Mr. Charles Peach inthe limestone of Durness 
or Assynt, and named by the late Mr. Salter. The geological 
sequence is so clear throughout that region, and so entirely bears 
out the description given by Murchison and Geikie, that ‘‘he 
who runneth may read”; and I have no hesitation im saying 
that the evidence that the Millstone Grit overlies the Carboni- 
ferous Limestone, and that the New Red Marl overlies the New 
Red Sandstone is not more clear than that the upper quartzites 
and schi-ts overlie the Assynt limestone. 

I wish to point out in conclusion that the trough-shaped 
arrangement of the Durness limestone and its faulted position, 
described by Dr. Callaway, has already been described by 
Murchison in the Quarterly Journal, vol. xv. Any one visiting 
the erand tract of country lying between Duress and Loch 
Maree need have no better guide than the papers I have referred 
to, and a good geological map. He will find that there is 
little, if anything, to add to the details and conclusions there 
given, and were it not that Dr. Callaway’s objections seem to 
find support with some geologists of more experience than 
himself, it would not have been necessary to enter a caveat 
against them, £ 

‘As revards the question whether in any part of the Highlands 
of Scotland except along the western coast the Laurentian (or 
« pre-Cambrian”) rocks reapyear, as has been stated or sug- 
gested, I do not wish to offeran opinion. As regards the region 


290 


NATURE 


| Fan. 27, 1881 


forth of the Caledonian Canal, it seems to me that thf is 
extremely improbable, as along the two traverses we made—one 
from Garve to Ullapool, the other from Laxford to Lairg—the 
prevalent dips are eastward, and the upper quartzites forming 
the elevations of Ben Dearig and Ben More are of great thick- 
ness. One may therefore assume that the Laurentian gneiss 
(even in the absence of the Cambrian sandstone) is deeply buried 
beneath these beds and their succeeding schists. The region of 
the Grampians of Aberdeenshire, on the other hand, is of great 
extent, and until it has been explored by the’ officers of the 
Geological Survey it would ke injudicious (as it appears to me) 
to come to any opinion on the subject. Epwarp Hutu 
Geological Survey Office, Hu ne Street, Dublin, January 18 


Geological Climates 


HAVING considered the effects of Mr. Wallace’s proposed 
redistribution of Jand and water, intended to raise the mean 
annual temperature of Bournemouth 15° or 20° F. above its 
present amount, I now, with your permission, shall say a few 
words on some minor questions, which have arisen during our 
discussion of the difficult problem of Geological Climates. 

1. Zhz Clump of Bamboos at Coaper’s Hill Engineering College. 
—Prof. McLeod has kindly forwarded me a specimen of the 
foliage of the bamboo now growing in his garden, and has 
promised to send me the fruit when it ripens. 

My botanical friends cannot decide its species, with certainty, 
from the foliage alone, without the seeds, but think that it, 
probably, is the bamboo called Thammnocalamus Falconeri, 
formerly called Arundinaria falcata (not Arundinacea) and 
alsoj called Bambusa gracilis, If this opinion be correct my 
rejection of its evidence in favour of Cooper’s Hill now having 
the climate of ‘‘ torrid India” was also correct ; for this bamboo 
is one of the hardiest of the ‘‘hardy bamboos” growing in the 
Himalayas, as high as the limit of perpetual snow, and being 
exposed, at night and in winter, to extremes of cold, which are 
never experienced in the British Islands. Whether our summers 
are hot enough to ripen its seeds, and fully acclimatise it amongst 
u:, remains to be seen. 

It is a suggestive fact that at Fota, in the Cove of Cork, where 
it grows in clumps 20 feet in circumference, from each of which 
spring over 400 canes reaching a height of 25 feet; the seeds 
ripen with difficulty and take a long time to germinate, some 
two months elapsing before they come through the soil, even in 
a temperature of 70° F. 

2. The Moreton Bay Pine at Bournemouth.—Mr. William 
Ingram’s letter, stating that an individual of this species, surrounded 
with ‘‘ wooded heights” about it, has lived for forty years in 
Leicestershire, and attained a height of 35 feet, shows what the 
gardener’s skill can accomplish in protecting a sub-tropical tree 
from the injurious effects of English winters, but throws no light 
whatever upon the possibility of the Moreton Bay pine living 
spontaneously in this country. 

In order to do so it must ripen its fruit and produce seedlings, 
which (as I am informed) it cannot possibly do with the moderate 
heat of our cool summers. 

3. Tertiary Climates in England.—Mr. Gardner states, that 
independently of the evidence afforded by the Moreton Bay pine, 
the ‘lertiary fossil plants of the Eocene require an increase of 
temperature of, at most, 20° F. 

When we add to this that the London clay contains true 
Crocodiles, true Palms, many species of Nautilus, of Volutes, 
and large species of Cyfv@a, we may be certain that 20° F. 
increase of temperature is the very minimum required. 

The question of importance is, whence did this required heat 
come from? This is a question of number and magnitude, and 
not of mere ‘‘ naturalist talk.” This question cannot be settled 
by redistributions of land and water, nor by repeating continually 
the assertion that all former causes of change of climate were 
the same as existing causes, not only in kind, but in degree. 


ae SAMUEL HAUGHTON 
Trinity College, Dublin, January 14 


T AGREE with Prof. Haughton in his conclusion that no in- 
crease in the quantity of water sent into the Arctic Ocean by 
currents like the Gulf Stream would make much practical dif- 
ference in the Arctic climate, though not altogether for his 
reasons, I think the question of total quantities of heat is 
irrelevant, and that the extent of glaciation and the distribution 


of plants and animals are almost exclusively determined by 
summer temperatures. 

Respecting the distribution of plants and animals, I believe 
this is the general testimony of naturalists, and it is certainly 
confirmed by Nordenskjéld’s observations on the Siberian flora. 
Respecting glaciation, I rely for proof on the well-known fact 
that the extent of perpetual snow on mountains —in other 
words, the height of the snow-line—depends, not on mean 
temperature, but on summer temperature. 

If this is true it shows that no change in the ocean currents 
would make much difference ; for a glance at Dove’s isothermal 
lines for July and January shows that the effect of the Gulf 
Stream on the temperatures of Europe and Asia and the Arctic 
Ocean is chiefly confined to winter. The late Mr. Hopkins, in 
his well-known paper on changes of climate (Geological Society, 
December, 1851) estimated that the effect of the Gulf Stream 
on the July climate of London is null. 

JosEPH JOHN MuRPHY 

Old Forge, Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, January 17 


Prof, Whitney on the Glaciation of British Columbia 


Ir must be gratifying to all geologists interested in the 
western part of America to find that a portion of the general 
results of the work of the Californian Survey is at length being 
published under the auspices of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Harvard College, Prof. Whitney’s ‘‘ Auriferous 
Gravels of the Sierra Nevada” being now supplemented by the 
first part of a volume on the ‘‘ Climatic Changes of Later Geo- 
logical Times,” dealing chiefly with the evidences of glaciation 
on the Pacific slope. No one will question Prof Whitney’s 
observations and deductions on this subject when he deals with 
that portion of the region with which he is personally familiar, 
especially as these are in substantial agreement with the already- 
published facts of Clarence King. The general result arrived at 
in the areas of Whitney’s and King’s surveys is that compara- 
tively only a very small portion of the highest ranges of moun- 
tains has ever been covered with glaciers, and that there has 
never been in this region anything like a northern drift period or 
a transportation of material in any given direction independent 
of the present topographical features of the country. 

This accords also with the statement published by Prof. 
Whitney in 1866 (Proc. Col. Acad. Sci. vol. iii. p. 271) as to 
the absence of glacial traces of a general character from Cali- 
fornia, but—as it appears to me unfortunately—a clause was 
added to this statement embracing in the generalisation the 
whole north-western extension of the Cordillera region. Now 
in 1866, as Prof. Whitney himself says, almost nothing was 
definitely known of the coast north of Oregon, and for that 
portion of it included in the province of British Columbia I have~ 
since maintained, as the results of observation, that there is con- 
clusive proof of the occurrence of a period of general glaciation 
comparable in its effects with that of eastern North America 
(see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. p. 89; Canadian 
Naturalist, vol. viii. No. 7; vol. ix. No. 1; also the following 
Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada, 1875-76, p. 261 ; 
1877-78, p. 133 B. ; 1878-79, p. 89 B.) In summarising and dis- 
cussing the evidences of glaciation in British Columbia however 
Prof. Whitney still thinks it necessary to support the correctness 
of his paper of 1866. As Prof. Whitney’s volume ‘appears to 
be intended as a general, and, so far as the facts now known go, 
final review of the glaciation of the Pacific slope, and professes 
to contain ‘‘all that is necessary to set forth in regard to the 
former glaciation of the western side of the American continent,” 
it may not be amiss to state that in my view the account given 
of the evidences of glaciation in British Columbia is in some 
cases insufficient, and that in the interpretation of other points 
misconceptions as to the nature of the facts have arisen. The 
tendency of the whole treatment of the subject is to minimise the 
glacial phenomena of the northern part of the coast and assimi- 
late the conditions there found to those of California, which 
appear to me to be essentially different. (For a comparison of 
these see ‘‘ Travelling Notes on the Surface Geology of the 
West Coast,” Canadian Naturalist, vol. viii. No. 7.) 

To criticise minutely the numerous features which seem open 
to such treatment in the account of this region, with which 
seven seasons’ work in connection with the Boundary Commis- 
sion and Geological Survey of Canada has rendered me familiar, 
would require a lengthened article, and would at best be an 
ungracious task, I will therefore touch on a few salient points 
only, 


Fan. 27, 1881 | 


In dealing with the interior region of British Columbia lying 
between the Rocky and Coast Mountains no mention is made 
of the actual evidence obtained cf a movement of ice from 
north to south in this plateau district, though it is after- 
wards incidentally alluded to in a quotation connected with a 
proposed explana*ion of the facts observed. The drift-covered 
and erratic-strewn character of the country is also ignored ; and 
while the lower terraces bordering the rivers are mentioned, and 
attributed to fluviatile action—a view doubtless substantially 
correct—the fact that terraces are found beyond the river- 
valleys attaching themselves to the higher parts of the plateau 
and to the mountain-sides to an elevation of 5270 feet is 
passed over in silence. The conclusion is then easily arrived 
at that the “statement” of 1866 is ‘‘entirely borne out by an 
overwhelming weight of evidence.” 

Turning now to the coast of the province, Prof. Whitney of 
course admits the marked glaciation of the south-eastern extre- 
mity of Vancouver Island, which has been noticed by a numter 
of observers, and which he has himself seen during a hurried 
visit. He states however that the markings he saw were every- 
where parallel to the coast, and appeared to him more like ice- 
berg than glacier work. Now as the coast is very sinuous in 
outline, while the main glaciation pursues within a few degrees a 
uniform direction (S. 11° W.), the two must in some places 
coincide, but an intimate acquaintance with the south-eastern 
part of Vancouver Island enables me to state that the glaciating 
agent has swept completely and steadily over it entirely, without 
reference to the present coast outlines. With regard to the 
second statement, I believe that a reference to the description of 
the character of the glaciation given in one of my papers already 
referred to (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. p. 92) will be suffi- 
cient to convince any one who is familiar with ice action that a 
glacier has dorethe work. It is of course easier to be personally 
assured, where so much depénds on judgment of local details, 
than to demonstrate the actual conditions to others; but the 
parallel grooving and furrowing out of hard rocks in the manner 
illustrated on pp. 93, 94, and 96, one has been accustomed to 
consider as characteristic of glaciers. 

Further on Prof, Whitney assumes that the ‘‘ manifestations ” 
of the supposed Strait of Georgia glacier are ‘‘ almost or quite ex- 
clusively limited to its termination.” Some evidence to the con- 
trary is however given in the publication to which special reference 
has just been made, while subsequent exploration—the ;ublished 
account of which Prof. Whitney appears to have overlooked— 
has brought to light similar and concordant glacier-work at 
Nanaimo, ninety miles to the north-west of Victoria, and has 
also demonstrated that a second branch of the great ice mass 
which choked the space between Vancouver Island and the 
mainland, comparable in size with that of the Strait of Georgia, 
discharged north-westward by Queen Charlotte’s Sound (Canaaian 
Naturalist, vol. ix. No. 1). In the lately-i:sued volume of the 
Geological Survey (1878-79) additional facts tending to show the 
importance of ice-action in the Queen Charlotte Islands and 
extreme north of the coast of Briti-h Columbia are given. 

Not being in the position of having any favourite theory 
of glaciation to maintain, 1 wish merely to indicate by a 
few examples the inadequacy of the portion of Prof, Whitney’s 
monograph which is intended to summarise the glacial con- 
ditions of British Columbia. Prof. Whitney appears to have 
been beset by observers ‘‘ entirely inexperienced in the study of 
glacial phenomena” to such an extent as to render him unduly 
suspicious of the evidence obtained by other workers. He 
states, for example, that in passing to the region north of the 
boundary of the United States ‘‘we have to depend largely cn 
the observations of others,” and that ‘‘an attempt will be made 
to sift the evideice offered.” Now while it is a little dic- 
couraging to find that one must belong to the class of ‘‘ others,” 
I feel confident that to any unprejudiced inquirer the facts 
already accumulated and published are sufficient to prove the 
general and pronounced character of the glaciation of British 
Columbia. It is perhaps not too much to ask that in this matter 
purely negative shall not be put on an equality with positive 
eviderce. Prof. Whitney’s profound distrust of the ‘‘ others” 
again appears where he qualifies a reference to my statements by 
the clause ‘‘even if his observations be accepted as entirely 
trustworthy.” It is, however, so far satisfactory to find oneself 
in good company, for Dr. Hector, who has also had the mis- 
fortune to have had something to say about this region which 
does not conform to Prof, Whitney’s hypotheses, is referred to 
as ‘evidently quite inexperienced,” and one whose ‘‘ statements 
must be received with some caution,” while Dr. R. Brown for a 


NATURE 


291 


similar sin is characterised as ‘‘an entirely unpractised ob- 
server.” GEORGE M, Dawson 
Geological Survey of Canada, Montreal, December 22, 1880 


Lophiomys Imhausi 


In NATURE of January 1, 1880, I published a note on the 
“habitat” of that strange and excessively rare rodent Lophiomys 
Imhausi ; it may interest many of your readers to know that I 
have recently received from Count Lodovico Marazzani asplendid 
specimen of that species from a new locality, viz. Erkauid, on 
the mountains between Suakin and Singat, where it was captured 
quite accidentally on April 12 last by a shot from a small 
revolver. It was also secured and preserved by mere chance, for 
it was found bya small terrier and killed at the bottom of a 
deep fissure in the granitic rocks, and its value was quite ignored 
by those who first handled it; thus the skeleton and viscera 
were lost, but happily the skin was in excellent condition, and 
the :kull had been left attached. It is an adult female and has 
four teats, two pectoral or rather axillary, and two inguinal; it 
is rather larger than the fine specimen at Genoa, but does not 
differ in colour or richness of fur. The luxuriant dorsal mane to 
which this creature owes its name is separated from the long 
hairs of the body by a narrow stripe of short stiff greyish green 
bristles. The iris was dark brown, and the animal emanated no 
special odour. 

This is the fousth specimen of Lophiomys Imhausi that has 
been secured to science; the first was the type specimen acci- 
dentally brought alive by M. Imhaus at Aden and described by 
Prof. A. Milne-Edwards: it is in the Paris Museum, skin, 
skeleton, and viscera preserved. The second is the skull 
accidentally picked up by Dr. Schweinfurth at Maman, north of 
Kassala, and described in 1867 by Prof. Peters as Phvactomys 
athiopicus ; it is 1 believe at Berlin. The third was accidentally 
killed by a blow on the head with a stick in the Seriba of 
Beccari and Antinori at Keren in the Bogos country in 1870; 
the mounted skin and skeleton are in the Civic Museum at 
Genoa. The fourth is the subject of this note ; its skin bas been 
splendialy mounted by my able taxidermist Signor R. Magnelli, 
and it and the cranium form an important item of the Florence 
Zoological Museum. The natives told Count Marazzani that 
Lophiomys is rare, that it lives in deep holes in the strangely 
fissured rocks of that country, and that it is a vegetable feeder ; 
the stomach of the specimen I have was much distended with 
leaves and young shoots when Count Marazzani skinned it. 

The “‘ habitat” of this species is now pretty well defined by 
lines drawn from Suakin to Maman and Kassala, and thence 
southward towards the Somali coast. 

HENRY HILLYER GIGLIOLI 

Reale Istituto, Florence 


Parhelion 


YESTERDAY a parhelion or mock sun was seenhere. At 
3h. 20m. I was at the Observatory, and the true sun was sinking in 
the south-west upon a somewhat dense cloud-bank with light and 
long cirro strati about and above it. The air was comparatively 
calm, the anemometer cups moving only occasionally and slowly. 
The horizon was foggy and misty. The spectral sun appeared 
as a bright diffused circular spot of light tinged with prismatic 
colours about 30° to the left (E.) of the true sun, and in a 
horizontal line with it. 

I could trace a segment of a circle having the sun for its 
centre, for a few degrees above and below the mock image, 

To the west I could not trace any false image or continuation 
of the circle. The phantom image slowly faded away in about 
ten minutes from its being first observed. The weather has 
been severe here (something over 200 feet above sea), but hardly 
so sharp as in some other (probably lower-lying) places, With 
Negretti and Zambra’s standard minimum in cage four feet from 
the ground, 11° is the lowest I have registered. 

During, however, the past seven days the maximum has only 
twice risen above freezing-point, and then but 1”. 

Guildown, Guildford, January 21 J. RAND CAPRON 


Girton and Newnham Colleges 


Some of your readers may perhaps be glad to help the natural 
science students of Girton and Newnham Colleges to raise about 
8oo/., needed for a physical and biological laboratory. The 


292 


NATURE 


| Fan. 27, 1881 


present provision for practical work is very inadequate, and the 
number of students has largely increased, while the required 
money is not forthcoming. I have already received the following 
donations, and shall gratefully acknowledge any further help :— 
Mr. Charles Darwin, 52. 5s. ; Mr. Edward Dormer, 5/7. ; Mr. T. 
Newland Allen, 3/. 3s ; Mr. William Fasseridge, 2/. 2s. ; 
Anonymous, 2/.; Mr. Frank Dethridge, 1/. 1s. ; Anonymous, 
17.; Mr. G. Eves, 1/7.; Mrs. Eves, t/.; Mr. R. Wilkinson, 
17, 1s.; Rev. C. T. Mayo, 17. 1s. ; smaller subscriptions, 4/. 155. 
Any further particulars will be most willingly given. 

FLORENCE EVEs, 

Science Student of Newnham College 
Mitton House, Uxbridge, January 22 


Minerva Ornaments at Troy v. Net-Sinkers 


Nor having seen the numbers of NATURE regularly during 
the autumn, I did not observe Mr. Sayce’s reply to my letter on 
the above subject until lately. I may perhaps trespass on your 
space} with a few lines in reference to it. 

I certainly did not observe any markings upon the stones in 
question that could be construed into any likeness to a human 
face or to that of an owl. Not having the opportunity of re- 
examining them I must take this as granted according to Dr. 
Schliemann’s judgment. Of course an expert can see, and see 
with certainty, what to one less experienced szems quite invisible. 
At the same time an enthusiast, as we all know, is rather apt to 
“oversee,” and find in his relics more than actually exists. I 
say this, as it is a common occurrence, and not in any way to 
disparage Dr. Schliemann’s valuable work. 

But admitting the existence of such ontlines upon the stones in 
question is it not far more probable that the half-savage natives of 
the Troad may have taken advantage of certain suggestive lines 
and roughly outlned an image upon a net-sinker, than that they 
made so large a number of rouch and uncouth things as likenesses 
of Minerva? the use of stones similarly chipped in the middle 
as net-sinkers seems common to savages all over the world, and 
it would seem to me therefore wiser to name them net-sinkers 
(with outlines, &c.) than to ticket them ‘‘ Minerva ornaments.” 

One point, if I understand him aright, which Dr. Schliemann 
endeavours to prove, is that Ancient Troy stood close to the 
river. Hence the occurrence of net-sinkers may be considered 
as probable. Kk. W. CLAYPOLE 

Antioch Colleze, Yellow Springs, O., December 18, 1880 


THE PROVOST OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
DUBLIN 


HE Rey. Humphrey Lloyd, D.D., was born in 1800. 

- He was the eldest son of the Rey. Bartholomew Lloyd, 
who was Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, from 1831 
to 1837. Humphrey Lloyd entered his father’s college in 
1815, graduated as a Gold Medallist in Science in 1820, 
and was elected a Fellow in 1824. In 1831 he was appointed 
Professor of Natural Philosophy. He was co-opted a 
Senior Fellow in 1843, was made Vice-Provost in 1862, 
and was appointed by warrant from the Crown to the 
Provostship in 1867. He died, after a few days? illness, 
in the Provost's house on the 16th inst. 

Full of years and honours, a very distinguished life 
has been brought to a close. Part of it was spent in 
laborious scientific research, part as the head of a great 
teaching establishment. Both portions of his life were a 
success, as even a short sketch of that life will show. 

Lloyd was an excellent, though by no means a pro- 
found, mathematician. On becoming the Professor of 
Natural Philosophy he devoted himself with some ardour 
to the study of physical optics, and his report on this 
subject, laid before the fourth meeting of the British 
Association, was quite a masterpiece of reporting, and 
may still be consulted with pleasure. He was not how- 
ever by any means content with having a knowledge of 
the work done by others, but was determined to enter on 
the field of original work himself; an opportunity soon 
offered. About 1832 Sir William Hamilton had been 
investigating the relations between the surface of wave- 
slowness and that of the wave, and thereby had been led 


to the discovery of some new geometrical properties of 
thelatter. These properties he demonstrated by means of 
certain transformations of the equations of the wave- 
surface, and he showed that this surface had four conoidal 
cusps at the extremities of the lines of single ray-velocity, 
at each of which the wave is touched not by /wo planes 
as Fresnel supposed, but by an 7z/izzte number forming 
a tangent cone of the second degree; while, at the 
extremities of the lines of single wave-velocity, there were 
four circles of plane contact, in every point of each 
of which the wave-surface is touched by a single plane. 
These singular properties led Hamilton to anticipate two 
new laws of refraction called by him external and internal 
“conical refraction.” Hamilton was naturally desirous 
of having his theoretical conclusions proved by experi- 
ment ; such experiments required a wonderful patience, 
delicacy of touch, and analmost instinctive sagacity. As 
possessing all these he selected Lloyd to solve his problem; 
and by his labours in a short time the reality of this 
interesting phenomenon was established. 

The memoir by Hamilton and the experimental re- 
searches by Lloyd appear in the same volume (xvii.) of 
the Zvansactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 

Lloyd published several treatises and memoirs relating 
to optical science, but he was persuaded by Sir Edward 
Sabine to tura his attention, about 1836, to the subject of 
terrestrial magnetism. At his request the Board of 
Trinity College, Dublin, built a magnetical observatory, 
and the Professor entered with zeal upon those studies of 
magnetism which will for ever remain connected with 
his name. It would be unnecessary here to enumerate 
his very numerous writings on this subject. 

In 1838 the British Association resolved that having 
regard to the high interest of the simultaneous magnetic 
observations which have been for some time carried on in 
Germany and various parts of Europe, and the important 
results to which these have led, they regard it as highly 
desirable that similar series of observations should be 
instituted in various parts of the British Dominions, 
and they suggested, as localities particularly important, 
Canada, Ceylon, St. Helena, Van Diemen’s Land, and 
the Cape of Good Hope, also in the Southern Hemi- 
sphere. They further appointed as a Committee to 
approach the Government on this question Sir J. Herschel 
and Mr. Whewell, Dr. Peacock and Prof. Lloyd. The 
Committee, appointed late in August, at once set about 
their arduous work, and their memorial was laid before 
Lord Melbourne in the November following. The Pre- 
sident and Council of the Royal Society strongly supported 
the memorial, and these concurrent representations were 
attended with full effect. In the Report of the Com- 
mittee to the British ‘Association in 1839 it is stated, 
“probably at the very moment when this report will be 
read, two ships, the Zredus and the Terror, under the 
command of Sir James Clark Ross, will be already on 
their voyage to the Antarctic Seas, carrying with them 
every instrument requisite for the complete and effectual 
prosecution of important magnetical researches in the 
high southern latitudes, and also complete establishments,. 
both personal and instrumental, of the fixed magnetical 
observations to be placed at St. Helena, the Cape of 
Good Hope, and Van Diemen’s Land. It was no wonder 
that the Committee were proud of the result of their 
labours, and that they acknowledged in strong terms the 
ample and liberal manner in which every demand on the 
national resources had been without exception granted, 
expressing at the same time the hope that this splendid 
example might be followed up by other nations. The 
report is signed J. F. W. Herschel and H. Lloyd. — 

In 1843 Dr. Lloyd pointed out a mode of reducing the 
error attending the determination of the intensity of the 
earth’s magnetic force to less than one-fifth of that by the 
ordinary method. : re 

In 1858 he again pointed out a fatal imperfection 


Fan. 27, 88t | 


attending. the ordinary mode of calculating the same 
force, and proposed instead a method requiring for its 
application only the use of the dip-circle, a vast advantage 
to the traveller, as it reduced to the smallest possible 
number the instruments which he would have to carry. 

Along with his friend Sabine he visited the chief Conti- 
nental cities in 1839, going as far as Berlin. This tour 
was altogether undertaken for the purposes of establishing 
still further a system of joint records of magnetical pheno- 
mena. His chief work in connection with magnetism was 
published under the title of ‘‘ The Dublin Magnetical and 
Meteorological Observations” (2 vols. 4to, 1865-69). In 
1857, when the British Association visited Dublin for a 
second time, Lloyd was their president, and many will 
still remember his dignified and courteous behaviour as 
such. 

When, in 1867, Dr. Lloyd was appointed provost, there 
was scarcely one dissentient voice. He had distinguished 
himself in his college career ; his researches had reflected 
lustre on his university, and the belief in him was never 
shaken. During his period of office as Senior Fellow 
the study of the experimental sciences was introduced 
into the curriculum; in 1851 it was even possibie to 
graduate as a Gold Medallist in these. To the experi- 
mental sciences were at first joined the natural sciences. 
During his provostship, these two groups were separated, 
to the great encouragement of the students in both, It 
was something wonderful to find how the now aged pro- 
vost kept pace with the time, encouraging in every way 
the more modern view of things. Among the Professors 
and Fellows of his college he was very popular; he was 
always affable, while he possessed a quiet dignity. Proudly 
conscious of the position he held as Provost of Trinity 
College, he was singularly unambitious of worldly honours, 
but the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the sister Uni- 
versity of Oxford, conferred on him in 1856, was grateful 
to -him, and he always spoke with pleasure of the 
recognition of his s:ientific merits by the Emperor of 
Germany, who conferred on him in 1874 the order ‘‘ Pour 
le Mérite ;” he was a F.R.SS. Lond. and Edin. He 
received the Cunningham gold medal of the Royal Irish 
Academy in 1862. 


GEOLOGISING AT SHEPPEY 


O much has been said about the abundance of fossil 
fruits at Sheppey that most geologists picture them 
lying plentifully upon the shore waiting to be picked up, 
and their only concern might well be at the outset to 
provide baskets strong and ample enough to convey their 
collectings home. A day spent ujon the beach would 
dispel these preconceived ideas. 

The cliffs in a wet season are streams of liquid mud 
alternating with freshly-fallen landslips rendering them 
practically unapproachable. The wet and frost have this 
year proved exceptionally disastrous, and mere shreds of 
coast-paths remain. In places slabs of freshly-ploughed 
land are arrested half-way down the cliff, and at one 
point a cabbage garden with the produce still only partly 
cutis streaming down to the beach. It is a good time 
for the cement works, but when Roman cement falls into 
disuse, as it seems likely to, then perhaps steps will be 
taken to stay this perpetual removal of fine arable land into 
the channels of the Thames. The beach itself is gravelly, 
and at low water there are extensive mud-flats. Among 
the gravel are patches of rolled pyrites, and among these 
pytites the fruits are found, though valuable specimens 
are rare. This Christmas five experienced collectors, 
including Mr. W. H. Shrubsole, F.G.S., Mr. O. A. 
Shrubsole, F.G.S., Dr. Hausler, F.G.S., myself and 
brother, searched for several hours without a single 
fairly perfect fruit being found, and no greater success 
attended us on subsequent days. The vast bulk of the 
pyrites is amorpious ; the majority of that which retains 


NATURE 


dropped in the meantime, and we had to row. 
{ 


293 


any recognisable shape is made up of twigs ; a consider™ 
able percentage is of nearly obliterated casts of shells ; 
and here and there are broken up Nipadites and other 
water-worn fragments of fruits. The best way to collect 
is to lie down upon the pyrites and examine it closely, 
when seeds and twigs that are passed over by the 
copperas-gatherers may be picked out. In this way I 
found seeds and scales of Araucaria, twigs of Ephedra, and 
many other shapes that may some day be recognised as 
parts of still-existing plants. No rest, short of doing 
absolutely nothing, could be more perfect to an overworked 
geologist’s brain than to sprawl and smoke upon this 
beach. 

The fruits themselves are so rare in the London Clay 
that they are seldom if ever found zz sztw, no prolific 
patches are known, and to attempt to dig for them would 
be futile. Their abundance in collections is due to the 
facts that for several miles there are lofty cliffs perpetually 
wasting away, and that the whole of the clay that reaches 
the beach is slowly removed in suspension by the sea, 
every particle of pyrites remaining behind until picked 
up for copperas or dissolved away. For two hundred years 
they have been known and searched for daily by the sep- 
taria and copperas collectors, and any one may quickly pur- 
chase an extensive collection. I have within a few months 
received from my friend Mr. Shrubsole enough Nipadites 
to fill a twenty-gallon cask, besides other fruits innumer- 
able. Bowerbank’s collection numbers many thousands, 
300 specimens of a rare cone alone from Herne Bay 
having been in his possession. ‘There is in the British 
Museum a MS. catalogue by a Mr. Crowe of Faversham, 
with 831 very rough drawings representing, as he sup- 
posed, 700 varieties. Ettingshausen, when he examined 
the British Museum collection, made 200 species. How 
many there may really be is still unknown, but the num- 
ber doubiless is very considerably beyond the latter. 
Among the Coniferee alone I have to add, besides the 
Ephedra, a Podocarpus near to P. elata, a Frenella 
almost indistinguishable from 2. vdlichert, and an 
Araucaria near A. Cunningham. 1 have grave doubts 
about the correctness of the determination of all the other 
Coniferze except a few of Bowerbank’s Cupressinez, and 
am still at work upon them. The state in which they are 
preserved is not sufficiently taken into account. The woody 
matter is generally preserved as lignite, and easily removed 
when rolled upon the beach, and the pyrites which 
remains filled the cavities between the more solid parts, 
as well as replacing the fruit itself. The densest and 
most salient part now is the purest-pyrites, and was 
therefore at the time of fossilisation probably the most 
open part of the fruit or the filling in of cavities. 
The casts that are found are thus, in the case of hard- 
shelled fruits, more often casts of the space between the 
outer ligneous shell and the kernel, than of either the 
kernel or the shell itself. In the case, for instance, of an 
almon 1}, we should have most frequently a smooth cast of 
the inside of the shell, but in perfect fruits the pitted 
exterior would be preserved, and in fruits partially dis- 
solved the wrinkled kernel would show. In fruits with 
septa the variety of aspect presented in different stages 
of preservation is very great, and has doubuess led to the 
same species, being catalogued under several names. 
The so-calied Sequoia or Petrophiloides of Herne Bay 
is another instance, for the filling-in between the open 
scales of the cone was thought by Bowerbank to repre- 
sent confluent scales inclosing cells, the supposed cells~ 
being really the cavities left by the true scales which haye 
decayed away, while the infiltrated pyrites has enveloped 
the seeds which lay under them. 

On Monday we took the 8 a.m. train to Herne Bay 
and searched at Swalecliffe for cones. At Whitstable 
we set sail in an oyster-boat for Shellness, but some 
delay occurred in getling it off the ground; the wind 
Shellness. 


294 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 27, 1881 


was reached at dusk, and we experienced some difficulty in 
landing across the mud, which stretches a long way from 
shore at low water. We reached Warden Point at 6, 
and found that the fly we expected to meet us had driven 
home an hour before. The position of two mud-covered 
and complete strangers on a dark night on a most 
desolate spot, in drenching rain, eight miles from, and 
two hours late for dinner was not particularly en- | 
viable; yet a well-arranged excursion from Whitstable 
to Sheerness, vz@ the singular shores of Shellness, would | 
under pleasanter circumstances well repay any naturalist. 
J. STARKIE GARDNER 


THE CONSERVATOIRE DES ARTS ET 
METIERS * 

@ of the most eminent English men of science said 

to us one day :—‘‘ You have at Paris collections, 

libraries, museums, observatories, faculties, schools; we 

have the equivalent of all that. There is only one thing 

we have not, which I always admire among you, and 
that is the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.’’ 

The National Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers ? is, in 


fact, an establishment unique of its kind both in its scien- 
tific interest and practical utility. No institution is more 


Vaucanson 


tee 


ICE Nasal © 


C 


H Square des Arts et Netiers | 


Fic. 1.—Plan of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, and of projected add:tions.—x, Office for the verification of weights and measures; 2, Laboratory of 
the Course of Mechanics (Prof. Tresca); 3, Ground-floor: Laboratory of the Course of Dyeing and of Ceramics(Prof. Luyne); First floor; Laboratory 
of Agricultural Chemistry (Prof. Boussingault); 4, Ground-floor: Amphitheatre; First Floor: Physical Laboratory (Prof. Becquerel); 5, Provisional 
location of the Agronomic Institute ; 6, Great Hall of Machinery in motion ; 7, Great Amphitheatre; 8, Old Amphitheatre; 9, Library; 10, Laboratory 
of Industrial Chemistry (Prof. Girard); 11, Laboratory of General Chemistry (Prof. Peligot); 12. Great staircase; 13, The Echo Hall; 14, Galleries 
and Collections ; 15, Ground-floor: Gallery in construction; First floor: Gallery of Ceramics and Optics; 16, Ground-floor: Weights and measures; 
First floor: Gallery of Spinning; 17, Exhibition Hall and Gallery of Spinning; 18, Administration and Gallery in construction; 19, Industrial 
drawings, patents, and trade-marks; 20, Projected construction, gallery of collections; 21, Projected construction; 22, Propcsed location for the 


Central School of Arts and Manufactures. 


worthy of the solicitude of the Government, since it has 
for its object the occupation of the workers and the 
instruction of the people. The Conservatoire is about to 
make a fresh start in consequence of the construction of 
a new block of buildings. ‘There is even reason to hope 
that these works will only be the prelude of constructions 
still more important, and that very soon a law will insure 
the completion of our fine national establishment. The 
following are some of the improvements which have been 
recently introduced into the institution. 

The service of patents and of the industrial department | 
has been recently installed in the new buildings in the | 
rue St, Martin. Early in November there was placed at 
the service of the public the old and remarkable collec- 
tion of Vaucanson’s drawings. These drawings, which | 


form a considerable series, comprised between the years 
1775 and 1829, have a great historical interest. We find 
in them the germ of a considerable number of apparatus 
or of systems realised in our time, and which the want of 
processes of execution condemned to remain in the 
condition of projects. We see there a great number of 
curious objects, and notably the original drawing of 
Fulton’s first steamer. 

Among recent additions we may mention the great 
gallery of machinery (No. 6 in the accompanying plan, 
Fig. 1), to which is added the entire apse of the old 

1 From an article in Za Nature, by M. Gaston Tissandier. 

2 Descartes had the idea of its foundation ; Vaucanson formed the first 
germ of it by his public collection of machines, instruments and utensils, 


intended for the working classes : and the Conventicn decided on its definitive 
creation by a decree of 8 yendémiaire of the year xii. 


Fan. 27, 1881 | 


NATURE 


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2.—The Great Machinery Hall of the Conservatoire. 


296 


church of St. Martin’s priory. We see here the curious 
steam-carriage of the mechanician Cugnot, and the fine 
statue of Denis Papin by M. Aimé Millot, the bronze 
duplicate of which was inaugurated at Blois some weeks 
ago. Besides the machinery which has long been at 
work in this gallery, the new administration of the Con- 
' servatoire is endeavouring to show visitors all the new 
and interesting apparatus used in the great Parisian 
industries. More than 3000 visitors witness every Sunday 
these experiments, very beautiful and very instructive for 
every one. Among the most notable apparatus are those 
connected with electrical phenomena. The beautiful 
experiments of M. Gaston Planté have obtained the 
greatest success, as also those relating to the transmission 
of power to a distance by electricity. The Conservatoire 
is thus becoming the museum of machinery in action. 
While the machinery is thus at work in the great nave, 
other experiments are going on in the galleries. The 
great electrical machine throws off sparks in the physical 
hall, and projections by means of the oxyhydrogen light 
are made elsewhere by M. Molteni. Visitors show great 
interest in the Echo room, the Lavoisier room, in: which 
is a great number of instruments used by the founder of 
modern chemistry, the Agricultural room, where are 
exhibited all the newest models of agricultural machinery. 
It is scarcely necessary to speak of the courses of lectures 
by eminent professors, many of whom are known beyond 


France ; the gratuitous courses here and at the Sorbonne | 


for 1880-81 comprise almost every branch of pure and 
applied science. The public library of more than 30,000 
special works is freely placed at the disposal of workers. 

Among the less known departments is the public 
service for testing the resistance of materials, very useful 
to architects, contractors, and builders. Any one may 
take advantage of it. It is sufficient to send to the Con- 
servatoire specimens of stone, marble, pottery, metals, 
tubes, &c., which are crushed, broken, or bruised by 
special machinery, and the results accurately registered. 
The most powerful of these machines is a hydraulic press 
of 500,000 kilograms. 

Such, in few words, is the Conservatoire des Arts et 
Métiers. By its collections, its public courses, its library, 
its eminently practical services, it may be regarded as one 
of the most valuable institutions of France. 


NOTES 
Tue Faraday lecture will be delivered by Prof. Helmholtz in 
the theatre of the Royal Institwion on Tuesday, April 5. The 
subject will be ‘* The Mcdern Development of Faraday’s Con- 
ception of Electricity.” The lecture will delivered in 
English. 


Pror. HOLpDEN, of the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, 
has published, through Scribner, a biography of Sir William 
Herschel. Prof. Holden is also publishing, through the Smith- 
sonian Institute, a subject index and synopsis of the scientific 
writings of the great astronomer. 


be 


THE Kent’s Cavern Commitee, when preventing their fixa/ 
Report in August last to the British Association stated that, 
from the first day of the exploration in 1865 to its close in 1880, 
George Smerdon had been continually engaged on the work, 
and for nearly thirteen years had been the foreman ; that during 
that period he had always discharged his duties in a most 
exemplary manner, and without the least misunderstanding with 
the superintendents ; that he was nearly sixty years of age, and 
so crippled with chronic rheumati*m—induced by working for 
so many years in the damp Cayern—as to be incapable of any 
ordinary labour, and that it was proposed to raise by subscription 
a fund suffic'ent to secure him a small annuity. The propesal 
was cordially received, and Mr. Pengelly was encouraged to 
carry it into effect. Several contributions have already been 


NATURE 


received from Mr, G. Busk, Prof. W. B. Dawkins, Dr. John 
Evans, Mr. J. E. Lee, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., 
Mr. W. Pengelly, Mr. E. Vivian, M.A., and others. Further 
contributions to the ‘‘ Smerdon Testimonial Fund” may be paid 
directly to Mr, W. Pengelly, Lamorna, Torquay, or to Messrs. 
Vivian, Kitson, and Co., Bankers, Torquay. 


A MARBLE statue of Nicephore Niépce, the inventor of photo- 
graphy, is now being executed by the celebrated sculptor, M. 
Guillaume of Paris, and will be erected and unveiled in May 
next at Chalons-sur-Saoéne. 


Pror, MAsKA of Neutitschein writes that the excavations now 
going on in the Schipka Cave, near Stramberg (Moravia), have 
yielded some interesting results. Among the numerous remains 
of Post-Tertiary animals (such as mammoth, rhinoceros, urochs, 
horse, lion, hysena) the jaw-bone of a supposed diluvial human 
being has been found, It was imbedded in the immediate vicinity 
of a place where carbonised animal bones, stone implements, and 
bone utensils were found. The jaw-bone, described as having 
belonged to a child of some eight years of age (according to the 
development of the teeth), is of very large, indeed of colossal 
dimensions, 


THE director of French Lighthouses has sent to the Minister 
of Public Works a communication recommending the lighting, 
by electricity, of all the great lighthouses on the French coasts. 
It will involve an expenditure of several millions of francs, 
which will end in a large economy and an extension of the 
range (f illumination. A system of steam-trumpets is also to be 
established in connection with these improved lighthouses. 


With the January number the Quarterly Journal of Micro- 
scopical Science enters on the twenty-first volume of its second 
series, First published in 1853, under the editorship of Dr. 
Edwin Lankester and Mr. George Busk, it now appears under 
the editorship of Prof. E. Ray Lankester, assisted by Mr. F. 
M. Balfour, Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, and Dr. E. Klein. Mr. 
William Archer has withdrawn from the editorial staff. 


THE minutes of the Proceedings of the Dublin Microscopical 
Club, which since 1865 have been published in the Quarterly 
Magazine of Microscopical Sciznce, will for the future, we under- 
stand, be published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural 
History’. 


WE understand that Mr, Richard Anderson, the author of 
the well-known work on Lightning Conductors, has nearly 
ready for publication a treatise—based on the ‘‘ Instruction sur 
les Paratonnerres adoptée par l’Académie des Sciences” of 
France—to be entitled ‘‘ Information about Lightning Con- 
ductors.” 


AT its last session the French Parliament voted a grant of 
several millions of francs for the completion of an underground 


| system of telegraphic wires connecting the principal cities with 


Paris. 


SEVERAL electric railways are to be tried on the occasion 
of the forthcoming Electrical Exhibition at Paris, The most 
important will be built by Siemens Brothers, and will form 
consequently a prominent part of the British display. At the 
last sitting of the General Council of the Exhibition M. Georges 
Berger announced that a steam-engine of S00 horse-power will 
be arranged for the working of the electric light, and the number 
of lamps in operation is estimated at 600, A number of these 
will be in the large hall, but a Jarge proportion in the gardens, 
in the avvexe, and in a series of saloons fitted up magnificently 
with tapestry-work by the Government. The aznexe is to be 
the Pavillon de la Ville de Paris, which was one of the wonders 
of the 1878 Exhibition, and will be transported to the vicinity of 
the Palais de Champs Elysées. 


| Fan, 27, 1881 


Fan. 27, 1881] 


) 


NATURE 


Cae 


297 


In connection with our recent note on the Young Men’s Home 
Education Society, a lady in Cork sends us some information 
concerning the Minerva Club, whose head-quarters seem to be 
in that city, and which aims at enabling ladies to educate them- 
selves at home, ‘The regulations of the Club seem well adapted 
for this purpose, and the programme includes natural science. 
The books recommended are all standard ones, and the ex- 
examiners men of good standing in literature and science. The 
specimens of the examination papers sent us in geology and 
geography show that a high standard is aimed at. The hono- 
rary secretary of the Club is Mrs. W. S, Green, The Rectory, 
Carrigaline, Co, Cork. 

In the course of dredging operations in the bed of the Limmat, 
at Zurich, some very interesting objects have been brought to 
light, among others ancient coins (including fifty gold pieces of 
Brabant), swords, and the skeleton of a stag of a species now 
extinct in Switzerland. ‘The piers cf'a Roman bridge which 
once spanned the river have also been laid bare, All the finds 
are being placed in the Zurich Historical Museum. 

A REPORT has reached Vienna, January 24, which has not yet 
been confirmed, of a fresh earthquake at Agram, attended with 
disastrous consequences. At Landeck (Tyrol) three shocks were 
noticed on January 10, atg p.m. The first one was the most 
violent, and the other two followed at intervals of five minutes, 
The earthquake which was felt at 5.15 p.m. on December 25, 
in Southern Russia, extended as far as Odessa and Kishineff in 
south-west, Tiraspol, Byeltzy, in Vessarabia, and the Ouman 
district of the province of Kieff in north-east; it was strong 
enough in the villages Leghezino and Vishnepolie of this district. 
At Molokishi, district of Balta, and at Byetzy, it was very 
strong. 

A METEORIC stone fell at Wiener Neustadt a few days ago, 
near the telegraph office, and penetrated deeply into the gravel- 
covered road, ‘The phenomenon was witnessed by several 
persons, who all declare that the meteor showed a brilliant light. 
Upon inspection a triangular hole was discovered of 5 centimetres 
width ; the ground was frozen at the time. The meteoric stone 
was excavated in the presence of Dr, Schober, director of the 
Wiener Neustadt High Schoo]. It weighs 375 grammes, is 
triangular in shape, its exterior is crystalline, with curious 
blackish, greyish, and yellow-reddish patches. Here and there 
metallic parts give a brilliant lustre. Its specific weight is very 
high, its hardness about 9, An analysis is now being made, 


THE second series of ’vening Lectures delivered at the Royal 
College of Science, Dublin, has commenced with satisfactory 
entries. The classes have been voluntarily undertaken by the 
professors in order to afford a systematic course of study available 
to beginners and to those who are earning their livelihood in 
various avocations during the day. Artisans and others receiving 
weekly wages are admitted at half fees. The courses consist of 
from fifteen to twenty lectures in each of the following subjects : 
Biology, Dr. McNab; Physical Geography, Prof. O'Reilly ; 
Geology and Mineralogy, Profs. Hull and O’Reilly ; Chemistry, 
Prof. Hartley ; Physics, Prof. Barrett; and Mathematics, Mr, 
Stewart, the Demonstrator in Physics. During the session of 
1879-80 the numbers in attendance at the various classes were 
336. In order to give assistance needful for the continuance of 
this course of instruction the Worshipful Company of Drapers 
have generously voted the sum of 100/, per annum fora period of 
three years. The earnestness, intelligence, and regularity of those 
attending the evening classes is remarkable, giving evidence of a 
hearty desire for sound and solid scientific instruction in Ireland, 
as well for the love of knowledge itself as for the purposes of 
technical information, 


News from Cairo states that to the north of Memphis, near 


Saggarah, two pyramids have been discovered which were con- 


—— eee 


structed by kings of the sixth dynasty, and the rooms and 
passages of which are covered with thousands of inscriptions. 
The discovery is said to be of the greatest scientific importance. 


TuE Prefect of the Seine has opened in Paris a public labora- 
tory for the analysis of any substance used for food; the fees 
are very moderate, and vary from 5 francs to 20 franes, according 
to the difficulty in the determinations. 


A MEDICAL gymnasium was opened on January 22 at Paris. 
It has been built in the Chausée d’Antin at an expense of 
20,000/., by a public company. About seventy mechanical con- 
trivances of different descriptions have been arranged in a series 
of rooms. ‘The greater number of these are worked by a steam- 
engine, and all of them can be graduated by screws, so that 
the extent, duration, and velocity of motion can be regulated 
according to the direction of the physicians. 


TuHE electric steamer Pouyer-Quertier, belonging to MM. 
Siemens Brothers, has arrived at Havre, after having success- 
fully repaired the French cable, which had been discovered 
to be faulty. 


In his last repoit to the Foreign Office H.M.’s Consul at 
Shanghai points out that the Chinese are much more disposed to 
allow the opening of coal-mines than the construction of rail- 
ways. Without referring to the work being done in Formosa, 
he mentions that operations are in progress under English 
engineers for the opening of coal-pits at Kaiping, near Tientsin, 
and near Nganking, the capital of the Nganhwuy province. 
Both districts have plenty of coal, but unfortunately no navigable 
waterway, and for this reason the engineer of the Nganking 
coal-mines intends to remove to another locality near by, where 
there is an equal quantity of coal and better water-power. At 
Kaiping matters are worse, for the nearest navigable stream is 
at Lutai, forty miles away. To reach this it is expected that a 
railway may be constructed, but, as it can hardly be a com- 
mercial success, it would not much promote the cause of railway 
enterprise in general. The engineers find no difficulty at 
Kaiping in obtaining Chinese labour, but the English workmen 
sent there have not given satisfaction, and the Chinese are 
getting rid of them. 


M. Macitor, a member of the Prehistoric Congress which 
met at Lisbon last autumn, reports on a Portuguese Pompeii, 
which he had occasion to inspect while on a tour to the territory 
of Tertiary Silex at Otta. The place is called Santarem and 
Citania. The latter is the general Portuguese name for ruins of 
ancient towns, which cover entire hills in the neighbourhood of 
Braga. The most important of these very old town-ruins is the 
Citania di Briteiros, which occupies nearly a kilometre square, 
and is supposed to be of Celtic origin. Circular walls, streets, 
squares, large architectural monuments, and even a number of 
houses have retained their typical forms. For twenty centuries 
this Citania was buried below débris, soil, and a rich vegetation 5 
only a few years ago a zealous archzeologist, Senhor Sarmento, 
succeeded, by costly and troublesome efforts, in clearing away the 
covering of centuries and to lay open to the world an ancient 
city in which quite a primitive state of civilisation is apparent. 
Its architecture and plastic ornamentation point to a somewhat 
advanced state of art and industry. Many stone monuments are 
covered with sculptures and inscriptions, wh'ch in their general 
character recall those of India and China, which the well- 
known Lyons archeologist, M. Guimet, declares to be of a 
symbolic and religious cbaracter, similar to those found upon the 
oriental monuments. It is possible that this fact might be 
adduced as a proof that the tribes who built these Citanias had 
originally emigrated from Turan. 


News from Washington territory states that the voleano Mount 
Baker was in full eruption quite recently 5 


298 


NATURE 


[ Fan. 27, 1881 


WE have received the first number of the “evista of the 
Society of Instruction of Oporto, There are various papers 
bearing on education, and one by Mr. E. J. Johnston on the 
Phanerogamous Flora of Oporto. The number of English 
names on the list of this Society is remarkable; the first name 
among {the Foundation Members is that of Isaac Newton, fol- 
lowed tby W. C. and A. W. Tait; there are several Allens, a 
Johnston, several Kendalls and Coverleys, F. C. Rawes, 
Henrique Rumsey, a Grant, a Hastings, and an Archer. This 
no doubt indicates the close commercial relations between Oporto 
and England. 


It is known that Leverrier, urged by growing infirmities and 
apprehending that he would not live to accomplish his great 
work on the theory of Saturn, left a part of his calculations un- 
completed, convinced that this would exert no real influence 
on the total result. But M. Gaillot, the director of the Calcula- 
tion Service of the Paris Observatory, felt it a duty to fill up the 
gap left by the late director of the observatory and to revise the 
whole of his work. We are happy to state that, as far as the 
Yevision has gone, the accuracy of the conclusions published by 
the great astronomer is demonstrated, and none of the neglected 
terms will exert any appreciable influence. 


WE take the following from the Albury Banner (New South 
Wales) :—It has long been a matter of popular belief that the 
great kingfisher was an enemy of the snake, perpetually warring 
upon the tribe in general, and never happier than when dining 
on serpent au naturel. It is not often, however, that even 
persons habitually residing in the bush have so good an oppor- 
tunity as that afforded a few days since to Mr. Christian Westen- 
dorff of Jindera, for observing the laughing jackass when in the 
act of bagging the game referred to. Mr. Westendorff was 
engaged with another man in clearing some land, and in the 
course of the day’s operations it became necessary to shift a large 
log. For this purpose levers were applied to each end, and 
after some straining the log was rolled from its resting-place. 
The very monent it commenced to move a laughing jackass, 
which had hitherto been taking a deep but unobtrusive interest 
in the proceedings, made a swoop down from the limb of an 
adjacent tree, and seized a large snake which had been lying 
under the log. The snake was gripped_by the back of the neck 
{if snakes can be said to have necks) and borne away to the bird’s 
previous perch, where the unfortunate reptile was banged agains, 
the bough until the body separated from the head and fell to the 
ground. The jackass then dropped the head, and seizing the 

_ body sailed away in triumph with his prize, Whether the bird 
had seen the snake go under the log and was watching for it to 
come forth again, or whether it knew by instinct that the reptile 
was there, is a question that may be left for naturalists to deter- 
mine ; but we are credibly informed that as soon as the loz was 
shifted, and before Mr. Westendorff or his companion had any 
idea of a snake being in their neighbourhood, the jackass was 
down and had made good his seizure. 


THE Russian Technical Society has created a special branch 
which will devote its attention to aéronautics, especially to the 
popularisation of all branches of aéronautics, to recent researches 
on this field, to the meteorology of the higher regions of the 
atmosphere, and to the study of the applications of aérostatics to 
military purposes. 


WE note from the Deutsche Industrie-Zeitung that during 
1879 some 140 tons of amber were obtained at the coast of the 
Baltic, of which the mine at Palmnicken yielded seventy-five 
tons, and the digging-engine at Schwarzort the remainder, 
About fifteen tons were gathered by nets and picked up on the 
shore. Some 3000 people (including women and children) gain 
their living by gathering amber. 


Av the end of 1880 the Berlin Electro-technical Union 
numbered no less than 1575 members, 1246 of whom are 
foreigners. 


A NUMBER of Celtic tombs were recently discovered near 
Lichtenwald, on the frontier between Styria and Carniola, not 
far from Cilli. Several of them were opened, and numerous urns 
were found in them. <A few objects of more interest have been 
sent to the local museum at Cilli. 


THE well-known Hungarian archeologist, Herr Wilhelm 
Lipp, continues the excavations of the ancient burial-ground 
discovered by him at Kessthely. The cost is borne by the 
Budapest Archzeological Society. These tombs are rich in 
bronze and iron objects dating from the fourth and fifth 
centuries. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


BRORSEN’S COMET IN 1842.—In September, 1846, it was 
pointed out by Mr. Hind (Astron. Nach. No. 582) that the 
comet of short-period discovered by Brorsen at Kiel on February 
26 preceding must have approached very near to the planet 
Jupiter about May 20, 1842, possibly within 0°05 of the earth’s 
mean distance, and it was surmised that an entire change of 
orbit might have been produced at that time. In 1857 D’Arrest 
examined this point more closely, applying the formule of the 
Mécanique Céleste to determine the elements prior to the encounter 
with the planet. His results were published in Astron. Nach. 
No. 1087. Adopting good elements for 1846, but without 
taking account of perturbations, since the comet left the sphere of 
activity of Jupiter after the near approach, he inferred that the 
closest proximity occurred May 20°6924 Berlin mean time, the 
distance between the two bodies being then 0°05112; that for 
April 19°5 the inclination of the comet’s orbit was 40° 51’, or 
Io’ greater than in 1846, and that the perihelion distance was 
greater than 1°5, instead of 0°65 at the time of Brorsen’s dis- 
covery, and it was considered that the comet would not be visible 
when the radius-vector was much over unity ; hence, perhaps, 
our ignorance of its existence before the year 1846. Thus the 
question has remained until within the last two years. Our 
object now is to record the results of a much more complete 
investigation of the effect of the comet’s encounter with Jupiter, 
by Herr Harzer, forming the subject of an inaugural dissertation 
in the University of Leipsic in 1878. He adopts the definitive 
elements of Prof. Bruhns for 1846, with a small correction te 
the mean motion indicated by the observations at the comet’s re- 
appearance in 1868, and calculates backward with great care the 
perturbations of Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and 
Saturn to 1842, July 16°5, when the distance from Jupiter was 
0°305 ; the total perturbations in the interval 1846, February 25°5 
—1$42, July 16°5 are as follows :—Meananomaly, — 1° 58’ 32”°6; 
mean sidereal motion, + 47°391; longitude of perihelion, 
+ 9' 52”8; ascending node, + 24’ 35”°4 ; inclination, 
+ 1° 48’ 314; angle of eccentricity, + 56° 300. From the 
ecliptical co ordinates of the comet with respect to Jupiter at the 
latter date and the variations of these relative co-ordinates, the 
hyperbolic elements of the orbit about the planet are obtained 
and the perijove is found to have taken place May 27°28488 
M.T. at Berlin, when the distance was 0°054714. The hyper- 
bolic elements are assumed to 1842, April 7°5, when the distance 
between comet and planet was 0°30334, and the radius of the 
sphere of attraction 0°27149. The elements are then again 
referred to the sun, and thus the following figures defining the 
comet’s orbit before this near approach to Jupiter, result :— 


Epoch, 1842, April 7°5 Berlin M.T. 


Mean anonialy ... 135 ° 58'0 


Longitude of perihelion ... III 50 20°6 

»» 9, ascending node... 103 42 12°8) 1846'0 
Inclination... ere 46 18 57°4 
Angle of eccentricity 49 32 10'0 
Mean daily motion ... 686"°253 
Log, semi axis major 0°4756809 
Perihelion distance O'7I51810 


The only very striking difference from D’Arrest’s figures, which 
were confessedly a rough approximation, is in the perihelion 


Fan. 27, 1881 | 


distance, which, as will be seen, is found to be much smaller, 
indeed not one-half as great, by Herr Harzer. 

The author of this very able dissertation remarks upon the 
similarity of the elements he has deduced for Brorsen’s comet 
before the near approach to Jupiter, to those of the first comet 
of 1798, discovered by Messier on April 12 and observed by 
him till May 24 ; this comet was computed by Burckhardt and 
Olbers. Herr Harzer finds, however, that it is not probable 
Messier’s observations will admit of an orbit widely different 
from a parabola. He considers there is reason to conclude that 
the orbit of 1842 was impressed upon the comet by a close 
approach to Jupiter in 1759-60, and that another change may be 
similarly produced in 1937, as hinted by D’Arrest. 


HERSCHEL’S FIRST OBSERVATION OF URANUS.—We ere 
now close upon the centenary of the discovery of Uranus on 
March 13, 1781. Perhaps some readers may be interested in 
the following examination of the first evening’s measures of 
distance and angle of position from a small star, with which 
Herschel compared the planet till March 21. In his ‘* Account 
of a Comet,” for as such the planet was announced in a commu- 
nication to the Royal Society read on April 26, he gives the 
distance from the small star ‘‘2' 48” by pretty exact estimation 
true to 20’,” and the angle ‘‘o° o’ by superficial estimation, 
liable to an error of 10° or 12°,” this angle corresponding in our 
present system of double-star measures to 270°, or preceding on 
the parallel: this distance and angle are for 10h, 30m. at 
Bath. 

By Prof. Newcomb’s pretty accurate ‘provisional theory,” 
we find the place of Uranus for 1781, March 13, at 1oh, 3om. 
M.T. at Bath, or toh. 39m. zos. Greenwich M.T., to be as fol- 
lows :—True R.A. 5h. 35m. 47°77s., true Decl. +23° 32’ 58”°3, 
and the corrections to apparent place are — 0°32s. and —o"'2; 
the log. distance of the planet from the earth being 1°27742. 
It is clear from this that Herschel’s star, which he calls a, is 
No. 1576 in Riimker’s Catalogue (the first impression of 
oh, —6h.), where it is estimated a tenth magnitude : Argelander 
in the Durchmusterung has 9'0. The mean place accurately 
carried back to 1781°0 was— 

R.A. 5h. 36m. 0785s. Decl. + 23° 32’ 37. 

For this date and hour we find, in the notation of the Vawtical 
Almanac— 

Log A. —1'2709, Log B. + 0°3473. 

Log D. —0°8971. 
Whence the apparent place of the star was— 

R.A. 5h. 36m. 0°84s. Decl. + 23° 32' 11776. 
Consequently the calculated distance of planet from star is 
3 102, and the angle of position 284°°2, agreeing as nearly 
with Herschel’s estimates as under the circumstances can be 


expected, At his next observation on March 17 the distance 
by observation was 42”; the computed distance 54”. 


Log C. +7°7110. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


THE last meeting of the Russian Geographical Society was 
very animated, owing to the presence of Prof. Nordenskjold. The 
great hall of the Society was crowded, and the explorer of the 
northern seas was greeted with loud cheers. The president of 
the Society, M. Semenoff, opened the meeting with a speech of 
welcome in which he sketched the long series of expeditions 
undertaken from Europe to Siberia since the year 1553, when 
Willoughby directed his three ships to the White Sea, and paid 
for his undertaking with his life. Prof. Nordenskjold replied in 
a short speech, referring to the expeditions which will start next 
spring for the exploration of the Siberian shores ; and Prof, 
Lentz made a communication on Polar meteorological stations 
and on their importance for science, 


ORENBURG was the first town which enjoyed the pleasure of 
hearing the story of Col. Prjevalsky’s journey told by himself, 
On his passage through this town, on January 2, the traveller 
gave a lecture on the adventures of his journey to Tibet, which 
we have already told. From Orenburg M. Prjevalsky started to 
visit his relations at Smolensk, whence he proceeded to St. 
Petersburg, reaching it at the same time as his companions and 
his collections, which were at the beginning of January on their 
way from Orsk to Orenburg. 


Dr. Lenz, the German traveller who lately accomplished the 


NATURE 


299 


feat of reaching Timbuctoo from the north, has arrived at Bor- 
deaux, and is expected at Berlin soon to give an account of his 
explorations, 


THERE are at present sixty-five geographical Societies in the 
world. The oldest of these is that of Paris, founded 1821 ; 
there is also a Society of Commercial Geography at Paris, 
founded 1873. Besides these France has geographical societies 
at Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Montpellier, Rouen, Nancy, 
Bergerac, Périgueux, Rochefort, Mont-de-Marsan, Agen, Apinal, 
Rochelle, Douai, Dunkirk, St. Omer, Lille; and one is about 
to be founded at Bar-le-Duc. The Berlin Geographical Society 
was founded in 1828, besides which Germany has similar societies 
at Frankfort, Darmstadt, Leipsic, Dresden, Munich, Bremen, 
Halle, Hamburg, Friberg, Metz, Hanover ; other societies are 
in formation at Halberstadt, Magdeburg, and Jena, The 
London Geographical Society, the only one in England, was 
founded in 1830. The next oldest society (after Frankfort) is 
that of Rio Janeiro, founded 1838; then Mexico, 1839; St. 
Petersburg, 1845 ; in Russia there are besides—societies at Tiflis, 
Irkutsk, Vilna, Orenburg, Omsk, The other societies are those 
of the Hague, 1851 ; New York, 1852; Vienna, 1856 ; Geneva, 
1858; Rome, 1867; Buda-Pesth, 1872; Amsterdam, 1873; 
Bucharest, 1875; Lisbon, 1875; Madrid, Antwerp, Brussels, 
Copenhagen, Lima, all 1876; Stockholm and Quebec, 1877 ; 
St. Gall, Berne, Oran, 1878; Tokio, 1879; Buenos Ayres, 
Algiers, and Oporto, 1880. 


THE Hamburg firm of C, Woermann has sent Mr, Hermann 
Soyaux to the French colony of Gaboon in order to try to culti- 
vate the cofiee-tree of Liberia at that place. Soyaux has now 
been at Gaboon for two years, and has there established the 
Scibomge farm, which is situated about a day’s march inland 
from the Gaboon River, on the Awandu River, which flows in a 
north-easterly direction into the Bay of Corisco,. He now 
employs some 100 negroes. Many thousand coffee-trees have beer 
imported from Liberia, and have been planted, and experiments 
have also been made with sowing. the beans, so that at the 
beginning of 1882 the first coffee-harvest is confidently expected. 
The Hamburg firm supperts the undertaking in a most efficient 
manner by sending engines, implements, &c., and experiments 
are also pending to introduce and acclimatise horses and mules. 
Mr. Soyaux makes meteorological observations for the Leipsic 
Ob.ervatory and natural history collections for the Hamburg 
Museum. 


In the current number of Les Missiovs Catholigues we find 
appended to a letter from Mgr. Cluzel, the Apostolic Delegate 
in Persia, some notes on the Kurds, which are just now of con- 
siderable interest. These notes deal with the origin of the 
Kurds, their country, language, present condition, religion, 
manners and customs, &c. 


THOUGH no doubt much geographical information respecting 
the Philippines may be obtained from Spanish works, there is 
but little readily accessible to the English reader. It may there- 
fore be well to call attention to a useful véswmé furnished by 
H.M.’s Consul at Manila in his commercial report for 1879. 
He gives some brief particulars respecting each of the twenty-one 
provinces into which the principal Island of Luzon is divided, 
and afterwards deals with some of the other chief islands. The 
interior of the Island of Mindoro, immediately south of Luzon, 
he tells us, is not explored, but is supposed to contain much 
mineral wealth. In the Visayan group much of the interior of 
Negros, Samar, and Paragua is likewise not explored. Capt. 
Pauli adds that the archipelago is believed to contain 12co 
islands uf all sizes. The report is accompanied by an outline 
map, on which the principal islands are shown, as well as the 
division of Luzon into provinces. 


M. LucEREAU, a member of the Paris Geographical Society, 
has been killed by natives on his exploring expedition in Eastern 
Africa. He had started from Aden in June last in order to 
reach the Upper Nile by crossing the territory inhabited by the 
Gallas Negroes. 


THE Sulletin of the International Geographical Institute at 
Berne has with the new year begun a new series on a larger 
scale than the previous issue. In the first number the contents 
of previous issues are resumed, the chief novelty being a fine 
map of the South Polar regions, on linen, in connection with 
the proposed Italian expedition, We cannot yet see exactly 
what place this Bu//etin fills in geographical journalism. 


DEEP-SEA EXPLORATION? 


THs subject is one in which I have for many years taken 
much interest ; and I will give you the result of my experi- 
ence and studies. It is highly fascinating to all persons of 
ordinary intelligence, although they may not be naturalists. 
Qur best poets have not disdained to sing its praises; one of 
them says, ri, 
“ There is a magnet-like attraction in 

These waters to the imaginative power 

That links the viewless with the visible, 

And pictures things unseen.” 

Speculations of this kind were not unknown to the ancients. 
In the ‘‘Haleutica” of Oppian, written nearly seventeen 
centuries ago, it is stated that no one had found the bottom of 
the sea, and that the greatest depth ascertained by man was 300 
fathoms, where Amphitrite had been seen. But this grand dis- 
covery does not seem to have satisfied the poetical philosopher ; 
and he enters into a long disquisition as to the many other 
wonderful things that may be concealed in the recesses of the 
boundless ocean, adding, nevertheless, what I will translate from 
the Greek :-— 

“But men have little sense and strength.”” 


However, man has not degenerated in this kind of knowledge 
since the days of Oppian ; for he has now not only explored the 
greatest depths of the sea, but has mapped out its main features 
with nearly as much accuracy as he has done with respect to the 
land. 

It will be more convenient to divide the subject into separate 
heads, viz. :—(1) Historical; (2) Apparatus; (3) Fauna ; (4) 
Food; (5) Light; (6) Temperature ; (7) Depth ; (8) Inequalities 
of the Sea-bottom; (9) Deposits; (10) Geological ; (11) Inci- 
dental ; (12) Concluding Remarks. 

I hope you will not be frightened at the number of these 
heads. Some of them you will find to be exceedingly short. 

1. Historical,—Sir Wyville Thomson’s ‘‘ Depths of the Sea” 
gives an excellent account of the origin and progress of deep-sea 
exploration up to avery recent period. To this work I would 
refer my audience, contenting myself with some supplemental 
remarks. 

In 1868 commenced the systematic examination of the sea-bed 
at considerable depths in that part of the North Atlantic which 
surrounds the British Isles. I then took my yacht, the Osfrey, 
for another excursion to Shetland, and dredged off the most 
northern point of our isles, The greatest depth which I attained 
was 170 fathoms, or 1020 feet, each fathom being 6 feet. This 
depth, strictly speaking, is beyond the line of soundings, viz. 100 
fathoms: and it may be a question whether the fauna of the 
sea-bed outside of that limit can be regarded as British, although 
adjacent to our coasts. If it be we ought to take the ‘‘ medium 
filum aque” (as the lawyers in the time of Coke called it), and 
extend the geographical limit of the British marine fauna half- 
way across to North America! But such boundaries are neither 
national nor rational, We cannot lay claim to so extensive a 
dominion. International boundaries, for the purpose of naval 
warfare or as defined by fishery treaties, are limited to a distance 
of three miles, irrespective of depth. Later in the same year 
(1868) Dr. Carpenter and Prof. Wyville Thomson explored, in 
H.M. surveying-vessel Lightning, the sea-bed lying between the 
Butt of Lewis and the Farée Isles, and reached the depth of 550 
fathoms. These tentative excursions showed that the sea-bed 
everywhere was full of life, not merely of a microscopic and 
uniform kind, and of a low degree cf organisation, but of a con- 
siderable size, great variety, and a high degree of organisation. 
In the following year (1869) our Government placed a better 
vessel at the disposal of the Royal Society ; and I undertook the 
first scientific cruise in H.M, surveying-ship Porcupine. This 
cruise was off the western coast of Ireland, and the greatest depth 
dredged was 1476 fathoms. The second cruise was undertaken 
by Prof. Wyville Thomson, and extended from the south of 
Ireland to what is probably the deepest part of the North Atlantic 
in the European seas. The greatest depth dredged by him was 
2435 fathoms, or nearly three miles. The third cruise, under 
the charge of Dr. Carpenter, was in the same direction as the 
Lightning expedition, but embraced a larger area, including the 
Shetland Isles; the greatest depth wes 867 fathoms. In the 
following year (1870) the Porcupine was again placed at the 
disposal of the Royal Society for further exploration. This 
expedition was divided into two cruises, North Atlantic and 


* A Lecture by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, LL.D., F.R.S. 


NATURE 


| Fan. 27, 1881 


Mediterranean. The former was assigned to me, and com- 
prised the sea-bed lying between Falmouth and the Straits of 
Gibraltar, along the western coasts of Spain and Portugal. 
There were 38 dredging and sounding stations, at depths 
ranging from 81 to 1095 fathoms. The Mediterranean cruise 
was made by Dr. Carpenter, and extended round Sicily. There 
were 29 stations, at depths ranging from 51 to 1743 fathoms. 
Prof. Wyville Thomson was unfortunately prevented by illness 
from taking part in this year’s expedition. In all these ernises 
an abundance as well as a great variety of marine life occurred 
at every depth. 

The Lightning and Porcupine expeditions culminated in the 
celebrated voyage of H.M.S. Challenger round the world, 
which commenced on December 21, 1872, and ended on May 
24, 1876, having thus occupied a period of three years and five 
months. During this expedition about 30,000 nautical miles 
were traversed, 504 soundings were taken, and 132 dredgings 
and 150 trawlings were made. The depths of soundings were 
from 25 to 4475, of dredgings from 4 to 3875, and of trawlings 
from 10 to 3050 fathoms. The greatest depth reached was five 
statute miles. The Americans have recorded a greater depth, 
viz. 5} miles, or 4620 fathoms. - Even greater depths than this 
have been given; but they are not now considered reliable, by 
reason of the imperfect machinery which was formerly used for 
sounding, 

The Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1873-1877 contain 
many ‘‘ Preliminary Reports” by Sir Wyville Thomson and the 
other naturalists attached to the Challenger expedition; so that 
all the scientific world were from time to time kept informed of 
the progress and results of this great national undertaking. 

During the last of our arctic voyages, in 1875, I had, through 
the influence and energy of the Royal Society, another oppor- 
tunity of exploring a part of the North-Atlantic sea-bed which 
was not within the limits of the Ch z//enger expedition; and I 
was intrusted with the scientific charge of the sounding and 
dredging conducted in H.M.S. Valorous between Bantry Bay 
and Hare Island in Davis Strait. bis ship accompanied the 
Alert and Discovery on their way northwards. After a voyage 
of three months, which was rendered more eventful by a cyclonical 
storm and a partial shipwreck on the coast of Greenland, we 
succeeded in workiug sixteen stations, with depths of from 20 to 
1785 fathoms. Here also, and even in the midst of icebergs, 
submarine life showed no diminution in number or extent. 

To this short recital of our later expeditions I must not omit 
to add a notice of the valuable and suggestive researches which 
were accomplished under considerable difficulties by Dr. Wallich 
in H.M.S. Bulidog in 1860, while she was engaged in surveying 
the North-Atlantic sea-bed for the purpose of establishing tele- 
graphic communication between this country and North America. 
‘Vhe results of these researches were published in Dr. Wallich’s 
important work, entitled ‘‘ The North-Atlantic Sea-bed ; com- 
prising a Diary of the Voyage on board H.M.S. Bulldog in 
1860, and obseryations on the presence of Animal Life, and the 
Formation and Nature of Organic Deposits at Great Depths in 
the Ocean.” On the return voyage, about midway between 
Cape Farewell and Rockall, thirteen starfishes came up from a 
sounding of 1260 fathoms, ‘‘convulsively embracing a portion of 
the sounding-line which had been payed outin excess of the 
already ascertained depth, and rested for a sufficient period at 
the bottom to permit of their attaching themselves to it.” 

A short voyage in H.M.S. Shearwater through the Mediter- 
ranean in 1871 enabled Dr. Carpenter to have some dredging 
between Sicily and the northern coast of Africa, on the Adyen- 
ture and Skerki Banks. ‘Lhis dredging was by no means un- 
productive; but the depths did not exceed 200 fathoms, which 
we are now inclined to call ‘‘shallow water” ; Dr. Carpenter's 
word was “‘shallows.” Fifty years ago such depths would 
have been regarded by naturalists as peculiarly ‘‘abysial”! 

The elaborate report of my lamented friend Prof. Edward 
Forbes, on the investigation of British Marine Zoology by 
means of the dredge, which he submitted to the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science in 1850, and to which I 
contributed as a humble rellow worker, was preceded by his 
equally valuable ‘* Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the 
gean Se:, and on their Distribution, co sidered as bearing on 
Geology.” The la-t-mentioned Report was published by the 
Association in 1844. Forbes’s conclusion that the sea-bottom at 
a depth of 300 fathoms is lifeless, because he found that life 
diminished gradually, and almost ceased when he dredged at 230 
fathoms, has certainly been proved to be inaccurate as regards 


NATUORE 


301 


Fan. 27, 1881 | 


the ocean in general; but Dr. Carpenter, in his Report to the 
Royal Society on his biological researches in the Mediterranean 
during the Shearwater cruise, expresses his belief that ‘‘in the 
Mediterranean basin the existence of animal life in any abun- 
dance at a depth greater than 200 fathoms will be found quite 
exceptional”; and he infers ‘‘that Edward Forbes was quite 
justified in the conclusion he drew as regards the particular 
locality he had investigated, and that his only mistake lay io 
supposing that the same conditions would prevail in the open 
ocean.” But this eminent naturalist and physiologist, Dr. Car- 
penter, to whose opinions on such subjects all respect is due, 
admits that ‘‘ the history of science is full of instances in which 
erroneous doctrines have been more productive, becaus? more 
suggestive, than well-determined facts that open no access to the 
unknown beyond.” With the greatest deference to Dr. Car- 
penter’s opinion that animal life is scanty in the depths of the 
Mediterranean, I venture to point out that very little had pre- 
viously been done to investigate the fauna of that sea beyond 
the shores and shallow water to the extent which Forbes reached, 
viz. 230 fathoms. 

Admiral Spratt in 1846 dredged, at a depth of 310 fathoms, 
40 miles east of Malta, a number of living Mollusca, which I 
examined and found to be identical with species which I dredged 
at con-iderable depths in the North Atlantic during the Porcu- 
pine expeditions. Again, during the Mediterranean cruise of 
1870 in the Porcupine, no fewer than 14 species of Mollusca 
(al-o Atlantic), besides a pelagic or surface-water species and a 
small freshwater shell, which must have been carried out to sea 
by some river or stream, occurred at a depth of 1415 fathoms, 
between the coasts of North Africa and Spain. All these spe- 
cies were recent, and some were living, although most of them 
were known to me as also belonging to the Pliocene formation 
in Sicily. However, we shall in all probability know a great 
deal more of this matter if our good neighbours the French are 
able to carry out their idea of extending their investigation of 
the deep sea near their own coasts by another dredging and 
sounding cruise off Marseilles or Toulon, 

* During the early part of the summer in the present year (1880) 
our Admiralty placed at the disposal of Sir Wyville Thomson 
H.M. surveying-vessel Anight Errant fora cruise off the Butt 
of Lewis, in prosecution of his researches in the Lightning 
Expedition as to the ‘‘ warm” and ‘‘cold” areas which were 
noticed in the Report of that expedition. Mr. Murray took the 
scientific charge of the cruise ; but the weather was boisterous, 
ani unfavourable for dredging ani trawling. There were, how- 
ever, some zoological re-ults of an interesting kind, especially 
as regards the Mollusca; and it is hoped that the application 
which has now been made by the Royal Society for another 
Government vessel will be successful, and will enable Sir 
Wyvwalle to continue the work and make further discoveries. 

Although we have of late years done a great deal to promote 
submarine researches, as shown by the expeditions of H.M.SS. 
Bulldog, Lightning, Porcupine, Shearwater, Walorouws, and 
Knight Errant, ouc comparatively poor neighbours in Scandi- 
navia have been earlier in the field and not less energetic. From 
the ‘‘ Notices sur la Suéde,” published on the occasion of the 
International Congress of Geographical Sciences in 1875 at 
Paris, it appears that between the years 1837 and 1875 seventeen 
scientific expeditions were made from Sweden, fifteen of which 
explored the Arctic regions. Professors Loven, Torell, and 
Nordenskjold, with other distinzuished naturalists, took an 
active part in these expeditions. he sister kingdom of Norway 
has since engaged in the same course of discovery; and a well- 
equipped Government vessel, the Voringen, of the same size as 
the Porcupine (about 400 tons), left Bergen in the beginning of 
June, 1876. Dr. Danielssen, Professors Mohn and G, O. Sars, 
Herr Friele, and other scientific men accompanied the vessel, 
and were engaged in the zoological and physical work. Through 
the kindness of my friend Prof. Sars I am enabled to give the 
following particulars of these Norwegian expeditions :—They 
occupied nearly three months in each of the years 1876, 1877, 
and 1878. ‘The first expedition was divided into three cruises, 
and extended along the western coast of Norway to the Farée 
Isles and Iceland. There were 24 dredging-stations, at depths 
of from go to 1862 fathoms, besides 5 shore stations in Norway, 
Faroe, and Iceland. The second expedition was divided into 
four cruises, and extended from Bergen to outside the Loffoden 
Isles, and from Troms6 to Jan Mayen ; there were 28 stations, 
with depths of from 70 to 1760 fathoms, besides 6 shore sta- 
tions in Norway and Jan Mayen.: Tbe third expedition was 


divided into three cruises, and extended to Vardo, and thence 
westward to Beeren Island, and afterwards to Spitzbergen in 
80° N. lat. The last expedition had 36 stations, with depths of 
from 21 to 1686 fathoms, besides 7 shore stations on the Arctic 
coasts of Norway, and in Beeren Island and Spitzbergen. 

The United States have prosecuted this kind of research with 
their well-known activity and perseverance. From 1867 to the 
autumn of 1880 four Government steamers have been continu- 
ously employed in surveying the seas which border the coasts of 
Central and South America, Several hundred stations were 
investigated, at depths ranging from 6 to 2412 fathoms. Count 
Pourtales, Prof. Agassiz, and his no less eminent son, have been 
successively ia charge of the scientific department. The results 
are both extensive and invaluable. In 1871 I was invited by 
the late Prof. Agassiz to pay him a visit and examine the 
Mollu-ca which had been procured during the previous years. 
The collection was in the custody of the late Prof. Stimpson at 
Chicago. It was extremely interesting to me, in connection 
with the expeditions of the Lightning and Porcupine. 1 exa- 
mined the collection in the Museum at Chicago; and, at the 
request of Prof. Agassiz, I took home with me several of the 
shells for compari-on with my own. On my return to England, 
after enjoying the kind hospitality of my scientific friends in the 
United States and Canada, I learnt that Chicago had’ been 
utterly burnt down; and 1 was fortunately enabled to restore 
the shells, which were the only specimens of natural history that 
had been saved from the fire. ‘Through the kindness of Prof. 
Spencer Baird, I had, during this visit to America, an opportunity 
of joining in a dredging-excursion on the coast uf New England, 
which was conducted under the auspices of the Fishery Com- 
mission. 

Like a giant refreshed, France has awakened from a rather 
long sleep, and, with its accustomed spirit, has now rivalled 
all other nations in deep-sea work. ast summer a scientific 
commission was appointed, with the venerable Prof, Milne- 
Edwards as its president; and a large and well-equipped 
Goyernment steamer, the Zvavaillew, explored the Bay of 
Biscay with most favourable results. I was obligingly asked to 
take part in this expedition; and I gave an account of it at the 
last meeting of the British Association at Swansea, which is 
published in the Report of that meeting. 

Austria, Germany, and Ho!land have also not been last in the 
race of maritime voyages, although they have not contributed 
much to our knowledze of deep-sea life. 

The harvest reaped in all the above-mentioned expeditions 
was most abundant and valuable. 

But after all it must be borne in mind that if every civilised 
nation in the world were every year, during the next century, to 
send out similar expeditions, with improved appliances, for 
exploring the sea-bed, the field would be far from being 
exhausted. Every such expedition must be more or less 
tentative, and can only form the basis for a more complete 
investigation of ‘‘the deep bosom of the ocean.” The area of 
investigation must be measured by many millions of square 
leagues ; whereas all that has hitherto been effected has been to 
scrape in an imperfect manner the surface of a few scores of 
acres. 

I here exhibit charts to show the tracks of the expeditions in 
which I have been personally engaged, as well as those of the 
Challenger and Norwegian expeditions. 

2. Apparatus.—The sounding-line, ropes, dredge, trawl, 
tangles, towing-net, sieves, accumulators, steam-engines, and 
other contrivances for deep-sea exploration have been so fully 
described and illustrated in the ‘‘ Depths of the Sea” and Capt. 
Sigsbee’s ‘‘Deep-sea Sounding and Dredginz,” that it is 
unnecessary for me to do more than mention those books. 
The latest improvements consist in the substitution of steel-wire 
for line in sounding, and of galvanised wire-rope for hempen 
rope in dredging and trawling. Capt. Sigsbee’s new towing-net 
for ascertaining whether floatinz or swimming animals are found 
in any zone or belt of water lying between the surface and the 
bottom will be hereafter noticed, It is still a desideratum to 
invent a dredge for deep-sea work which shall scrape the surface 
instead of sinking into the ooze or mud. 

3. Fauna.—This word is used by naturalists to deaote animal 
life in contradistinction to ‘‘ Flora” or vegetable life. All the 
recent exploring expeditions have established the fact that animal 
life of various kinds abounds everywhere in the deepest parts of 
the ocean, Nor is such life microscopic or minute only., In 
the Challenger voyaze was procured by the trawl, at the depth 


302 


NATGORE 


[ Fan. 27, 1881 


of 1600 fathoms, in the South Atlantic (S. lat. 46° 16’, E. long, 
48° 27’), a living specimen of a magnificent shell belonging to 
Cymbium, or an allied genus, which is 6} inches long and 4 
inches broad! I dredged other Mollusca from an inch and a 
half to nearly double that length in the Porcupine and Valorous 
expeditions, Willemoes Suhm mentions among the Challenger 
discoveries a gigantic crustacean or sea-spider from 1375 fathoms, 
which measured nearly two feet across the legs, 

Sir Wyville Thomson gives an eloquent description of life in 
the deep sea, when he says that the latter “fis inhabited by a 
fauna more rich and varied on account of the enormous extent of 
the area, and with the organisms in many cases apparently even 
more elaborately and delicately formed, and more exquisitely 
beautiful in their soft shades of colouring, and in the rainbow 
tints of their wonderful phosphorescence, than the fauna of the 
well-known belt of shallow water teeming with innumerable 
invertebrate forms which fringes the land. And the forms of 
these hitherto unknown living beings, and their mode of life, 
and their relations to other organisms whether living or extinct, 
and the phenomena and laws of their geographical distribution, 
must be worked out.” 

It was formerly supposed that animals could not exist at great 
depths because of the great pressure to which they were sub- 
jected. Mr. Moseley says * ‘‘the pressure exerted by the water 
at great depths is enormous, and almost beyond comprehension. 
It amounts roughly to a ton weight on the square inch for every 
1000 fathoms of depth ; so that, at the depth of 2500 fathoms, 
there is a pressure of two tons and a half per square inch of 
surface, which may be contrasted with the fifteen pounds per 
square inch pressure to which we are accustomed at the level of 
the sea.” Butit must be recollected that water is nearly incom- 
pressible, and that marine animals which are surrounded by such 
a fluid, and are to a certain extent filled with it, would not 
necessarily be inconvenienced by the superincumbent weight. 

Animals from great or even from what may be considered 
moderate depths are always brought up dead, the cause of death 
being unknown. This is another problem worthy of being 
worked out. 

The migration or distribution of marine animals throughout 
the open sea is quite free, and is unobstructed only by great or 
abrupt changes of level in the bed of the ocean, which operate 
as barriers. Even animals of a fixed or sedentary nature in their 
earliest state of growth swim on the surface, and are therefore 
unchecked in their onward course by any submarine barrier, 

The doubt whether any life exists in the intermediate space or 
zone which lies between that of the surface and that of the 
bottom of the deep sea has now, I believe, been set at rest. 
The naturalists in the Josephine expedition believed that this 
intermediate zone is lifeless; and Sir Wyville Thomson seems 
to have been of the same opinion. The towirg-net adopted by 
Mr. Murray in the Cia//enger expedition for such researches was 
to some extent successful ; but Capt. Sigsbee, of the U.S. Coast- 
Survey steamer A/ake, invented a cylinder or machine, called the 
“‘gravitating trap,” which completely answered the purpose of 
collecting at any particular depth the animals which cccurred 
there. Prof. Alexander Agassiz, in his communication to the 
Superintendent of the Survey made last August, and now pub- 
lished, records the experiments thus made, and says that they 
‘‘appear to prove conclusively that the surface-fauna of the sea 
is really limited to a comparatively narrow belt in depth, and 
that there is no intermediate belt, so to speak, of animal life 
between those living on the bottom, or close to it, and the 
surface pelagic fauna.” 

I am not aware that any deep-sea animals adopt or avail 
themselves of the same means that oceanic or land animals use 
for purposes of protection and concealment, chiefly by colora- 
tion or by what has been termed ‘‘ mimicry.” Many cases of this 
kind are known to occur in birds, fishes, mollusks, Sa/f@, insects, 
crabs, shrimps, and worms. 

None of the animals whose remains are found in geological 
formations older than the Pliocene or latest of the Tertiary strata 
have yet been detected in any exploring expedition. The late 
Prof. Agassiz and Sir Wyville Thomson were disappointed in 
their enthusiastic expectation of finding Ammonites, Belemnites, 
and other Old- World fossils in a living state. I have dredged 
Miocene fossils on the coasts of Guernsey and Portugal, the 
latter at considerable depths ; but they were petrifactions, and 
must have come from some fessiliferous formation in the adjacent 
land, or perhaps in the sea-bed. 


* “Notes of a Naturalist on the Challenger.” 


Sir Wyville Thomson, in his ‘‘ Report of the Scientific Results 
of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger,” has expressed his opinion 
as to the doctrine of evolution, that ‘‘in this, as in all cases in 
which it has been possible to bring the question, however 
remotely, to the test of observation, the character of the abyssal 
fauna refuses to give the least support to the theory which refers 
the evolution “of species to extreme variation guided only by 
natural selection.” I cannot understand how either *‘ natural 
selection” or ‘sexual selection” can affect marine invertebrate 
animals, which have no occasion to struggle for their existence 
and have no distinction of sex. 


(Zo be continued.) 


THE RELATION BETWEEN ELECTRICITY 
AND LIGHT: 


EVER since the subject on which I have the honour to speak 

to you to-night was arranged, I have been astonished at my 
own audacity in proposing to deal in the course of sixty minutes 
with a subject so gigantic and so profound that a course of sixty 
lectures wou'd be quite inadequate for its thorough and exhaustive 
treatment. 

I must indeed confine myself carefully to some few of the 
typical and most salient points in the relation between electricity 
and light, and I must economise time by plunging at once into 
the middle of the matter without further preliminaries. 

Now when a person is setting off to discuss the relation between 
electricity and light it is very natural and very proper to pull him 
up short with the two questions : What do you mean by electricity ? 
and What do you mean by light? These two questions I intend 
to try briefly to answer. And here let me observe that in 
answering these fundamental questions I do not necessarily assume 
a fundamental ignorance on your part of these two agents, but 
rather the contrary; and must beg you to remember that if I 
repeat well-known and simple experiments before you, it is for 
the purpose of directing attention to their real meaning and 
significance, not to their obvious and superficial characteristics : 
in the came way that I might repeat the exceedingly familiar 
experiment of dropping a stone to the earth if we were going to 
define what we meant by gravitation, 

Now then we willask first, What is Electricity ? and the simple 
answer must be, We don’t know. Well, but this need not 
necessarily be depressing. If the same question were asked 
about Matter, or about Energy, we should have likewise to reply, 
No one knows. 

But then the term Matter is a very general one, and so'is the 
term Energy. They are heads, in fact, under which we classify 
more special phenomena, ; 

Thus if we were asked what is sulphur, or what is selenium, we 
should at least be able to reply, A form of matter ; and then 
proceed to describe its properties, 7.c. how it affected our bodies 
and other bodies. E 

Again, to the question, What is heat ? we can reply, A form of 
energy; and proceed to describe the peculiarities which dis- 
tinguish it from other forms of energy. 

But to the question, What is electricity? we have no answer 
pat like this. We cannot assert that itis a form of matter, 
neither can we deny it; on the other hand, we certainly cannot 
assert that it is a form of energy, and I should be disposed to 
deny it. It may be that electricity is an entity fer se, just as 
matter is an entity fer se. A 

Nevertheless I can tell you what I mean by electricity by 
appealing to its known behaviour, it Peale x 

Here is a battery, that is, an electricity pump: it will drive 
electricity along. Prof. Ayrton is going, I am afraid, to tell you, 
on the 20th of January next, that it Zroduces electricity ; but if 
he does, I hope you will remember that that is exactly what 
neither it nor anything else can do, It is as impossible to 
generate electricity in the sense I am trying to give the word, as 
it is to produce matter. Of course I need hardly say that Prof. 
Ayrton knows this perfectly well ; it is merely a question of words, 
z.e. of what you understand by the word electricity. ‘ 

I want yon then to regard this battery and all electrical 
machines and batteries as kinds of electricity pumps, which drive 
the electricity along through the wire very much as a water-pump 
can drive water along pipes. While this is going on the wire 
manifests a whole series of properties, which are called the 
properties of the current. 


t A lecture by Dr. Q. J. Lodge, delivered at the London Institution o 
December 16, 1880. 


Fan. 27, 1881] 


NATURE 


393 


[Here were shown an ignited platinum wire, the electric arc 
between two carbons, an electric machine spark, an induction-coil 
spark, and a vacuum tube glow. Also a large nail was magnet- 
ised by being wrapped in the current, and two helices were 
suspended and seen to direct and attract each other.] 

To make a magnet, then, we only need a current of electricity 
flowing round and round in a whirl. A vortex or whirlpool of 
electricity is in fact a magnet; and vice vers#. And these 
whirls have the power of directing and attracting other pre- 
viously existing whirls according to certain laws, called the 
laws of magnetism. And, moreover, they have the power of 
exciting fresh whirls in neighbouring conductors, and of repelling 
themaccording to the laws of diamagnetism. The theory of the 
actions is known; though the nature of the whirls, as of the 
simple stream of electricity, is at present unknown. 

[Here was shown a large electro-magnet and an induction-coil 
vacuum discharge spianing round and round when placed in its 
field. ] 

So much for what happens when electricity is made to travel 
along ‘conductors, 7.e. when it travels along like a stream of 
water in a pipe, or spins round and round like a whirlpool. 

But there is another set of phenomena, usually regarded as 
distinct, and of another order, but which are not so distinct as 
they appear, which manifest themselves when you join the pump 
to a piece of glass or any non-conductor and try to force the 
electricity through that, You succeed in driving some through, 
but the flow is no longer like that of water in an open pipe ; it is as 
if the pipe were completely obstructed by a number of elastic par- 
titions, or diaphragms. The water cannot move without straining 
and bending these diaphragms, and if you allow it, these strained 
partitions will recover themselves and drive the water back again, 
{Here was explained the process of charging a Leyden jar.] 
The essential thing to remember is that we may have electri- 
cal energy in two forms, the static and the kinetic; and it is 
therefore also possible to have the rapid alternation from one 
of these forms to the other, called vibration. 

Now we will pass to the second question: 


What do you 
mean by light ? 


And the first and obvious answer is, Everybody 
knows. And everybody that is not blind does know to a certain 
extent. We have a special sense-organ for appreciating light, 
whereas we have none for electricity. Nevertheless, we must 
admit that we really know very little about the intimate nature 
of light—very little more than about electricity. But we do know 
this, that light is a form of energy; and, moreover, that it is energy 
rapidly alternating between the static and the kinetic forms 
—that it is, in fact, a special kiad of energy of vibration. Weare 
absolutely certain that light is a periodic disturbance in some 
medium, periodic both in space and time: that is to say, the 
same appearances regularly recur at certain equal intervals of 
distance at the same time, and also present themselves at equal 
intervals of timeat the same place ; that in fact it belongs to the 
class of motions called by mathematicians undulatory or wave 
motions. The wave motion in this model (Powell’s wave ap- 
paratus) results from the simple up-and-down motion popularly 
associated with the term wave. But when a mathematician calls 
a thing a wave he means that the disturbance is represented by a 
certain general type of formula, not that it is an up-and-down 
motion, or that it looks at all like those things on the top of the 
sea, The motion of the surface of the sea falls within that 
formula, and hence is a special variety of wave motion, and the 
term wave has acquired in popular use this siznification and 
nothing else. So that when one speaks ordinarily of a wave or 
undulatory motion one immediately thinks of something heaving 
up and down, or even perhaps of something breaking on the 
shore. But when we assert that the form of energy called lizht 
is wndulatory, we by no means intend to assert that anything 
whatever is moving up and down, or that the motion, if we 
could see it, would be anything at all like what we are accustomed 
to inthe ocean. The kind of motion is unknown ; we are not 
eyen sure that there is anything like motion in the ordinary sense 
of the word at all. 

Now how much connection between electricity and light have 
we perceived in this glance into their natures? Not much truly. 
It amounts to about this: That on the one hand electrical energy 
may exist in either of two forms—the static form, when insu- 
lators are electrically strained by having had electricity driven 
partially through them (as in the Leyden jar), which strain is a 
form of energy because of the tendency to discharge and do work ; 
and the kinetic form, where electricity is moving bodily along 
through conductors or whirling round and round inside them, 


which motion of electricity is a form of energy, because the con- 
ductors and whirls can attract or repel each other and thereby 
do work. 

And, on the other hand, that light is the rapid alternation of 
energy from one of these forms to the other—the static form where 
the medium is strained, to the kinetic form whenit moves. It is 
just conceivable then that the static form of the energy of light 
is electro-static, that is, that the medium is electrically strained, 
and that the kinetic form of the energy of light is e/ec¢yvo-kinetic, 
that is, that the motion is not ordinary motion, but electrical 
motion—in fact that light is an electrical vibration, not a material 
one. 

On November 5 last year there died at Cambridge a man in 
the full vigour of his faculties—such faculties as do not appear 
many times in a century—whose chief work has been the establish- 
ment of this very fact, the discovery of the link connecting light 
and electricity ; and the proof—for I believeit amounts to a proof 
—that they are different manifestations of one and the same class 
of phenomena—that light is, in fact, an electro-magnetic disturb- 
ance. The premature death of James Clerk Maxwellis a loss to 
science which appears at present utterly irreparable, for he was 
engaged in researches that no other man can hope as yet ade- 
quately to grasp and follow out ; but fortunately it did not occur 
till he had published his book on ‘‘ Electricity and Magnetism,”’ 
one of those immortal productions which exalt one’s idea of the 
mind of man, and which has been mentioned by competent critics 
in the same breath as the “ Principia ” itself. 

But it is not perfect like the ‘‘ Principia” ; much of it is rough- 
hewn, and requires to be thoroughly worked out, It contains 
numerous misprints and errata, and part of the second volume is 
so difficult as to be almost unintelligible. Some, in fact, consists 
of notes written for private use, and not intended for publication, 
It seems next to impossible now to mature a work silently for 
twenty or thirty years, as was done by Newton two and a half 
centuries ago. Buta second edition was preparing, and much 
might have been improved in form if life had been spared to the 
illustrious author. 


The main proof of the electro-magnetic theory of light is 
this. The rate at which light travels has been measured many 
times, and is pretty well known. The rate at which an electro- 
magnetic wave disturbance would travel if such could be gene- 
rated (and Mr, Fitzgerald of Dublin thinks he has proved that it 
cannot be generated directly by any known electrical means) can 
be also determined by calculation from electrical measurements. 
The two velocities agree exactly. This is the great physical 
constant known as the ratio Y, which so many physicists have 
been measuring, and are likely to be measuring for some time to 
come. 

Many and brilliant as were Maxwell’s discoveries, not only in 
electricity, but also in the theory of the nature of gases, and in 
molecular science generally, I cannot help thinking that if one of 
them is more striking and more full of future significance than 
the rest, it is the one I have just mentioned—the theory that light 
is an electrical phenomenon, 

The first glimpse of this splendid generalisation was caught 
in 1845, five and thirty years ago, by that prince of pure 
experimentalists, Michael Faraday. His reasons for suspect- 
ing some connection between electricity and light are not 
clear to us—in fact they could not have been clear to him; 
but he seems to have felt a conviction that if he only tried 
long enouzh, and sent all kinds of rays of light in all pos~ 
sible directions across electric and magnetic fields in all sorts 
of media, he must ultimately hit upon something. Well, this 
is very nearly what he did. With a sublime patience and 
perseverance which remind one of the way Kepler hunted down 
guess after guess in a different field of research, Faraday com- 
bined electricity, or magnetism, and light in all manner of ways, 
and at last he was rewarded witha result. Anda most out-of-the- 
way result it seemed. First you have to get a most powerful 
magnet and very strongly excite it; then you have to pierce its 
two poles with holes, in order that a beam of light may travel 
from one to the other along the lines of force ; then, as ordinary 
light is no good, you must get a beam of plane polarised light and 
send it between the poles, But still no result is obtained until, 
finally, you interpose a piece of a rare and out-of-the-way 
material which Faraday had himself discovered and made, a 
kind of glass which contains borate of lead, and which is 
very heavy, or dense, and which must be perfectly annealed, 

And now, when all these arrangements are completed, what is 


304 


NATURE 


| Fan. 27, 1881 


seen is simply this, that if an analyser is arranged to stop the light 
and make the field quite dark before the magnet is excited, then 
directly the battery is connected and the magnet called into action 
a faint and barely perceptible brightening of the field occurs ; 
which will disappear if the analyser be slightly rotated. [The 
experiment was then shown.] Now no wonder that no one 
understood this result. Faraday himself did not wnderstand it at 
all: he seems to have thought that the magnetic lines of force 
were rendered luminous, or that the light was magnetised ; in 
fact he was in a fog, and had no idea of its real significance. 
Nor had any one. Continental philoso; hers experienced some 
difficulty and several failures before they were able to repeat the 
experiment. It was in fact discovered too soon, and before the 
scientific world was ready to receive it, and it was reserved for 
Sir William Thomson briefly, but very clearly, to point cut, 
and for Clerk Maxwell more fully to develop, its most important 
consequences. [The principle of the experiment was then 
illustrated by the aid of a mechanical model, ] 

This is the fundamental experiment on which Clerk Maxwell’s 
theory of light is based ; but of late years many fresh facts and 
relations between electricity and light have been discovered, and 
at the present time they are tumbling in in great numbers. 

It was found by Faraday that many other transparent media 
besides heavy glass would show the phenomenon if placed 
between the poles, only in a less degree ; and the very important 
observation that air itself exhibits the same phenomenon, though 
to an exceedingly small extent, has just been made by Kundt and 
Roéntgen in Germany. 

Dr. Kerr of Glasgow has extended the result toopaque bodies, and 
has shown that if light be passed through magnetised syov its plane 
is rotated, The film of iron must be exceedingly thin, because of 
its opacity, and hence, though the intrinsic rotating power of 
iron is undoubtedly very great, the observed rotation is exceed- 
ingly small and difficult to observe; and it is only by very 
remarkable patience and care and ingenuity that Dr, Kerr has 
obtained his result. Mr. Fitzgerald of Dublin has examined 
the question mathematically, and has shown that Maxwell’s 
theory would have enabled Dr. Kerr’s result to be predicted. 

Another requirement of the theory is that todies which are 
transparent to light must be imsulators or non-conductors of 
electricity, and that conductors of electricity are necessarily 
opaque to light. Simple observation amply confirms this ; 
metals are the best conductors, and are the most opaque bodies 
known. Insulators such as glass and crystals are transparent 
whenever they are sufficiently homogeneous, and the very 
remarkable researches of Prof. Graham Bell in the last few 
months have shown that even elonzée, one of the most opaque 
insulators to ordinary vision, is certainly transparent to some 
kinds of radiation, and transparent to no small degree. 

[The reason why transparent bodies must insulate, and why 
conductors must be opaque, was here illustrated by mechanical 
models, } 

\ further consequence of the theory is that the velocity of 
light in a transparent medium will be affected by its electrical 
strain constant; in other words, that its refractive index will 
bear some close but not yet quite ascertained relation to its 

' specific inductive capacity, Experiment has partially confirmed 
this, but the confirmation is as yet very incomplete. But there 
are a number of results not predicted by theory, and whose con- 
nection with the theory is not clearly made out. We have the 
fact that light falling on the platinum el<ctrode of a voltameter 
generates a current, first observed, I think, by Sir W. R. Grove 

at any rate it is mentioned in his ‘‘ Correlation of Forces ’’— 
extended by Becquerel and Robert Sabine to other substances, 
and now being extended to fluorescent and other bodies by Prof, 
Minchin, And finally—for I must be brief—we have the remark- 
able action of light on selenium, This fact was discovered 
accidentally by an assistant in the laboratory of Mr. Willoughby 
Smith, who noticed that a piece of selenium conducted elec- 
tricity very much better when light was failing upon it than 
when it was in the dark. The light of a candle is sufficient, and 
instantaneously brings down the resistance to something like 
one-tifth of its original value. 

I could show you these effects, but there is not much to see; it 
is an intensely interesting phenomenon, but its external manifes- 
tation is not striking—any more than Faraday’s heavy glass 
experiment was. 

This is the phenomenon which, as you know, has been utilised 
by Prof. Graham Bell in that most ingenious and striking inven- 
tion, the photophone. By the kindness of Prof. Silvanus 


Thompsen I have a few slides to show the principle of the 
invention, and Mr. Shelford Bidwell has been good enough to 
lend me his home-made photophone, which answers exceedingly 
well for short distances. 

I have now trespassed long enough upon your patience, but I 
must just allude to what may very likely be the next strikin 
popular discovery, and that is the transmission of light by elec- 
tricity; I mean the transmission of such things as views and 
pictures by means of the electric wire. It has not yet been 
done, but it seems already theoretically possible, and it may 
very soon be practically accomplished. 


ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH IN 
BIRMINGHAM 


“THE President of the Birmingham Philosophical Society, 

Dr. Heslop, recently gave an address to the members, 
taking for his suject the ‘‘ Scientific Situation in Birmingham.” 
Having reviewed the various local agencies set up during the 
past year for the diffusion of knowledge, including the opening 
of Mason’s Science College, he went on to say: I must now 
allude to the most important work undertaken by the Scciety, 
the establishment of the fund for the endowment of research. 
This action has received warm support in many quarters, and 
has in fact done more to place it in a favourable light before 
the country than any previous circumstances. Although the 
efforts made to raive this fund have been inconsiderable, yet 
nearly 1oo/, in annual subscriptions, of varying dates, and goo/. 
in donations have been obtained. The Council have invested 
6007. in order to ensure the permanence of the fund. It is 
probable that some slight additions may be made to this sum, 
having the same object in view ; but it is, I believe, their inten- 
tion to recommend the Society to spend the whole income, how- 
soever derived, in annual grants to persons living in this town 
or neighbourhood who devote themselves wholly or in part to 
science research. It is an error to suppose that this fund is to 
be allotted either to any particular individual or specially to 
members of this Society. The Council are free to do what they 
deem best with the money intrusted to them, within the limits 
of the scheme agreed upon. There is another temporary limit 
to their powers. One eminent investigator (Dr, Gore) is allotted 
a certain sum for a certain period. The approval of this step 
evinced by those who have contributed to the fund, and by 
others, has been a source of satisfaction to the Council. 

Iwish now to remind you that the schemein connection with 
this subject declares that ‘‘the Council are of opinion that this 
Society would be omitting a principal means of the advancement 
of science—the end for which all such associations exist—if it 
neglected the question of the endowment of research. To main- 
tain a successful investigator in his labours, even though no 
results of immediate or obvious utility can be shown to spring 
out of them, is of interest to the community at large.” It may 
be that you will pronounce these words to be truisms scarcely 
requiring formal enunciaticn, The fact is that though the sense 
of them has been repeatedly given to the public in late years, 
practical action has not ensued. Everybody is telling his neigh- 
bour what a good thing it would be if men endowed with an 
aptitude for research into the facts of nature were also endowed 
with the means of living during their work. The speaker and 
the listener go by on the other side, and no good Samaritan 
tenders help to the well-praised searcher after truth. Nay, Mr. 
Mark Pattison affirms in his late book on Milton that ‘the 
England of our day has decided against the endowment of 
science,” and seems to think that the principle on which the 
decision is bared may be wrong, but ‘‘is not unreasonable.” 
But the endowment of ministers of science stands on quite another 
foundation from that of ministers of religion, ‘*To assign a 
place with a salary,” says Mr. Pattison, ‘‘is to offer a pecuniary 
inducement to simulate” the qualification, ze. a state of grace. 
But in the case of science there is no question of place, and the 
endowment is offered, not to those who promise much, but to 
those who have already performed something ; not to those who 
imagine themselves to be in the requisite spiritual state, but to 
those who, working for an audience, select though few, have 
demonstrated that they are touched by the divine fire which 
burns not for other men. ; 

In the opinion of others the only practicable mode of dealing 
with this question is by bestowing adequate funds on teachers, 
and by placing them in favourable conditions for research. 


NATURE 305 


The necessity for making provision for the devotion of fit 
men to scientific work has occurred to many, and doubtless 
private generosity has often enabled such men to prosecute 
labours by which the worid has greatly gained. One of the most 
striking instances is that of Priestley. His own remarks con- 
tained in his diary are full of interest. He says that Dr. 
Fothergill ‘‘having observed that many of my experiments had 
not been carried to their proper extent on account of the expense 
that would have atteaded them,” proposed a subscription from 
himself and some of his friends, and named 1oo/, per annum, 
He consented to receive 4o/., which was regularly paid to him, 
three other gentlemen aiding. Afterwards for good reasons 
Fothergiil proposed ‘‘an enlargement of the allowance for my 
experiments, and likewise for my maintenance, without being 
under the necessity of siving my time to pupils, which I must 
otherwise have done.” .This was accepted, as Priestley preferred 
it to any pension from the Court. He gives a minute list of the 
numerous donations, legacies (one of 2000/.) and subscriptions 
given to him, while he dilates on Mr. Wedzwood’s gifts of 
pottery, retorts, tubes, &c., and presents in glass from another 
gentleman, among which figures ‘‘a capital burning-lens, sixteen 
inches in diameter,”’ The Duke of Grafton remitted him annually 
40/7, When he went to America forty of his friends, without 
solicitation, raised the sum of 450/., ‘‘ which was meant to have 
been continued annually while he lived,” as stated by his son. 

You will hear these details with the interest naturally belong- 
ing to the subject, and doubtless ask the question, Have succeeding 
generations improved on this? I believe that there is no example 
of an equal generosity on the part of their fellow-countrymen to 
a man of science, although there are some agreeable exceptions 
to the rule of neglect. A few years ago the Fishmongers’ 
Company presented the sum of 50/. to Prof. Parker, and an 
annual gift of 20/. for three years, to assist him in bearing the 
expenses of his researches on vertebrate animals. For three 
years the British Pharmaceutical Society voted $o/. in aid of 
pharmaceutical research. ‘The principle of promoting research 
has also been recognised by the Government in their grant of 
Tooo/,, and in the fund of 4o00/. placed at the disposal of the 
Royal Society. Our Government has, however, as yet made no 
payment for the /adour of pure research in experimental physics 
or chemistry. ‘‘A grant from the above sum,” says Dr. Gore, 
“qs often an unprofitable gift to accept, because it is in some 
cases only sufficient to pay expenses out of pocket for chemicals 
and apparatus, and allows nothing for skill or labour.” 

The mention of our able associate’s name compels me to 
draw attention to the invaluable services he has rendered for ten 
years past to the cause of the endowment of research. His 
numerous articles and papers form a repository of facts and 
arguments of which I have largely availed myself. Any one 
who studies them will need no other evidence of the importance 
of the question, both in view of the progress of truth and of the 
maintenance of our national welfare. In one of them he men- 
tions the difficulty experienced in the proper employment of the 
Government money, and proceeds as follows:—‘‘ By far the 
greater part of the expense of an investigation in physics or 
chemistry is the exceedingly large amount of time it occupies. 
Many necessary preliminary experiments have to be made, which 
yield either negative, unsuccessful, or incomplete results, and 
make the undertaking expensive.” Further, ‘‘ By order of the 
Council, all instruments, apparatus, and drawings, made or 
obtained by aid of the Government grants, shall, after serving the 
purpose for which they were procured, and in the absence of 
any undertaking to the contrary, be delivered into the custody of 
the Royal Society.” 

Research, then, in any fair sense of the word may be said to 
be unprovided for by public funds. The British Association 
annually bestows grants of varying amounts for specific re- 
searches. The Royal Institution helps. Yet we feel surprised 
when told that the average annual expenses relating to experi- 
mental research, including salaries to assistants in the laboratory, 
from the year 1867 to 1871, did not amount to two hundred and 
fifty pounds. 

When it is remembered that not a single college, nor even 
a professorship, for pure scientific research exists in this country, 
we must feel humiliated when we cast a glance at what is going 
on in other countries. In France and Germany varied resources 
have been placed at the disposal of men of science, which I 
cannot now minutely specify. Nor will I delay to- speak in 
detail of the importance of pure research in science, of the 
mighty material results as regards our comfort and national 


| wealth which have sprung from the labours of men of science, 


for it may be assumed that all this is known. It is certain too 
that valuable inventions in various arts and manufactures will 
follow upon fresh discoveries regarding the principles involved 
inthem. When we know more of the materials and forces of 
nature, new applications of them will soon follow. The pro- 
gress of invention depends upon that of discovery ; the various 
inventions wanted by manufacturers and others cannot be per- 
fected until ‘‘ suitable knowledge is found.” The money of the 
capitalist, the hand of the inventor, await the products of the 
brains of the searcher after truth. 

It is only too well known that other countries have for some 
years past distanced Britain in the field of research ; that while 
Germany is sending her trained sons to all parts of the world, 
we scarcely even supply our own colonies.. A writer in the 
Monthly Fournal of Science said last year that ‘‘ to a very great 
extent, both in the home kingdoms and the colonies, we find 
ourselves compelled to import that intellectual eminence which 
we refuse to cultivate in our midst. Foreigners occupy profes- 
sorial chairs in our colleges ; they fill the posts of botanists and 
geologists in our colonial governments ; they hold high positions 
in the respective staffs of the British Museum, of the Geological 
Survey of India, and of our exploring expeditions.” 

Now as these results cannot be owing to any inbred deficiency 
in the countrymen of Newton, Faraday, and Darwin, it behoves 
us to ask if our educational system is at fault, and if fair provision 
is made for those able and willing to make original research. 
The latter question is already answered by the facts adduced. 
How far our great universities have provided for science-teaching 
can be learned by reading between the lines of certain resolu- 
tions passed a few years ago by an ‘‘ Association for the organi- 
sation of academical study,” the composition of which was an 
ample guarantee of competence. The resolutions were as 
follows :— 

“That the chief end to be kept in view in any redistribution of 
the revenues of Oxford and Cambridge is the adequate mainten~ 
ance of nature study and scientific research, as well for their own 
sakes as with the view of bringing the higher education within 
the reach of all who are desirous of profiting by it.” 

*‘That to have a class of men whose lives are devoted to 
research is a national object.” 

‘That it is desirable in the interests of national progress and 
education that Arofessorships and sfectal institutions shall be 
founded in the universities for the promotion of scientific 
research,” 

‘‘That the present mode of awarding Fellowships as prizes, 
has been unsuccessful as a means of promoting nature study and 
original research, and that it is therefore desirable that it should 
be discontinued.” 

The state of things here pointed at has improved and is im- 
proving, yet the verdict of a candid observer must still be summed 
up in the one word inadequacy. 

Numerous suggestions have been made regarding the en- 
dowment of research, but most of them are unpractical. Those 
who imagine that the object will be gained by establishing 
adequate teacherships of science, seem to be too sanguine. The 
labour involved in the work of teaching, in the way of acquisi- 
tion, preparation, and performance, is too great to permit the 
devotion of sufficient time and thought to the search after new 
truth. If it is desirable that new facts and principles be searched 
after, why should fit inquirers be put, either partly or wholly, to 
other work ? I know that many of our teachers have hitherto 
been at a great disadvantage ; that managers of institutions have 
had a sharper eye on their prospectus than on their internal 
arrangements ; that they have thought of a college rather as a 
body of bricks than as productive of a body of learning ; and that 
apparatus and assistants, though well enough in Berlin or Leip- 
zig, are needless in prudent England. Yet the ideal Professor is 
rather the head of a department than a mere speaker by the yard 
of'so many lectures ; a man with numerous hands in the shape of 
demonstrators and assistants, themselves the possessors of well- 
trained brains; a director of work with all its apparatus freely 
supplied to him. Such a man adequately remunerated may be 
safely left to his own tendencies. Contact with nature breeds 
the desire to know her better. In favourable conditions the ~ 
teacher becomes the investigator, and while seeking after new 
truth builds up his own fame. 

After all, however, the question recurs, how can we best pro- 
mote research, as the undivided life’s work of fit persons? I 
believe that the solution lies, so far as this time is concerned, in 


306 


NATURE 


| Fan. 27, 1881 


_ ss 


the establishment of special institutions having no other object 
than the search after new truth. Their administration would be 
difficult. The right men can be found for the work, but can the 
right electors be found? Ardent searchers after a more intimate 
knowledge of nature do still live, will ever live; but what of 
First Commissioners of Works like—but I need not name him? 
What of Lords of the Treasury who refused the request of a 
great physicist for 150/. for the investigation of the tides? Yet 
these gentlemen assist in governing a maritime state of some 
importance. Such electors as these are not within my view, and, 
if they were, how of the detailed management? Men given up 
to research are not to be tied by the common rules of official 
life ; to be compelled to report in annual blue books the exact 
measure of work they have done; to show how many drachmis 
of oil of vitriol they have used, and account for every ounce of 
platinum. 

Special institutions will, be founded, but they will owe their 
origin to private individuals like Sir Josiah Mason; who, 
having taken into their confidence the chiefs of the world of 
science in making the appointments, will speak to the masters of 
research in this wise :— 

‘*T have built a house for you replete with every requirement 
for your work ; I have provided you with such assistants as you 
have asked for; I have given you an income placing within your 
reach every reasonable comfort. Occupy your lives in the study 
of nature. If you succeed in your efforts to attain to new truth, 
the world will be the gainer. If you fail, your efforts will be 
enough reward for me.” 

Such language as this will be surely one day heard. In this 
fortunate town it is already heard. During the past year a 
member of this Society, Mr. Fulford, has taken a house, and, 
having admirably fitted it up, has handed it over to our two 
distinguished associates, Dr. Gore and Dr. Norris, in order that 
they may enjoy at least the requisite structural conveniences for 
the prosecution of research, This building is called the ‘‘ Institute 
of Scientific Research.” 

I must, however, remind you_that this noble enterprise 
must be supplemented by some such efforts in the way of 
endowment as those now made by this Society; and that those 
who work even in the highest sphere are bound by the same 
necessities as bind other men. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


~ Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No, 12 (December, first No.), 
—On the density and tension of saturated vapour, by A. Wiill- 
ner and O. Grotrian.—On the application of the electrodynamic 
potential to determination of the ponderomotive and electro- 
motive forces, by R. Clausius.—On friction in free liquid sur- 
faces, by A. Oberbeck.—Simple methods and instruments for 
resistance-measurements, especially in electrolytes, by F. Kohl- 
rausch.—Influence of temperature on the phenomena of charge 
of a liquid cell acting as condenser, by H. Herwig.—On the 
modes of electric discharge in gases, by O. Lehmann.—On the 
electric discharge in liquid insulators, by W. Holtz.—On electric 
figures on the surface of liquids, by the same.—On the increase 
of danger from lightning and its probable causes, by the same. 
—On a microprismatic method for distinction of solid sub- 
stances, by O. Maschke.—Note on Herr Weber’s reply, by A. 
Winkelmann. 


Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. Rendiconti. 
Vol. xii., fasc. xix.—The Leprosy of Upper Italy, especially of 
Comacchio (continued), by Prof. Sangalli.—Influence of traction 
and vibration of a metallic wire on its electric conductivity, by 
Dr. de Marchi.—On a case of twisted neck; a contribution to 
the doctrine of transport of spinal influence and to establish- 
ment of a hypothesis for its explanation, by Prof. de Giovanni. 


Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, November, 1880, 
contains: Dr. H. von Ihering, on the affinities and kinship of 
the Cephalopods.—Dr. J. Bellonci, on the origin of the optic 
nerve and on the minute structure of the ‘‘ tectum opticum”’ in 
the Teleostei (Plates 1 and 2).—Dr. D. Sochaczewer, on the 
organ of smell in the terrestrial pulmonates (Plate 3).—Dr. 
Fritz Miiller, on the case-making Trichoptera larve of the Pro- 
vince of Santa Catharina (Plates 4 and 5), translated by his 
brother, Dr. Hermann Miiller, from the memoirs in Portuguese 
in the Archivos de Museu National, Rio de Janeiro.—Dr. 
William Marshall, researches in the sponge groups, Dysideidz and 
Phoriospongiz (Plates 6 to 8).—Prof. Dr, Krause, on two very 


early human embryos (Plate 9).—Dr. H. Simroth, on the ner- 
vous system in the foot of Paludina vivipara, with a woodcut of 
the nerves as dissected out. 


Revue internationale des Sciences biologigues,:December 1880 con- 
tains :—A, de la Calle, on the formation of language (continued). 
—M. Decatte, microcephalism, from the point of view of atavism. 
—M. Zaborowski, historical sketch of the relative knowledge 
possessed by the ancients and in medizeyal times of the large 
monkeys.—Notices of learned societies.—French Association 
for the Advancement of Science (the Rheims Meeting),—The 
Academy of Sciences, Paris. 


Schriften der phystkalisch-okonomischen Gesellschaft zu Kénigs- 
berg (1877, ii. ; 1878, i. and ii.).—These parts contain the 
following papers :—On Baron von Richthofen’s loess theory and 
the alleged steppe character of Europe at the close of the Glacial 
period, by Dr. A. Jentzsch.—Observations of the station for 
measuring the tem: erature of the soil in various depths, at the 
KOnigsberg Botanical Gardens, by Prof. E. Dorn.—On the pre- 
historic-archzeological work done by the Society, by Otto 
Tischler.—On the commercial routes of the ancients to the 
amber country, by Dr. Krosta.—On the physics ,of the soil, by 
Dr. von Liebenberg.—On the discoveries in prehistoric tombs at 
Fiirstenwalde, by Otto Tischler.—On hair-covered human beings 
and the abnormal growth of hair, by Prof. Hildebrandt.—On 
the marine fauna near the Prussian coast, by Prof. Zaddach.— 
On the alleged steppe character of Central Europe, by Dr. 
Tentzsch.—On the state of civilisation in Denmark during the 
first centuries after Christ, by O. Tischler.—On Darwin’s theory, 
by Herr Czwalina.—On East Prussian burial-grounds, by O. 
Tischler.—On the fauna of Madagascar, by Prof. Zaddach.—On 
the intra-Mercurial planet, by Dr. Franz.—On the geological 
maps at the Paris Exhibition, by Dr, Jentzsch.— On some special 
geological maps of Germany, by the same.—On the principles of 
the kinetic theory of gases, by Dr. Saalschiitz. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Chemical Society, January 20.—Prof, H. E. Roscoe, pre- 
sident, in the chair.—The president announced that the Faraday 
lecture would be delivered by Prof. Helmholtz in the Royal 
Institution, On the Modern Development of Faraday’s Concep- 
tion of Electricity. The following papers were read :—On pen- 
tathionic acid, by Mr. V. Lewes. The author has succeeded in 
obtaining beautifully crystallised barium and potassium penta- 
thionates by partially neutralising Wackenroder’s solution and 
evaporation 2 vacwo.—A preliminary note on some hydrocarbons 
from rosin spirit, by Dr. Armstrong. Cymene, toluene, and 
metaxylene were found to be present. The hydrocarbons in- 
soluble in sulphuric acid are probably hexhydrides of hydro- 
carbons of the benzene series. The author does not consider 
that ‘rosin is directly derived from terpene.—On the determi- 
nation of the relative weight of single molecules, by Dr. Vogel 
of San Francisco.—On the synthetical production of ammonia 
by tbe combination of hydrogen and nitrogen in presence of 
heated spongy platinum, by G.S. Johnson. About 0°0144 grm. 
of ammonia were obtained in two anda half hours.—Gn the 
oxidation of organic matter in water, by A. Downes.—Analyses 
of Queensland soils, by Prof, A. Liversidge. These analyses 
are interesting, as the soils include samples from districts which 
were exempt from the disease prevalent in the sugar plantations 
around.—On the volumes of some compounds of the benzene 
vaphthalene, anthracene, and phenanthrene series, by Dr. 
Ramsay.—On the atomic volume of nitrogen, by Dr. Ramsay.— 
On a new theory of the conversion of bar iron into steel by the 
cementation process, by Dr. Marsden. The author thinks that 
carbon diffuses in an impalpable powder through the heated iron. 
—On the action of sulphydrate of potassium on chloral hydrate, 
by W. W. J. Nicol. Thioglyoxylic and thioformic acids are 
formed. 


Zoological Society, January 18.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Secretary read a 
report on the additions that had been made to the Society's 
Menagerie during the month of December, 1880, amongst which 
special attention was called to a young female Red Wolf (Canis 
jubatus) from the Argentine Republic, presented by Mr. W. 
Petty of Monte Video, being the second example of this scarce 
animal received, and to a Pig from Brooker Island, Louisiade 
Archipelago, presented by Lieut. de Hoghton, of H.M.S. 


Yan. 27, 1881 | 


NATURE 307 


re) 


Beagle.—A paper by Mr. P. L. Sclater and Dr, G, Hartlaub was 
read, on the birds collected in Socotra by Prof. I. B, Balfour in 
the early part of the year 1880, The collection contained 124 
examples referable to thirty-four species. Of these seven of the 
Passeres appeared to be new, and were proposed to be called 
Cisticola incana, Drymeca hesitata, Lanius uncinatus, Cinnyris 
Balfouri, Passer insularis, Rhynchostruthus Socotranus, and 
Amydrus frater—Mr. A. G, Butler read a paper on the lepi- 
doptera collected in Socotra by Prof. I. B. Balfour. The collec- 
tion contained twenty-four specimens referable to thirteen species, 
seven of which were stated to be new to science.—Mr. W. A. 
Forbes read a paper on some points in the anatomy of the Koala 
(Phascolarctos cinereus), as observed in the specimen recently 
living in the Society’s Gardens.—A communication was read 
from Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, in which was given the descrip- 
tion of a new form of the family Zimeliide, from Madagascar, 
proposed to be called Meomixis.—A communication was read 
from Dr. John Scully containing an account of the mammals of 
Gilgit, a district in the extreme north-western part of Kashmir. 
Thirty three species were enumerated, and notes on their vertical 
ranges and habits were added, The mammals of Gilgit were 
shown to consist of an intermixture of Central Asiatic and 
Himalayan species, as might have been expected from the posi- 
tion of the country. Two species (a Bat and a Vole), apparently 
new to science, were named respectively Harpiocephalus tubinaris 
and Arvicola Blanfordi. 


Meteorological Society, January 19.—Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The report of the Council for 
the year 1880, which was read by the Secretary, refers to sub- 
jects of considerable importance, and affords substantial evidence 
of the interest taken in meteorology by the scientific and general 
public. Amongst these may be mentioned the great success of 
the new climatological stations, as shown by their increased 
number and by the regularity and care with which the observa- 
tions have been made and recorded, and the returns forwarded 
to the Society. The Council also advert to the number of new 
and improved instruments exhibited at the meeting held in 
March last, to the increase in the number of Fellows, fifty-two 
having been elected during the year, and finally the numerous 
papers which have been sent to the Society from various parts 
of the world, embracing records of the climate of several impor- 
tant localities, respecting which but little has hitherto been 
known in this country.—After a vote of thanks had been passed 
to the Council for their services during the year, and to the 
Institution of Civil Engineers for allowing free use of their 
rooms, the President delivered his address, in which he traced 
the history of English meteorological societies from 1823 to 1880. 
The earliest Enylish effort at forming an English meteorological 
society, or at any rate at securing observations made with com- 
parable instruments recorded upon a uniform system, was made 
in 1723 by Dr. James Jurin, who was then secretary to the 
Royal Society. In the Philosophical Transactions for that year 
will be found a Latin address by Dr. Jurin, in which he antici- 
pates nearly all the conditions which are now considered essen- 
tial for comparable observations. This appeal did not lead to 
much being done, and in 1744 another attempt was made by 
Mr. Roger Pickering, F.R.S., who read before the Royal 
Society a paper entitled ‘‘Scheme of a Diary of the Weather, 
together with Drafts and Descriptions of Machines subservient 
thereunto.” ‘The Meteorological Society of the Palatinate was 
established in 1780 under the auspices of the Elector Charles 
Theodore, who not only gave it the support of his public 
patronage, but entered with spirit and ability into its pursuits 
and furnished it with the means of defraying the expense of 
instruments of the best construction, which were gratuitously 
distributed to all parts of Europe and even to America. One 
of the first acts of the Association was to write to all the prin- 
cipal universities, scientific academies, and colleges, soliciting 
their co-operation and offering to present them with all the neces- 
sary instruments properly verified by standards and free of expense. 
The offer was accepted by thirty societies, and the list of dis- 
tinguished men who undertook to make the observations shows 
the importance which was attached to the plan and the zeal with 
which it was promoted in every part of the Continent. In 1823 
the first meeting of the Meteorological Society of London was 
held, and was attended by Luke Howard, Thomas Forster, Dr. 
Birkbeck, and others. After 1$24 the Society languished, but it 
was never regularly dissolved. Owing to several letters and 
articles which appeared in Loudon’s Magazine of Natural 
ffistory a meeting was held on November 15, 1836, at which the 


Society was revived, Mr. W. H. White appointed secretary, and 
regular meetings resumed. Application was made to the Royal 
Society for permission to compare the instruments of the Society 
with the Royal Society’s standards, and leave was granted on 
March 13, 1838. A volume of Zyamsactions was published in 
1839, and among other articles contains one entitled ‘‘ Remarks 
on the Present State of Meteorological Science, by John Ruskin.” 
The cost of the publication of this volume exhausted the funds of 
the Society, but in 1841 Mr. Gutch undertook personally the 
pecuniary risk of a new publication entitled the Quarterly 
Journal of Meteorology, but this does not appear to have been 
very successful, owing to the high rate of postage. Shortly after 
this the Society practically came to an end. On April 3, 1850, 
a meeting of some friends of the science was convened by Dr. 
Lee at Hartwell, when theBritish Meteorological Society was 
established, and Mr. S. C. Whitbread elected president. The 
first general meeting of the Members was not held till March 25, 
1851; but inthe meanwhile several important steps had been 
taken by the Council, Annual Reports were published from 
1851 to 1861, and since then five volumes of the Proceedings 
and six volumes of the Quarterly Journal have been published. 
Up to 1858 absolutely nothing had been done towards forming a 
library, but in 1862 a catalogue was published containing about 
200 titles. In 1876 a new catalogue was issued, which extends 
to eighty pages and contains over 1200 entries. On January 
27, 1866, the Society obtained a Royal Charter of Incor- 
poration, and has since been known as ‘‘the Meteorological 
Society.” On April 4, 1872, the Council resolved upon 
taking a room for an office and for the protection of the 
library, and appointed Mr. W. Marriott as their Assistant 
Secretary. The work has now become so great that the Society 
has been obliged to take an additional room and to engage three 
computers. The subsequent eight years have been characterised 
by great progress. A series of second order stations has been 
organised which are systematically inspected, and at which 
strictly comparable observations are made, On January 1, 1880, 
another and larger series of stations—called climatological—was 
started, at which the observations are less onerous than those at 
the second order stations, but at which they are required to be 
equally accurate. Observations on natural periodical phenomena 
are also made at many places, and discussed yearly by the Rev. 
T. A, Preston. At the request of the Society a conference has 
been appointed consisting of delegates from several other socie- 
ties “to prepare accurate instructions respecting the erection of 
lightning conductors. At the conclusion of the President’s 
address the following gentlemen were elected the officers and 
council for the ensuing year, viz. :—President—George James 
Symons, F.R.S. Vice-presidents: Edward Emest Dymond, 
William Ellis, F.R.A.S., Joseph Henry Gilbert, F.R.S., Charles 
Greaves, M.Inst. C.E., F.G.S. Treasurer: Henry Perigal, 
F.R.A.S. Trustees: Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S., Stephen 
William Silver, F.R.G.S. Secretaries: Robert Henry Scott, 
F.R.S., John William Tripe, M.D. Foreign Secretary : John 
Knox Laughton, M.A., F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S. Council : Edmund 
Douglas Archibald, M.A., Arthur Brewin, F,.R.A.S., Henry 
Storks Eaton, M.A., Rogers Field, B.A., M.Inst. C.E., 
Frederic Gaster, Baldwin Latham, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S., Robert 
John Lecky, F.R.A.S., Edward Mawley, Hon, Francis Albert 
Rollo Russell, M.A., Richard Strachan, George Mathews 
Whipple, B.Sc., F.R.A.S., Charles Theodore Williams, M.A., 
M.D. 


Entomological Society, Annual Meeting, January 19.—Sir 
Johu Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c., president, in the chair.— 
The President delivered his annual address, and the following 
gentlemen were elected as officers for the ensuing year :— 
President, H. T. Stainton, F.R.S.; Treasurer, E. Saunders, 
F.L.S.; Librarian, F. Grut, F.L.S. ; Secretaries: E. A. Fitch, 
F.L.S., and W. F. Kirby, F.L.S.; Council: W. Cole; W. L. 
Distant, M.A.1.; F. du Cane Godman, F.L.S.; Sir John 
Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., &c.; R. Meldola, F.R.A.S. ; oO. 
Salvin, M.A., F.R.S.; F. P. Pascoe, F.L.S.; R. Trimen, 
F.L.S. 

+ Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, January 17.—A paper 
on Pliocene man in America, by Dr. Southall of Virginia, U.S., 
was read, Init he showed that the evidence brought forward 
as to the existence of such was wholly unreliable ; the same 
ground was taken in special communications from the Duke of 
Argyll, K.G., Principal Dawson, {F.R.S., of Montreal, Prof. 
Hughes (Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge), 
and Mr, Whitley, C.E.; also by Mr. S. R. Pattison, F.G.S., 


308 


NATURE 


and Mr. Hall, F.R.G.S., who had examined the evidences on 
the spot, and by the Rev. J. M. Mello, F.G.S., Mr. T. K° 
Callard, F.G.S., and Mr. E. Charlesworth, F.G.S.—About 
twenty new Members were elected, bringing the total number to 
nearly 900. 

Institution of Civil Engineers, January 18.—Mr. James 
Abernethy, F.R.S.E., president, in the chair,—The paper read 
was on deep winning of coal in South Wales, by Messrs. 
Thomas Forster Brown and George Frederick Adams, MM. 
Inst. C.E, The authors, who were professionally associated 
with Harris’s Navigation Pits, the deepest winning in the 
district, described the operations as a fair example of the 
details connected with winning deep coais in South Wales. 
The depth of the lowest seam at prese: t sunk to was 760 yards ; 
the pits were each seventeen feet in diameter inside the walling. 
In addition to the depth a special feature was the thickness of 
hard and heavily-watered rock penetrated. Guide ropes, upon 
the Galloway principle, were used in sinking, and the value of this 
system was shown in the saving of over two minutes in ste dying 
the bowk at the bottom of the pit at depths of 475 and 530 yards, 
the total time occupied in clearance at the latter depth being three 
minutes twenty-six seconds. The method of dealing with the 
various feeders of water during sinking was described: one of 
the pits was drained by a hole bored by the diamond machine, 
which was put down, at a depth of 175 yards from the surface, 
fora farther depth of 860 feet. 

VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, January 13.—Dr. Fitzinger 
in the chair.—On the lacunar resorption in diseased bones, by 
Dr. Pommer.—On the physiological significance of the transpira- 
tion of plants, by Herr Reinitzer.—On the influence of prussic 
acid on breathing and circulation, by Dr. Lazarski.—On the 
relations of homogeneous deformations of solid bodies to sur- 
faces of reaction, by Dr. Finger.—Contributions to the photo- 
chemistry of silver chloride, by Dr. Eder and Herr Pizzighelli. 
—On a new derivative of gallic acid, by Dr. Oser and Herr 
Kalmann.—Influence of form of cathode on the distribution of 
phosphorescence-light (sealed packet of November 17, 1880), by 
Herr Goldstein.—On a tetra-hydrocinchonin acid, by Dr. 
Weidel.— Determination of magnetic and diamagnetic constants 
of liquids and gases in absolute measure, by Herr Schuhmeister. 

January 20.—Herr von Burg in the chair.—Studies on caffein 
and theobromin (first part), by Prof. Maly and Herr Hinteregger. 
—Researches on the anatomy, physiology, and development of 
Sternaspis, by Dr. Vejdovsky.—The flight of Libellula ; contri- 
bution to the anatomy and physiology of organs of flight in 
insects, by Herr | endenfeld.—Research on kynurenic acid (first 
part), by Dr. Kretschy.—Action of hydrate cupric oxide on some 
kinds of sugar, by Prof. Habermann and Herr Honig, 

PARIS 

Academy of Sciences, January 17.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—The following papers were read :—Contemporaneous 
production of native sulphur in the subsoil of Paris, by M. 
Daubrée. This sulphur occurs abundantly in the ground of the 
Place de la République, from o*2m. to 3m. from the surface, 
and in a space 50m, by 15 to 20m. ; one finds a breccia with 
thin incrusted fragments of crystalline sulphur. The product is 
due to simultaneous presence of the sulphate of lime of plaster- 
rubbish, and organic ¢é77s, with which the ancient moat of the 
centre of the city was filled up two centuries ago.—Order of 
appearance of the first vessels in the ear of Lolium (second part), 
by M. Trécul.—On the treatment of phylloxerised vines, by M. 
Marés. He finds very successful an application of dilute sulpho- 
carbonate of potassium to the lower parts of the vines twice a 
year.—Discoveries in equatorial Africa; meeting of MM. de 
Brazza and Stanley; by MM. de Lesseps and de Quatrefages, 
M. de Brazza speaks of having descended the Congo and founded 
the station of Ntamo Ncouna, twelve marches from Ogdéuue ; it 
is the most advanced post in the heart of Africa, and will be an 
important centre for exploration, &c. He had met Stanley on 
November 7 near Vivi. Capt. Bloyet has established a station 
near Lake Touquerko.—Observations of the comet / 1880 
(Pechulé) at Paris Observatory, by M. Bigourdan.—On the 
displacement of an invariable figure, by M. Darboux.—Integra- 
tion in finite form of a new species of differential Jinear equa- 
tions with variable coefficients, by M. André,—On the theory of 
vibrating plates, by M. Mathieu.—On complete combinations ; 
aumber of complete combinations of 7 letters 7 to 7, by M. 
Melon.—Remarks on an opinion attributed to me by a note of 
M. Cornu, by M. Gouy.—Minimum of the power of resolution 


of a prism, by M. Thollon.—On the production of intermittent — 


luminous signals with the electric light, by M. Mercadier, One 
carbon is horizontal, and advances a little at each signal. The 
other is vertical, and is held in a peculiar clip at one end of a 
horizontal lever, to the other end of which is fixed a vertical rod 
with terminal friction roller working on a cam. The vertical 
carbon is connected with the battery by a wire spring, and it is 
dropped a little by the clip at certain positions of the cam. The 
cam may be turned by clockwork for regular signals, or with 
the hand, at a variable rate, for irregular.—Observations apropos 
of M. Dunand’s recent paper on reproducing speech with electric 
condensers, by M. Herz. He patented the use of a condenser 
as telephonic receiver on M. Dunand’s principle in June last 
year.—Some facts to serve in the history of nitrification, by 
MM. Hautefeuille and Chappuis. Electric effluves, intense 
enough to quickly give much ozone in a mixture of oxygen and 
nitrogen, but not to form hyponitric acid, produce the new un- 
stable pernitric acid. Using lower tensions, the formation of 
this acid is found to go side by side with that of ozone, Per- 
nitric acid is decomposed at all temperatures, but at 130° the 
decomposition is complete in a few seconds (into hyponitrie acid 
and oxygen). Numerous experiments seem to prove that in 
simultaneous production of ozone and pernitric acid by the 
effluve the gases have not been raised to a temperature near 
that named ; where hyponitric acid is formed, that temperature has 
been passed. A consequence of the facts is that effluves corre- 
sponding to weak tensions may furnish nitric acid, ultimate 
product of decomposition of pernitric acid.—On the conserva- 
tion of grain in reservoirs (continued), by M. Mintz. Oats 
kept in a ventilated granary thirty months had lost 7°2 per 
cent. more of fixed matter (chiefly starch) than oats kept the 
same time in a metallic reservoir (of 220 cubic m. capacity), 
having its lower part in a subsoil. In the sereservoirs there is 
a distillation towards the upper part. To get all the advantage of 
closed reservoirs there should be a comparatively dry grain, a 
perfect closure, and a maintenance of the walls at pretty constant 
temperature.—Study of the peat of crystalline strata of Finis- 
terre, by M. de Molon.—On the parts of the pancreas capable 
of acting as ferments, by M. Béchamp. All the known 
properties of the pancreas are concentrated in the microzymas.— 
Avatomical researches on the digestive , nervous, and repro- 
ductive apparatus of Onchidia, by M. Joyeux Laffiue-—Hyper- 
trophy and wultiplication of nuclei in hypertrophied cells of 
plants, by M. Prillieux.—On the preduc ion of verglas, by M. 
Minary. He thinks the theory needs correction. Instead of 
regarding water in a state of surfusion as composed only of 
liquid, he supposes it formed of a mixture of liquid and of solid 
molecules (of ice) held apart by some unknown cause. For the 
congelation to be complete when surfusion ceases, the ice of the 
mixture merely requires (in order to rise to 0°) a quantity of 
heat equal to the latent heat still conserved by the quantity of 
water in surfusion. 


CONTENTS PAGE 
Unconscious Memory. By GrorGce J. RomANngES, F.R.S.. . . . 285 
INEWTON’S|BRITISH|BIRDS = <= 6) 6) 7) =) pe) ol (een 
Our Book SHELF :— 
‘* Jahrbiicher fiir wissenschaftliche Botanik” . . . . . + « 288 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Unconscious Memory.—Dr. Ernst Krause . + « . «- + « + 288 
Hot Ice.—Prof. JouHn PERRY A BIMCNE hic cen Soka os 2c 
Mr. Bottomley’s Experiments with Vacuum Tubes and tke Aurcra. 
—Prof. Sicvanus P. THompson . . . . . - + + ss , 289 
The Geological Age of the North Highlands of Scotland.—Prof. 
Epwarp Hutt, F.R.S. . . i, ee 4 Save hice 
Geological Climates.—Prof. SamuEL HaucuTon, F.RS.; Joserx 
JOHNEMURPHY:s! je. 2 oe: se De =) i Papp 
Prof. Whitney on the Glaciation of British Columbia.—GEoRGE 
IVISM DAWSON = jo cs > ue oe «os = gd Beso o o> 5. 25 
Lophiomys Imhausi.—Prof. Henry Hittyer GicLiott . . . ~ 201 
Parhelion.—J. Ranp Capron PPE 
Girton and Newnham Colleges.— FLORENCE Eves 2! 0 cite Ow 
Minerva Ornaments at Troy wv. Net-Sinkers.—Prof. E. W. 
GEAYVPOLE 00 6 ce ce Se ln lao ne [ny 
Tue Provost oF TRINITY CottEGF, DuBLin. - . - += + « + 292 
GEOLoGISING AT SHEPPEY. By J. STARKIE GARDNER. of cage 0293 
Tue ConseRVATOIRE DES ARTS ET MitiErs (With Illustrations) . 294 
i {eps PN a rh Se one S65 Ooo BE 
Our AsTRONOMICAL CoLUMN :— 
Brorsen’s Comet'in 1842. +. - - + + + © © © © «© @ = 2B 
Herschel’s First Observation of Uranus. . - . + + «+ = a 
GroGrarHicaL NoTES . . .-_- - 15 MMOS Oo 2 
Derp-SEA ExPLORATION. By J. Gwyn Jerrreys, LL.D., F.R.S. . 300 
Tue RELATION BETWEEN ELECTRICITY AND LiGHT. By Dr. O. J. 
THODGE sibs Le wei cot 42 seller Sots. te) fol nol Die; Ao)! oun tim es nn ee 
ENpowWMENT OF RESEARCH IN BIRMINGHAM . - 3 o* debe: Het OR 
Scrennrric SEREAES’ =) 055 2 5s es ee we + 306 
SocreTrgs AND ACADEMIES . - + + + + + = + # 5 = + + 306 


[ Fan. 2 7, T8Sd | 


j 
q 


NATURE 


399 


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881 


PREHISTORIC EUROPE 

Prenistoric Europe. A Geological Sketch. 
Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S.  8vo. (London: 
1881.) 

Les Premiers Hommes et les Temps Préhistoriques. Par 
le Marquis de Nadaillac. Two vols. 8vo. (Paris: 
Masson, 1881.) 

HE condition of Europe outside the reach of history 
and the changes by which it has come to be what 

it is, the appearance of man and his progress in culture, 
combine to form a subject which cannot, in our opinion, 
be treated satisfactorily in the present state of knowledge. 

New facts are being daily brought to light, the specula- 

tions of yesterday are being tested by the discoveries of 

to-day, and the accumulation of materials necessary to 
form a sound judgment even in any one department, such, 
for instance, as archeology, is so great, that it may well 
daunt the courage of the boldest writer who knows the 
nature of the task before him. In the two books before 
us the subject is treated from totally different points of 
view. Dr. James Geikie takes his stand upon the glaci- 
ated mountains of Scotland, and attempts to throw the 
glacial net woven in his previous work, “The Ice Age,” 
over the whole of Europe, and the Marquis de Nadaillac 
records the facts which he has collected from various 
quarters, America included, in what may be called a pre- 
historic gazetteer. The one avowedly takes up the posi- 
tion of an advocate, and pushes glacialism and inter- 
glacialism to an extreme, while the othet takes the safer, 
though humbler, ground of a man who has no original 
views to put forward. The works of both will be useful 
exactly in proportion to the knowledge and judgment of 
the reader. There is wheat in both works, but it needs 

a careful winnowing, as we shall proceed to show. 

In his previous work Dr. James Geikie proposed a 
classification of the Pleistocene deposits of Europe based 
mainly on observations which he has made in certain 
parts of Scotland, and attempted a more minute sub- 
division of the glacial strata than the threefold arrangement 
generally recognised by European geologists. He advo- 
cated a complicated series of arctic glacial and of warm in- 
terglacial periods, layers of clay with boulders representing 
the one, and strata ofsand, gravel, loam, or peat the other. 
His views are by no means accepted, even for Scotland, 
and the small progress made in general classification 
during the last twenty years may be estimated from the 
fact, that scarcely any two geologists agree in correlating 
the clays and sands on the east and west side of the 
Pennine Chain with one another and with the glacial 
strata of Wales, Cumbria, or Scotland. ‘There also is a 
considerable difference of opinion as to the clays them- 
selves having been derived from glaciers or from icebergs. 
In his present work he treats these difficulties as solved, 
and devotes one large section to show “English geo- 
logists” (why English?) that all the fluviatile and cave- 
accumulations with Palzolithic man and the Pleistocene 
mammalia usually termed Post-glacial, are “of Inter- 
glacial, and not of Post-glacial date.” The latter term is 
here used in the sense of being “later than the last great 

VoL. xxu.—No, 588 


By James 
Stanford, 


an 


extension of glacier ice in Europe,” while the former 
represents the interval of time between the retreat of one 
set of glaciers and the advance of another, or that between 
the deposits of one set of icebergs and those of another. 
Lyell, Prestwich, Evans, Hughes, and the great majority 
of those who have worked at the subject hold that the 
Pleistocene mammalia invaded Europe before the glacial 
cold had set in, and swung to and fro according to the 
fluctuations of temperature while the glaciers were 
advancing and retreating, and that there is proof that 
Paleolithic man and the extinct animals were in Britain 
“after the last great extension of the glaciers’ (if they 
were glaciers and not icebergs). We will then appeal to 
the facts which have been repeatedly urged in the Pvo- 
ceedings of the Geological Society and of the Anthropo- 
logical Institute, as well as in most of the separate 
works published in Britain since the year 1860. 

The area over which Paleolithic implements and 
Pleistocene mammalia occur in direct relation to the 
glacial deposits is principally the valley of the Thames 
and of the Severn, and the Midland and Eastern 
counties. In the first of these they occur in fluviatile 
strata, such, for example, as the gravels on which 
London stands, which are composed of materials derived 
from the destruction of ‘‘the chalky boulder clay.’ In 
the valley of the Severn the Pleistocene mammalia are 
imbedded also in the detritus of the boulder clay of that 
region (Lucy). In the neighbourhood of Cambridge 
(Hughes, Fisher) the same is the case. Inthe neighbour- 
hood of Bedford, Wyatt, Prestwich, and Lyell pointed out 
long ago, not only that the gravels containing the flint 
implements and fossil mammals were composed of 
materials that resulted from the wreck of the boulder 
clay, but that the deposit rested in a hollow which had 
been cut through “the great chalky boulder clay” of the 
district. At Hoxne the mammaliferous gravels with 
Palzolithic implements rest on that boulder clay. The 
clays in question are the only signs of the extension of 
glaciers (? icebergs) over those districts, and the fluviatile 
deposits are obviously of Jater date. This conclusion Dr. 
James Geikie does not venture to dispute, but he asks us 
to believe that formerly another sheet of boulder clay has 
covered up all these deposits, and that it has been removed 
so completely that no trace of it is now to be seen. He 
fixes his attention on the purple clay and the Hessle clay, 
which occupy an exceedingly limited area, in Yorkshire 
and Lincolnshire, and imagines that they represent 
glacial periods, one of which, not specified, extended over 
the fluviatile strata in question, and caused these strata to 
be inter- instead of post-glacial. These boulder clays are 
local and unimportant, and have not been met with over 
any deposit containing Palzolithic implements. In ad- 
vancing this speculation he is drawing a cheque on our 
credulity which is not likely to be honoured. The strata 
in question are proved by their position to be later than 
the glacial deposits of the districts in which they occur; 
it is for him to prove that they are earlier than glacial 
deposits elsewhere. This he has not done. Still less can 
his conclusion be accepted that Paleolithic man and the 
Pleistocene beasts associated with him are solely “inter- 
glacial” in Britain and on the Continent in non-glaciated 
areas. The cases quoted above, and they might be greatly 
increased, prove that man and the Pleistocene beasts were 

P 


310 


NATURE 


| Fed. 3, 1881 


in Europe “after the last great extension of glaciers’?— 
or in the Post-glacial times. 

There is also reason to believe that man was living 
in Europe before and during the Glacial period, or, 
in other words, in Pre-glacial, Glacial, and Inter-glacial 
times, although the alleged discovery of man in the Vic- 
toria Cave, relied upon by Dr. J. Geikie, has been shown 
to have been founded on a mistake, and the inter- 
glacial age of the implements at Brandon and Thetford, 
which he quotes as being of great importance, is not 
accepted by very good judges such as Dr. Evans and 
Prof. Hughes. These however may be dismissed as 
throwing no light on the question as to the existence of 
man in Britain after the great extension of the glaciers. 

Dr. J. Geikie’s method of arriving at the climate of his 
“Tnter-glacial periods” is equally faulty. He considers 
that they were warm and genial, because of the presence 
of certain land shells, such as Cyrena fluminalis, the 
climatic value of which is at present unknown, of certain 
marine shells, the distribution of which is dependent on 
the warm and cold currents, and of land-mammalia now 
found only in southern latitudes, such as the hippo- 
potamus, the limit of whose endurance of coldis yet to 
be proved, since those in the Zoological Gardens in 
London will take their tubs in frosty weather. But, unfor- 
tunately for his argument, the last animal is associated 
with arctic species, such as the reindeer, in all the caves 
(Kirkdale, Durdham Down, &c.) except two, and in all 
the river deposits (Bedford, Acton, &c.) except some three 
or four, in which it has been found in this country. With 
equal reason we might argue that the climate was arctic 
from the presence of reindeer. The consideration which 
he urges, that the two groups of animals could not live 
side by side because they do not live now, is met by the 
direct testimony of their associated remains, not merely 
in this country but on the continent. The hyzenas, for 
example, of Kirkdale and of the Vale of Clwyd ate rein- 
deer and hippopotamuses, and dragged them into their 


. ° | 
dens, where their gnawed fragments occurred in one and 


the same stratum. We may remark that in dealing with 
the fauna of the Victoria Cave Dr. J. Geikie omits all 
notice of the reindeer, the presence of which destroys his 
argument astoclimate. This selection may be taken asa 
fair sample of the mode in which he has dealt with the 
whole evidence offered by the Pleistocene mammalia. 
He deals with it, not with the impartiality of a judge, but 
as an advocate; and has only called those witnesses 
which count on his side. The vast numbers of reindeer 
associated with the remains of Paleolithic man from the 
caves of Cresswell as far as the Alps, and from the 
Pyrenees into the valley of the Danube, prove that 
the climate in those regions was in those times not 
“a warm inter-glacial” climate, but one in harmony with 
hat indicated by the blocks of stone in the gravels 
pointed out by Prof. Prestwich. 

The interglacial net is spread far and wide over the 
Continent. It includes not merely the forest with fig-trees 
and Judas-trees and laurestinas of Moret, which, as 
Saporta points out, would have been killed off by a spell 
of hard frosts, to say nothing of such a climate as is 
implied by the supposed preceding Glacial period, of 
which there is no evidence in that locality. It covers the 
deposits of Mont Perrier, near Issoire, from which MM. 


Croizet and Jobert obtained a rich fauna, universally con- 
sidered typical upper Pleiocene. It covers also the 
mammaliferous deposit of Liffe, near Gandino in the 
Italian Alps, in which the mammalia identified by Forsyth 
Major are unmistakably Pleiocene. It is even stretched 
so as to take in the so-called Pleiocene man of Olmo, near 
Arezzo, the age of which, as Dr. Evans has pointed out, 
is proved to be Neolithic by the associated implements. 
Thus we have things of widely different and of well-ascer- 
tained age grouped together under the head of “ inter- 
glacial,’ and we have in this fact proof that the classifica- 
tion is so far worthless, as indeed every system must be 
which is based on ice, and ice only. 

In further illustration of this we may quote the view of 
our author, that in the period usually termed Prehistoric, 
or recent, but by him “ Post-glacial,” Europe was con-~ 
nected by land with the Fardes, Iceland, and Greenland, 
and that the climate was genial. It is assumed that 
the “last glacial period’’ killed off all the Pleistocene 
forests in those latitudes, and that the present traces 
of forests are the result of subsequent growths, extending 
from one point to all the rest along a continuous tract of 
land. If we allow this, surely in the far north, to say the 
least, they are “interglacial,” seeing that they are wedged 
in between “the last Glacial period’’ and the present 
glacial conditions. But we can allowneither his assump- 
tion nor can we accept his geography. The Post-glacial 
glaciers of Scotland spoken of on p. 526 seem to us proof 
that the ice-classification breaks down, and the admission 
that the Great Ice age is merely “a stage or phase of the 
Pleistocene period”’ is a frank confession tending in that 
direction. 

It is only necessary to say a few words about the two 
large volumes of the Marquis de Nadaillac. His attitude 
of reserve with regard to Meiocene and Pleiocene man is 
judicial and impartial. But we would point out that here 
and there in the work serious errors are to be remarked. 
He considers, for example, the Archzopteryx a tertiary 
bird; he associates the Liassic fish of Lyme Regis with 
the “Tertiary fishes of Lebanon and Monte Bolca,’”’ and 
he writes of the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus as if they 
belonged to the Eocene age. 

In neither of these works can we find any addition to- 
what has been already known about Prehistoric Europe, 
and in both there are omissions of well-known facts 
which it is impossible to notice within the limits of these 
columns, W. Boyd DAWKINS 


THE BIOLOGY OF PLANTS 
Beitrige zur Biologie der Pflanzen, UWerausgegeben von 
Dr. Ferdinand Cohn. Vol. ii. part 3, with 5 plates ; 
vol. iii. parts 1 and 2, with 15 plates. (Breslau: J. U. 
Kern, 1877, 1879, and 1880.) 
i the concluding part of the second volume of the 
well-known Betrége three out of four papers are 
devoted to fungi and Bacteria, one only being physio- 
logical. This physiological paper is by Dr. Just, on the 
action of high temperatures upon the preservation and 
germination of seeds. The experiments, which are 
described in minute detail, were made with Nobbe’s 
germinating apparatus and a thermostat. Horstmann’s 
thermostat, which was the one employed for all tempera- 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


NAT OTE 25 


o 


tures up to 60° C., is described and figured at p. 348, and 
consists essentially of a closed vessel with triple walls, 
the space between the inner and middle plate filled with 
water, the outer containing air. For higher temperatures 
a simple tin plate thermostat was employed, the space 
being filled with water for temperatures up to 100° Cent. 
and with glycerine or oil for higher temperatures. The 
source of heat was always a gas-flame with the usual 
thermo-regulator. Numerous tabulated results are given 
of experiments upon moist and dry seeds at various tempe- 
ratures, and it was found, as might be anticipated, that 
perfectly dry seeds can withstand a high temperature, 
even between 120° and 125° Cent., without injury. 

Dr. Koch describes how bacteria can be observed, pre- 
pared, and photographed, this paper forming the sixth of 
the extremely important series of researches on bacteria 
which have from time to time appeared in the Beztrage. 
A thin layer of bacteria with the fluid containing them is 
to be dried on a thin cover of glass. By placing the glass 
cover with the dried material in absolute alcohol, or better, 
in a o’5 per cent. solution of chromic acid, the bacteria 
are fixed to the cover, although the coagulated ground 
substance in which the bacteria are imbedded can be 
made to swell up and the bacteria themselves to resume 
their natural forms when the cover is placed in a solution 
of acetate of potash (1 part to 2 of distilled water). The 
bacteria can be coloured by means of aniline, the best of 
all being aniline brown ; but methyl violet and fuchsin 
will also answer. The stained object can be preserved 
permanently on slides by mounting in Canada balsam, 
concentrated solution of acetate of potash, or in glycerine. 
Twenty-four photographs of bacteria, mostly from speci- 
mens stained with aniline brown, illustrate the paper ; 
and in some, as 5 and 6 on Plate XIV., the cilia of 
bacillus are very beautifully shown, magnified 500 and 
700 diameters. Koch finds that it is easier to photo- 
graph the cilia than to observe them directly with the 
microscope. 

The other papers in this part are on certain Usti- 
laginee, by Dr. Schroeter; and on two new species of 
Entomophthora (Z£. conglomerata and LE. rimosa) dis- 
covered upon dead gnats, by Prof. N. Sorokin. 

The first and second parts of vol. iii. contain eleven 
papers. Four of these are devoted to Bacteria, and form 
the seventh to the tenth of the series of Researches on 
Bacteria already alluded to. The titles of the papers are 
VII. Experiments on Infection with MWzcrococcus pro- 
digiosus, by Dr. A. Wernich; VIII. Researches on the 
Bacteria in Air, by Dr. Miflet; IX. On the Action of the 
Electrical Current on the Multiplication of Bacteria, by 
Dr. F. Cohn and Dr. Mendelssohn; and X. Studies of 
Blue Milk, by Dr. F. Neelsen. Two of these papers 
may be briefly mentioned. By means of a specially con- 
trived apparatus fitted with a new continuous aspirator, 
the invention of Paul Boehme in Brunn, atmospheric air 
from different localities was examined. These were (1) 
air in Botanical Laboratory; (2) in Fever Hospital; (3) 
in the Pathological Theatre ; (4) in the Surgical Theatre; 
(5) air in Botanic Garden; (6) air for soil; and (7) air for 
drains. The results were briefly as follows :—1. Germs 
of bacteria capable of developing are abundant in the air, 
and could readily be collected and cultivated in a special 
mineral solution, malt extract, or {solution of Liebig’s 


extract of beef. 2. Many forms of bacteria can produce 
reproductive germs in air, while others,as B. Termo, seein 
only capable of producing germs in putrescent matter. 
3. Air from the soil contained occasionally germs of 
bacteria. 4. Air from the Fever Hospital contained no 
germs, owing to the completeness of the ventilation and 
disinfection. 5. Air from a sewer contained abundance 
of germs of bacteria capable of reproducing. 

Neelsen, in his paper on Blue Milk, finds that the 
special organism in it may assume three or four different 
forms, sometimes like Bacterium, then like Bacillus, then 
like a Chroococcus, and lastly like a Leptothrix. He 
discusses the Theory of Cohn and others that the Bacteria 
form many separate genera and species, and the Theory 
of Lankester and Warming, that they are forms of a 
protean species, and seems to conclude that the germs of 
a given form may under different conditions develop in 
one or other direction, as observed by him in blue milk. 

Dr. Schroeter continues his observations on the Deve- 
lopment of Rust, and Dr. Oscar Kirchner describes the 
Development of Volvoa minor, Stein. Dr. Hielsher 
describes the Anatomy and Biology of the Genus Strep- 
tocarpus, and details many interesting facts regarding 
that curious and beautiful genus. When the seed of 
Streptocarpus polyanthus germinates, numerous adven- 
titious roots form on the primary axis, one of the two 
cotyledons soon disappears, while the other develops 
greatly, and forms a perennial foliage leaf. On the 
petiole of this leaf numerous adventitious roots develop 
and the primary axis disappears. The leaf produces 
adventitious buds from which the flowers develop, while 
it also develops a series of adventitious leaf-buds. Dr. 
Beinling contributes a paper on the formation of adven- 
titious roots and buds on the leaf-cuttings of Peperomia. 
Prof. Klein describes in detail the anatomy of Pzagudcula 
alpina as an insectivorous plant, and points out that the 
plant occurs in two forms, one with green leaves, the 
other with the leaves more or less red-brown in colour, 
and that the tissues assume an intense yellew colour 
when acted on with caustic potash solution. The re- 
maining papers are by Dr. Schwartz, Chemico-botanical 
Studies on the Acids in Lichens, and Dr. Eidam on the 
Gymnoasci. The various papers ably sustain the repu- 
tation of this work, and all of them will well repay 
careful study. 


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, N- 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible, The pressureon his space ts so great that it 
zs impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


Dust and Fogs 


I MucH regret the Hon. R. Russell, in his letter to NATURE, 
vol. xxiii, p. 267, takes such an extremely desponding view of 
the influence which my experiments on cloudy condensation are 
likely to exercise upon the present attempts to rid the atmosphere 
of our large towns of their ever-recurring fogs. The object of 
these experiments was to find out what caused fogs, in the hope 
that with the knowledge thus acquired we might be better able 
to finda remedy. ‘The preferable course seemed to be to find 
the cause first, and then if possible devise some remedy, rather 
than try remedies at haphazard. 


B12 


NATURE 


[ Feb. 3, 1881 


It is certainly very far from my desire to discourage the present 
attempts which are being made to clear the atmosphere of our 
large towns of smoke, and I have recognised the advantages 
which would result from the adoption of more perfect forms of 
combustion, In my paper I have simply distinguished between 
fogs and smoke, and separated them for distinct consideration 
and treatment, and have at the same time directed attention to 
some points which ought to be considered before deciding on 
their prevention. 

With regard to Mr. Russell’s difficulty in reconciling the result 
of the experiments with what is observed with regard to fogs in 
London, Paris, and other large towns, it appears to me to have 
arisen entirely from not putting sufficient weight on the all- 
important influence of the amount of vapour in the air of the 
different places. It is condensed vapour which forms the fog, 
and dust simply determines whether it will condense in fine- or 
coarse-grained particles, The atmosphere of Paris, compared 
with that of London, is an extremely dry one, and the air is 
seldom in a condition to produce fogs. The atmospheres of the 
other towns mentioned are also drier, some of them very much 
drier, than that of London. London however will probably be 
always more subject to fogs than other cities on account of its 
great size, some part of it being always in its own smoke. 

Considered from a different point of view, might not the fog of 
January 31, 1880, referred to by your correspondent, be cited in 
evidence of a conclusion the opposite of that drawn by the 
writer, and in favour of the correctness of the experimental 
results? From this point of view the low white fog cleared 
away because it was formed in the comparatively pure air of 
the streets, while the higher fog did not clear away because it 
was formed in the products of combustion The true explana- 
tion however would rather appear to be, that where the fog was 
white it was also of less depth than in those places where it 
‘“extended high” and mixed with the smoke; and the sun, 
which was only sufficient to dispel the lesser depth ‘‘ more or 
less,” would evidently be insufficient to clear away the greater 
depth. It is however impossible to form any definite idea as 
to how this par ticular fog conducted itself, without much fuller 
information as to air-current, &c. 

I have communicated to the secretary of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh a second experimental paper on fogs, with special 
reference to dry fogs. In this paper the full answer to the latter 
part of Mr. Russell’s letter will be found. JOHN AITKEN 

Darroch, Falkirk, January 24 


Professors Exner and Young 


My statement in respect to Prof. Exner’s having announced 
the thermo-electric neutrality of a bismuth-antimony pair im- 
mersed in pure nitrogen, rested upon a note in NATURE (vol. 
xxii. p. 156), and this it seems was based upon a statement in 
L Electricité. have seen those of Prof. Exner’s papers which 
have appeared in the Anmalen der Physik, and there is certainly 
nothing of the sort in ¢kem; but I supposed that it must be 
contained in some other paper in some one of the numerous 
other publications to which I have not access here. It never 
occurred to me, until within a very short time, that there could 
be any mistake as to his having made such an assertion. How 
or where the error originated I cannot quite understand ; but I 
trust Prof. Exner will accept my apologies for my share in its 
propagation, and that he and all concerned will be satisfied that 
no misrepresentation was intended on my part. The incident 
is a good illustration of the extreme care necessary in comment- 
ing upon the views of another person. GA. Youne 

Princeton, U.S.A., January 12 


The Flying-fish 


Ir is remarkable that there should still be any doubt as to the 
facts in’ connection with the flight of the flying-fish. Dr. 
Giinther (*‘ Study of Fishes,” p. 622), summarising the observa- 
tion of Mobius, says that ‘‘they frequently overtop each wave, 
being carried over it by the pressure of the disturbed air” (in 
the open sea!), Again, flying-fishes ‘‘never” fall on board 
vessels ‘during a calm or from the lee side.” At night ‘when 
they are unable to see they frequently fly against the weather- 
board, when they are caught by the current of air and carried 
upwards to a height of twenty feet above the surface of the 
water.” Surely the fish going at the rate of at least ten miles an 
hour would on striking the ‘* weather-board” be dashed, bruised 


and helpless, back into the water instead of coming over the side 
fresh and vigorous, flapping about on the deck. Except when 
“*by a stroke of its tail” it turns towards the right or left, Mobius 
concludes that ‘‘any deflection from a straight course is due to 
external circumstances, and not to voluntary action on the part 
of the fish.” 

T have watched flying-fish repeatedly, and have invariably seen 
them fly, or rather glide, over the surface of the sea, and fram 
one to two feet above it, rising gently to the swell when there 
was no wind, and occasionally turning to the right or left with- 
out touching the water. I do not say that when there is a 
breeze the tail of the fish may not touch it, but I think that, 
with the foam and spray of the broken water, it would be very 
difficult to be sure of it, and, moreover, if the tail was used the 
motion would be a jerking one. Mr. Wallace speaks of their 
“rising and falling in the most graceful manner,” which, 
although he is referring to another species, applies also to the 
North Atlantic form (Zxocetus evolans). Mr. Bennett (‘‘ Gather- 
ings,” &c., p. 14) says that they ‘‘spring from the sea to a great 
elevation.” This is probably in reference to their coming on 
board ship at night, attracted, it is supposed, by the lights. I 
believe the pectoral fins are kept extended without any motion, 
except perhaps as Mr. Whitman,1 a recent observer, says, just 
when they rise frem the sea. He gives $00 to 1200 feet as the 
greatest distance he has seen them fly, and about forty seconds 
as the longest time out of the water. By what mechanical 
means they move when out of the water is still to mea 
mystery. 

I have never known the flying-fish to be pursued by other fish, 
nor ever seen any bird near them; indeed few birds are ever 
seen far from the land north of the southern tropic, where flying- 
fish are most abundant. The dolphin (Covyphena) is supposed 
to be their greatest enemy. I had once an opportunity of seeing 
one opened—in the West Indies—its stomach was quite full of 
Orthagoriscus mola, very young, being not quite an inch long. 

FRANCIS P. PASCOE 

1, Burlington Road, W., January 21 


Mr. S. Butler’s “ Unconscious Memory” 


I must reply to the review of my book, ‘‘ Unconscious 
Memory,” in your issue of the 27th inst., and to Dr. Krause’s 
letter on the same subject in the same issue. 

Mr. Romanes accuses me of having made ‘‘a vile and abusive 
attack upon the personal character of a man in the position of 
Mr. Darwin,” which I suppose is Mr. Romanes’ way of saying 
that I have made a vile and abusive personal attack on Mr. 
Darwin himself. It is true I have attacked Mr. Darwin, but 
Mr. Romanes has done nothing to show that I was not warranted 
iu doing so. I said that Mr. Darwin’s most important prede- 
cessors as writers upon evolution were Buffon, Dr. Erasmus 
Darwin, Lamarck, and the author of the ‘‘ Vestiges of Creation.” 
In the first edition of the ‘‘ Origin of Species” Mr. Darwin did 
not allude to Buffon nor to Dr. Erasmus Darwin, he hardly 
mentioned Lamarck, and he ignored the author of the ‘‘ Ves- 
tiges” except in one sentence. This sentence was so gross a 
misrepresentation that it was expunged—silently—in later 
editions. 
of this. 


I said Mr. Darwin tacitly claimed to be the originator of the 


theory of evolution, which he so mixed up with the theory of 
“Natural Selection” as to mislead his readers. Mr. Romanes 
will not gainsay this. Here is the opening sentence of the 
“Origin of Species” :— 

‘When on board H.M.S. Beagle as naturalist, I was much 
struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of 
South America, and in the geological relations of the present 
to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will 
be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw 
some light on the origin of species; that mystery of mysteries, 
as it has been termed by one of our greatest philosophers. On 
my return home it occurred to me in 1837 that something might 
perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating 
and reflecting upon all sorts of facts which could possibly have 
any bearing on it. After five years’ work I allowed myself to 
speculate upon the subject, and drew up some short notes ; these 
I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions which then 
seemed to me probable; from that period to the present day I 
have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be 


t See Zoologist for November, 1880. 


Mr. Romanes does not and cannot deny any part — 


Feb, 3, 1881 | 


excused for entering upon these personal details, as I give them 
to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a conclusion.” 
— ‘Origin of Species,” p. 1, ed. 1859. 

What could more completely throw us off the scent of the 
earlier evolutionists, or more distinctly imply that the whole 
theory of evolution that follows was an original growth in Mr. 
Darwin’s own mind? 

Mr. Romanes implies that I imagine Mr. Darwin to have 
‘entered into a foul conspiracy with Dr. Krause, the editor of 
Kosmos,” as against my book ‘Evolution, Old and New,” and 
later on he supposes me to believe that I have discovered what 
he calls, in a style of English peculiar to our leading scientists, 
an ‘erroneous conspiracy.” The idea of any conspiracy at all 
never entered my mind, and there is not a word in ‘‘ Unconscious 
Memory” which will warrant Mr, Romanes’ imputation, A 
man may make a cat’s paw of another without entering into a 
conspiracy with him, 

Later on Mr. Romanes says that I published ‘‘ Evolution, Old 
and New,” ‘‘in the hope of gaining some notoriety by deserving, 
and perhaps receiving, a contemptuous refutation” from Mr. 
Darwin. I will not characterise this accusation in the terms 
which it merits. 

I turn now to Dr. Krause’s letter, and take its paragraphs 
in order. 

1. Dr. Krause implies that the knowledge of what I was 
doing could have had nothing to do with Mr. Darwin’s desire to 
bring out a translation of his (Dr. Krause’s) essay, inasmuch as 
Mr. Darwin informed him of his desire to have the essay trans- 
lated ‘‘more than two months prior to the publication of” 
my book, ‘‘ Evolution, Old and New.” This, I have no doubt, 
is true, but it does not make against the assumption which I 
made in ‘‘ Unconscious Memory,” for ‘‘ Evolution, Old and 
New,” was announced fully ten weeks before it was published. 
It was first announced on February 22, 1879, as about to contain 
“copious extracts” from the works of Dr, Erasmus Darwin and 
a comparison of his theory with that of his grandson, Mr. Charles 
Darwin. This announcement would show Mr. Darwin very 
plainly what my book was likely to contain; but Dr. Krause does 
not say that Mr. Darwin wrote to him before February 22, 1879 
—presumably because he cannot do so. I assumed that Mr, 
Darwin wrote som where about March 1, which would still be 
“more than two months before” the publication of ‘‘ Evolution, 
Old and New.” 

2. Dr. Krause says I assume that ‘* Mr. Darwin had urged him 
to insert an underhand attack upon him (Mr. Butler).” I did 
not assume this; I did not believe it ; I have not said anything 
that can be construed to this effect. I said that Dr. Krause’s 
concluding sentence was an attack uponme; Dr. Krause admits 
this. I said that under the circumstances’ of Mr. Darwin’s 
preface (which distinctly precluded the reader from believing 
that it could be meant for me) the attack was not an open, but a 
covert one ; that it was spurious—not what through Mr. Dar- 
win’s preface it professed to be; that it was antedated ; that it 
was therefore a spurious and covert attack upon an opponent 
interpolated into a revised edition, the revision of which had been 
concealed. This was what I said, but it is what neither Mr. 
Romanes nor Dr. Krause venture to deny. I neither thought 
nor implied that Mr. Darwin asked Dr. Krause to write the 

‘attack. This would not be at all in Mr, Darwin's manner. 

3. Dr. Krause does not deny that he had my book before him 
when he was amending his article. He admits having taken a 
passage from it without acknowledgment. He calls a page and 
a half ‘‘a remark,” I call it ‘‘a passage.” He says he did not 
take a second passage. I did not say he had ; I only said the 
second passage was ‘‘ presumably” taken from my book, 
whereas the first ‘‘certainly” was so. The presumption was 
strong, for the passage in question was not in Dr. Krause’s 
original article ; it was in my book, which Dr. Krause admits to 
have had before him when amending his article, and it came 
out in the amended article ; but if Dr. Krause says it is merely a 
coincidence, of course there is an end of the matter. 

4. Dr. Krause, taking up the cudgels for Mr. Darwin, does 
not indeed deny the allegations I have made as to the covertness, 
and spuriousness, and antedating of the attack upon myself, but 
contends that ‘‘this is not due to design, but is simply the result 
of an oversight” ; he is good enough to add that this oversight 

_ “could only be most agreeable” to myself. When I am not in 
the wrong I prefer my friends to keep as closely as they can to 
the facts, and to leave it to me to judge whether a modification 
of them would be ‘‘most agreeable” to me or no. What, I 
wonder, does Dr. Krause mean by oversight? Does he mean 


NATURE 


outs 


that Mr. Darwin did not know the conclusion of Dr. Krause’s 
essay to be an attack upon myself? Dr. Krause says, ‘* To every 
reader posted up in the subject this could not be doubtful,” 
meaning, I suppose, that no one could doubt that I was the 
person aimed at, Does he mean to say Mr. Darwin did not 
know he was giving a revised article as an unrevised one? 
Does he mean that Mr. Darwin did not know he was saying 
what was not true when he said that my book appeared sub- 
sequently to what he was then giving to the public? Does he 
pretend that Mr. Darwin’s case was not made apparently better 
and mine worse by the supposed oversight? If the contention 
of oversight is possible, surely Mr. Darwin would make it 
himself, and surely also he would have made it earlier? 
Granting for a moment that an author of Mr. Darwin’s 
experience could be guilty of such an oversight, why did he 
not when it was first pointed out, more than twelve months 
since, take one of the many and easy means at his disposal 
of repairing in public the injury he had publicly inflicted? If he 
had done this he would have heard no more about the matter 
fromme. As it was, he evaded my gravamen, and the only 
step he even proposed to take was made contingent upon a 
reprint of his book being called for. As a matter of fact a 
reprint has not been called for. Mr. Darwin’s only excuse for 
what he had done, in his letter to myself, was that it was ‘‘so 
common a practice” for an author to take an opportunity of 
revising his work that ‘‘it never occurred” to him to state that 
Dr. Krause’s article had been modified. It is doubtless a common 
practice for authors to revise their work, but it is not common 
when an attack upon an opponent is known to have been inter- 
polated into a revised edition the revision of which is concealed, 
to state with every circumstance of distinctness that the attack 
was published prior to the work which it attacked. 

To conclude: I suppose Mr. Romanes will maintain me to be 
so unimportant a person that Mr. Darwin has no call to bear in 
mind the first principles of fair play where I am concerned, just 
as we need keep no faith with the lower animals, If Mr. Darwin 
chooses to take this ground, and does not mind going on selling 
a book which contains a grave inaccuracy, advantageous to him- 
self and prejudicial to another writer, without taking any steps 
to correct it, he is welcome to do so as far as I am concerned— 
he hurts himself more than he hurts me. But there is another 
aspect of the matter to which I am less indifferent: I refer to its 
bearing upon the standard of good faith and gentlemanly conduct 
which should prevail among Englishmen—and perhaps among 
Germans too, I maintain that Mr, Darwin’s recent action and 
that of those who, like Mr. Romanes, defend it, has a lowering 
effect upon this standard. S. BUTLER 


Geological Climates 


WHEN a reader of the intelligence of Mr. Wallace misunder- 
stands my words it becomes plain to me they have failed to 
convey my meaning. I do not accept the interpretation he has 
put upon them, nor do I admit that even that interpretation 
would tell so much in favour of his theory as he supposes. 

As however I agree with him that the question is far too 
large to be fully discussed in your columns, I shall allow the 
controversy, so far as I am concerned, to terminate, and shall 
publish my detailed views on geological climate in another 
way. SAMUEL HAUGHTON 

Trinity College, Dublin, January 27 


On the Spectrum of Carbon 


In the discussions on the spectrum of carbon which have 
recently appeared in your journal much stress is laid on the 
impossibility of volatilising that substance by any heat which 
man can produce. I think this assumption is not warranted by 
experience. Two or three facts in Despretz’ account of a 
remarkable set of experiments which he made about thirty years 
ago, seem to me to show it to be unfounded, This is given in 
the Comptes vendus, vol. xxviii. He exposed rods of anthracite 
to the action of 125 Bunsens (zincs 5} in. high) and also to the 
solar focus of an annular lens 36 in, diameter. The rods bent 
under the combined action, and even appeared to fuse! In vol. 
xxix. he describes experiments with rods of sugar-charcoal under 
a battery of 500 similar cells. The electric egg was covered 
suddenly with a hard block crystalline powder. k 

He thinks attempts to fuse carbon should be made in condensed 
nitrogen and in metallic vessels. In the same volume he says 
that with 600 cells rods of sugar.charcoal bend—swell at the 


314 


WATURE 


| fed. 3, 1881 


ends—and when they touch, weld together, and jtheir surfaces 
become metallic, like graphite. 

Diamonds heated in charcoal tubes were suddenly changed 
and became conductors. Still more remarkable effects were 
produced when he used collaterally with the 600 Bunsens 135 
Muncké with zines 13} in. high and 19% in. wide. With these 
sugar-charcoal was volatilised immediately. 

I think it may be inferred from these facts that even at the 
temperature of a powerful electric arc enough charcoal vapour 
may be present to form its spectrum, and there is little doubt 
that the temperature of discharge of a good inductorium com- 
bined with a sufficient condenser is still hotter than the are. 

It is to be noticed that Despretz in these experiments antici- 
pated Dr, Siemens’s electric furnace. He mentions that he fused 
3750 grains of platinum in a few minutes, and could have done 
more had he had a larger crucible. 


A Case of Fascination 


SOME years ago it was my fortune to witness a case of “ fasci- 
nation” between a large striped snake and a medium-sized toad. 
When first seen they were about fifteen inches apart. The snake 
lay in a coil with its head thrust out towards its victim, and 
moving slowly, its eyes glittering and its tongue darting 
incessantly. 

The toad was standing on the very tips of its claws, with its 
limbs rigidly drawn up to their full length, its eyes fixed upon its 
captor and fairly bursting from their sockets, its mouth covered 
with foam, and its whole body swaying to and fro, and seeming 
just ready to pitch forward upon its face. 

The movement of the snake became more and more rapid, and 
the agitation of the toad more intense, until the space between 
them was reduced to sone three or four inches, when the snake 
opened wide its mouth, and the laboured breathing of its victim 
stopped short in a low guttural moan. 

At this point my own agitation became so great that, seizing a 
heavy stone, I finished the snake at one blow. The instant the 
snake was struck the toad fell backward as suddenly as though 
itself had been hit, and lay upon its back for some minutes 
with no signs of life. » At length it gained its feet and begin to 
creep languidly away. J. T. BROWNELL 

Lyons, N.Y., January 18 


Birds Laying in January 

As a proof of the unusual mildness of the weather just previous 
to the intense frost and severe snowstorms most parts of the 
country have lately been suffering from, it may interest some of 
your readers to learn that not far from this place, on the 13th 
Jan., a wren’s nest with seven eggs in it, quite fresh, was taken. 
The nest I have inmy possession, and it bears every evidence of 
having been lately tenanted. The ezgs, I am sorry to say, are 
broken ; they were placed in a cup for safety, and were most 
unfortunately knocked down when the room was dusted, giving 
however unmistakable proof of their having been but lately laid. 

I do not know whether there is any instance on record of a 
wren’s nest having been found in January before. 

JoHN H. WILLMoRE 
Queenwood College, near Stockbridge, Hants, January 28 


Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost 


WHILE walking with my son by the Liverpool, Crosby, and 
Southport Railway between Crosby and Hall Road stations he 
called my attention to the telegraph wires, which were in a state 
of rapid vibration. The day was frosty, the time 11.30 a.m., 
and the sun, which had been showing us a bright disk through 
the haze, was beginning to throw out rays and shine a little 
strongly. At first I thought the movement must be only apparent 
—a mere optical delusion—as the air was perfectly calm. A closer 
examination convinced me to the contrary, as the under part of 
the wires were covered with pendant ice needles, a sort of rime, 
which moved to and fro indicating a torsional or twisting vibration 
of the wires, and as the rapidity of the vibrations decreased this 
was more clearly seen. In about five minutes the movement ceased, 
and I have not noticed it since, though I have frequently passed 
under the wires on my way to skate. Can any of your corre- 
spondents account for the phenomenon? It appeared as if in 
some way connected with previous contraction by the frost and 
sudden expansion in jerks by the sun’s rays. My son informs 


me that two years ago, durinz a frost, he noticed the strained 
wires of a garden-fence behaving in the same curious way. 
Park Corner, Blundellsands T. MELLARD READE 


**Mock Sun” 


I SEND a sketch of a parhelion which I saw from the East 
Cliff, Hastings, on Thursday, January 20, at 3 p.m. The 
crescents above the sun were fairly bright and well developed, 
and there were faint traces of a second ring outside, and some 
distance from, the first. 


a 
\ 


There was a slight fog at the time, with a north-east wind and 
hard frost, which has continued up to this time. We have had 
no snow here since that ‘‘ terrible Tuesday,” the 18th. 

I do not remember ever having seen this phenomenon before, 
except in pictures of the Arctic Regions. 


St. Leonards, January 24 J. E. H. PEyYTon 


ON SOME RECENT CHARTS AND MAPS OF 
CURVES OF EQUAL MAGNETIC VARIATION 
OR DECLINATION 


GPNee the year 1701, when Halley published his 

famous chart showing curves ‘of equal magnetic 
variation for the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the con- 
struction of similar charts, amended and enlarged as data 
increased, has been of great interest to magnetic science 
and of practical value to the navigator. 

Halley’s chart of 1701 was expanded to embrace the 
navigable parts of the whole world, and brought up to 
the epoch 1756 by Mountaine and Dodson, whose labours 
were followed by those of Churchman in 1794, Yeates in 
1817, and Hansteen (for several distinct epochs between 
1600 and 1787) in 1819. In 1833 Barlow’s chart, together 
with curves for the North Polar regions, accompanied a 
descriptive paper in the Phzd. Trans. for that year. 

In 1840 Gauss and Weber’s charts of theoretical curves 
of the three magnetic elements for the whole world, 
including special Polar charts, were published. These 
curves were culculated on the basis of a mathematical 
theory founded upon a large number of observations 
fairly distributed over the surface of the globe. 

About this latter period the practice of ascertaining 
the errors of the compass on shipboard (as due to the 
effects of iron) for every ship in the Royal Navy, at 
certain periods and on change of magnetic latitude, was 
established by the Admiralty on the recommendation of a 
compass committee specially appointed to consider the 
question of compass efficiency and management. This, 
as bearing on the subject under review, was an important 
step towards obtaining reliable data for the construction 
of Variation charts now becoming so essential an element 
in navigation. , 

Following on this, Archibald Smith’s mathematical 
investigations of the theory of the deviations of the 
compass on board ship enabled Sabine to correct ob- 
servations made in the Atlantic and the Antarctic Oceans 


Feb, 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


315 


with great precision. The charts accompanying Sabine’s 
“ Contributions to Terrestrial Magnetism,” No. ix. (PAz7. 
Trans. 1849), were among the earliest on which the data 
whence the curves were drawn are recorded, although it 
may be observed that even a portion of the observations 
made at sea and utilised in these charts had no correc- 
tions applied to them for the effects of the ship’s iron. 

Considering the local magnetic disturbance found to 
exist on land in many regions and the large area of water- 
covered portions of the globe, observations made at sea, 
when systematically carried out and corrected for local 
attraction in the ship, have become an important factor 
in ascertaining the magnetic variation for the use of 
navigators at any given epoch. 

Evans’s Variation chart for the epoch 1858, embracing 
the navigable parts of the world, and in which the whole 
of the observations made at sea were corrected for the 
effects of the ship’s iron, was published by the Admiralty. 
A further advance on Variation charts of an earlier date 
was the addition to this of a map showing the amount of 
annual change of the variation as determined at several 
localities, enabling reductions for the succeeding ten 
years to be made with a reasonable approach to the 
truth. 

The increase of iron-built and composite vessels in late 
years has rendered a reliable Variation chart a necessary 
adjunct to navigation. This object appears to have been 
kept steadily in view by the Hydrographic Department of 
the Admiralty, for, in 1871, a new edition of the “ Varia- 
tion Chart of the World,’ reduced to that epoch (with 
polar charts added) was published in continuation of the 
chart for 1858. This chart was the result of the joint 
labours of Capt. Evans and a member of the compass 
department, Navigating-Lieut. Creak, R.N. 

We have now to notice the more recent publications of 
these contributions to terrestrial magnetism. <A chart of 
the curves for 1$80, in continuation of those for the 
epochs 1858 and 1871, by Staff-Commander Creak, has 
been published by the Admiralty. In its construction 
the observations made during the voyage of H.M.S. 
Challenger (1872-76) have been introduced, and amongst 
results from other sources, specially those taken from 
Mr. A. Schott’s papers on the secular change of the 
variation published as Appendix No. 8 to the U.S. Coast 
Survey Report for 1874, and also as a preliminary publi- 
cation to the Report for 1879 ; Dr. Thorpe’s observations 
in the United States, made about the 4oth parallel of lati- 
tude, and results from the maps of the excellent magnetic 
survey of a large portion of the Eastern Archipelago in 
1874-77, made by Dr. Rijckevorsel, have also been 
included. ; 

As confined to special portions of the world a map of 
the United States for the epoch 1875, constructed by Mr. 
J. E. Hilgard, Assistant U.S. coast and geodetic surveys, 
published in the American Fournal of Science for March, 
1880, and illustrating an article on the subject of magnetic 
variation or declination, is of a high order of excellence. 

In this map the curves, which show several flexures 
strictly pourtraying results arising from local disturbance, 
have been drawn for every degree of [equal] variation. 
The results are from observations made during the pro- 
gress of the U.S. Coast Survey up to 1877, also from 
about 200 observations made in the interior of the country 
under the direction of Mr. Hilgard, to which were added 
every available observation from the land and boundary 
surveys, as well as those of private observers. Many of 
these results having been obtained at different periods of 
time, have been reduced to the given epoch by means 
of Mr. A. Schott’s paper on Secular Change before 
referred to. 

Although in maps and charts covering large geogra- 
phical areas the variation lines for the land portions are 
generally drawn in regular curves (and so far deviating 
from strict accuracy), whilst those for the larger sea areas 


are necessarily so done, still in delineating the magnetic 
features of a portion of a continent the system followed 
by Mr. Hilgard, as also by Lamont in his European 
surveys between 1850 and 1860, commends itself for 
accuracy. 

The late Prof. A. D. Bache, who took a personal 
interest in the study of terrestrial magnetism, bequeathed 
a fund for scientific research. The expenses of obtaining 
the 200 observations in the interior of the United States 
peiore mentioned, were defrayed by a grant from this 

und. 


THE ZOOLOGICAL STATION AT NAPLES 


So HAT 7s a zoological station?’’ is a question we 

have often heard asked when Dr. Dohrn’s insti- 
tution at Naples is under discussion. A “zoological 
station” (according to Dr. Dohrn), we may reply, is a 
kind of zoological garden for marine animals, or what is 
commonly called an “aquarium,” only that, contrary to 
the usual practice at Brighton, Westminster, and else- 
where, the scientific element of the establishment is 
mostly cultivated instead of the popular branch, Such 
at least is the case under Dr. Dohrn’s system, and also, we 
believe, in other zoological stations that have been formed 
after his example. 

It must be recollected that the lower forms of organic 
life, to the study of which zoological stations, as thus 
described, are mainly devoted, are much more numerous 
than the vertebrata, and much less understood. Even in 
our own seas a vast amount remains to be done before 
our knowledge of the thousands of marine organisms 
which populate our waters and shores can be deemed to 
be anything like complete. Still more is this the case in 
the Mediterranean, where under a bright sky and burning 
sun the clear waters teem with animal life in all its 
varieties. It was no doubt the well-known productive- 
ness of the coast of Naples and the facilities offered for 
dredging in its land-locked Bay that induced Dr. Dohrn 
to fix his ‘‘ Zoological Station’’ in this quarter instead of 
planting it on the shores of his Fatherland. 

After several years of incessant labour Dr. Dohrn has 
got his establishment into excellent working order, and, 
as will be seen by our advertisement pages, promises us 
after so much cultivation a rich and abundant harvest. 
The proper subject to take up when the publication of 
results was determined upon was obviously the Biology 
of the Bay of Naples. Great difficulties however beset 
the advance of this project. As regards the Fishes, the 
more highly-organised Crustaceans, the Mollusca, and 
some of the Ccelenterata and Echinodermata, it appeared 
possible for the students at the Zoological Station to avail 
themselves largely of the results arrived at by former 
workers. But when they proceeded to examine into the 
scattered literature in which the innumerable armies of 
Lower Crustaceans, Annelids, Nemertians, Planarians, 
Nematodes, and such-like creatures are described, the 
case was very different. The ancient naturalists have 
mostly characterised their species in these groups in such 
vague diagnoses that it is impossible to identify them. 
Under such circumstances the students of the higher 
animals are accustomed to resort to the type-specimens 
whence the descriptions were taken in order to see what 
the authors really intended. But the impossibility of 
preserving many of the lower animals cuts this re- 
source away from the marine zoologists, who have con- 
sequently contented themselves in some instances with 
referring their specimens to species never sufficiently 
described, in other cases with describing them as new. 
Hence has arisen a mass of confusion which can be only 
regarded as parallel to what existed among the more 
highly-organised animals in the ante-Linnean period. The 
transformations undergone by many of the lower marine 
animals and the extraordinary sexual differences add 


316 


NA LORE 


[ Fed. 3, 1881 


greatly to the difficulties already spoken of. Even when 
an animal of one form is gravely suspected to be merely 
the immature stage or corresponding sex of another form 
it is most difficult to prove it, and it frequently requires a 
whole series of researches conducted by practised biolo- 
gists with logical exactitude to show that such is really 
the case. 

Under these circumstances, even with the now rich 
collections and well-stored library of the Zoological Sta- 
tion, it was a serious question how the proposed “ History 
of the Life of the Bay of Naples” could be best ac- 
complished. Dr. Dohrn has wisely adopted the project 
of attacking the fortress by a number of small approaches. 
By dividing the labour into a large series of restricted mono- 
graphs he hopes finally to accomplish a complete account 
of the fauna and flora of the Bay of Naples. In the 
first place, under this system each of his assistants can 
thus take up the group he is most-familiar with, and work 
it out. Then in this way he is likewise able to secure the 
contributions of various naturalists who pay temporary 
visits to the Zoological Station, but who would not bind 
themselves to join in an extensive general work on the 
whole subject. 

It will be seen by reference to our advertising 
columns that Dr. Dohrn’s scheme thus elaborated is now 
on the eve of execution. Two of the proposed mono- 
graphic memoirs on the Ctenophuree by Dr. Cheen of 
Leipsic, and on the Fishes of the genus Féerasjer, by 
Prof. Emery of Cagliari, are already issued, and three 
other memoirs are announced as being in preparation for 
the present year. Dr. Dohrn is quite cosmopolitan in 
his arrangements. Though, as might have been expected, 
the greater number of his fellow-workers are natives of 
the Fatherland, he has many Italian co-operators, and 
the monographs may be written in German, Italian, 
English, or French. It is with some regret we observe 
that no English naturalist is yet on the list of contri- 
butors, although, as is well known, many of our country- 
men have done good work on Dr. Dohrn’s “tables.” 
We trust that English recruits may still be enlisted in so 
good a cause, and that the “ Fauna and Flora of the Bay 
of Naples” may attain to a goodly list of subscribers, and 
be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. 


CHARLES FREDERIC KUHLMANN 


V / E regret to record the death, at Lille, during the past 

week, of Charles F. Kuhlmann, the distinguished 
French chemist and economist. Born at Colmar, May 
22, 1803, he pursued his scientific studies under Vauguelin 
at Strassburg, and later at Paris. In 1832 he was 
appointed Professor of Applied Chemistry at Lille. Soon 
after he devoted himself almost exclusively to the practical 
solution of the problems of manufacturing chemistry, 
and established at Lille extensive works, which rank to- 
day among the important chemical manufactories of the 
world. During the past forty years he has been a pro- 
minent figure in the industrial, scientific, and even 
political circles of France, attracting general admiration 
by a remarkable combination of inventive power and 
executive ability. The Government named him Com- 
mander of the Légion d’Honneur, and the French 
Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding 
member, in recognition of his important services, while 
he was frequently called upon to occupy prominent posts 
of responsibility in public life and commercial under- 
takings. His failing health during the past year forced 
him to decline one of the leading honours in the scientific 
world of France, the presidency of the Société Francaise 
pour l’Avancement des Sciences. 

As an investigator Kuhlmann was a prominent member 
of that group of Alsatian chemists which includes Wurtz, 
Friedel, and Schiitzenberger, and forms the chief school 
of modern French chemistry. His researches, extending 


over nearly every department of inorganic chemistry, and 
touching on the tinctorial branches of organic chemistry, 
are characterised by a broad range of knowledge, a happy 
application of fact and theory, and a marked reverence 
for the demands of pure chemistry, while contributing so 
notably to the advancement of applied science. 

First among his great researches mention should be 
made of that on baryta compounds, made over twenty 
years since, and by means of which he created the entire 
industry of this important group of salts. Another investi- 
gation, scarcely Jess valuable, was that made a few years 
previously, which led to the introduction of the process of 
saturation in the manufacture of sugar. Equally prolific 
of practical results were his extensive studies on the crys- 
tallisation of insoluble bodies, on the chemistry of mortars 
and cements, of manures, of bleaching, of dyeing and 
printing, and of numerous other branches. Especially 
interesting were his researches (1847) on the formation of 
nitric acid from ammonia, and on the relation of this 
reaction to the fertility of the soil. Among his more 
purely scientific investigations mention should be made 


of those on the formation of ethers, on the formation of 


cyanides and of prussic acid, on nitrous oxide, on the use 
of oxide of iron as an oxidising agent for organic com- 
pounds, on the action of gases on minerals, on the use of 
gaseous hydrofluoric acid for the analysis of silicates, and 
on a variety of minerals. The subject of crystallisation 
was throughout his career of investigation one of Kuhl- 
mann’s favourites, and we are indebted to him for the 
artificial reproduction of a variety of natural minerals, 
the most novel of which are the pseudomorphic forms of 
protoxide of manganese, of the sulphides of copper and 
lead, and of these metals themselves. 

In 1879 Kuhlmann gathered together his numerous 
researches, extending over a period of forty years, into 
a volume of 750 pages, in which we have a remarkable 
picture of his many-sided and untiring activity. 

The deceased leaves behind him a son who has already 
obtained a name as a chemist, and who made an able 
report to the French Government on the Chemical Section 
of the Philadelphia Exhibition. H.N. 


THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF DUBLIN 


F the scientific societies of Dublin two take special 
rank as publishing societies; but from inquiries 
made of us we conclude that their publications are not 
everywhere known. 
The Royal Irish Academy issues both Z7ansactions of 
a quarto size and Proceedings in octavo. Of its series of 
Transactions 26 volumes have been published. Of these 
vols. I to 23 contained memoirs chiefly on Science, but 
occasionally on Polite Literature and Antiquities. Vol. 
24 was divided into two sections—the first, Science ; the 
second, Polite Literature and Antiquities. Vols. 25 and 
26 were exclusively Science. Vol. 27, in course of publi- 
cation, is devoted to Polite Literature and Antiquities ;_ 
and vol. 28, which also is in course of publication, is de- 
voted to Science. These quarto volumes contain from 
600 to 700 pages each, with numerous plates and other 
illustrations. To give some idea of their contents we add 
the following analysis of vol. 26. It contains papers on 
Astronomical Subjects by Dr. Doberck (2), J. Birming- 
ham, J. L. E. Dreyer, and C. E. Burton ; on Meteoro- 
logical Subjects, by Dr. H. Lloyd; on Geological Subjects, 
by Rev. Dr. S. Haughton, Dr. E. Hull, Dr. A. Leith 
Adams, and Prof. O'Reilly (2); on Mathematical Sub- 
jects, by J. C. Malet (3), Dr. A. S. Hart, Dr. J. Casey ; 
on Biological Subjects, by Dr. R. J. Harvey, Dr. Jape 
Wright (4), and W. H. Mackintosh; on Chemical Sub- 
jects, by H. N. Draper and R. J. Moss. The memoirs 
which form the volumes of Z7avsactions are published 
shortly after they are read, and without waiting to form a 
part of a volume. The Proceedings, like the Zvamsac- 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


317 


tions, now also form two series: the Science Parts being 
published twice a year, in December and April, and the 
Polite Literature and Antiquary Part once a year, in 
December. Quite recently the Academy have determined 
to publish another series of quarto 77avsactions under 
the title of “The Cunningham Memoirs,” part 1 of the 
first volume of which, containing a memoir by Dr. John 
‘Casey, F.R.S., on Cubic Transformations, has just 
appeared. 

The publications of the Royal Dublin Society are of 
the same type as those of the Irish Academy, except that 
they are exclusively confined to science. Of their new 
series of Zvansactions, parts I to 13 of volume 1 have 
been published, and for convenience of publication the 
first two parts of volume 2, containing “ Observations of 
Nebulz and Star Clusters, 1848-1878,” by the Earl of 
Rosse, have also appeared. The first two volumes of 
these Proceedings have been published, and a part makes 
its appearance pretty regularly every third month. Fol- 
lowing the example of the Academy, the memoirs forming 
the Zransactions are published separately. 

It would thus appear that not only is there evidence of 
scientific life among the societies of Dublin, but that 
there is also an abundant opportunity for the publication 
of any really valuable scientific information, and so far 
at least as the publications of the Irish Academy are 
concerned they fallin no respect as regards type, paper, 
or illustrations, behind the best of our London societies. 


JOHN DUNCAN 


PEONG with a cheque for 5Z. to John Duncan, whose 
story was told by Mr. W. Jolly_in NATURE of 
January 20, we have received the following note from 
Mr. W. Westgarth :— 
January 27, 1881 
DEAR S1r,—On reading the account of John Duncan in your 
last week’s issue, it occurred to me that surely your readers would 
respond to your invitation to get up a small fund, say of 100/ to 
200/., for the brave old man who has so long and perseveringly 
fought, and against all ‘‘odds,” for the cause of science and 
mind. I enclose 5/. towards the object. ~Should you see objec- 
tions to opening a list in NATURE, please send on my small dole 
to Mr. Jolly as he directs. W. WESTGARTH 


We have the greatest pleasure in acting upon Mr. 
Westgarth’s hint, and we trust that many of our readers 
will be prompt to follow his good example. Subscriptions 
addressed to the Editor of NATURE, 30, Bedford Street, 
Covent Garden, W.C., will be duly forwarded. We have 
already received the following :— 

a. 

W. Westgarth eS: 
Publishers of NATURE ... 
F.R.S. 

Mrs. Forster 


=) 
Oomon 
0000 


4 OUnmth 


CASSELL’S NATURAL HISTORY} 


(eee third volume of this useful cyclopedia of zoology 

consists of the concluding portion of the Birds by 
R. Bowdler Sharpe, and of the Reptiles and Amphibia by 
the Editor. On glancing over the well-printed and beauti- 
fully-illustrated pages, a few facts have struck us, to which, 
for the benefit of the series, we would call the editor's 
attention. In the opening sentence of Chapter I. of 
this volume we are referred to “the preceding chap- 
ters” for an account of the Picarian birds. The context 
proves it should be to the preceding volume. ‘This, 
which might mislead the reader, is evidently the result 
of the publication of the work in parts, and could be 
easily avoided. 

All through Mr. Sharpe’s portion of the work, when 
the scientific names of birds are referred to they are 


T “Cassell’s Natural History.” Edited by Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 
M.B., F.R.S. Vol. III, (London, Paris, and New York: Cassell, Petter, 
Galpin, and Co., 1880.) 


quoted generally within brackets in the same line as the 
popular name; while in the editor’s special portion no 
such useful uniformity is attended to. Sometimes, as on 
p- 245, the eye has to wander from the text to foot-notes 
at the bottom of the page; sometimes, as at p. 248, the 
name is quoted after Mr. Sharpe’s fashion (for a mixture 
of both styles see p. 362). The use of the word “kind,”’ 
when the editor refers to ‘ species,” is in our judgment, 
though perhaps sanctioned by its use in the English 
translation of the Bible, not happy. Thus we read that, 
while genera among the reptiles are abundant, “kinds” 
are numerous. The “kinds” of some families swim 
freely ; some “kinds” have a skin; by the way, what 
kind of a reptile be it that has zo skin? In other cases 
the word “member” instead of species is used. Is it 
not a mistake to say that in many Chelonians “the well- 
known ‘tortoise-shell’ covers over all the hind parts.’’ 
Surely in Caretta sguamosa the tortoise-shell plates cover 
over most of the carapace. While the families of the 
Chelonian order are given, we find, when we come to the 
Lacertine order, no intelligible mention of the families of 
the split-tongued lizards. In referring to the important 
paper on Archzopteryx by the Professor of Geneva, the 
editor ought to have seen that the name of Carl Vogt 
was correctly spelled. The divisions of the Snakes is 
such as must necessarily confuse any student. The sub- 
order Thanatophidia is made to include two sub-orders 
in the text, when in the table of classification one of 
these sub-orders, Solenoglypha, is called a family. The 
groove-fanged Opisthoglypha are included with the Agly- 
phodontia with solid teeth. In a work of this nature 
nothing is, we take it, of more importance than that there 
should be some well-defined system of classification, not 
necessarily to be treated of in full detail, but as far as is 
possible to be rigidly adhered to, That this is possible, 
a glance over the sections of this and the previous 
volume treating of Birds will abundantly demonstrate ; 
and that this is practicable, even with an extreme com- 
pression of space, is also to be proved by an appeal to 
the way in which the eighth order of Birds is managed, 
where, though only three pages were allowed to this most 
interesting and important of orders, yet we are even in 
these few lines enabled to get an idea of the orderly 
sequence of its families. This work is in many ways so 
excellent, that we venture on these criticisms with the 
object of trying to keep it up to a fairly good standard, 
and of making it useful in some measure as a work of 
reference. 

As specimens of the excellent illustrations in this 
volume we have, through the courtesy of the publishers, 
the opportunity of presenting to our readers the two fol- 
lowing. The Common Quail (Coturnix dactylisonans) 
visits Europe in the summer, when prodigious numbers 
are trapped and sold for purposes of food. Waterton 
mentions that 17,000 specimens were brought to Rome in 
one day. They are to be found in large quantities on 
the coasts of the Mediterranean, and so abundant are 
they in the beautiful Island of Capri, that it is said that 
it was from this source that the bishops in the olden 
times derived a large part of their wealth. The Quail is 
most rapid in its flight, and performs long and fatiguing 
journeys. Sunset is its time for active exertion ; during 
the day it remains quite quiet, reserving its energies for 
the evening, when it goes off in quest of food. 

Their favourite nourishment is insects, but at times 
they feed on grain and seeds; small stones are also 
swallowed to facilitate digestion. The habits of the quail 
are most unamiable and unsocial, and generally, when 
they meet with one of their own species, they display a 
very pugnacious disposition. The female has a much 
better nature ; she is a most excellent mother, even pro- 
tecting young ‘birds who have been deprived of their 
parents’ care. She builds her nest of small portions of 


plants, and lays eight to fourteen eggs; these are pear- 


318 


shaped in form, of a light-brown colour, marked with a 
darker shade; the young seem full-grown when only six 
months old, and are ready to join their parents in their 
long autumn journey, which may extend as far as the 
Cape of Good Hope, where they are known to arrive in 
large numbers. The quail, unlike the partridge, also 


figured in our illustration, has several wives, and displays | 


great spirit in keeping rivals ata distance; while the 


mother is attending to the care of her young ones, the | 


cock bird, too, often amuses himself in the Vicinity with 
his companions. 

Our second illustration is taken from the higher of tke 
San 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 3, 1881 


| two classes of the Ichthyopsida, known as the Amphibia ; 
these skull-bearing animals have no amnion and but a 
rudimentary allantois, and they breathe by gills at some 
period of their life. In this volume they are placed as an 
independent class alongside of the Sauropsidian reptiles. 
| Among the permanently tailed Amphibians (Urodela) the 


| sub-order containing those species with gills that fall off 
| (Caductbranchiata) contains the interesting species known 
| as Salamanders. It is of one of these of which we give 
| the accompanying figure, not only as a fair specimen of 
| those in the volume we are reviewing, but also in the 

hope of awakening some interest in a rather uncommon 


37/4 
Mev: SS 


F.s. 1.—The Partridge 


Amphibian, “The next genus [to Salamandra], Pleure- 
deles, has short ribs, which give the appearance as if they 
penetrated the flanks, but their ends come against the 
tissue under the skin and produce horny projections 
thereon. The tail is long and compressed, and the small 
tongue is adherent only in Jront, and there are two series | 
of palatine teeth in longitudinal series, The Spanish 
kind (P. Waitt) has an ashy grey body, very prettily 
marked with long transverse Stripes and dots. It is like | 
a heavy lizard.”’ Lord Clermont, in his useful work on 
the Reptiles of Europe, describes the tongue as small, 
warty, free behind and on the sides, adhering in front; he 
also describes the ribs as piercing the skin, and they are 


and the Commen Quai). 


also said by some to be capped by horny tubercles ; but 
this is denied by Leydig. Prof. St. George Mivart tells 
us that this species differs from all the other Urodela in 
the length and strength of its ribs, the longer ones con- 
siderably exceeding the length of two of the longest 
vertebrae of the body. M. Waltl first discovered it at 
Chiclana in Spain; Schinz states that it is very common 
in Andalusia in tanks and cisterns of water; Wallace 
gives its distribution as Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. 
Lord Clermont hints that the Bradybates ventricosus of 
Tschudi is probably the young of this species. 

Now when Lord Clermont wrote his book there was 
not much more known about this interesting little animal, 


Feb. 3, 1881] 


NATURE 


319 


but some sixteen months ago Dr. F. Leydig of Bonn pub- 
lished an excellent account of it in Wiegmann’s Archiv, 
in which he gives a short account of Dr. Joseph Waltl, 
who first discovered Pleurodeles, and of the gallant Dr. | 
Michahelles, who called it after his friend, its discoverer 
(1830). Among the specimens sent to Bonn, one was 
living, and in it could be easily seen the tips of some of 
the ribs sticking through the skin; and that “this pene- 
tration” of the skin of the sides was not in the first | 
instance caused by or through the transport, the ac- 
companying note from the kind sender proved. 
“You will remark that in the Pleurodeles the ribs | 


pierce the integuments, and that if this be an 
accident, it is in some sort a physiological one.” The 
habits of the Pleurodeles seem to be more or less 
like that of our native Tritons. During the procreative 
season they remain upright in the water; later they 
leave it and hide themselves in damp places under stones. 
Like the Water Newts, they possess a sort of cry; when 
frightened, as on being suddenly seized, they emit a low, 
short, almost squeaking sound, generally repeated several 
times. This seemed to come not so much from the throat 
as to be caused by a rapid expulsion of air through the 
openings of the nose—in fact, to be a sort of snort. 


Wa Uy 


Hy lyyy 
\\ } 
| \ \\\) 


‘Nl 


Fic. 2.—Pleuvodeles 


It had a tendency to crawl vigorously backward when | 
uneasy, by prising the ends of the ribs against the skin: 
this snake-like progression no doubt causing the skin 
openings. Prof. Leydig’s specimen lived on slugs of 
small size, which it took eagerly as well as worms, indeed 
preferring these latter. The skin surface was rather dry 
than clammy. The colour changes through the chromato- 
phores were clearly to be noticed; during cold weather it 
was of a tolerably uniform dark, when warmer the colour 
became lighter, numerous dark spots standing out from a 
light gray ground colour, On very warm days it would 
lie for hours motionless on the surface of the water. 


It would almost seem worth one’s while to pay a visit 
to those Andalusian tanks, and by their semi-limpid sides 
and under the shelter of their surrounding fig and olive- 
trees work out the complete history of this interesting little 
form. 

These woodcuts will show that in point of illustration 
this volume keeps up with both its predecessors in effect ; 
while we have gently hinted at a few blemishes, the work 
deserves a very considerable mead of praise, and we 
heartily recommend it as an excellent volume to be 
placed in the hands of all interested in the animal 
kingdom. 


NOTES 


THE Azhbar published a programme of the excursions which 
have been arranged for the next session of the French Associa- | 
tion at Algiers on April 14. The excursions are very numerous, | 
and are classified according to the length of time required fer 
their completion. One of the most attractive in the vicinity of 
Algiers is the tomb of the Kings of Mauritania; Laghouat and 
the desert is one of the most protracted, and requires eight days 
for its completion. The travellers will enjoy unexampled 
facilities for visiting the country. The seat of the French | 
Association is 76, rue de Rennes, Paris. Applications are to be | 
made to M. Gariel, Professor of Physics to the Ecole de Medi- | 
cine, permanent secretary. A reduction of 50 per cent. has been 
granted by the railway companies ; the arrangements made for 
the sea passage will be publishedin proper time. An influential] 


local committee has been established in Algiers. M. Chauveau, 
Professor to the Veterinary School of Lyons, has been appointed 
president of the session ; the vice-president is M. Janssen. 


MINERALOGICAL science has suffered a great loss by the early 
death, on January 27, of Prof. Dr. Emanuel Boricky, who was 
well known by his microscopical researches in petrography. 
Boricky was born at Milin, near Pribram (Bohemia) in the year 
1840, and he had therefore just completed his fortieth year. In 
1865 he became an assistant of the mineralogical section of the 
Bohemian Museum, and in 1866 he was named Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Mineralogy at the University of Prague. Having 
attained the degree of a Doctor of Philosophy, he became a 
teacher of mineralogy at one of the colleges of Prague in 1868, 
and in 1869 he was promoted to the post of a custos of the 
mineralogical collections at the museum. Since 1871 he ha 


320 


NATURE 


[ fed. 3, 1881 


—— 


lectured in the Bohemian language on petrography at the Uni- 
versity of Prague. He was a diligent and successful worker in 
science, and his microscopical researches have made his name 
familiar to mineralogists far beyond the boundaries of his native 
country. He has left a monograph on the porphyries ready for 
printing. Science has lost in him a devoted student, and the 
Bohemian nation regrets the death of one of its best sons. 


THE Times announces the death of Mr, William White, a well- 
known chemist and mining authority. Mr. White was the 
author of numerous works, including the ‘‘ History of Chemistry,” 
“Economy of Health,” “Chemistry of Vegetation,” “Chemistry 
for Students,” ‘‘ Hints from a Chemist,” ‘‘ Mineral Resources 
of Newfoundland,” &c., and was for over half a century a constant 
contributor to scientific literature. He had held at different 
periods lectureships on metallurgy and chemistry at various edu- 
cational establishments, and had earned for himself a reputation 
as a lecturer and writer on agricultural chemistry. He died in 
London on Sunday last, at the age of seventy-one, from a 
painful disease contracted while conducting experiments in his 
laboratory. 


THE Prussian Government, according to Berlin papers, intends 
to purchase the Godeffroy Museum at Hamburg for the Berlin 
Anthropological Museum. The former is one of the most 
interesting zoological and anthropological collections, particularly 
with regard to Eastern Asia and the islands of the Pacific; it 
was formed by the Hamburg firm of that name by means of 
special scientific expeditions during the last decades, 


THE Senatus of Glasgow University has just been presented 
with a portrait of the Very Rev. Principal Caird, the esteemed 
bead of the University, and Mrs. Caird with a replica. The 
portraits are the gift of subseribers belonging to all religious and 
political parties, and are the works of Mr. Millais, R.A. The 
Principal is represented in academic dress, and the likeness is 
very striking. The portrait presented to the Senatus will be 
placed in the University library, the walls of which are already 
adorned with likenesses of former principals and professors. 


M. MARIETTE, better known as Mariette Bey, the celebrated 
Egyptologist, has died in Alexandria. M. Maspero, his pupil, 
Professor of Egyptology to the Collége de France in Paris, has 
been appointed by the Egyptian Government to fill the place 
vacated by the death of M. Mariette. 


A PROPOSITION has been made by the Oferator and other 
electrical papers of the United States to open at New York an 
international exhibition of electricity in 1882. It is stated that 
the United States Congress will vote a sum of money to 
subsidise the American exhibitors at the exhibition of this year 
in Paris, 

THE Royal Commission appointed in 1879 to inquire into the 
cause of accidents in mines have concluded the taking of evid- 
ence. The attention of the Commission is now directed to a 
series of experiments as to the explosive nature of coal dust, as 
to the best kind of safety lamp, and as to other matters designed 
to elucidate the causes of explosions. It is proposed that some 
experiments shall take place to test the efficacy of the electric 
light as an illuminating power in mines, 


THE Committee formed for the exploration of the remarkable 
holes, which have recently appeared on the surface of Blackheath, 
have been negotiating with an experienced well-sinker, and intend 
to commence active operations in the course of a few days in the 
hope of finding a clue to their origin. Contributions in aid of 
the work, from persons interested in the investigation, will be 
gladly received by the honorary treasurers of the Committee— 
Dr, Prior Purvis, Landstown Place, Blackheath, or Mr. E, W. 
Brabrook, F.S.A., director of the Anthropological Institute, 28, 
Abingdon Street, Westminster, 


ORDINARY MEETINGS of the Sanitary Institute of Great 
Britain, 9, Conduit -Street, W., for the reading of papers and 
discussion upon sanitary matters, will be held during 1881 on the 
second Wednesday in the months of February, April, and June, 
chair to be taken at eight o’clock precisely. At the first meeting, 
February 9, a paper will be read by W. H. Michael, Q.C., upon 
“The Law in Relation to Sanitary Progress,” to be followed by 
a discussion. 


AN earthquake was felt over a considerable area of Switzer- 
land on January 27. It was felt with varying degrees of intensity 
at Berne, Muensingen, Thun, Basle, Solothurn, Zurich, Bienne, 
Oberhofen, and Aarberg. The principal shock occurred at 2.20 
in the afternoon, Berne mean time. A slight shock was 
observed at three o’clock the same day, and another equally 
slight at six the following Friday morning. According to a 
report of the Berne Observatory the first and principal shock 
was in the direction from east to west, with a slight northerly 
deviction. The oscillation was both vertical and lateral, and 
according to some accounts, was preceded by a rumbling sub- 
terranean sound. Its intensity may be judged from the facts 
that the chimes in the church clocks were made to strike and the 
bells to tol!, books were thrown from their shelves, and pictures 
detached from the walls, while in Berne alone more than 100 
chimneys were thrown down. This is the twenty-fourth earth- 
quake that has been recorded in Switzerland since November, 
1879, and is probably the most severe. 


A sHock of an earthquake was felt at 5 p.m. on January 
24 at Bologna, Florence, Venice, Padua, Ferrara, &c. At 
Bologna there were also slighter shocks at midnight, and at 8 
and 9,15 a.m, next day; while Florence likewise had a second 
shock at 7.53 a.m. on the 25th. 


IN a recent number of the /ourvnal de Physique, of which the 
late M. d’ Almeida was so long the editor, the following interest- 
ing episode is narrated :—During the investment and siege of 
Paris by the German armies in the winter of 1870-71 M. d’Almeida 
tock a prominent part in certain attempts to re-establish tele- 
graphic communication between Paris and the provinces, using 
the River Seine as a conductor. This suggestion originated with 
M. Bourbouze (of galvanometer fame), who was, after the war, 
created a chevalier for his suggestion. It was proposed to send 
powerful currents into the River Seine from batteries at the 
nearest available point outside the German lines, and to receive 
in Paris, by delicate galvanometers, from the river such a portion 
of these currents as might not have leaked into the earth. After 
some preliminary experiments had been made between the Hotel 
de Ville and the manufactory of M. Claparéde at St. Denis, by 
Professors Desains, Jamin, and Berthelot, it was decided to 
make the attempt, and accordingly on December 17, 1870, M. 
d’ Almeida was despatched by balloon to the provinces in order 
to try to establish this novel mode of telegraphy without wires. 
The balloon descended after sundry perils in the Arcadian soli- 
tudes of Champagne outside the Prussian lines. Thence he pro- 
ceeded wé Lyons and Bordeaux to Havre. Not finding suitable 
appliances and apparatus, there was again a delay in sending to 
England for the necessaries, which on arrival were conveyed to 
Poissy, where M, d’Almeida regained the banks of the Seine on 
January 14, 1871. Here however the frost proved inimical, the 
river haying been frozen hard since the beginning of December, 
The attempts at communication were however to have been made 
on January 24, when the armistice was proclaimed. It was too 
late; and the world missed a famous scientific exploit from 
amongst those which made the siege of Paris notable beyond all 
other sieges of history. 


M, Juves Ferry, French Minister of Public Instruction, and 
M. Tirard, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, paid an 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


321 


official visit the other day to the schools of apprenticeship esta- 
blished at the expense of the City of Paris in the rue Herold 
and the boulevard of La Villette. The time required for 
the scientific education of the young workmen is three years. 
During the first year the pupils are trained in working wood as 
wellasiron. The choice of the speciality is only made at the 
beginning of the second year. No work is executed without a 
drawing having been made, so that the workman is enabled to 
understand the use of the object he is manufacturing. Regular 
courses of lectures are given in the establishment on scientific 
subjects. Meanwhile experiments are conducted in three different 
primary schools, to determine whether it is possible to join 
manual to mental training in all the city schools. 


Pror. Hut has published a fourth edition of his ‘‘ Coal- 
Fields of Great Britain” (Stanford). This edition has been 
largely rewritten, and contains an entirely new chapter on Car- 
boniferous Plants, by Prof. Williamson, F.R.S. The Classifi- 
cation of the Carboniferous Series of Beds has been modified in 
accordance with the views enunciated in Prof. Hull’s paper on 
this subject read before the Geological Society in 1877. Various 
other modifications have been made in accordance with the 
results of recent geological research, and the statistical portions 
have been brought down to 1878. 


Messrs, LONGMANS AND Co, send us the fourth edition of 
Prof. Atkinson’s ‘‘ Natural Philosophy for General Readers and 
Young Persons,” translated and edited from Ganot’s French 
work. To this edition have been added twenty-five pages of 
new matter and sixteen additional illustrations, 


Mr. E. S, BAKER, photographer of Bristol, sends us a photo- 
graph of a jar, which is a fine illustration of the fact that water 
expands on freezing. During the recent frost the water in the 
jar froze, and the ice is seen protruding from its mouth to a con- 
siderable distance like a well-shaped cork, 


Mr. C, V. RILEY of 1700, Thirteenth Street, Washington, 
writes to us that, having been obliged to cease the publication of 
the American Entomologist, he has a few full sets of vol. iii., 
just closed, to dispose of, and has concluded to send the full 
volume to all former subscribers who may want it, or to any 
Library, Natural History Association, or editor of journal, 
postage prepaid, at the reduced price of $1.50. The information 
in the magazine, Mr. Riley states, is of permanent interest, and 
the volume will be of value to any one interested in entomology 
in any of its bearings, 


M. Cu. JoLy has republished as a pamphlet a paper which 
he lately contributed to the /owrnad of the National Horticultural 
Society of France, under the title of ‘‘ Note sur une Exposition 
de Géographie botanique et horticole, organisée par la Société 
Centrale d’Horticulture de Nancy.” 


New Soutu WALES, Victoria, and South Australia have 
agreed to jointly bear the expense of exterminating the Phylloxera 
vastatrix, the alarming extension of which in Victoria has 
threatened the destruction of the wine industry. 


WE have received the three first numbers for this year of the 
Chicago Field, which seems modelied on a small scale after its 
well-known English contemporary, 


THE Revue Scientifique of January 29 contains a lecture 
recently given at the Sorbonne by M. Faye, on the Volcanoes of 
the Moon. 


AT Cracow a new Polish review for literature, science, and 
art is now being published fortnightly. Its title is Museum, 
and its editor Dr. Thaddaeus Rutowski. 


THE works in the Arlberg tunnel are progressing. On the 
Tyrolese side the lower shaft has been pushed to a distance of 


340 metres, by help of the boring machines, and in spite of the 
hardness of the rock the daily progress is two metres, The 
upper shaft is some 100 metres behind. 


A NUMBER of Roman antiquities were found last year during 
some military earthwork operations near Metz, close to the 
Lunette d’Arcon, It appears that the place was one of the most 
important burial-places of Roman Metz. The Metz Geo- 
logical and Archeological Society gave the details at its last 
December meeting. Some thirty-five vases, four metal objects, 
three coins, and two tombstones with inscriptions are mentioned, 
Of human remains four skulls were found, one of which was 
lying upon a square stone plate, besides carbonised (cremated ?) 
bone remains in a round stone urn. The inscriptions were 
epitaphs ; of the three coins, one dated from the year 41 (when 
Claudius commenced to reign), another from the year 160 (reign 
of Antoninus Pius). Prof, Schaaffhausen of Bonn states that 
three of the skulls found belong to three different tribes. One 
belonged to a German, another to a Frisian, the owner of the 
third came from so far a country as Lapland. 


A REMARKABLE discovery of Russo-byzantine antiquities was 
made near Kiew some weeks ago, when a canal for the water- 
works of the city was being excavated. They consist principally 
of twenty gold and enamelled lockets, three buttons of the same 
materials with heads of saints upon them, gold rings, agraffes 
and studs, all dating from the fifteenth or sixteenth century ; 
they doubtless served as ornaments upon the costumes of the 
grand princes. Besides these some thirty-four silver coins were 
found, also a highly original bronze vessel in the shape of a 
fabulous quadruped. The metal value of all the antiquities is 
estimated at 1000 roubles (150/.). The Archeological Com- - 
mission has taken possession of them, 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE OBSERVATORY OF HARVARD COLLEGE, U.S.—We 
have received the Annual Report presented to the Visiting Com- 
mittee of this Observatory by Prof. Pickering on December 6. 
The year has been one of unusual activity in the establishment, 
funds which had been liberally forthcoming from its friends 
having enabled both the equatorial and meridian circle to be 
regularly employed, and further having allowed of many 
researches of importance being conducted with the smaller 
instruments. With the large equatorial Prof, Pickering claims 
that he has succeeded in making a more extensive series of 
observations for position of the satellites of Mars at the last 
opposition than was obtained elsewhere, and states that Deimos 
was last seen at Harvard Observatory ; the number of observed 
angles of position of Deimos was 825, and of Phobos 278, and 
that of observed distances 245. In addition to measures for 
position photometric observations were made, which appear to 
show that if the satellites possess a capacity for reflecting sun- 
light equal to that of the planet, Deimos may have a diameter 
of about six and Phobos of seven miles. It was noted at various 
observatories that Deimos appeared somewhat brighter in 1879 
than at the preceding opposition in 1877, and in both years Prof. 
Pickering states it seems to have been brighter measured photo- 
metrically, and to have been seen more easily when it followed 
than when it preceded Mars. 

Photometrical determinations of the times of eclipses of. 
Jupiter’s satellites, commenced in the summer of 1878, have 
been continued during the year, and it is considered with reason- 
able hope that these phenomena may be more accurately 
observed than hitherto by thismethod. Observations of planetary 
nebulz described in the previous Report have been nearly 
completed. 

With regard to spectroscopic observations, Prof. Pickering. 
says the most remarkable discovery is that the spectrum of No. 
17681 of Oeltzen’s Catalogue, the place of which for 1880 is in 
R.A. 18h. 1m. 17s., N.P.D. 111° 1’, possesses a peculiar cha- 
racter. ‘‘The light of this star is principally concentrated in 
two points of the spectrum, one in the blue, the other in the 
yellow, a little more refrangible than the D line. A faint 
continuous spectrum is also seen.” 


322 


NATURE 


[ eb. 3, 1881 


The variable star of Ceraski, the true period of which was 
determined at Harvard College, is referred to ; systematic obser- 
vations have been made upon it. The Report describes the 
progress made in observations with the ‘‘ meridian photometer,” 
whereby it is intended to determine the light of all stars visible 
to the naked eye between the North Pole and N.P.D. 120°, The 
principal want of the Observatory at the present time is stated 
to be the means of publication of these and other classes of 
observations, the large number of volumes issued during the last 
five years having exhausted the funds specially appropriated for 
defraying expenses of publication. 


CERASKI’S VARIABLE STAR T CEPHEI.— Prof. Julius 
Schmidt, from his own observations of minima of this variable 
in the last five months of the past year, finds reason to conclude 
that in that interval each successive period was longer by 
0°08753m. or 5°25s. than the preceding one, and has calculated 
the times of minima upon this assumption between June 11, 
1880, and February 15, 1881. For elements with this correc- 
tion to the period to be applied, he adopts for his starting- 

oint— 

4 Minimum ... 1880, December 7, 1oh. 6°7m. 
Athens M.T. + 2d. 11th. 50°812m. E. 


E being the number of periods from December 7. Thus the 
next minimum is found to occur on February 5, at 6h, 50°3m. 
Athens time, or at 5h. 15°4m. M.T. at Greenwich. Prof. 
Schmidt has remarked what we believe was soon detected by 
Mr. Knott from his observations in October last, that for more 
than two hours about the minimum there is no perceptible vari- 
ation of brightness; decrease and increase are very rapid, 
particularly the latter. 


Swirt’s CoMET, 1880 ¢.—The Superintendent of the Obser™ 
vatory at Washington, Admiral Rodgers, communicates to 
Science of January 10, an orbit of this comet which has been 
calculated by Prof. Frisby from three meridian observations 
made there on October 25 and November 7 and 25, and without 
any assumption as tothe periodictime. The revolution resulting 
from this application of the general method is about 2178 days, 
or a little less than six years, and thus the conclusion arrived 
at by MM. Schulhof and Bossert of Paris, and Mr. S. C. 
Chandler of Boston, U.S., receives confirmation. From the 
position of the orbit it happens at present that only every second 
return to perihelion can be made available for observations. 


Baron DEMBOWSKI.—Practical astronomy has sustained a 
severe loss in the death of Baron Ercole Dembowski, which 
took place on the evening of the 19th ult. at Monte, Frazione di 
Solbiate, Arno. Few have attained as great skill or exhibited 
greater industry and patience in that somewhat difficult and 
tedious branch, the measurement of the double stars, to which 
the Baron specially devoted himself, and we hope some means 
may be found of publishing ina collective form the results of 
his long-continued labours in this direction. 


METEOROLOGICAL NOTES 


Our readers will learn with much satisfaction that Sweden 
has resolved to take part in the international meteorological 
and magnetical observations in the Polar regions, and arrange- 
ments have been made for carrying on the observations from 
June 1, 1882, till June 1, 1883. The house erected at Masselbay 
in Spitzbergen by Nordenskjéld’s expedition, is still in good 
condition, and will be fitted up for the observatory. In connec- 
tion with the Spitzbergen Observatory, Haparanda, at the head 
of the Gulf of Boothnia, is to be created into a first-class obser- 
vatory, and furnished with Theorell’s self-registering and print- 
ing meteorological apparatus; and all other observations will 
be made which are expected of a first-class observatory. M. 
Hjeltstrém is appointed director of the Haparanda Observatory. 
The funds to meet the expenses of the expedition and the two 
observatories have been most generously supplied by M. L. O. 
Smith, Stockholm. Prof. Hildebrandsson, the eminent Swedish 
meteorologist, has been entrusted with the discussion of the 
observations made by Prof. Nordenskjold on the celebrated Vega 
Expedition, to the publication of which meteorologists will look 
forward with the liveliest interest. 


Ty his fourteenth contribution to meteorology Prof. Loomis 
returns to the discussion of the interesting question of the course 
and velocity of storm centres in tropical regions. Ina previous 
communication he had shown that in middle latitudes the average 


progress of storm centres corresponds pretty closely with the 
average direction of the prevailing wind of these latitudes. In 
marked contradistinction to this result is that now obtained 
regarding the course of the intertropical cyclones which occur 
within the region of the North-east Trade Winds. These 
cyclones, instead of following the ordinary course of the Trades 
towards the south-west, advance westward, but in a direction 
somewhat north of west. 


DuRING the winter months, storms while crossing the United 
States frequently advance during a part of their course from 
north-west to south-east. This course is followed most fre- 
quently in the region between the Rocky Mountains and the 
Mississippi, is seldom continued as far south as lat. 30°, and the 
storm centre, after reaching its most southerly point, often 
changes its course towards the north-east. Storms which cross 
the United States north of lat. 38° generally pursue a course a 
little to the north of east ; while those which come from south 
of that latitude pursue a course nearly north-east. During the 
summer months however few storms travel south of lat. 38°, and 
during this part of the year the average course of storms is 
almost exactly towards the east. 


ProF. Loomis next institutes a comparison between the West 
India hurricanes and those of the Bay of Bengal, China Sea, &c. 
The average course of the latter is towards the west, ranging from 
13° south of west to 86° north of west, which agrees closely in this 
respect with the general course pursued by West India hurricanes. 
The velocity of their onward course is however markedly different, 
being only about eight miles per hour, which is less than half 
the average velocity of the West India cyclones. The average 
latitude when the course becomes north is nearly lat. 20°, being 10” 
more to southward than in the West Indies, and the velocity 
during this part of the course is only about nine miles an hour. 
Ultimately the cyclones curve round and pursue a course nearly 
east-north-east, with a velocity of onward movement scarcely 
reaching ten miles an hour, or le:s than half of the velocity found 
for West India hurricanes. Lastly, while in the West Indies 
cyclones or hurricanes have been found no farther south than 
lat. 10° N., in Southern Asia they have occurred as far south 
as lat. 6 N. 


THE concluding part of the Contribution is taken up with an 
examination of those storms of middle latitudes which advance 
in a westerly direction. In these cases, which may be regarded 
as abnormal directions, it is found that the wind is generally 
greatest on the east side of the low centre of the storm. While 
there are thus on the east side of the low pressure areas, causes 
tending to increase pressure on that side, there are different con- 
ditions on the west side tending to divert the winds westward, 
and this, Prof. Loomis thinks, is the most important reason why 
in such cases the storm centres advance to westward. In the 
United States, over the Atlantic, and in Europe, the influence of 
one area of low pressure upon another is a very common cause 
of abnormal movements of storm centres—such, for instance, as 
the coalescence of two low areas into one, resulting occasionally 
in an apparent westerly movement of the centre of lowest 
pressure. 


THE ‘‘ Results of Meteorological Observations made at 
Mauritius durin z 1877” fully sustains the high reputation of Dr. 
Meldrum’s previous reports for fulness of detail, accuracy, and 
special observations not usually given in meteorological reports. 
Tbe hourly monthly values have been calculated from the 
readings of the barograph for the year, and a valuable table is 
appended to this part of the report (p. 5), showing the mean 
monthly diurnal variation of atmospheric pressure for the three 
years 1875-77. The value of these results will be greatly 
enhanced when the thermograph which has been received has 
been got into working order. A comparison, a very satisfactory 
one, is made of the barograph readings with those of the 
standard barometer. As in 1876 the wind during 1877 attained 
its annual maximum velocity in the colder months from June to 
August, and its minimum in the warmer months, from November 
to March; and its diurnal maximum velocity from II a.m to 
2 p.m., andits minimum from about 2 to § a.m. The de- 
partures, however, from these times are such as to point to a 
considerable number of years’ observations as required before 
the true average can be ascertained. Thirty-one stations for 
recording the rainfall are now in working order, and in each 
case the annual amounts available from 1862 are printed, and 
the averages of the years given for each station. Mean tempe- 
ratures for seven stations appear in the repo tt, the three highest 


fe}. 3, 1831] 


NATURE 


323 


stations, with the mean temperatures for 1877. being, Curepipe 
(1800 feet) 68°°3, Bonne Veine (1500 feet) 69°°5, and Midlands 
(1400 feet) 73°°2. The difference in height (400 feet) of the 
first and last of these, and the difference of their mean annual 
temperatures, 4°'9, call for inquiry, and in connection therewith 
it may be suggested that a small map showing the physical 
features of Mauritius and the positions of the various stations 
would usefully illustrate these reports. As regards thunderstorms, 
which are carefully recorded, none occurred from May to 
October during 1876 and 1877, and the daily maximum is from 
I to 4 p.m., with a tendency to a secondary maximum about 
sunset, and the daily minimum from Io p.m. to a little after 
sunrises 


In a supplement to No. 366 of the Bulletin International of 
the Paris Observatory M. Mascart gives an interesting and rapid 
sketch of the meteorology of Europe for December last, “illus- 
trated with two maps showing the storm-tracks over the Conti- 
nent during the month, During the first half of the month the 
storm-tracks were all to northward of the British Isles and 
Denmark, and fine weather prevailed particularly in Scotland, 
Denmark, and Germany. In France high barometers ruled with 
light winds, and temperatures high for the season. Thecontrast 
afforded with the weather in France during December, 1879, is 
is most striking ; thus on December 10 of both years barometers 
were unusually high in France, but in 1880 the mean tempera- 
ture was 50°'5, whereas on December 10, 1879, the mean tem- 
perature was —14°1. The bearings of the geographical posi- 
tions of anticyclones, with their high pressures, on the tempera- 
ture of the regions covered by them is a point well worthy of 
examination, The influence of a high-pressure area resting 
over the Atlantic and extending on its eastern side over Western 
Europe, has doubtless a very different influence on the tempera- 
ture of that part of the Continent than an area of high pressure 
covering the Continent and terminated on its west side by France 
and Spain, even though the barometer be equally high over the 
west of Europe. During the second half of December the 
storm-tracks took a much more southerly course, several being 
as far south as the Channel and the north shores of Germany. 
The result was an extension south of the cold, so that in Orkney 
and the Hebrides températures were nearly 370 below the nor- 
mal, on the Tweed about the normal, rising farther south to 1°°1 
above the normal in North Wales, 5°°o in the Channel Isles, and 
6°°7 in Paris. During December, 1879, temperature in Paris 
was 21°°2 below the normal, the mean for that month being 
17°6, or 27°'9 colder than that of last December. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


On Tuesday night, at the Royal Institution, Mr. Edward 
Wymper described his ascents of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi to 
a distinguished audience. While purely athletic mountaineers 
had his sympathy in the practice of mountaineering as a sport, 
Mr. Whymper confessed that his sympathies were much more 
with those who ea ployed their brains as well as their muscles. 
His journey to the Andes was to be one of work, and all its 
arrangements were devised so as to econcmise time to the utter- 
most. In observations for altitudes and position, in studying 
the manners and customs of the couutry, in photography and 
sketching, in the collection of objects of interest, frcm beeties 
on the summits of mountains to antiquities buried in the ground, 
he found quite sufficient to occupy his time. From Bodegas 
the party was composed of two Swiss mountaineers, the cousins 
Carrel of Val Tournanche, Mr. Perring, some muleteers, and 
their teams. When they reached the summit of Chimborazo, 
on the 3rd of Jauuary, after a most arduous climb, they found 
the wind blowing at the rate of 50 miles an hcur, from the 
north-east, and .driving the snow before it. With extreme 
difficulty, a reading of the mercurial barometer was effected. 
The mercury fell to 14'1 inches with a temperature of 21 deg. 
Fahr. This being worked out, in comparison with a nearly 
simultaneous observation at Guayaquil, gave 20,545 feet for the 
height of Chimborazo. They began the descent at 20 minutes 
past 5, with scarcely an hour and a quarter of daylight, and 
reached their camp (about 17,400 feet above the sea-level) about 
9 p.m., having been out nearly sixteen hours, and on foot the whole 
time. Passing from an extinct to an active volcano, Mr. 
Wymper next gave an account of his journey to the crater of 
Cotopaxi. Observing with the telescope, during an enforced stay 


at Machachi, that much less smoke or vapour was given off at 
night than by day, he resolved, if possible, to pass a night on 
the summit. On the 18th of February the party got to the edge 
of the crater, having passed almost the whole way from their 
camp at a height of 15,000 feet to the foot of the final cone 
over snow, and then over ash mixed with ice. The final 
cone was the steepest part of the ascent, and on their side pre- 
sented an angle of 36 deg. When they reached the crater vast 
quantities of smoke and yapour were boiling up, and they could 
only see portions of the opposite side at intervals, and the bottom 
not at all. Their tent was pitched 250 feet from the edge of the 
crater, and during a violent squall the india-rubber floor of the 
tent was found to be on the point of melting, a maximum ther- 
mometer showirg a temperature of 110 deg. on one side of the 
tent and of but 50 deg, on the other; in the middle it was 
72°5 deg. Outside it was intensely cold, and a thermometer on 
the tent cord showed a minimum of13deg. At night they had a 
fine view of the crater, which has adiameter from north to south 
of 2000 feet, and from east to west of about 1500 feet. In the 
interior the walls descend to the bottom in a series of steps of 
precipice, and slope a good thousand feet, and at the bottom 
there was a nearly circular spot of glowing fire, 200 feet in diame- 
ter. On the sides of the interior higher up, fissures, from which 
flickering flames were leaping, showed that the lava was red hot 
a very short distance below the surface. The height he found 
to be 19,600 feet. The party remained at the top for twenty-six 
consecutive hours, sleeping about 130 feet below the loftiest point. 
At first they had felt the effects of the low pressure of the at- 
mosphere, and again, as at Chimborazo, took chlorate of potash 
with good effect. All signs of mountain sickness had passed 
away before they commenced the descent, and did not recur 
during the journey. Nearly five months later Mr. Whymper 


; returnedrto Chimborazo, and from a second reading of the baro- 


meter at 14°028 inches, with a temperature of 15 deg. Fahrenheit, 
he made the height 20,489 feet, the mean of the two readings 
giving 20,517 feet. While on the side of Chimborazo he witnessed 
a magnificent eruption of Cotopaxi, ashes rising in a column 
20,000 feet above the rim of the crater and then spreading over 
an area of many miles. Prof. Bonney had submitted the ash 
to microscopic examination, and found that the fineness varied 
from 4000 to 25,000 particles to the grain in weight, and from 
observation of the area over which the ash fell Mr. Whymper 
calculated that at least two million tons must have been ejected 
in this one eruption. 


A TELEGRAM was read at a recent meeting of the French 
Academy of Sciences from M. de Brazza, who has been con- 
ducting an exploration in the region of the Ogowé and Congo, 
West Africa. Quite recently a French station has been founded 
in the upper course of the former river in connection with the 
International African Association. In July last, M. de Brazza 
informs the Academy, he reached the Congo from this station 
on the Ogowé, between the river Inpaka Mpania and the river 
“‘Tawson Afrisi.” Gaining the favour of King Makoko he 
pacified the tribes on the right bank of the Congo, and peace- 
fully descended the river in a canoe. On October 3 he founded 
the station of Ntamo Ncoma on land ceded by King Makoko 
on the right bank of the Congo. M. de Brazza surveyed the 
route between the Ogowé and Congo; it is twelve marches in 
length, over a plateau of an average height of S00 metres. The 
country is healthy, and the population dence and peaceful. In 
November last M. de Brazza arrived at Mdambi Mbongo, the 
advanced post of Mr, Stanley, whom he met, and with whom 
he reached the latter’s headquarters at Vivi on November 12. 
If the new station can be maintained and victualled, it is no 
doubt well chosen as a starting-point for further discovery, fo- 
both north and south of it there are large regions of which he 
knew nothing. 


Ar the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday last, 
Mr. E. Delmar Morgan gave some account of his journey last 
year to Semiretchia and the town of Kulja, Being unable to 
make use of the more southern line of communications, Mr. 
Morgan travelled by the northern post-road from Orenburg 
to Troitsk and Petropaulofsk, and thence to Omsk and Semi- 
palatinsk, He then struck southwards to Sergiopol, where he 
was detained three weeks owing to the southern road being 
blocked by snow. He afterwards went to Kulja for a short 
time, and he also made some excursions to Issyk-kul and other 
places of interest. In the course of the discussion which fol- 
lowed the paper, Mr. Ashton Dilke, the only other Englishman 


324 


WA TURE 


| Fed. 3, 1881 


who has visited Kulja, gave an interesting account of his expe- 
riences in that region a few years back. 


Fears had been entertained by many that the expedition sent 
out by the Russian merchant M. Alexander Sibiriakoff to discover 
the North Passage by means of the steamer Oscar Dichson, on 
board of which M. Sibiriakoff was himself, had been lost, and M. 
Konstantin Sibiriakoff, his brother, had already equipped another 
expedition to find and assist the Oscar Dickson. In the mean- 
time the welcome news has arrived that Alexander Sibiriakoff 
reached Tobolsk at the end of December. The Oscar Dickson and 
another ship, the Vordland, had met fresh ice near Mate-Ssale, 
and had retired into the Gydan Bay on the coast of Siberia, in 
order to winter there. 

M. Tarry, a member of the French Commission for Trans- 
Saharan Communications, is stated to have discovered in the 
south of Wargla the ruins of a large city called Cedrada, which 
had been entombed by sands of the desert. This city is placed 
in the Valley of Wed Mya, and in the vicinity of a number of 
sources which in former centuries watered thousands of palm- 
trees. Orders have been sent to procure a set of sounding 
apparatus, and it is expected a large quaniity of pure water will 
be extracted from the earth. M. Tarry published an appeal to 
the local papers in order to obtain from the Government the 
foundation of a colony in this remote region, 


DEEP-SEA EXPLORATION} 
Il. 


4. f-OOD.—The late Prof, Sars, in his remarks on the distribu- 

tion of animals in the depths of the sea, asks ‘* Whence 
do animals that live at depths far below the limits of vegetation 
obtain their food?” Bronn, Wallich, Wyville Thomson, and 
others have endeavoured to answer this question; but I do not 
think the problem has yet been satisfactorily solved. A con- 
siderable quantity of vegetable food is undoubtedly supplied 
from the Sargasso Sea and a similar area in the Pacific Ocean, 
as well as by the sea-weeds which fringe every coast. But this 
supply is not sufficient for the indirect support of the countless 
host of animals that inhabit the depths of the ocean, all of 
which are necessarily zoophagous or subsist on other animals. 
Plant life, except perhaps one of a peculiar kind, which will be 
presently noticed, appears to be absent in depths exceeding 150 
fathoms. 

In all probability the chief supply of vegetable food is de- 
rived from the countless diatoms, coccoliths, rhabdoliths, and 
oscillatorize, which are plants of a low degree of organisation, 
and swarm on the surface of the sea; these are swallowed by 
pelagic animals (such as Sa/fz and Pteropods, or ‘‘ sea-butter- 
flies”), and the latter fall to the bottom after death, and form 
that flocculent or glairy mass which I have described in the 
Report of the Porcupine Expedition of 1869 as covering the 
bed of the North Atlantic at great depths. The preservative 
effect of sea-water on animal tissues would stay decomposition 
for a long while ; and Mr. Moseley ascertained by a curious 
experiment that it would take only about four days for a Salsa 
to reach the bottom at a depth of 2000 fathoms, and that the 
Salpa was not greatly decomposed after having remained in 
sea-water for a month in the tropics. 

When we say that vegetable life does not exist at any con- 
siderable depth, we must not forget that some kind is said to 
occur in great abundance even in the benthal or deepest zone. 
The word ‘‘benthal”. is applied to depths exceeding 1000 
fathoms (see my Address, which is referred to hereafter in this 
lecture). Shells, corals, and other organisms, are everywhere 
permeated by what are considered to be minute plants allied to 
fungi or confervz, which form branching canals, like those of 
the C/iona or perforating sponge; and such canals have been 
also detected in all fossiliferous strata of a marine nature, from 
the Silurian to the present epoch, These plants, or Thallophytes, 
have been called ‘‘ parasitic” ; but they do not live on any other 
living thing, They can hardly serve as food for deep-sea animals, 
because they are never exposed. Whether they may not be a 
link to connect the animal and vegetable kingdoms may be a 
matter for further investigation. 

Food is of course a very important factor as regards the size of 
allanimals. I have noticed, in my work on ‘‘ British Conchology,”’ 

A Lecture by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, LL.D., F.R.S. Given at Swansea, 
Llanelly, and Barrow-in-Furness, in December 1880 and January 1881. 


Continued from p. 302. 
? See Proc. Roy. Soc. 1870, p. 420. 


that Mollusca from moderate depths are generally larger than 
those of the same species from shallow water ; but this does not 
seem to be the case with a species of coral obtained in the 
Challenger Expedition, which ranged from a depth of 30 to one 
of 2900 fathoms, and was very variable in size. 

5. Light.—Milton tells us of the 


“world of waters dark and deep.”’ 


One of the most interesting problems relating to the subject of 
this lecture is whether the above is a poetical idea or based 
on fact, as regards the absence of light in the abysses of the 
ocean. 

We do not know to what extent the sun’s rays penetrate the 
sea, nor whether the bottom at all depths is absolutely devoid of 
light. An ingenious apparatus, which was contrived by Dr. 
Siemens for ascertaining the presence of light at different depths 
by means of highly sensitive photographic paper, has never yet 
been properly tried. An experiment of this kind made by Prof. 
Forel proved that in the Lake of Geneva, even at a depth of 
only thirty fathoms, the paper was entirely unaffected after pro- 
tracted exposure. But the water of that lake is peculiar; it is 
said to be rendered less transparent by suspended and floating 
particles of mica brought from glacier streams, and to have thus 
acquired its deep blue colour. I cannot believe that the only 
abyssal light, if there be any, is phosphorescent, 

At all events we are certain that, as regards the sea, many 
animals at very great depths have eyes, and that there is no 
absence of colour. 

Cuttlefishes, which have eyes not less highly organised than 
our own, have frequently been obtained from depths of many 
hundred fathoms ; they do not eat phosphorescent polypes and 
such small deer. Nor are the deep-sea Mollusca blind. During 
the Porcupine Expedition of 1869 an undescribed species of 
Pleurvotroma from 2090 fathoms had a pair of well-developed eyes 
on short footstalks ; and a Fzsws from 1207 fathoms had its eyes 
at the base of the tentacles. The last-named mollusks chiefly 
prey on bivalves. Ihave taken at moderate depths, living on 
the same ground, closely-allied species*of univalve mollusks, 
some of which were eyeless or blind, and others were provided 
with the usual organs of vision. Numerous instances have been 
given by the Challenger naturalists of apparently seeing as well 
as of apparently sightless animals taken at great depths. Prof. 
Semper, of Wiirzburg, says, in ‘‘ The» Natural Conditions of 
Existence as they Affect Animal Life ” (1881), ‘‘ Many creatures 
furnished with well-constructed eyes live associated with the 
actually blind species, and which have been partly enumerated 
above.” He mentions among the former five species of fish (one 
of a new genus) discovered in the Challenger Expedition~at 
depths of from 675 to 2040 fathoms, besides several Mollusca 
and Crustacea, 

Some land-slugs and mollusks (e.g. Geomalacus maculosus and 
Achatina acicula) ave also blind. On the sea-shore and in 
shallow water most bivalves, as well as all the species of Chiton, 
are eyeless, 

Some deep-sea animals are brightly and deeply-coloured. * In 
the Challenger Expedition shrimps ‘‘ of an intense bright scarlet 
colour” were obtained in very great abundance; and many 
Holothurians or Sea-cucumbers were of a ‘‘deep ‘purple” hue. 
The same observation occurred to me in the Porcupine and 
Travailleur Expeditions. 

6. Temperaturve.—The highest temperature of the sea-bottom 
observed in the Chal/enger voyage at depths over 1000 fathoms 
was 50°'5 Fahr., in 2550 fathoms ; the lowest was 32°°1 only, in 
1950 fathoms, The average bottom-temperature at great depths 
does not much exceed the freezing-point; but life does not 
appear to be affected by that circumstance. In the Arctic 
Expedition of 1875 I found an abundance and variety of animals 
in icy cold water. 

7. Depth.—The average depth of the ocean between latitudes 
60° N. and 60° S. is nearly three miles, or 2500 fathoms, The 
greatest depth which has been ascertained by sounding is five 
miles and a quarter, or 4620 fathoms, and occurs in the North- 
west Pacific Ocean; it is nearly equal to the height of Mount 
Everest, the highest known mountain, in the proportion of 
27,720 to 29,000 feet. 

8. Inequalities of the Sea-bottom.—The operations of the 
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company have mate- 
rially added to our knowledge of the shape and contour of the 
floor of the ocean. They have shown us that the bed of the sea 
is quite as uneven as the surface of the land, and that it repre- 
sents the same mountains, hills, gorges, and valleys, equally 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


diversified in the one case by oceanic currents on the surface as 
well as on the bottom, and in the other by foaming rivers and 
gentle streams. I will give a few instances of such inequalities 
in the North Atlantic. While repairing in 1878 the Anglo- 
American Cable, a tract of rocky ground was discovered, about 
100 miles in length, in the middle of the North Atlantic, be- 
tween 33° 50’ and 36° 30' West longitude, and about 51° 20’ 
North latitude. Within a distance of eight miles the shallowest 
sounding was 1370, and the deepest 2230 fathoms, a difference 
of 860 fathoms, or 5160 feet ; within four miles the difference was 
3180 feet, and within half a mile 1380 feet. There are also the 
Laura Ethel Bank, with a depth of only 36 fathoms, and the 
Milne Bank, with $1 fathoms, both about 550 miles from New- 
foundland, which is the nearest continental land. Other in- 
stances are the Josephine Bank, with $2 fathoms, and Gettysburg 
Bank, with 30 fathoms, the distance of the former from Cape 
St. Vincent being 250, and the latter 130 miles, with inter- 
mediate depths of from 1700 to 2500 fathoms. The soundings 
in the Bud/dog Expedition also gave 748 between 1168 and 1260 
fathoms, and the Va/orvous soundings gave 690 between 1450 and 
1230 fathoms in another part of the North Atlantic and very far 
from any land. 

A glance at the large series of diagrams of the Chadlenger 
soundings will at once serve to convince one of the extreme 

- unevenness of the sea-bottom everywhere in the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans. It would be difficult to find a greater degree of 
unevenness in any diagrams of the earth’s surface, the total 
extent of which scarcely exceeds one fourth of that of the sea. 

Diagrams to illustrate the inequalities of the sea-bottom in the 
case of the telegraph cable, and the irregularities of level in a 
similar extent of land in the Perthshire Highlands, are placed 
before you. 

9. Deposits.—The floor of the ocean is covered by a more or 
less thick layer of ooze or mud, and of clays of different sorts and 
colours, which is inhabited by various animals. One of these 
deposits is called ‘* Glodigerina”’-ooze, and is widely distributed 
over the bed of both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Another 
deposit is called “‘ Red Clay,” and is found at depths exceeding 
2000 fathoms. Mr. Murray, one of the Chad/enger naturalists, 
has carefully worked out the deep-sea deposits whicii were 
observed and collected during the expedition. According to 
him the G/odigertna-ooze occurred in the North Atlantic at forty- 
nine stations, from depths between 780 and 2675 fathoms; in 
the South Atlantic at six stations, from depths of between 1375 
and 2150 fathoms; and in the Pacific Ocean at twenty-two 
stations, from depths of between 275 and 2925 fathoms. He 
also mentions other deposits, viz. Coral-mud, Radiolarian ooze, 
and Diatomaceous ooze. Mr. Murray also says that volcanic 
products, such as pumice, lava, and scoriz, as well as the 
peroxide of manganese, are universally spread over the bottom 
of the dee» sea; and, in consequence of copper, cobalt, and 
nickel having been detected in the clays, he was tempted to 
suggest the presence of meteoric or cosmic dust in those 
deposits. 

An animated, but quite amicable, controversy has of late years 
taken place as to whether Glodigerina (from which the first- 
mentioned ooze has taken its name) lives only on the bottom or 
on the surface of the sea, or on both of them, You will doubt- 
less ask, What is a Glodigerina? It is a microscopic shell, 
consisting of a few globular cells, which are added together in 
the course of growth, the smallest cell being the original one or 
nucleus, and the largest being the last formed. All the cells are 
full of a protoplasmic substance called sarcode, which is 
amorphous or has no definite structure—no head, no limbs, no 
heart, viscera, muscles, or nerves. Its entire body is a stomach, 
and nothing but a stomach. The same kind of sarcode forms 
the living pulp of sponges, which have a horny or glass-like 
skeleton instead of a shell. The Glodigerina is a member of an 
extensive and extremely variable class of invertebrate animals 
called Foraminifera; and this class, as well as sponges, belong 
to a kingdom called Protozoa, the name of which imports not 
that it was the earliest form of life, but that its organisation is of 
the very primary or simplest kind. The cells of the Globigerina 
are in their living state covered with the most delicate spines of 
comparatively great length, which are set outwards, and probably 
serve to keep at a respectful distance all predatory animals of an 
equally minnte size. Between these spines some of the sarcode 
is occasionally, if not habitually, protruded at the will of the 
-animal through very fine pores of the shell, which gave rise to 
the name Foraminifera. Such prolongations or expansions of 


325 


the sarcode are called pseudopodia, and are used for capturing 
and taking into the body or stomach animal or vegetable particles 
which serve for food, and are engulfed in the internal sarcode. 
Having premised thus much, and in the hope that my descrip- 
tion may be tolerably intelligible to those who have not, like 
myself, studied the Foraminifera, I will proceed with my account 
of the controversy. I have frequently taken with a towing-net 
on the surface of the sea a multitude of floating Gloligerine, 
which were certainly alive and showed their pseudopodia as well 
as their long and thick-set spines. Major Owen and Lieut. 
Palmer, who especially studied the surface-fauna of the Atlantic, 
observed and have published the same facts.!_ Therefore when, 
in the joint report of my colleagues and myself to the Royal 
Society, on the results of the first Porcupine Expedition in 1869, 
it was stated or strongly inferred that the Glodigerine really 
“inhabit the bottom on which they are found in such extraor- 
dinary abundance,” and that the hypothesis accounting for such 
accumulation by their having fallen to the bottom after death, 
their lives having been passed at or near the surface, was con- 
clusively disproved, I ventured to record my dissent from that 
conclusion, The observations of Mr. Murray, one of the 
naturalists in the Challenger Expedition, have fully confirmed the 
hypothesis that Glodigerina lives on the surface ; and Sir Wyville 
Thomson now admits? it as an established fact. But Dr. 
Carpenter is not satisfied. He is ‘of opinion that ‘whilst 
the Glodigerine are pelagic in an earlier stage of their lives, 
frequenting the upper stratum of the ocean, they sink to the 
bottom wzlst s¢i// diving, in consequence of the increasing thick- 
ness of their calcareous shells, and not only continue to Zve on 
the sea-bed, but probably mz/tiply there—perhaps there exclu- 
sively.”? I must say that Iam not convinced by the instances 
and arguments which he adduced in support of his opinion. 
There is no question that a great many species of Foraminifera 
live always on the sea-bottom; but I do not know that any 
species of pelagic or surface-dwelling animal inhabits also the 
sea-bottom, Dr, Wallich found that the stomachs of star-fishes 
which came up with the sounding-line from 1260 fathoms con- 
tained fresh-looking Glodigering, and that the latter were full of 
sarcode. This does not prove much, because sea-water is to 
some extent antiseptic or retards putrefaction. Many star-fishes 
feed like earthworms, and swallow quantities of organic and 
inorganic matter for the purpose of extracting nutriment from 
it. Sir Wyville Thomson says, in his paper ‘‘On Dredgings 
and Deep-Sea Soundings in the South Atlantic” (Proc. R.S. 
vol. xxii. p. 427), that the appearance of Glodigerina and certain 
other Foraminifera, ‘‘when living on the surface, is so totally 
different from that of the shells at the bottom that it is impossible 
to doubt that the latter, even although they frequently contain 
organic matter, are all dead.” Mr. Murray adds (Prac. R.S. 
vol. xxvi. p. 535) :—‘* No living specimen of a Glosigerina, an 
Orbulina, a Pulvinulina, or of the new genera found on the 
surface, which undoubtedly came from the bottom, has yet been 
met with. The foregoing observations appear to justify the 
opinion that these organisms live only in the surface and sub- 
surface waters of the ocean.” 

I will not however presume to assert that Dr. Carpenter may 
not be right ; but is he justified in taking for granted ‘‘ that the 
onus proband? rests on those who maintain that the Globigerine 
do not live on the bottom”? It is rather difficult to prove such 
a negative. 

The colour of the ‘‘ Red Clay” wasattributed by Mr. Murray 
to the presence of oxide of iron. 

Mr. Etheridge obligingly examined some of the pebbles and 
minerals which I had dredged in the Valorous Expedition at 
depths of from 690 to 1750 fathoms. He reported that many 
of them were ‘‘ most likely derived from Iceland.” If this were 
the case, the pebbles and minerals might have been transported 
by a deep submarine current. 

The deposits in very deep water, and beyond the range of 
fluviatile and tidal action, are so slight as to be almost filmy, and 
are chiefly composed of the skeletons or hard parts of Globige- 
ving, Diatoms, and Radiolarie. The subjacent layer of mud or 
ooze, where it is beyond the scope of river action, may have 
been formed from the ruins of a sunken continent. 

The proportion of carbonate of lime contained in the deep- 
sea mud or ooze of the North Atlantic, which was procured in 
the first two cruises of the Porcupine Expedition of 1869, slightly 
differed. Ina sample from 1443 fathoms, dredged off the west 


t Yournal of the Linnean Society, vol. ix. p. 147. 


2 Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxiii. p 34. 3 Ibid. p. 235- 


326 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 3, 1881 


coast of Ireland in the first cruise, the proportion given by the 
late Mr. David Forbes was only about one-half, while in another 
sample from 2435 fathoms, dredged off the south coast of Ire- 
land in the second cruise, Mr. Hunter found a little over 60 per 
cent, 

As to a mysterious deposit called Bathydius, Mr. Buchanan, 
who had charge of the chemical work on board the Challenger, 
proved by careful and repeated analysis that this substance was 
not organic ; and he ‘‘determined it to be sulphate of lime, 
which had been eliminated from the sea-water, always present 
in the mud, as an arorphous precipitate on the addition of spirit 
of wine.” Mr. Murray came to the same conclusion; and the 
lifeless and inorganic nature of Bathyéius may now be considered 
settled. This gelatinous slime was once imagined to be primor- 
dial, and to constitute the basis of life. But the sea-bed is the 
tomb of past generations, not the womb of creation. 

10. Geological,—The late Sir Charles Lyell says, in the sixth 
edition of his ‘‘Elements of Geology” (1865), ‘that white 
chalk is now forming in the depths of the ocean, may now be 
regarded as an ascertained fact, because the Globiverina bulloides 
is specifically undistinguishable from a fossil which constitutes a 
large part of the chalk of Europe.” He assumed that the 
Globigerina inhabited the ooze on the sea-bed. Edward Forbes 
and other geologists had initiated and adopted the same view that 
Chalk was a deep-sea deposit. In my Presidential Address to 
the Biological Section of the British Association at the Plymouth 
Meeting in 1877, I ventured to question the validity of this 
theory, and especially that which my colleague and friend Sir 
Wyville Thomson s:arted as to the ‘continuity of the Chalk” 
from the Cretaceous to the present period. I there endea- 
voured to show that the Chalk differed in comfosition from the 
Atlantic mud, and that the fauna of the Chalk formation repre- 
sented shallow and not deep water. My view has, I am glad to 
say, been to some extent admitted by Sir Wyville Thomson in 
his ‘‘ Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. 
Challenger,” when he speaks (pp. 49 and 50) of the belt of 
‘shallower water”’ during the Cretaceous period. At all events, 
Mr. Wallace has lately accepted and confirmed my opinion. It 
is highly probable that the Gault, which underlies the Chalk and 
is the lowest member of the Upper Cretaceous formation, was 2 
deep-water deposit, because it abounds in small shells of the 
Arca and Corbuda families, which are wanting in the Chalk ; as 
well as in Ammonites and other free-swimming Cephalopods. 

Mr. Sollas, indeed, in his paper ‘‘On the Flint Nodules of 
the Trimmingham Chalk” (Annals and Magazine of Natural 
ffistory for December, 1880) believes that some deep-sea mud 
is analogous with the Chalk. He is aware that the former con- 
tains siliceous organisms and the latter none; and he supposes 
that the flints had been in some way derived from these organ- 
isms. But how flints originated and were formed is still a vexed 
question. Mr, Sollas is perhaps our best authority on Sponges ; 
but he states (p. 444) that ‘‘the bottom-water of the sea is re- 
markably free from organic matter.” This statement does not 
agree with the analyses of the bottom-water of the sea which 
were made by Mr. Lant Carpenter, Dr. Frankland, and Mr. 
Buchanan, the chemist of the Challenger, nor with the observa- 
tions of Sir Wyville Thomson in his ‘* Depths of the Sea,” in 
which he says (p. 46) ‘‘the bottom of the sea is a mass of 
animal life.” 

Several species of Mollusca which were previously known as 
fossil only, and were suppcsed to be extinct, have lately been 
dredged by myself and others from the bottom of the Ailantic. 
Some of these same species had been described and figured by 
Prof. Seguenza of Messina from Pliocene beds in Sicily. I have 
no doubt that many more, perhaps all, of such fossil species 
will be hereafter discovered in a living state by means of deep- 
sea explorations, 

Some geologists, and especially of late years, have advocated 
the theory that oceans have continued for an enormously long 
period to occupy the same areas that they still occupy. Mr. 
Darwin was, I believe, the first to broach this idea. He says, 
in the chapter ‘‘ On the Imperfection of the Geological Record,” 
“We may infer that where our oceans now extend oceans have 
extended from the remotest period of which we have any record ; 
and, on the other hand, that where continents now exist large 
tracts of land have existed, subjected, no doubt, to great oscilla- 
tions of level, since the earliest Silurian period,” There does 
not seem to be any fact adduced or reason given for either of the 
above inferences, 


* «Island Life.’” 


7 


If the present oceans and continents have remained unchanged 
since the Silurian period, how can we account for the wide- 
spread distribution of fossiliferous formations, Palzeozoic, Meso- 
zoic, Cainozoic or Tertiary, and Quaternary or Kecent, miles in 
thickness, all over Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and New 
Zealand? All oceanic islands are of volcanic origin; but some 
of them contain Miocene fossils. These formations are chiefly 
marine, both deep water and shallow; and they necessarily 
imply the presence of oceans in those parts of the globe which 
are now continents and dry Jand. All the ‘‘secrets of the deep” 
will probably never be revealed to man, nor is he likely to know 
what terrestrial formations underlie the floor of the mid ocean. 

In my paper ‘‘ On the Occurrence of Marine Shells of Existing 
Species at different Heights above the Present Level of the 
Sea,” which was published in the Quarterly Fournal of the 
Geological Society for August 1880, I stated that many existing 
species of Mollusca which inhabit great depths only are found in 
a fossil state at considerable heights above the present level of 
the sea, so as to show an elevation equal to nearly 12,000 feet, 
and that such elevation must have taken place at a very late and 
comparatively recent stage of the Tertiary or Post-Tertiary 
epoch, In the face of facts like this, can we rightly assign to 
the present oceans that geologically remote antiquity which is 
claimed for them? 

11, Zucidental,—Clarence’s dream of wrecks, corpses, wonder- 
ful treasures, and 

*‘ reflected gems 

That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep, 

And mock’d the dead bones that lay scatter’d by,” 
has not yet, I believe, been realised by any dredger. I have in 
this way explored for between forty and fifty years all our own 
seas, besides a considerable part of those on the coasts of North 
America, Greenland, Norway, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, 
and Italy ; but I have never found anything of value except to a 
naturalist, nor any human bone, although many thousand human 
beings must have perished in those seas. 

12 Concluding Remarks.—To give a better idea of the ocean 
and of its life in the depths as well as on the surface, let me 
strongly recommend my hearers to read Mr. Moseley’s admirable 
volume entitled ‘‘ Notes of a Naturalist on the Challenger.” 
His graphic account of this marvellous voyage far surpasses in 
interest (to say nothing of accuracy) every work of fiction or 
imagination, and it has not the melancholy dulness of most 
books on history and travels. 

The subject of this lecture is inexhaustible ; and, as our 
knowledge of it becomes more extended, we must continually 
say with Seneca, ‘‘ Our predecessors have done much, but have 
not finished, Much work yet remains, and much will remain ; 
nor to any one, born after a thousand ages, will be wanting the 
opportunity of still adding something.” Such increase of 
knowledge must tend to confirm our acknowledgment, with a 
reverential awe, of that Great Creator whose wondrous works 
are dimly seen in every form of life, marine and terrestrial, and 
especially in 

“all that glides 
Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself, 
And mighty waste of waters.’” 4 


GAS AND ELECTRICITY AS HEATING 
AGENTS? 
I. 

ON March 14, 1878, I had the honour of addressing you 

“On the Utilisation of Heat and other Natural Forces.” 
I then showed that the different forms of energy which Nature 
has provided for our uses had their origin, with the single excep- 
tion of the tidal wave, in solar radiation; that the forces of 
wind and water, of heat and electricity, were attributable to this 
source, and that coal formed only a seeming and not a real ex- 
ception to the rule,—being the embodiment of a fractional por- 
tion of the solar energy of former geological ages. 

On the present occasion I wish to confine myself to one 
branch only of the general subject, namely, the production of 
heat energy. I shall endeavour to prove that for all ordinary 
purposes of heating and melting, gaseous fuel should be resorted 
to for the double reason of producing the utmost economy and of 
doing away with the bugbear of the present day, the smoke 
nuisance ; but that for the attainment of extreme degrees of heat 


* Alecture by C. William Siemens, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., on January 
27,in St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, under the auspices of the Glasgow 
Science Lecture Association. 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


327 


the electric are possesses advantages unrivalled by any other 
known source of heat. 

Carbonaceous material such as as coal or wood is practically 
inert to oxygen at ordinary temperatures ; but if wood is heated 
to 295° C. (593° F.), or coal to 326° C. (617° F.), according to 
experiments by M. Marbach, combination takes place between 
the fuel and the oxygen of the atmosphere, giving rise to the 
phenomenon of combustion. It is not necessary to raise the 
whole of the combustible materials to this temperature in order 
to continue the action ; the very act of combustion when once 
commenced gives rise to a great development of heat, more 
than sufficient to prepare additional carbonaceous matter, and 
additional air for entering into combination; thus a match 
suffices to ignite a shaving, and that in its turn to set fire toa 
building. 

The first effect of combustion is therefore to heat the com- 
bustible and the air necessary to sustain combustion to the tem- 
perature of ignition, but in dealing with the combustible called 
coal other preparatory work has to be accomplished besides 
mere heating in order to sustain combustion. The following is 
an analysis from Dr. Percy’s work on ‘‘ Fuel” of a coal from 
the Newcastle district :— 


Carbon. 81°41 Nitrogen 2°05 
Hydrogen 5°83 Sulphur 0°74 
Oxygen 7°90 Ash .. 2°07 


which shows at a glance that nearly 16 per cent. of the total 
weight consists of such permanent gases as hydrogen, oxygen, 
and nitrogen. These gases are partly occluded or absorbed 
within the coal, but are also combined with carbon-forming 
volatile compounds, such as the hydrocarbons and ammonia, so 
that when coal is subjected to heat in a closed retort, as much as 
35 per cent. passes away from the retort in a gaseous condition 
and as vapour of water, partly to condense again in the form of 
tar, and of ammoniacal liquor, and partly to pass into the gas 
mains as illuminating gas, a mixture mainly of marsh gas (Chy,), 
olefiant gas (C,H,), and acetylene (C)Hg), its value as an illu- 
minant depending upon the percentage of the last two constitu- 
ents rich incarbon. The result of the distillation of a ton of 
coal will be as follows, from data with which Mr. A. Upward 
has kindly supplied me :— 


cwt. 


Coke 13°60 
Tar Son on 1'20 
Ammoniacal Liquor 1°45 
Gas Ss 3°15 
Carbonic acid ; ae & is o18 
Sulphur removed by purifying ... 0°30 
Loss aA 25 300 o'l2 


So great is the loss of heat sustained in an ordinary coal fire, in 
consequence of the internal work of volatilisation, that such a 
fire is scarcely applicable for the production of intense degrees 
of heat, and it has been found necessary to deprive the coal in 
the first place of its volatile constituents (to convert it into 
coke) in order to make it suitable for the blast furnace, for 
steel melting, and for many other purposes where a clear intense 
heat is required. 

In the ordinary coke oven the whole of the volatile con- 
stituents are lost, and each 100 lbs. of coal yield only 66 lbs. of 
coke, including the whole of the earthy constituents which on 
a large average may be taken at 6 lbs., leaving a balance of 
60 lbs, of solid carbon. In burning these 60 lbs, of pure 
carbon, 220 Ibs. of carbonic anhydride (CO,) are produced, and 
in this combination 60 x 14,500 =870,000 heat units (according 
to accurate determinations by Favre and Silbermann, Dulong, 
and Andrews) are produced. 

The 34 percent. of volatile matter driven off yield, when the 
condensible vapours of water, ammonia, and tar are separated, 
about 16 lbs. of pure combustible gas (beinz equal to about 
10,000 cubic feet per ton of coal), which in combustion produce 
16 x 22,000 = 352,000 heat units. The escape of these gases 
from the coke oven constitutes a very serious loss, which may 
be saved, to a great extent at least, if the decarburisation is 
_effected in retorts. The total heat producible from each 
100 lbs. of coal is in that case $70,000 + 352,009= 1,222,000 or 
12,220 units per Ib. of coal. Deduction must, however, be 
made from this for the heat required to volatilise 34 lbs. of 
volatile matter for every 100 lbs. of coal used, and also for 
heating the coke to redness, or say to 1000° F. Considering 
the multiplicity of gases and vapours produced it would be 


tedious to give the details of this calculation, the result of 
which would approximate to 60,000 heat units, .or 600 units 
per lb. of coal treated. 

We thus arrive at 12,200-600=11,600 heat units as the 
maximum result to be obtained from 1 lb. of best coal. Con- 
sidering, however, that the coal commonly used for industrial 
purposes contains more ashes and more water than has been 
here assumed, a reduction of say 10 per cent. is necessary, and 
the calorific power of ordinary coal may fairly be taken at 
10,500 units per. lb. 

In applying this standard of efficiency to actual practice 
it will be found that the margin for improvement is large 
indeed. Thus in our best steam-engine practice we obtain one 
actual HP. with an expenditure of 2 lbs. of coal per hour (the 
best results on record being 1°5 lb, of coal per Indicated HP.) A 
HP. represents 33,000 x 60= 1,980,000 foot-Ibs. per hour, which 
is #1980, 000 oarecd foot-lbs., or units of force, per Ib. of fuel. 


2 


Dr. Joule has shown us that 772 foot-lbs. represent one unit of 
990,000 
, 772 
of heat instead of 10,500, or only one-eighth part of the utmost 
possible result. 

In melting steel in pots in the old-fashioned way, as still 
practised- largely at Sheffield, 2} tons of best Durham coke are 
consumed per ton of cast steel produced. The latent and 
sensible heat really-absorbed in a pound of steel in the opera- 
tion, does not exceed 1800 units, whereas 24 lbs. of coke are 
capable of producing 13,050 x 2°5 = 32,625 units, or 18 times the 
amount actually utilised. 

In domestic economy the waste of fuel is also exceedingly 
great, but it is not easy to give precise figures representing the 
loss of effect, owing to the manifold purposes to be accomplished, 
including cooking and the heating and ventilation of apart- 
ments. If ventilation could be neglected, close stoves such as 
are used in Russia would unquestionably furnish the most 
economical mode of heating our apartments; but health and 
comfort are after all of greater. importance than economy, and 
these are best secured by means of an open chimney. Not only 
does the open chimney give rise to an active circulation of air 
through the room, which is a necessity for our well-being, but 
heat is supplied to the room by radiation from the incandescent 
miterial instead of by conduction from stove surfaces; in the 
one case the walls and furniture of the room absorb the luminous 
heat rays, and yield them back to the transparent air, whereas, 
in the latter case, the air is the first recipient of the stove heat, 
and the walls of the room remain comparatively cold and damp, 
giving rise to an unpleasant musty atmosphere, and to dry rot 
or other mouldy growth. The adverzaries of the open fire- 
place say that it warms you on only one side, but this one-sided 
radiant heat produces upon the denizens of this somewhat humid 
country, and indeed upon all unprejudiced people, a particularly 
agreeable sensition ; which is proof I think of its healthful in- 
fluence. The hot radiant fire imitates indeed the sun in its 
effect on man and matter, and before discarding it on the score 
of wastefulness and smokiness, we should try hard, I think, to 
cure it of its admitted imperfections. 

If incandescent coke is the main source of radiant heat, why, 
it may be asked, do we not resort at once to coke for our 
domestic fuel? The reasons are twofold: the coke would be 
most difficult to light, and when lighted would look cheerless 
without the lively flickering flame. 

The true solution consists, I venture to submit, in the com- 
bination of solid and gaseous fuel when brought thoroughly 
under control, by first separating these two constituents of coal. 
I am bold enough to go so far as to say that raw coal should not 
be used as fuel for any purpose whatsoever, and that the first 
step toward the judicious and economic production of heat is 
the gas retort or gas producer, in which coal is converted 
either entirely into gas, or into gas and coke, as is the case at 
our ordinary gas works. 

When in the early part of the present winter London was 
visited by one of its densest fozs, many minds were directed 
towards finding a remedy for sucha state of things. In my 
own case it has resulted in an arrangement which has met with 
a considerable amount of favour and practical success, and I do 
not hesitate to recommend it to you also for adoption. Its 
general application would, as regards dwelling-houses, make 
our town atmosphere as clear as that of the surrounding country. 
If it can be shown that the arrangement may be easily and 


heat, and 1 lb, of coal therefore produces = 1282 units 


328 


NATURE 


[ Feb. 3, 1881 


eee 


cheaply applied, that it will relieve our housemaids of the most 
irksome portion of their daily work in laying fires and cleaning 
grates, and that a warm and cheerful fire can be made at a 
considerably cheaper rate than when using coal, you will admit, 
I hope, that the proposal is worthy of a trial. 

In outward appearance my fire-grate, which I have not made 
the subject of a patent, and which may therefore be put up by 
any grate or gas-fitter without restraint, is very similar to the 
ordinary coal-grate ; the latter may indeed be converted into the 
smokeless grate at a very trifling cost. The essential features of 
this grate are that solid carbonaceous fuel, such as coke or 
anthracite, are used in combination with as much gas as is found 
necessary to raise the former to the point of incandescence, that 
the combustion is entirely confined to the front of the grate, 
whence radiation into the room takes place, and that any heat 
reaching the back of the grate is conducted away and utilised in 
heating the incoming air, by which combustion in front of grate 
is supported ; in this way greater brilliancy and considerable 
economy are realised. Q 

One arrangement by which this is effected is represented in 
diagram 1 (see NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 26). The iron dead plate 
¢ is riveted to a stout copper plate @ facing the back of the fire- 
grate, and extending five inches both upwards and downwards 
from the point of junction. The dead plate c stops short about 
an inch behind the bottom bar of the grate to make room for 
a half-inch gas-pipe f which is perforated with holes of about 
one-sixteenth of an inch placed at distances of one and a half 
inch along the inner side of its upper surface. This pipe rests 
upon a lower plate d, which is bent downwards towards the back 
so as to provide a vertical and horizontal channel of about one 
inch in breadth between the two plates. A trap-door e, held up 
by a spring, is provided for the discharge of ashes falling into 
this channel. The vertical portion of this channel is occupied 
by a strip of sheet copper about four inches deep, bent in and 
out like a lady’s frill and riveted to the copper back piece. 
Copper being an excellent conductor of heat, and this piece 
presenting (if not less than a quarter of an inch thick) a con- 
siderable sectional conductive area, transfers the heat from the 
back of the grate to the frill-work in the vertical channel. An 
air current is set up by this heat, which, in passing along the 
horizontal channel, impinges on the line of gas flames and 
greatly increases their brilliancy. So great is the heat imparted 
to the air by this simple arrangement that a piece of lead of about 
half a pound in weight introduced through the trap-door into 
this channel melted in five minutes, proving a temperature ex- 
ceeding 619° F. or 326°C. The abstraction of heat from the 
back has moreover the advantage of retarding the combustion 
of the coke there while promoting it at the front of the grate, 

The sketch represents a fire-place at my office, in a room of 
7200 cubic feet capacity facing the north. I always found it 
difficult during cold weather to keep this room at 60° F. witha 
coal fire, but it has been easily maintained at that temperature 
since the grate has been altered to the gas-coke grate just 
described. 

In order to test the question of economy, I have passed the 
gas consumed in the grate through a Parkinson’s 10-light dry 
gas-meter ; the coke used is also carefully weighed. 

The result of one day’s campaign of nine hours is a consump- 
tion of 62 cubic feet of gas and 22 Ibs. of coke (the coke re- 
maining in the grate being in each case put to the debit of the 
following day). Taking the gas at the average London price of 
3s. 6d. per 1000 cubic feet, and the coke at 18s, a ton, the 
account stands thus for nine hours :— 


d, 
62 cubic feet of gas at 3s. 6d. per thousand 2°604 
22 lbs. coke at 185, a ton 2 2121 
Total 


4725 
or at the rate of 0°525¢. per hour. In its former condition as a 
coal-grate the consumption exceeded generally two and a half 
large scuttles a day, weighing 19 lbs. each, or 47 lbs. of coal, 
which at 23s, a ton equals 5°7d. for nine hours, being 0°633¢. 
per hour. This result shows that the coke-gas fire, as here 
described, is not only a warmer but a cheaper fire than its pre- 
decessor ; with the advantages in its favour that it is lit without 
the trouble of laying the fire, as it is called, and keeps alight 
without requiring to be stirred, that it is thoroughly smokeless, 
and that the gas can be put off or on at any moment, which in 
most cases means considerable economy. 


\ second and more economical arrangement as regards first 
cost is shown in diagram 2 (NATURE, vol. xxiii., pp. 92, 93), 
and consists of two parts, which are simply added to the existing 
grate, viz: (1) the gaspipe @ with a single row of holes of 
about 5 inch diameter, 1°5 inch apart along the upper side 
inclining inward, and (2) an angular plate a, of cast iron, with 
projecting ribs 4, extending from front to back on its under side, 
presenting a considerable surface, and serving the purpose of 
providing the heating surface produced by the copper plate and 
frill-work in my first arrangement. In using iron instead of 
copper it is nece-sary however to increase the thickness of these 
plates and ribs in the inverse ratio of the conductivity of 
the two metals, or as regards the back plate, from } inch to 
inch according to the best determinations recently published by 
Sir W. Thomson. This ‘thickness would be practically incon- 
venient, and inorder to avoid it the construction of the grate 
had to be modified for cast iron. 

An inclined plate fastened to the lower grate bar directs the 
incoming air upon the heating surfaces and provides at the same 
time a support for the angular and ribbed plate, which is simply 
dropped into its firm position between it and the back of the 

rate. 

5 The front edge of the horizontal plate has vandyked openings 
c, forming a narrow grating, through which the small quantity 
of ashes that will be produced by combustion of the coke or 
anthracite in the front part of the grate discharge themselves 
down the incline towards the back of the hearth, where an open 
ash-pan may be placed for their reception. 

In adapting the arrangement to existing grates, the ordinary 
grating may be retained to support the angular plate, which has 
in that case its lower ribs cut short, to the level of the horizontal 

ate. 

a But it may be asked, Are you sure that the coke and gas grate’ 
you advocate will do away with fogs and smoke? My answer 
is, that it would certainly do away with smoke, because the pro- 
ducts of combustion passing away into the chimney are perfectly 
transparent. Mr, Aitken has, however, lately proved in an 
interesting paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
that even with perfect combustion a microscopic dust is sent up 
into the atmosphere, each particle of which may form a mole- 
cule of fog. We have evidence, indeed, that the whole universe 
is filled with dust, and this is, according to Prof. Tyndall, a 
fortunate circumstance, for without dust we should not have a 
blue, but a pitch-black sky, and on our earth we should be, ac- 
cording to Mr. Aitken, without rain, and should have to live in 
a perpetual vapour bath. The gas fires would contribute, it 
appears, to this invisible dust, and we should, no doubt, continue 
to have fogs, but these would be white fogs, which would not 
choke and blacken us. It is not clearly shown what this fine 
dust, resulting from the combustion of gas, consists of, and it 
seems reasonable to suppose that in perfect combustion it will 
be avoided. 

Granted the cure of smoke, it might still be questioned 
whether such a plan as here proposed could be carried out on 
so large a scale as to affect our atmosphere with the existing 
mains and other plant of the gasworks. If gas were to be de- 
pended upon entirely for the production of the necessary heat, as 
is the case with an ordinary gas and asbestos grate, it could 
easily be proved that the existing gas mains would not go far to 
supply the demand ; each grate would consume from 50 to Ico 
cubic feet an hour, representing in each house a consumption 
exceeding many times the supply to the gaslights. My experi- 
ments prove, however, that an average consumption of from 6 to 
8 cubic feet of gas per hour suffices to work a coke gas grate on 
the plan here proposed. This is about the consumption of a 
large Argand burner, and therefore within the limits of ordinary 
supply. 

But independently of the practical question of supply, it is 
desirable on the score of economy to rely upon the solid carbon 
chiefly for the production of radiant heat for the following 
reason :— 

1000 cubic feet of ordinary illuminating gas weigh 34 lbs., 
and the heat developed in their combustion amounts to 
34 22,000 = 748,000 heat units. 

One pound of solid coke develops in combustion, say, 13,400 
heat units (assuming 8 per cent. of incombustible admixture), 


and it requires genes ey 56 lbs., or just half a hundredweight, 
13,400 
of this coke to produce the same heating effect as 1000 cubic 


feet of gas. But 1000 cubic feet of gas cost on an average 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


e282 


3s. 6d. and half a hundredweight of coke not more than 6d. (at 
20s. a ton), or only one-seventh part of the price of gas. 

Tf heating gas was supplied at a much cheaper rate, it would 
in many cases be advantageous to substitute incombustible 
matter, such as balls of asbestos, for the coke or anthracite. 
The consumption of gas would in that case haye to be increased 
very considerably, but the economical principle involved (that 
of heating the air of combustion by conduction from the back 
of the grate) would still apply, and produce economical results 
as compared with those obtained by the gas-asbestos arrange- 
ments hitherto used. 

To illustrate the efficiency of this mode of heating the in-com- 
ing air by what is called waste heat, I will show you another 
application of the same principle which I have made very 
recently to the combustion of gas for illuminating purposes. 


(Zo be continued.) 


THE RECENT SEVERE WEATHER 


1" a recent contribution to the literature of meteorology Mr. 

E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., endeavours to prove that droughts and 
great frosts are periodical, occurring at intervals of between eleven 
and twelve years. In support of this theory he remarks : ‘‘ There 
can be no reasonable doubt that the cycles are more than eleven 
years and less than twelve (more nearly eleven than twelve),”” and 
a table of ‘‘ great frosts” is given, from which we take the dates 
for the present century in the same order as printed. 


1801—2 1819—20 1860—61 
1813—14 1837—38 1856—57 
1810—II 1840—41 1870—71 


The present year may now be added to the above list. 

It will be noticed that there are some variations in the lengths 
of the intervening periods, but there is at the same time a 
distinct recurrence of eleven-year epochs. 

The great frost of the month just ended will doubtless form 
one of the main features in the meteorology of the nineteenth 
century. In the table below are given the average temperatures 
of the United Kingdom for the three weeks ended January Io, 
17, and 24 of the present year, together with the temperatures 
for the same weeks ended January 12, 19, and 26 of the year 
1880. Each year the average for these periods was below the 
mean seasonal value. The deficiency is given in the fifth and 
tenth columns. 


188r. Fi 1880. 5 
ae | |= | 

rg ec ae a P ees . 
Districts. rid l rs | Scan, | fei | eet ese redial ies % = 

oe 2 tt | cs 3 ¥ v | x 
BRIE Ea [cent sae Eel ore) Es 
at fives |e: ie co) at ees | Zs 
x a a) | x a | = | 
n ° ° ° oh | 3! ii|\be eee lima wl de: 
Scotland, East ..... |30 |24 |25 | 26°3)x1'7438 34 |34 | 35°3 | 2°3 
England, N-E. ...... }35 |23 |25 |27°7| 97137 |32 |32 |33°7| 4 3 
England, East ...... 36 23 J2 27°7|10°7134 |32 | 3x | 32°3| 670 
Midland Counties... |34 |2t |22 |25°7/13'3135 |33 |29 | 32°0| 67 
England, South...... |37 26 |26 |29'7|10°3}35 |32 |30 | 323/70 
Scotland, West ...... 33. |23 |26 |27°3| 12:0]40 |34 [33 |35'7|4'0 
England, N.W....... |35 |25 |27 |29°0|11'°0}38 /34 |33 | 350| 5'0 
England, S.W....... |38 |3r |28 |32°3/10°3/39 |38 |35 | 37'z | 63 
Ireland, North ...... |35 | 24 |26 |28°3/ 12'°0l42 | 37 130 | 36'7) 4°3 
Ireland, South ...... 38 |2 27_|130°7 10°7443 |37 |35 | 3873) 393 
BONGO) “sss sseess eaves 37°4| 24°2) 24°8 | 28°38 10°35] 34°2 | 324 | 29'r | 39 | Vr 


The weather during the above periods was cold in both years, 
and the deficiency of solar heat is more noticeable, if the figures 
of the second and third weeks in each year are compared. On 
several days bright sunshine occurred for several hours, yet at 
some stations the sunshine was so weak as to fail to mark the 
recording cards of Prof. Stokes’s sunshine recorders. 

The weather over the whole of north-western Europe has been 
generally intensely cold, and on January 28 the temperature at 
Haparanda (extreme north of Gulf of Bothnia) was reported as 
being 60° F., below freezing point. ER Wisc: 


THE AURORA OF FANUARY 31 
WE have received the following communications on the recent 
brilliant display of aurora :— 
HAVING noticed an auroral light through the mist on the 
evening of January 30, I looked out last evening, the 31st, and 


saw what to me at least was a new appearance. There was a 
strong yellowish-white auroral light in the north, with an uneven 
boundary—not a well-defined arch. From it there arose, at 
intervals of a minute or two, what looked like wisps of luminous 
mist of an elliptical form, with their longer axes east and west, 
These chased one another towards the zenith, appearing} and 
disappearing with great rapidity, so that one could hardly say 
“look!” before they had vanished. Sometimes three or four 
were flashing out at once. They were of large size, and being 
unaccustomed to the description of such objects, I know not how 
to describe their size. They must however have subtended hori- 
zontally angles of 45° and more at the eye. This appearance 
lasted, from the time I first looked out at about 6h. 45m., for 
about ten minutes or less, and then the appearance gave place to 
ordinary streamers, yellowish-white at their base and rosy towards 
their summits, 

The flashing lights which I have mentioned suggested to me 
this idea: One has seen two men shaking a carpet held at two 
adjoining corners. Their strokes not exactly coinciding, an 
irregular, undulatory movement is produced, something like the 
waves of a chopping sea. If a stratum of something was in such 
a state of undulation above the atmosphere, and became visibly 
luminous where the crests of the undulations dipped down into 
the atmosphere, it would produce the kind of appearance that I 
saw. OsMOND FISHER 

Harlton Rectory, Cambridge, February 1 


Lest the magnificent auroral display of last evening has not 
been generally visible, the following short account of it, as 
witnessed here, may not be unacceptable to the readers of 
NATURE, 

At about 6.15 p.m. indications of the disturbance were 
noticed in an unusually bright appearance of the sky from the 
north-east to north-west by west, the light being white, 
and similar in character to that reflected from the upper 
part of a bank of fog. By 6.25 the upper limit of this pheno- 
menon had gradually changed into a number of bands, alter- 
nately bright and dark, but not well defined, which after another 
short interval disappeared in a change of the light to a very 
ruddy tint, accompanied by a kind of throbbing in the north, 
exactly like rapid repetitions of faint lightning, At this period a 
great number of parallel bands of light of a beautifully clear 
salmon tint were extended from the ruddy bank in a southerly 
direction, those from the north passing beyond the zenith, and 
losing their definition in a diffused patch of light of the same 
colour, These bands slowly faded away, but were succeeded by 
a similar and equally beautiful display at from ten to fifteen 
minutes later, 

About seven o’clock I walked two and a half to three miles in 
a northerly direction, and found in ascending a slight hill that 
the fog was sufficiently thick to obscure the stars. This I 
imagine explains the peculiar bank and thick appearance of the 
light near the horizon, 

The whitish illumination in the same quarter of the sky was 
still visible at 12 p.m. JoHN HARMER 

Wick near Arundel, February 1 


A BRILLIANT aurora borealis has been visible here this evening. 
It commenced at twenty minutes to seven, extending from west- 
north-west to a little east of north. The western part was of a 
deep ruddy colour, extending (at a rough estimate) some 35 or 40 
degrees from the horizon, and varied by long white streamers, 
one of which—nearly due north—reached to within 15 or 20 
degrees of the zenith. I wasunable to watch it for more than a 
few minutes, but at half-past-ten the sky in the same direction 
was still remarkably bright. R. W. TAYLOR 

Kelly College, Tavistock, January 31 


A Very brilliant auroral display was visible here last night. 
There was a short heavy shower of hail and rain at six o’clock, 
and the sky was entirely overclouded. ‘Thirty minutes later the 
sky was again clear, and the northern horizon was beautifully 
illuminated, and broad quivering bands of light stretched from 
thence upward beyond the zenith, some in unbroken continuity, 
while others were broken’up. Not connected with these rays, 
and on the south side of the zenith, were frequent flashes of 
light, usually crescentic in form. The light near the horizon 
was silvery and moonlight like, but higher up it became much 
ruddier. I watched the aurora from 6.30 till 7, when I was 
obliged to go in-doors till 10.30, and then able to observe it 
again. At that time the light near the northern horizon had 
greatly increased in brightness, but fewer bands extended 


33° 


NATURE 


| 726, 3, 1881 


upwards and toa less distance. As I walked home along elevated 

country roads, the effect produced by a dark sky on one side 

with a bright sky on the other, as if lighted up by an invisible 

full moon, was very beautiful. Dede 
Sheffield, February 1 


THE aurora borealis which occurred last night was first visible 
here at 6 p.m. As is usual, the glow extended in an are about 
15° above the horizon, and was of a faint greenish colour. 

From it arose frequent streamers of the same colour, having a 
slow westerly motion : these streamers attained to various heights, 
one at 6.55 reaching almost to the zenith; their colour, of 
various intensities, was as a rule greenish, but at times the 
streamers were of a reddish tint, more remarkably that one 
which occurred at 5.55, above referred to, At 6.50 the low 
arc changed its character, becoming irregular, finally assumed 
the form of a double arc, of which the centres of curvature were 
north-east and north-west of the piace of observation. 

At irregular intervals, during the whole of the first half hour, 
after the first appearance of the aurora, a flickering are of light 
would ascend from the lower arc, up to an elevation, in many 
cases, of about 80° At 7 p.m. the aurora decreased in intenxity, 
and at about nine o’clock had disappeared. 


Cirencester, February £ G. W. PREvosT 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


OxFrorD.—The term’s work has been delayed a little by the 
severity of the weather. Many of the colleges were but half 
filled on the regular day of meeting. 

At the University Museum the following courses will be given 
during the term :—Prof. Henry Smith lectures on Pure Geometry, 
and Prof. Barth. Price on Geometrical and Physical Optics. 
Prof. Clifton will lecture on Terrestrial Magnetism at the 
Clarendon Laboratory. In thisdepartment Messrs. Stocker and 
V. Jones will lecture on Mechanics, and will give practical 
instruction in Physics. In the Chemical Department Dr. Odling 
will continue his course on Organic Chemistry. Mr. Fisher will 
lecture on Elementary Inorganic, and Dr. Watts on Elememtary 
Organic, Chemistry. The laboratories will be open under the 
direction of Messrs. Fisher, Watts, and M. Robb. Dr. F, D. 
Brown will lecture (for the Professor) on Chemical Affinity. In 
the Physiological Department, in the absence of Dr. Rolleston 
through illness, there will be practical instruction given by 
Messrs. Robertson, Hatchett Jackson, and Thomas. Mr. 
Jackson will lecture on Circulation and Respiration; Mr. 
Thomas on Comparative Embryology ; Mr. Robertson will form 
a class for Practical Microscopy ; and Mr. Lewis Morgan will 
form a class for Human Anatomy. 

The following afternoon lectures will be given in the Museum : 
Prof. Prestwich will lecture on the Palzozoic Strata, and Prof. 
Westwood will give an informal lecture on the Arthropoda. 
In the University Observatory Prof. Pritchard gives two courses, 
one on the Lunar and Planetary Theories, the other on General 
Elementary Astronomy, once a week in the evening. 

At the Botanical Garden Prof. Lawson gives a course of 
elementary botany. 

At the Colleges which possess laboratories the following 
courses will be given:—At Christchurch Mr, Baynes will 
lecture on Thermodynamics; Mr. Dixon, owing to the 
illness of Mr. Vernon Harcourt, will continue his course on 
Inorganic Chemistry. At Balliol Mr. Dixon will lecture on 
Elementary Electricity and Magnetism; at Exeter Mr. Lewis 
Morgan will lecture on Histology; at Magdalen Mr. Yale will 
give a series of practical demonstrations on the Physiology of 
Circulation and Respiration. 

In the School of Natural Science Prof. W. A. Tilden has 
been nominated as Examiner in Chemistry; Dr. S. J. Sharkey, 
of Jesus College, has been nominated Examiner in Biology ; 
and Mr. J. W. Russel, of Merton College, has been nominated 
Examiner in Physics, 

An examination for a Fellowship in biological subjects will 
be held in March at University College. The examination will 
comprise papers of questions, and practical work in zoology, 
physiology, and botany, and will begin on Thursday, March 3, 
at 9 a.m, Intending candidates are desired to send in their 
names to the Master (if possible) before February 11, with a 
list of the subjects they offer for examination. They are also 
invited to mention any original work on which they have been 
engaged, and to send copies of any original articles or books on 


biological subjects of which they are the authors. Candidates 
are desired to call on the Dean with the usual testimonials and 
certificates on Wednesday, March 2, between 5 and 6 p.m. 


CAMBRIDGE.—The senior wrangler in this year’s Mathemati- 
cal Tripos is Mr, Andrew Russell Forsyth, of Trinity College, 
born in Glasgow in 1858, and educated at Liverpool College. 
The next two are Mr, Robert Samuel Heath and Mr. Ernest 
Steinthal, both also of Trinity. 

In connection with the list published in these columns in 
December, of those who had obtained first class honours in the 
Natural Sciences Tripos, the following statistics may be of in- 
terest :—In the year in which the Tripos was instituted (1851), 
6 names appeared in the list; the same number in 1861; in 
1871, 14; in 1878, 22 ; and in 1880, 31 passed the examination, 
obtaining honours. In 1869, 7 men passed the Special Ex- 
amination in Natural Science for the ordinary B.A. degree ; the 
number increased to 25 in the Easter examination of 1870; in 
1878 it slightly diminished to 22; and in 1880, 16 passed the 
examination in December. So far as these results go, it would 
appear that an increasing number of those students who declare 
for natural science at Cambridge aim at thoroughness in their 
work, and are not content with that superficial smattering of 
book knowledge which is considered sufficient in the examination 
for the Pass degree, 


M. FERRY, the French Minister of Public Instruction, has 
given an important character to .the next meeting of the 
schoolmasters of France. Each of the 40,000 teachers of the 
40,000 parishes (communes) is to meet with his fellow-teachers 
at the proper district towns. There are about 2000 of each of 
these little assemblies, each of which is to elect a delegate who 
will go to the chief town of the Department, and all these 
cantonal delegates are to appoint a department of delegates, who 
will go to Paris with a memoir written for communication and 
discussion before the pedagogical congress. All these memoirs 
are to deal with questions proposed by the Government. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Royal Society, January 27.—‘‘ Polacanthus Foxii, a large 
undescribed Dinosaur from the Wealden Formation in the Isle 
of Wight.” By J, W. Hulke, F.R.S. (Abstract.) 

A description of the remains of a large dinosaur, discovered 
in 1865 by the Rev. W. Fox, in a bed of shaly clay between 
Barnes and Cowleaze Chines, in the Isle of Wight. Head, 
neck, shoulder-girdle, and fore-ribs were missing, but the rest 
of the skeleton was almost entire. Some of the presacral ver- 
tebrae recovered show a double costal articulation. In the trunk 
and loins the centrum is cylindroid, relatively Jong and slender, 
with plano-concave, or gently biconcave ends. Several lumbar 
centra are anchylosed together, and the hindmost to the sacrum. 
The sacrum comprises five relatively stout and short anchylosed 
centra of a depressed cordiform cross-sectional figure. The post- 
sacral vertebrae have a stout short centrum, 

The limb bones are short, their shafts slender, and their articu- 
lar ends very expanded. The femur has a third trochanter, 
and the distal end of the tibia has the characteristic dinosaurian 

gure, 

The back and flanks were stoutly mailed with simple, keeled, 
and spined scutes, and the tail was also sheathed in armour. 

The animal indicated by these remains was of low stature, 
great strength, and probably slow habits. It is manifestly a 
dinosaur, and is considered to be very nearly related to Hylzo- 
saurus. 


Linnean Society, January 20.—The Rey. J. M. Crombie, 
F.L.S., in the chair.—The proposed alterations in the bye-laws 
were again successively read, voted for, and confirmed, excepting 
sect. 2, chap. viii. which was not confirmed.—Portfolios of 
British sea-weeds and zoophytes, prepared by Mr. W. Smith of 
Falmouth, were exhibited by the Rev. J. Gould.—A squirrel’s 
nest was also shown and commented on by Mr. Chas. Berjeau. 
—A new form of microscopical cabinet designed by Mr. W. 
Hillhouse of Cambridge was explained by him, its compactness 
and portability rendering it advantageous to teachers.—Mr, 
Thos. Christy exhibited some horn-shaped galls growing ona 
branch of Pistacia atlantica, and somewhat similar in appearance 
to those known in India under the name of ‘“ Kalera-singhi” 
galls, From the galls a substance exuded not unlike Chian 
turpentine ; Mr. Christy also drew attention to the fruit of the 


Feb. 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


331 


White Quibracho.—Notes on the Orchidez formed the subject of 
an important contribution from Mr, G. Bentham. Orchids early 
attracted the attention of botanists, though their popularity as 
objects of cultivation is comparatively a recent phase due in a 
great measure to Loddige’s celebrated collections and to the 
fashion set up by the Duke of Devonshire in his famous Chats- 
worth collection, a still further incentive being given by Chas, 
Darwin in his studies of their singular modifications of fertilising 
apparatus and its protecting perianth. In their classification 
Swartz’s labours (1800), thereafter the Kichards’, Dupetit- 
Thouars, and others, have been superseded by the influx of 
strange forms then unknown. Rb. Brown first established the 
principles of their natural arrangement on a solid basis, and 
Lindley’s grouping remains true till the present day, Blume’s 
observations must always take a high rank, and good analytic 
generic characters and illustrations obtain in the works of Sir 
W. Hooker, Wight, Griffith, Fitzgerald, and others. The 
younger Reichenbach has devoted great attention to the group, 
but we still lack from hima synopsis of contrasted characters 
adaptive to limitation of tribes and geaera. Dr. Pfester has of 
late studied their vegetative characters edvantageously ; while 
J. G. Beer proposes divisions founded on modifications of the 
labellam, unfortunately neglecting other structural peculiarities. 
In reviewing the Lindleyan system Mr. Bentham observes that 
the primary division based on the consistence of the pollen has 
not been replaced by any other equally good, although it is by 
no means absolute. He admits that the distinctions dependent 
upon the so-called cawdicles and gland can scarcely be maintained, 
independent of the confusion occasioned by the term having been 
applied to three different parts of the pollinary system, The 
result of Mr. Bentham’s extended examination of all growing and 
dried specimens procurable, and of the literature extant, is that 
he divides the order into five tribes and some twenty-seven sub- 
tribes, as indicated below, and he further gives lengthened ex- 
planations of these and of the more remarkable genera, &c. :— 
OrcHIDES: Tribe 1, Epidendree—Subdtribes (1) Pleurothallez, (2) 
Microstyleze, (3) Liparieze, (4.) Dendrobiez, (5) Erieze, (6) Bletiez, 
(7) Coelogyneze, (8) Stenoglossze, (9) Loeliex ; 77tbe 17, Vandee— 
Sub-tribes (1) Eulophiez, (2) Cymbidiez, (3) Cyrtopodiez, (4) 
Stanhopiez, (5) Maxillarieze, (6) Oncidiez, (7) Sarcanthez, (8) 
Notyles ; Zribe I/I. Neottiee—Sub-tribes (1) Vanilleze, (2) 
Corymbiez, (3) Spirantheze, (4) Diuridez, (5) Arethuseze, (6) 
Limodoree ; Zrite LV. Ophrydee—Sub-tribes (1) Serapiadez, 
(2) Habenariez, (3) Diseze, (4) Corycieze ; Zrzbe V. Cypripedice. 
—Jn a paper by Mr. Edw, J. Lowe on some hybrid British ferns, 
the author’s experiments lead him to believe that Polystichum 
aculeatum and P, angulare are forms of one species, and P, 
lonchitis, Lastrea recurva, and L, Alpina are merely mountain 
forms of P. angulare and ZL, dilatata respectively. Spores of 
Athyrium Filix femina were mixed, viz., vars. Victorie, with 
Jrizllie and proteum and var. Fiedie, with Pullerit and var. 
Howardie, with Du Boule, whence sprung varieties of singular 
beauty and vigour.—A revision of the genus Vidrissea was a 
communication by Mr, W. Phillips, which was taken as read. 


Geological Society, January 19.—Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Jabez Church, M.Inst.C.E., George 
Augustus Freeman, B.Sc. Lond., Charles Horsley, C.E., Edwin 
Simpson-Baikie, F.L.S., and Charles John Wood, M. Inst.C.E., 
were elected Fellows of the Society. William Henry Goss was 
proposed as a Fellow of the Society.—The following communi- 
cations were read :—Further notes on the family Diastoporide, 
Busk, by G. R. Vine, communicated by Prof, P. Martin Duncan, 
M.B. Lond., F.R.S. In continuing his review of the family of 
the Diastoporidz, the author stated that upon the question of 
the classification of the Polyzoa he is inclined to accept the views 
recently published by the Rey. T. Hincks in preference to the 
earlier ones enunciated by Prof. Busk. He now described the 
forms found in the Lias and Oolite, including Piastopora stroma- 
toporides, Vine (= dassica, Quenst.), D. ventricosa, Vine, D. 
oolitica, Vine, D. cricopora, Vine. ‘The author then proceeded 
to argue against the inclusion of the foliaceous forms in the 
genus Diastopora, and concluded by giving a definition of the 
genus, as now limited by himself.—Further notes on the Car- 
boniferous Fenestellide, by G. W. Shrubsole, F.G.S. The 
author pointed out the discrepancies in the descriptions given by 
Lonsdale, Phillips, McCoy, and King of the genus /ewestel/a, as 
represented in the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and 
Permian formations respectively. He then proposed a new 
definition of his own, and described the following species :—F. 
blebeia, McCoy, F. membranacea, Phil. F. nodulosa, Phil., F. 


polyporata, Phil., # crassa, McCoy, F. halkinensis, sp. nov. ; 
and in conclusion he pointed out that the few species to which 
he has reduced the Carboniferous Fenestellz find their repre- 
sentatives in the North American continent, only one really new 
form, 7. Norwoodiana, having been described there. 


Physical Society, January 22.—Prof. W. G. Adams in the 
chair.—New Member, Mr. G. Palgrave Simpson, B.Sc.—Notes 
on the construction of the photophone, by Prof. Sylvanus 
Thompson, were read by Prof. Rheinold. Prof. Thompson was 
led by experiment to question whether Prof. Bell’s form of 
photophone receiver was adapted to give the best results. Theo- 
retically he finds with a given maximum of incident light dis- 
tributed uniformly over the surface, the change of resistance in 
a selenium receiver will vary proportionally with its linear dimen- 
sions, provided its parts be arranged so that on whatever scale 
constructed the normal resistance shall remain the same. A cell 
nm times greater linearly each way will produce z times the varia- 
tion ia resistance for the same total amount of light. This 
follows from Prof. W. G. Adams’ law that the change in the 
resistance of selenium is directly as the square root of the illu- 
minating power. The author also finds that if the thickness of 
the conducting disks in the enlarged cell be kept the same as 
before and their number increased 7 times, the change of resist- 
ance will be 7° times as great as before. Selenium cells should 
therefore be as larze as possible, and the light should be dis- 
tributed over them uniformly, not focussed to a point. A conical 
mirror would therefore be better than a parabolic one to receive 
the beam, Such a reflector would be cheaper to construct, 
and- there would be a minimum loss by reflection, as the 
light would fall perpendicularly on a cylindrical cell parallel 
toits axis. To give the best effect, its angular semi-aperture 
should be 45°, and this will bring the front end of the cell in the 
same plane as the mouth of the reflector. Prof. Thompson has 
also constructed an improved cell by winding parallel wires on a 
cylinder of slate grooved with a double-threaded screw, and 
filling the interval between them with selenium. This form gives 
superior effects to Prof, Bell’s disk device. Mr. Shelford Bid- 
well said that long annealing improved the sensitiveness of 
selenium for photophone purposes. He got the best speech 
from cells of high total resistance, made with fine wire. The 
selenium should however have a low specific resistance. With 
the apparatus he showed at a recent meeting of the Society he 
could now transmit articles from NATURE and the Nineteenth 
Century so as to be heard, every word, by the listener. Prof. 
Guthrie suggested that amorphous phosphorus should be tried in 
place of selenium as a more permanent substance.—Mr. Glaze- 
brook, of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, read a paper 
on the measurement of small resistances and the comparison of 
the capacities of two condensers. In measuring small resistances 
by the Wheatstone balance the results differed on varying the 
resistance in the battery wires. According to Prof. Chrystal 
this was due to a thermo-electric effect produced by the hand 
at the middle point of the divided platinum iridium wire when 
the contact is made with it. It could be avoided by making 
this contact first and then making the battery contact. Mr. 
Glazebrook investigated the effect mathematically and experi- 
mentally, He suggested that the resistance in the battery wire 
should be kept small in comparison with the other resistances, 
and then the effect was inappreciable. It could best be elimi- 
nated by taking two measurements with reversed currents and 
calculating out. The author next considered the effect of a 
small leakage in comparing condensers by the Wheatstone 
balance method. The sensibility of this method is increased 
by increasing the two resistances and the resistance of the 
galvanometer. Dr. Hopkinson stated that he had found a 
modification of this plan to be very promising. For the battery 
he uses an induction coil, and for the galvanometer a telephone. 
Thus a high electromotive force and sensibility was obtained. 


Anthropological Institute, January 11.—Edward B, Tylor, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr, G, M. Atkinson exhibited 
some stone celts from British Guiana,—Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., 
gave a short account of the proceedings of the International 
Congress of Prehistoric Archeology and Anthropology held at 
Lisbon in September last, at which he had been present in the 
capacity of delegate from the Institute. One of the excursions 
was to Otta, to inspect the beds in which it was thought that 
traces of man living in Miocene times had been discovered. 
This discovery had been accepted by many members of the 
Congress, but Mr. Evans had not been satisfied as to the un- 


Boe 


NATURE 


(Feb. 3, 1881 


doubtedly human origin of the single bulbs of percussion on the 
flints, nor as to their actually forming integral parts of the beds 
in or on which they were found, nor as to the geological anti- 
quity of the beds themselves.—The President read a communi- 
cation from Mr. F. F. Tuckett, on the subject of a supposed 
diminution in the size of heads during the last half century.—A 
paper by Mr. W. D. Gooch was read, on the Stone age in South 
Africa. The paper was illustrated by a large number of speci- 
mens collected by the author. 


Royal Asiatic Society, January 24.—Sir H. C. Rawlinson, 
K.C.B., president, in the chair.—The following gentlemen 
were elected as Resident Members:—Colonel S. C. Law, E. 
H. Man, J. W. McCrindle; and Thomas T. Fergusson, Rev. 
Mr. Cain, Atinaram S. G. Jayakar of Maskat as Non-Resident. 
—A paper was read by Mr. Simpson, }'.R.G.S., on the identi- 
fication of Noagara-hara with reference to the travels of 
Hiouen-Tsang. Nagara-hara, he stated, was the name of 
the chief city of the Jelalabad Valley, as also of the Pro- 
vince, the éxtent of which, according to Hiouen-Tsang, was 
probably from Gundamack to the Khyber Pass. It was visited 
by Hiouen-Tsang and Fah-Hian, who describe some of the 
buildings in it, at the same time referring to its distance from 
Hidda (now Hada), and thus confirming the suggested identifi- 
cation. Mr. Simpson stated that when in the Jelalabad Valley 
with General Sir Samuel Browne’s column in 1879, he made 
many explorations into the Buddhist remains there, discovering, 
inter alia, an isolated rock covered with ruins of Buddhist 
masonry, bearing the local name of Bala-Hissar (7.2. “‘the 
Citadel”), the whole ground about it being strewed with stones 
and fragments of topes. Around it may also be seen a series 
of ridges, most likely the remains of the ancient defences of the 
town. Hiouen-Tsang states that it was four miles in circumfer- 
ence, and that it was six miles from Hidda, both of which mea- 
sures agree exactly with those made by Mr. Simpson. M. 
Vivien de St. Martin, who very nearly worked out a correct 
map of this district in his ‘‘ Mémoire sur la carte de l’Asie 
Centrale,” was, Mr. Simpson states, misled by the map published 
in the “* Ariana Antiqua.” 


Statistical Society, January 18.—Mr. James Heywood, 
F.R.S., in the chair.—The following papers were read :—On 
the method of statistical analysis, by Wynnard Hooper.—On 
the growth of the human body, by J. Towne Danson. 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, January 24.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—M. Berthelot presented a supplement to his recent work, 
containing various new measurements by himself and others.— 
The following papers were read :-—On the periodic development 
of any function of the radii vectores of two planets, by M, 
Tisserand. —On the theory of heat, by M. Resal.—On a new 
disease caused by the saliva of a child that had died of hydro- 
phobia, by MM. Pasteur, Chamberland, and Roux. Rabbits 
inoculated with the dilute saliva died within thirty-six hours; 
symptoms, loss of appetite, paralysis, asphyxia, congestion of 
trachea, with hemorrhage, swellings in groin, axille, &c. 
Other rabbits inoculated with saliva or blood from the first soon 
died also. The disease is attributed to a small organism (found 
in the blood) ; it is of rod shape, constricted at the middle and 
surrounded by mucous matter. It is like the microbe of chicken 
cholera, but has no effect on fowls. By artificial cultivation it 
is changed in form somewhat. Guinea-pigs, though so like 
rabbits, seem hardly affected by inoculation. Dogs that were 
inoculated died in a few days, but without symptoms of 
rabies. The disease seems distinct from rabies, but the 
authors do not at this stage affirm its absolute indepen- 
dence.—Experiments proving that thiotetrapyridine and iso- 
dipyridine have not the poisonous power of nicotine, whence 
they are derived, by M. Vulpian.—The mechanical contact of 
gneiss and limestone in the Bernese Oberland, observed by M. 
Baltzer, by M. Studer. M. Baltzer was requested by the Swiss 
Geological Commission to study the superposition of gneiss 
onthe Jurassic system in the region named. This'jhe did in 
1874-76, and his observations are given in the work now pre- 
sented.—M. Heer was elected Correspondent in Botany in place 
of the late M. Schimper.—Elements and ephemerides of comet 
f 1880 (Pechiile), by M. Bigourdan.—Presentation of a photo- 
graph of thenebula of Orion, byProf. Draper. The exposure was 
for fifty-one minutes.—On the divisions of certain homogeneous 
functions of the third order with two variables, by M. Pepin.— 
On the distinction of integrals of linear differential equations in 


sub-groups, by M. Casorati.—On the separation of the roots of 
equations, the first member of which is decomposable into real 
factors and satisfies a linear equation of the second order, by M. 
Laguerre.—On the development of elliptic integrals of the first 
and second species in entire recurrent series, by M. Farkas.—On 
the choice of unit of force in absolute electric measurements, by 
M. Lippmann. The electric standards and chief theoretical 
formulz being independent of choice of the unit of force, the 
choice is not of very great importance, and a change of it is 
always easy. The dyne presents no essential advantage in some 
cases. For unification of measurement in electricity and the 
rest of physics electricians might take for fundamental units the 
second, metre, and gramme.—Laws of liberation of electricity 
by pressure in tourmaline, by MM. Jacques and Curie. The 
two ends of a tourmaline liberate equal quantities of contrary 
electricity. The quantity liberated by a certain increase of 
pressure is of contrary sign and equal to that produced by equal 
diminution of pressure. It is proportional to variation of 
pressure, and independent of the length of the tcurmaline. For 
a given variation of pressure per unit of surface it is proportional 
to the surface.—On baryta used to obtain arsenic, with arsenious 
acid and sulphides of arsenic, by M. Brame.—Action of dry 
carbonic:acid on quick lime, by M. Raoult. When CO, is sent 
into (say) 100 gr. quick lime in a glass vessel which has been 
heated to the point at which the glass begins to soften, the lime. 
absorbs the gas very powerfully, and becomes incandescent, 
remaining so about fifteen minutes. A bibasic carbonate is pro- 
duced. It is practically impossible to produce neutral carbonate 
of lime by direct synthesis. Lime that has once been heated 
over I100° acts on dry carbonic acid at a much slower rate than 
before.—On the losses of nitrous compounds in manufacture of 
sulphuric acid, and a means of attenuating them, by MM. Lasne 
and Benker, The means referred to are a direct injection of 
sulphurous acid.—On the resistance to flexure of tempered glass, 
by M. de la Bastie. This is proved from experiments to be consi- 
derably superior to that of ordinary glass.—On cholesténe 
(cholestériléne), by M. Walitzky.—On the preparation of cro- 
tonic aldehyde, by Mr, Newbury.—On the A/us pilorides, or 
musk-rat of the Antilles, considered as a type of a new sub-genus 
in the genus Hesperomys, by M. »Trouessart.—Formation of 
the blastoderm in Araneides, by M. Sabatier.—Resection of two 
metres of the small intestine, followed by cure, by M. Koeberlé, 
—The wild vines of California, by M. de Savignon. There are 
five varieties of these, though all have hitherto been usually 
comprised under the name Vitis Californica.—On Theligonum 
cynocrambe, L., by M. Guilland. 


CONTENTS Pack 
Premistoric Evrore. By Prof. W. Boyp Dawkins, F.R.S.. . = 309 
THEABIOLOGYIOF PLANTS P< (ye, (5 ce be ee) =) ie) 3 No wo 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :-— 
Dust and Fogs.—JoHN AITKEN ofe/at, coh (oN apie Ns oe 311 
Professors Exner and Young.—Prof. C. A. Younc . 312 
The Flying-Fish.—Francis P. PascozE. . « - » + « « 312 
Mr. S. Butler’s ‘‘ Unconscious Memory.”—S. BuTLER_ . - - . 322 
Geological Climates.—Prof. SamuEL HauGuTon, F.RS.. . + + 313 
On the Spectrum of Carbon.—R- ... »« « - + + + + + + + 353 
A Case of Fascination —J. T. BRowNELL . PRPC So ahi 
Birds Laying in January.—Joun H. WILLMORE. . - - - + + 314 
Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost—T. Merrarp REapE 3r4 
“Mock Sun.”—J. E. H. Peyron (With Illustration) . ~ «+ 3I4 
On some Recent CHarts AND Maps oF Curves or Equa Mac- 
NETIC VARIATION OR DECLINATION . « »+ «© © » © = «© «= 3%% 
Tur ZooLoGIcaAL STATION AT NAPLES . . + + © «© © « © « 315 
CHARLES FREDERIC KUHEMANN. . ». 2 «© «© + © © + © = © « 376 
Tue Scientiric SocieTIES OF DuBLIN . - + + + + + = + 316 
JOHN ADONCAN «fe ff eo = ue = 0) = ib +) le 5) a 
CasseLi’s NaTuRAL History (With [iiustrationts) . ». . . « + 337 
Norges. . + 55285 Se 3% <0) epee) ©) oye tm eee eS 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 
The Observatory of Harvard College, U.S... + « + + + = 325 
Ceraski’s Variable Star T Cephet . . - + « of 4s 322 
Swift’s Comet r880¢ 2. . . . + 2s = = rare’ ic 322 
Baron Dembowski. .. . «| «+5 «© © © = « == = 322 
METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. - + « + - «+ = © = s © * 322 
GEOGRAPHICAL NoTES »- - + + 21+ + «+ * © * + # #5 © = 323 
Derp-Sza ExpPLoraTion, II. By J. GWYNN JEFFREYS, LLD.,F.R.S. 324 
Gas anp Evecrricity as Heatinc Acents, I. By C, Witrtaat 
Sremens, D.C L., LL.D., F.R.S. 5 oe, ven, oy a eec ene 
Tue RECENT SEVERE WEATHER . + + - * + 2 © © © + + « 329 
THe AURORA oF JANUARY 31. By Rev. Osmond FISHER; Joun 
Harmer; R. W. Taytor; £.H.; G. H. Prevost. . -. + + + 330 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCR - + + + + + + + 329 
a ieee 


Socrerigs AND ACADEMIES . + - + + + 5 2 2s 


VATS Rf 


333 


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1881 


ALPINE FLOWERS 
Alpenblumen ihre Befruchtung durch Insekten und thre 

Anpassungen au dieselben. Von Dr, Herman Miller, 

Oberlehrer an der Realschule I. Ordnung zu Lippstadt. 

8vo, 611 pp. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1881.) 

HE naturalist who studies animals or plants in a 
state of nature must often wish that he could test 
his conclusions experimentally by varying the conditions 
under which a given set of facts are observed. He 
wishes that he could change the food of a group of 
organisms, or the climate to which they were exposed, or 
that he could diminish the numbers of one sub-group 
while those of another were increased. As he cannot do 
this he is obliged to be content with treating the facts 
within his grasp in the spirit of an experimentalist, by 
comparing large classes of facts as they occur under 
different conditions. 

The present volume of Dr. Miiller’s is something more 
than a descriptive study of the means of fertilisation found 
among alpine plants, for it is an admirable example of 
the kind of comparative investigation to which we have 
alluded, and as such is an extremely valuable contribution 
to the general science of plant-fertilisation. 

It is a difficulty inherent in such inquiries that the 
observer, not having had a hand in varying the conditions, 
has to discover exactly in what way the environments 
differ in his two stations of observation. The most im- 
portant feature in the environment of a plant considered 
in relation to fertilisation is the manner in which it is 
visited by insects. Thus an extensive knowledge of the 
alpine and lowland insect fauna is a necessary part of Dr. 
Hermann Miiller’s inquiry. Nor is it eno.gh to study as 
an entomologist the relative frequency of bees, flies, 
butterflies, &c., in the mountains and in the plains ; but 
the observer must discover by long and patient observa- 
tion the different manner in which these insects visit the 
flowers in the two regions. The amount of this kind of 
labour condensed into the volume may be guessed at by 
looking at the long lists of insect-visits appended to each 
plant described, or arranged in the statistical tables in the 
latter part of the book. 

The collection of this mass of detail must have tried 
Dr. Miller’s almost unbounded energy and patience to the 
utmost. Several weeks in each of the last six summers 
have been devoted to the research; and the record of a 
single day’s work (which we are glad to find was a somewhat 
exceptional one) will show how well the time at his com- 
mand has been utilised. On this day, which was spent in 
the Heuthal on the Bernina, he was surrounded by flowers 
and insects from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., during which interval 
he made notes on the visits of 237 insects, 225 of which 
were numbered and brought home. Dr. Miiller adds that 
he was continuously spurred to the utmost of his powers 
by the consciousness that numbers of insects were making 
unobserved visits behind his back. 

Nor has his energy and ingenuity in classifying and 
tabulating his results been less remarkable, as will be seen 
by an examination of the twelve tables which are inter- 
spersed in the latter part of the book; in these tables 

VoL. xx111.—No. 589 


the visits of the various orders of insects to various kinds 
of flowers in different localities are numerically compared. 

It is not a little remarkable that the visits of insects, 
which to the ordinary observer appear so casual and 
lawless, should be capable of such strict and statistical treat- 
ment. But it should be remembered that treatment of 
this kind is only possible with the large mass of facts 
which Dr. Miiller has collected. 

The most striking facts in the book are those connected 
with the predominance of butterflies in the alpine revions. 
The changes which occur in the insect fauna as we ascend 
are briefly that the relative number of Lepidoptera and 
Diptera (especially the short-trunked flies) increase, while 
the Hymenoptera and Coleoptera, as well as the other 
unimportant kinds, diminish in relative number. Thus if 
we compare the number of different visits made to flowers 
in the lowlands and the alps,! we find the following pro- 
portions :— 


Lowlands Alps. 
Lepidoptera ... 100 614 
Diptera ... 100 109 
Hymenoptera 100 35'5 


the number of visits made by each order of insects in the 
lowlands being taken as 100, 

One marked result is that classes of flowers chiefly 
visited by bees in the lower regions are in the alps much 
frequented by Lepidoptera. Thus, of a hundred different 
visits made to Papilionacez in the lowlands 73 per cent. 
are those of Apida, 17 per cent. are made by Lepidoptera, 
so that in the plains they are markedly “ bee-flowers.” 
But in the alps only 4o per cent. of the visits made to 
Papilionacee are those of bees, and 56 per cent. are those 
of Lepidoptera. The same fact was observed in the 
Labiates and in a number of Composite flowers. The 
adaptations which alpine flowers exhibit in relation to 
this preponderance of Lepidoptera form some of the most 
interesting parts of the book; with some of the facts the 
readers of NATUREarealready familiar, through Dr. Miller’s 
admirable articles on the subject which have appeared 
in these pages. The principle which underlies these alpine 
modifications may be illustrated by two sections of the 
genus Gentian. In the first of these (Cselanthe) fertilisa- 
tion is effected by humble-bees-creeping inside the corolla. 
This necessitates so wide a tube that Lepidoptera can 
steal the nectar without effecting fertilisation. The 
second section, Cyclostigma, is characteristic of the alpine 
regions, and the flower has been adapted for fertilisation 
by Lepidoptera. The passage by which the nectar is 
reached is so narrow that the proboscis of the butterfly is 
obliged to touch the anthers, and to effect cross-fertilisa- 
tion. At the same time the tube in many of the Cyclo- 
stigmata is so much lengthened that only such a long pro- 
boscis as that of Macroglossus or of Deilephila can reach 
the nectar. It is probable that the first steps towards the 
development of closed nectaries were originally serviceable 
to the plant in protecting the nectar from rain; the flowers 
being thus rendered more attractive, because the visiting 
insects hada chance of finding undiluted nectar even after 
a shower. The lengthening of the corolla tube in the above- 
mentioned section of Gentians which protects the nectar 
from all but a few long-trunked insects, confers the same 
kind of advantage on the flower, for it is thus rendered 
highly attractive to those insects which can alone obtain 

1 Alpine as used by Dr. Miiller means above the tree-limits. 


Q 


334 


NATURE 


| Feb. 10, 1881 


the honey ; and they will fly from flower to flower, passing 
over the less attractive kinds. 

The genus Rhinanthus has been made especially inte- 
resting by Dr. Miller. Rhinanthus is essentially a ‘“ bee- 
flower,’ but &. adfinus has been modified so as to be 
fertilised by Lepidoptera. The ordinary entrance by 
which bees visit the flowers of Rhzzanthus cristagalii is 
here closed, and a special “ butterfly-door,’ a minute 
aperture at the tip of the upper lip, has been developed ; 
it is moreover advertised to Lepidoptera by a pair of violet 
flaps on each side of the entrance. The interesting point 
about this genus is the existence in it of a species which 
shows in what manner the flower of 7. alpinus (fitted for 
Lepidoptera) may have been developed out ofa“ bee-flower” 
such as &. cristagalli, This intermediate form (R. alecto- 
volophus) possesses a “‘ Lepidoptera-door”’ like that of 
R. alpinus, but has not closed the bee-door; it is therefore 
visited by both bees and Lepidoptera and cross-fertilised 
by both. In spite of our knowledge of this interesting 
intermediate form, the evolution of 2. adfinws remains a 
difficulty. For although it is adapted for the legitimate 
visits of Lepidoptera only, it is plundered by bees, who 
break in by the closed bee-door; and these useless 
or injurious visits are actually more frequent than the 
advantageous ones of Lepidoptera. It seems impossible 
to believe that a butterfly-flower could be developed 
under such circumstances, and the only explanation which 
Dr. Miiller offers requires the assumption of two changes 
of condition. First, the spread of the bee-fertilised 
ancestors into regions (such as the Heuthal in the 
Bernina) where they would be visited exclusively by 
Lepidoptera, and where the present form of the corolla 
might be developed. Secondly, we must suppose that 
the plant has spread into regions where it is visited by 
bees; or else the plant has remained stationary while 
bees have invaded its habitat. A similar kind of argu- 
ment is applied to those flowers, Polygala alpestris, 
various Papilionacez, &c., which, though structurally 
adapted for fertilisation by bees, are, in the alps, chiefly 
visited by Lepidoptera. They cannot therefore have 
been developed in their present habitat, but must have 
spread to the alps from the lowland regions.’ Dr. Miller 
compares flowers like Rhinanthus alpinus, Gentiana, 
(Cyclostigma), Zvica carnea, &c., to air-breathing verte- 
brates which have been derived from water-breathing 
ancestors, whose gills have been replaced by special air- 
breathing structures—the lungs ; while Riznanthus alecto- 
volophus corresponds to those intermediate forms which 
still possess both gills and lungs. We may perhaps, by 
an inversion of the simile, compare such plants as 
Polygala alpestris, a nearly unmodified bee-flower visited 
almost exclusively by Lepidoptera, to the Cetacea, which, 
though actually breathing air, lead almost the life of a fish. 

Dr, Miiller’s treatment of the genera Rhinanthus and 
Gentiana are instances of the manner in which many 
other groups are treated. Thus the interesting series of 
forms exhibited by the Caryophylleze suggest the possible 
steps through which bright-coloured flowers adapted for 
Lepidoptera, such as those of the pinks, have been deve- 
loped from the pale-coloured scentless flowers with 
unprotected nectar which are chiefly visited by Diptera. 


* This view is, for reasons given in the text, put forward merely as a 
speculation (p. 559). 


The present volume gives continual evidence of Dr. 
Miiller’s knowledge of the structure and habits of insects. 
But it does not (and this could not have been expected) 
contain anything like the valuable study of insects con- 
tained in the author’s “Befruchtung’”—a research of 
which we take this opportunity of expressing our high 
admiration, in which we shall be joined by those of our 
readers who remember the excellent articles by Dr. Miiller 
on insects which appeared in these pages. 

In considering the modifications of flowers produced by 
their relations to insects, we are prepared to find that, for 
instance, flowers fertilised by bees differ in shape from 
those visited exclusively by Lepidoptera, but it does not 
seem Primd facie probable that the colours should be 
characteristic of the two classes. Yet Dr. Miiller believes 
that this is the case, and shows how it may probably be 
connected with fundamental differences between the lives 
of bees and butterflies. A bee having to work not only 
for its own livelihood but also for its nest, is driven to a 
greater degree of activity than the self-indulgent butterfly. 
It is therefore important that a bee should work with 
more method, and thus it happens that bees usually visit 
one species of flower at a time, instead of passing from 
species to species and wasting time in the constant change 
of action. On this account it is obviously an advantage 
for a bee to be able to distinguish easily a large number 
of species, thus their unconscious selection has acted in 
the direction of producing great variety of colouring. It 
is indeed a remarkable fact that flowers which are visited 
by short-trunked insects are often characterised by a 
single colour (usually yellow or white) running through a 
whole group, whereas closely-related “ bee-flowers” are 
generally varied in colour. 

Here then we have a curious chain of cause and effect, 
beginning with the fact that bees have to provide food for 
their young, and ending with the varied colours of species 
of Labiates, Pedicularis, and Trifolium, &c.! If any proof 
is needed of the correctness of the first link in the argu- 
ment, it may be found in the curious fact that parasitic or 
cuckoo bees differ markedly from other bees in their 
habits,! visiting merely those flowers whence they can 
obtain enough honey for themselves with least trouble 
and doing it in a dawdling manner which meets with no 
approval from Dr. Miller. 

In the flowers adapted for or chiefly visited by Lepi- 
doptera, red and ina less degree blue are the prevailing 
tints. There seem to be some grounds for believing that 
butterflies prefer flowers resembling themselves in tint, 
Thus in sunshiny weather the orange-yellow flower-heads of 
Arnica, Senecio Doronicum, &c., and the orange-red ones 
of Crepis aurea and Hieracium aurantiacum are veritable 
‘“‘Tummelplatze’’ for yellow-red species of Argynnis and 
Melita. On the other hand the blue Phyteumas which 
decorate the alpine turf in thousands are especially visited 
by blue Lepidoptera (“ Blues ”). It is hard to say whether 
the butterflies have preferred flowers coloured like them- 
selves, because these tints have been already rendered 
attractive through sexual selection. Or whether wzce versa 
we may suppose that the colours of their favourite flowers 
have reappeared as sexual decoration; or lastly, that 

I P, 522; Dr. Miiller adds a caution that the number of observations on 


this point are perhaps hardly sufficient to warrant a well-grounded con- 
clusion. 


Feb. 1c, 1881] 


NATURE 


335 


some physical quality in their organisation makes certain 
colours attractive wherever they appear. 

To Dr. Hermann Miiller belongs the credit of studying 
not only the means by which cross-fertilisation is effected, 
but also the means for ensuring cross-fertilisation. He 
has indeed made this subject peculiarly his own, and 
has worked it out with valuable and striking results. He 
has pointed out that flowers which are incapable of self- 
fertilisation may run great risks of not being fertilised at 
all. Whereas the flowers in which self-fertilisation is 
possible are in no danger of becoming sterile, though they 
may lose the advantage of cross-fertilisation. He has 
shown that in many plants two forms of flowers exist, one 
adapted for cross- the other for self-fertilisation. This is 
the case with Lyszmachia vulgaris (“ Befruchtung,” p, 
348) ; when it grows in sunny places where it is freely 
visited by insects, it has large dark-yellow petals coloured 
red at the base, conspicuously coloured filaments, and 
sexual organs arranged so that self-fertilisation can hardly 
occur ; the other form grows in shady ditches, and has a 
pale yellow corolla and inconspicuous filaments, and the 
style is so short that self-fertilisation will be sure to take 
place if no insects visit the flower. 

The present volume, though it does not, as far as we 
are aware, add anything new in principle to the subject of 
self-fertilisation, contains many illustrations of the correct- 
ness of Dr. Miiller’s views. 

We cannot pretend to give, in the short compass of a 
review arvicle, any fair idea of the richness of Dr. Miiller’s 
latest work in new facts and generalisations ; we conclude 
by expressing a hope that it may before long find a 
translator, or what is a much greater difficulty—a publisher 
in England. FRANCIS DARWIN 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Lehrbuch der organischen Qualitativen Analyse. 
Dr. Chr, Th. Barfoed. Zweite Lieferung. 
gen: Andr. Fried. Hést und Sobn, 1881.) 

THE first part of this excellent book has already been 

noticed in these columns. The book is to consist of 

three parts: the second, which is now published, is 
characterised by the same completeness and exactness 
which rendered the earlier part so valuable as a reference 
book for the laboratory. The present part treats fully of 
the methods for detecting, in mixtures of varying degrees 
of complexity, alcohol, ether, chloral, neutral fats, volatile 
oils, sugar, gum, albumin, &c. 


Von 
(Kopenha- 


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, N- 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 
zs impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Mr. Butler’s ‘“‘ Unconscious Memory ” 


Mr. BuTLeER appears to have somewhat misunderstood the 
aim and scope of my review. He says, ‘‘It is true I have 
attacked Mr. Darwin, but Mr. Romanes has done nothing to 
show that I was not warranted in doing so.” Why should Mr. 
Butler have expected any such consideration of his case from 
me? If I were to assault a man in the street I should not expect 
the policeman to show that I was not warranted in doing so ; it 
would be for me to show that I was so warranted. Therefore, 
while acting the part of policeman in this matter, my only object 


was that which I stated, viz. the punishment of an offender, not 
the refutation of charges which I advisedly characterised as 
‘preposterous, and indeed ridiculous.” Truly it would have 
been a senseless thing had I fora moment imagined that such 
charges called for anything like a defence of Mr. Darwin, 
If ever in the world’s history there was a book which 
appealed to all classes of intelligent readers, that book is the 
“Origin of Species” ; and never in the world’s history has a 
book been more studiously criticised or produced a more tremen- 
dous change of thought. Can Mr. Butler therefore seriously 
believe, that after this book has thundered through the world 
for more than twenty years, it required him to show in what 
degree it had been anticipated by some of the most celebrated 
writers within the last two or three generations? Surely com- 
mon modesty and common sense, were either present, might 
alike have dictated caution in attributing to all the world an 
ignorance such as his own, which could be ‘‘thrown off the 
scent of the earlier evolutionists” by anything that Mr. Darwin 
could say. The publication of the ‘‘ Origin of Species” could 
only have had the effect, whether or not its author desired it, of 
directing renewed attention to the works of ‘‘the earlier evolu- 
tionists”’ ; and therefore, to put it on no other grounds, it is 
difficult to imagine a case in which any intentional concealment 
of the claims of predecessors could well be more impolitic. But 
the simple fact is that these predecessors had no claims to be con- 
cealed, further than those mentioned in my previous communica- 
tion ; that is to say, while they unquestionably and notoriously 
believed in the fact of evolution, they had nothing which 
deserves to be called a theory of evolution. Therefore, when 
Mr. Butler asks of the opening passage in the ‘‘ Origin of Spe- 
cies,” ‘‘ What could. ... . more distinctly imply that the 
whole theory of evolution that follows was a growth in Mr, 
Darwin’s own mind?” the answer simply is that this whole 
theory was a growth in Mr. Darwin’s own mind. And if Mr, 
Butler has not judgment enough to distinguish between the scien: 
tific value of Mr. Darwin’s work and that of ‘‘ the earlier evolu- 
tionists,” at least he might pay sufficient deference to the judg- 
ment ‘‘of all Europe and those most capable of judging” to 
explain why it is that the work of all the earlier evolutionists 
proved barren, while the work of Mr. Darwin has produced 
results unparal eled in the history of thought. 

But I am being drawn into a mere waste of time in thus dis- 
cussing what every one must feel does not admit of discussion, 
My object in now writing is not to justify Mr. Butler’s view that 
Mr, Darwin requires to be defended from any such nonsensical 
“attack” ; I write in order to withdraw two passages from my 
review. Mr, Butler says I was wrong in implying that he sup- 
pce Mr. Darwin to have entered into a conspiracy with Dr. 

ause ; he merely supposes Dr. Krause to have acted the part 
ofa ‘‘cat’s-paw.” In this therefore I stand corrected ; for while 
reading ‘‘ Unconscious Memory ” it never occurred to me that 
Mr. Butler’s view was other than I stated. The second passage 
which I desire to cancel is that which attributes a motive to Mr. 
Butler in publishing “ Evolution, Old and New.” He scornfully 
repudiates the motive which J attributed, and I therefore willingly 
withdraw the attribution—observing merely that I was induced 
to advance it because it seemed to present the only rational 
motive that could have led to the publication of such a book. 

Two other allusions to myself may be noticed before I end. 
Mr. Butler says, “I suppose Mr. Romanes will maintain me 
to be so unimportant a person that Mr. Darwin has no call to 
bear in mind the first principles of fair play where I am con- 
cerned,” To this I answer emphatically, No; but I do maintain 
that had Mr. Butler been a more important person than he is, he 
would not have regarded the mere omission of a foot-note of 
reference to his book, either as an intentional wrong to himself, 
or as a matter of such grave concern to the public. 

Lastly, Mr. Butler says, ‘‘I maintain that Mr. Darwin’s recen’ 
action and that of those who, like Mr. Romanes, defend it, has 
a lowering effect upon this standard [z.e. of good faith and 
gentlemanly conduct].” I am sure the world of science 
ought to feel very grateful to Mr. Butler for his kind solicitude 
on the subject of its morals and gentlemanly feeling. But 
he has already said in ‘‘ Unconscious Memory” that he does 
not look to ‘‘ladies and gentlemen of science” for much 
sympathy, seeirg that his case rests on ‘‘ facts,” and that 
among these ‘‘ladies and gentlemen” ‘‘ familiarity breeds con- 
tempt of facts’’; and I fear that in this his conclusion will prove 
better than his argument. For unless some facts and feelings 
are displayed other than those already exhibited, I cannot think 


330 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 10, 1881 


that either the morality or the courtesy of the scientific world is 
likely to be improved by the renewed exertions on their behalf 
which are about to be made by Mr. Samuel Butler. 
GEORGE J, ROMANES 
[This correspondence is now closed.—ED.] 


WILL it go any way towards calming Mr. Butler’s zeal in the 
cause of literary honesty to remark that at any rate fifteen years 
ago, and it may have been further back, Mr. Darwin prefixed to 
** The Origin of Species” a historical sketch of the progress of 
opinion on that subject? In view of this it is at least very #/s- 
leading on the part of Mr. Butler to quote the first sentence from 
the edition of 1859, and then to ask: “‘ What could more com- 
pletely throw us off the scent of the earliest evolutionists ?” as if 
in those days it would have made a pin’s difference to him, or any 
one else whom he includes in the ws, whether the scent of the 
earlier evolutionists lay strong or weak in the track. In these 
days he should know, if he knows anything of the history of 
opinion, that these predecessors of Mr. Darwin, with their great 
though varied merits, had been laughed down, and, for all 
popular estimation, might be said to have disappeared. To have 
relied in any way on their authority when Mr. Darwin’s book 
was first published might well have increased the mountain of 
prejudice against his views without in any way relieving the weight 
of ridicule that lay upon theirs. When the whole scientific world 
had been stirred to its foundations and when the whole world almost 
had been roused into paying attention to science by the awakening 
genius displayed in the new exposition de rerum natura, 
then, when it could best be done, Mr, Darwin turned ridicule 
into renown, and made all who could even remotely claim to 
have anticipated or shared his views participators of his fame. 
Not those who scatter seed at random, but those who cultivate it 
in chosen ground with indefatigable industry and prevailing skill 
should, I imagine, be considered the chief benefactors of man- 
kind ; and in like manner the fancy that may have fluttered use- 
lessly through many brains becomes at last a fruitful hypothesis 
or a wide-stretching theory when it falls beneath the cultivation 
of undaunted genius. T. R. R. STEBBING 4, 

Tunbridge Wells, February 7 


**Prehistoric Europe” 


WILL you kindly allow me a few words in reply to certain 
statements made by Prof. Dawkins in his notice of my ‘ Pre- 
historic Europe,” I shall not remark on the perplexing confusion 
which he gravely puts forward as an outline of my general argu- 
ment further than to say, in all sincerity, that I fail to recognise 
in it any trace of what that argument really is. The few obser- 
vations I have to make shall be confined chiefly to questions of 
fact. 

1. Mr. Dawkins states that I ask geologists to believe that the 
mammaliferous gravels with Paleolithic implements, which 
overlie the chalky boulder-clay of East Anglia, were covered 
by an upper and younger boulder-clay, which latter ‘‘has been 
removed so completely that no trace of it is now to be seen.” 
Now I do not believe that the gravels in question ever were 
covered by boulder-clay, nor have I written anything which 
could justify Mr. Dawkins in attributing to me an opinion so 
absurd. 

2. The account I have given of Victoria Cave was written 
after a careful perusal of all that has been said about it, and my 
proofs were submitted to Mr. Tiddeman, who reported on the 
explorations ; and therefore I have every reason to believe that 
my description is correct. 

3. The so-called Upper Pliocene deposits at Mont Perrier are 
described in detail by Dr. Julien, who shows that they are truly 
interglacial, being younger than the great ‘‘ pumiceous conglo- 
merate” with its striated stones and blocks, and older than the 
more recent moraines of the same neighbourhood. Dr. Julien 
remarks : ‘‘La période pliocéne supérieure doit disparaitre de 
la science.” He correlates the interglacial beds of Mont Perrier 
with those of Diirnten. 

4. The lignites of Leffe and Borlezza, according to Prof. 
Stopanni, who has carefully studied those closely-adjvining dis- 
tricts, belongs without any doubt whatever to the glacial series ; 
and his observations I have confirmed by a personal examination 
of the ground. They are generally admitted by Italian and 
Swiss geologists to be on the same horizon as the lignites of 
Diirnten. 

5. Ihave not asserted the interglacial age of the so-called 


Pliocene of Olmo, The newer deposits in the Upper Val 
d’Arno, which have usually been assigned by paleontologists to 
the Upper Pliocene, bave been shown by Prof. Mayer, after an 
exhaustive analysis of the evidence (as well stratigraphical as 
palzeontological) to belong to the Pleistocene; and as their 
mammalian fauna corresponds with the fauna of the lignites of 
Leffe and Borlezza, I have said that this fact is ‘‘ significant,” 
meaning thereby that the beds in question may very likely be of 
the same age as those near Gandino, 

6. Mr. Dawkins says that I deal with my subject not with 
the impartiality of a judge, but as an advocate, and that I have 
only called those witnesses which count on my side. I am 
probably as well acquainted with the literature of the subject as 
my critic, and after many years’ careful reading and study must 
confess that I have not encountered any evidence that contradicts 
my views. Had it been my fortune to come upon such evidence 
I feel sure that I should not have been so weak and foolish, or 
so untruthful as to have ignored it. Doubtless I have met with 
many forcible statements of opinion by Mr. Dawkins that he 
does not agree with me; but I may remind him (and not for the 
first time) that mere expressions of opinion, however emphatic, 
prove nothing save, as arule, the sincerity of him who utters 
them, 

7. My critic further ventures the statement that my classifica- 
tion ‘‘is based on ice, and ice only,” How very far this is from 
being the case any candid person may see who shall take the 
trouble merely to run his eye over the ‘‘ contents’’ of my book. 
Geologists rightly refuse to accept classifications which are 
based upon so narrow a foundation as a single series of pheno- 
mena, such, for example, as Mr. Dawkins’s attempt to classify 
the Pleistocene by reference to the mammalia alone—a classifi- 
cation which, while it draws the line that separates Pliocene 
from Pleistocene at the base of the glacial deposits in England, 
would carry the. same line, in France and Central Europe, 
through the middle of the glacial series. Or, to put it another 
way, if we accepted Mr, Dawkins’s classification, we should be 
forced to admit that the Glacial Period attained its climax in 
France and Central Europe during Pliocene times, but that it 
did not begin in England until after the Pleistocene had com- 
menced. And this is the classification which, as may be 
inferred from the tenor of my critic’s remarks, I ought to 
have adopted. 

Mr. Dawkins’s remarks upon my views in regard to the 
evidence of climatic changes I am sorry to say I do not under- 
stind. All that I am sure of is that he has quite failed to grasp 
my meaning—that he has attributed to me opinions which I have 
done my best to refute—in a word, that he has strangely mis- 
represented me. But I need not attempt to set him right, as 
those who are sufficiently interested in the matter are not likely, 
after this repudiation, to accept his travesty for a reliable 
presentment of my views. JAMES GEIKIE 

Perth, January 7 


On Dust, Fogs, and Clouds 


A cuRIOUS confirmation of Mr. Aitken’s theory of fog was 
brought to my notice a short time ago. A friend of mine residing 
in Streatham, struck with the perfection of the heating arrange- 
ments in American residences, fitted up his house with a similar 
contrivance. In the basement was a furnace and boiler which 
warmed pure air that entered from without, and circulated at a 
regulated temperature throughout the house. A water-pipe that 
was connected with the boiler became stopped by frost; an 
explosion ensued, and the house was filled with so-called steam 
(hot fog, in fact) from top to bottom. Wherever a cold surface 
(clock faces, metal fixtures, &c.) was found, even in the topmost 
bed-rooms, the vapour condensed and left behind it black carbon 
dust. Nowhere else was this dust found. 

Again, few persons who have read Mr. Aitken’s paper can 
have noticed the dejected appearance of the late beautiful snow 
on the first morning of the welcome thaw without thinking of 
his theory. What on the previous evening was a clean dazzling 
mass of exquisite white became a sooty speckled heap of dirty 
snow. As the sparkling crystals liquefied into water which 
drained away, they left behind the dust and carbon, ‘around 
which, according to Mr. Aitken, they originally formed, becoming 
by multiplication molar and visible. In the streets of London 
the masses of white snow rapidly became, as somebody remarked, 
like streams of cold café au lait. The whiteness rapidly disap- 
peared and left behind mere dirt. ; 

It may interest some of your readers to know that in 1537 


Feb. 10, 1881 | 


NATURE 


337 


Benvenuto Cellini was attracted to Paris from Florence in conse- 

quence of the much clearer and more beautiful atmosphere in the 

capital of France than in Italy! This fact is derived from the 

artist's autobiography. What a change now! Paris is rapidly 

becoming as bad as London. W. H. PREECE 
February 5 


In Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 195, I found an interesting abstract 
of a paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, December 
20, by Mr. John Aitken, showing ‘‘that dust is the germ of 
which fogs and clouds are the developed phenomena.” It isnot 
in the least the intention of this letter to diminish the value of 
the above-mentioned paper and experiments, but I wished to 
say that already, several years past, the same results were obtained 
by Messrs. Coulier and Mascart (1875) in France (Maturforscher, 
1875, p. 400; Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie, série 4, xxii. 
p. 165). 

In my ‘‘ Théorie cosmique de 1l’Aurore Polaire,” p. 36, I 
have already pointed out the great importance of these results 
on the relation between aurore and clouds and the danger of 
measuring the height of auroral displays by means of superior 
cloudy apparitions (p. 35). In fact, if the invisible aqueous 
vapour is able to reach much higher regions than terrestrial dust, 
and if auroree are in close connection with cosmical matter in a 
state of extreme division, Jike our theory attempts to prove, this 
cosmical matter is without any doubt enabled to form aqueous 
clouds in a much higher than the usual level. Moreover we bave 
already, in 1873, in the German journal Gaea (Koln und Leipzig, 
E. H. Mayer), asked: “ Welches wohl die weitere Rolle der 
Eisen- und anderen Dampfe sei, welche nach der Verbrennung in 
den oberen Regionen der Atmosphare schwebend bleiben und 
offenbar nach vollstandiger Abkiihlung einen Niederschlag von 
fein vertheiltem Eisenoxyd und anderen Stoffen bilden. Sollten 
diese Theilchen . . . keine Veranlassung geben konnen zu den 
von deutschen Beobachtern so oft wahrg-nommenen ‘ Polar- 
bandern,’ ! deren Zusammenhang mit dem Nordlicht schon 6fters 
dargethan ward, aber bisher unerklart blieb. Noch wiirden wir 
hinzufiigen konnen, mit Hinweis auf die Beobachtung Secchi’s 
eines angeblichen Nordlichts bei Tage (NATURE, October 17, 
1872), dass auch die bis jetzt ganz unerklarte, eigenthiimliche 
Gestalt der Cirri, mit ihren ganz regelmiassigen, auf ein gewisses 
Gesetz hindeutenden transversalen Verzweigungen, von der 
Anwesenheit feiner Eisenstaubkerne in den Eisnadeln m6. licher- 
weise bedingt ist. Bekanntlich schweben diese Cirri in den 
héchsten Wolkenregionen.” 

Tt will further be generally known that microscopic meteorites 
have been found in the centre of hailstones (Comptes rendus, 
1872, p. 683). H. J. H. GRONEMAN 

Groningen (Netherlands), January, 1881 


New Cases of Dimorphism of Flowers—Errors 
Corrected 


REVIEWING my notes and drawings of some years ago, I find 
the following new cases of dimorphism of flowers :— 

I. Syringa persica, L., cultivated in the garden of the Lipp- 
stadter Realschule, is gynomoncecious. In the same inflor- 
escence there are found a majority of hermaphrodite flowers of 
larger size and a minority of female flowers of smaller size. The 
hermaphrodite flowers are homogamous and short-styled, like 
Syringa vulgaris, L. (H. Miiller, ‘‘ Die Befruchtung der Blumen,” 
p. 340, Fig. 125). The anthers of the female flowers, which 
are much reduced in size and never contain any pollen, are 
inserted sometimes above, sometimes beneath, but commonly in 
the same height with the stigma. In some few of the small- 
sized flowers the number of the petals is reduced to three. 

2. Stellaria glauca, L., near Lippstadt, is gynodicecious, like 
St. graminea, L., as described by F. Ludwig (Bot. Centralblatt, 
No. vi. p. 28), some stems bearing small-sized flowers with very 
reduced anthers of white colour and greatly-developed stigmas, 
a vast majority of other stems bearing larger-sized proterandrous 
flowers with anthers of red colour. 

3. Sherardia arvensis, L., near Lippstadt, is likewise gyno- 
dicecious, its hermaphrodite flowers being proterandrous and 
larger-sized, with a corolla of 34-4mm. diameter, its female 


t Or “ Polarbanden.” My daily observations of these phenomena, 
beginning with the year 1875, are to be found in the German journal 
Wochenschrift, editor, Dr. Hermann J Klein in Kéln. 


flowers possessing a corolla of only 24-3mm., diameter, with 
extremely reduced anthers. 

4. Asperula tinctoria, L., produces in Thuringia so frequently 
flowers with only three petals that in those stems examined by 
myself by far the greatest part of the flowers were three- 
petaled. 

In my book ‘‘ Alpenblumen” Dr. Focke of Bremen has 
detected two errors of naming, which immediately ought to be 
corrected : the flower described and illustrated on p. 171 is not 
Empetrum nigrum, but Azalea procumbens, like that of p. 377; 
Cerinthe, in pp. 264, 265, is not mayor, L., but glabra, Mill = 
alpina, Kit. HERMANN MULLER 

Lippstadt 


Geological Climates 


I HAVE read with much interest and attention the letters 
that have appeared in recent numbers of NATURE on the 
subject of ‘geological climates,’ and although it must appear 
presumptuous on my part to do so, I shall endeavour to show 
that each of the distinguished writers of these letters may be 
somewhat in error onat least one point, which—if I am right— 
must materially affect the correctness of the conclusions they 
have come to. 

I think that Mr. Wallace, whilst very justly giving the Gulf 
Stream and other currents which égA¢ exist were certain lands 
submerged, credit for great influence in ameliorating the rigour 
of climate, does not take into sufficient consideration the fact 
that the waters of the Gulf Stream, although warmer, are, in 
consequence of holding much more salt in solution, heavier than 
the colder and less saline Arctic current. 

Some experiments show, as clearly as anything done on a very 
small scale can, that two waters brought as nearly as possible to 
the conditions of the Gulf Stream and the Arctic current domnot 
mingle when simultaneously poured into a long narrow gla-s 
trough; the Arctic water invariably taking its place on the 
surface. 

Supposing then that these two currents meet somewhere about 
latitude 80° or 81° N., the Arctic water flowing south—if my 
experiments are of any value—will retain its position on the 
surface and the warm current pass underneath, and thus lose all 
its heating influence on the air over a Polar area about 1000 
geographical miles or more in diameter, 

We can have no stronger example of this effect of difference 
of density of ocean water than is shown by the two currents 7 
and owt of the Mediterranean Sea. 

In NaturRg, vol. xxiii. p. 242, Prof. Haughton says, ‘* The 
thickness of this ideal ice-cap at the Pole is unknown, but from 
what we know of the Palzocrystic ice of Banks Land and Grin- 
nel Land must be measured by hundreds of feet, and its mean 
temperature must be at least 20° F. below the freesing-point of 
water.” 

With regard to both the above assumptions—which are in 
italics—I must beg to disagree entirely with the learned Professor. 
He appears to consider the so-called Palwocrystic ice as the 
normal state of the ice at.and near the Pole, and asa natural growth 
by the gradual freezings or increase of a single floe during a 
series of years; whereas I am of opinion that this mis-called 
Palzeocrys'ic ice is the result of a number of floes being forced 
over and under each other by immense pressure caused by gales 
of wind and currents. 

The western and northern shores of Banks and Grinne] Lands 
are peculiarly well suited for the formation of such ice-heaps, as 
they are exposed to the full force of the prevailing north and 
north-west storms, which pile up the ice ina wonderful manner 
on these shores and others similarly placed, for a distance of 
miles seaward. The whole of the west shore of Melvile 
Peninsula is so lined with rough ice of this kind that sledging is 
impossible. 

It will wholly depend upon the form of land—if any—at 
or near the Pole, whether or not any floebergs are there. If 
there is no Jand if is probable there will be few or none, as 
the ice will meet with no great obstruction, as it is driven by 
winds and currents. 

I have no authorities by me that give the thickness of ice 
formed in one season at or near the winter quarters of any of 
the Arctic expeditions, except my own in 1853-4 at Repulse Bay, 
latitude 66° 32’ north, 

The measurements of the ice—taken at some distance out in the 
bay where there was very little snow—and the mean temperature 
of the air are given on next page. 


IAT OLE: 


| ed. 10, 1881 


Monthly 
Mean Temp. F. 
+ —24°°5 below zero 


53 Ice thickness Increase 
December 20 ... 4 feet 7 inches ... _ 


1854 


January 24... 5 feetg inches...14 in 35 days... —30°6 ,, F 
February 25 ..7feetofinch ...16 in 32 days «.. —34"9 ,, x 
April 25% «. 8feet r}inch ... r2Zin 59 days «. — 8'5 4, 4» 
May 25 +. 8 feet 1tinch ...none 30days ... +24° above zero 


The above table shows that the ice ceased to increase in thick- 
ness some time between April 25 and May 25, after which it 
decreased rapidly ; but I was unable to decide what proportion 
of this decrease was due to thaw and evaporation from the 
surface, and what amount from the lower part of the floe that 
was under water : no doubt by far the greater effect was produced 
by the two first causes, 

Eight feet may perhaps be considered a fair or rather a high 
average of one winter’s formation of new ice (not increase of 
an old floe) over the whole of the Arctic Sea, because Repulse 
Bay, although in a comparatively low latitude, was particularly 
favourable for ice-formation, there being no currents of any 
consequence. Where there are currents, one year’s ice does not 
exceed three or four feet. 

The winter’s ice of 1875-6 at Discovery Bay, in latitude 
81° 40’ N., did not exceed, if I remember correctly, six feet in 
thickness, 

Even were these great compound floes, callel Palaeocrystic 
ice, found at or near the Pole, and of only the same thickness 
as those seen at Grinnel Land—instead of ‘‘ hundreds of feet” 
—they would not probably have nearly so low an average tem- 
perature all the year round as 20° F, below the freezing-point of 
water, because only one-sixth of their mass would be exposed to 
very low temperatures for about six months of the year, the 
surface being during that time protected by a more or less thick 
covering of snow, whilst at least five-sixths of their bulk was 
under water, having a temperature for the whole twelve months 
at or above the freezing-point of the sea. The question is, 
how far the very low temperatures of an Arctic winter do pene- 
trate a mass of, say sixty feet of ice, the surface of which is 
covered with a foot of snow, and fifty feet or five-sixths under 
water of a temperature at or above the freezing-point of the 
sea? 

From my experience on a much smaller scale, I do not believe 
that the atmospheric cold would, under the circumstances men- 
tioned, penetrate to the lower surface of ice sixty feet thick ; 
and if it does not do so there would be no increase to its thick- 
ness during winter.” 

An excellent example of formation of Palaescrystic ice, or 
floe-berg is afforded by the experience of the Austro-Hungarian 
Expedition under Weyprecht and Payer in the Barentz Sea in 
1873-4. ‘Their ship was lifted high out of the water by the 
pressure of the floes, which were forced over and under each 
other to a great thickness and extent in a very few days. 

The ship and her crew were helplessly drifted about for many 
months, during which the floes were frozen together into one 
solid mass, and the inequalities of the surface in a great measure 
filled up with snow-drift. JoHN RAE 

4, Addison Gardens, January 29 


On the Spectrum of Carbon 


IN addressing to you my former letter regarding Dr. Watts’s 
experiments on the spectrum of carbon, it was not my intention 
to enter on any-discussion concerning matters of opinion. The 
reference made in that letter to the difficulty of perfectly drying 
a gas so as to eliminate the ultra-violet spectrum of water had 
reference to gases at ordinary atmospheric pressure ; and the 
expectation a gas will be dried ‘*to all intents and purposes” 
by the use of a U tube of phosphoric anhydride goes far to 
explain the origin of different experimental results. The cogent 
experimental evidence which Dr, Watts justly demands may, so 
far as the relations of carbon and nitrogen are concerned, be 
found in our complete papers on the spectrum of carbon com- 
pounds in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. 

The supposition, which appears to be a difficulty to Dr. Watts’s 
mind, that traces of nitrogen in hydrocarbons give with the 
spark the spectrum of nitrocarbons, and that traces of hydrogen 
in cyanogen give the hydrocarbon spectrum, is not only ‘‘reason- 

t The mean temperature opposite to April is that of March and April 


combined, and it will be seen that the average increase of ice for each of 
these months is only 6} inches. 


? That the sea raises the temperature of the ice on its surface even in very 


cold weather, is evinced by the fact that a snow hut built on the ice is 
warmer than if built on the land. 


able,” but appears to me most consistent with the spectrum 

observations on the whole, and with the chemical regarding the 

formation and relations of acetylene and hydrocyanic acid. 
Cambridge, January 22 G. D, LIVEING 


Vibration of Telegraph Wires During Frost 


Mr. T. M. READE asks for an explanation of this pheno- 
menon. In Science Gossip for 1874, p. 254, there is a short 
article of mine on ‘‘ Frost Phenomena,” and one of those referred 
to is this curious vibration of telegraph wires. 

The explanation there suggested, which was only a guess, is 
probably incorrect ; but I think I can give the true one now, and 
it is, as usual in such cases, extremely simple. 

Hoar frost is only deposited in air which is nearly at rest; a 
strong wind shakes it down as it forms. But there is nearly 
always a slight air-current in one definite direction, and the ice 
spicules are built up ‘‘in the teeth” cf this current, that is on 
the windward side of the wire or twig. 

They always point towards the wind. When they have 
attained a length of, say, half an inch, if the direction of the air- 
current slightly changes, it may strike the comb-like fringe no 
longer on the points, but on the side, and, obtaining thus a 
leverage u,on the wire, will twist it round till the pressure is 
balanced by the torsion. If the pressure were absolutely constant 
the wire would perhaps remain in this position, but the very 
slightest variation of pressure would set up a vibratory motion, 
and this, I think, must be the true cause of the phenomenon. 

Birstal Hill, Leicester, February 5 F. T. Mott 


The Star Oeltzen, 17681 


THE star Oeltzen, 17681, whose spectrum was announced by 
me to consist mainly of a yellow and blue band (NATURE, vol. 
xxii. p. 483), proves to belong to the same class as the three 
stars in Cygnus discovered by Wolf and Rayet in 1867 (Comptes 
rendus, Vol. xv. p. 292). A curious feature of these spectra is 
that they resemble each other without being identical, the 
relative brightness of the lines being very different. A further 
study of them is much to be desired. 


Cambridge, U.S., January 24 EDWARD C, PICKERING 


Zeuglodontia 


IN consequence of my letter in NATURE, vol, xxiii. p. 54, the 
sub-editor of the Graphic was kind enough to send me the 
number of that paper containing the engraving of the animal 
seen from the City of Baltimore (not City of Washington, as I 
had misunderstood), and which is that of April 19, 1879. The 
sketch from which this was taken was sent by Major H. W. J. 
Senior of the Bengal Staff Corps, with the following description, 
viz. ¢— 

“On January 28, 1879, at about 10 a.m., I was on the poop 
deck of the steamship City of Baltimore, in lat. 12° 28’ N, long. 
43°52’ E. I observed a long d/ack object abeam of the ship’s 
stern’on the starboard side, at a distance of about three-quarters 
of a mile, darting rapidly out of the water and splashing in again 
with a sound distinctly audible, and advancing nearer and nearer 
at a rapid pace. Ina minute it had advanced to within half a 
mile, and was distinctly recognisable as the veritable ‘sea- 
serpent.’ I shouted out ‘Sea-serpent! sea-serpent ! call the 
captain!’ Dr. C. Hall, the ship’s surgeon, who was reading 
on deck, jumped up in time to see the monster, as did also Miss 
Greenfield, one of the passengers on board. Ly this time it was 
only about 500 yards off, and a little in the rear, owing to the 
vessel then steaming at the rate of about ten knots an hour ina 
westerly direction. On approaching the wake of the ship the 
serpent turned its course a little away, and was soon lost to view 
in the blaze of sunlight reflected on the waves of the sea, So 
rapid were its movements that when it approached the ship’s 
wake I seized a telescope, but could not catcha view, as it darted 
rapidly out of the field of the glass before I could see it. I was 
thus prevented from ascertaining whether it had. scales or not, 
but the best view of the monster obtainable when it was about 
three cables’ length, that is about 500 yards distant, seemed to 
show that it was without scales, 1 cannot, however, speak with 
certainty. The head and neck, about two feet in diameter, rose 
out of the water to the height of about twenty or thirty feet, and 
the monster opened its jaws wide as it rose, and closed them 
again as it lowered its head and darted forward for a dive, 


a 


Feb. 10, 1881 | 


NATURE 


339 


reappearing almost immediately some hundred yards ahead, The 
body was notwisible at all, and must have been some depth 
under water, as the disturbance on the surface was too slight to 
attract notice, although occasionally a splash was seen at some 
distance behind the head. The shape of the head was not unlike 
pictures of the dragon I haye often seen, with a bulldog appear- 
ance of the forehead and eyebrow. When the monster had 
drawn its head sufficiently out of the water it let itself drop, as 
it were, likea huge log of wood, prior to darting forward under the 
water. This motion caused a splash of about fifteen feet in 
height on either side of the neck, much in the shape of a pair of 
wings.” 

The italics in the foregoing and in the account of Capt, Cox 
are my own. 


Fic. 1.—The Animal as seen from the City of Washington. 


The engraving being a large one, of which the foreground is 
formed by the deck of the steamer, I have copied and send with 
this that portion of it which shows the animal; and in this it 
should be observed that besides the splash rising round the neck 
“like wings,” the separate splash at some distance behind the 
head is also shown, the position of which corresponds to that 
where the cetacean tail occurs in the figure sent by the captain 
of the Atushiu-maru, which accompanied my first letter. The 
foam around the neck, I think, may be due to the splash of the 
humeroid paddles which a cetacean should possess, 


Fic. 2.—The Animal as first seen from H.M.S. Dedaius. 


The sub-editor of the Gyaphic has also been kind enough to 
obtain for me tracings from the three figures given in the //dus- 
trated News of October 28, 1848, of the animal seen from the 
Dedalus, From two of these I have made the accompanying 
reductions to one-fourth (linear) of the originals; and the head 
portrayed in one of these (as seen when the animal passed close 
under the stern of the Dedalus) is evidently not reptilian, but 
mammalian ; and it seems to bear out the ‘‘bujldog appearance 
of the forehead and eyebrow ” which Major Senior describes in 
his case. 


Fic. 3.-—Head of the Animal as seen when passing passing under the stern 
of the Dedalus. 


From the 7imes of September 24, 1879, I cut the following 
notice :— 

“Capt. J. F. Cox, master of the British ship Pivvateer, which 
arrived at Delaware breakwater on the gth inst. from London, 
says:—‘On the 5th ult., 100 miles west of Brest (France), 
weather fine and clear, at 5 p.m., as I was walking the quarter- 
deck, looking to windward, I saw something @/ack rise out of 
the water about twenty feet, in shape like an immense snake about 
three feet in diameter. It was about 300 yards from the ship, 
coming towards us. It turned its head partly from us, avd went 
down with a great splash, after staying up about five seconds, but 
rose again three times at intervals of ten seconds, until it had 
turned completely from us and was going from us with great 


speed, and making the water boil all round it. J could see its 
eyes and shape perfectly. Itwas like a great ecl or snake, du? 
as black as coal tar, and appeared to be making great exertions 
to get away from the ship, Ihave seen many kinds of fish in 
five different oceans, but was never favoured with a sight of the 
great sea-snake before,’” 

In this account we have almost a duplicate of that of Major 
Senior in the dropping of the animal with a great splash into the 
water prior to its darting forward under it; while the boiling of 
the water around, which is so inconsistent with the motion of a 
snake in water (which I have more than once seen) evidently 
resulted from the strokes of the cetacean tail, and possibly also 
from those of the paddles, as in the case witnessed by Major 
Senior, The black colour also is described in both cases. 

Capt. Drevar, the statutary declaration of whom and of several 
of his crew I quoted in my former letter, has written to me, and 
sent me a printed account (which he says he has circulated) of 
the conflict which he witnessed, and of the subsequent appear- 
ance of the animal rearing its long neck out of the water. This 
is satisfactory as showing that the declaration I quoted was no 
hoax, as I feared it might have been; but Capt. Drevar rejects 
with disdain my suggestion that the animal he saw was not a 
serpent, though I puinted out to him that nothing having the 
form of a snake would possess in its submerged portion the 
buoyancy necessary to enable it to elevate so great a proportion 
of its length out of water, 

Judging from the figures which accompany this and my 
previous letter, it appears to me that the external form of the 
animal must resemble the well-known /Veisosaurus, if we 
imagine the hinder (femuroid) paddles of that Zxaliosaurian to 
be absent, and a cetacean tail (which is their homologue), to be 
present in their stead, Since in the direction of the Porfesse 
the cetacean in external form so closely simulates the fish, so it 
may in another direction simulate this Mesozoic marine saurian, 
or the gigantic Zlasmosaurus of the American Cretaceous for- 
mations, of which a nearly perfect skeleton is described by Prof. 
Cope as forty-five feet in length, the neck constituting twenty- 
two of this length. 

Whether, through your circulation, any light on this subject, so 
far as the character of the skeleton of Zewglodon cetoides is 
concerned, may be forthcoming from American palzeontologists 
remains to be seen; but there ought, I submit, to remain no 
longer with naturalists any doubt that a hitherto unknown group 
of carnivorous cetaceans, with necks of extraordinary length, 
inhabit the ocean, 

It seems to me also most probable that the conflicts which 
have been so often witnessed (and which Mr. Pascoe in his letter 
in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 35, says he himself twice witnessed), 
and referred to the Thresher, have been attacks by the animals 
in question upon whales, SEARLES V, WooD 

Martlesham near Woodbridge 


Ice Intrusive in Peat 


I HAVE just returned from a walk on the shore at Crosby, 
where I have been much interested in observing one of the effects 
of the late severe frost combined with the present thaw. 

At the Alt Mouth is a submarine peat-and-forest-bed, and, 
lying over it, I was much surprised to see innumerable slabs of 
peat, which an exathination showed in most cases contained 
interlaminations of ice. One slab measured 5 yards by 24 yards 
by about 8 inches thick, and right through its mass in a parallel 
plane with the surface, separating the peat into an upper and 
lower layer, was a slab of transparent ice, wedge-shaped, being 
4 inches thick at one side, diminishing to 1 inch at the other. 
How the ice got there was the surprising thing, as the peat is 
very hard and compact, and about 18 inches thick. The holes 
or places from which the sea had quarried these frozen slabs 
were plainly to be seen, and I noticed round one of them that 
the edges or lips of the peat had been forced up by ice inserting 
itself between the laminz. 

A good deal of water ordinarily oozing through the sandhills 
flows or trickles over the surface of the peat, and as nearly six 
inches of rain fell in December last, aud the two previous months 
were wet, the quantity of water would be abnormally increased. 
In some way or other it must have percolated along the peaty 
laminz, and by gradual accretion the frozen water has forced up 
the Jayer of peat above it. This has occurred at neaps, and the 
late high tides, assisted by the thaw and the decreased specific 
gravity of the mass, has lifted the frozen slabs of peat and 


340 


inclosed slabs of ice, and torn them from the unfrozen and softer 
peat below. The slabs may be compared to sandwiches, the ice 
representing the meat. The ice is evidently fresh-water ice, and 
possesses a striated prismatic structure at rizht angles to its 
surface. In places it protrudes like a tongue from the peat, and 
is then occasionally perforated with round holes evidently melted 
through it. 

Is it not possible that some of the beds mentioned by geolo- 
gists in Russia and North America, consisting of alternate layers 
of ice and earth or gravel, may have been formed similarly by 
percolation of water, and not be truly bedded, but intrusive ? 

T. MELLARD READE 

Park Corner, Blundellsands, January 30 


P.S.—Since writing the above I have again visited the shore 
to-day, but all the slabs have been rafted out to sea by the high 
tide. With my geological hammer I broke off some of the 
frozen peat 772 sit, and find the explanation given to be sub- 
stantially correct ; but I also found that the upper layer of peat 
was minutely and beautifully interlaminated with ice. Itis quite 
evident that the ice is the frozen water which has percolated 
from the sand-hills. 

January 31 


The Squirrel Crossing Water 


NEVER haying heard of the squirrel taking to the water, I send 
the following authentic communication, I had heard the story 
told by another person, and thinking it of sufficient interest I 
requested her to get it in detail from the lady under whose 
personal observation it had come. This the latter has most 
kindly complied with, and I forward it, trusting it may prove of 
interest to some of the readers of NATURE interested in the 
habits of animals. Loch Voil, in Perthshire, near Balquhidder, 
is about four miles in length, with a mean breadth of about one- 
third of a mile—a considerable extent of water for so small a 
rodent to face and cross, in search, I suppose, of new nutting 
grounds, 

H. H. Gopwin-AuUSTEN 

Thalford House, near Guildford, February 5 


“ Mountguhanie, Cupar Fife 

** When rowing two ladies down Loch Voil, one afternoon last 
August, I observed what looked like a little stripe of red brown 
fur in the middle of the loch. On coming nearer we saw that it 
was a squirrel swimming accoss, its tail lying flat on the water. 
We then heard its claws scratching on the side of the boat, and 
to our surprise the little bedcaggled sprite appeared on the bow 
of the boat. It was evidently tired, for it sat quite still, staring 
at us and panting. I rowed on towards the shore, hoping to be 
able to ferry it across, but aftera few minutes it scrambled down 
to the water again and resumed its journey, probably frightened 
at the sight of the collie dog who was in the boat. We watched 
it swimming till it looked like a small speck close to the shore, 
but lost sight of it before it landed.” 


SEA-WAves.—E. B. P., 18, Cromwell Place, S,W., asks: 
Can any reader of NATURE inform meas to in what books or 
pamphlets I can obtain the best information relating to the 
height and length of sea-waves, especially when considered in 
relation to the navigation of vessels ? 


BARON NORDENSK/JOLD IN FINLAND? 


ye is known, Baron Nordenskjéld was born in Finland, 

and completed his studies at the University of Hel- 
singfors. After his recent visit to St. Petersburg, where 
the celebrated explorer was made much of, he promised 
to stop at Helsingfors a few days, for the first time after 
his successful discovery of the North-East Passage and his 
circumnavigation of the Eurasian Continent. Having pre- 
viously paid a short visit to his paternal hall(Frugard), Nor- 
denskjéld, accompanied by the Baroness his wife, arrived 
at Helsingfors on the evening of January 13. He was 
received at the railway station by a deputation consisting 
of the Rector of the University, Mr. H. Lagus; the 


* From a Helsingfors Correspondent. 


WA TORE 


[F2d. 10, 1881 


President of the Finnish Society of Science, Mr. G. 
Mittag-Leffler; the Secretary, Mr. L. L. Lindeléf, and 
others, as well as a select chorus of students, who sang a 
few patriotic songs. Before the station-house a crowd 
numbering thousands of people stood cheering and 
greeting him. 

On January 14 the Society of Science had arranged a 
special meeting, to which friends and followers of science 
had been invited, and at which were present members of 
Government, professors of the University, a few of the 
higher military dignitaries, and a great many fashionables 
of the town, ladies as well as gentlemen. After an inter- 
esting lecture “On the Religions of the Populations of 
Siberia” by the linguist, Prof. A. Ahlquist, the President 
of the Society of Science, Mr. Mittag-Leffler, presented 
to Baron Nordenskjéld a gold meda! struck by order of 
the Society of Science, in memory of their renowned 
countryman and honorary member, and of the remarkable 
historical event. The presentation of the medal was 
accompanied by an address, in which it was stated that 
the Society of Science, being neither wealthy nor nume- 
rous, and well remembering to what a little nation it 
belonged, could not and would not try to compete with the 
many eminent scientific societies which had already 
honoured him with their grants and gifts. Yet the Society of 
Science hoped Baron Nordenskjéld would kindlyacceptthis 
tribute of admiration, as having issued from his native 
country. Nordenskjold expressed his gratitude in a 
hearty manner, and then gave a lecture on his ‘‘ Observa- 
tions of the Northern Lights at Behring Strait,” which 
greatly excited the interest of his audience. Nordenskjéld 
was then entertained at dinner by the Scientific Society 
and the University, at which entertainment toasts were 
given in honour of Baron Nordenskjéld, the Baroness, 
and the members of the Vega Expedition. At the close 
of the dinner a torchlight procession, arranged by students, 
appeared, paying homage to their celebrated countryman 
by singing and cheering. 

The Helsingfors Skating Club having meanwhile 
adorned its skating-rink on the ice with electric lights 
and innumerable lamps and torches, then had a visit from 
the Baron. He was received with singing by a student 
chorus, followed by the appearance of two polar bears 
with a chair on skates, who, giving him kind regards from 
Spitzbergen and Siberia, took him at a tremendous rate 
up to a pretty little ice temple, where he was greeted by 
twelve young ladies and gentlemen, all dressed in the 
picturesque costumes of the Chukchis. These gave him 
a hearty welcome, and then, with the bears, per- 
formed a characteristic dance on skates. Surrounded by 
thousands of cheering spectators, he was taken back to 
his carriage again by the bears. In expressing his grati- 
tude Nordenskjéld said that if the Chukchis, and especially 
the ladies, had been so civilised he would most certainly 
not have left them so soon. 

The following day he was invited to dinner by the 
Governor-General of Finland, Count Adlerberg, and in 
the evening the inhabitants of Helsingfors gave a splendid 
banquet, at which toasts were given in honour of the 
Emperor Alexander II. and King Oscar II., followed by 
a speech by Prof. L. L. Lindeléf, relating Baron Nord- 
enskjéld’s great deed, and inviting the audience to drink 
to his health. Other toasts were also given in honour of 
the Baroness Nordenskjéld, the promoters and members 
of the Vega Expedition, the Fatherland, &c. Norden- 
skjéld’s appearance in Finland excited great rejoicing 
everywhere, but amid that rejoicing the melancholy 
thought occurred to one’s mind that he had been denied 
the opportunity of living, and acting, and working in his 
own country. ; 

On January 16, early in the morning, he left Helsing- 
fors; once more the singing of the students sounded on 
the platform amid loud cries of “ Hurrah” from friends 
and admirers. 


Feb. 10, 1881 | 


THE FOHN DUNCAN FUND 


R. JOLLY informs us that the subscriptions sent to 
form a fund to raise this old botanist above the 
need of parochial relief and provide for his comfort during 
his remaining years, has already reached a considerable 
sum, all which has been sent spontaneously from all parts 
of the country, without the formation of any committee 
or pressure whatever. More is coming in daily, and the 
old man’s future independence would seem in the end to 
be pretty well assured. The sympathy shown in the case 
has been widespread and of the warmest kind. Her 
Majesty the Queen has graciously sent 1o/., and the Duke 
of Argyll, who sent 1o/. at first, writes that it is a sub- 
scription which ought to be zealously supported by all 
who are interested in the pursuit of science, and who 
honour the high moral and intellectual qualities by which 
John Duncan is distinguished. All this speaks well for 
the generosity of the country, but more is required. The 
case is without doubt unusually deserving. 
The following is a list of the subscriptions which have 
been received at this office during the past week :— 


£5. d.| iB eh 

Amount previously | Clay, Sons, & Taylor 1 I Oo 
SINOUNCECM IN 05) Ol MreiSim: .5. a0... 1) OmO 
Matthew Gray 2 © O} Henry Stretch ... oO) 2710 
F. A, Hamilton 2 0 0} A.A, Rathbone to 0 
Received in Regis- A. G. a0 ee peaks) © 
tered Letter 2 0 O Sidney Billing... 010 0 
Jas. Greig o 10 oj A, W. Agnew... I 0,0 
George Russell © 10 0} Orry’s Dale = 0) Sig 
Thomas Clarke I 1 ©O,| John Renton Dunlop. I 0 0 
A Friend o 10 O| Prof.Prestwich,F.R.S.2 2 0 
L. M. 3 3 ©} George Knott ... ya! 1) 
Ido WE ion aes ON 2G) EL EOSOINS oe .010 0 
Miss Wilson ... o 5 © Mrs. Henry 538s (Co)y 1) 
Tsaholt Fraser o 3 0 Miss Weir ee OOM O 
Mrs. Tuckwell 010 O An Old Woman o 2 6 
Alfred Shipley Teele 2O}|AuuEy. aes ONO, LO) 
E. H. Millar ... Ti £07, O}|)) 0B. B: 2210) 
John Noble 5 Oy 0) — 
AWise os 3 vooee 010 Oo! 48 6 0 


EXPERIMENTS ON ICE, UNDER LOW 
PRESSURES 
ERTAIN theoretical considerations on the relations 
of the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter 
led me three or four years ago to the speculation that in 
a perfect vacuum the liquid state would be impossible, 
and that under this condition it might be possible to raise 
bodies to temperatures above their ordinary melting- 
points. 
friends at the time, but they naturally considered them 
as speculations which would not be verified by experi- 
ment. From the pressure cf other work the subject was 
for the time dropped, and it was not till the autumn of 
1879 that an experimental investigation was commenced. 
The first substance tried was sulphur, but this was ulti- 
mately found to be unsuitable, as under low pressures, 
though it apparently boiled as low as 130° C,, yet at that 
or a little above that temperature it began to froth. 
Naphthalene was then tried, but as the pressure at which 
the boiling-point fell below the melting-point was less 
than about 7 mm., it was not easy to wzazuztazn the pres- 
sure at a sufficiently low point. Mercuric chloride how- 
ever, which was the next body tried, yielded better 
results. 

Mercuric chloride melts at 288°, resolidifies at 270° 
275°, and boils at 303°. About 4o grammes of the pure 
compound were placed in the tube A (Fig. 1), and a ther- 
mometer arranged with its bulb imbedded in the salt. 
The drawn-out end of the tube was connected by stout 
india-rubber tubing with one branch of the three-wayed 
tube B, whilst the other was attached to the manometer C. 
B was connected with a Sprengel pump fitted with an 


~ 


NATURE 


These ideas were mentioned to one or two, 


341 


arrangement for regulating the pressure. When the pres- 
sure had been reduced by means of the pump to below 420 
mm., the mercuric chloride was strongly heated by the 
flame of a Bunsen’s burner, with the following results :— 
Not the slightest fusion occurred, but the salt rapidly 
sublimed into the cooler parts of the tube, whilst the 
unyolatilised portion of the salt shrank away from the 
side of the tube, and clung tenaciously in the form of a 
solid mass to the bulb of the thermometer, which rose 
considerably above 300° C., the mercury shooting up to 
the top of the stem. After slight cooling, the air was let 
in, and under the increased pressure thus produced the 
salt attached to the bulb of the thermometer at once 
melted and began to boil, cracking the tube at the same 
time. 

The experiment was next varied as follows :—About the 
same quantity of chloride was placed in the tube as before 
and heated by the full flame of a Bunsen’s burner, The 


lamp was applied during the whole of this experiment, 
The 


and the size of the flame kept constant throughout. 


mercuric chloride first liquefied and then boiled at 303° 
under ordinary pressure, and whilst the salt was still 
boiling the pressure was gradually reduced to 420 mm., 
when the boiling-point slowly fell to 275°, at which point the 
mercuric chloride suddenly began to solidify, and at 270° 
was completely solid, the pressure then being 376mm. 
When solidification was complete the pump was stopped 
working, but the heat still continued to the same extent 
as before. The salt then rose rapidly to temperatures 
above that at which a thermometer could be used, but not 
the least sign of fusion was observed. From the comple- 
tion of the solidification to the end of the experiment the 
pressure remained at about 350mm. 

The above experiment, which was repeated three times, 
shows therefore that when the pressure is gradually reduced 
from the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere to 420mm., 
and the boiling-point simultaneously from 303° to 275", the 
salt solidifies while it is still boiling, notwithstanding that 
it is being strongly heated at the same time, and that, 
after solidification is complete at 270°, the temperature 
then rises far above the ordinary boiling-point (303°) of 
the substance without producing any signs of fusion 
Under ordinary circumstances mercuric chloride melts at 


342 


NATURE 


[/eb, 10, 1881 


288° and re-solidifies at [270°-275°, z.e. at a temperature 
identical with that at which it solidifies under diminished 
pressure as above described. 

After the above experiments had been made the 
investigation had to be unavoidably deferred, and was 
not resumed till last autumn, when a large number of 
determinations were made of the boiling-points of several 
different substances under various pressures, and from 
these was drawn the general conclusion described in a 
letter to NATURE (vol. xxii. p. 434), in September last, 
yiz.: “In order that any solid substance may become 
liquid it is necessary that the pressure be adove a certain 
point, called the critical pressure, otherwise it cannot be 
melted, no matter how great the heat applied.” Assuming 
the truth of this conclusion, I set to work to apply it in the 
case of ice, as it would undoubtedly have the greatest 
interest in connection with that substance. On this 
account my experiments since the end of August have 
related almost solely to ice. 


4. 


a a 


Fig. 2. 


The problem to be solved was whether ice could be 
prevented from melting by maintaining the pressure 
below its critical pressure, 7.2. the tension of its vapour at 
the melting-point, and that whatever the intensity of the 
heat applied. Now the theory of critical pressure gives 
us no information as to whether the ice, on non-fusion, 
would or would not rise above its ordinary melting-point 
when strongly heated, but as this result had been pre- 
viously attained in the case of mercuric chloride it 
appeared not impossible that the ice zzght become hot. 

The question as to the rise of temperature of the ice 
above o° , though at first but a side issue of the investiga- 
tion, became from its more especial interest the chief 
object of inquiry, and the experiments which have been 
made and those which are at present in hand relate almost 
solely to this point. 

The great difficulty to be overcome was to maintain the 
pressure in the containing vessel below 4°6mm., ze. the 
tension of aqueous vapour at the freezing-point ; for it 
will be easily understood that if the ice be but slightly 


heated the quantity of vapour given off would soon be 
sufficient to raise the pressure above that point. After 
several fruitless attempts, the following plan, involving 
the principle of the cryophorus, was adopted :—A strong 
glass bottle, such as is used for freezing water by means 
of Carre’s pump, was fitted with a cork and glass tube c 
(Fig. 2) and the cork well fastened down by copper wire. 
A and c were then filled with wet mercury (the water 
facilitating the removal of the air-bubbles) and C con- 
nected with the end of the tube D E by means of the stout 
india-rubber tubing B, a thermometer having been pre- 
viously attached by the wire x to the lip of the tube at B. 
The tube DE was about one inch diameter, and about 
four feet long from the bend to the end E; after connec- 
tion with C it was completely filled with mercury and the 
whole inverted over the mercurial trough F, as shown in 
the figure, when the mercury fell to o, the ordinary height 
of the barometer. The mercury was run out of A by 
tilting up the bottle and inclining the tube DE. By this 
means a Torricellian vacuum was obtained from A to 0. 
D was next brought to the vertical, and the bottle A placed 
in the trough Pp. A tin bottle G without a bottom was 


oF 
Bunsens Z 
Burner 


Fig. 3. 


fitted with a cork, so that it might slide somewhat stiffly 
along DE. . 

To begin with, the tin bottle was placed in the position 
G and filled with a freezing mixture of salt and ice. Some 
boiled water was then passed up into the tube DF, suffi- 
cient to form a column at M about two inches deep. The 
thermometer H had been previously arranged sothat its bulb 
might be one or two inches above the surface of the water M. 
The bottle A was next surrounded by a good quantity of 
freezing mixture, in order that any vapour given off from 
the water at M might be condensed in A as fast as it was 
formed, and thus the internal pressure might never be 
more than about 10 to 1.5 mm. When A had been suf- 
ficiently cooled, which required about fifteen minutes, the 
tin vessel G was slid down the tube DE, and its freezing 
mixture removed. The water at M had then solidified to 
a mass of ice, which on heating with the flame of a Bun- 
sen’s burner, melted either wholly or partially, and the 
liquid formed began at once to boil. The fusion com- 
menced first at the bottom of the column of ice, whereas the 
upper part fused only with difficulty, and required rather 
a strong heat. The fusion in this case was probably due 


Feb. 10, 1881 | 


NATURE 


343 


to the steam evolved from the lower portions of the ice 
column being imprisoned and unable to escape, and 
hence producing pressure sufficient to cause fusion. 
When the greater part of the ice had been melted, the 
tube was tightly clasped by the hand, the heat of which 
was sufficient to produce a somewhtt violent ebullition. 
The liquid in boiling splashed up the side of the tube 
and on to the bulb of the thermometer, where it froze 
into a solid mass, as represented in Fig. 3. By this means 
the ice was obtained in moderately thin layers. The tube 
at the points indicated by the arrows was then strongly 
heated by the flame of a Bunsen’s burner with the follow- 
ing results :—The ice attached to the sides of the tube at 
first slightly fused, because the steam evolved from the 
surface of the ice next the glass, being imprisoned 
between the latter and the overlying strata of ice, could 


not escape, and hence produced pressure sufficient to | 


cause fusion, but as soon as a vent-hole had been made 
fusion ceased, and the whole remained in the solid state, 
and neither the ice on the sides of the tube nor that on 
the bulb of the thermometer could be melted, no matter 
how great the heat applied, the ice merely volatilising 
without previous melting ; thus proving that if the pres- 
sure. be maintained below the critical pressure the ice 
cannot be melted. In different experiments the thermo- 
meter rose to temperatures considerably above the 
melting- and even the boiling-point of water, the highest 
temperature reached being 180° C., when the ice had 
either wholly volatilised or had become detached from 
the bulb of the thermometer, but in no case did the ice 
attached to the thermometer melt when these tempera- 
tures had been reached, as erroneously stated in some 
reports of my experiments. The ice attached to the ther- 
mometer did not partially fuse at the commencement of the 
heating, because, the heat reaching the outer surface of 
the ice first, evaporation could take place from a free sur- 
face and the vapour not become imprisoned, as was the 
case with the ice attached to the sides of the tube. These 
experiments were repeated many times with the same 
result, except in one case in which the heat applied had 
been very strong indeed, and the ice attached to the sides 
cf the tube fused completely. On removing the lamp 
however for a few seconds the water froze again, notwith- 
standing that the portion of the glass in contact with it 
was so hot that it could not be touched without burning 
the hand. 

The chief conditions necessary for success appear to be 
(1) that the condenser A (Fig. 2) is sufficiently Jarge to 
maintain a good vacuum. For the size of apparatus 
given above it ought to be about 1 litre; (2) that the ice 
is not in too great mass, but arranged in thin layers. 
Nor must it expose too great a surface for evaporation, 
otherwise the steam is liable to be evolved more quickly 
than it can be condensed, and the pressure would there- 
fore rise above the critical pressure. Further, in the case 
where the heat is applied to the under surface of the 
layers of ice, the latter must be sufficiently thin to allow 
of a vent-hole being formed for the escape of the steam 
coming from below, if not, fusion occurs. When the heat 
is applied to the free surface of the ice the layers may be 
much thicker. In order to get the temperature to rise 
above the ordinary melting-point of ice, it is necessary 
that a very strong heat be applied, otherwise all the heat 
is used to convert the ice into steam without raising its 
temperature ; it must in fact be applied more quickly 
than it can be absorbed for changing the state of aggre- 
gation. Prof. McLeod, who has written to me to the 
effect that he has been unable to obtain any symptoms of 
hot ice, has failed I believe on account of not having 
complied with this condition. Dr. Lodge, in an admirable 
and very clear letter to NATURE (vol. xxiii. p. 264), has 
endeavoured to explain why “hot ice” is possible, and 
also points out the absolute necessity for supplying the 
heat more rapidly than it can be absorbed by the vapour. 


Now the question arises, Does the thermometer in the 
above experiments indicate the real temperature of the 
ice? It has been said by Prof. Stokes that the ice, though 
attached to the thermometer, is not at the same tempera- 
ture as the latter, and that the action is really as follows : 
The pressure is reduced till the boiling-point falls below 
the melting-point, and when heat is applied to the ice in 
contact with the glass tube a film passes into vapour, and 
thus prevents the ice from touching the glass except at a 
few isolated points. The great latent heat of evapora- 
tion prevents the ice from rising to its ordinary melting- 
point, and hence no fusion occurs. The ice is only heated 
—except at the few isolated points of contact—by radia- 
tion,and therefore comparatively slowly. A portion of the 
heat passes through the ice and falls on the thermometer 
inside, and the latter rises in temperature ; this causes 
the formation of a film of vapour between the ice and the 
bulb of the thermometer, so that the latter is in contact 
with the ice at a few points only, and therefore hardly 
any heat passes by conduction to the ice. 

As under the circumstances of the case this appeared 
the most probable explanation of the phenomena, it was 
of great importance to show by other and more con- 
clusive experiments whether the ice really was hot or not. 
For this purpose Prof. Roscoe suggested the most de- 
cisive test which could be applied, viz., dropping the 
supposed hot ice into water and observing the amount of 
heating or cooling of the latter. Up to the present I 
have only had the opportunity of completing two of these 
calorimetrical determinations, and the second of these 
was merely a qualitative experiment, as the weight of 
ice dropped in could not be found, owing to a small 
quantity of the water having been jerked out of the 
calorimeter the moment the ice entered it. In both 
experiments, however, the water distinctly increased in 
temperature, and therefore showed that the ice must have 
been above 80° C. In the complete experiment the 
weight of ice dropped into 185 grammes of water was 1°3 
grammes, and the rise in temperature 0°2°C.,showing that 
the temperature of the ice was 122°C. From the nature 
of the experiment the weight of ice which could be 
dropped into the calorimeter was only small, and though 
the ‘rise in temperature was but slight, yet if the ice had 
been at 0° a relatively large cooling ought to have been 
observed. Great care was taken to avoid any error in 
the determinations. The thermometer employed was 
graduated so as to allow of a difference of 005° C. being 
easily detected, two observers read off the temperatures 
independently of one another, the calorimeter was in- 
closed in several casings and filled with the water to be 
used some hours before the experiment, so that it might 
have the temperature of the room, whilst the time which 
elapsed between the readings of the thermometer would 
not be more than about fifteen seconds, and finally the 
calorimeter was not brought into position to receive the 
ice till the source of heat had been removed. To place 
the point beyond doubt, however, several additional and 
perfectly satisfactory calorimetrical determinations are 
necessary, and if possible on a larger scale. Such experi- 
ments are at present in hand. In the meantime I would 
make the following remarks in favour of the high tem- 
perature of the ice. If the ice is not really hot, notwith- 
standing that the thermometer indicates say a temperature 
of 120° C., how is it possible for the ice to hang on to the 
thermometer? For if it be separated from the bulb by 
a layer of steam, it cannot hang by steam, it would at 
once become detached from the thermometer. The ther- 
mometer was chosen so that the bulb was of the same, 
and in most cases of a less, diameter than the stem, so 
that there was nothing to prevent the ice falling away if 
so inclined. 

In some cases I have had thin plates of ice attached 
by their edge at right angles to the stem of a paper scale 
thermometer for a considerable time without being 


44: 


NATURE 


| Feb. 10, 1881 


detached or melting, notwithstanding the temperature 
was so high that the paper scale at that portion of the 
stem to which the ice clung was charred; this was the 
case in one of the experiments shown at the Chemical 
Society. In another instance I have had a thin circular 
piece of ice attached to the otherwise bare bulb of the 
thermometer, and though this piece was very thin and no 
more than about 2 mm. diam., it took fully one minute or 
more to volatilise, notwithstanding the thermometer indi- 
cated a mean temperature of about 70° C., and the sur- 
rounding tube was very hot. If the ice were not capable 
of being heated above its melting-point, a piece so small as 
that referred to would, I think, under these circumstances 
have fused or volatilised almost instantaneously. If the ice 
be really above 80° C. it ought to melt suddenly and at once 
on discontinuing the heat and increasing the pressure, and 
this I have in one or two instances found to be the case. 
Thus in one experiment a beautiful rod of ice nearly six 
inches long and about half an inch diameter was attached 
to a glass rod suspended in the apparatus described above 
and heated very strongly with a large Bunsen’s burner for 
several minutes ; the pressure was then let in, when the 
ice at once fell off the rod into the mercury trough below, 
melting completely, and as far as could be seen even 
before it reached the mercury. Careful observations have 
also been made to see whether any cavity could be 
detected between the ice and the hot thermometer when 
the latter was only partially covered with ice, and indi- 
cated a high temperature, but such could not be seen 
either with ice or mercuric chloride. In both cases the 
substance appeared to rest in actual contact with the 
bulb of the thermometer, in this respect differing from 
camphor, which does exhibit such a space. I have how- 
ever never been able to get camphor above its ordinary 
melting-point, though by reducing the pressure below 400 
mm., it solidifies while boiling, and cannot be re-melted 
unless the pressure be increased. 

One curious point about the ice experiments is the 
comparative slowness with which the ice appears to 
evaporate, though the surrounding tube is very strongly 
heated. 

In conclusion, I need hardly say that it is highly desir- 
able that my results should be confirmed by other 
observers. THOS. CARNELLEY 


TELE-PHOTOGRAPHY 


\\yViee ee experimenting with the photophone it occurred 
to me that the fact that the resistance of crystalline 
selenium varies with the intensity of the light falling upon 
it might be applied in the construction of an instrument 
for the electrical transmission of pictures of natural 
objects in the manner to be described in this paper. 

In order to ascertain whether my ideas could be carried 
out in practice, I undertook a series of experiments, and 
these were attended with so much success that although 
the pictures hitherto actually transmitted are of a very 
rudimentary character, I think there can be little doubt 
that if it were worth while to go to further expense and 
trouble in elaborating the apparatus excellent results 
might be obtained. 

The nature of the process may be gathered from the 
following account of my first experiment. To the nega- 
tive (zinc) pole of a battery was connected a flat sheet of 
brass, and to the positive pole a piece of stout platinum 
wire ; a galvanometer was interposed between the battery 
and the brass, anda set of resistance-coils between the 
battery and the platinum-wire (see Fig. 1, where B is the 
battery, R the resistance, P the wire, M the brass plate, 
and G the galvanometer). A sheet of paper which had 
been soaked in a solution of potassium iodide was laid 
upon the brass, and one end of the platinum wire pre- 
measly ground to a blunt point was drawn over its sur- 
ace, 


The path of the point across the paper was marked : 


by a brown line, due, of course, to the liberation of iodine 
When the resistance was made small this line was dark and 
heavy; when the resistance was great the line was faint 
and fine ; and when the circuit was broken the point made 
no mark at all. If we drew a series of these brown lines 
parallel to one another, and very close together, it is © 
evident that by regulating their intensity and introducing 
gaps in the proper places any design or picture might be 


Figl.° 5 


represented. This is the system adopted in Bakewell’s well- 
known copying telegraph. To ascertain if the intensity of 
the lines could be varied by the action of light, lusedasecond 
battery and one of my selenium cells, made as described 
in NATURE, vol. xxiil. p. 58. These were arranged as 
shown in Fig. 1, the zegative pole of the second battery, 
B, being connected through the selenium cell Ss with the 
platinum wire P, and the positive pole with the galvano- 
meter G. The platinum point being pressed firmly upon 


the sensitised paper and the selenium exposed to a strong 
light, the resistance R was varied until the galvanometer 
needle came to rest at zero. If the two batteries were 
similar this would occur when the resistance of R was 
made about equal to that of the selenium cell in the light. 
The point now made no mark when drawn over the paper. 
The selenium cell was then darkened, and the point 
immediately traced a strong brown line; a feeble light 
was next thrown upon the selenium, and the intensity of 


Feb. to, 1881 | 


NATURE 


345 


the line became at once diminished. Lastly, a screen of 


black paper, having a large pin-hole in the middle, was | 


placed at a short distance before the selenium, and the 
image of a gas-flame was focussed upon the outer surface 
of the screen, a small portion of the light passing through 
the pin-hole and forming a luminous disk upon the 
selenium. The galvanometer was again brought to zero, 
and, as before, the platinum point made no mark. When 
however the gas-flame was shaded a firm and steady line 
could be drawn; and when the light was interrupted by 
moving the fingers before the pin-hole a broken line was 
produced. For this last operation a very sensitive paper 
was required, and it was found necessary to move the 
platinum point slowly. 

In consequence of the very satisfactory results of these 
preliminary experiments I made a pair of “ tele-photo- 
graphic ’’ instruments, of which the receiver was slightly 
modified from Bakewell’s form. They are of rude con- 
struction, and I shall say nothing more about them except 
that on January 5 they produced a “ tele-photograph ” of 
a gas-flame, which was good enough to induce me to 
make the more perfect apparatus now to be described. 

The transmitting instrument consists of a cylindrical 
brass box four inches in diameter and two inches deep, 
mounted axially upon a brass spindle seven inches long, 
and insulated from it by boxwood rings. The spindle is 
divided in the middle, its two halves being rigidly con- 
nected together by an insulating joint of boxwood. One 
of the projecting ends of the spindle has a screw cut upon 
it of sixty-four threads to the inch; the other end is left 
plain. The spindle revolves, like that of a phonograph, 
in two brass bearings, the distance between which is equal 
to twice the length of the cylinder; and one of the 
bearings has an inside screw corresponding to that upon 
the spindle. Ata point midway between the two ends of 
the cylinder a hole a quarter of an inch in diameter is 
drilled, and behind this hole is fixed a selenium cell, the 
two terminals of which are connected respectively with 
the two halves of the spindle. The bearings in which the 
spindle turns are joined by copper wires to two binding 
screws on thestand of the instrument. The transmitter 
thus described is represented in diagrammatic section at Y 
(Fig. 2), where H is the hole in the cylinder and s the 
selenium cell. 

The receiving instrument, shown at X (Fig. 2) contains 
another cylinder similar to that of the transmitter, and 
mounted upon a similar spindle, which however is not 
divided, nor insulated from the cylinder. An upright 
pillar D, fixed midway between the two bearings, and 
slightly higher than the cylinder, carries an elastic brass 
arm fitted with a platinum point P, which presses normally 
upon the surface of the cylinder. To the brass arm a 
binding screw is attached, and a second binding screw in 
the stand is joined by a wire to one of the brass bearings. 

To prepare the instruments for work they are joined up 
as shown in Fig. 2, two batteries, a set of resistance coils, 
and a galvanometer being used, in exactly the same 
manner as in the preliminary experiments. The cylinder 
of the transmitting instrument VY is brought to its middle 
position, and a picture not more than two inches square 
is focussed upon its surface by the lens L. The pictures 
upon which I have operated have been mostly simple 
geometrical designs cut out of tinfoil and projected by a 
magic lantern. It is convenient to cover a portion of 
the cylinder with white paper to receive the image. The 
comparatively large opening H is covered with a piece of 
tin-foil, in which is pricked a hole which should be only 
just large enough to allow the instrument to work. [I 
have not been able to reduce it below one-twentieth of an 
inch, but with a more sensitive selenium cell it might with 
advantage be smaller.] The hole is then brought, by 
turning round the cylinder, to the brightest point of the 
picture, and a scrap of sensitised paper, in the same con- 
dition as that to be used, being placed under the point P 


of the receiver, the resistance R is adjusted so as to bring 
the galvanometer to zero. When this is accomplished 
the two cylinders are screwed back as far as they will go, 
the cylinder of the receiver is covered with sensitised 
paper, and all is ready to commence operations. 

The two cylinders are caused to rotate slowly and 
synchronously. The pin-hole at H in the course of its 
spiral path will cover successively every point of the 
picture focussed upon the cylinder, and the amount of 
light falling at any moment upon the selenium cell will 
be proportional to the illumination of that particular spot 
of the projected picture which for the time being is occu- 


Fic. 3.—Image focussed upon Transmitter. 


pied by the pin-hole. During the greater part of each 
revolution the point P will trace a uniform brown line ; 
but when H happens to be passing over a bright part of 
the picture this line is enfeebled or broken. The spiral 
traced by the point is so close as to produce at a little 
distance the appearance of a uniformly-coloured surface, 
and the breaks in the continuity of the line constitute a 
picture which, if the instrument were perfect, would be a 
monochromatic counterpart of that projected upon the 
transmitter. 

An example of the performance of my instrument is 
shown in Fig. 4, which is a very accurate representation 
of the manner in which a stencil of the form of Fig. 3 is 
reproduced when projected by a lantern upon the trans- 
mitter. I have not been able to send one of its actual 
productions to the engraver, for the reason that they are 
exceedingly evanescent. In order to render the paper 
sufficiently sensitive, it must be prepared with a very 
strong solution (equal parts of iodide and water), and 
when this is used the brown marks disappear completely 


Fic. 4.—Image as reproduced by Receiver. 


in less than two hours after their formation. There is 
little doubt that a solution might be discovered which 
would give permanent results with equal or even greater 
sensitiveness, and it seems reasonable to suppose that 
some of the unstable compounds used in photography 
might be found suitable; but my efforts in this direction 
have not yet been successful. 

In case any one should wish to repeat the experiments 
here described a few practical hints may be useful. In 
order that as large a portion as possible of the current 
from the battery b’ (which is varied by the selenium cell) 


346 


NATURE 


| Hed. 10, 1881 


may pass through the sensitised paper, the resistance R 
must be high ; the EMF of the battery B must therefore 
be great, and several cells should be used. 

An electromotive force is produced by the action of the 
platinum point, and the metal cylinder upon the sensi- 
tised paper, and the resulting current is for many reasons 
very annoying. I have got rid of this by coating the 
surface of the cylinder with platinum foil. 

Stains are apt to appear upon the under-surface of the 
paper, which sometimes penetrate through and spoil the 
picture. They may be prevented by washing the surface 
of.the cylinder occasionally with a solution of ammonia. 

Slow rotation is essential in order both that the decom- 
position may be properly effected and that the selenium 
may have time to change its resistance. The photophone 
shows that some alteration takes place almost instan- 
taneously with a variation of the light, but for the greater 
part of the change a very appreciable period of time is 
required. 

The distance between the two instruments might be a 
hundred miles or more, one of the wires, M, N, being 
replaced by the earth, and for practical use the two cylinders 
would be driven by clockwork, synchronised by an electro- 
magnetic arrangement. For experimental purposes it is 
sufficient to connect the two spindles by a kind of Hooke’s 
joint (some part of which must be an insulator), and drive 
one of them with a winch-handle. 

The instrument might be greatly improved by the use 
of two, four, or six similar selenium cells and a corre- 
sponding number of points. If two such cells were used 
the transmitting cylinder would have two holes, diametri- 
cally opposite to each other, with a selenium cell behind 
each. A second point would press upon the under surface 
of the receiving cylinder, and be so adjusted that the 
lines traced by it would come midway between those 
traced by the upper point. Four or six selenium cells 
could be similarly used. The adjacent lines of the picture 
might thus be made absolutely to touch each other, and 
moreover the screw upon the spindles might be coarser, 
which for obvious reasons would be advantageous. A 
self-acting switch or commutator in each instrument 
would render additional line-wires unnecessary. 

SHELFORD BIDWELL 


NOTES 
THE Murchison medal of the Geological Society has this year 
been awarded to Prof. Geikie. 


THE Associateship of the Institute of Chemistry, along with 
the prize of 50/,, offered by Prof, Frankland for the ‘best 
research involving gas analysis,” has been awarded to Mr, Frank 
Hatton, of 14, Titchfield Terrace, Regent’s Park, student in the 
Royal School of Mines, South Kensington. 


WE regret to record the death, at the age of seventy-seven 
years, of Mr, John Gould, F.R.S., the eminent ornithologist. 
We hope to give some account of his life and work in our next 
number, 

A REMARKABLE discovery has been made by Mr. Alex. 
Adams, one of the technical officers of the Post Office Telegraph 
Department. It is the existence of electric tides in telegraph 
circuits. By long-continued and careful observations he has 
determined distinct variations of strength in those earth currents, 
which are invariably present on all telegraphic wires, following 
the different diurnal positions of the moon with respect to the 
earth. He will read a paper on the subject at the meeting of 
the Society of Telegraph Enzineers to-night. 


Mr. JosepH THOMSON has, we understand, received the offer 
of an advantageous post under the Sultan of Zanzibar, which no 
doubt he is likely to accept. Mr. Thomson’s work will be 
mainly that of geological surveying in the region of the Rovuma 
River, and the Sultan has offered him every facility for carrying 


on the work, The Sultan deserves every credit for showing such 
enterprise, and we have no doubt that Mr. Thomson will be able 
to do work of great scientific value, 

Art the Royal College of Surgeons Prof. W. K. Parker, 
F.R.S., will give nine lectures on the Structure of the 
Skeleton in the Sauropsida, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and 
Fridays, February 11, 16, 18, 21, and 23, at 4 p.m. Prof, 
W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., will give nine lectures on 
the Anatomy, Physiology, and Zoology of the Cetacea, on 
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, February 28, March 2, 
4, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, and 18, at the same hour, 


WE are glad to learn that the new 23-inch object-glass of 
Prof. C, A. Young of Princeton, N.J., is completed. Prof. 
Young has tested it at Cambridge, Mass., and finds it very fine’; 
he hopes by and by to do some good stellar spectroscopic work 
with it. The mounting is well under way, and it is expected 
that the instrument will be in place next autumn, 


Mr. LaMont Younc, the Government geologist of New 
South Wales, has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, and 
foul play is suspected. Mr. Young arrived safely at Bermagui, 
180 miles south of Sydney, and at once set out to cross the bay 
in a boat. No news of him came in, and two days later his boat 
was found jammed among the rocks of the coast, ten miles north 
of the point from which he had started. It was at first, and 
naturally, supposed that Mr. Young and his company had been 
drowned, and that his boat had drifted on shore. A closer 
examination proved that the boat had been drawn carefully up 
on the coast, and that the party had dined after landing. Next 
some bullet holes were found in the boat, and this suggested the 
idea that the explorers had been attacked and murdered. But 
not a single mark of blood or additional trace of any violent 
assault could be discovered. The party were five in number, 
and the coast has been examined for traces or tidings of them in 
vain. An official of the Mines Department has been assisted by 
detectives and by the boasted ‘‘ black trackers,” natives whose 
acuteness is seldom at fault in a case of this sort. 


Pror. McK. HuGHEs writes on Jannuary 27, suggesting 
the following scientific uses of the late severe weather :— 
When this frost breaks up and the frozen snow and ice 
begin to travel along our rivers to the sea there will be an 
opportunity of making observations upon several points upon 
which accurate information will be of use in seeking an expla- 
nation of some of the glacial and post-glacial phenomena of the 
British Isles, e.g. (1) Dimensions of the ice floes; (2) whether 
they consist chiefly of frozen snow or solid ice, 7.2. an approxi- 
mate estimate of their specific gravity; (3) amount of material 
carried by them and dimensions of larger boulders ; (4) whether 
any of these were dropped on to the floe from cliffs of glacial 
drift so as to give scratched stones and vemanze drift in modern 
mud ; (5) how far out to sea such floes have been traced with or 
without earth and stones; (6) salinity of the water where the 
observations were made; (7) transport of shore shells, &c., by 
ice ; (8) crumpling of mud by impinging ice ; (9) grinding of ice 
along bridge piers, and many similar observations which it will 
be useful to record, 


THE great annual soirée at the Observatory of Paris has been 
a great success. Almost all the Cabinet ministers and M. 
Gambetta were present. A plan was exhibited in the Astro- 
nomical Museum showing the present state of the Observatory, 
and what it will be when all the works for which credits have 
been voted shall be completed. A ball took place after a series 
of lectures and projections given in the grande galerie, One of 
the lecturers, M. Bertus, exhibited magic mirrors, and reminded 
those present that in 1844 M. Mouchez, then a junior officer in 
the French naval service, brought home with him one of these 
mirrors from Japan, which was presented to the Academy 


Feb. 10, 1881] 


NATURE 


347 


of Sciences by Arago. The Comptes rendus states that Arago 
was asked to inquire into the properties of this; curious pheno- 
menon, but it does not appear that he made any effort to comply 
with the request of the Academy. 


AFTER a seriés of experiments which have proved successful, 
the Administration of French lighthouses has given an order to 
M. de Meritens to build six magneto electric machines for the 
three first lighthouses which are to be illuminated by electricity. 


THE Chemical Section of the Russian Physico-Chemical 
Society has, on the proposal and at the expense of Mr, V. J. 
Ragosine, established a competition for a prize of 750 metallic 
roubles (3000 francs) for the invention of a lamp intended to 
burn the heavy oils of petroleum (naphtha), z.e, the parts of the 
raw petroleum which distil after the kerosene or ordinary 
petroleum (density from 0°79 to 0°83 at 20° C.); as also astral 
oil (density 0°83 to 0°85 at 20° C.), but before the oils intended 
for greasing purposes (density about 0°88), ze. oils whose 
density is from 0°85 to 0°88 at 20°C, The lamps ought (1) to 
be as simple as possible in construction, so that they may be 
easily manufactured and manipulated ; (2) only glasses existing 
already in the retail trade to be used, if they are used at all; (3) 
to burn, without giving either soot or smell, the heavy oils whose 
density is at least between 0865 and 0°875. The lamps must be 
sent in by January 12, 1882, and three specimens of each 
should be sent, accompanied by a detailed description in Russian, 
French, German, or English. There is no restriction as to 
nationality. Further information may be obtained from the 
Secretary of the Society, St. Petersburg. 


WE would call the attention of our readers to a very valuable 
and ingenious instrument which has been recently introduced by 
Messrs, Francis and Co., the Telegraph Engineers, Hatton 
Garden, London, for the purpose of receiving the ‘‘ Greenwich 
Time Signal” at the various telegraph stations and offices of 
private firms who may be in communication with the Postal 
Telegraph Service. Hitherto the passage of the time-signal 
current at 10 a.m, along the wires gives no other indication of 
its presence than a deflection of the needle of ordinary instru- 
ments, and a corresponding movement of the armature of the 
Morse Ink-Writer and Sounder, so that unless a sharp look-out 
be kept with the eye constantly directed to the instrument, the 
actual time of signal may be lost, perhaps also again to be lost 
on the following day through similar accident. By the new in- 
strument, however, the instant the current is sent the needle on 
its dial is deflected, and simultaneously a bell rings and con- 
tinues to ring so long as the: current is passing. The index- 
needle, or in other words the needle of the galvanometer, which 
is the principal feature of the invention, when deflected, presses 
against a small spiral spring surrounding the stops or ivory pins 
on the dial plate, and by this contact the galvanometer forms 
itself into a ‘‘ relay ’’ and brings a local battery in circuit with 
the bell, which is contained in the same instrument, so that 
when the first part of the time-signal is sent the needle is de- 
flected, and at the same moment the bell rings ; thus attention 
to the time is at once arrested. It should be mentioned that the 
resistance to the line, although low, is intended to be inserted 
only during the transmission of the time-signal, as by means of 
what is generally termed a ‘‘ switch” the instrument is put on 
and off the circuit at will, and employed only during the time 
set apart for the transmission of the ‘‘ Greenwich Time Signal.” 

_However feeble the current may be, the galvanometer is so 
sensitive that a deflection of its needle is absolutely certain, 
whilst the bell cannot fail to answer to the power of its local 
battery. We are informed that not only is Messrs. Francis and 
Co.’s new instrument capable of doing what we have already 
stated, but it may be made available for communication from 
different parts of the building, an advantage which is certain to 


be recognised and approved by many conducting large business 
establishments, where the saving of time in conveying messages 
and giving orders is a matter which is not unfrequently of great 
importance. 

A. P. S. wrirEs:—During the late severe frost we had a 
number of bottles broken in our laboratory by the freezing of 
their contents, and it is curious to observe what salts tend to 
prevent such an occurrence. Out of thirty sets of reagents the 
following were destroyed :—27 ammonium oscalate, 7 calcium 
sulphate, 8 potassium ferrocyanide, 1 lead acetate. It is 
remarkable that not one bottle of lime-water was frozen. That 
calcium sulphate, which only contains ;4,th of solid, should 
freeze, is not astonishing; but the ammonium oscalate bore 
away the palm with ease, although the amount dissolved 
was considerable, A single bottle of saturated solution of 
alum was broken, also one of mercuric chloride. A curious 
thing happened to one bottle, which shows, I think, that ice 
does not expand suddenly when it freezes. I unstoppered ja 
bottle of Am,O that was still liquid, when the contents imme- 
diately solidifed in» my hand, without bursting the bottle, 
The next day I found the ice had protruded 33 inches from the 
neck of the bottle, carrying the stopper at its extremity. 

THOSE who wish to see women have every fair play in the 
struggle for existence may be interested to know that at 399, 
Edgeware Road, Mme. Lina from Geneva is prepared to do 
good work as a practical watchmaker and jeweller. 

A NUMBER of holes of the same description as those which 
have been observed at Blackheath have been opened in several 
parts of Paris, These enigmatical holes are several yards wide, 
long, and deep. Men of science are trying to solve the mystery 
of their formation. 

A VERY satisfactory report was given at the recent annual 
meeting of the Birmingham Natural History Society, which now 
has apartments in Mason’s College. The number of members 
is 382. 

Mr. J. B. JorDAN has issued a little pamphlet giving an 
account of his glycerine barometer, with plate and tables of 
correction for temperature. Stanford is the publisher. 

Unper the title of ‘All about Cardamoms, Botanical 
Descriptions, Commercial Uses, and Modes of Cultivation,” a 
pamphlet of forty closely-printed pages has recently been issued 
in Colombo from the office of the Ceylon Observer. In this 
useful little pamphlet nothing new or original is professed to be 
given, it is simply a compilation of all matter bearing on the 
subject collected from all available sources, each article being 
printed in its entirety and its source acknow ledged. Thus we 
find the article on Cardamoms from the latest edition of the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, Flickiger and Hanbury’s Pharmaco- 
graphia, Bentley and Trimen’s Medicinal Plants, and many 
others. In this arrangement there is of course much repetition 
of the same matter, but the idea is good as bringing together all 
that has been published on a given subject which is frequently 
scattered through many, and often inaccessible publications, 

THE works for the Paris Exhibition of Electricity will soon 
begin. A viaduct will be built for the English electrical 
railway by Siemens, which will convey visitors from the 
Place de la Concorde to the Palais de I Industrie. The 
internal arrangements will only be made at the end of 
the Art Exhibition, which will take place from May to July. 
The French exhibitors of the electric light have come to an agree- 
ment in order to combine for the illumination of the nave 
and other parts. They are trying to obtain from the High 
Commission an indemnity for their working expenses. It is 
desirable that the English Government appoint without delay 
an agent on behalf of the intended English exhibitors, who 
may be numerous, even in the light department. 


348 


NATURE 


| Feb. 10, 1881 


ANOTHER slight shock of earthquake was felt at Berne on the 
night of the rstinst. Fresh earthquake shocks are reported from 
Agram, where shocks were observed on January 25 at 1h. 15m. 
(in the morning) Ith. a.m.; on the night of January 26 at rrh. 
28m. ; in the morning of January 31 at 3h. ; on January 3 at 3h. 
(in the morning), rh. 15m., and gh. 13m. p.m. In the night of 
January 27-28 shocks were felt at St. Ivan, Zelina (Hungary) at 
12h. 52m., 3h. 9m., 4h. 32m. On January 28 two shocks were 
felt at Gurkfeld (Carinthia) and neighbourhood at 8h. 50m. 
p-m., direction north-west to south-east. Earthquakes were 
also noticed on January 25 at Venice, Bologna, and Padua. 
In the night of January 3-4 shocks were observed in the regions 
of the Carinthian Alps, in Klagenfurt, at 2h. 22m, 25s., direction 


east to west, duration 5-6s.; in Trieste at 2h. 24m., direction | 


north-east to south-west, duration about 4s. ; at the same time 
shocks were felt in Laibach, in Gurkfeld, and in Czegled 
(Hungary). 


AN examination has taken place at Brussels of the railway 
employés, in order to test their eyes. More than one-twentieth 


of them have been found defective, and consequently will be | 


discharged as being unable to fulfil their functions with a sufficient 
security for travellers. 


AND ELECTRIC STORM OF 
FANUARY 31 


THE AURORA 


E have received the following further communica- 
tions on the recent brilliant display of aurora :—« 


THE beautiful display of aurora on the evening 
of Thursday was accompanied by the usual earth-cur- 
rent disturbances. They were evident over the whole 
of the United Kingdom. Telegraphic lines were stopped, 
railway block-signals were disturbed, and all the usual 
accompaniments of these curious storms were observed. 

The electric storm commenced about 3 p.m., it reached 
a maximum at 6.40 p.m., and disappeared about 9 p.m. 
It was renewed about 11 p.m., and disappeared again 
about I a.m. on the next morning. The currents attained 
an intensity that I have never before observed. 
fair in Anglesey they measured 41°4 millivebers. At 
Haverfordwest 30 millivebers; at Bristol 17°32 milli- 
vebers ; in the Central Station, London, 11 milli- 
vebers; at Edinburgh 8 millivebers. Now as working- 
currents vary from 5 to 10 millivebers, it is clear that 
these uninvited wanderers must play sad havoc with the 
working telegraphs. In some instances they were strong 
enough to ring the bells used on railways. They are 
eliminated, where this can be done, by joining two wires 
in metallic circuit, and so excluding the earth. They were 
characterised by the usual reversals, the direction of the 
current changing slowly. The changes in direction and 


At Llan- } 


variation in strength were always observed on the southern | 


lines first. The line of maximum foree commenced south- 
east to north-west, then passed south to north, and ended 
south-west to north-east. 

It is unfortunate that on such occasions the whole 
energies of the technical staff are taken up in maintaining 
communication, and that no time or means can be found 
to obtain accurate measurements. The results however, 
such as they were, fully confirm my view that these storms 
are due to a violent disturbance of the distribution of 
electric potential on the earth’s surface arising from 
violent changes in the electrification of the sun. There 
was a violent disturbance in the sun’s envelope on that 
day, as I learn from Mr. Norman Lockyer, and I am 
looking with interest to some particulars of it. 

February 5 W. H. PREECE 


ON yesterday evening, January 31, a most brilliant display of 
the aurora was seen here, It was by far the finest I have seen, 


and others have expressed the same opinion. At 6.25 p.m, I 
saw a considerable illumination on the northern horizon, and an 
outlying bright patch on the north-west having somewhat the 
appearance of the zodiacal light, as shown in the sketch, Fig. 1. 
This outlying patch was distinctly in motion along the horizon 
towards the west; streamers from the horizon then shot up, and 
there appeared several arches of light apparently about the 
width of an ordinary rainbow, passing from the north-west to 
north-east points on the horizon; these arches gradually ap- 
proached the zenith, and the southernmost from the east and west 
points of the horizon at last passed through it. Some of these 
arches are shown in Fig, 2, but there were more visible. In a 
few minutes, about 6.40, the arches faded, and there appeared, 
rather west of north, a mass of bright green light; then the 


streamers from {the north lengthened out, as shown in Fig. 3, 
converging on the Pleiades, as near as I could judge; waves of 
red light commenced to pass upwards along them, and large 
sheets of light appeared to pass rapidly over the sky. The 
streamers gradually died away, leaving flashing lights near the 
horizon, which in their turn left a slight light over the northern 
horizon, which gradually faded away. Mr. Percy Smith made 
the sketches, but owing to the rapid chanzes their accuracy is 
only general. Both he and I saw only one line in the spectrum 
in the usual place. GEORGE M. SEABROKE 
Temple Observatory, Rugby, February 1 


THE aurora observed during the evening of January 31 was 
accompanied by a magnetic perturbation, and although it was 
on a much smaller scale than that registered on August 12 to 14 
last, a brief account of it may possess some slight interest to your 
readers. 

The magnets of all three instruments at Kew, the declination, 
bifilar, and balance magnetomers, began to be disturbed to a 
somewhat larger extent than usual about noon on the 31st, the 


p.m. 


Feb. 10, 1881 | 


general tendency of the movement being an increase of westerly 
declination and of vertical force, whilst the horizontal force 
slightly diminished. Quicker movements of the needles com- 
menced at 3.40 p.m. Greenwich mean time, and from that hour 
until 8.33 p.m. oscillations followed each other at short inter- 
vals, although the magnets at no time appeared to be in the 
state or rapid vibration they were in during the afternoon of 
August 12. 

The principal deviations registered were as follows :—A large 
westerly deflection of the needle was recorded at 6.2 p.m., but 
the greatest excursion in that direction took place at 6.47 p.m. ; 
at 7.12 p.m. there was also another considerable westerly move- 
ment, followed by an easterly, which reached its maximum at 
7.48 p.m. At 8.18 p.m. it deviated again to the west, after 
which it returned to its approximately normal position at 8.33 
An isolated deflection to the west at about 0.25 a.m. of 
February I wound up the storm. 

As regards force, the greatest changes of horizontal force 
occurred at about 6 p.m., but they were not large in extent. 
The vertical force curve moved in the extent of an augmented 
force beyond the limits of registration of the instrument between 
4.20 and 5.32 p.m., and again between 6.2 and 6.45 p.m. The 
greatest movement in the direction of diminished force was at 
3.12 p.m. 

The self-registering Thomson electrometer was not apparently 
affected by the aurora; the tension of atmospheric electricity 
being somewhat high positive at 9 a.m., fell to a low positive 
tension at 2 p.m., from which it rose gradually, although some- 
what irregularly, until 8 p.m. ; from that hour until 9 p.m. it 
was more disturbed ; it then became more strongly positive, and 
remained so until the next day. 

This want of accordance between the electrozraph and mag- 
netographs was also well marked during the August aurora, and 
would appear to prove that the electrical disturbances in the 
upper aérial strata during aurora do not cause changes of tension 
in the lower at all commensurable with those ordinarily produced 
by wind, snow, or rain. G. M. WHIPPLE 

Kew Observatory, February 2 


THE commencement of the aurora consisted in the sudden 
lighting up of various portions of the sky by patches of white 
cloud, the northern horizon remaining constantly bright, and 
sending forth vertical streamers. The general appearance of 
the heavens was that of a smooth lake ruffled here and there 
every other second by fitful gusts of wind. 

At 6.45 p.m. no ordinary clouds could be seen, but the 
flashes of white light were incessant, and varied continually in 
position. The light was strongest towards the north-east 
horizon, but the whole of the north was well lit up from north- 
east to west. 

At 6.50 the streamers from the horizon increased in length 
and enveloped Polaris. 

At 6.55 the number of the streamers increased, and springing 
from the whole northern horizon, traversed an imperfect arch of 
white light which passed between e and ¢ Ursa, and just below 
Band vy Urse Minoris. 

At 6,57 streamers 10° west of north passed from the horizon 
through the zenith, and the display was becoming very brilliant 
when I was oblized to enter the observatory for a few minutes 
to observe an eclipse of Jupiter’s second satellite. 

On returning to the garden at 7h. 5m. nothing remained of 
the aurora except patches of white light in different parts of the 
heavens, and a strong glow inthe north. Using a hand spectro- 
scope I could see the green auroral line very strongly marked in 
every part of the sky, but no other line was visible. 

There was no change in the phenomenon until 7h, 45m., when 
a most brilliant cone of light of a reddish hue darted from 
between a and y Aquarii, and developed almost immediately 
into a number of streamers which stretched out towards the 
Pleiades, this cluster being then some 30° from the zenith 
towards the west of south. Other streamers also appeared near 
the horizon from the west point to east of north. 

A lull succeeded this display, followedat 6h. 15. by a grand 
outburst of red streamers from Aquarius and also from near 
Orion, both converging towards the Pleiades, those from 
Aquarius being the brightest. These were visible for at least six 
seconds along with other rays in the north-west. 

Cloud and haze were then collecting fast, and seven-tenths of 
the sky was already obscured. During this aurora the three 
self-recording magnets were very much disturbed, their move- 
ments being all rapid and extended. During the whole of the 


NATURE 


O49. 


morning of the 31st the declination was very irregular, but i 
was only about noon that the storm began inearnest. From 3.30 
until 9 p.m. the declination magnet was oscillating incessantly in 
long vibrations, several of fully a degree in extent ; and between 
7h. 53m. and 8 p.m. the western bearing increased by 1° 37’ 24”. 
Many other movements were nearly equally rapid, but not so 
extensive. The movements of the horizontal force magnet were 
irregular from noon till after midnight, and they were very much 
exaggerated between 3h. 45m. p.m. and 8.15; the most rapid 
change was the remarkable diminution of 2‘1m. in the ordinate 
between 6.14 and 6.20 p.m, ; this was preceded by a very quick 
rise, and followed by another nearly equally sharp. 

The vertical force magnet was most irregular between 2 p.m, 
on the 31st and I a.m. on the morning of the rst. The extreme 
maximum was attained at gh. 20m., and the two principal 
minima at Sh, 12m. p.m., and at 12m. after midnight. The move- 
ment was most rapid at 8 p.m., and this principal disturbance on 
all the curves coincided with the grand outbursts of red streamers 
which converged towards a point some 30° south of the zenith, 

Stonyhurst Observatory, February S. J. PERRY 


Mr. E. DoOWLEN has been again good enough to furnish me 
with notes ou the aurora (of Monday last), as seen from Medway, 
Poynton, Cheshire. 

He first saw it at 6.30, it having been previously seen at 6 as a 
single shaft of white light. At 6.30 it consisted of quickly-darting 
rays and waving curtains of light, filling almost the whole sky. 
The horizon from extreme east to west was glowing, and from 
all this region streamers and waves of light shot upwards, 
meeting at or near the Pleiades, the rays often passing into Orion. 
About 7.0 the light in the north-west extending from Venus to 
some distance north of the moon was rose-coloured ; the other 
parts were white. Now for a few minutes the display almost 
ceased and clouds began to come up in the north-east ; but the 
glow increased in brilliancy in the north and north-west, forming 
a concave mass of light, almost an inverted arch ; and from this 
sprang a broad band of streamers filling up all the northern 
region, and reaching almost to the zenith. This died down, and 
was succeeded by a similar display having a drifting movement 
westward, and a rose tint in the upper portion, which extended 
throughout it as it went westward, This display also died out, 
and was followed by another similar band more to the west, 
white in colour. 

At 7.30 this was gone, and the whole aurora gradually grew 
smaller, the glow still remaining and giving feeble spurts until 
8.30. About 9.30 the clouds were all gone, and Mr. Dowlen 
saw that a lonz low arch of inconsiderable width but tolerable 
brightness had been formed ; the crown of the arch being just 
above Arided in Cygnus. No streamers came from this arch, 
but there seemed to be a fringe of glow to it. At midnight it 
faded away. During the whole time there was no wind ; and 
although there was a ground-frost, the temperature up to 9 o’clock, 
by thermometer without frame suspended at the end of a bough 
four feet from the ground, was 34°. At 5 p.m. there had been 
a sharp shower of rain. Mr. Dowlen had no access to a spec- 
troscope at the beginning. Later on he saw only the citron line, 

At Guildown the display was not seen, and some fog prevailed. 
On the Monday morning at § am. a thermometer read 35° in a 
Stevenson cage four feet from the ground, while ice one-eighth 
of an inch thick lay on the garden paths. 

The shower of rain is interesting in connection with the sus- 
picion that the aurora is generally formed in a mist or vapour 
region. I have seen several eye-descriptions of this aurora, but 
no spectroscopic ones up to the present date. 

Guildown, February 4 J. RAND CAPRON 


THIs was a display of aurora borealis having appearances quite 
new to me, There was a faint auroral glare at 6 p.m. ; at 
6h. 15m, a confused but brilliant mass of light was situated west 
of Ursa Major, which moved quickly horizontally towards the 
west, there was also another mass of pink light in west, streamers 
shot up to the altitude of Cassiopeia. 6h. 24m. the first-mentioned 
mass of light was now mostly to the west of Cassiopeia. There 
was also another mass of light low down in north by east. Stars 
shone brightly through the aurora, but without scintillation, and 
somewhat orange-coloured. 6h. 25m, brilliant streamers in 
north-east, a wavy arch stretched from west-north-west to east, 
its east end terminating in a black, almost perpendicular mass. 
There were also smaller black patches but quite distinct in 
character to the first-mentioned one. The low dark segment had 
also a wavy edge, and there was a patch of strong light above 


359 


NATURE 


{ Fed. 10, 1881 


the north-east horizon, One very long streamer nearly due north 
rose from the dark segment and extended beyond the upper arch. 
At 6h. 27m. there were six well-formed arches, the upper one 
being that visible at 6h. 25m. They were all bent more or less, 
pointed towards east and west, and moved in a north current, ze. 
rising perpendicularly ; and increasing rapidly in speed as they 
neared the zenith, and fading away on reaching a point some 
20° S. (of the zenith). Their brilliancy was great, and a strong 


orange and red glare coloured the walls of the Observatory. A 
large intense patch of light was situated in north-east, from 
which streamers rose to the zenith; at 6h. 28m. the whole of the 


Seen at 6h. 25m. p.m. 


arches (except that of the dark segment) had disappeared, occa- 
sional streamers and a strong glare continued, which at 7h. 9m. 
was unusually brilliant, and red and orange in colour. There 
were confused patchy lights, but no streamers. At 7h. tom. these 
patches, together with their veil-like flames, passed to the south 
of the zenith, and formed a cupola which did not last a second ; 
7h. 16m, the phenomenon was now all confusion, and so thin 
that there appeared to be no brilliancy, yet the time by a watch 
was readily seen; 7h. 26m. very similar; 7h. 39m. still very 
bright, but settling down to the horizon; Sh. 34m. the whole 
northern heavens up to the zenith was a glare of thin sheets of 
aurora ; gh. om. a glare alone remained, 


Seen at 6h, 27m. p.m. 


The streamers west of north all moved westerly, but not those 
in north-east, and this also applies to the patches of light, whilst 
the arches moved in a north current. 

The appearance was that of a luminous mist, and from the 
great speed when near the zenith was evidently much lower than 
usual, Flashes of thin light were very constant, appearing and 
disappearing incessantly, 

The patches of light were a close copy of the aurora of October 
1848, z.¢. thirty-two years three and a half months ago, and it 
this be the third return of that appearance the period would be 
eleven years and thirty-five days, E. J. Lowe 

Highfield House, Nottingham 


Auroric lights have been faint and scarce of late. There 
were some good ones a little before midnight on January 16 
? 


while on the 31st there was a most brilliant display, and of the 
observations made the following is an epitome :— 

At 6 o’clock the sky was cloud-masked, with faint traces of 
orange-red columns between the north-west and north-east ; 
coming up to 6,30 the clouds cleared away, and about 7 there 
were brilliant white lights to the north-west, making the night 
as light as day. At 7.40 an oblique band of silver light ex- 
tended from the west to the upper star of the Plough, and from 
it shot up horns towards the zenith, while the southern portion 
of the sky was a fiery red, with columns rising in places. At 
7.48 there were remarkable silver lights in two oblique systems, 
one set rising between the south and west and going northward, 
and the other between the west and north-east and going south- 
ward, The first were steady and fairly constant, the second a 
series of rapid successive flashes, streaks, and glows, The 
systems of lights formed beautiful crosses at the zenith. The 
flush lights passed round to the east, and all disappeared. 

At 7.53 fans of penci's of silver lights came up between the 
north-north west aid north-north-east, with at times disks at the 
north. Red, orange, and purple lights were rising at the same 
time in the southern portion of the heavens. Subsequently the 
northward heavens usually were light and bright, with flushes 
of light at intervals, while the southern portion was dark, with 
columns of orange and reddish lights; some displays to the 
northward being very bright, of green, silver, and pink colours. 

At 9.30 there appeared an elliptic arch of silver light from the 
west-north-west by north to the north-east, which continued to 
10.50, sometimes being much more distinct than at other times, 
its length being considerably contracted before it finally disap- 
peared ; the arch in general was white, but sometimes a silvery 
green, The under-sky was different shades of violet, the over- 
sky pale bright yellowish green. At times this arch was very 
similar to the pictures of aurorz given in books on Arctic 
travels, 

At 10.45, a little before therarch finally disappeared, a 
brilliant display of silver pencils instantaneously sprang up 
between west-north-west and north-north-east; those at the 
north-north-west by north being perpendicular, while those on 
either side sloped slightly ; this Jasted for nearly ten minutes ; 
glow and pencils of pink lights were also coming up during the 
time, especially at the north-west. Afterwards white lights 
appeared at times in the north heavens, and orange and purj le 
in the south, up to 11.45, when there was another brilliant 
display of silver lights. It began by pencils shooting up per- 
pendicularly between the west to the north-east, which changed 
into a fan, the perpendicular lights only rising at the north-north- 
west ; this lasted five minutes, the largest, most constant, and 
brilliant lights coming up at the north-west. At 12 there was the 
best display I had seen during the night, It consisted of pencils 
between the north-west and north north-east, some perpendicular, 
others fan-shaped ; some steady, others in flashes; while at the 
same time there was a continuous upward stream of waves or 
lines of vivid white bright lights. The latter were so peculiar 
that I am at a loss to describe them sufficiently ; while this 
display was in progress at the north, to the south-east, bounded 
by hard lines at the east and south, there were red lights rising. 
The white lights in about five minutes disappeared as suddenly 
as they came, but at 12.10 horizontal wavy white lights shot up 
in rapid succession between the north-west and north-north-east 
by north, followed by radiating pencils of white lights, all dis- 
appearing at 12.15. No very remarkable lights appeared after- 
wards up to I o’clock, when the last observations were made, 

There were severe frosts on the nights of the 30 and 31st, 
while during the daytime cn the 31st and February 1 there were 
remarkably hot suns. G, Henry KINAHAN 

Ovoca, co. Wicklow 


CLEAR starry night; slight frost. Shortly before 12 mid- 
night beautiful auroras, when first observed, consisted of 
cloud-like white masses extending from about midway between 
Orion’s belt and the Pleiades northward and eastward at about 
30° above horizon, a little west of north, where the crown of the 
are it formed lay below this arch of cloud-like masses (which at 
intervals shot up individually to the zenith) ; there were a num- 
ber of pencils or rays of white light of varying length and 
intensity, some bright and sharply defined, and as a rule narrow 
and extending up to or beyond the cloud-like masses ; others 
short, and some indicstinet, all continually altering their position, 
boundaries, and intensities, While they were being watched, 
the cloud-like masses kept shooting upwards or horizontally like 
brush discharges. 


—— 


—_ 


Feb, 10, 1881 | 


Narrow sharply-defined rays were remarked to shoot up on 
several occasions from the horizon; these gradually widened 
out, losing their sharp boundaries and becoming less distinct, 
some times behaving like the cloud-like masses or becoming in- 
tensified by a ‘‘brush discharge” occurring across them ; at 
others they faded gradually away. 

At about 12.30 they had all disappeared, but a bright glow to 
the north horizon and faint glows at intervals over the sky 
between north and west. 

It was not observed how far the discharges extended eastward, 

24, Wa‘erloo Road, Dublin GERARD A. KINAHAN 


THE following details of this evening’s remarkable aurora 
may be of interest to your readers, At 6.45 p.m., while the 
new moon was setting, there was an appearance of a belt of 
luminous white cloud reaching along the northern and north- 
western horizon, giving indications of a tendency to divide into 
two separate parts, of which the western one had its upper 
surface parallel with the horizon, but that to the north was 
arched. From both parts rays and vertical bands of white light 
began to shoot upwards, reaching nearly to the zenith, and 
becoming more and more distinct, especially in the north (as 
opposed to the north-west), and one long feathery streamer was 
very conspicuous, and reached in a slanting direction from a 
point on the horizon immediately under the Pole Star up to 
Capella. 

In the meantime the cloud-like appearance to the north-west 
had spread upwards over the heavens and assumed a dark ruddy 
colour, which gradually became brighter and more rosy, until it 
exactly resembled the light of dawn or sunset, which is sometimes 
reflected on the opposite side of the sky to the rising or setting 
sun, At this time the northern heavens became suffused with 
white light extending over the space where the bands and rays 
had been appearing, which throbbed repeatedly and vividly like 
the electric discharge in a vacuum tube, continuing some minutes. 
This gradually faded away, and the pink light to the north-west 
also disappeared by degrees, so that within twenty or twenty-five 
minutes from the commencement (say at about five or ten minutes 
past seven) there was little to be seen but a hardly noticeable 
light along the north horizon. F, HORNER 

Mells Park, Somerset, January 31 


Ir may interest your readers to know that the auror. of 
January 31 was distinctly seen by me here at about seven o’clock 
on that evening. Such a sight is so uncommon in this part of 
London that [ had some difficulty in convincing my friends that 
it was the aurora, As I walked down the Wickham Road, 
Brockley, towards Greenwich, broad bands of light shot up from 
the northern regions and reached nearly to the zenith. Descend- 
ing amongst the fog and smoke that overhung the lower parts of 
New Cross, the light gradually faded, and I saw no more of it. 

W. J. SPRATLING 

Aske’s Hatcham Schools, Hatcham, February 4 


THE aurora of January 31 was well seen here. 
brightest at 6.40 p.m. It extended from about north-west to 
nearly east. In the north-west and to the north of the crescent 
moon there was a large irregularly shaped patch of greenish 
phosphorescent light. Then round from it towards the north 
rose cv2mson Streamers towards the zenith. The streamers con- 
tinued round to the east nearly, still ascending zenithward, but 
white rather than crimson, between north-east and east. The 
streamers changed every instant, but the large greenish patch of 
light in the north-west was steady for some minutes. 

It would be interesting to know whether observers in America 
noticed any unusual solar activity at the same absolute time as 
the aurora was occurring here, and also whether the magnetic 
elements in both hemispheres (north and south) showed disturb- 


ances in sympathy. D. TRAILL 
Raleigh Lodge, Exmouth, February 4 


It was at its 


GAS AND ELECTRICITY AS HEATING 
AGENTS} 
Il. 

AS engineers have been under the impression until now that 
a supply of cold air was favourable to the production of a 
brilliant flame. This isa misconception, which was very general 
also as regards the combustion of solid fuel in furnaces, until 
t A lecture by C. William Siemens, D.C.L., LU.D., F.R.S., on January 


27, in St. Andrew's Hall, Glasgow, under the auspices of the! Glasgow 
Science Lecture Association. Continued from p. 329. 


NATURE 


351 


it was disproved by Stirling, by Neilson, and by the introduc- 
tion of the Regenerative Gas Furnace. The ‘‘ duplex burner” 
owes its brilliancy to the heating effect of the one burner upon 
the other ; and my brother, Mr. Frederick Siemens, has more 
recently constructed a burner in which the flame of the gas is 
reversed in its action in order to heat inits descent the ascending 
current of flame-supporting air. 

By the application of the principle of conduction before 
described, I obtain the hot-air current ina most simple manner 
without interfering with the free action of the flame. The 
construction of my burner will be seen from the diagram, 
A is an ordinary Argand burner, taking its supply of gas 
through the enlarged vertical copper tube B. This copper 
pipe terminates in a rod c of highly conductive copper, which 
passes upward through the burner, and carries at its top a ball 
of porcelain or other refractory material. The rod is coated 
with platinum or nickel to prevent oxidation when heated 
(almost to redness) by the heat of the flame. The tube B is 
armed with radial plates of copper presenting a considerable 
aggregate surface, and abutting externally against a covering of 
asbestos or other non-conductive material. 

The waste heat of the flame, or that portion of the heat 
produced in combustion which is not utilised in luminous rays, 
serves to heat the ball of refractory material D and the conduc- 
tive rod c. The heat is thus transferred by conduction to the 
tube B, with its laminar radii, between the extensive surfaces of 
which currents of air are free to ascend toward the Argand 
burner. The air is thus heated to from 700° to 800° F. before 
meeting the gas, and the ultimate temperature of the flame is 
increased to at least the same amount, causing a larger propor- 
tion of the heat developed in combustion to reach the point of 
luminous radiation. 

But not only the quantity of light but its quality is improved 
by the higher temperature obtained. ; 

It may appear surprising, but it is a fact susceptible of ac- 
curate proof, that the light obtained in consumption of a given 
amount of gas may thus be increased by some 40 per cent., and 
that in this large proportion the deleterious influences connected 
with gas lighting may be diminished. Gas will thus be better 
able to hold its position against its more brilliant rival the 
electric light, except for such large applications as the lighting 
of public halls and places, of harbours, railway stations, ware- 
houses, &c , for which it is pre-eminently suited. Add to these 
improved applications of gas the ever-increasing ones for heating 
purposes, and I have only to express regret that Iam not a gas 
shareholder. ‘ 

If gas is to be largely employed, however, for heating pur- 
poses, it will have to come down in price ; and considering that 
heating gas need not be highly pu ified, or possessed of high 
illuminating power, the time will "come, {I believe, when we 
shall have two services, one for illuminating, and the other for 
heating gas, , , 

In many towns two systems of gas mains already exist ; and 
it would only be necessary to appropriate the one for illumina- 
ting and the other for heating gas. The ordinary retorts could 
be used for the production of both descriptions of gas, it being 
well known that even ordinary coal will give up gases of high 
illuminating power during a certain portion of the time occupied 
in their entire distillation. The gases emitted from the retort 
when first charged are to a great extent occluded gases of low 
illuminating power such as fire-damp or marsh-gas, and these 
should be turned into the heating mains. In the course of 
half-an-hour these occluded gases, together with the aqueous 
and other vapours, will have left the coal, which is then in the 
best condition to evolve olefiant gas and other gases rich in 
carbon, and therefore of high illuminating power. The period 
during which such illuminating gases are emitted extends over 
probably two hours, after which the retorts should again be 
connected with the heating gas mains, until the end of the 
process. The result of this modus operandi would be that the 
illuminating gas supplied, say in London, from Newcastle coal 
would probably exceed 20 candle power, instead of 16 as at 
present, whereby the objectionable results of gas lighting would 
be greatly diminished, and there would be, say, an equal 
volume of heating gas available, consisting for the most part 
of marsh-gas, which,although greatly inferior to olefiant gas in 
illuminating effect, would be actually more suitable for heating 
purposes, because ‘ess liable to produce soot in its combustion. 

The total cost of production would not be increased by this 
separation of the gases, and the price might with advantage 


So 


NATURE 


| Feb. 10, 1881 


both to the supplier and to the consumer be so adjusted that th® | 


latter, while paying for his illuminating gas an increased price 
proportionate to the increase of illuminating power, would be 
furnished with a heating gas at greatly reduced cost; for the 
heating gas could be reduced in price in a much larger propor- 
tion than the illuminating gas would have to be raised, because 
it would not require the same purification from sulphur which 
renders illuminating gas comparatively costly. The enormous 
increase of consumption would moreover enable the gas com- 
panies to reduce prices all round very considerably without 
interfering with their comfortable revenues. 

For large applications of heating gas to the working of fur- 
naces and boilers, simpler means than the retort can be found 
for its producion, I constructed a gas producer many years 
ago in connection with my Regenerative Gas Furnace ; this I 
need not now describe in detail. In it all the carbonaceous 
matter of the coal is converted into combustible gas, the solid 
carbon yi Iding a supply of carbonic oxide ; the resultant mixture 
of combustible gas contains a very large proportion averaging 
61°5 per cent. of nitrogen, which swells its volume without in 
any way contributing to its heating power. 

It has been my endeavour for some time to construct a gas 
producer which, without losing the simplicity of the first, should 
be capable of yielding a heating gas of superior calorific power. 
This producer consists of a wrought-iron cylindrical chamber, 
truncated downwards, and lined with brickwork. The fuel to 
be converted into gas is introduced through a hopper, and the 
cinder and ashes work out through the open orifice at the 
bottom. 

Instead of a grating for the introduction of atmospheric air a 
current of heated air is brought in, either through the hopper or 
through the orifice at the bottom, and is discharged into the 
centre of the mass of fuel ; the effect is the generation of a very 
intense heat at that point. The fuel, afier its descent through 
the hopper, arrives gradually at this region of intense heat, and 
when subjected to it, parts with its gaseous constituents. At 
the point of maximum heat coke is consumed, producing carbonic 
anhydride, which, in passing through the considerable thickness 
of fuel surrounding this portion, takes up a second equivalent of 
carbon, and becomes changed into carbonic oxide. Here also 
the earthy constituents are for the most part separated in a fused 
or semi-fused condition, and in descending gradually reach the 
orifice at the bottom, whence they are removed from time to 
time. Air enters through the bottom orifice to some extent, 
causing the entire consumption of the carbonaceous matter, 
which may have got past the zone of greatest heat ; water is 
also here introduced in a hollow tray, and after evaporation by 
the heat of the hot clinkers, passes upwards through the incan- 
descent mass, and is converted by decomposition into carbonic 
oxide and hydrogen gas. The exit orifices for the gases are 
placed all round, near the circumference of the chamber, ascend- 
ing upwards into an annular space, whence they are taken through 
pipes to the furnace or other destination, 

The advantages connected with this modus oferandi consist in 
the intensity of the heat produced within the centre of the mass, 
whereby the whole of the fuel is converted into combustible 
gases, with the least amount of nitrogen. The hydrocarbons 
formed in the upper portion of the apparatus have to descend 
through the hotter fuel below, and in so doing the tar and other 
vapours mixed up with them are decomposed, and furnish com- 
bustible gases of a permanent character. 

The orifice at the bottom of the apparatus may be enlarged, 
and so arranged that, instead of ashes only being produced, 
coke may be withdrawn, and in this way a continuous coke oven 
may be constructed, which is at the same time a gas producer, 
or in other words an apparatus in which both the solid and 
gaseous constituents of the coal are fully utilised. 

The intense heat in the very centre of a large mass of fuel has 
for its result a very rapid distillation, and thus one gas producer 
does the work of two or three gas producers of the type hitherto 
employed ; this more concentrated action will moreover allow 
of the introduction of gaseous fuel, where want of space and 
considerations of economy have militated hitherto against it, 
and in favour of the ordinary coal furnace. 

It has been already proved that steam boilers can be worked 
economically on land with gaseous fuel, and there is no reason 
that I know of why the same mode of working should not also 
be applied to marine boilers. The marine engine has, within 
the last fifteen years, been improved to an extent which is 
truly surprising: the consumption of coal, which at the com- 


mencement of that period was never less than 8 lbs. per HP., 
has been reduced by expansive working in compound cylinders 
to 2 lbs., or even less, per actual HP. The mode of firing marine 
boilers has, however, remained the same as it was in the days 
of Watt and Fulton, In crossing the Atlantic one may see a 
considerable number of men incessantly employed in the close 
stoke-hole of the vessel opening the fire-doors and throwing 
in fuel. Each charge gives rise to the development of great 
clouds of black smoke issuing from the chimney, to the great 
annoyance and discomfort of the passengers on deck, If, 
instead of this, the fuel could be discharged mechanically into 
one or more gas producers, the gaseous fuel produced would 
maintain the foilers at a very uniform heat, without necessi- 
tating the almost superhuman toil of the fireman ; no smoke or 
dust would be emited from the chimney, and a large saving of 
fuel would be effected. 

This cha ge would be specially appreciated by the numerous 
tourists visiting the Western Highlands. Speaking from my 
own experience on one occasion, I may say that the pleasure of 
a trip on the beautiful Loch Lomond was very seriously marred 
in consequence of the fumigation which my fellow passengers 
and myself had to endure. 

The change from the use of solid to gaseous fuel would be 
the prelude probably to another, and still more important change, 
namely the entire suppression of the steam boiler. We are 
already in possession of gas-engines working at moderate ex- 
pense as compared with small steam-engines, even when supplied 
with the comparatively expensive gas from our town gas-mains, 
and all that~will be required is an extension of the principle of 
operation already established. The realisation of such a plan 
would of course involve many important considerations, and 
may be looked upon as one of those subjects the accomplish- 
ment of which may be left for the energy and inventive power of 
the rising generation of engineers. 

Before leaving this branch of the subject I wish to call atten- 
tion to a favourite sugge-tion which I had occasion to make 
some years ago. It consists in placing gas-producers at the 
bottom of the coal mines themselves, so that instead of having 
to raise the coal by mechanical power, the combustible gases 
ascending from the depth of the mine to the surface would 
acquire by virtue of their low specific gravity such an onward 
pressure that they could be conducted in tubes to distances of 
many miles, thus saving the cost of raising and transporting the 
solid fuel. 

Glasgow with its adjoining coal-fields appears to me a parti- 
cularly favourable locality for putting such a plan to a practical 
trial, and the well-known enterprise of its inhabitants makes me 
sanguine of its accomplishment. When thus applied with 
gaseous fuel, the town would not only be able to boast of a 
clear atmosphere, but the strcets would be relieved of the most 
objectionable portion of the daily traffic. 

I now approach another and the last portion of my address, 
the attainment of very intense degrees of heat either for effect- 
ing fusion or chemical decomposition, Although by means of 
the combustion of either solid or gaseous fuel heats are pro- 
duced which suffice for all ordinary purposes, there is a limit 
imposed upon the degree of temperature attainable by any 
furnace depending upon combustion. It has been shown by 
Bunsen and by St. Claire-Deville, that at certain temperatures 
the chemical affinity between oxygen on the one hand and 
carbon and hydrogen on the other absolutely ceases, and that 
if the products of combustion CO, and H,O be exposed to such 
a degree of temperature they would fall to pieces into their 
constituent elements. This point of dissociation, as it is called, 
is influenced by pressure, but has been found for CO, under 
atmospheric pressure to be 2600° C. (or 4700° Fahr.). But 
long before this extreme point has been arrived at, combustion 
is greatly retarded, and the limit is reached when the losses of 
heat by radiatioi from the furnace balance its production by 
combustion. 

To electricity we must look for the attainment of a tempera- 
ture above that of dissociation, and we have evidence of the 
early application of the electric arc to such a purpose. In 1807 
Sir Humphry Davy succeeded in decomposing potash by means 
of an electric current from a Wollaston battery of 400 elements, 
and in 1810 he surprised the members of the Royal Institution 
by the brilliant electric are produced between carbon points 
through the same agency. 

Magneto-electric and dynamo-electric currents allow of the 
production of the electric arc much more readily and econo- 


Feb. 10, 1881] 


NATURE 


353 


mically than by the use of Sir Humphry Davy’s gigantic 
battery, and Messrs, Huggins, Lockyer, Liveing, and other 
physicists have taken advantage of the comparatively new 
method to advance astronomical and chemical research with 
the aid of spectrum analysis. 

My object is now to show that the heat of the electric are is 
not only available within a focus or extremely contracted space, 
but that it is capable of producing such larger effects as will 
render it useful in the arts for fusing platinum, iridium, steel, 
or iron, or for effecting such reactions or decompositions as 
require for their accomplishment an intense degree of heat, 
coupled with freedom from such disturbing influences as are 
inseparable from a furnace worked by the combustion of car- 
bonaceous material. 

The apparatus which I employ to effect the electro-fusion of 
such material as iron or platinum is represented in the 
drawing. It consists of an ordinary crucible of plumbago 
or other highly refractory material, placed in a metallic jacket 
or outer casing, the intervening space being filled up with 
pounded charcoal or other bad conductor of heat. A hole is 
pierced through the bottom of the crucible for the admission of 
arod of iron, platinum, or dense carbon, such as is used in 
electric illumination, The cover of the crucible is also pierced 
for the reception of the negative electrode, by preference a 
cylinder of compressed carbon of comparatively large dimen- 
sions. At one end of a beam, supported at its centre, is sus- 
pended the negative electrode by means of a strip of copper, or 
other good conductor of electricity, the other end of the beam 
being attached to a hollow cylinder of soft iron free to move 
vertically within a solenoid coil of wire, presenting a total resist- 
ance of about 50 units or ohms. By means of a sliding weight 
the preponderance of the beam in the direction of the solenoid 
can be varied so as to balance the magnetic force with which the 
hollow iron cylinder is drawn into the coil. One end of the 
solenoid coil is connected with the positive and the other with 
the negative pole of the electric arc, and, being a coil of high 
resistance, its attractive force on the iron cylinder is proportional 
to the electromotive force between the two electrodes, or, in 
other words, to the electrical resi-tance of the arc itself. 

The resistance of the arc was determined and fixed, at well 
within the limits of the source of power, by sliding the weight 
upon the beam. If the resistance of the arc should increase from 
any cause the current passing through the solenoid would gain in 
strength, and the magnetic force overcoming the counteracting 
weight would cause the negative electrode to descend deeper 
into the crucible ; whereas, if the resistance of the are should 
fall below the desired limit, the weight would drive back the 
iron cylinder within the coils, and the length of the arc would 
increase, until the balance between the forces engaged had been 
re-established. 

Experiments with long solenoid coils have shown that the 
attractive force exerted upon the iron cylinder is subject only to 
slight variation within a range of several inches, which circum- 
stance allows of a working range to that extent of nearly uniform 
action on the electric arc. 

This automatic adjustment of the arc is of great importance 
to the attainment of advantageous results in the process of 
electric fusion; without it the resistance of the are would 
rapidly diminish with increase of temperature of the heated 
atmosphere within the crucible, and heat would be developed in 
the dynamo-electric machine to the prejudice of the electric 
furnace. The sudden sinking or change in electrical resistance 
of the material undergoing fusion would, on the other hand, 
cause sudden increase in the resistance of the arc, with a 
likelihood of its extinction, if such self-adjusting action did not 
take place. 

Another important element of success in electric fusion con- 
sists in constituting the material to be fused the positive pole of 
the electric arc, It is well known that it is at the positive pole 
that the heat is principally developed, and fusion of the material 
constituting the positive pole takes place even before the crucible 
itself is heated up to the same degree. This principle of action 
is of course applicable only to the melting of metals and other 
electrical conductors, such as metallic oxides, which constitute 
the materials generally operated upon in metallurgical pro- 
cesses. In operating upon non-conductive earth or wpon streams 
of gases it becomes necessary to provide a non-destructible 
positive pole, such as is supplied by the use of a pole of fused 
platinum, or iridium, or by a plumbago crucible. In working 
the electric furnace some time is taken up in the first instance 


in raising the temperature of the crucible to a considerable 
degree, but it is surprising how rapidly an accumulation of heat 
takes place. In using a pair of dynomo-machines capable of 
producing 70 webers of current with an expenditure of 7-horse 
power, and which, when used for purposes of illumination, 
produce a light of 12,000 candles, a crucible of about § inches 
in depth, immersed in a non-conductive material, has its tem- 
perature raised to a white heat in fifteen minutes, and 4 Ibs. 
of steel are fused within another fifteen minutes, successive 
fusions being effected in somewhat diminishing intervals of 
time. The process can be carried on on a still larger scale by 
increasing the power of the dynamo-machines and the size of the 
crucibles, 

The purely chemical reaction intended to be carried into effect 
within the crucible might be interfered with through the detach- 
ment of particles from the dense carbon used for the negative 
pole, although its consumption within a neutral atmosphere is 
exceedingly slow, To prevent this I have used, both in this con- 
nection and also in the construction of electric lamps, a water 
pole, or tube of copper, through which a current of water circu- 
lates, so that it yields no substance to the arc. It consists simply 
of a stout copper cylinder closed at the lower end, having an 
inner tube penetrating to near the bottom for the passage of a 
current of water into the cylinder, which water enters and is dis- 
charged by means of flexible india-rubber tubing. This tubing 
being of non-conductive material, and its sectional area small, 
the escape of current from the pole to the reservoir is so slight 
that it may be neglected. On the other hand some loss of heat 
is incurred, through conduction, with the use of the water pole, 
but this loss diminishes with the increasing heat of the furnace, 
inasmuch as the arc becomes longer, and the pole is retired more 
and more into the crucible cover. 

In the experiments which I shall now place before you the 
current which has supplied the one electric lamp in the centre of 
the hall will be diverted by means of a commutator through the 
electric furnace. After it has been active for five minutes to 
warm the crucible, I shall charge it with $lbs. of broken steel 
files, which I shall endeavour to melt and pour out into an ingot 
mould before your eyes. 

By some obvious modifications of this electric furnace it can 
be made available for a variety of other purposes where intense 
heat is required combined with immunity from disturbing 
chemical actions. By piercing a number of radial holes 
through the sides of the chamber, and introducing the ends of 
wires through the same, an excellent means is provided of 
heating those wire ends very rapidly, without burning them, 
for the purpose of welding them together. The electrical furnace 
will also be found useful, I believe, in the hands of the chemist 
to effect those high temperature reactions between gaseous 
bodies which require the employment of temperatures far 
exceeding the hitherto available limits, and will thus increase 
the area of available reactions at his disposal for the attainment 
of either scientific or practical ends. 

I have endeavoured to compress within the limited space of 
a single lecture, subject matter that might occupy the close 
attention of the student for weeks or months, and I may there- 
fore be pardoned if I have failed to convey to you more than a 
very rough outline of what may be accomplished by the judicious 
use of gaseous fuel, and of the electric current, as heating 
agents. The one purpose that has been foremost in my mind 
in preparing this lecture, has been to make war upon the 
smoky chimney, which, so far from being a necessity under any 
circumstances whatever, should be regarded only as a remnant 
of that stage of our industrial and social progress which satis- 
fied with the attainment of certain ends, could afford to neglect 
the economical and sanitary conditions under which those ends 
were accomplished. 

The Exhibition which has lately been held in this city of 
appliances for heating and illuminating by means of gas and 
electricity, in which your President, my esteemed friend, Sir 
William Thomson, took so prominent a part, as he does in 
everything tending towards the advancement of human know- 
ledge and well-being—proves how deep is the interest felt 
amongst you in those very questions with which I have had to 
deal this evening. 

And so I thought you might not be disinclined to give 
attention once more to a particular view of the question, which 
happens to be the result of the independent labour of one who 
may claim at any rate to have given a life-long attention to 
the subject. 


354 


NATURE 


| Fed. 10, 1881 


PHOTOPHONE EXPERIMENTS 


WM R. ANDREW jAMIESON, C.E., Principal of the 

Glasgow Mechanics Institution, sends us an account of 
the following experiments on the photophone, shown by him at 
a lecture delivered by him on January 19, before the Glasgow 
Philosophical Society, on the history of selenium. 

The effects of light and heat on the conductivity of selenium 
were shown by means of a simple and inexpensive form of 
“cell” joined up in a Wheatstone’s Bridge with a reflecting 
galvanometer. 
A piece of plate-glass or of a glass tube of about aninch diameter 
and about three inches long is chosen, and upon its exterior are 


The cell is constructed in the following way :— | 


tightly wound two separate parallel wires of No. 25 B.W.G., | 


the wires themselves being of cop; er covered with silk or cotton. 
A red-hot iron or poker is then applied to the middle region of 
the coil of wire so as to burn off the insulating covering of silk 


or cotton, The bare wires are cleaned, and the blank cell being 
raised to the proper temperature, vitreous selenium is rubbed on 
the wires so as to fill the narrow interspaces left by the removal 
of the silk covering, The selenium is afterwards annealed in the 
the usual fashion to render it more highly conductive. One of 
the cells thus used had resistances of 5740 and 3440 ohms 
respectively in the dark and in the light ; but others have less 
resistances, one being as small as 500 ohms in the dark. The 
first-named cell (a flat one) was twenty-one days old, and had 
increased several thousand ohms in that time. 

The musical note of a ‘‘singing flame ” was reproduced in the 
telephone by means of one of the annular cells thus formed upon 
a_glass tube in the following manner, suggested by Prof. Blyth 
(Fig. 1) :—The cell, c, joined in circuit with a battery, n, and 
telephone, T, was placed outside entirely surrounding the glass 
tube in which a small gas-jet was ‘‘singing.” Speech was after- 
wards reproduced by the arrangement shown in Fig. 2. At the 


back conical mouthpiece which receives the voice is fixed a mem- 
brane of goldbeater’s skin which forms the front of a chamber : 
A, into which gas is led, and from which a short tube leads to a 
small gas-jet, in the manner devised by Konig. Opposite the 
gas-flame was placed the selenium cell in circuit with a battery 


of twenty cells and a distant telephone. 
changes going on simultaneously :— 
1. Muscular movement of speaker’s vocal organs, 
. Vibration of air opposite speaker’s mouth. 
. Corresponding vibrations of the thin membrane, 
- Variations of pressure controlling the supply of gas to jet. 
Hence increase and decrease of gas-flame. 
Increase and decrease of resistance of the selenium cell. 
. Rise and fall of battery current. 
. Increase and decrease of magnetism in magnet of telephone, 


There were thus eleven 


is) 


OI ANB wW 


9. To-and-fro movement of telephone disk. 

10. Vibration of air opposite the same. 

11. Vibration of drum of ear of listener at the telephone and a 
sound heard. 


Not only the pitch but the tone of the voice was distinctly 
heard. 


THE COFFEE-LEAF DISEASE 


a WO interesting papers on this subject were read at the last 

meeting (3rd inst.) of the Linnean Society, the one treating 
of its ravages in India, the other its nature and spread in South 
America, 

In the firrt Mr. Wm. Bidie, in a letter to Mr. J. Cameron of 
Bangalore, refers to the Coorg country, situated in the Western 
Ghats, where European enterprise in coffee has been wholly 
developed within the last twenty-five years, and no dicease was 
observed till four or five years ago. The author mentions 
that the disease appears to have been imported from Ceylon by 
way of Chickmoorloor, a district of Mysore, sixty miles distant 


; from Coorg, It seems worst in impoveriched, exposed fields, 
_ and least where there is shade and rich soil. 


A small red insect 
has been noticed feeding over leaves covered with the pest, but 
what the insect’s relation is to the disease as yet remains unde- 
termined. Plants grown from Ceylon seed suffer most, while 
those trees of Coorg origin and growth are least affected, A 
system of ‘‘renovation-pitting” has been successfully tried, a 
pit being dug at short intervals wherein, after judicious pruning, 
all the affected leaves are buried, and this precaution seems to 
check the spread of the disease, particularly among the Coorg 
coffee-trees, 

In the second communication Dr. M. C. Cooke describes and 


| summarises all the data extant up to the present time of the pro- 


gress of coffee disease in South America, Plantations in Venezuela, 
Costa Rica, Bogota, Caracas, and Jamaica have been affected. He 
discourses on the nature of the blight, and is of opinion that the 
disease is a complicated one, being himself as yet unprepared to 
affirm that either the Sefforia, the Spherella, or the Stilbune, 
three so-called different kinds of fungi, or altogether, is the true 
cause of the disease. At the same time he thinks it possible 
that none of these forms of funzus are autonomous, and that 
all may be related to each other as forms or conditions of the 
same fungus, of which Spi@vel/a is the highest and most perfect 
manifestation. He observes that the discoloured spots may be 
without any visible fungus upon them, and exhibit no trace of 
mycelium in the tissues, or they may nourish a Sefforia, as seen 
by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, or a Sfherella as found by himself, 
or finaily a species of Sti/6um as seen by Prof. Saenx and him- 
self. Further, the S#/bum may occur on the same spot as the 
perithecia of the Sphered/a, or both perithecia and Sz/bum ; the 
one without the other may be found occupying different spots. 
Mr. Cooke admits that altogether it is difficult satisfactorily to 
answer the question, What is the cause of this form of coffee 
disease ? 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
OxForD.—Sir William Harcourt announced on Monday that 
the evidence taken before the Oxford University Commissioners 
would be laid before Parliament without delay. 


CAMBRIDGE.—The first Smith prize has been adjudged to A. 


_R., Forsyth, of Trinity College, Senior Wrangler, R. S. Heath, 


of Trinity College, Second Wrangler, and A. E. Steinthal, also 


| of Trinity College, Third Wrangler, were equal in the competi- 


tion for the second prize. 

Mr. W. J. Lewis, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, has been elected to the 
Chair of Mineralogy, in the place of the late Prof. Miller, 
F.R.S. The University is to be congratulated on having secured 
as Professor of Mineralogy one so competent to take Prof, 
Miller’s place. 

Mr. A. Scott is giving demonstrations in Elementary Organic 
Chemistry at the University Laboratory. Mr. J. F. Walker is 
lecturing on the same subject at Sidney Sussex College. 

Lord Rayleigh is giving a short course on the Unit of Elec- 
trical Resistance, and on February 21 will commence an 
advanced course of lectures on Sound. Mr, Glazebrook is giving 
demonstrations on Advanced Electricity and Magnetism, and 


s 


Feb. 10, 1881] 


NATURE 


355 


Mr, Shaw on Heat. All these courses are given in the Cavendish 
Laboratory. 

Prof. Stuart is ‘lecturing on the Differential Calculus and its 
Application to Mechanics ; the Demonstrator has a course on 
Elementary Applied Mechanics. 

Dr. Michael Foster continues his course of Elementary Physio- 
logy. The advanced lectures announced this term are by Mr. 
Lea (who has been appointed Lecturer in Physiology at Gonville 
and Caius College), on Physiological Chemistry ; Mr. Langley, 
on the Histology and Physiology of the Digestive System, and 
Mr. Hill (Downing College), on the Central Nervous System. 

The Report of the Syndicate on the Higher Education of 
Women is to be discussed to-morrow (February 11). 

The Board of Natural Science Studies recommends that the 
agreement between the University and Dr, Dohrn, of the Zoo- 
logical Station at Naples, by which 757. per annum is paid from 
the Worts Travelling Bachelors’ Fund towards the expenses of 
the station, be renewed for five years, The Board calls attention 
to the services which those members of the University who have 
studied at Naples have rendered to science and the University, 
and to the fact that three of them have obtained professorships 
elsewhere, namely Professors A. M. Marshall (Owens), T. W. 
Bridge (Mason’s College, Birmingham), and A. C. Haddon 
(Dublin). 

At Newnham College Miss Harland is lecturing on Euclid 
and Algebra, and Miss Scott on Analytical Conics, Mr, Garnett 
lectures on Statics and on Experimental Physics, Mr, Hudson 
on Arithmetic and on the Differential Calculus, Mr. Hillhouse 
on Botany, while Miss Cross superintends practical and paper 
work in Chemistry and Geology. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LonDON 

Royal Society, December 9, 1880,—‘‘ The Electrostatic 
Capacity of Glass,” by J. Hopkinson, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. 

In 1877 I had the honour of presenting to the Royal Society 
(Phil. Trans., 1878, Part i.) the results of some determinations 
of specific inductive capacity of glasses, the results being ob- 
tained with comparatively low electromotive forces, and with 
periods of charge and discharge of sensible duration. In 1878 
Mr. Gordon (Pxil. Trans., 1879, Part i.) presented to the Royal 
Society results of experiments, some of them upon precisely 
similar glasses, by a quite different method with much greater 
electromotive forces, and with very short times of charge and 
discharge. Mr. Gordon’s results and mine differ to an extent 
which mere errors of observation cannot account for. Thus for 
double extra dense flint glass I gave 1o'1, Mr. Gordon 31, and 
subsequently 3°89 (Report of British As ociation for 1879). 
These results indicate one of three things, either my method is 
radically bad, Mr. Gordon’s method is bad, or there are some 
physical facts not yet investigated which would account for the 
difference. Two suggestions oocur :—1I. Possibly for glass K is 
not a constant, but is a function of the electromotive force. 2. 
When a glass condenser is discharged for any finite time, a part 
of the residual discharge will be included with the instantaneous 
discharge, and the greater the time the greater the error so 
caused. ‘To test the first I measured the capacity of thick glass 
plates with differences of potential ranging from 10 to 500 volts, 
and also of thin glass flasks between similar limits; the result is 
that I cannot say that the capacity is either greater or less where 
the electromotive force is 5000 volts per millimetre than where 
it is 4 volt per millimetre. The easiest way to test the second 
hypothesis is to ascertain how nearly a glass flask can be discharged 

-in an exceedingly short time. A flask of light flint glass was 
tested ; it was charged for some seconds, discharged for a time 

> not greater than yt > second, and the residual charge observed 
so soon as the electrometer needle came to rest; the result was 
that the residual charge under these circumstances did not exceed 
3 per cent. of the original charge, also that it mattered not 
whether the discharge lasted +7455 second or ,5 second. These 
experiments suffice to show that neither of the above supposi- 
tions accounts for the facts. 

I have repeated my own experiments with the guard-ring 

_ condenser, but with a more powerful battery, and with a new 
__ key which differs from the old one, inasmuch as immediately 
; after the condensers are connected to the electrometer they are 
_ separated from it. In no case do I obtain results differing much 
if from those I had previously published. 

Lastly, a rough model of the five plate induction balance used 


| 
| 
| 


\ 


by Mr. Gordon was constructed, but arranged so that the 
distances of the plates could be varied within wide limits. So 
far as instrumental means at hand admitted Mr. Gordon’s method 
was used. \A plate of double extra dense flint and a plate of 
brass were tried. In the first, by varying the distances of the 
five plates, values of K were obtained ranging from 1} to 8}, 
with the latter results from 3 to 3. It is clear that the five 
plate induction balance thus arranged cannot give reliable 
results. 

The explanation of the anomaly, then, is that the deviation 
from uniformity of field in Mr. Gordon's apparatus causes errors 
greater than any one would suspect without actual trial, It is 
probable that the supposed change of electrostatic capacity with 
time may be accounted for in the same way. 

January 27.—‘‘ Dielectric Capacity of Liquids.” 
kinson, F.R.S. 

These experiments have for object the determination of the 
refractive indices and the specific inductive capacity of certain 
liquids, and a comparison of the square of the refractive index for 
long waves and the specific inductive capacity. 

In the following table are given the results obtained for 
refractive index for long waves deduced by the formula 


By J. Hop- 


(Thi (0 ae oe the square of u,,, and the observed values (K) of 


the specific inductive capacity. 


Ho K 

Petroleum spirit (Field’s) TiO 22a 
Petroleum oil (Field’s) 2°075 2°07 

Bs (Common)... ... ... 2°078 2°10 
Ozokerit lubricating oil (Field’s) ...  2°086 2°13 
Turpentine (Commercial) see 2128 2°23 
Castor oil ... ston sceh Beaty eeekGS 4°78 
Syecar ARR coos com eco coe SI 3°02 
Olive oil Beocd) cov cc. EPS Gan | SFIS 
Neatsfoot oil PWS soon « BOY 


It will be seen that whilst for hydrocarbons “3 = K, for 
animal and vegetable oils it is not so, 


Zoological Society, February 1.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. F. M. Balfour, 
F.R.S., read a paper on the evolution of the placenta and made 
some observations on the possibility of employing the characters 
of this organ in the classification of the mammals.—Mr. Sclater 
read notes on some birds collected by Mr. E. F. im Thurn in 
British Guiana, amongst which was an example of a new species 
of Ageleus, proposed to be called A. zm-Thurni, after its dis- 
coverer,—Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., read an account of a 
collection of reptiles and frogs made at Singapore by Dr. W. B. 
Dennys. In this collection were two new species of Ophidians, 
which were named respectively Cylindrophis lineatus and Simotes 
Dennysi, and two new frogs, which the author proposed to call 
Rana laticeps and Rhacophorus Dennysi.—Mr, A. D, Bartlett 
read an account of a peculiar habit of the Darter (Plotus anhinga) 
in casting up parts of the epithelial lining of its stomach, as 
observed by him in the specimen now living in the Society’s col- 
lection.—A communication was read from Mr. A, Heneage 
Cocks, F.Z.S., containing notes on the breeding of otters, as 
observed by him in specimens living in his possession,—The 
Secretary read a paper by the late Mr, Arthur O'Shaughnessy, 
containing an account of a large collection of lizards made by 
Mr. C. Buckley in Ecuador. ‘The collection was stated to be of 
great interest, both on account of the number of new species it 
contained and the fresh material it afforded for the study of 
species already known. Mr, O’Shaughnessy had given last year 
a partial notice of this collection, confined however to a preli- 
minary list of the species of Avo/is identified. The present paper 
gave the results of a study of the whole collection, and was not 
restricted to a description of the new forms, but enumerated all 
the species, for the purpose of recording additional remarks and 
revisions which appeared necessary. In it twenty-seven species 
were mentioned, ten of which were new.—Mr. G. A, Boulenger 
read an account of a new species of Axyalius in the Brussels 
Museum, from Ecuador, which he proposed to name Exyalius 
O’ Shaughnessyi.—Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., 
read the first part of a memoir on the land-shells collected on the 
island of Socotra by Prof. I. B. Balfour. The present communi- 
cation comprised an account of the species of Cyclostomacee found 
on the island. 


Photographic Society, January 11.—J. Glaisher, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Papers were read by E. Viles on the 


356 


NALORE 


| fed, 10, 1881 


lime-light. The principal matter insisted upon was that the 


oxygen and hydrogen gases should unite in one stream, just | 


before issuing from the nozzle of the burner, and the tubes kept 
entirely free from wire gauze or any impediment whatever ; also 
that the lime cylinder should be in two pieces, when if the upper 
part splits the lower part (already heated) could be screwed into 
position at once.—Also by T. Bolas, F.C.S., on the detective 
camera. This apparatus consists of two cameras working simul- 
taneously together : in one the image can be seen, whilst in the 
other a sensitive dry plate is ready for instant exposure by pneu- 
matic power. The whole is inclosed in an unsuspicious wooden 
box, which can even be placed upon the ground, and scenes and 
persons photographed unawares. 


Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, February 7.—The 
Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., in the chair.—A paper was read by 
Dr. Samuel Kinns, F.R.A.S., on “The Truths of Revelation 
confirmed by the Advances of Science.” 


Institution of Civil Engineers, February 1.—Mr. Aber- 
nethy, F.R.S.E., president, in the chair.—lhe paper read was 
on the Portsmouth Dockyard Extension Works, by Mr. Charles 
Colson, Assoc, M, Ius:. C.E. 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, January 31.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—The following papers were read :--On the long duration 
of the life of germs of chavéon, and on their preservation in 
cultivated earth, by M. Pasteur, with MM. Chamberland and 
Roux. This relates to an inquiry made by a committee elected 
by the Paris Society of Veterinary Medicine. Sheep caught the 
disease from being a few hours daily on ground where animals 
that died of chardoz had been buried twelve years before. There 
was no grass to eat; the germs must have entered the sheep 
by reason of their habit of smelling about the ground, The 
farmer had a scar of malignant pustula.—Observations on the 
birds of the Antarctic Region, by M. Alph. Milne-Edwards. 
This relates to the first part of a work on the fauna of Austral 
regions. Birds serve more than any other animals to mark the 
profound differences between faunas of the southern and those 
of the northern hemisphere. The geographical distribution of 
penguins and spheniscans present interesting features in this 
respect.—On a mode of representation of functions, by M. Gyldén. 
—On a fall of sleet at Geneva, on January 19, by M. Colladon. The 
grains were compact and pretty round, and they showed curious 
dancing movements (sometimes after being motionless two or three 
seconds), like those of pith balls under electricity.—M. Clos was 
elected Correspondent in Botany, in room of the late M. 
Godron.—On the circulatory apparatus of edriophthalmate crus- 
taceans (continued), by M. Delage. This relates to Amphipoda 
and Lzmodipoda.—<Action of sulphocarbonate of potassium on 
phylloxerised vines, by M. Mouillefert. The effects of three to 
six, two, and one year’s treatment are severally considered.—On 
the figure of planets, by M. Hennessy. For the earth and near 
planets supposed like it the compression deduced from the theory 
of fluidity agrees better with observation than that deduced from 
the theory of superficial erosion.—On the series of Fourier, by 
M. Jordan.—On an extensiun of the rule of signs of Descartes, 
by M. Laguerre.—On a particular cyclic system, by M. Ribau- 
cour.—On the quadrature on which depends the solution of an 
extensive class of linear differential equations with rational coeffi- 
cients, by M. Dillner.—On the distinction of integrals of linear 
differential equations into sub-groups, by M. Casorati.—On the 
invariant of the eighteenth order of binary forms of the fifth 
degree, by M. Le Paige.—Action of hydrochloric acid on 
metallic chlorides (continued), by M. Ditte. In the case of 
chlorides very soluble in water (less so in acid liquor), and 
deposited in it as crystallised hydrates, hydrochlorie acid dimi- 
nishes the weight of chloride dissolved, and in the acid liquors 
one still finds hydrated salts, though much less rich than the 
crystals that form in this liquid. Another (and last) group 
contains chlorides that crystallise anhydrous in water or 
hydrochloric acid, but the solubility of which in concen- 
trated acid is reduced almost to zero,—Dete:mination of 
the colours which correspond to fundamental sensations, by 
means of rotatory disks, by M. Rosenstiehl. The line which 
represents the proportion of extreme sensations in the inter- 
mediate colours is a straight one (they are thus, to sight, 
rigorously equidistant). The line which represents the sensation 
of yellow reaches its culminating point in the ordinate corre- 


sponding to yellow. The sensation of red rises in a straight | Societies anp ACADEMIES... + ee + 


line to the red, and beyond that to the orange, where it culmin- 
ates ; then it falls to the yellow, where it is zero.—On the 
determination of carbonic acid in air, by MM. Muntz and Aubin, 
They have studied the variations of which the proportion of CO, 
in special ;arts of the atmosphere is susceptible, and here first 
describe their method (absorption by pumice-stone impregnated 
with potash solution, then liberation, and measurement of 
volume), and verify its value.—Observations on a note by M. 
Eisenberg, on separation of trimethyalmine from substances 
accompanying it in commercial chlorhydrate of trimethyl- 
amine, by MM, Duvillier and Buisine.-—On a process of total 
destruction of organic matters, for investigation of poisonous 
mineral substances, by M. Pouchet. The principle is that it is 
possible to heat between 300° and 400°, in presence of carbon or 
organic compounds, mineral elements contained in a mixture of 
sulphuric acid and acid sulphate of potash. ‘The sulphate of 


potash retains substances the most volatile and decomposable~ 


(e.g. salts of mercury), while the organic matters are quickly 
destroyed.—On the invasion of pulmonary tissue by a champi- 
gnon, in peripneumonia, by M. Poincaré.—The third edition 
of M. Domeyko’s Treatise on Mineralogy (in Spanish) was 
presented. It contains original researches on various South 
American minerals. 

VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, February 4.—V. Burg in 
the chair.—F. Osnaghi and V. Lorenz, fifth report of the 
Adria Commission on the Physical Exploration of Adria,— 
Prof. L. Pelz, on scientific treatment of axionometry.—Prof. 
A. Wassmuth, on the possibility of magnetising iron at high 
temperatures.—Prof. T. Tlann, on the daily course of some 
meteorological elements in Vienna (city).—G. Bruder, on the 
knowledge of the tura-formation of Sternberg near Zeidler 
(Bohemia).—Prof. Sigmund Exner, on the knowledge of the 
minute structure of the cortex of the brain. 


GOTTINGEN 


Royal Society of Sciences, August 7, 1880.—On fluospar 
in granite of Drammen, by O. Lang.—Some experiments on 
induction in conducting bodies, by F. Himstedt. 

November 5.—On an increase of the meteorite-collection of 
the University, by C. Klein.—Communication regarding the 
publication of a text-book of analysis, by R. Lipschitz.—Elec- 
trical shadows, by W. Holtz. 

December 6.—Electrical shadows (continued), by W. Holtz.— 
On the connection between the general and the particular 
integrals of differential equations, by L. Kénigsberger.—Obser- 
vations in the magnetic observatory, by K. Schering.—On 
congenital growth in the thallus of Pollexfenieze, by P. Falken- 
berg.—Communications on the University Library from 1876-79, 
by W. Willmanns. 


CONTENTS 


AcpINE Frowers. By Francis DARWIN ... + « «+e «> 
Our Book SHELF :— 
Barfoed’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch der organischen Qualitativen Analyse”. . 
LETTERS TO THE EpiTroR :— 
Mr. Butler’s ‘‘ Unconscious Memory.”—GrorGcE J. RoMANES, 
F.RS.; T.R.R.Sreppinc. . . oWteth 6 paved 2355 


“* Prehistoric Europe.’—Dr. James Geixiz, F.R.S... . . . . 336 
On Dust, Fogs, and Clouds.—W. H. Preece; Dr. H.iJ. H. 
GRONEMANY.05( (hie ye Meh core wh e)n atnrele nen nn ea 
New Cases of Dimorphism of Flowers.—Errors Corrected.—Dr. 
HERMANN MULLER. . . ar tee act sige Se: Rte Me inne me ty 
Geological Climates.—Dr. Joun Rag, F.R.S. . - 337 


On the Spectrum of Carbon.—Prof. G. D. Liveine, F.R.S.. 
Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost.—F.T. Morr . 


The Star Oeltzen, 17681.—Prof. EpwArp C."PICKERING. . . - 338 
Zeuglodontia.—SzarLes V. Woop (With Illustrations) « - + 338 
Ice Intrusive in Peat.—T. Metrarp READE. . .. =. « «= 339 
The Squirrel Crossing Water.—H. H. Gopwin-AUSTEN . * + 340 
Baron NorpDENSKJOLD IN FINLAND . . . . «. «© «© «© © «© © + 340 
THE JoHN Duncan Funp.. 2. 0 '0) eo ee © ss ees = 342 
EXPERIMENTS ON Ick, UNDER Low Pressures. By Dr. Tuos. 
CARNELLEY (With Diagrams) SEC WOL EAS Lok, Ai toto P S25 
TeLE-PHoToGrRaPHy. By SHe_ForD Bipwett (With Diagrams) . 344 
NOTES)". 5 (é))fsn te (ee Sy oan eee eae ~ = 346 
Tue Aurora AnD ELecTrIc STORM OF JANUARY 31. By W. H 
Preece; GEoRGE M. SEABROKE; G. M. WuippLe; Rev. S. J. 
Perry, F.R.S.; J. Ranp Capron; E, J. Lowe; G. Henry 
Kraan; Gerarp A. Kryanan ; F. Horner; W. J. SPRATLING. 
D. Tratty (With Diagrams) . SRC 
Gas anp E.ecrricity AS HeatinG Acents, II. By C. Wirtiam 
Sremens, DiC Es, EID, ReRES! sn) lee) we) fe eS 35r 
PHOTOPHONE EXPERIMENTS (With Illustrations) . . + - ne, (354 
Tue Correg-LeaF DiskaASE . . . + + 2 © e + «@ wile > 0 OSM 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCER « + «+ + Shh oa 
5 hea A 25 


a a 


NABORE 


357 


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1881 


ISLAND LIFE 


Island Life; or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular 
Faunas and Filoras, including a Revision and At- 
tempted Solution of the Problem of Geological Climates. 
By Alfred Russel Wallace. (London: Macmillan and 
Co., 1880.) 

I. 
R. WALLACE is to be congratulated on his success 
in that most difficult part of book-writing—the 

choice of a good descriptive, yet. short and euphonious, 
title. “Island Life!” What do not the words suggest ! 
How many old associations do they not recall! A vacant 
and unsuspicious reader may indeed be lured by them to 
open what he may expect will prove a good novel, perhaps 
a story of the ‘“‘ Robinson-Crusoe” type. His hopes will 
be quenched by the first chapter; but if he possesses 
any capacity for an interest in the flowers, insects, birds, 
and beasts of his home, it will almost certainly be quick- 
ened by a perusal of that chapter. Like a skilful com- 
poser Mr. Wallace strikes at once with a firm touch the 
key-note of his volume. Ina few pages he puts before 
us the problem he seeks to solve, and does this in so 
graphic and masterly a way that most readers will not 
only comprehend what he aims at, but will be persuaded 
into the belief that as they are familiar with some parts 
of the subject they have a personal interest in seeing 
what the author can make of it. 

Hardly any problem in modern science is at once so 
complex and so fascinating as the geographical distribu- 
tion of plants and animals. Strange to say, this com- 
plexity and fascination have steadily increased with the 
growth of knowledge. A generation ago,the grouping of 
floras and faunas found a ready explanation in differences 
of climate and special creations. But no such easy solu- 
tion of the difficulties now avails. Ever since the classic 
essay of Edward Forbes on the history of the British 
flora there has been a growing conviction that the present 
arrangement of the life of the globe is the outcome of 
previous geological and biological changes. The doctrine 
of evolution has given to this conviction the strength of 
demonstrated truth. But while the theoretical aspect of 
the question may be clear enough, we are beset on all 
sides by what seem utterly insuperable obstacles when 
we try to work out the application of this theory to the 
history of any given flora or fauna. This is true even in 
those areas of Europe and North America where the 
living plants and animals are most fully known, and 
where some approach to a complete unravelling of the 
geological record has been made. But over most of the 
rest of the globe our knowledge of botanical and zoologi- 
cal distribution, and still more of geological history, is of 
the scantiest and most fragmentary kind. A few broad 
facts in the history of the mammalian life of the northern 
hemisphere are well established. ‘The pedigree of some 
modern forms, such as the horse, can be traced back into 
early Tertiary times; the former wide spread of other 
forms, the lion for instance, and their gradual restric- 
tion in area, have been satisfactorily made out. But 
the kind of evidence available in these cases fails us 

VoL. xxi11.—No, 590 


in dealing with others. It seems as if all that we may 
hope to achieve is to establish by a few examples, capable 
of clear proof, the general Jaws by which variation in 
form and in geographical distribution appears to have 
been effected among the animal and vegetable populations 
of the globe. 

By no living naturalist could these problems be more 
fittingly and exhaustively discussed than by the author of 
“The Malay Archipelago.” Years of research in the East, 
followed by years of research and reflection at home, have 
enabled him to explore every highway and a vast number 
of byways in the wide realm of inquiry in which he has 
been so active and untiring a worker. Thoroughly con- 
versant with all that has been done by others, he brings 
to his task a wealth of information and a breadth of view 
that stamp his works with the authority of a master. 

The present volume may be regarded as an expansion 
of a part of the author’s “ Geographical Distribution of 
Animals.” Further study of the problem of distribution 
has enabled him to treat it with greater fulness. He has 
devoted especial attention to geological operations that have 
affected the successive races of plants and animals, and 
has connected these operations with biological changes 
more closely and clearly than has hitherto been done. 
Of his new volume the first half is mainly occupied with 
a discussion of this subject. He there seeks to establish a 
number of fundamental propositions or laws, the confirma- 
tion of which Jeads in his opinion to a simpler and fuller 
solution of the problem than has before been possible. 
Two of these doctrines deserve the careful consideration 
of geologists and naturalists. They are (t) the per- 
manence of continental and oceanic areas; and (2) the 
frequency of changes of climate during geological time 
and the combined influence of cosmical and geographical 
causes in the production of these changes, 

The abundance of marine organisms in the rock-masses 
which constitute the bulk of the continents naturally led 
to a belief in the mutability of the land. Not once only 
but many times in succession the sites of some of our 
loftiest mountains were under the sea. And if it was 
discovered’ that the position of the land had been so 
variable, and that the sea-floor had been so continually 
upraised, the inference was easily drawn that land and 
sea must have been continually changing places. Tacitly 
or explicitly it was assumed that just as there appeared 
to be no area, even in the heart of the continents, which 
had not been submerged beneath the waves, so there was 
probably no tract even of mid-ocean where a continent 
might not have bloomed. It is probably a safe assertion 
to say that this is still the belief of most geologists. It finds 
formal expression in their most authoritative text-books, 
and can be traced everywhere in its influence upon the 
discussion of questions of geological history. From 
geological treatises it has passed out into the current 
literature of the time, as one of the accepted conclusions 
of science. Our Poet Laureate, who has embodied in 
musical language not a little of the scientific speculation 
of his day, has given terse expression to this universal 
belief in the often-quoted lines :— 


“* There rolls the deep where grew the tree, 
O earth, what changes hast thou seen! 
There, where the long street roars, hath been 
The stillness of the central sea.” 


R 


358 


WATURE 


[Fred. 17, 1881 


Inevitable as was this belief in the early days of 
geology, and firmly as it still maintains its hold, it is 
unquestionably based upon a partial view and erroneous 
interpretation of the facts. This has for some years 
been recognised by a few writers, and will before long be 
generally acknowledged. Instead of shifting their places 
on the earth’s surface, continents, so far as the evidence 
of their history can be gleaned, have been wonderfully 
persistent. 

This conclusion is reached by many different paths 
of inquiry. Of these it may suffice to notice here only 
two. (1) The rocks of which the greater part of the 
dry land consists, are upraised marine sediments. But 
their materials were derived from the waste of neighbour- 
ing dry land. They everywhere contain indications of 
the proximity of that land, and even reveal terrestrial 
surfaces, such as rippled-marked and rain-pitted shores, 
in the very midst of marine formations. Nowhere do 
they present indications of really deep water. (2) An 
examination of the floor of the present ocean proves that 
the sediment now removed from the surface of the 
continent is deposited in the shallower waters within 
150 or 200 miles from land. Beyond this limit ter- 
restrial sediment ceases to be transported and depo- 
sited, its place being taken by organic accumulations 
and by peculiar red and grey “clays” in which the 
inorganic material is mainly of volcanic origin, and must 
gather on the bottom with almost inconceivable slowness. 
This grouping of the detritus, derived from the degrada- 
tion of the land, is evidently the only one possible, and it 
has now been abundantly demonstrated by recent deep- 
sea researches. We may be sure also that it must always 
have obtained in every geological period. The coarser 
and more lenticular sheets of sediment have accumulated 
nearest to the sources of supply, that is to the shores of 
the land; while the finer and more wide-spread silts have 
been spread over the farther and deeper tracts of that still 
comparatively narrow belt of sea to which sedimentation 
has always been mainly confined. To hasty readers it 
will seem an obvious and ridiculous paradox to maintain 
that the continents have been permanent throughout 
geological time, and yet to admit that probably no part of 
their surface has not been many times submerged beneath 
the ocean. 
quaintance with the facts will convince every candid 
inquirer that the paradox is only in appearance. The 
continental ridges have been the great lines of terrestrial 
movement from the dawn of geological history. They have 
continually been undergoing disturbance; one portion has 
been equably upraised, another has been convulsed and 
corrugated, a third has been depressed. Every part of their 
surface has been subject to these changes. Moreover every 
portion of the crust which has risen above the sea- 
level has been exposed to the unremitting attacks of 
the subaérial agents of destruction. Again and again 
the solid bulk of the continents has been reduced to mere 
detritus and has been spread over the sea-bottom. And 
yet the continental ridges have never ceased to exist. 
Their disappearance would necessarily have been fol- 
lowed by the cessation of sedimentary accumulation. 
The character of their component rocks however teaches 
that, whether by the operation of underground movements 
or by the action of superficial causes, the land has been 


Further reflection, however, and better ac- | 


continually wandering, as it were, to and fro across the 
continental areas, disappearing beneath the sea in one 
region, reappearing from the sea in another. In one 
sense of course it may be said that land and sea have 
been continually changing places. But the submerged 
land has not become truly a part of the oceanic realm. 
The waters covering it have been mere prolongations of 
the upper layers of the ocean, like the Mediterranean, 
Black, and Caspian Seas of the present day. An eleva- 
tion or depression of a few hundred feet, sufficed to turn 
wide tracts into land or into water. But such oscilla- 
tions made no real change in the essential position of 
the grand aboriginal oceanic basins and continental 
ridges. 

Mr. Wallace has thoroughly grasped the truth and 
significance of these averments, and has not been slow 
to perceive their fundamental importance in the history 
of terrestrial floras and faunas. He finds that they furnish 
new and unexpected assistance to the student of biological 
evolution, and indeed form a necessary part of the 
doctrine. ‘‘Itis impossible,” he says, “to exaggerate or 
even adequately to conceive the effect of these endless 
[terrestrial] mutations on the animal world. Slowly but 
surely the whole population of living things must have 
been driven backward and forward from east to west or 
from north to south, from one side of a continent ora 
hemisphere to the other. Owing to the remarkable 
continuity of all the land masses, animals and plants 
must have often been compelled to migrate into other 
continents, where in the struggle for existence under new 
conditions many would succumb; while such as were 
able to survive would constitute those widespread groups 
whose distribution often puzzles us. Owing to the repeated 
isolation of portions of continents for long periods, special 
forms of life would have time to be developed, which 
when again brought into competition with the fauna 
from which they had been separated, would cause fresh 
struggles of ever-increasing complexity, and thus lead to 
the development and preservation of every weapon, 
every habit, and every instinct which could in any way 
conduce to the safety and preservation of the several 
species.” 

Besides interchanges of sea and land Mr. Wallace lays 
great stress upon former vicissitudes of climate as agents 
in the modification of plant and animal life. He has 
discussed this subject with great detail and offers an 
original explanation of the causes of secular changes of 
climate. Adopting generally Dr. Croll’s views as to the 
relation between the Glacial period and the excentricity 
of the earth’s orbit, he introduces into them certain 
modifications and limitations. If, he argues, the effects 
of a high excentricity have always been shown in great 
Polar refrigeration and a general lowering of the tem- 
perature in the hemisphere whose winter occurred in 
aphelion, there ought to be geological evidence of the 
change. He confesses however that although indications 
of local ice-action have been noticed in different geologi- 
cal formations, even as far back as old Palzeozoic deposits, 
there is certainly no trace of such general glaciations as 
the theory would lead us to expect. Not only so, but 
the testimony of organic remains is everywhere and un- 
mistakably against the theory. He concludes, therefore, 
that while the astronomical influences must unquestion- 


Feb. 17, 1881 | 


ably be a vera causa in the production of terrestrial 
climate, and must always /evd to produce alternate mild 
and severe conditions, there must be some counteracting 
cause whereby these influences are weakened or neu- 
tralised. This modifying effect he assigns to changes 
in the distribution of land and sea, especially in high 
latitudes. He contends that without lofty land there 
can be no permanent snow and ice. Consequently by the 
due elevation of Arctic land an area would be provided on 
which, when winter occurred in afhelion during a period 
of high excentricity, there would be so copious an accu- 
mulation of snow and ice, that even during ferthelion 
the wintry conditions would continue, and perhaps even 
in an intensified form, Subsidence of this land, however, 


NATURE 


would admit the warm oceanic currents from lower lati- , 


tudes, and so great would be the amount of heat thereby 
transferred that even winter occurring when the North 
Pole was turned from the sun and the earth’s orbit was at 
a maximum of excentricity would be insufficient to cover 


the Polar regions with an ice-cap. The alternate phases | 


of precession, which tend to bring warmer and colder | 


conditions of climate every 10,500 years, would introduce 
a complete climatal change only where the land was 
partially snow-clad. The general conclusion is thus 


reached that, the climates of the globe being mainly | 


dependent on geographical conditions, their mutations in 
former periods have been chiefly brought about by changes 
in physical geography. Mr. Wallace supports these views 
by much ingenious reasoning. He argues that during by 


far the greater part of geological time the distribution of | 


land has been such that warm oceanic currents have been 
able to pass freely to the North Pole, giving a mild 
climate to the whole northern hemisphere. He would 
thus account for the paleontological evidence of long- 
continued glacial conditions within the Arctic circle from 
Paleozoic to late Tertiary times. It was only in very 
recent times, he thinks, that the great northern continents 
became so completely consolidated as to shut out the 
tropical currents and to render possible the wide-spread 
and intense glaciation which was actually brought about 
by the high excentricity that occurred about 200,000 years 
ago. According to this view geographical revolutions 
“have been the chief, if not the exclusive, causes of the 
long-continued mild climates of the Arctic regions, while 
the concurrence of astronomical influences has been 
essential to the production of glacial epochs in the 
temperate zones, as well as of local glaciations in low 
latitudes.”’ 

In a remarkable chapter, remarkable as the deliberate 
judgment of an accomplished naturalist, the author 
decides that the vast periods of time which used to be 
demanded for the changes of geological history are not 
required even for the evolution of the floras and faunas 
of the earth. He admits, with some geologists who have 
advanced the same view from physical data, that geolo- 
gical changes probably occurred more vigorously and 
rapidly in former times than they do at present, and as 
these changes have always been accompanied by relative 
alterations in the forms of the organic world, he believes 
that organic evolution has taken place far more rapidly 
than has been hitherto thought possible. 


ARCH, GEIKIE 


| an exact translation of it. 


359 


ALG 


Species, Genera, et Ordines Alearum, seu descriptiones suc- 
cincte specierum, generum, et ordinum, quibus Algarum 
regnum constituitur, auctore Jacobo Georgio Agardh, 
Bot. in Acad. Lund. Prof. Emer. Vol. iii. pars ii. 
8vo. pp. 301. (Lipsie: apud T. O. Weigel, 1880.) 


"hae appearance of Dr. J. G. Agardh’s excellent work, 

“Florideernes Morphologi,’’ published in the Ac/a 
of the Royal Scientific Academy of Stockholm, was duly 
noticed in the pages of NATURE (vol. xxi. p. 282), but, as 
the work was written in Swedish, a knowledge of its 
contents was accessible to a limited number of students 
only ; the indefatigable author has therefore, with a view 
to render it more useful to those who take an interest in 
his subject, now issued an edition in Latin of the 
Morphology. 

This new volume, which is in 8vo, forms the second 
part of the third volume of Dr. Agardh’s “ Species, 
Genera, et Ordines Algarum,’’ and may be considered 
rather as a revised edition of the Swedish work than as 
The author has made some 
alterations both in the text and in the notes. These 
alterations include important remarks on the most recent 
algological publications, including M. Bornet’s “ Notes 
Algologiques,’’ M. Sirodot’s observations on the fecunda- 
tion of the Batrachospermez, and those of M. Dodel-Port 
on the fertilisation of the spores of Alga by Vorticellee. 

For a summary of the contents of the new work the 
reader referred to the before-mentioned notice in 
NATURE ; it may however be remarked that the present 
volume forms a valuable addition to the “ Species, Genera, 
et Ordines Algarum,’’ to which it is now appended, and 
its appearance will undoubtedly be welcomed by all who 
take an interest in the morphology of Algz. 

In addition to a table of contents and an index rerun, 
there is also an index of the species referred to. The 
latter is the more useful, because, in addition to the name 
of the species, there are special references to the descrip- 
tions of the structure, ramification, reproductive organs, 
and other particulars relating to the plants. This arrange- 
ment is especially convenient, inasmuch as these matters 
are treated separately in different parts of the work. 

It is to be regretted that the beautiful illustrations 
appended to the Swedish edition do not accompany the 
present. The figures are referred to in the latter, and 
may be consulted by those who are fortunate enough to 
possess a copy of the former, or who have access to 
libraries which contain copies of the Acta of the before- 
mentioned Swedish Academy. It may be added that 
Dr. Agardh’s descriptions of the parts of the plants are 
expressed with his usual precision and clearness, and can, 
therefore, be understood without the plates—though, 
undoubtedly, better with them. 

It may be observed that the present volume treats 
solely of the morphology of the Floridez, and the author 
does not allude to the classification of Alga, except to 
express his opinion that certain Alge of red or purple 
colours, such as Bangi and Porphyre, included by 
many algologists among the Floridex, do not really 
belong to that class (p. 9, zoe). MM. Thuret and Le 
Jolis excluded these plants from the old class of chloro- 
sperms, to which they were formerly considered to belong, 


is 


360 


Dr. Agardh does not admit them among the Floridez; | 


and in Dr. A. W, Bennett’s new scheme for the classifica- 
tion of the lower cryptogams,’ they seem to be literally 
nowhere. Neither has Dr. Bennett assigned any place in 
his scheme to the rather extensive family Valoniez. It 
is to be hoped that algologists will agree before long on 
the position which these forms are finally to occupy in 
the classification of Alge. 


His work on the Floridea having been thus brought to | 


a successful termination, it is to be hoped that Dr. Agardh 
' will now turn his attention to the Melanosperms, and that 
he will, before long, give us a new edition of the first 
volume of his “Species Algarum”; a work rendered 
necessary by an increased knowledge of the structure and 
fructification of these plants, and by the discovery and 
accurate examination of many new species. The ex- 
professor has already revised and reconstructed the 
extensive genera Laminaria, Zonaria, Fucus, Cysto- 
phora, and Sargassum—the latter as far as relates to 
the Australian species of the sections Pferocaulon and 
Arthrophycus only. To these must be added descriptions 
of many new species of Melanosperms, all of which have 
been published in the Proceedings of the Swedish Acade- 
mies, and are, therefore, not within reach of many who 
would gladly consult them. A new edition, in which 
these scattered papers shall be collected and classified, 
would be a boon to algologists, and, we trust, would not 
entail very great labour upon the learned and industrious 
author. M. P. M. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[Zhe 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. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space ts so great that it 
zs impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


“The New Cure for Smoke” 


NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 25, contains a letter from Dr. Siemens 
on a ‘‘new cure for smoke,” and in that letter it is stated that, 
instead of using inert matter such as pumice-stone, he (Dr. 
Siemens) considers it far more economical and efficacious, in a 
gas-grate to transfer the heat of the gas-flames to gas-coke or 
anthracite, and that the result obtained shows that the ‘‘coke- 
gas fire” is not only warmer, but cheaper than its predecessor, the 
coal-fire, with the adyantage in its favour that it is thoroughly 
smokeless, 

Now having had considerable experience with gas-heating 
fires of various kinds, and being much interested in the success 
thereof, I determined to give the ‘‘gas-coke grate” a practical 
trial ; and as the result of the trials which I have just completed, 
and which extended over a period of two months, may interest 
many of your readers, possibly you may be able to find space 
in your columns to record the following particulars :— 

In the first set of trials a good modern fire-grate was arranged 
(as described by Dr. Siemens) with a solid iron dead-plate, and 
34-inch gas-pipe, pierced with holes .1,th of an inch in diameter, 
placed m the front part of the grate, but behind the lowest bar, 
and all air excluded from below except that which was allowed 
to pass in between the hollow bottom and enter on the line of 
gas flames. The grate was then filled with coke broken into 
pieces about the size of a large walnut, the gas turned on and 
lighted. Ina short time a good bright fire with arich flame was 
obtained ; the external temperature at starting was 32° F., and 
that of the room 45° F. This latter rose within two hours to 
62° F., and was maintained as long as the fuel lasted, viz. fifteen 
hours, the gas and coke burning brightly the whole time. 


* See the Report in NaTure (vol. xxii. p. 451) of a paper read before the 
British Association at Swansea last year. 


NATURE 


4 


[ Fed. 17, 1881 


The result of a number of these trials, with an expenditure of 
28 lbs. of coke, was an average consumption of 325 cubic feet of 
gas, the expenditure of the latter being very accurately ascer- 
tained by passing the gas through a standard test meter. 

A second set of trials was then made under conditions pre- 
cisely similar to the above, with the exception that the gas was 
used only for lighting the coke at the commencement, and when 
a good fire was obtained, and the temperature had risen to 62° F., 
it was turned off, and only used again for a short time to rein- 
vigorate the fire and maintain the temperature. This second 
series of trials—with an expenditure of 28 lbs. of coke—resulted 
in an average consumption of fifty cubic feet of gas; the fire, 
when the gas was turned off, was not so bright or rich as in the 
first series, and the fuel only lasted thirteen hours. 

Upon the completion of the coke and gas trials as above, the 
grate was restored to its original condition for burning coal. 
The fire was lighted in the usual manner, and within two hours 
the temperature rose to 62° F. as in the previous trials, the 
external temperature at starting being 32° F., and that of the 
room 45° F., and with a consumption of 28 lbs. of coal 62° F. 
was maintained for fourteen hours, 

The room in which the experiments were made was the same 
in each case, having a capacity of about 3000 cubic feet, a due 
north aspect, and situated about 150 yards from the river, to 
which it is entirely open. 

The above facts having been ascertained after an extended 
and repeated series of trials, in which ‘the fuel was most care- 
fully weighed and the gas measured, it now becomes a simple 
matter to reduce the resultsto £ s. @., and in doing so I have 
taken the present prices of gas, coke, and coal in this neighbour- 
hood, which are as follows :—Coal, 26s. per ton; coke, 12s. per 
chaldron ; and gas, 3s. 3¢. per thousand cubic feet. From these 
we obtain the undermentioned results, viz. :— 


First Trials. Coke and Gas continuously for fifteen hours 
d. 


28 lbs. of coke at 12s. per chaldron ... ... ... 2°571 
325 cubic feet of gas at 3s. 3¢. per 1000 cubic feet 12°675 


15246 
Or 1°0164 pence per hour, 


Second Trials. Coke, with Gas for lighting and use occasionally 
Sor assisting the Coke, for thirteen hours 


d. 
28 lbs. of coke at 12s. per chaldron  ... ... ... 2°571 
50 cubic feet of gas at 3s. 3¢. per 1000 cubic feet 17950 
4521 
Or *3477 of a penny per hour. 
Third Trial. Coal only, for fourteen hours 
28 lbs. of coal at 26s. perton ... «1. we 3°9 


Or ‘2785 of a penny per hour. 


Tt will, I think, be at once seen from the foregoing results that 
although by the use of gas and coke we get rid of the smoke 
nuisance, that desirable end is not obtained entirely without cost, 
and that, judging from these experiments, the ‘‘coke gas fire,” 
while possessing many of the advantages claimed for it, has not 
proved in this instance to be warmer and cheaper than its 
predecessor the ‘‘ coal fire.” 

Possibly some of your professional readers may find time to 
pursue the subject further and favour us with the result of their 
investigations. I have given a good deal of attention for years 
past to the employment of gaseous fuels, and have made many 
experiments, but I do not at the present time know of any fire- 
grate or stove (for ordinary household purposes) wheréin gas is 
employed as the heating agent, either wholly or in part, which 
gives such good results as the raw material coal. At the same 
time there can be little doubt but that we shall yet discover the 
way to effect great economy in the use of fuel both for domestic 
and manufacturing purposes, and ultimately to solve the smoke 
nuisance question ; but whether it will be by separating the raw 
material into its several constituents and bringing some of them 
together again under different conditions and proportions when 
being consumed in a gas furnace or grate, or by better and more 
perfect appliances for effectually burning the fuel in its raw state, 
has, I think, yet to be settled. The question however is one 
which concerns all alike, being a matter of both personal and 
national interest. J. A. C. Hay 

Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, January 29 


Feb, 17, 1881] 


I HAVE been much interested in reading the above, and I hope 
that Mr. Hay’s example will be followed by other observers, in 
order to establish a fair average result of the relative cost of the 
coke-gas grate and the ordinary coal grate. Mr. Hay’s results 
are not as favourable as those obtained by myself, owing probably 
to some imperfection in his arrangements, which are not described 
sufficiently to form any judgment upon them. I should like to 
know, for instance, whether the copper-back plate, which I pre- 
sume he used, although it is not referred to, was backed by fire- 
clay, or whether it touched the ironwork of the fireplace, whereby 
its heat would be conducted away. This alone might account 
for the difference in result obtained by Mr. Hay and myself, and 
I think this opportunity is a favourable one to send you the 
figures resulting from my own observation of the original grate 
described in my article in NATURE, vol. xaiii. p. 25. This grate 
has now been in use from November 8 to January 31, during 
which period it has been alight sixty-six days, and the average 
time during which a bright fire has been kept up has been eight 
hours daily. During this period of 528 hours there has been 


consumed— 
fe sed: 
1112 lbs. coke at 185. a ton oh o 90 
581 Ibs. smokeless coal at 20s. a ton Only 2 
4100 cubic feet of grs at 3s. 6d. per 1000 0144 
i 86 


Or an average of 0°518d. per hour, instead of 0°525d., as resulting 
from my first observation, ‘The average consumption of solid 
fuel per hour has been 3°2Ibs., and of gas 7°7 cubic feet. The 
full supply of gas has generally been allowed during the first hour 
of lighting, after which it is turned down to about a third; this 
I find to be a convenient mode of working. 

In comparing my results with Mr. Hay’s, it must be borne in 
mind that my room has a capacity of 7200 cubic feet, with 
northern aspect, and his a capacity of 3000 cubic feet, also with 
northern aspect; his consumption should therefore be only 
3000 
7200 
prove an economy in the employment of the coke-gas grate over 
the coal grate, which is 0°2785¢. by his own showing, and would 
agree with the comparative results contained in my original 
communication, C. W. SIEMENS 

February 2 


X 0°518 = 0'216d. (instead of 0°347d.), which figure would 


On the Spectrum of Carbon 

I? is very desirable that, if possible, some definite conclusion 
should be arrived at concerning the chemical origin of the bands, 
which Prof. Liveing calls ‘‘hydrocarbon bands,” and the im- 
portance of the yoint at issue must be my excuse for again 
addressing you on this subject. 

In my previous communications I pointed out that if it can be 
shown experimentally that the electric spark, in an atmosphere 
of cyanogen /ree from hydrogen, gives the groups in question (the 
grouys 8 and y, wave-lengths 5165 to 5082 and 5635 to 5478 
respectively, are here the only ones considered), they must be 
due to carbon, and remarked that the hypothes's that they were 
due to traces of hydrogen present as impurity is ‘‘to adopt an 
extreme hypothesis which must be supported by cogent experi- 
mental evidence before it can be accepted.” Prof, Liveing 
admits the justice of this demand, and then goes on to say that 
such ‘‘ cogent experimental evidence, so far as the relations of 
carbon and witrogen are concerned, will be found in our complete 
papers on the spectrum of carbon compounds in the Proceedings 
of the Royal Society.” This appears to me to be equivalent to 
an admission that—as concerns carbon and Aydrogen—no such 
expersmental evidence has yet been given; which is also the 
conclusion to which I came after perusal of the papers of Profs, 
Liveing and Dewar referred to. 

It would seem then that the burden of proof that cyanogen 
exists in which the spark will not give rise to the bands 8 and bY 
rests with Prof. Liveing. Nevertheless I have repeated the 
experiment with cyanogen, described in this journal (vo), 
xxill. Pp. 197), sO as to set aside the objections raised by 
Prof. Liveing to the former experiment. The apparatus was 
in this case constructed of one piece of glass—a long piece 
of hard glass tubing, This was carefully cleaned, the tube 
was then contracted at two points, so as to separate a short por- 
tion of the tube, into which platinum wires were fused, so as to 
form a discharge tube. The whole tube was next heated to red- 


NATURE 361 


ness in a furnace, while a current of oxygen passed through it 
for some considerable time. The greater portion of the tube on 
each side of the part containing the wires was then filled with 
phosphoric anhydride, and a short length of the tube, separated 
from the discharge tube by as great a length of phosphoric 
anhydride as the length of the tube permitted, was employed as 
a retort, and filled with mercuric cyanide; the other end of the 
tube was drawn out and dipped beneath sulphuric acid. The 
mercuric cyanide employed, after being finely powdered, was 
dried for a long time in an air-bath, then transferred to a clean 
hard-glass tube, in which it was repeatedly heated, while a 
current of air dried by passing over calcium-chloride and phos- 
phoric anhydride was drawn over it. From this tube it was 
transferred immediately to the retort-tube. In making the 
experiment the mercuric cyanide was heated so as to give as slow 
a current of cyanogen as possible, which was continued long 
enough to expel all the air from the tube. The tube was then 
sealed up, leaving tke discharge-tube, with a phosphoric anhy- 
dride tube on each side of it, and put aside for a week. The 
spectrum was then examined, with the same result as before. The 
tube gave a brilliant carbon ‘spectrum, of jwhich y and 6 (the 
positions of which were measured) were the brightest groups. No 
trace of the hydrogen C-line was obtained. Prof. Liveing 
objects that this is not a sufficient proof that hydrogen is absent 
(in which I cannot agree with him), and suggests that ‘‘a real 
test would be to see whether, when the spark gives the line- 
spectrum of carbon, the hydrogen-lines do not also appear.” 
This test is however not applicable, since (according to my 
experience) cyanogen cannot be made to give the line-spectrum 
of carbon, Further, in this particular case the spark could not 
be got through the tube when the condenser was put on. 
Giggleswick, February 11 W.M. Watts 


‘* Prehistoric Europe” 


As there was no space to allow of all the authorities being 
cited in my criticism of the above work I now give those which 
relate to the facts called in question by Dr. James Geikie in 
NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 336. 

1. Dr. James Geikie repudiates as absurd the view attributed 
to him, that the palzeolithic gravels ‘‘which overlie the chalky 
boulder clay of East Anglia were covered by an upper and 
younger boulder clay,” and denies that he ever wrote anything 
which would justify that opinion. In ‘‘ The Great Ice Age,” 
2nd edition, p. 531, he writes: ‘The palzolithic beds dovetail 
into the glacial drifts, and are overlapped (as in Yorkshire) by 
the deposits thrown down during the final cold pericd. To the 
last interglacial period then we must refer the great bulk of the 
palzeolithic river gravels of the south-east of England.” If this 
be true, where are the glacial deposits in question to be seen? If 
they ever were above, or ‘‘ overlapped,” the palzeolithic gravels, 
they have, so far as our present knowledge goes, been utterly 
destroyed. Of course this view zs absurd. 

2. The reindeer associated with the hippopotamus and hyzena in 
the same stratum in the Victoria Cave was discovered while the 
exploration was under my management, and was published in Brit. 
Assoc. Rep, 1872, Zrans. p. 179, and again in Mr. Tiddeman’s 
Report, of. cit. 1876, Reports, p. 118. The animal is omitted 
by the author where its presence would destroy his argument as 
to climate, but he does not forget to record its subsequent dis- 
eovery at a higher level, where it falls in with his argument. It 
may be remarked that the association of reindeer with hippo- 
potamus in this cave has no special theoretical value, because 
the two animals have been found together in several other hyzena 
dens. 

3. The fossil mammalia of Mont Perrier are typical Upper 
Pleiocene, as may be seen from the works of Croizet and Jobert, 
Gaudry and Gervais, and as I can testify from their examina- 
tion, The glacial origin of the overlying tuffs, which I have 
examined under the guidance of M. Julien, seems to me to be 
open to considerable doubt. d 

4. The mammalia of Leffe, and those of the Val d’Arno with 
which they are classified by Dr. James Geikie, characterise the 
Upper Pleiocenes of Italy, as may be seen from the careful 
essays published by Dr. Forsyth Major, and from an examina- 
tion of the magnificent collection in the museum of the University 
of Florence. ' : 

5. If pages 309-318 of ‘*Prehistoric Europe,” dealing with 
**interglacial epochs,” do not imply a belief that the Neolithic 
skull of Olmo is interglacial, [ am unable to ascertain their 
meaning. 


362 


NATURE 


[Feb. 17, 1885 


The questions whether a geological period is to be classified as 
hitherto it always has been classified, by an appeal to zoology or 
by an appeal to ice, and whether the naturalists who have de- 
voted themselves to the study of mammalia have only “opinions,” 
while Dr. James Geikie enjoys ‘‘the facts,” may be left in 
silence to the judgment of geologists. In the review under 
discussion all reference to my own opinion and works has been 
carefully omitted. Here, so far as I am concerned, the discus- 
sion ends. W. BoypD DAWKINS 

Owens College, February 11 


Geological Climates 


In NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 241, Dr. Haughton repeats his 
former statement that ‘‘it is imposible to suggest any rearrange- 
ment of land and water which shall sensibly depress the tempera- 
ture of the east of North America.” Now we must only look 
about us to see that the east of Asia is colder than the east of 
North America, parallel for parallel, and this especialiy in 
winter. The mean temperature of January is as follows in 
places situated as far as possible under the same latitude and at 
the same distance from the sea :— 


Lat. N. Eastern Asia. | Eastern North America. Difference. 
564 Ajan ... «. «. — 4'2 | Nain, Labrador — 38 
53 Nikolayewsk, Amoor—12"1 | Rigolet, Labrador— 17x 
43% St. Olga Bay 12°9 | Portland, Maine 212 
434 Wladivostok re G*r | Portsmouth. N.H. 25°0 
40% . Newchwang eve 10°4 | Paterson, N J. ... 26°6 
40 TAS onion a5 23'7 | Philadelphia 31°3 
| Mean of Savannah 
313; Shanghai... ... 383 | and Ft. Marion 536 .. 15°3 
22; Victoria, Hong Kong 59'5 | Habana, Cuba? Gears op est) 


This shows that (1) from lat, 20° to 55°, Eastern Asia is every- 
where from 73° to 19° F. colder in January than Eastern North 
America ; and that (2) those parts of the coast of Eastern Asia 
which are not separated by mountains from the interior lowlan 1s 
are much colder than those which are sheltered, but even the 
latter parts, though relatively warmer, are yet much colder than 
the same latitudes in Eastern North America. These differences 
are explained by geographical position. Asia is the larger con- 
tinent ; its eastern interior is more secluded from the influences 
of warmer seas, and its eastern coast more subject to Continental 
influences, and thus colder in winter than North America. We 
thus see by the example of Asia that a colder temperature than 
in Eastern North America does really exist now in the same lati- 
tudes. The example of Eastera Asia shows us geographical 
conditions which tend to produce an exceedingly cold winter. 
We have but to look at the middle and higher latitudes of the 
southern hemisphere to see so cold summers that nothing of 
the kind is met with in the northern. I do not know on what 
authority Dr, Haughton states that the annual temperature of 
32° F. is met in the southern hemisphere but on 62° 41'S. We 
do not have observations during the winter in these latitudes, but 
the mean temperature of January (the warmest month) is found 
to be 35°2 on 60° S, and 324 on 63° S. Or (by the observations 
of Sir J. Ross) the mean annual temperature can certainly not 
be less than 44° below that of January, so that it would be not 
higher than 30°7 on the 60° S., and 27°9 on the 633° S. 

St. Petersburg, February 5 A. WOEIKOFF 


Variable Stars 


WITH reference to your remarks on variable stars in the 
Astronomical Column of NATuRE, vol. xxiii. p. 206, I beg to 
send a few observations made by me (on some of the stars 
referred to) during the past few years :— 

5- 35 Camelopardi. October 1875. I found this star about 
63 m. and fainter than o (27 Fl.).—October 6, 1879. 7 mag. ; 
about I mag. less than o. 

6. Riimker’s star. I have the following observations : March 
27, 1875. About 7m. ; fainter than 25 Monocerotis.—January 
19, 1876. 63m.; less than 25, but brighter than two 7m, stars 
$.f. it.—March 18, 1877. Distinctly visible to the naked eye ; 
about 6 m., but less than 25 (5.6m, Heis). The above observa- 
tions were made in the Punjab. 

7. 654° Geminorum, December 1, 1880. 65 so exactly equal 
to 64 Geminorum with opera glass that I could see no difference 
between them in magnitude. 


* Nearly one degree to the North of Victoria. 


8. 16 Leonis Minoris. March 27, 1875. 
January 19, 1876. 7°3 or 7°5m. 

to, Lalande 38405. August 31, 1877, I found this star fainter 
than Lalande 38388, which lies about 20’ north of it ; also less 
than a 6m. Harding (Lalande 38214) s./. it. Brighter than 
Lalande 38342 (73, 8), which lies .. it. 

II. 33Capricorni. August 1875 I estimated this star as 63 m. ; 
August 1876, 6m., and slightly brighter than 35 Capricorni. 

12. « (17) Andromedz. From numerous observations, be- 
ginning in May 1875, I have detected a variation in the light of 
this star to the extent of about half a magnitude, It is sometimes 
pace) brighter than « Andromede, and sometimes decidedly 

ainter, 

With reference to 8 and 6 Scorpii I find the following obser- 
vation in my note-book :— 

_ “Punjab, August 10, 1876. 8 Scorpii (2m. Heis) and 6 
Scorpii (2°3m. Heis) almost exactly equal. Perhaps 3, if any 
thing, very slightly the brighter of the two. J. E. GoRE 

Ballisodare, Co, Sligo, Ireland, February 5 


About 74m.— 


The Mode of Flight of the Albatross 


THERE seems to be a prevailing idea that the albatross in his 
flight is in some way ‘‘assisted by the wind.” I think this isa 
mistake ; the manner is well known. The method I believe 
admits of a very simple explanation. His secret consists in his 
power of acquiring great momentum together with the large 
superficial area of his extended wings ; with scarcely a motion of 
his wings he will fly straight against a strong wind with a velocity 
greater than that of any racehorse ; this is inconsistent with the 
idea of his being ‘‘ assisted by the wind.” 

In attempting to rise from the water (I believe he is unable to 
rise from the land or from a ship’s deck) he flaps his wings 
violently to get his body out of the water ; at the same time, 
paddling rapidly with his webbed feet, he acquires a moderate 
degree of momentum, sufficient, with outstretched wings, to carry 
him forward and upward upon an easy incline. The case is 
similar to that of a boy taking a run with his kite string in his 
hand to give his kite a start. During this first rise he will gene- 
rally give a few heavy, lazy flaps, and then stretch his wings 
steadily to their full extent ; now as he gradually rises he must 
of course as gradually lose his acquired momentum till it suits 
him to acquire more, when he may be twenty, thirty, or fifty 
feet above the surface, but a much greater distance from the 
place where he left the water, measured on the surface ; by 
slightly altering his position, by a movement of his tail, he takes 
a shoot downwards at any angle that suits his convenience, still 
without his wings outstretched. This is precisely:the case of a boy 
shooting down a coast on his sled; the propelling force is the 
same. The bird directs his course mainly with his tail, the 
action of which upon the air is identical with the action of a 
ship’s rudder upon the water. By this downward motion, his 
velocity rapidly increasing, he acquires a degree of momentum 
sufficient to carry him up again to a height equal to or greater 
than that from which he started. In this up and down long 
wave-like motion, with all its variations on either side, consists 
the whole of his flight day after day for hundreds of miles ; at 
long irregular intervals he may give a few lazy flaps with his 
immense wings. Other birds use the mode of flight of the 
albatross, but to a smaller extent, for the reason, in the case of 
smaller birds that, the ratio of feathers to bulk being greater, 
their specific gravlty is less, consequently they are unable to 
acquire the degree of momentum necessary to carry them upward ; 
but on the other hand they have the power of sustained effort in 
moving their wings rapidly, which the albatross has not. Gravi- 
tation then, which prevents him from rising directly on the wing, 
is the motive power of the albatross when aloft. He must always 
take a run or paddle over the surface of the water in order to 
get a start, and on the land or the deck he is a prisoner, because 
he has no water in which to paddle himself along with his webbed 
feet, and he is unable torun. Instead of being assisted by the 
wind, his speed is lessened by just so much as the wind’s velo- 
city, when it happens that the direction of the wind and his 
intended course are opposed to each other, but with the wind 
his speed is just so much greater than it would be in a calm. 

I do not advance this explanation as an imaginative theory. 
I claim more for it. I have had many opportunities of studying 
the movements of the albatross for consecutive days, and I feel 
confident that the above will be found to answer all required 
conditions. HOWARD SARGENT 

Cambridge, U.S. 


Feb, 17, 1881 | 


NATURE 


363 


Aurcral Phenomena 


Ir is perhaps worth a note that my daughter saw at Folke- 
stone a very unusual phenomenon on the evening of January 25, 
a little before 6.30. Some distance to the left cf Orion (for the 
night was clear and starry) she observed a small cioud of a 
bright golden hue, from which streamers of great brilliancy 
darted in various directions, the cloud alternately paling and 
brightening. She describes the streamers as like small meteors, 
leaving trails of light behind them. C. M. INGLEBY 

Athenzeum Club, February 12 


Ozone 


In reply to Mr. Capron (NATURE, vol, xxiii. p, 219) the fol- 
lowing explanation may perhaps serve :— : : 

On a flat piece of brass two strips of paper are laid, one plain 
white, the other prepared. With a clean camel-hair brush they 
are moistened liberally with pure alcohol], This is then burnt 
off, firing it with a spirit flame ; the plain paperremains clear 
and white, the prepared paper (beginning at the edges) gradually 
changes to a purple brown. On immersing both strips in clean 
water the plain paper still remains white, prepared paper changes 
to a deep purple (No, 8, Negretti’s scale). J 

In about an hour this deep purple colour fades away precisely 
in the same way as if the slip had been ozonized by exposure for a 
day or two to the air, It way be added that if the prepared slip 
is not plunged into water the purple brown tint remains for 
several days. 

The experiment suggested by Mr. Capron has been made, 
using a very delicate gold-leaf electrometer, When this is un- 
charged there is no apparent effect ; when charged either directly 
or inductively with either positive or negative electricity the 
gold leaves collapse, the charge appearing to be dissipated with 
the flame. 

I may add, when the leaves are charged the alcohol is lighted 
on the plate of the electrometer with a glass rod dipped in alco- 
hol, care being taken to prevent the discharge by conduction. 
The above experiments have been performed in an ordinary 
study, but I cannot say they are very conclusive. 

Mr. Capron states ‘‘ozone is very strong just now,” and he 
obtains No. 10 (Negretti’s scale) at an inland town. This is a 
very high number. I have repeatedly obtained this number at 
Hunstanton on the Wash (Norfolk), where I made experiments 
daily fora month. The ozone cage was kept in the shade, a 
fine cloudless day with cold north east wind blowing, and one 
day’s exposure. I have been engaged for some years in testing 
for ozone on the coast to see if its abundance, or deficiency, is in 
any way dependent on the physical and geological conditions of 
the shore. My experiments are not sufficiently advanced to be 
published, but the three following conditions have always been 
found to be present where ozone is abundant. 

1. A long sandy shore exposed for some hours to the sun’s 
rays. 

2. Cloudless sky, with cold north or east wind. 

3. An abundance of phosphorescent light from the presence 
of Woctiluca miliaris with the evening flow of tide. 

This town is singularly deficient in ozone. After numerous 
experiments I have as yet only obtained No. 1 (Negretti’s scale). 
Whether this deficiency may not have some connection with our 
notoriously great infantile mortality of the autumn is a question 
for further consideration. VoJes 

Leicester, January 27 


Citania 

I HAVE not had an opportunity of reading NATURE for some 
time, but I am told that in a late number there is some mention 
of a so-called ‘‘ Pompeii” near Braga in Portugal. 

I do not presume to write asa learned antiquarian; but having 
lived for some years within thirty miles of Citania, and having 
often visited the place and examined the ruins with a wish to 
gain some explanation of their mystery, I venture to write as an 
ordinary witness. 

In no sense can Citania he described as a Celtic Pompeii ; it is 
merely a collection of circular buildings erected so close to each 
other as almost to touch, and grouped on the top of a hill which 
runs out as a spur from the higher ground behind it, and over- 
looks the rich valley beneath it. The walls have fallen, and the 
stones which composed them remain 7” sitw, generally visible, 
though more or less overgrown with grass. From the founda- 


tions it seems that these round houses must have been some ten 
feet in diameter internally, with walls eighteen inches thick. 
The original height of the walls may be inferred, from the 
quantity of stones fallen, to have been some twelve or fifteen 
feet. 

My utmost examination discovered scarcely anything beyond 
sone shattered bits of coarse pottery, But over the surface of 
the hill there are still lying about many well-shaped round stones 
about twenty inches in diameter, which I always thought to be 
band millstones, These seemed to me to afford the most likely 
solution of any mystery connected with the place, and I inferred 
it was a place of security, to which the corn of the district round 
was carried, The apparent absence of water forbade the suppo- 
sition that it was a place of permanent abcde. I never could 
see any necessity for referring its origin to Celtic time. The 
buildings were probably used, and possibly only date from much 
later days. Remembering the condition of that district as being 
the debatable ground lying between the Asturian kingdom in the 
north and the moors in the south, and open to sudden and tran- 
sient incursions from either side, the utility of such a place to 
the farmers of that district seems evident. A Portuguese gen- 
tleman, whose name I forget, has so far interested himself in the 
place as to rebuild one of the circular buildings in what he con- 
ceives its original condition, and inside he has collected any 
remains of antiquarian interest that he could ‘scrape together. 
Unforiunately his enthusiasm for forming a kind of local museum 
has led him to carry to it what never belonged to the place. For 
outside his museum there is a large granite slab, which in cha- 
racter is utterly foreign to the place, and long mystified me. 
This ‘‘Pedra Formosa,” as it is called by the neighbouring 
villagers, is about nine or ten feet long, six feet high, with an 
average thickness of one foot, and must weigh six or seven tons, 
It looks like a pretentious fegade stone, which has survived the 
building to which it was once attached. It has some carving 
about it, and signs which may or may not have any meaning in 
them. But whatever the stone was, it has no right to be where 
it is ; for one day, in a conversation with a local farmer at the 
inn in the valley, I learnt the fact that some years ago all the 
farmers of the neighbourhood combined, and yoking thirty-nine 
pair of bullocks together, dragged the said stone from the valley 
below, where from time immemorial it had been lying, and 
added it in triumph to the other objects of the museum. 

I may add that during my stay in Portugal I corresponded 
with the late Senhor Herculano, the Portuguese historian, on the 
subject, and I believe I have stated his conclusions. 

R. BuRTON LEACH 

Sutton Montis Rectory, Castle Cary, February 8 


The Recent Severe Weather 

Your correspondent H. W. C, in his communication on the 
ahove in NATURE, vol, xxiii, p. 329, quotes Mr. Lowe’s theory 
of an eleven-year cycle of ‘‘great frosts,” and after giving the 
dates upon which that theory is apparently based, says : ‘‘ There 
are some variations in the lengths of the intervening pericds, 
but there is a distinct recurrence of eleven-year epochs.” 

With the first part of this sentence I quite agree, but I fail to 
see the very least ground for the latter part of it, the intervals 
taken in order being as follows :—9, 3, 6, 18, 3, 16, 4, and 10 
years. Three intervals approximating to eleven years can be 
‘“screwed” in by manipulating the years between which you 
reckon, disregarding inconvenient ones and using others which 
suit better ; but surely this cannot be held sufficient to justify 
the statement, such a method of dealing with the figures being, 
it is scarcely necessary to point out, quite unallowable. 

I have noticed before that when the discovery of similar 
epochs for abnormal heat, cold, rain, &c., have been announced, 
a similar method of dealing with dates has been fcllowed to that 
which seems to have been adopted in this case. F.M. S. 

February 3 


THE epochs which show recurrence are obtained by ‘‘manipu- 
lating” the figures in the following manner :— 


December 1801 to January 1814, interval 12 years 2 months. 
1810 1820, 9 2 
ss 1840 1861, 20 2 


(It should here be remarked that a Jong but not ‘‘great” 
frost was experienced in the winter of 1849-50; as it was not 
severe enough to entitle it to the designation of great frost it was 


” ” 


39 


” ” 


” 


” ” ” 


364 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 17, 1881 


omitted from the table ; if it had been inserted the 20 years and 
2 months period would have counted as two Io year periods.) 

December 1860 to January 1841, interval 10 years 2 months. 
1870 a YOST) 9955, LOU Cmeee 
Thus at least four periods (out of a possible seven) do not require 
much ‘‘screwing” to make them approximate to 11-year epochs ; 
while if we were to add in the /ozg frost of 1850 we should have 
no less than six periods, showing a distinct recurrence. 

It may not be quite clear why the remaining dates are 
inserted ; but if they are analysed in the following manner they 
are not uninstructive, 

December 1813 to January 1838, interval 22 years 2 months. 

” 1837 ” 1857, ” 19 5, 2 ” 

These periods, like the one 1840 to 1861, tend to show that 
the intervals approximate nearer to 22 years. How does 
F. M. S. obtain the intervals he quotes? As regards the last 
paragraph of the letter of F. M. S. respecting the ‘‘abnormal 
heat, cold, rain, &c.,” it is only necessary to say that he would 
have considerable difficulty to prove to Norman Lockyer, 
Meldrum, and others, that 11-year cycles do not exist, even if 
F. M. S. ‘‘screwed” his figures, as he seems to have done in 
his letter above. 13k \""5, (CE 


Butterflies in Winter 


A COUNTRYMAN has shown me to-day two fine specimens of 
Vanessa urtica in a lively condition caught on the 4th inst. in an 
empty room on the border of the New Forest, exposed to the 
severity of the late frost. THoMAS W. SHORE 

Southampton, February 8 


FOHN GOULD, F.R.S. 

Pee grave has recently closed over the remains of a 

very remarkable man, and although the annals of 
science, we are proud to think, afford many instances of 
indomitable energy and unceasing perseverance rewarded, 
they have no greater record of success than is to be found 
in the life of John Gould. No one can regard the series 
of works written and illustrated by him without acknow- 
ledging that they are a monument of human energy, and 
the story of his life makes the fulfilment of these large 
enterprises the more interesting. In the character of the 
man we must look for the secret of his success, because it 
is well known that he possessed neither the advantages of 
wealth nor education at the commencement of his career, 
and yet he has left behind him a series of works the like of 
which will probably never be seen again ; and this because 
it is rare to find the qualities ofa naturalist, an artist, and 
a man of business combined in one and the same person. 
John Gould was all these in an eminent degree; he knew 
the characters of birds as well as any man living, and 
although it has often been said that he made too many 
species—and latterly it has been the fashion with certain 
writers to sink a good many of them—yet the monographer, 
travelling over the ground again, generally finds that the 
critic, and not Gould himself, was at fault. As an artist 
he possessed talent combined with the greatest taste, and 
this, added to the knowledge of botany, acquired in his 
early days, enabled him to give to the world the most 
beautiful series of pictures of animal life which have yet 
been produced. Certain special works, where the pencils 
of Wolf or Keulemans have been employed, many vie 
with those of Gould, but taken in a collective sense, his 
splendid folios, full of coloured plates, are as yet without a 
rival. That he was a good man of business the fact that 
his writings were not only self-supporting, but further 
realised him a considerable fortune, is the best proof. 


Though in outward seeming he was stern and even some- | 
what brusque in manner, those who knew him well can 


vouch for the goodness of his heart, and can tell of many 
an act of kindness and charity, concealed from the world 
under a bluff exterior, and no one ever heard him speak 
unkindly of any of his contemporaries. Straightforward- 
_ness was one of his especial characteristics, as well as an 
exact manner of doing business, paying for everything 


| 


| the Himalayan Mountains.” 


the moment the work was done; and this probably 
accounts for the way in which his artists, lithographers 
and colourers, worked for him for long periods of years. 

Mr. Gould at his death was in his seventy-seventh 
year, having been born in September, 1804. He was a 
native of Lyme in Dorsetshire, but when quite an infant 
his parents moved to the neighbourhood of Guildford 
When he was fourteen years of age his father was 
appointed a foreman in the Royal Gardens at Windsor, 
under Mr. J. T. Aiton, and here the lad had a grand 
opportunity of studying British birds in a state of 
nature ; in his collection are still to be seen two magpies 
shot by himself and stuffed at the age of fourteen, which 
are even now most creditable specimens of taxidermy, 
and foreshadowed the excellence which he afterwards 
attained to in that art. Till the year 1827, when he came 
to London, he was still employed in active gardening, 
having left Windsor fora post at Sir William Ingleby’s 
at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire. Immediately after coming 
to town he was appointed curator to the Zoological 
Society’s Museum, at that time in its infancy, and he 
enjoyed the intimate friendship of Mr. N. A. Vigors, then 
one of the leading English naturalists, and through him 
John Gould received his first opportunity of appearing as 
an author. So rare were Himalayan birds in those days 
that a small collection was thought worthy of description 
by Mr. Vigors in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 
and the figuring of these specimens was commenced by 
Mr. Gould under the title of “ A Century of Birds from 
By this time however an 
event had taken place which had an influence on the 
whole of his later life, viz., his marriage with Miss Coxen, 
the daughter of Mr. Nicholas Coxen of Kent. Besides 
her other accomplishments Mrs. Gould was an admirable 
draughtswoman, and, from her husband’s sketches, she 
transferred to stone the figures of the above-named work. 
Its success was so great that in 1832 the “Birds of 
Europe’’ was commenced, and finished in five large folio 
volumes in 1837, while simultaneously, in 1834, he issued 
a Monograph of the Rhamphastide or family of Toucans, 
and in 1838 a Monograph of the Trogonidz or family of 
Trogons. To the last he maintained his love for these 
birds, and one of his most recently finished works was a 
second edition of the last-mentioned Monograph. It isa 
curious fact that when John Gould proposed to publish 
his first work, he applied to several of the leading firms 
in London, and not one of them would undertake to 
bring it out, so that it was only with reluctance that he 
began to issue the work on his own account. Besides 
these larger publications he had described the birds 
collected during the voyage of the Seagle by his friend 
Mr. Darwin, and had contributed papers on other subjects 
to the Zoological Society’s publications. 

We now come to what we consider the most striking 
incident in Mr. Gould’s life, one unsurpassed in its effects 
in the annals of ornithology. Beyond a few scattered 
descriptions by some of the older authors and an account 
of the Australian birds in the museum of the Linnean 
Society, by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield, the birds of 
Australasia were very little known at the date we speak 
of. Accompanied therefore by his devoted wife, Mr. 
Gould proceeded in 1838 to study Australian birds in their 


| own home, and he personally explored Tasmania, the 


islands in Bass’s Straits, South Australia, and New South 
Wales, travelling 400 miles into the interior of the latter 
country. This voyage, specially undertaken for the pur- 
pose of obtaining an exact knowledge of Australian birds, 
must ever be reckoned as a distinct scientific achieve- 
ment, and the accounts of the habits of some of the more 
remarkable species, such as the mound-building Mega- 
podes and the Bower birds were quite triumphs in the 
way of field ornithology. Nests and eggs were collected 
as well as an excellent series of skins, both of mammals 
and birds, and here Mr. Gould’s beautiful method of 


Feb, 17, 1881] 


NATURE 


365 


preparation was especially noticeable; some of his speci- 
mens, skinned more than thirty years ago, are as neat in 
appearance and as fresh as the day they were prepared. 
Returning in 1840, after two years’ absence, he com- 
menced the great work on the “ Birds of Australia,” which 
makes seven folio volumes and occupied seven years in 
its production, being completed in 1848. One of the 
features of this work is the great increase in our know- 
ledge of the range and habits of petrels and other sea- 
birds, to which the author paid great attention during 
his travels. 

Within a year of Mr. Gould’s return from his adven- 
turous voyage he had the misfortune to lose his wife, and 
for some time he was completely overwhelmed by his 
bereavement. His collectors in Australia too, about the 
same period, lost their lives; one of them, Mr. Gilbert, 
was killed during Dr. Leichhardt’s expedition overland 
from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, and Mr. Drum- 
mond, while collecting in Western Australia, was also 
murdered by natives, and a third collector was killed by 
the explosion of a gun on one of the islands of Bass’s 
Straits. It speaks volumes however for the zeal and 
energy with which Mr. Gould had prosecuted his re- 
searches in the Australian continent that very few birds, 
sufficient only to form a supplement in a single folio 
volume, have been discovered since he left the field of his 
labours in that quarter of the globe. 

Another landmark in the career of this great ornitholo- 
gist was the publication of his Monograph of the Trochi- 
lide, or Family of Humming Birds. These lovely little 
birds had been for a long time favourites with Mr. Gould, 
who gradually began to amass that fine collection which 
has been the admiration of naturalists for so many years. 
Taking advantage of the Great Exhibition of 1851, he 
obtained permission from the Zoological Society to erect 
at his own cost a large building in their gardens in the 
Regent’s Park, where the collection was open to the 
public at a charge of sixpence per head. A considerable 
sum was realised by this exhibition, and a large number 
of subscribers to his monograph was obtained, including 
nearly all the royal families of Europe. Though sketched 
by Mr. Gould himseif (for even to the last days of his life 
he executed the designs for all his plates), the majority of 
the humming-birds were placed on stone by Mr. Richter, 
who also did the same for Mr. Gould’s next work, “ The 
Birds of Asia.” We cannot but regard this as one of the 
most valuable of all the works done by the author, for, 
notwithstanding the fact that it is left unfinished at his 
death, it contains a large number of plates of species not 
elsewhere figured. The “Mammals of Australia,” pro- 
duced simultaneously with the last-mentioned work, 
deserved, in Mr. Gould’s own opinion, more credit for its 
issue than perhaps any work he had done, because it 
touched upon a branch of zoology of which he never pre- 
tended to have a very exact knowledge. So large however 
had been his collections of mammalia during his sojourn 
in Australia that some account of them seemed to be 
demanded, and he therefore published his large folio 
work; but the pecuniary results were less satisfactory than 
with any of his ornithological productions. His typical 
specimens of the Australian mammalia are in the national 
collection. No sooner were the humming-birds finished 
than his active brain conceived a new idea, to illustrate be- 
comingly the birds of his native land, and he commenced 
the publication of the “ Birds of Great Britain.” Opinions 
may differ as to the merit of Mr. Gould’s other works ; 
volumes less ponderous than the folios which he adopted 
for the better figuring of the objects of the natural size, 
may take their place with the student; but no work of 
greater beauty will be produced than that on which John 
Gould, returning in his later life to his first love, bestowed 
the fulness of his energy and the acme of his artistic 
talent. The care bestowed on the plates of this work was 
remarkable, the aim of the author being to produce a 


picture of the birds as they appeared in their natural 
haunts, and especial pains were bestowed on the young, 
particularly those of the wading-birds and natatores. In 
this fine work most of the drawings were developed and 
placed on stone by Mr. W. Hart, who also executed all 
the plates of the later works. 

In 1865 Mr. Gould republished his letterpress of the 
big work in an octavo form, under the title of “ A Hand- 
book to the Birds of Australia,” but with all the additional 
species inserted in their proper families; these two 
volumes are therefore of great use to the student. After 
the completion of his work on “ British Birds,” Mr, 
Gould devoted himself to the continuation of the “ Birds 
of Asia’’ and the Supplement to the “Birds of Aus- 
tralia,” untilin 1875 he commenced a work on the “‘ Birds 
of New Guinea,’’ which was to contain also descriptions 
of any new species to be discovered in Australia or any 
part of the Australian region. Of the last-named work 
eleven parts have appeared, and it was left unfinished at 
his death, as well as the following works :—a “ Mono- 
graph of the Pittidee or Ant-Thrushes of the Old World ” 
(one part published), the Supplement to the “ Monograph 
of the Humming Birds” (two parts published), and the 
“ Birds of Asia.” 

The above list enumerates, we believe, nearly all the 
works published by Mr. Gould with the exception of the 
“Tcones Avium,” issued about 1838, and containing sup- 
plementary plates to his previous volumes, with descrip- 
tions of new species, and the “ Monograph of the Odon- 
tophorhinz or Partridges of America.” In addition to 
the folio volumes he was also in the habit of publishing 
the introductions to his larger works in an octavo form, 

Many of the above details of Mr. Gould’s life are 
taken from “ Men of Eminence,” aided by the personal 
recollections of the writer, who was for many years an 
intimate friend of the deceased, and knew him first as a 
successful trout-catcher on the Thames, for his prowess 
in throwing the fly was scarcely second to his skill as an 
artist. Were he to write an epitaph of John Gould he 
would do so in the words which Mr. Gould himself was 
fond of quoting :— Here lies John Gould, the Bird-Man.” 
The latter words were used by an old and intimate friend 
in introducing Mr. Gould to another relative. We may 
hope that the Government, according to the well-known 
wishes of the deceased naturalist, will allow no false 
motives of economy to interfere with the purchase of Mr. 
Gould’s collection of birds for the British Museum, and 
that the disgraceful spectacle of his Australian collection 
(unrivalled to this day, and offered to the nation for the 
small sum of rooo/.) being allowed to leave the country, 
may not be repeated. 


THE BLACKHEATH HOLES 


ee chalk forming the base of the escarpment between 

Woolwich and the entrance to the valley of the 
Ravensbourne, dips at a low angle to the south-south-east 
under Greenwich Park and Blackheath, where it is over- 
laid by the Thanet Sands, estimated by Mr. Whitaker of 
the Geological Survey at 40 to 50 feet, the Reading and 
Woolwich Beds, consisting of shelly clays, sometimes 40 
feet thick, associated near Lewisham with fine laminated 
sands. These beds are overlain by the Oldhaven or 
Blackheath gravels, reaching a thickness of about 50 feet, 
which have been largely dug for gravel in various parts ot 
the district. 

In the centre of this tract at Blackheath, on the west side 
of the angle of the roads from Greenwich Park to Black- 
heath Station, and from the Park to the Paragon, appeared 
in the early morning of Thursday, April 12, 1878, a sub- 
sidence near the row known as Rotten Row, referred to 
in these columns at the time, the hole being 8 or 9 
yards in circumference. In November, 1880, appeared 
another hole near the gravel pit below Eliot Place 


366 


INA TORE 


| Fed. 17, 1881 


and Heath House, and about 550 yards south-west of the 
first hole; and still later in that month, on the roth, 
a third subsidence made its appearance, this time about 
100 yards to the south-east of the first subsidence, and 
nearer to All Saints’ Church. 

The Astronomer-Royal and other inhabitants of the 
district being anxious to know how far other subsidences 
were probable, asked the Metropolitan Board of Works, 
who have jurisdiction over the Heath, and who had 
fenced in the sinkings, to investigate their cause. This 
however they declined to do, though giving to the Astro- 
nomer-Royal permission to do so; this authority he handed 
over to a newly-formed society, called the Lewisham 
and Blackheath Scientific Association, who formed a 
committee of investigation, including members of the 
West Kent Natural History Society, for which end sub- 
scriptions are now being sought, and operations will 
shortly be commenced, as announced in our columns. 

The surface of the chalk is estimated by one member 
of the committee, Mr. T. V. Holmes, as probably occurring 
at about 100 feet from the surface at or about the Ordnance 
datum line. The investigations so far made show the third 
sinking to consist of an oval vertical shaft 7 feet 8 inches 
diameter by 6 feet 9 inches, with a depth of 18 feet, open- 
ing into a cavity extending in both directions, and partly 
choked with fallen earth, giving a total diameter, as far 
as examined, of 14 feet. The upper part of the shaft is 
described by Mr. Holmes as consisting of sand and clay 
resting on sand, overlying pebbles, in which the cavity 


below is formed. The material carefully removed from | 


the bottom of the pit is found by Mr. H. W. Jackson to 
be of the same material as the upper beds of the shaft, 
proving the sinking due to removal of material from 
below. The first sinking is filled up and cannot be inves- 
tigated ; the second is not fully examined for want of 
funds, but is wholly in gravel, and also extends under- 
ground in two directions. 

Various theories have been suggested by different 
observers to account for their origin, some consider- 
ing them artificial, Admiral Hamilton that they are 
caused by the abstraction of water caused by the main- 
drainage works, which tapped powerful springs in the 
Lower Woolwich Road; others connect their appearance 
with removal of chalk, and water in the chalk, by the Kent 
Waterworks, who lift daily about nine million gallons a 
day from their wells in the neighbourhood, whilst others 
connect them with excessive rainfalls, the first subsidence 
having taken place after the great floods in the Ravens- 
bourne, caused by the rain of the night of the 11th and 
morning of the 12th of April, 1878. 

The height of the chalk water-line (Fournal, Society of 
Arts, 1877) at Woolwich Dockyard well is about 15 feet 
below the Ordnance datum line before pumping, at the 
Kent Waterworks, Plumpstead, 1 foot 4 inches below, but 
at the Kent Waterworks wells at Deptford it is pumped 
down to nearly 70 feet below, rising 50 feet after pumping, 
or about 20 feet below Ordnance datum. The surface of 
the chalk at Bromley, at the Shortlands pumping-station, 
has risen to 70 feet above the datum, the water rising 
after pumping to 122 feet above it. This district is on the 
south side of a synclinal axis ranging east-north-east 
through Eltham, described by Mr. Whitaker, which 
throws in a trough of London clay, that cuts off this 
supply, from the chalk water entering at the Greenwich 
Park escarpment. 

The water-level under Blackheath is at, or about, 
Ordnance datum, trending south towards the London 
clay synclinal, corresponding, under the site of the 
subsidences, to the surface of the chalk beneath the 
Thanet sands, and if there is no great quantity of chalk 
above the water-level it appears improbable that the sub- 
sidences are due to pipes descending vertically into the 
chalk, but it is quite possible that the drainage works, 
removing the waters held by the pebble beds above, 


disturbed their stability, and caused their subsidence. On 
the other hand it is not impossible that drift levels may 
have been driven into the chalk from the ancient chalk- 
pits a mile distant, ceasing when they reached the outcrop 
of the chalk against the Thanet sand, and which is imme- 
diately under the site of the subsidences. 

C. E. DE RANCE 


MERCADIER’S RESEARCHES ON THE 
PHOTOPHONE 


AS elegant series of researches in photophony have 

lately been published by M. E. Mercadier of Paris, 
who has very carefully examined the phenomenon dis- 
covered by Graham Bell and Sumner Tainter, that an 
intermittent beam of light may generate a musical tone 
when it falls upon a thin disk. By way of distinguishing 
this phenomenon and its applications from the pheno- 
menon of sensibility to light exhibited by annealed sele- 
nium, which constitutes the essential principle of the 
articulating photophone, M. Mercadier adopts the name 
of vradiophony for the subject of his research: a name 
which appears moreover to have the advantage of not 
assuming @ grzorz what kind of radiations, luminous, 
calorific, or actinic, are concerned in the production of 
the phenomenon. It is agreed by all who have experi- 
mented in this direction that the pitch of the note emitted 
by the disk corresponds precisely with the frequency of 
the intermittent flashes of light: but it has been disputed 
whether the effect is due to light or to heat. Prof. Bell 
found that the beam filtered through alum water to 
absorb the calorific ultra-red rays produced tones; and 
that even when a disk of thin ebonite rubber was inter- 
posed, the beam robbed of both heat-rays and light-rays 
could still generate tones. On the other hand, from the 
list of substances given by the original discoverers, it was 
evident that since dark and opaque substances with dull 
surfaces, and those which, like zinc and antimony, have 
high coefficients of thermal expansion, produce, c@feris 
paribus, the best results, the effects must probably arise 
from heating effects due to absorption of radiations of 
some kind and their degradation into heat of low tem- 
perature. 

M. Mercadier has summarised his results in an article 
in the Comptes rendus, from which the substance of this 
article is translated freely. The chief conclusions are as 
follows :— 

I. Radiophony does not appear to be an effect due to 
the vibration of the receiving disk vibrating transversely 
in one mass as tn an ordinary vibrating elastic plate.— 
This conclusion appears to be justified by the following 
observations : that, given a thin plate of any kind, under 
the conditions necessary for the production of the pheno- 
menon, it produces equally well tones of all different 
degrees of pitch from the lowest audible up to the 
highest that can be generated experimentally by optical 
intermissions, and which in M. Mercadier’s apparatus 
attained to a frequency of 700 vibrations per second. 
Moreover it was found that these changes of pitch were 
accomplished without any defect in the continuity of the 
phenomenon ; which would seem to indicate that it was 
not necessary for the plate to vibrate in any particular 
nodal or partial mode. Also the receiving disk will pro- 
duce chords equally well in all possible tones from the 
highest to the lowest, the chord being complete no matter 
whether the fundamental pitch be raised or lowered by 
altering the speed of the rotating apparatus by which the 
intermittences are produced. M. Mercadier’s apparatus 
consisted of a glass wheel carrying on its surface a paper 
disk pierced with four series of holes, numbering respec- 
tively 40, 50, 60, and 80. Through any one of these series 
of holes a small pencil of rays could be passed, and, by 
raising or depressing the axis of rotation of the wheel, 
could be sent successively through each of the four, thus 


Feb. 17, 1881 | 


producing, at any given rate of rotation, the separate 
tones of a common chord in succession : or by interpos- 
ing a cylindrical lens to distribute the rays in a linear 
beam to the four series at once, the united tones of the 
chord could be produced simultaneously. 

Further it was found that the thickness and the breadth 
of the receiving-disk makes no difference within certain 
limits in the loudness or quality of the resulting tone. 
And in the case of transparent substances such as mica 
and glass these limits may be wide: in the case of glass 
the loudness was the same with a disk of half a millimetre 
as with one of three centimetres thickness. In conse- 
quence rare substances may be used in disks as small as 
one square centimetre in area. Cracked or split disks of 
glass, copper, and aluminium produce sensibly the same 
effects as if they were whole. 

Il. Zhe molecular structure and state of aggregation of 
the receiving disk appear to exercise no important influ- 
ence upon the nature of the tones emitted—Disks of 
similar thickness and surface emit sounds of the same 
pitch no matter of what material they be. Although there 
may be slight specific differences between the actual 
modes of production of the phenomenon from very thin 
disks of different materials, these differences are reduced 
to a vanishing quantity by rendering the receptive surface 
alike, as for example by covering them all alike witha 
film of lampblack. Moreover the effect produced by 
ordinary radiations is, ce/eris paribus, the same practically 
for transparent substances as widely differing from one 
another as glass, mica, selenite, Iceland-spar, and quartz, 
whether cut parallel or perpendicular to the optic axis, 
and is the same in polarised light as in ordinary light. 

Ill. Zhe radiophonic sounds result from a direct action 
of vadiations upon the recetving substances.—This proposi- 
tion appears to be established by the following facts :— 
1. That the loudness of the sounds is directly proportional 
to the quantity of rays that fall upon the disk. -2. That 
by using a polarised beam and taking as a receiving-disk 
a thin slice of some substance which can itself polarise or 
analyse light, such as a slice of tourmaline, the resulting 
sounds exhibit variations of loudness corresponding to 
those of the rays themselves, when either polariser or 
analyser is turned; and the sound is loudest when the 
light transmitted by the analysing disk is a minimum. 

IV. The phenomenon appears to be chiefly due to an 
action on the surface of the recetver.—The loudness of the 
emitted sound depends very greatly upon the nature of 
the surface. Everything that tends to diminish the 
reflecting power, and increase the absorbing power of 
the surface, assists the production of the phenomenon. 
Surfaces that are rough-ground or tarnished with a film 
of oxidation are therefore preferable. It is also advan- 
tageous to cover the receiving surface with black pul- 
verulent deposits, bitumen black, platinum black, or 
best of all with lampblack; but the increase of sensi- 
tiveness under this treatment is only considerable in the 
case of very thin disks, as for instance from ‘1 to ‘2 of a 
millimetre. Very sensitive radiophonic receivers may be 
thus made with extremely thin disks of zinc, glass, or 
mica smoked at the surface. It may here be noted 
amongst M. Mercadier’s results that for ofagwe disks, the 
thinner they are the louder is the sound, and that 
excellent results are given by metallic foil—copper, 
aluminium, platinum, and especially zinc—of but ‘o5 
millim thickness. The employment of such sensitive 
receivers has enabled M. Mercadier to arrive at several 
other important conclusions 

V. Radiophonic effects are relatively very intense.— 
They can be produced not merely with sunlight or 
electric light, but with the lime-light, and also with gas- 
light, and even with petroleum flames, and with a spiral 
of platinum wire heated in the Bunsen-flame. 

VI. Radiophonic effects appear to be produced principally 
by radiations of great wave-length, or those commonly 


NATURE 


367 


regarded as calorific.—In order to satisfy himself on this 
point M. Mercadier had recourse to the spectrum direct, 
without attempting to employ cells of absorbant material 
such as alum solution or iodine in dissolved bisulphide of 
carbon as ray-filters. A brilliant beam of light was pro- 
duced by means of a battery of fifty Bunsen cells, and 
with this, by means of ordinary lenses and a prism of 
glass a spectrum was produced, the various regions of 
which could be explored with one of the sensitive 
receiving-disks mentioned above. The maximum effect 
was found to be produced by the red rays and by the 
invisible ultra-red rays. From yellow up to violet, and 
beyond, no perceptible results were obtained. The 
experiment was tried several times with receivers of 
smoked glass, platinised platinum, and plain bare zinc. 
The greatest effect appeared to be yielded at the limit of 
the visible red rays. The rays which affect the electric 
conductivity of selenium in the photophone are, as Prof. 
W. G. Adams has shown, not the red rays, but rays from 
the yellow and green-yellow regions of the spectrum. 
This fact alone would justify the distinction drawn 
between the phenomena of radiophony and those of the 
selenium photophone, though probably these are only two 
of several ways of arriving at a solution of the problem 
of the transmission of sonorous vibrations by radiation. 
Theoretically a telephone with a blackened disk inclosed 
in a high vacuum and connected with an external tele- 
phone should serve as a receiver; and the writer of these 
lines has already attempted to devise a thermo-electric 
receiver for reproducing sounds from invisible calorific 
rays. Syoles ae 


THE FOHN DUNCAN FUND 


ape following subscriptions to this fund have been 
received during the past week :— 


J& Se L tL 
Amount previously Major Deedes 010 0 
announced ... ... 48 6 ©} Anon. ... ... @ it 2 
Charles F. Tomes, Sir J. Fayrer ... Th TiO) 
F.R.S. ee ee | Mh (Co SE 120) 5O 
lots bac 2 0 0} Lawson Tait ... Ti tEol 
Dr. Vacher .. £ £ O}| Heinrich Simon ZOO 
ReeReiGlover... ... I) I 0 
Thomas Walker 5 00 (Of 2 2 
M. M. Pattison Muir I I O 


THE TIME OF DAY IN PARIS 


HE importance of precise and uniform time through- 

out Paris becoming ever and continually more 
appreciated, the Municipality have taken the matter in 
hand, and have established a system of what they call 
“horary centres.” These horary centres really consist of 
standard clocks, erected in different places, and controlled 
by electricity from the Paris Observatory. Moreover 
each standard clock is furnished with additional electrical 
work of its own, which enables it to send out an hourly 
current and control other clocks in its neighbourhood, 
placed in circuit with it. The advantage of this arrange- 
ment over any system of electrical dials is apparent, for 
with the latter any mischance or practical joke with 
the wires would cause the whole city to be misled or 
completely deprived of time. The problem, as put by 
Leverrier, and as it has been practically solved by M. 
Breguet, was this :—To keep correct the hour given by 
various regulators distributed in the city by means of an 
electric current sent from the Observatory. If the current, 
in consequence of any accident, fails, the regulators con- 
tinue to work, with a very slight advance, without the 
electric correction. The wires have their centre at the 
Observatory, where there is an astronomical regulator 
on the first floor. This instrument is maintained at 
the exact time indicated by the astronomical observations, 


368 


NAT ORE 


| fed. 17, 1881 


by means of an arrangement which obviates the stopping 
of the pendulum and changing its length. Atthe bottom 
of Fig. 1 is a box C, in which may be placed small weights. 
The weights are of such a shape that it is easy with 
suitable pincers to put them in or take them out without 
touching the clock or disturbing anything. The addition 
of a weight makes the regulator go faster ; its withdrawal 
retards it. Atthe upper part of the pendulum is seen 
the apparatus by which the currents are transmitted; it 
is in duplicate, because the pendulum beats seconds, and 
it is desired to send the current every second. Each 
apparatus is composed of three identical pieces; three 
small levers are placed side by side, pivoted at their 
farthest ends. Their end Zz is raised by the arm v 
carried by the pendulum at each of its oscillations. 
During all the time which this contact lasts, the current 
of a battery passes by the sus; ension of the pendulum to 
the arm which carries the three screws and the three levers 
which conduct it tothe line. Witha single leverthere would 
be danger of interruptions by a grain of dust ; with three, 
contact and transmission of the current are absolutely 
assured. From the Observatory two wires set out ; no 
use is made of the return earth-current. The wires 
are entirely in the drains, like those of the Telephone 
Company. Fig. 3 shows these two circuits, each of 


Fic. 1.—Regulator of Paris Observatory. 


which is attached to the Observatory by its two ex- 
tremities. These lines pass by a series of points and 
traverse the regulators, of which we shall now speak, and 
which are called horary centres. The pendulum of each 
regulator (Fig. 2) presents at its lower part a piece of soft 
iron, which in the oscillations of the pendulum is brought 
in front of the poles of two electro-magnets in succession. 
The transmission of the current into these electro-magnets 
tends to retard a little the movements of the pendulum, 
and causes each to be perfectly synchronous with that of 
the Cbservatory. The regulators of the horary centres 
show the second; they are placed in the street, and con- 
sequently in view of the passers-by, who may thus compare 
their watches. Watchmakers may also thus obtain the 
exact time without making a journey to the Observatory. 
They are placed in several prominent buildings in various 
convenient centres. 

Why these regulators are called horary centres is 
explained thus: upon the circuit of horary centres 
spoken of above, and which the accompanying plan 
(Fig. 3) indicates by a black line, is grafted another 
accessory, called the transmission of the hour. Each 
regulator of the main circuit is itself the centre of a 
less extensive network of wires, which transmit the hour 
to the public clocks. For this second service no unique 


system has been adopted, and uniformity has not been 
aimed at. Several of the principal watchmakers of 
Paris, inventors each of a special method of transmitting 
the hour, are authorised to apply it to the clocks of which 
they have the care, by borrowing the hourand the current 
from the nearest horary centre. The most interesting 
horary centre is that installed at the Hétel de Ville (at 
present the Tuileries), and which radiates to the twenty 
matries of Paris. The city has a telegraphic communi- 
cation which places the Prefecture of the Seine in connec- 
tion with the twenty mazvzes. The wires of this system are 
interrupted about two minutes every hour to place the 
clock of each mazrze into agreement with the regulator 
(horary centre) of the Hétel de Ville as follows. Beside the 
regulator are placed twenty relays, into which it sends 
every hour a current, which cuts off the line from the tele- 
graph ; this commutation is made 100 seconds before the 
hour. The same regulator, about twelve seconds before 
the hour, sends the current from a second battery along 


‘ 


Fic. 2—Regulator of the Horary Centre. 


the lines; it interrupts it at the hour precisely. Ten 
seconds after the hcur the relays are restored to their 
normal position by the suppression of the first current; 
that is to say, the lines are restored to the telegraph. 

On the other hand sixty-five seconds before the hour 
each maz ze clock makes its commutation, z.e. cuts off the 
line from the telegraph and connects it with the electro- 
magnet of the clock. And five seconds after the hour it 
makes the inverse commutation and restores the line to 
the telegraph five seconds before the resumption of the 
line by the telegraph at the horary centre of the Tuilleries. 
As the clocks are thus regulated every hour their errors 
are extremely small. If however a clock gets suddenly 
out of order or stops, what happens? The current of 
the horary centre is sent into the telegraph of the mazvze 
for thirty seconds continuously ; this abnormal fact an- 
nounces at once to the telegraphist that the clock is out 
of order, and he may give orders to have it set right. - 

In the other horary centres the organisation is less 


Feb. 17, 1881 | 


complicated ; it is provided for only six lines, but on each 
of these may be placed several clocks. The lines are 


NATURE 


369 


shorter, and radiate only in the quarter which surrounds 
the horary centre; but they are special to the service of 


Sy 


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mame Roseau des Centres horaires 


Reseau de remise al’houre 


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Fic. 3.—Telegraph for the Unification of Time in Paris. 


clocks, and are not subject to the complicated operation 
which is necessary on the circuit of the marries. This 
service has been organised under the direction of the City 


Engineers, and does them the highest credit; no doubt 
it will be gradually developed, so as to include the whole 
of the mairies of Paris. 


NOTES 


THE honour of knighthood is to be conferred on Dr. James 
Risdon Bennett, F.R.S., President of the Royal College of 
Physicians, 


M. Marcet Desprez, the well-known electrician, has been 
created a Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour, 


THE first volume of the U.S. Geological Survey, issued under 
the headship of Mr. Clarence King, is a magnificent quarto by 
Prof. O. C. Marsh :—‘ Odontornithes: a Monograph on the 
Extinct Toothed Birds of North America”; with thirty-four 
beautifully executed plates and forty woodeuts. We hope to 
refer in detail to Prof, Marsh’s work very soon, 


In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr, Shaw-Lefevre 
said that both the botanical and mineralogical collections have 
been already removed from the British Museum to the new 
Museum of Natural History at South Kensington, and are now 
being arranged there. It is expected that these collections will 
be open to the public on the next bank holiday—namely, Easter 
Monday, April 18. 


Tue Paris Exhibition of Electricity will contain a number of 
curiosities. M. Salignac will present to the Director-General a 
plan for cooking by electricity in the grill-room of the restaurant. 
This plan should provide useful work during the day for the 
magneto - electric machinery, and test its warming power. 
M. Michels, an American residing in Paris, has patented 
a revolving carbon which can be rolled like an ordinary 
conductor. 


We have now more detailed information about the earthquake 
which was felt in the Swiss Jura on January 27 at 2b, 18m. 
pm. There were two shocks at an interval of five seconds, 
They were felt especially at Berne, where several chimneys 
were thrown down, the bell of a church sounded, and the 
ceiling of a school fell down, At St. Imier the shocks were 
also rather strong. They were felt also at Neufchatel, Cor- 
celles, Fontaines, Colombier, Auvernier, and Chaux-de-Fonds to 
west ; at Morges (bnt not at Lausanne) to south-west ; at Solo- 
thurn, Basel, and Ziirich to north and north-east ; and at Signau, 
Hiittwyl, Berthoud, and Thoune to south and south-east. Two 
smaller shocks were felt: one on the same day at six o’clock in 


1 From an article in La Nature, by M. A. Niaudet. 


370° 


NATURE 


| Fed. 17, 1881 


the evening, and the other at three o’clock on the morning of the 
following day. 


SHOCKS of earthquake were noticed at Baraccone, Italy, on 
January 31, at 8.30 p.m. ; at Fiume, Hungary, on the night of 
January 3-4, at 2.26, direction, north-east to south-west, 
duration, two to three seconds; in Upper Italy, e.g. at Ancona, 
on the night of January 3-4. 


THE incredulity with which the news about an earthquake at 
St. Petersburg was met in some quarters, when M, Wagner 
described it some years ago in consequence of quite unusual 
oscillations of the level of his transit-instrument at Pulkova, 
seems to be unfounded. We learn from Russian papers that on 
January 26, at 2.15 p.m., an earthquake was felt at Narva and 
at the Korff railway station, as well as on the estates of Lagen 
and Repnik, seven and eight miles distant from Narva, At all 
these places it was accompanied with a subterranean noise. 


AT the Observatory of Pawlowsk, Russia, extraordinary mag- 
netic perturbations (variations 2°) were noticed on the evening 
of January 31. Onthe same evening an auroral display was 
visible in different parts of the Russian Empire, e.g. in Western 
Siberia, at Ekaterineburg and Irbit (Ural), at Baltishport, and 
at Hasenpoth. 


On Saturday evening last the President of the French Republic, 
accompanied by all the members of the Government, visited the 
Paris Bourse in order to witness some experiments with Mr, 
Graham Bell’s photophone. M. Antoine Breguet began by ex- 
plaining the principles of the wonderful invention, after which 
experiments were made over a distance of fifty metres, by means 
of an electric light produced by a Gramme machine and a Serrin 
lamp. 


M. BoGDANorF, who took part in the Russian North Sea 
Expedition sent out during last summer, communicated, at the 
general meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, 
his observations on the influence of whaling on the fishing on the 
Normannic coast, which illustrates very well the complicated 
chain which exists in the animal world. The whale used to 
be very important to the fisheries, as during the spring it 
drove to the coast immense shoals of small fishes. Now, 
whaling being pursued by means of steamers which use a bullet 
instead of the old harpoon, and the annual number of whales 
killed being, during the last seventeen years, from 50 to 143, 
the amount of small fishes coming to the coast has much 
diminished. Besides, the great quantities of fat which are 
thrown into the sea at Varanger attract sharks, and these last 
destroy cod-fish, so that now the cod-fishing is nearly extinct in 
the western parts of the Varanger fjérd region, 


Mr. WALLACE in his ‘Island Life,” Pp- 495, 496, has dis- 
cussed the apparent inability of Australian plants to become 
naturalised in the northern hemisphere. The gist of his ex- 
planation is the want of elasticity in their constitution, owing to 
their long-continued insular and uniform conditions of existence. 
The accompanying extract from the Report of the Government 
Gardens at Rangoon for 1880 points to the incapacity of even 
the vegetation of Tropical Australia to stand really humid 
climatic conditions :—‘‘ The Australian Eucalypti grew well 
during the dry weather, and some of them were four feet in 
height when the monsoon commenced ; they then damped off 
one after another, as did also the Australian Acacias and the 
Queensland Ficus. The Moreton Bay Chestnut is not flourish- 
ing. From the above it will, I think, be evident that plants of 
Tropical Australia will not readily accommodate themselves to 
this very moist climate.” It may be added that the result of 
attempting to grow species of Eucalyptus from all parts of 


Australia in the West African Settlements has uniformly failed, 
and apparently from the same cause. 


SOME experiments have been made at the Caynpore Experi- 
mental Farm during 1879-80 on the cultivation of imported 
English and American wheats and barleys. The result seems 
to point to the conclusion that the time available for the growth 
of cereals in India is too short to allow of English and American 
varieties being grown with success unless possibly the seed is sown 
in September and runs arisk of being damaged by excessive heat. 
Experimental sowings were made of three kinds of English and 
three kinds of American wheat, as well as of three kinds of barley. 
All nine sowings were complete failures. The seeds in most 
cases germinated freely, and the plants spread out into stools in 
a manner very different to the habit of country wheat. But all 
crops grew extremely slowly, and were still green when native 
wheat had finished ripening. In consequence the hot winds of 
March completely shrivelled up whatever grain had been formed, 
and no crop worth the name was gathered. 


THE Manchester Field Naturalists’ Society has recently 
attained its majority, and the event has been marked by a social 
meeting of past and present members in honour of the founder, 
Mr. Leo Grindon, author of ‘Manchester Walks and Wild 
Flowers,” &c. In 1860 Mr. Grindon gathered around him a 
company of friends wishful to make some acquaintance with 
nature, and fortnightly summer excursions were established 
under his pleasant guidance. A prominent feature of the 
Society’s proceedings has been the winter soirées. Now that 
the possibility of establishing a successful society, whose aspira- 
tions may be thought by some incompatible with commercial 
pursuits, has been demonstrated, the executive will do wisely to 
thoughtfully extend their operations in the direction of the 
Society’s aims. Some attention has been paid to such practical 
matters as tree-planting in towns and window-gardening, and the 
discussion of such questions will tend to give a firmer hold upon 
public favour. Lancashire contains an unusual number of field. 
clubs, some of which have been inspired by this Society, whilst 
others were earlier in existence. In one of his letters the late Mr. 
Carlyle laments that ‘‘for many years it has been one of my 
constant regrets that no schoolmaster of mine had a knowledge 
of natural history, so far at least as to have taught me the 
grasses that grow by the wayside, and the little winged and 
wingless neighbours that are continually meeting me with a 
salutation which I cannot answer.” Had he been a native of 
Lancashire he would have found many instructors willing to read 
him the lessons of the wayside. 


ON the oth inst. the Dundee Naturalists’ Society held their 
sixth annual conversazione, which seems to have been quite suc- 
cessful, All sorts of scientific satéviel were exhibited, and 
among other lectures given was one by Dr. McIntosh of Murthly 
on Sponges. This society is evidently in a flourishing condition, 
and is no doubt doing something to create an interest in science 
in the important seaport in which it is located. 


Mr, QuaritcH has just issued the second part of his new 
Catalogue of Works on Natural History. It seems to contain a 
large number of very scarce and valuable works. 


A FEW months ago three large blocks of petrified wood were 
found in the Devonian bed at Doppersberg, Germany. They 
were recognised by Prof. Goppert of Breslau as belonging to 
a fossil Araucaria, named by him Araucarites Elberfeldensis 
(Doppers). 

Tue Baltic Centralverein fiir Thierzucht und Thierschutz 
will hold its third exhibition of domestic birds on March 11-13 
at Greifswald. In addition the exhibition will include living 
and dead freshwater and marine fish, fish embryos, &c,, and all 
apparatus pertaining to pisciculture and fishing. 


Feb, 17, 1881 | 


NATURE 


37! 


AN important step has been attained in telephony by Dr. 
Cornelius Herz, by which the principle of magnetism has been 
entirely discarded and the magnetic receiver abolished, A long 
series of experiments have been successfully conducted under the 
patronage of the French Government on the telegraphic lines 
of the State; concluding trials were witnessed, among others, 
by M. Cochéry, Minister of Postal Telegraphy, M. Jules Ferry, 
Prime Minister, M. Leon Say, President of the Senate, M. 
Becquerel, and other Members of the Academy of Sciences, and 
other: Members, Senators, Deputies, and a great number of 
engineers. One of the most extraordinary experiments was the 
transmission of speech on a single wire from Tours to Brest, on 
a wire passing through Paris, the length of which exceeded eight 
hundred miles. One single Leclanche’s element was the sole 
battery in use, 

Some dredging work which is going on at Ziirich in the bed of 
the Limmat has brought to light the shore pillars of a Roman 
bridge, as well as the skeleton of a prehistoric stag. 


INTERESTING new discoveries have been made at Pompeii. In 
block 7 of the 9th district a house has been excavated which 
was in course of construction when the terrible catastrophe 
occurred, and which differs materially from all other Pompeiian 
houses in its plan. In another house a large square piece of 
black glass was found fixed into the wall, which when slightly 
moistened forms the most perfect mirror, In a third house 
various wall-paintings were discovered, which however are rather 
of artistic than scientific interest. 


THE newly-elected Municipal Council of Paris has been 
summoned by the Prefect of the Seine for a session which will 
begin on the 11th inst. It is stated that one of the proposals 
made will be to establish in Paris a system of police telephonic 
stations, as practised in Chicago, 


M. JULEs FERRY has created a library for patients in every 
hospital in Paris. The system willbe extended to the whole of 
France. 

AT the meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin 
on January 27 last, the year’s report (for 1880) for the Humboldt 
Institution for Natural Research and Travels was read. Prof. 
du Bois Reymond, in conjunction with Prof. G. Fritsch, is about 
to publish the observations and experiments made by the late 
Dr. Karl Sachs on Gymmotus electricus in South America during 
1876 and 1877, by order of the Institution. The present tra- 
veller of the Institution, Dr. Otto Finsch, after staying for nearly 
a year upon Talint Island (one of the Marshall group) proceeded 
to Matupi (on the north coast of New Britain) at the end of last 
year. His last letter is dated October 27, 1880, and he 
announces that he has made rich zoological collections. He 
intended to visit New Ireland and New Guinea if possible, and 
then to return to Europe by way of Dutch East India. Four of 
Dr. Finsch’s collections have arrived at Berlin; a fifth is 
announced by his first letter from Matupi. The funds of the 
Institution have been increased by small legacies. The sum 
which will be at the disposal of the Institution for 1881 is 
12,750 marks (635/.) 


THE Sydney correspondent of the Co/onies writes :—‘* We 
have long had in Sydney splendid botanical gardens, containing 
the choicest plants in the world, but we have only recently 
started a ‘Zoological Gardens,’ though Melbourne has had one 
many years, which has been brought to a high degree of perfec- 
tion, Last week a deputation waited on our Colonial Secretary, 
asking for funds to stock the Gardens. Sir Henry Parkes 
replied that if the members of the Zoological Society would 
undertake next year to put as many animals in the grounds of 
the Sydney Zoological Gardens as they have in Melbourne, he 
would guarantee them 10,000/, from the Government. The 
offer was not accepted,” 


THE Chrysanthemum is the title of a monthly magazine ‘‘ for 
Japan and the Far East,” the first number of which has been 
sent us. The contents are mostly of a literary character, the 
main object of the magazine being “‘ to aid in bringing the pales 
of Eastern and Western thought into such contact as may result 
in the diffusion of a general warmth and light around us.” The 
publishers are Kelly and Co, of Yokohama, the English agents 
being Triibner and Co, 


A SKELETON of a mammoth has been discovered at Bendery, 
Government of Bessarabia, in the upper clay drift. 


THE St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists has already 276 
Fellows ; the Mineralogical Society has 398 members. 


THE Commission of Fisheries of the United States have sent 
a quarter of a million ova of the American whitefish to Bremen, 
en route for the Lake of Constance, where the attempt to 
acclimatise this fish is to be made. 


THE centenary of the birth of the philosopher Karl Christian 
Friedrich Krause will be celebrated on May 6 next at his birth- 
place, Eisenberg (Saxe-Altenburg). At the same time a simple 
monument with a bronze bust of Krause will be unveiled. The 
design is by Herr Enger of Altenburg, the bust by Robert 
Henze of Dresden, A Krause Scholarship has also been 
established at the Gymnasium. 


WE have on our table the following books :—‘‘ Practical 
Plane Geometry,” John W. Pallister (Simpkin) ; ‘ Introduc- 
tion to Study of Indian Languages,” J. W. Powell; ‘‘ Journal 
of Iron and Steel Institute, 1880’ (Spon) ; ‘‘ Practical Botany,” 
D. Houston (W. Stewart); ‘‘ Popular Scientific Lectures,” 2nd 
series, Helmholtz (Longmans) ; ‘‘ The Evolutionist at Large,” 
Grant Allen (Chatto and Windus) ; ‘‘ Journal of Royal So- 
ciety of New South Wales;” ‘Extinct British Animals,” J. 
E. Harting (Triibner) ; ‘‘ Calendar of University of Wales, 
1880-81 ;” ‘‘The Silk Goods of America,” 2nd edition, W. C. 
Wyckoff; “London Catalogue of British Mosses ” (Bogue) ; 
‘The Statistical Atlas,” part 1, G. P. Bevan (W. and A, K, 
Johnston) ; ‘ Kamelaroi and Kurnai,” Fison and Howitt (Mac- 
millan and Co.); ‘‘ Meeresfauna,” K. Mébius (Otto Enstin) ; 
‘¢ Annuaire pour l’an 1880” (Villars, Paris) ; ‘fA Polar Recon-. 
naissance,” A. H. Markham (Kegan Paul); ‘* Natural History 
of British Fishes,” Frank Buckland (S.P.C.K.) ; ‘‘ Ventilation 
and Heat,” Frederick Edwards (Longmans) ; ‘‘ Practical Phy- 
sics,” A. H. Worthington (Rivington) ; ‘‘ Muscles and Nerves,” 
Dr. T. Rosenthal (Kegan Paul); ‘* Natural Philosophy Examin- 
ation Papers,” Rev. G. Molloy (Browne and Nolan); ‘‘On 
some Properties of the Earth,” O, Reichenbach ; ‘‘ Eyolution, 
Expression, and Sensation,” John Cleland (Maclehose, Glas- 
gow) ; ‘‘The Wild Coast of Nipon,” Capt. H. C. St. John 
(Douglas). 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE So-CALLED Nova OF 1600.—Referring to a note which 
recently appeared in this column on “‘Janson’s Star of 1600,” 
Prof. van de Sande Bakhuysen, Director of the Observatory of 
Leyden, writes us that ‘‘Janson or Gulielmus Jansonius is 
Willem Jansz Blaeu, who is well known as the maker of globes, 
which are now very rare, and as editor of a treatise on the use of 
globes, of different treatises on navigation, and of a great 
number of charts aud different atlases, From 1598 till his death 
in 1638 he lived in Amsterdam. Janson signifies that he was 
the son of Jan (John), but his family name was Blaeu,” This ex- 
planation will be acceptable to those who may have been perhaps 
somewhat in doubt as to the correct form of identifying the 
discoverer of the variable star of 1600; Kepler styled him 
Jansonius, without reference to what Prof. Bakhuysen states to 
have been his surname: and he is frequently called Jansen, 
Lalande refers to the globes constructed by Blaeu as the best of 
the period, and the fact of his remarking the star in question, of 
which there is no previous mention, proves that he was a careful 


af? 


NATORE 


| Fed. 17, 1881 


observer of the heavens. In the Bzbliographie Astronomique 
we find an astronomical work printed in 1625, attributed to him 
as Willem Jansz Blauw. 

It will be seen from the works of Kepler and Cassini that 
Blaeu’s star (34 Cygni of our present catalogues) at no time rose 
higher than the third magnitude, though even Madler (Popudare 
Astronomie) has so far overlooked its history as to tell us ‘‘it 
reached the first magnitude” ; and he attributes its discovery to 
Kepler. 


Tue “ ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN.”—Contrary to what 
has been lately stated, it appears that this periodical will still 
be edited by Dr. C. F. W. Peters, who has for some time con- 
ducted it, and we are informed there is a probability that Prof. 
Kriiger may set afloat a new astronomical journal under his 
own management. Whether the multiplication of high-class 
astronomical journals to the extent we are likely to witness is a 
practical advantage may perhaps be doubtful. For many years 
the Astronomische Nachrichten contained almost all that bore 
upon the progress of exact astronomy ; sed tempora mutantur, et 
nos mutamur in illis. 


THE CoMET 1880 e (SwIFT, OCTOBER 10).—The completion 
of the mounting of the large Merz-Repsold refractor at the 
Imperial Observatory, Strassburg, enabled Prof. Winnecke to 
observe this interesting comet as late as January 26, when un- 
favourable weather interfered, and he was not without the hope 
that it would be within reach after the next period of absence of 
moonlight. Even if this should not prove to have been the case, 
there will be more than fifteen weeks’ observations available for 
the determination of the actual orbit of the comet, affording 
every reason to expect that its track in the heavens nearly eleven 
years hence, or at its next visible return, may be pretty closely 
predicted. The following positions are deduced from MM. 
Schulhof and Bossert’s last elements :— 


At Greenwich midnight 


1881 RA. Decl. Log. distance from 
h. ms. ° i Earth. Sun. 

Feb. 14 ... 6 42 20 ...+21 21°4 ... 9°9007 ... 0°2147 
160... 6.4454 ... 20 104... O19158~.sOp2102 

18 ... 6 47 29... 20 59°8 ... 9°9307 ... 0°2236 
20...650 5... 20 49°7 ... 9°9454 ... 0°2280 

22 ... 6 52 41 ... 20 39°9 ... 9°9600 ... 072323 
24... 6 55 18 ... +20 304 ... 9°9745 ... 0°2366 


Prof. Winnecke reports that the Merz-Repsold refractor is a 
great success ; A/imas is an easy object, and it may be hoped 
that the observation of the nebulz, to which it is understood the 
instrument is to be chiefly directed, may not preveat attention 
being given to the closest of Saturn’s satellites. 


THE PERSEIDS IN AUGUST, 1880.—M. Baillaud, Director of 
the Observatory of Toulouse, has published the results of the 
watch for meteors, maintained by three observers on the nights 
of August 9, 10, and 11 in the past year: 1172 shooting-stars 
were observed, and 83 of the longest tracks were traced upon a 
chart ; generally the tracks were very short, and their extremities 
pretty distant from the radiant. The meteors appeared to 
diverge from two points—the more numerous group from R.A. 
42° 37’, Decl. 56° 39’; and agroup of about one third the former, 
from R.A. 60° 39’, Decl. 62° 4. The maximum’ occurred on 
August 10, between 14h. and 15h., in which interval 200 meteors 
were noted, 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


M. WresNEGG has lately constructed for M. d’Arsonval a new 
steam-pressure regulator which deserves notice. It fulfils, 
according to the inventor, the following conditions ;—(1) It 
maintains a perfectly constant pressure of steam in a boiler, 
whatever the actual output ; (2) it maintains the consumption of 
fuel ata rate proportional to the output of steam ; and (3) it is 
absolutely automatic, and therefore prevents all risks of explosion. 
This regulator is of very simple construction. A lead pipe from the 
boiler leads to a little apparatus somewhat resembling an ordinary 
lever safety-valve, but in which the valve-plug, instead of fitting 
into the usual conical seat, rests upon a thin disk of india-rubber. 
This disk rises when the pressure from below exceeds the down- 
ward pressure of the plug and the superincumbent lever, and of 
the weight which it carries. It cannot get hot, as it is far from 
the boiler, and the space below the disk is filled with water con- 


densed from the steam, The upper surface of the valve-plug 
regulates by its movement the flow of gas, which comes in and 
goes out by two pipes leading to the upper part of the regulator. 
One of these comes from the gas mains, the other goes out to the 
burners under the boiler. By this arrangement, whenever the 
pressure in the boiler reaches any desired maximum, the apparatus 
itself reduces the supply and turns down the flame, thus main- 
taining the pressure constant and the consumption proportional 
to the output of vapour. It will be seen that the invention is 
only applicable to the case where the fuel employed is gas. The 
apparatus is also in itself an automatic safety-valve, putting out 
the fire when the pressure exceeds the limit. M. Wiesnegg has 
had practical experience during three years of the working of the 
new regulator, which appears to leave nothing to be desired in 
its performance. The same gentleman has constructed a constant- 
pressure air-blast on the same principle. 


PRoF, CASSANI invites attention in the Rivista Sct. Ind. 
(November 30) to some singular phenomena of geometrical 
optics, thus indicated :—The real images, presented by a con- 
cave mirror or by a convergent lens, of a plane or spherical 
mirror, a lens or a prism, may by a suitable arrangement be 
made to appear like a real mirror, lens, or prism respectively. 
An observer stands opposite a concave mirror supported (with 
slight slant) at a distance greater than the radius of curvature, 
and receiving no other light than that reflected from his face 
(illuminated by a dark lanterns), A small plane mirror s placed 
in a position nearer the concave mirror than the observer, and 
sloping in opposite direction (it is concealed from hiseye). The 
effect is that, on looking obliquely upwards, the observer seems 
to see a plane mirror (which is of larger size than the other) with 
his direct image init. The illusion is the more complete if the 
actual plane mirror have an ornamental frame, and this be illu- 
minated by a special lamp. As the image in the ideal mirror is 
always rather small and too near the mirror, this may arouse 
suspicion, the more so when the image is seen to diminish on 
receding and increase on advancing ; but a person not familiar 
with the phenomena of concave mirrors may easily be deceived, 
thinking he sees a real mirror. 


In the Proc. R.S.EZ. Sir W. Thomson describes a thermo- 
magnetic thermoscope of an ingenious nature. It is well known 
that the ‘‘ permanent” magnetism of steel magnets is not 
constant, but changes slightly with changes of temperature, the 
magnet becoming weaker when warmed, and recovering its 
strength as it is cooled. The magnetic thermoscope is intended 
to indicate differences of temperature by showing differences 
between the magnetic moments of steel magnets. Two thin 
wires of hard steel, each one centimetre long, are arranged so as 
to form a zearly astatic couple, being magnetised to equal 
strength and set in opposite directions, but not quite parallel, so 
that they set at right angles to the magnetic meridian. Two 
other magnets, about twice the size of the former pair, are placed 
one on each side of this astatic couple as ‘‘ deflectors,” being 
laid in one line nearly along the magnetic meridian, with their 
similar poles facing one another at about two centimetres apart. 
When properly adjusted the little astatic pair suspended between 
them will be found to be excessively sensitive to the least change 
in the strength of either of the deflectors, and if they are at 
different temperatures will turn through an angle which if small 
may be regarded as a measure of the temperature-difference. A 
small mirror suspended from the lower needle of the pair serves 
to reflect a spot of light on to a scale in the usual way. 


In 1870 and 1871 MM. Leverrier and Crova experimented 
with an optical telegraph between Nimes and Redessan, Their 
system of signals were made by means of oil lamps or petroleum 
lamps fed by oxygen froma supply that could be turned on or 
off at will by an operator, who thus produced intermittent 
brilliant outbursts of flame according to a pre-arranged code. 
During December, 1880, a similar device was conceived by M. 
Mercadier, against whom M. Crova now reclaims the essential 
principles of his invention. He adds that two of the requisites 
of success lay in the use of oxygen under very low pressure, 
feeding the flame by an orifice in the midst of the flame, and 
in the employment of keys opening and shutting the gas-passages 
very suddenly by means of strong springs, without which the 
changes in the intensity of the flame go on too slowly to be 
comfortably observed. In the experiments of 1870-71 the lights 
at Nimes were visible at Redessan and wice versé, even in broad 
daylight. The oxygen supply was contained in ordinary gas 
bags of caoutchouc and prepared in the usual manner. 


Feb. 17, 1881 | 


One of M. Mercadier’s recent experiments in radiophony 
deserves a note. A disk of thin copper about 4 centims. in 
diameter, heated at its back by an oxyhydrogen blowpipe, was 
placed behind a rotating wheel with apertures, and the inter- 
mittent heat-rays were received upon one of his sensitive disks 
of thin metal blackened at the surface. With a bright red heat 
the customary note was well heard from the intermittent beams. 
On putting out the flame the sound gradually fell off in intensity, 
but was still audible after the copper disk had ceased to emit 
visible rays. All that this experiment proves, however, is that 
the dark rays, when they fall intermittently upon an absorbent 
surface, can cause it to undergo rapid expansions and contrac- 
tions; while Graham Bell’s earlier experiment showed that 
visible rays could produce this result. 


M. Cornv discusses in the Comptes rendus the propositions of 
M. Gouy concerning the velocity of propagation of light pro- 
ceeding from a source of variable amplitude, on which we lately 
published a note. He denies the truth of M. Gouy’s funda- 
mental assumptions, and concludes that since all our appliances 
can only change the amplitude of the waves by quantities which 
may be regarded as constant during a great many successive 
waves, the formula of waves of persistent type will still hold 
good, and the velocity of propagation of the amplitudes will be 
identical with that of the waves themselves. 


M. Cuarpuls thinks that the blue of the sky may be due to 
ozone present in the upper regions of the air. Tle argues that 
the electrical discharges constantly taking place will produce 
ozone ; and the recent researches of himself and M. Hautefeuille 
have shown that ozone, at any rate when near its condensation 
point, is of a blue tint. He has examined the absorption-spectrum 
of ozone and finds nine dark bands in it, three at least of which 
correspond with known bands in the telluric spectrum, 


To obtain enlarged impressions from the phonograph, MM. 
Roig and Torres (Croxica cientifica, No. 4) substitute for the 
metallic membrane which bears the indenting style a plate of 
mica, quite free at the border, and supported at the centre by 
an axis of caoutchouc fixed to a small spring. ‘This axis carries, 
besides the short style for acting on the tin sheet, a small metallic 
piece in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the style, and this 
supports a second style, long and thin, the vibrations of which 
are inscribed on a cylinder blackened with smoke. The same 
angular velocity is imparted (by means of clockwork) to the 
cylinder of the phonograph and ‘the blackened cylinder, and 
while the short style makes its usual marks on the tin, the long 
one produces a larger tracing on the cylinder, which the authors 
have tried to decipher. They have succeeded easily in recog- 
nising the different vowels, some consonants, and even some 
syllables, but they have not been able to read entire phrases, 
The curves are more characteristic if the voice be used with 
ordinary mtensity ; on forcing it they are deteriorated. 


Pror. AVENARIUS, of Kiew, has taken out an Austrian 
patent for a new method of division of the electric light. The 
method is that of insertion of a polariser in a secondary circuit, 
connected with each electric lamp. The polariser, consists of 
several voltameters connected together. The current, supplied 
by an electrodynamic machine, divides before entering each 
lamp: one part goes through the lamp, while the second goes 
through the secondary circuit and the polariser and then back 
to the primary circuit. By insertion of a considerable resistance, 
é.g. increase of the voltameters, the light-intensity of the lamps 
may be varied. The individual lamps are independent of each 
other, and lamps of different systems may be simultaneously 
used. 


WE notice in the minutes of meetings of the Russian Physical 
and Chemical Society (vol. xii. fasc. 9) the researches, by M, 
Glasenap, on refraction, The want of concentricity of sheets 
of air of equal density produces a certain variation in the nor- 
mal refraction given in the tables ; the surfaces of equal density 
being as a rule inclined to some degree instead of being hori- 
zontal, and the degree of inclination being submitted to a certain 
periodicity during a whole year, there necessarily arises from 
this cause a certain correction to be applied to the observed 
position of a star, much like to that of the annual parallax and 
aberration, and which might be described as ‘‘ parallax of re- 
fraction.” As this correction must obviously affect the values 
of the annual parallax and of aberration, it is easy to under- 
stand the necessity to determine its true value with much accu- 
racy. The values deduced by M. Glasenap for the stars x of 


NATURE 


373 


the Ursz Majoris, «and O Draconis, are —o0’*o4, —o”*11, and 
—o’"11, which figures would explain to a certain extent the 
negative parallaxes received by M. Nyrén (‘‘Nutation der 
Erdaxe”), and which respectively are —” 03, —0”*05, and 
-o""16. The whole work of M. Glasenap on this subject will 
soon be published. 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


THE influence of time on processes of chemical change has 
not yet been thoroughly investigated. In a recent number of 
Comptes rendus Berthelot makes a contribution to this subject 
which is scarcely likely to be accepted by chemists without 
further investigation. From the results of many thermo-chemi- 
cal measurements Berthelot states that the chemical change, 
which occurs when an acid soluble in water acts ona soluble 
base or salt, or vice versa, or when two soluble salts mutually 
react, is completed in a space of time not appreciably greater 
than that required for completely mixing the two solutions. 


FROM experiments on the evolution of carbon dioxide from 
the roots of plants, detailed in the Bull. de la Soc. botanique 
de trance, M, Cauvet concludes that carbon dioxide is certainly 
evolved from plant-roots ; that the quantity evolved is less during 
night than during day; and that the quantity evolved increases 
at sunrise, decreases towards midday, and again increases in the 
evening, 


HERR SALLERON describes in Mateforscher an instance of 
the modifying influence of moderately heated liquids on glass. 
An aréometer used in a sugar-work lost about 0°5 grm. in weight 
after immersion for eight days in a sugar syrup at 95°. The 
syrup contained 115 grm, sugar and g1 grm. ash per litre. 
After a few more days the glass split off in splinters. 


Mr. A. A, Nesuir has recently patented a very ingenious 
process for preventing fraudulent alterations of bankers’ cheques. 
Mr, Nesbit prints his cheques with a dye or dyes, the colour of 
which is differently changed by acids and by alkalies ; the inscrip- 
tions on the cheques are apparent by virtue of the alkalinity 
or acidity of the dye. Immersion in dilute acid—for the pur- 
pose of dissolving out the written part of the cheque—causes 
the whole inscription to become acid tint ; as subsequent treat- 
ment with alkali changes the whole inscription to alkaline tint, 
the original inscription cannot be restored. If the acid part of 
the inscription be printed with a dye which is more strongly acid 
than the alkaline part is alkaline, treatment of the cheque with a 
neutral solvent of writing ink suffices to blur the inscription, and 
this blurring cannot be removed. Various modifications of the 
invention, and details of the processes of printing, colours used, 
&e., are given in the specification. 


M. Erarp thinks that boron shows certain analogies with 
yanadium ; in endeavouring further to illustrate such analogies 
he has obtained indications, although not yet positive proof, of 
the existence of an acid containing more oxygen than boric acid, 
He has also obtained, by the action of a saturated solution of 
boric acid on hydrated barium dioxide, a salt to which he gives 
the formula B,O,. BaO . 3H,O, and the name darzum perborate. 
This salt dissolves in acids with evolution of oxygen; it is 
very deliquescent (Compt. rend.). 


IN continuation of his investigation into the compounds of 
sulphur and nitrogen M. Demarcay describes (Compt. vend.) 
various bodies which he regards as compounds of the radicle— 
(S4N3)'—called by him ¢Azotriazy/, The more important of the 
new compounds are formulated as (SyN;)Cl, (SyN3)NO3, and 
(SyN3)HSO,. 

LIEBEN describes (in Wien, Akad. Ber.) several compounds of 
calcium chloride with fatty acids, more especially the three 
compounds with butyric acid, viz. :— 


CaCl, . CyH,g0,; CaCl, . 2C,H,O, . 2H,0.; and 
CaCl, . Ca(CyH7Oz). . 4C,H,Oo. 


M. Byasson states (Compt. rend.) that if every trace of sul- 
phurous acid be removed from chloral, the latter retains its 
liquid condition for an indefinite time, and that the change into 
solid metachloral, which soon takes place in chloral purified 
only by distillation, may be thus prevented. To remove the 
last traces of sulphurous acid M. Byasson agitates the chloral 
with +4, of its weight of finely-powdered caustic baryta, decants 
the liquid, and distils. 


374 


NATURE 


[ Feb. 17, 1881 


BERTHELOT has recently succeeded in isolating several com- 
pounds of metallic chlorides with hydrochloric acid ; in Compt. 
‘vend. he describes three such chlorhydrates of metallic chlorides, 
viz. :— 


CdCly.2HCl.7H,O; PbI,. HI.5H,O; and 3Agl. HI. 7H,0; 


and in another number of the same journal M. Ditté describes, 
among others, the salts BiCl, . 3HCl; SbCl3. 3HCl, &c. These 
hydrated salts are formed from their constituent compounds with 
a considerable evolution of heat, the amount varying from 
11,000 to 15,000 units, The anhydrous salts readily undergo 
dissociation into their constituent compounds, and cannot there- 
fore be readily obtained. Berthelot regards the formation and 
dissociation of these chlorhydrates as playing an important part 
in the mechanism of many chemical changes. Thus calomel is 
changed into corrosine sublimate and mercury by the action of 
hydrochloric acid: Berthelot would formulate this change as 
Hg,Cl, + xHCl = HgCl, . xHCl + Hg (attended with evolu- 
tion of 9500 heat-units), with subsequent dissociation of the 
chlorhydrate of HgCl,. Again in the reduction of metallic 
chlorides by hydrogen Berthelot supposes that chlorhydrates are 
produced, and that the heat thus developed aids in dissociating 
fresh quantities of the original metallic chloride ; thus he would 
indicate the initial stage of the reduction of cadmium chloride 
by hydrogen, as :-— 
2CdCl, + H, = Cd + CdCl, . 2HCI. 


M. Wurtz has recently beea studying (Compt. rend.) the 
action of the ferment Pagan on fibrin, whereby the fibrin is 
rendered soluble in water. The process appears to be analogous 
with many ordinary chemical changes in which the formation 
and decomposition of a compound are continually proceeding. 
Papain forms an insoluble compound with fibrin, which com- 
pound is then decomposed by the water present with formation 
of a soluble hydrated fibrin, and setting free of the ferment, 
‘which again acts on fresh quantities of fibrin. 


In the American Chem. Journ. Clarke and Stallo describe a 
series of experiments on the tartrates of antimony, wherein they 
are led to regard tartar emetic as the potassium salt of a new 
acid, to which they give the name ¢artrantimonious, viz. 
Sb.C,H,O,.OH. This acid they regard as derived from 
orthantimonious acid, Sb(OH)s, which they have prepared in 
definite form. The behaviour of an aqueous solution of tar 
trantimonious acid towards keat is peculiar, Below 30° the solu- 
tion remains nearly clear; at a few degrees above 30° a white 
curdy precipitate deposits ; on evaporating in a water bath the 
curdy precipitate disappears and a transparent gummy mass 
remains, which is completely soluble in cold water, re-forming 
the original acid. These changes are shown to be expressible 
by the equations— 

1. C,H;SbO, + 2H,O = SbH3,03 + CyH,0, ; the curdy pre- 
cipitate consisting of orthantimonious acid. 

2. CysH,O, + SbH,0, — 2H,O + CyH;SbO;; 2.¢. on heating, 
water is eliminated, and the original acid is reproduced. 


IN a series of papers in the Berliner Berichte Th. Thomsen 
endeavours to show that the ‘‘ molecular rotation” of many 
classes of compounds is, for each class, a simple multiple of a 
constant number. ‘‘ Molecular rotation ” he defines as rotatory 
molecular weight / M.(2), 

100 ( 100 
group appears generally to bear a simple relation to that for 
other groups ; in fact a constant may be found which belongs to 
many groups. Adopting a classification analogous to that of 
natural ,history, Thomsen shows that the constant 0°95 belongs 
to a large ‘‘class” of compounds; that this multiplied by 4 
gives the constant (3°8) for the ‘‘family” of alcohols, and by 
9 gives the constant (8°65) for the ‘‘ family” of amides, &c, 
From a determination of the molecular rotation of compounds, 
aided by the use of these constants, he attempts also to deduce 


power X }) The constant for one 


these compounds, 
IN various papers noticed in this journal, Briihl attempted to 


show that the ‘‘ molecular refraction” [MD] of isome- 


are to be traced to variations in the ‘‘linking” of carbon atoms, 
Janowsky (Berliner Berichte) maintains that slight differences 


are always noticeable between the molecular refractions of iso- 
meric compound where isomerism is due not to “linking,” but 
to “grouping” of carbon atoms: but he thinks that if the 
values of the refractive indices of such compounds are con- 
sidered, better results are obtained than by calculating the mole- 
cular refractions. Briihl however had himself shown that the 
refraction indices of such isomers are not the same. 


_ LANDOLT has gathered together in Berliner Berichte the more 
important data concerning the inversion of specific rotatory 
power of carbon compounds by the influence of heat or of 
inactive solvents : those data he supplements by further experi- 
ments of his own, and develops shortly the outlines of a mecha- 
nical theory analogous to that of Rammelsberg. 


THE atomic weight of beryllium is still the subject of experi- 
ment. Emerson Reynolds has redetermined the specific heat of 
the pure metal (Chem. News) and obtained a number which 
points to 9"I as the true atomic weight. The same value is 
assigned by Brauner, who (Lerliner Berichte) criticises the 
arguments of Nilson and Pettersson, and attempts to show that 
the specific heat, specific volume, and general physical properties 
of beryllium oxide are more in keeping with the formula BeO 
(Be = 9'1) than with the formula Be,O, (Be = 13°6) assigned 
to it by the Swedish observers. 


IN a paper on bismuth compounds in Chem. Soc. Journal, by 
Muir, Hoffmeister, and Robbs, the new salts bismuth fluoride 
(BiF3) and bismuth oxyfluoride (BiOF) are described. The 
former is the more stable of the halogen compounds of bismuth: 
it is not decomposed by water, and is scarcely changed at a red 
heat in air, 


PROF, BEILSTEIN, who has recently studied the various sub- 
stances used for disinfection, arrives, in a communication made 
to the St. Petersburg Technical Society, at the following con- 
clusions :—Sulphuric acid would be the best di-infectant if it 
did not destroy the sides of the tanks; the use of lime and of 
salts of lime ought to be completely renounced, as they but tem- 
porarily destroy bacteria, and under some circumstances may 
contribute to their development ; nor does sulphate of iron, even 
in a solution of 15 per cent., ultimately destroy bacteria, as they 
revive when jut into a convenient medium. ‘Therefore Prof. 
Beilstein recommends sulphate of aluminium, which is used in 
paper and printed-cotton manufactures. The best means for 
providing it is to make a mixture of red clay with 4 per cent. 
of sulphuric acid, and to add to this mixture some carbolic acid 
for destroying the smell of the matter which is to be disinfected. 


ACTION OF AN INTERMITTENT BEAM OF 
RADIANT HEAT UPON GASEOUS MATTER* 


“THE Royal Society has already done me the honour of 

publishing a long series of memoirs on the interaction of 
radiant heat and gaseous matter. These memoirs did not escape 
criticism, Distinguished men, among whom the late Prof. 
Magnus and the late Prof. Buff may be more specially mentioned, 
examined my experiments, and arrived at results different from 
mine. Living workers of merit have also taken up the question, 
the latest of whom,? while justly recognising the extreme difficulty 
of the subject, and while verifying, so far as their experiments 
reach, what I had published regarding dry gases, find me to 
have fallen into what they consider grave errors in my treatment 
of vapours, 

None of these investigators appear to me to have realised the 
true strength of my position in its relation to the objects I had in 
view. Occupied for the most part with details, they have failed 
to recognise the stringency of my work as a whole, and have not 
taken into account the independent support rendered by the 
various parts of the investigation to each other. They thus ignore 
verifications, both general and special, which are to me of con- 
clusive force. Nevertheless, thinking it due to them and me to 


, : | submit the questions at issue to a fresh examination, I resumed 
conclusions as to the chemical structure of the molecules of 


some time ago the threads of the inquiry. The results shall in 
due time be communicated to the Royal Society; but mean- 


| while I would ask permission to bring to the notice of the 


Fellows a novel mode of testing the relations of radiant heat to 
gaseous matter, whereby singularly instructive effects have been 


4 : ; : ., | obtained. 
ric carbon compounds is constant when only ‘‘singly-linked” | 
carbon atoms are present; and that variations in this quantity 


After working for some time with the thermopile and galvano- 


® Paper read at the Royal Society, January 13, by Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S 
* Lecher and Pernter. Philosophical Magazine, January, 1881 ; Sitzb, der 
k. Akad. der Wissensch. in Wien, July, 1880. 


— EE 


Feb. 17, 1881] 


NATURE 


375 


meter, it occurred to me several weeks ago that the results thus 
obtained might be checked by a more direct and simple form of 
experiment, Placing the gases and vapours in diathermanous 
bulbs, and exposing the bulbs to the action of radiant heat, the 
heat absorbed by different gases and vapours ought, I con- 
sidered, to be rendered evident by ordinary expansion. I 
devised an apparatus with a view of testing this idea. But at 
this point, and before my proposed gas-thermometer was con- 
structed, I became acquainted with the ingenious and original 
experiments of Mr. Graham Bell, wherein musical sounds are 
obtained through the action of an intermittent beam of light 
upon solid bodies. 

From the first I entertained the opinion that these singular 
sounds were caused by rapid changes of temperature, producing 
corresponding changes of shape and volume in the bodies im- 
pinged upon by the beam. But if this be the case, and if gases 
and vapours really absorb radiant heat, they ought to produce 
sounds more intense than those obtainable from solids. I 
pictured every stroke of the beam responded to by a sudden 
expansion of the absorbent gas, and concluded that when the 
pulses thus excited followed each other with sufficient rapidity, 
a musical note must be the result. It seemed plain, moreover, 
that by this new method many of my previous results might be 
brought to an independent test. Highly diathermanous bodies, 
I reasoned, would produce faint sounds, while highly ather- 
manous bodies would produce loud sounds ; the strength of the 
sound being, in a sense, a measure of the absorption. The first 
experiment made with a view of testing this idea, was executed 
in the presence of Mr. Graham Bell! ; and the result was in 
exact accordance with what I had foreseen. 

The inquiry has been recently extended so as to embrace most 
of the gases and vapours employed in my former researches. 
My first source of rays was a Siemens’ lamp connected with a 
dynamo-machine, worked by a gas-engine. A glass lens was 
used to concentrate the rays, and afterwards two lenses. By the 
first the rays were rendered parallel, while the second caused 
them to converge to a point about seven inches distant from the 
lens. A circle of sheet zinc provided first with radial slits and 
afterwards with teeth and interspaces cut through it, was 
mounted vertically on a whirling table, and caused to rotate 
rapidly across the beam near the focus. The passage of the 
slits produced the desired intermittence,? while a flask contain- 
ing the gas or vapour to be examined received the shocks of the 
beam immediately behind the rotating disk. From the flask a 
tube of india-rubber, ending in a tapering one of ivory or box- 
wood, led to the ear, which was thus rendered keenly sensitive 
to any sound generated within the flask. Compared with the 
beautiful apparatus of Mr. Graham Bell, the arrangement here 
described is rude; it is, however, very effective. 

With this arrangement the number of sounding gases and 
vapours was rapidly increased. But I was soon made aware 
that the glass lenses withdrew from the beam its most effectual 
rays. ‘The silvered mirrors employed in my previous researches 
were therefore invoked ; and with them, acting sometimes singly 
and sometimes as conjugate mirrors, the curious and striking 
results which I have now the honour to submit to the Society 
were obtained. 

Sulphuric ether, formic ether, and acetic ether being pliced 
in bulbous flasks, their vapours were soon diffused in the air 
above the liquid. On placing these flasks, whose bottoms only 
were covered by the liquid, behind the rotating disk, so that the 
intermittent beam passed through the vapour, loud musical tones 
were in each case obtained. These are known to be the most 
highly absorbent vapours which my experiments revealed, 
Chloroform and bisulphide of carbon, on the other hand, are 
known to be the least absorbent, the latter standing near the 
head of diathermanous vapours, The sounds extracted from 
these two substances were usually weak and sometimes barely 
audible, being more feeble with the bisulphide than with the 
chloroform. With regard to the vapours of amylene, iodide of 


* On November 29: see ¥ournal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, 
December 8, 1880. 

2 When the disk rotates the individual slits disappear, forming a hazy zone 
through which objects are visible. Throwing by the clean hand, or better 
still by white paper, the beam back upon the disk, it appears to stand still, 
the slits forming so many dark rectangles. The reason is obvious, but the 
experiment is a very beautiful one. 

I may add that when I stand with open eyes in the flashing beam, at a 
definite velocity of recurrence, subjective colours of extraordinary gorgeous- 
ness are produced. With slower or quicker rates of rotation the colours 
disappear. The flashes also produce a giddiness sometimes intense enough 
to cause me to grasp the table to keep myself erect. 


ethyl, iodide of methyl and benzol, other things being equal, 
their power to produce musical tones appeared to be accurately 
expressed by their ability to absorb radiant heat. 

It is the vapour, and not the liquid, that is effective in 
producing the sounds. ‘Taking, for example, the bottles in 
which my volatile substances are habitually kept, I permitted 
the intermittent beam to impinge upon the liquid in each of 
them. No sound was in any case produced, while the moment 
the vapour-laden space above an active liquid was traversed by 
the beam, musical tones made themselves audible. 

A rock-salt cell filled entirely with a volatile liquid and sub- 
jectei to the intermittent beam produced no sound. This cell was 
circular and closed at the top. Once, while operating with a 
highly athermanous substance, a distinct musical note was heard. 
On examining the cell however a small bubble was found at its 
top. The bubble was less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, 
but still sufficient to produce audible sounds. When the cell 
was completely filled the sounds disappeared. 

It is hardly necessary to state that the pitch of the note 
obtained in each case is determined by the velocity of rotation. 
It is the same as that produced by blowing against the rotating 
disk and allowing its slits to act like the perforations of a syren. 

Thus, as regar.ls vapours, prevision has been justified by 
experiment. I now turn to gases. A small flask, after having 
been heated in the spirit-lamp so as to detach all moisture from 
its sides, was carefully filled with dried air. Placed in the inter- 
mittent beam it yielded a musical note, but so feeble as to be 
heard only with attention. Dry oxygen and hydrogen behaved 
like dry air. This agrees with my former experiments, which 
assigned a hardly sensible absorption to these gases. When the 
dry air was displaced by carbonic acid, the sound was far louder 
than that obtained from any of the elementary gases. When 
the carbonic acid was displaced by nitrous oxide the sound was 
much more forcible still, and when the nitrous oxide was dis- 
placed by olefiant gas it gave birth to a musical note which, 
when the beam was in good condition and the bulb well chosen, 
seemed as loud as that of an ordinary organ-pipe. We have 
here the exact order in which my former experiments proved 
these gases to stand as absorbers of radiant heat. The amount 
of the absorption and the intensity of the sound go hand in hand, 

In 1859 I proved gaseous ammonia to be extremely impervious 
to radiant heat. My interest in its deportment when subjected 
to this novel test was therefore great. Placing a small quantity 
of liquid ammonia in one of the flasks, and warming the liquid 
slightly, the intermittent beam was sent through the space above 
the liquid. A loud musical note was immediately produced. 
By the proper application of heat to a liquid the sounds may be 
always intensified. The ordinary temperature however suffices 
in all the cases thus far referred to. 

In this relation the vapour of water was that which interested 
me most, and as I could not hope that at ordinary temperatures 
it existed in sufficient amount to produce audible tones, I heated 
a small quantity of water in a flask almost up to its boiling- 
point. Placed in the intermittent beam, I heard—I avow with 
delight—a powerful musical sound produced by the aqueous’ 
vapour. 

Small wreaths of haze, produced by the partial condensation 
of the vapour in the upper and cooler air of the flask, were how- 
ever visible in this experiment ; and it was necessary to prove 
that this haze was not the cause of the sound. The flask was 
therefore heated by a spirit-flame beyond the temperature of 
boiling water. The closest scrutiny by a condensed beam of 
light then revealed no trace of cloudiness above the liquid. 
From the perfectly invisible vapour however the musical sound 
issued, if anything, more forcible than before. I placed the 
flask in cold water until its temperature was reduced from about 
go° to 10° C., fully expecting that the sound would vanish at 
this temperature ; but notwithstanding the tenuity of the vapour, 
the sound extracted from it was not only distinct but loud. 

Three empty flasks filled with ordinary air were placed in a 
freezing mixture for a quarter of an hour. On being rapidly 
transferred to the intermittent beam, sounds much Jouder than 
those obtainable from dry air were produced. 

Warming these flasks in the flame of a spirit-lamp [until all 
visible humidity had been removed, and afterwards urging dried 
air through them, on being placed in the intermittent beam the 
sound in each case was found to have fallen almost to silence. 

Sending, by means of a glass tube, a puff of breath from the 
lungs into a dried flask, the power of emitting sound was 
immediately restored. 


370 


NATURE 


[| feb. 17, 1881 


When, instead of breathing into a dry flask, the common air | 


of the laboratory was urged through it, the sounds became imme- 
diately intensified. I was by no means prepared for the extra- 
ordinary delicacy of this new method of testing the athermancy 
and diathermancy of gases and vapours, and it cannot be otherwise 
than satisfactory to me to find that particular vapour, whose 
alleged deportment towards radiant heat has been most strenuously 
denied, affirming thus audibly its true character. 

After what has been stated regarding aqueous vapour we are 
prepared for the fact that an exceedingly sinall percentage of any 
highly athermanous gas diffused in air suffices to exalt the 
sounds. An accidental observation will illustrate this point. A 
flask was filled with coal gas and held bottom upwards in the 
intermittent beam. The sounds produced were of a force cor- 
responding to the known absorptive energy of coal-gas, The 
flask was then placed upright, with its mouth open upon a table, 
and permitted to remain there for nearly an hour. On being 
restored to the beam, the sounds produced were far louder than 
those which could be obtained from common air. 

Transferring a small flask or a test-tube from a cold place to 
the intermittent beam it is sometimes found to be practically 
silent fora moment, after which the sounds become distinctly 
audible. This I take to be due to the vaporisation by the 
calorific beam of the thin film of moisture adherent to the glass. 

My previous experiments having satisfied me of the generality 
of the rule that volatile liquids and their vapours absorb the 
same rays, I thought it probable that the introduction of a thin 
layer of its liquid, even in the case of a most energetic vapour, 
would detach the effective rays, and thus quench the sounds, 
The experiment was made and the conclusion verified. A layer 
of water, formic ether, sulphuric ether, or acetic ether one-eighth 
of an inch in thickness rendered the transmitted beam powerless 
to produce any musical sound. These liquids being transparent 
to light, the efficient rays which they intercepted must have been 
those of obscure heat. 

A layer of bisulphide of carbon about ten times the thickness 
of the transparent layers just referred to, and rendered opaque 
to light by dissolved iodine, was interposed in the path of the inter- 
mittent beam. It produced hardly any diminution of the sounds 
of the more active vapours—a further proof that it is the invisible 
heat rays, to which the solution of iodine is so eminently trans- 
parent, that are here effectual. 

Converting one of the small flasks used in the foregoing 
experiments into a thermometer bulb, and filling it with various 
gases in succession, it was found that with those gases which 
yielded a feeble sound, the displacement of a thermometric 
column associated with the bulb was slow and feeble, while with 
those gases which yielded loud sounds the displacement was 
prompt and forcible. 

Further Experiments.—Since the handing in of the foregoing 
note, on January 3, the experiments have been pushed forward ; 
augmented acquaintance with the subject serving only to confirm 
my estimate of its interest and importance. 

All the results described in my first note have been obtained 
in a very energetic form with a battery of sixty Grove’s cells. 

On January 4 I chose for my source of rays a powerful lime- 
light, which, when sufficient care is taken to prevent the pitting 
of the cylinder, works with admirable steadiness and without 
any noise. I also changed my mirror for one of shorter focus, 
which permitted a nearer approach to the source of rays. Tested 
with this new reflector the stronger vapours rose remarkably in 
sounding power. 

Improved manipulation was, I considered, sure to extract 
sounds from rays of much more moderate intensity than those of 
thelime-light. For this light, therefore, a common candle flame 
was substituted. Received and thrown back by the mirror, the 
radiant heat of the candle produced audible tones in all the 
stronger vapours. 

Abandoning the mirror and bringing the candle close to the 
rotating disk, its direct rays produced audible sounds. 

A red-hot coal, taken from the fire and held close to the 
roenne disk, produced forcible sounds in a flask at the other 
side. 

A red-hot poker, placed in. the fosition previously occupied 
by the coal, produced strong sounds. Maintaining the flask in 
position behind the rotating disk, amusing alternations of sound 
and silence accompanied the alternate introduction and removal 
of the poker. 


t The method here described is, I doubt not, applicable to the detection 
of extremely small quantities of fire-damp in mines. 


| 


The tempevature of the iron was then lowered till its heat just 
ceased to be visible. The intermittent invisible rays produced 
audible sounds, 

The temperature was gradually lowered, being accompanied 
by a gradual and continuous diminution of the sound. When it 
ceased to be audible the temperature of the poker was found te 
be below that of boiling water, 

As might be expected from the foregoing experiments an 
incandescent platinum spiral, with or without the mirror, pro- 
duced musical sounds. When the battery power was reduced 
from ten cells to three the sounds, though enfeebled, were still 
distinct. 

My neglect of aqueous vapour had led me for a time astray in 
1859, but before publishing my results I had discovered my 
error. On the present occasion this omnipresent substance had 
also to be reckoned with. Fourteen flasks of various sizes, with 
their bottoms covered with a little sulphuric ‘acid, were closed 
with ordinary corks and permitted to remain in the laboratory 
from December 23 to January 4. Tested on the latter day with 
the intermittent beam, half of them emitted feeble sounds, but 
half were silent. The sounds were undoubtedly due, not to dry 
air, but to traces of aqueous vapour. 

An ordinary bottle containing sulphuric acid for laboratory 
purposes, being connected with the ear and placed in the inter- 
mittent beam, emitted a faint, but distinct, musical sound, This 
bottle had been opened two or three times during the day, its 
dryness being thus vitiated by the mixture of a small quantity of 
common air, A second similar bottle, in which sulphuric acid 
had stood undisturbed for some days, was placed in the beam: 
the dry air above the liquid proved absolutely silent. 

On the evening of January 7 Prof. Dewar handed me four 
flasks treated in the following manner :—Into one was poured a 
small quantity of strong sulphuric acid; mto another a small 
quantity of Nordhausen sulphuric acid ; in a third were placed 
some fragments of fused chloride of calcium; while the fourth 
contained a small quantity of phosphoric anhydride. They were 
closed with well-fitting india-rubber stoppers, and permitted to 
remain undisturbed throughout the night. Tested after twelve 
hours, each of them emitted a feeble sound, the flask Jast-men- 
tioned being the strongest. Tested again six hours later, the 
sound had disappeared from three of the flasks, that containing 
the phosphoric anhydride alone remaining musical. 

Breathing into a flask partially filled with sulphuric acid in- 
stantly restores the sounding power, which continues for a 
considerable time. The wetting of the interior surface of the 
flask with the sulphuric acid always enfeebles, and sometimes 
destroys, the sound. 

A bulb less than a cubic inch in volume, and containing a 
little water lowered to the temperature of melting ice, produces 
very distinct sounds. Warming the water in the flame of a 
spirit-lamp, the sound becomes greatly augmented in strength. 
At the boiling temperature the sound emitted by this small bulb * 
is of extraordinary intensity. 

These results are in accord with those obtained by me nearly 
nineteen years ago, both in reference to air and to aqueous 
vapour, They are in utter disaccord with those obtained by 
other experimenters, who have ascribed a high absorption to air 
and none to aqueous vapour. 

The action of aqueous vapour being thus revealed, the neces- 
sity of thoroughly drying the flasks when testing other sub- 
stances becomes obvious. The following plan has been found 
effective :—Each flask is first heated in the flame of a spirit- 
lamp till every visible trace of internal moisture has disappeared, 
and it is afterwards raised to a temperature of about 400° C. 
While the glass is still hot a glass tube is introduced into it, and 
air freed from carbonic acid by caustic potash, and from aqueous 
vapour by sulphuric acid, is urged through the flask until it is 
cool, Connected with the ear-tube, and exposed immediately 
to the intermittent beam, the attention of the ear, if I may use 
the term, is converged upon the flask. When the experiment is 
carefully made, dry air proves as incompetent to produce sound 
as to absorb radiant heat. 

In 1868 I determined the absorptions of a great number of 
liquids whose vapours I did not examine. My experiments 
having amply proved the parallelism of liquid and vaporous 
absorption, I held undoubtingly twelve years ago that the vapour 
of cyanide of ethyl and of acetic acid would prove powerfully 
absorbent. This ccnclusion is now easily tested. A small 


t In such bulbs even bisulphide of carbon vapour may beso nursed as to 
produce sounds of considerable strength. 


. 


Feo. 17, 1881] 


NATURE 


quantity of either of these substances, placed in a bulb a cubic 
inch in volume, warmed, and exposed to the intermittent beam, 
emits a sound of extraordinary power, 

I also tried to extract sounds from perfumes, which I had 
proved in 1861 to be absorbers of radiant heat. I limit myself 
here to the vapours of pachouli and cassia, the former exercising 
a measured absorption of 30, and the latter an absorption of 109. 
Placed in dried flasks, and slightly warmed, sounds were obtained 
from both these substances, but the sound of cassia was much 
louder than that of pachouli. 

Many years ago I had proved tetrachloride of carbon to be 
highly diathermanous. Its sounding power is as feeble as its 
absorbent power. 

Tn relation to colliery explosions, the deportment of marsh-gas 
was of special interest. Prof. Dewar was good enough to 
furnish me with a pure sample of this gas. The sounds pro- 
duced by it, when exposed to the intermittent beam, were very 
powerful. 

Chloride of methyl, a liquid which boils at the ordinary tem- 
perature of the air, was poured into a small flask, and permitted 
to displace the air within it. Exposed to the intermittent beam, 
its sound was similar in power to that of marsh-gas. 

The specific gravity of marsh-gas being about half that of air, 
it might be expected that the flask containing it, when left open 
and erect, would soon get rid of its contents. This however is 
not the case. After a considerable interval the film of this gas 
clinging to the interior surface of the flask was able to pro- 
duce sounds of great power. 

A small quantity of liquid bromine being poured into a well- 
dried flask, the brown vapour rapidly diffused itself in the air 
above the liquid. Placed in the intermittent beam, a somewhat 
forcible sound was produced. This might seem to militate 
against my former experiments, which assigned a very low ab- 
sorptive power to bromine vapour. But my former experiments 
on this vapour were conducted with obscure heat ; whereas in 
the present instance I had to deal with the radiation from 
incandescent lime, whose heat is in part luminous. Now the 
colour of the bromine vapour proves it to be an energetic 
absorber of the luminous rays; and to them, when suddenly 
converted into thermometric heat in the body of the vapour, I 
thought the sounds might be due. 

Between the flask containing the bromine and the rotating disk 
I therefore placed an empty glass cell: the sounds continued. 
I then filled the cell with transparent bisulphide of carbon: the 
sounds still continued. For the transparent bisulphide I then 
substituted the same liquid saturated with dissolved iodine. This 
solution cut off the light, while allowing the rays of heat free 
transmission : the sounds were immediately stilled. 

Todine vaporised by heat in a small flask yielded a forcible 
sound, which was not sensibly affected by the interposition of 
transparent bisulphide of carbon, but which was completely 
quelled by the iodine solution. It might indeed have been fore- 
seen that the rays transmitted by the iodine as a liquid would 
also be transmitted by its vapour, and thus fail to be converted 
into sound, 

To complete the argument :—While the flask containing the 
bromine vapour was sounding in the intermittent beam, a strong 
solution of alum was interposed between it and the rotating disk, 
There was no sensible abatement of the sounds with either 
bromine or iodine vapour. 

In these experiments the rays from the lime-light were con- 
verged to a point a little beyond the rotating disk. In the next 
experiment they were rendered parallel by the mirror, and 
afterwards rendered convergent by a lens of ice. At the focus 
of the ice-lens the sounds were extracted from both bromine and 
iodine vapour. Sounds were also produced after the beam 
had been sent through the alum solution and the ice-lens con- 
jointly. 

With a very rude arrangement I have been able to hear the 
sounds of the more active vapours at a distance of 100 feet from 
the source of rays. 

Several vapours other than those mentioned in this abstract 
have been examined, and sounds obtained from all of them. 
The vapours of all compound liquids will, I doubt not, be found 
sonorous in the intermittent beam. And, as I question whether 
there is an absolutely diathermanous substance in nature, I think it 
probable that even the vapours of elementary bodies, including 
the elementary gases, when more strictly examined, will be found 
capable of producing sounds. 


* J intentionally use this phraseology. 


377 


INTERESTING NEW CRINOIDS 


N the AZemoirs of the Swiss Palzeontological Society for 1880 
Prof. P. de Loriol has recently described a remarkable new 
Crinoid which he refers to the little known genus 7hioViericrinus, 
Etallon, under the name of 7) rédeivoi, It occurs in the Upper 
Jurassic beds of Engenheiro, in Portugal. The calyx, like that 
of most Jurassic Comatule, has five small prismatic basals 
attached to the under surface of the radials. But the centro- 
dorsal piece on which the calyx rests is not entirely separated 
from the lower part of the stem, as is the case in the Comatula, 
though it resembles that of a Comatula in bearing cirrhi. 

Thiolliericrinus was a stalked Crinoid that never developed 
beyond the stage at which cirrhi appear on the enlarged upper- 
most stem-joint of the stalked larva of Comatula, The under- 
face of the centrodorsal and the terminal faces of the other 
stem-joints resemble those of the Comatula larva and also of 
Bourgueticrinus and Rhizocrinus in their oval shape and in the 
presence of transverse ridges which are in different planes at the 
two ends of each joint. Zhrolliericrinus therefore is a permanent 
larval form, and furnishes an intermediate stage between the 
stalked Bourgueticrinus and the free Comatula. The top stem- 
joint of the former bears no cirrhi, as it does in 7hiolliericrinus 
and in Comatula ; while in the latter it develops cirrhi, and 
unites closely with the calyx, separating from the rest of the 
larval stem on which it was previously fixed. 

Another form of considerable morphclogical interest, from its 
occupying an intermediate position between two well-defined 
genera, has been lately described by Mr. P. H. Carpenter under 
the name of Aesocrinus, The stem-joints are of the type already 
mentioned as characteristic of Bourgueticrinus, having oval faces 
marked by transverse ridges in different planes. But the upper 
stem-joint is not enlarged as it is in Bowrgueticrinus and in the 
Apiocrinide generally, while the form of the calyx recalls that of 
the Pentacrinide. It consists of five radials with well-developed 
articular faces, resting on five basals which form a complete ring 
as in the recent Pentacrinus Wyville- Thomsoni, from Soo fathoms 
in the Atlantic off the coast of Portugal. 

Broadly speaking, thérefore, AZesocrinus combines the stem of 
Bourgueticrinus with the calyx of Pentacrinus, or rather of 
Cainocrinus, as Prof, de Loriol prefers to call that section of the 
Pentacrinus type in which the basal ring is closed. Mesocrinus 
is an Upper Cretaceous genus, one species occurring in the 
“*Planerkalk” of Streben in Saxony, while another and larger 
one was found in the ‘‘Mucronaten Kreide” of Southern 
Sweden. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE " 


Oxrorp.—In consequence of the unsatisfactory state of many 
of the lodging-houses in Oxford, in respect of their sanitary 
arrangements, a proposal will be brought before Congregation 
on March 1 ‘‘to make better provision for the supervision of 
lodging-houses.” One of the delegates for licensing lodgings 
will be stipendiary, and it will be his duty to inspect every 
dwelling-house proposed for this use and to satisfy himself of its 
sanitary fitness. He shall have the assistance of a sanitary 
inspector, and shall have proctorial authority over members of 
the University in his character of inspector. 

A special statute will also be proposed authorising the present 
delegates of lodging-houses to spend whatever sum they may 
think necessary on a general inspection of lodging-houses 
during the present year. 

There will be holden at Christ Church on Saturday, March 
12, an election to at least one Mathematical Junior Studentship, 
and at least one in Natural Science, tenable for five years from 
the day of election, They will be of the annual value either (1) 
of roo/. (including an allowance for room rent) if the Governing 
Body shall so determine ; or (2) of 852. (also including an allow- 
ance for room rent), which may be raised to the larger sum above 
named after the completion of one year’s residence, if the 
Governing Body shall so determine. Candidates for the Mathe- 
matical Studentships and candidates for the Natural Science 
Studentships who offer mathematics will call upon the Dean on 
Monday, February 28, between 12.30 and 1.30 p.m. ; candi- 
dates for the Natural Science Studentships who do not offer 
mathematics, on March 2, between 12.30 and 1.30 p.m. All 
must produce certificates both of the day of their birth and of 
good character. The examinations will follow in each case at 


378 


——— ee 


2p.m. Candidates for either the Classical or the Mathematical 
Studentships must not have exceeded the age of nineteen on 
January I, 1881 ; candidates for the Natural Science Student- 
ships must not have exceeded the age of twenty on the same 
day. 


CAMBRIDGE.—There was a meeting of the members of the 
Senate on February 11, for the purpose of discussing the report 
of the Syndicate appointed last June to consider certain memorials 
as to the higher education of women. The Syndicate recommend 
that, subject to certain conditions of residence at Girton and 
Newnham Colleges, female students may be admitted to the 
Tripos Examinations, and certificates issued to them as to the 
result of the examination.—The Master of Emmanuel, in open- 
ing the discussion, remarked that he had never sat on any 
Syndicate before where so little difficulty had been experienced 
in agreeing to a report, Personally he wished the Syndicate had 
arrived at a different conclusion, and had recommended the 
admission of women to all the University examinations. He 
claimed for the recommendations of the Syndicate, however, 
that they closely followed the views of an influential number of 
residents who had signed a memorial on the subject, and wished 
for an official sanction to that which had been done for ten years 
without authority. He contended that it was the imperative 
duty of the University to give all possible access to its educational 
advantages, and that the proposed scheme was only a step in 
that direction.—Dr. Campion contended that the public opinion 
of the University had been carefully excluded in the constitu- 
tion of the Syndicate. He charged the report with being both 
illiberal and harsh. It was illiberal, because the Syndicate had 
restricted the examinations to inmates of particular colleges, and 
was not for the encouragement of the higher education of women 
all over the country. Why was the advaniage given only to 
Newnham and Girton Colleges? The report was harsh, for when 
they admitted women to tes! their scientific powers, it was 
unfair to do so after the conclusion of a time race with the men. 
Why not let the women study as long as they liked? He did not 
object to their being compelled to pass the previous examination, 
but to compel them to go step by step with undergraduates 
was placing them, by reason of their defect of physical power, 
in a false position.—Prof. Kennedy said, it was proposed to 
limit the competition to those within their reach ; if the experi- 
ment succeeded, it would bea matter for future consideration what 
extensions should be made. As to the harshness, that surely 
might be left to the better judgment of the friends, relations, 
and guardians of the-e women who asked for these concessions. 
Women were mentally men’s equals, but physically not. To urge 
their want of physical power as an objection to their admission to 
the same intellectual pursuits and pleasures as men was more for 
the Brahmin than the believer in the bible ; it wasa fitter argu- 
ment for the Turk than the Saxon.—Prof. Liveing defended the 
Syndicate from the attack of Dr. Campion, and asserted that 
the matter was discussed fully and fairly, without any bias of 
previously formed opinions.—Prof. Westcott, who did not con- 
cur in the whole of the report, expressed his great regret that 
the Syndicate before reporting had not collected further in- 
formation on a problem so difficult and obscure.—Mr. Prothero, 
King’s, was of opinion that the same course of training which 
was good for male students was equally good for women.— 
Mr. Sidgwick, Trinity, draw attention to the remarkable fact 
that no objection had been raised to the main proposal of the 
Syndicate.—The discussion lasted upwards of two hours. 


KIEFF.—The number of students at the University of Kieff 
was, on January 1, 1881, as much as 1041, with fifty-eight 
professors. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


THE Quarterly Fournal of Microscopical Science for January 
contains notes on a peculiar form of Polyzoa closely allied to 
Bugula (Kinetoskias, Kor, and Dan.), by George Busk, F.R.S., 
with plates 1 and 2,—On the germination and histology of the 
seedling of Welwitschia mirabilis, by F. Orpen Bower, B.A., 
with plates 3 and 4.—Notes on some of the Reticularian Rhizo- 
poda of the Challenger, by Henry B. Brady, F.R.S.—On the 
head-cavities and associated nerves of Elasmobranchs, by Prof, 
A. M. Marshall, M.A., with plates 5 and 6.—Contributions to 
the minute anatomy of the nasal mucous membrane, by Dr. E. 
Klein, F.R.S., with plate 7.—Histological notes, by Dr. E, 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 17, 1881 


Klein, F.R.S.—On the intra-cellular digestion and endoderm 
of Limnocodium, by E. R. Lankester, M.A., F.R.S., with 
plates 8 to 10.—On the micrometric numeration of the blood- 
corpuscles, and the estimation of their hemoglobin, by Mrs. 
Ernest Hart.—Preliminary account of the development of the 
lampreys, by W. B. Scott, M.A.—On some appearances of 
the red blood-corpuscles of men and other vertebrata, by G. 
F. Dowdeswell, B.A. 


THE Yournal of Anatomy and Physiology, Normal and 
Pathological, vol. xv., part 2, January, 1881, contains—Dr. John 
Struthers, the bones, articulations, and muscles of the rudimen- 
tary hind-limb of the Greenland right-whale (Ba/ena mysticetus), 
(with four plates).—Dr. Creighton, on an infective form of 
tuberculosis in man identical with bovine tuberculosis.—Dr. W. 
Osler, medullary neuroma of the brain (plate 18).—A,. Doran, 
case of fissure of the abdominal walls (plate 19).—Dr. D. New- 
man, description of a polygraph (with woodcut).—Dr. O. H. 
Jones, on the mechanism of the secretion of sweat.—Dr, P. S. 
Abraham, anomalous pilose growth in the pharynx of a woman 
(woodeut).—Dr. R, Saundby, histology of granular kidney 
(woodcut).—Dr. J. Oliver, two cases of cerebellar disease.— 
Prof, M‘Kendrick, on the colouring-matter of jelly-fishes.—Dr, 
Cunningham, nerves of hind-limb of the Thylacine and Cuscus. 
—Dr. W. J. Fleming, pulse dicrotism. 


THE American Naturalist for January, 1881, contains: Prof, A. 
Geikie, the ancient glaciers of the Rocky Mountains.—Fred. W. 
Simonds, the discovery of iron implements in an ancient mine in 
North Carolina.—William Trelease, on the fertilisation of Cala- 
mintha nepeta (woodcuts).—S, V. Clevenger, comparative neuro- 
logy.—E. L. Greene, botanising on the Colorado desert.—W. 
J. Beal, on a method of distinguishing species of poplars and 
walnuts by their young leafless branches (woodcuts).—James L. 
Lippincott, an address to the fossil bones in a private museum.— 
The Editor’s table : Recent Literature, —General Notes [this por- 
tion of the journal has been very considerably enlarged with 
this number. The Botanical, Zoological, Entomological, Anthro- 
pological, Geological, Geographical, and Microscopical Sections 
are each under the charge of a special editor as formerly],— 
Scientific News.—Proceedings of Scientific Societies, 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 


LONDON 


Royal Society, January 27.—‘‘The Refraction Equivalents 
of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen in Organic Com- 
pounds.” By J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S. 

Since the communication which I had the honour to read 
before this Society in 1869, ‘‘ On the Refraction Equivalents of 
the Elements,” very little has been done on the subject. 

Of late however its importance in regard to theories of che- 
mical structure has been recognised by Dr. Thorpe and other 
chemists in this country, and attention has been recalled to it in 
Germany by the papers of Briihl, who, following closely in the 
footsteps of Landolt, has endeavoured to explain the results in 
the language of modern organic chemistry. 

At this juncture it may be of service to put on record my 
present views in regard to the refraction equivalents of the 
four principal constituents of organic bodies—carbon, hydrogen, 
oxygen, and nitrogen. 

Carbon,— Carbon in its compounds has at least three equiva- 
lents of refraction, 5°0, 60, or 61, and about 8°8. 

Whether its refraction should be one or other of these appears 
to depend on the way in which the atoms are combined. 

When a single carbon atom has each of its four units of atom- 
icity satisfied by some other element, it has a value not exceeding 

0. 
3 When a carbon atom has one of its units of atomicity satisfied 
by another carbon atom and the remainder by some other ele- 
ment, it has the value of 5'0. ‘This is also the case if two of 
its units of atomicity are satisfied by carbon atoms. 

When a carbon atom has three of its units of atomicity satis- 
fied by other carbon atoms, its value is 6°0. The most striking 
instance is that of benzol, CsH, (refraction equivalent 43°7). 

There are other organic compounds in which only some of the 
atoms of carbon have the higher value. It has been especially 
the work of Briihl to point this out, and to show that where 
they occur (as in amylene or the allyl compounds) the carbon 
atom is in a condition similar to those in the phenyl nucleus, 
that condition in fact which is generally represented in our 


——" — 


| 


——- ~~ 


Feb. 17, 1881 | 


NATURE 


379 


graphic formulz by two carbon atoms linked by double bonds. 


The value assigned by Briihl in such cases is however 6°I. , 


This somewhat higher figure is deduced from the aggregate 
value of the six carbon atoms in the nucleus of the aromatic 
series, which (except in benzol and its simpler substitution pro- 
ducts) would appear to be nearer 37 than 36. The fact however 
is susceptible of another interpretation. The replacement of 
hydrogen by some nomad radicle is an important change ; and if 
that radicle be CH, it is evident that according to present views 
the carbon atom must have all four of its units of atomicity 
satisfied with carbon, and by analogy we should expect it to have 
its refraction increased. 

When a carbon atom has all four of its units of atomicity 
satisfied by other carbon atoms, each of which has the higher 
value of 6'0 or 6°1, its equivalent of refraction is greatly raised. 
There are compounds in which the atoms of carbon actually 
out-number the atoms of hydrogen or its substitute, such as 
naphthalene, Cy)H, (ref. eq. 75°1), naphthol, C;y,HgO (79°5), 
phenanthrene, C,,H, (108°3), and pyrene, C,,Hj9 (126°1). 
That the refraction is greatly raised is evident from the fact that, 
if we were to reckon all the carbon atoms at 6'1, the refraction 
equivalent of the body would not be fully accounted for. It is 
evident that in pyrene only ten of the atoms of carbon can be in 
the same condition as they are in benzol or styrol, the other six 
must have all their units of atomicity satisfied by carbon alone. 
Provisionally I venture to assign 8°8 as the refraction equivalent 
of this highest carbon, 

There are several other bodies, such as anthracene, anethol, 
furfurol, and hydride of cinnamyl, which from their abnormally 
high refraction appear to contain carbon in this last condition. 

Hydrogen.—The general evidence with regard to hydrogen in 
organic compounds tends to show that it has only one refraction 
equivalent, that originally assigned to it by Landolt, 1°3. 

Oxygen.—Briihl has been the first to point out that oxygen in 
organic compounds has two values, and he comes to the conclu- 
sion that it has the value 3°4 where the oxygen is attached toa 
carbon atom by a double linking, but 2°8 in hydroxyl and where 
the oxygen is united to two other atoms. This is deduced from 
experimental data. But there are other results which present 
difficulties, such as the various alcohols. 

Aitrogen.—Nitrogen has two values, 4*1 and 5°1, or there- 
abouts. 

The lower value, 4'I, is that originally deduced from cyanogen 
and metallic cyanides, and it seems to be generally confirmed by 
the observations on organic cyanides and nitriles. The higher 
value, 5°I, is deduced from observations on organic bases and 
amides, 


Tjhope shortly to submit to the public the whole of the data 
for these conclusions. 


February 3.—‘‘On the Influence of Temperature on the 
eLsical Pitch of Harmonium Reeds.” By Alex. J. Ellis, 

The writer gave a tabular account of the experiments on the 
harmonium reeds of Appunn’s treble tonometer at South Ken- 
sington Museum, at temperatures differing by from 20° to 26° F., 
which rendered it probable that the pitch of such reeds was 
affected by temperature to twice the extent of tuning-forks and 
in the same direction, that is, that they flattened by heat and 
sharpened by cold about 1 in 10,000 vibrations in a second for 
each degree Fahrenheit. 


“On an Improved Bimodular Method of computing Natural 
and Tabular Logarithms and Anti-Logarithms to Twelve or 
sintecn Places, with very brief Tables.” By Alex. J. Ellis, 

A bimodular method is one founded on the familiar propo- 
sition, that if the bimodulus (that is, twice the modulus of any 
system of logarithms) be multiplied by the difference and divided 
by the sum of two numbers, the result would be approximatively 
the difference of their logarithms. The improvement consisted 
in a simple preparation of a given number to make it lie between 
two numbers in a given table of interpolation, consisting of 100 
entries, and in then determining how many places might be 
trusted without correction, and in correcting the result bya short 
table so as to give twelve places at sight and sixteen places 
by means of ordinary table of seven figure logarithms. The 
antilogarithms were found by first depriving a logarithm of its 
correction, and then dividing the result added to the bimodulus 


by the result subtracted from the bimodulus—an entirely new | and knotty points in reference to these humble parasites; M. 


rule. Complete tables and worked-out examples fully explained 
were added. 

“On the Potential Radix as a Means of Calculating Logarithms 
to any Required Number of Decimal Places, with a Summary of 
all Preceding Methods Chronologically Arranged,” by Alexander 
J. Ellis, F.R.S. 

A positive numerical radix consists of the numbers 7 
I +O 7, aud their logarithms, where 7 varies from I to 9; 
Om means a series of 7 successive zeros, and 7 varies from I 
to any required number, The term ‘‘radix” is due to Robert 
Flower (1771) and is preserved 7 memoriam. It was shown 
that such a table woula enable any logarithm to be calculated 
by the improved bimodular method and other methods. A 
negative numerical radix consists of the numbers I — ‘Oy: 7, and 
their negative logarithms, and it was shown -that such a table 
would serve the same purpose somewhat more easily. Hence 
the whole process is reduced to the construction of such radixes. 
A chronological summary was then given of all preceding 
methods, showing that most of them depended on having such 
radixes. The construction of a numerical radix is however a 
very long and troublesome process by the methods ordinarily 
used, For this purpose the potential radix for natural logarithms 
was first constructed, consisting of 10”, 2”, (1°1)”, and (1°O,, 1)", 
negative (I — ‘0,, 1)”, from» = 1 toy = 10 (the latter terms being 
calculated by simple addition), and their natural logarithms, first 
to any number of places from the very simple series for nat. log. 
(t £°0,7), and secondly, by simple addition. This gives a 
radix from which natural logarithms of all numbers can be 
calculated to any number of places by the improved bimodular 
method. But the main use of the potential radix is to calculate 
the nat. logs. of the numbers of the numerical radix. The radix 
for tabular logarithms is then found by multiplying by the 
modulus, already calculated from the potential radius, All this 
was fully explained by tables and examples. 


Mathematical Society, February 10.—Mr. S. Roberts, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. W. Woodruff Benson, 
University of Michigan, was elected a member, and Prof. Rowe 
and Mr, J. Parker Smith were admitted into the Society.—The 
following communications were made :—On some integrals ex- 
pressible in terms of the first complete elliptic integral and of 
gamma functions, by Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S.—Some 
theorems of kinematics on a sphere, by Mr. E, B. Elliott, M.A. 
—Supplement on binomial biordinates, by Sir J. Cockle, F.R.S. 
—An application of conjugate functions (to the case of mem- 
branes), by Mr. E. J. Routh, F.R.S.—Note on Abel’s theorem, 
by Mr, T. Craig. 


Linnean Society, February 3.—Robt. McLachlan, F.R.S., 
in the chair.—Lieut.-Col. A. A, Davidson was elected a Fellow. 
—Examples of Prof. C. Semper’s method of preserving the soft 
tissues of animals as teaching-specimens were exhibited on behalf 
of Herr L. Wiirth of Wiirzburg.—Mr. G. Murray exhibited 
and made remarks on a Japanese book containing wood sections. 
—Mr. C, Craig-Christie exhibited, and a note was read on, the 
presence of what appeared to be deciduous stipules in /ex agzt- 
Jolium, thus contrary to the usually-accepted assertion that the 
order Ilicineze is exstipulate.—The following paper by Mr. G. 
Bentham was read: ‘‘ Notes on Cyperacez ; with special refer- 
ence to Lestiboudois’ Essay on Beauvois’ Genera.” The essay 


| in question was founded on Palisot and Beauvois’ MS., which 


was originally intended to follow his ‘* Agrostographia,” and 
has been almost entirely lost sight of, and random guesses have 
been made at the species intended by the short characters given 
in Roemer and’ Schultze’s ‘‘ Systema,”—Nees von Esenbeck, in 
the 7th, 8th, and 1oth vols. of the ‘‘ Linnzea,” and Supplement 
123, or Kunth in vol. ii. of his excellent ‘ Enumeratio,” appear 
to have correctly identified many of these. Eighteen so-called 
genera are now referred to various established genera. Steudel’s 
Synopsis is marred by the author’s hazy ideas of species. 
Boekeler has a thorough knowledge of species, but his diagnoses 
are often excessively long. Mr. Bentham proposes few changes 
in the order of genera as set forth by Kunth, and he considers 
that Boekeler’s primary division of the order as to whether the 
fertile flower is hermaphrodite or female only, bears the test of 
detailed examination.—Hermaphrodite flowers :—(1) Scirpez, 
(2) Hypolytez, (3) Rhyncasporez. Unisexual flowers :—(1) 
Cryptangeze, (2) Scherice, (3) Cariceee —A paper was read by 
Mr. A. D. Michael, observations on the life history of Gamasinze. 
In this the author endeavours to decide some of the disputed 


380 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 17, 1881 


Megnin of Versailles and Dr. Kramer ef Schleusingen, both 

ood authorities on the subject, being at variance thereon. Mr. 
Michael, believing that detached observations on captured 
specimens may bave produced unreliable results, has himself 
bred Gamasids, closely followed their changes and growth, and 
watched their manners, and thus has arrived at what he on good 
grounds assumes to be important results respecting their life- 
history. He states that the remarkable power of darting each 
mandible separately with speed and accuracy of aim far in 
advance of the body, the powerful retractile muscles attached to 
these mandibles, the organisation of the remainder of the mouth, 
the extreme swiftness of the creatures, the use of the front legs 
as tactile organs only, and not for the purpose of locomotion, and 
the ample supply of tactile hairs in front only, seem to fit the 
animals for a predatory life, and point to habits similar to those 
of Cheyletus and Trombidium, rather than to those of the true 
vegetable-feeders, such as the Orbatide and Tetramachi. He 
further concludes (1) that Megnin is correct in saying Gamasus 
coleoptratorum and other allied creatures, with the conspicuously- 
divided dorsal plates, are not species at all, but are immature 
stages of other species ; (2) that the division of the dorsal plate 
is, in most cases at all events, a question of degree, and does not 
form a sound basis for classification, as applied by Koch, 
Kramer, and others; (3) that the dorsal plates do not grow 
gradually, but alter in size, shape, or development at the ecdysis; 
(4) that Megnin is right in saying that the characteristic of the 
so-called G. marginatus is simply a provision possessed by the 
females of a large number of species ; (5) that the extent of the 
white margin depends upon the extent to which the abdomen is 
distended by eggs ; (6) that Megnin is in error im saying that 
Coleoptratorum is the nymph of Crassi~es. The nymph of 
Crassipes does not show any divided dorsal plates which can be 
seenon the living creature ; (7) that in the species bred there has 
not been observed any inert stage before the transformations or 
ecdysis ; (8) that in the same species copulation takes place with 
the adult female, and not with the immature one, as Megnin 
contends, and that it is by the vulva, not the anus.—Two papers 
were read on the coffee-leaf disease (see Science Notes, 


P. 354). 

Institution of Civil Engineers, February 8.—Mr. Aber- 
nethy, F.R.S.E., president, in the chair.—A paper on the 
temporary works and plant at the Portsmouth Dockyard Exten- 
sion, by Mr. C. H. Meyer, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., was read. 


PARIS 

Academy of Sciences, February 7.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—The following papers were read :—On photographs of 
nebule, by M. Janssen. It is comparatively easy to get a photo- 
graphic image of the brightest parts of nebulz, but very difficult 
to get complete images which may serve for future comparison. 
The optical and photographic conditions should be exactly de- 
fined. M. Janssen suggests taking for criteria images of stars, 
with plates a little out of focus, so as to give an opaque circle. 
Five or six of these stellar circles accompanying the photograph 
of a nebula would indicate what the conditions had been.—On 
the thermic formation of pyrogenic carburets, by M. Berthelot.— 
Some remarks on the characters of chloro-organie gases and 
vapours, by M. Berthelot. The formation of a white precipitate 
in neutral or slightly acid nitrate of silver, traversed by a gaseous 
current, is not a sufficient character of chlorine or hydrochloric 
acid.—Examination of materials from some vitrified forts of 
France ; conclusions, by M. Daubrée. The methods of producing 
these forts seem to have been various. To soften a rock like 
granite (sometimes used), to fuse its mica, and even, at times, its 
felspar, in thicknesses of several metres, implies large use of 
fuel and prolonged skilful effort. The fire was probably applied 
within the walls, and a current of forced air may have been 
used, besides draught. The makers unconsciously produced some 
minerals that have only of late been reproduced in the laboratory.— 
On the Great Canal de |’Est and the machines set up to ensure its 
alimentation, by M. Lalanne. This canal (made in consequence 
of the change of frontier in 1871) runs from near Givet, on the 
Meuse, by Meziéres, Sedan, Commercy, Toul, &c., to Port-sur- 
Sadne (it includes, in a total length of 468 km., 20 km. cf the 
canal from the Marne to the Rhine). There are two large pumps in 
the Moselle valley, worked by the water of that river, also steam- 
pumps at Vacon. Two large reservoirs are projected, one near 
Paroy, the other at Aouze.—Study of actions of the sun and the 
moon in some terrestrial phenomena, by M. Bouquet de la Grye. 
—Obseryations of Perseids at Toulouse Observatory in 1880, by 
M. Baillaud. 1172 falling stars were counted on August 9, Io, 


and 11; the maximum was on the roth, between 14h. and 15h. 
The trajectories were generally very short, and their extremities 
‘pretty far from the radiant point. The meteors were divisible 
into two groups.—On medes of transformation which preserve 
lines of curvature, by M. Darboux.—On simultaneous linear 
differential equations, with rational coefficients, whose solution 
depends on the quadrature of a given irrational algebraic product, — 
by M. Dillner.—On a property of the product of & integrals of & 
linear differential equations, with rational coefficients, the solution 
of which depends on the quadrature, respectively, of % rational 
functions of the independent variable, and of a given algebraic 
irrationality, by the same.—The problem of remainders in two 
Chinese works, by M. Matthiessen.—Ona peculiar phenomenon of 
resonance, by M. Gripon. A tuning-fork, giving a simple sound, 
will set in resonance masses of air which produce a sound comprised 
in the harmonic series of the fork’ssound. The form of the mass 
of air is unimportant. One grave fork set in vibration forks 
which gave harmonic sounds, but not others, the two forks being 
connecied by very fine copper wire (stretched).—On elliptic double 
refraction, and the three systems of fringes, by M. Croullebois. 
—On a new apparatus for showing the dissociation of ammo- 
niacal salts, by M. Tommasi. In a glass tube is hung with 
platinum wire a strip of blue litmus paper that has imbibed a 
concentrated solution of chlorhydrate of ammonia. On putting 
this dissocioscope in boiling water, the sal-ammoniac is disso- 
ciated aud the paper turns red; if then put in cold water the 
dissociated ammonia combines again with the acid, and the 
paper turns violet again.—On derivatives of acroleine, by MM. 
Grimaux and Adam.—Action of hydrochloric acid on aldehyde, 
by M. Hauriot.—Inoculation of the dog for glanders, by M. 
Galtier. The dog may contract the disease (through inoculation) 
and recover many times; but its receptivity (comparatively 
small at first) gradually diminishes, and, there is resson to 
believe, may be quite effaced. The power of the virus is 
attenuated by successive cultivations in the dog; this appears in 
an ass, e.g. inoculated with the later virus of a dog inoculated 
several times.—Physiology of dyspepsia, by M. Sée. In grave 
dyspepsia the stomach pump may advantageously be used to 
clear the stomach of liquids unfavourable to digestion. —On the 
histology of the pedicellaria and muscles of the sea urchin 
(Echinus sphera, Forbes), by MM. Geddes and Beddard.— 
Researches on the development of sterile sporangia, in /sce¢es 
lacustris, by M. Mer. 
VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, February 10.—V. Burg in 
the chair.—C. Heller, on the distribution of the fauna of the 
high mountains of Tyrol.—R. Maly and F. Hinseregger, studies 
on caffeine and theobromine (second paper).—V. Hochstetter, 
on the Kreutzberg Cave, near Laas, in Carniola, and Uysws 
speleus.—R. Puluj (1) on radiant electrode-matter ; (2) remarks 
relating to the priority claimed by Dr, Eugen Goldstein. 


CONTENTS Pace 
Istanp Lire, I. By Prof. ArcH. Gerkiz, F.R.S. . . . - . + + 357 
ATGises one Mr Nes) GO SO aie, 
Letrrers TO THE EDITOR :— 
“The New Cure for Smoke.”—J. A. C. Hay; Dr. C. W. 
SIEMENS, SFLRES:. cos: sl Seis et eee ec en 
On the Spectrum of Carbon.—W. M. Watts. . . . + «. . » 36% 
‘* Prehistoric Europe.”—Prof. W. Boyp Dawkins, F.R.S. . . . 360 
Geological Climates.—Dr. A. WOEIKOFF. . .- . + + + «+ + + 362 
Variable 'Stars-—J. EB: (GorE. 20 ss.-- 5 =) = uel ee meennas 
The Mode of Flight of the Albatross —Howarp SARGENT . . . 362 
Auroral Phenomena.—Dr. C. M. InGteBy. . . . . - Bike (ek 
Ozone! —Je Pape pee Beane Peed ocr yc oe SNS} 
Citania.—Rev. R. Burron Leach... 2s 6 6 «6 « = = Som 
The Recent Severe Weather.—F. M.S.; H.W.C. . . . - + 363 
Butterflies in Winter.—THomas W. SHORE . ... . «© + + 364 
Joun Goutp,F RS. . -. - snes eal Seu + 364 
THe BuackHEATH Hoes. By C.E. DE RaNcE . ~~ ~ + = + 365 
MercapirEr’s RESEARCHES ON THE PHOTOPHONE « «. « « « + - 366 
Tue Joun Duncan FunD. . . 2. - «© - + » © 2 = fe 367 
Tue Time oF Davin Paris (With Illustrations) . . . + + + + 367 
Nores . Fe s Mere MCMC Cec CC 369 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 
The So-called Nova of 1600. - . + - © + + = = «© s ~) 370 
The Minor Planetsin 188m. 2 = 2 © + + © © © © « © © 37F 
The ‘‘Astron mische Nachrichten” . . - . . + + + + + + 372 
The Comet 1880 e (Swift, October1o) . + - . - « «© «© + = 372 
The Perseids in August, 880 . . + - + + + = + 372 
Puysicar Norrs OR yc CGO Cain Yi: 
CBEMICAL NOES =) <a <.0=; [elles (oo en «= = +) <a 
Action oF AN INTERMITTENT BEAM OF RapianT HEAT UPON 
Gasrous Matrer. By Prof. Tynpatt, F.R.S. . . « « » 374 
INTERESTING New CrINOIDS . . + +. + + + @ e 5 377 
UNIversiIry AND EpuCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE TAS See 377 
SCIENTIRIG SERIALS ©) oc) <n) a) oS ol) oa ron On=tnanS . 378 
SocreTigs AND ACADEMIES . . + + + + + © + « Sd she! 


ae ee ee = a 


NATURE 381 


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 724, 1881 


PROFESSOR MAX MUELLER AT UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE 


NIVERSITY COLLEGE, London, is to be con- 
gratulated on the fresh step which was celebrated 
on Wednesday last week. The new wing which was then 
formally opened, and which will be largely devoted to 
scientific teaching, and let us hope research as well, will 
give the College more elbow-room in its career. Of 
course the “toasting” and speechifying at the dinner 
were largely collegiate, the speakers generally express- 
ing their approval of the principles upon which Uni- 
versity College and similar institutions have been 
founded. We have repeatedly called attention not only 
to the admirable educational work which University Col- 
lege has done since its foundation, but to the influence it 
has had on the higher teaching all over the country. Not 
only has it been in a sense the parent of not a few similar 
institutions, the number of which is almost every year on 
the increase, but it has undoubtedly had much to do with 
rousing from the lethargy of generations the two oldest 
and wealthiest universities of the country. Much as has 
been done recently in the way of reforming these two 
great educational centres, the work has been little more 
than begun. The advocates of university reform may 
therefore congratulate themselves that Prof. Max Miiller 
was called upon to reply to the toast of “British 
Universities.” His reply was not likely to be, and 
certainly was not, compounded of the common-places 
usually uttered on such occasions. Prof. Max Miiller 
has reason to be grateful to Oxford, and his gratitude 
he expressed in terms of genuine tenderness. “At the 
same time,” he went on to say, “Oxford, or at aly 
events my friends at Oxford, have no feelings but those 
of sincere rejoicing at the springing up, and growing, and 
spreading of what may be called the young universities, 
the universities of the future. We watch them rising in 
every part of England as we watch the rising of new 
planets. We greet them as on a stormy night we greet 
new lighthouses coming into sight and shooting their rays 
of electric light through the darkness—yes, the darkness 
of this so-called enlightened century, the darkness visible, 
and best visible to those who have spent their lives in the 
study of even the smallest subject, and know how every 
one of them still bristles with problems that cannot be 
solved without a large collection of new facts, and with- 
out bringing to bear on them more powerful batteries of 
thought than are yet at our command.”’ 

Prof. Miiller was so far loyal to his Adma Mater as to 
admit that the Oxford of the past has done good work; 
but the Oxford of the present is doing better work, and 
we trust with him that the Oxford of the future will do 
infinitely better work still. How the desirable end is to 
be accomplished is a problem that all true friends of 
learning in the country are anxious to have solved, and 
to attempt to solve which the recent Universities Com- 
missioners were appointed. We do not mean at present 
to criticise the work which these Commissioners have 
been attempting to do; how far short that work is of 
anything like a high standard of reform may best be seen 

Vou, xx111.—No. 591 


by comparing what is known of their recommendations 
with the aspirations expressed in Prof, Max Miiller’s 
admirable speech. 

“To compare the work that Oxford or Cambridge 
could do, and ought to do, with that of any other uni- 
versity, whether British or Continental, is simply absurd. 
Oxford, with its excellent material, the well-fed and well- 
bred youth of these islands; Oxford, with its many 
students who have not to work for their bread ; Oxford,, 
with its rich colleges and libraries and fellowships, can 
do for the advancement of learning fifty times over what 
Giessen or even Leipsic can do, Oxford and Cambridge 
could beggar the whole world and make the old univer- 
sities the home of all English genius, all English learning, 
all English art, all English virtue.” 

Alas, how far are we from realising what Prof. Miiller 
modestly called his “German dreams”! But that these 
“dreams” are perfectly realisable Prof. Miiller went on 
to show by facts and figures based on the report of the 
Commissioners themselves. Why, in accordance with 
his suggestion, should a certain number of prize fellow- 
ships at Oxford not be thrown open to the whole of Eng- 
land? Prof. Miiller’s suggested scheme is as wide and 
liberal as the most advanced friends of education could 
wish, including the practical endowment of research in 
all departments of literature, science, and art. 

Prize Fellowships,” he went on to say, ‘“‘are in future 
to be tenable for five or seven years only. This is quite 
right. But if after five or seven years a young man has 
developed a taste for scientific work and wishes to con- 
tinue it, then let him have a second Fellowship, again 
with duties attached to it, and let that man, with the pro- 
ceeds of two Fellowships, do the work and fill the place 
which the Extraordinary Professors fill in Continental 
universities. Lastly, if after another five years the few 
who remain true to a scientific life can show that 
they have done good work and are able and willing to 
do still better work, let them have a third Fellowship and 
become permanent Professors in the University on an 
income of about 1ooo/. a year for life. I must not enter 
into fuller detail,” Prof. Miiller went on, “I only wanted 
to sketch out to you how the national funds of national 
universities could be made to subserve truly national 
interests: how Prize Fellowships could be made a bless- 
ing both to the giver and the receiver, and how England 
could stamp out of the ground an army of, call them 
soldiers, or missionaries, or colonists, or men—true men 
of science, such as the past has never dreamt of. All this 
could be done to-morrow, and no one would suffer from 
it. I know I shall be told—in fact I have been told— 
that such changes are far too great; that the fathers who 
send their boys to Oxford and Cambridge would not ap- 
prove them, and—this is always the last trump—that 
public opinion is against them. With regard to public 
opinion, if public opinion—if Parliament—is against us 
we must bow and wait. As to the fathers of boys—ces 
peres de famille—I am one of them myself, and I do not 
think we are always the most disinterested judges. As 
to changes, great or small, Nature teaches us that nothing 
can live which cannot grow and change, and history 
confirms her lesson that nothing is so fatal to institutions 
as a faith in their finality.” 

The scheme is one which, in its essential points, 

Ss 


382 


NATURE 


(Feb. 24, 1881 


has received the approval of the Z7mes. ‘In fact,” 
that journal concludes, in a leading article on the 
speech, “if the objects proposed by Prof. Miiller for 
attainment are desirable in themselves, there ought to 
be no difficulty in obtaining funds for the purpose In 
view of what the Commissioners have sanctioned in 
principle for one College at least in Oxford, it can hardly 
be said that the objects aimed at are either very visionary 
or very far in advance of public opinion. “If Prize 
Fellowships may legitimately be used for the purpose of 
giving some men a start in ordinary life, it is difficult to 
see why they should not also be used, within reasonable 
limits, for giving others a modest provision for the pursuit 
of a learned career.” 

Why not? every one is likely to repeat except those 
who imagine they have a vested interest in being sup- 
ported in idleness on what is really the property of the 
nation. By so doing, the university would once more 
make an approach to what it was intended to be, a 
really national institution. The change would incommode 
none but idlers, and those who have at heart the real 
advancement of science and learning must be convinced 
that the present isolation of both universities can lead to 
nothing but stagnation. Oxford especially, with its silent 
and all but deserted laboratories, could only gain by an 
accession of activity from the outside. Only thus indeed, 
only by having regular additions of fresh energy, can the 
place be kept sweet and wholesome ; and if once this 
principle be accepted, as indeed it must be, and the sooner 
the better, there need be little difficulty in regulating its 
application. At present it would be difficult to calcu- 
late how much of the best intellectual energy of the 
country is wasted or misapplied, simply because there is 
no channel open by which it may be ‘guided into the 
course in which it could do the best work. 

There were several other subjects touched upon by the 
speakers at the University College dinner, to which we 
lave not space to refer. Prof. Morley’s tribute to the 
memory and the work of Mr. Carlyle was well-timed and 
appropriate, coming as it did just when the country was 
awed by its recent loss. Mr. Carlyle often said hard things 
of science, as he did of everything else under the sun. All 
the same, his methods and his philosophy were as scien- 


tific as they could well be, being simply his peculiar | 


applications of the doctrine of the reign of inevitable law 
everywhere. Apart from this, and while we might disagree 
with everything he said and positively taught, it must be 
admitted that the inspiration of his teaching gave fresh 
energy and earnestness to scientific research, as it did to 
every other sphere of intellectual activity. 


ATLAS OF HISTOLOGY 


Atlas of Histology. By E. Klein, M.D., F.R.S., and E. 
Noble Smith, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S. (London: Smith, 
Elder, and Co., 1880.) 

ODERN histology is not yet fifty years old, but fifty 

years old in the nineteenth century means a great 

deal, and it is rather a matter of surprise that no English 

work entirely devoted to histology should have yet 

appeared than that we should be welcoming the largest 

and in some respects the most important illustrated work 
on that subject in this or any language.’ 


That modern histology is most faithfully represented in 
the book before us becomes abundantly evident on looking 
at the figures and their description. We find the tissues 
and organs of the body delineated under every aspect and 
after every possible method of treatment; hardened with 
chromic acid, osmic acid, picric acid; stained with 
hematoxylin, carmine, aniline blue; submitted to the 
action of gold and silver salts and otherwise prepared 
lege artis. Of the value of these in elucidating structure 
there can be no question whatever, but at the same time 
we think it would have been well in a comprehensive 
work of this description had more space been given to 
the representation of the tissues in their living condition 
and unaltered by the action of reagents: the almost 
complete absence of allusion to and representation of the 
fresh tissues being a defect in the book. 

Dr. Klein, in selecting the subjects for illustration, and 
Mr. Noble Smith in executing them, alike deserve high 
praise. Many of the figures are evidently as near an 
approach to facsimile of the preparations as can well be 
attained, and it need hardly be said that the preparations 
themselves, made as they are by so skilful a histologist, 
are as good in all probability of their kind as it is possible 
to make them. 

In looking through the plates one is especially struck 
with the excellent manner in which the minute anatomy 
of the various organs is detailed, indeed the part of the 
work which relates to the structure of the viscera is in all 
respects better than that in which the simple tissues are 
dealt with. The illustrations of the latter are compara- 
tively meagre, and in many cases too small, considering 
the size and aim of the work. This is very marked in 
the figures of the blood and in those of cartilage and 
osseous tissue, as well as in the illustrations of the structure 
of voluntary muscle. On the other hand, the development 
of bone is well and carefully represented, especially so far 
as the more intimate processes are concerned; but we* 
miss the general features of bone-formation, such as the 
first calcification of the primitive cartilage bone, the 
periosteal irruption, and so on. The nervous tissue is 
also abundantly and beautifully illustrated, and here we 
are glad to observe that Dr. Klein has availed him- 
self of the magnificent representations given by Key 
and Retzius in their monograph on the nervous system ; 
representations that could scarcely have been improved 
upon, and to compete with which would have involved 
needless labour. 

That the lymphatic system should occupy an important 
part of the work was to be expected from the fact that we 
already owe to Dr. Klein two monographs wholly devoted 
to that system, and from them, as well as from the plates 
in the “Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory,” 
some delineations are here republished. With the excep- 
tion of these and one or two other less important instances 
the figures throughout the book are new, and will no 
doubt for many years furnish a stock to which both 
teachers and authors may come for diagrams and 
illustrations. 

As before remarked, the representations of the minute 
structure of the viscera are particularly good, and will 
prove useful in replacing many of the coarse and semi- 
diagrammatic figures which at present occupy a prominent 


place in the text-books of histology and physiology. We 


Feb, 24, 1881 | 


NATURE 


383 


may signalise those of the stomach and those of the 
kidney—the structure of the last-named organ being 
illustrated with particular minuteness. One is glad to 
think that one’s examinations are over on finding that 
there are now no less than sixteen several named parts to 
be remembered in describing the course of a uriniferous 
tubule ! 

We have hitherto been writing as if the book before us 
were an Atlas of Plates and their description, and nothing 
more. This is emphatically not the case however, for the 
plates are accompanied by a text written by Dr. Klein, 
which forms a complete and independent compendium 
of the present state of histology, giving in plain terms 
and as briefly as is consistent with clearness, an account 
of the minute structure of each tissue and organ. In this 
account credit is given wherever possible to those to 
whom the discovery of new facts is due, but it is, we 
think, to be regretted that the references to the works in 
which the facts were published has not been added ; such 
a notice of the literature of each subject would have been 
of much value. 

At the end of the book a description of the appearances 
which are presented by nuclei in process of division will 
be found, embodying the results of the recent researches 
of Strasburger, Flemming, Mayzel, Klein, and others ; 
results which have not unnaturally created a feeling of 
wonderment that in objects which have long engaged the 
special attention of histologists, changes of so marked a 
character should occur, and until now have wholly escaped 
observation. 

We see that endothelium is still described as a tissue 
distinct from and indeed in contradistinction to epithe- 
lium, but it seems to be upon its Jast legs, for it now has 
to depend for existence upon a negative definition, and 
no longer presumes to base its claims to the place upon 
its developmental history. 

There is a general tendency throughout the text to 
teach the subject somewhat dogmatically, and this, with 
the absence of detailed reference to literature, detracts 
from its value as a work of reference, while perhaps 
increasing its value as a text-book for students. Taking 
the work however as a whole it is not too much to say 
that it is in every way worthy of the high reputation of its 
principal author, and that its appearance, supplying as it 
does a want that has been long felt, will be welcomed by 
histologists both at home and abroad. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Urania: an International Journal of Astronomy. Edited 
by Ralph Copeland, Ph.D., and J. L. E. Dreyer, M.A. 


THE first number of what is intended to be a high-class 
astronomical periodical, with the above title, has just 
appeared, and forms twenty-four pages demy quarto. It 
is proposed to issue it in numbers of from sixteen to 
twenty-four pages, whenever sufficient material offers, 
with shorter numbers when subjects of immediate interest 
require it. Papers will be accepted and printed in French, 
German, and Italian. This first number is well supported. 
It contains an article on the solution of Lambert’s equa- 
tion by Prof. Klinkerfues, and auxiliary tables for the 
calculation of occultations of stars by the moon, by Dr. 
C. Borgen. The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres con- 
tributes observations of comets 1880 4, c, and d made at 
Dunecht ; the Earl of Rosse has a paper on determina- 
tions of lunar radiant heat during an eclipse; and Dr. 


R. S. Ball communicates an investigation of the parallax 
of the star Groombridge 1618, which is No. 89 in Arge- 
lander’s list of stars with large proper motions, the 
observations having been made at Dunsink in 1878-79: 
a parallax to the amount of a third of a second is indi- 
cated by the measures both of distance and position, so 
that, as Dr. Ball remarks, there is reason to consider 
Groombridge 1618 entitled to a place amongst the sun’s 
nearest neighbours. Dr. Copeland has a note upon a 
nebula detected at Dunecht on the method of sweeping 
suggested by Prof. Pickering of Harvard College, U.S., 
which is termed “a new planetary nebula.” The nebula 
however is not new; it was discovered several years since 
by Mr. S. C. Burnham with a refractor of 6-inches aperture, 
and was notified at the end of his third catalogue of new 
double-stars; it is referred to also in the notes to his 
observations of double-stars in 1877-78, in the Memoirs 
of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xliv. : he found 
it to be double, the distance between the centres of the 
two parts and a star of 9m. (which appears to be Durch. 
+ 47°, No. 3289), being 273 at the epoch 1878'47. The 
double nucleus has also been remarked at Dunecht, and 
the measures of position and distance made there have a 
particular interest when compared with Mr, Burnham’s 
in 1878; thus we have— 


Distance, 2 67 
8:00 


Burnham, 1878°47 Position, 88°5 
Dunecht, 1880913... aa FIsO\l <5 re 
Such differences surely indicate rapid motion. Dr. Cope- 
land does not allude to the star of about ninth magnitude 
distant less than half a minute of arc in 1878. This 
journal may be obtained by applying to Mr. J. L. E. 
Dreyer, Observatory, Dunsink, Co. Dublin. 


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. No 
notice ts taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to heep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that it 
zs impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.| 


Infusible Ice 


ProF, CARNELLEY’S directions in NATURE, vol, xxiii. p. 341, 
just received, for producing the hitherto fabulous commodity, 
‘hot ice,” have succeeded so much beyond our expectations 
for a first experiment in our College laboratory to-day, that 
the ease and simple means with which the experiment was per- 
formed, and the unaccountable and unaccustomed appearances 
which it presented, recommend it very strongly, as Prof. Car- 
nelley remarks in his paper, and as I hope that the following 
description may also serve to prove, to other observers’ trials 
and repetitions. 

A 30 oz. flask of stout glass (made nearly as strong as the 
Carré decanters, for vacuum experiments) was tightly fitted, by 
forcing a two inch plug of large solid india-rubber tube placed 
round a tube into its mouth and firmly fixing it there with 
wire, with a delivery-tube of three-eighths of an inch large glass 
barometer-tube about two feet long. This tube was bent into 
an S-shape, and at the extreme end of the small U-part, which 
turned up, it was drawn out to a nearly capillary neck and bent 
over to communicate by india-rubber tubing through ‘another 
similar flask surrounded by cold water to act as a condenser, 
with a Swan’s aspirator giving a vacuum of twenty-eight inches 
by the action of the town water-supply. About 15 oz, of dis- 
tilled water previously introduced was now boiled in the flask 
im vacuo, and distilled over, at a very gentle heat, into the 
second flask. After two or three hours’ boiling the quantity of 
water in the flask was reduced to about 3 oz., and the capillary 
end of the tube was then sealed with a blowpipe. The flask thus 
exhausted makes an excellent water hammer and cryophorus, 
ringing with sharp raps when the water is shaken to and fro in 
it or in its tube. The least warmth of the flask, or cold applied 
to the U-part of the tube, suffices to collect there, by distillation, 
a quantity of beautifully clear water completely freed from air, 


NATURE 


| Feb. 24, 1881 


To obtain the rapid evaporation and superheated state of ice, 
the U part of the tube was placed in a freezing-mixture of ice 
and salt till the condensed water coated the tube internally with 
a hollow sleeve of ice extending in the long and short parts of 
the U to a total length of about eight inches, and the flask itself 
was thereupon placed in a sawdust-bedded tin pail containing a 
large freezing-mixture of 5 lbs. of salt and 10 lbs, of pounded 
ice. Hydrochloric acid was at the same time added to the 

frigorific mixture round the U-tube, lowering the temperature of 
that part of the cryophorus to — 29° C. (— 20° F.), which had the 
effect of cracking the ice-sleeve (apparently by contraction) in 
all directions, giving rise at first, from its appearance, to the 
apprehension that the glass tube was completely splintered ! Now 
came the critical operation. Would the hard frozen ice-coat bear 
the application of the heat ordeal without melting? 

The freezing mixture round the U-tube was replaced by cold 
water in a water-bath, which was heated rapidly with a Bunsen- 
flame. About two inches of the ice-sleeve in the long part of 
the tube stood above the surface of the water; the rest soon 
melted, while the temperature of the water in the bath rose to 
70° C., and a thick rime of white frost from the condensed 
vapours of this water formed round the tube containing the 
projecting part of the ice-tongue, which must have been intensely 
cold, since the rime almost touched the surface of the warm 
water. Below the surface of the water the tube appeared always 
to contain some snowy-looking solid, along with what resembled 
water proceeding from its liquefaction. When the temperature 
of the bath reached 70°C. the projecting ice-tongue was still 
unmelted ; it had replenished itself by condensing and freezing 
the vapours rising up to it from below, and formed a snowy 
plug in the tube an inch or more long. 

The water-bath was then removed in order to heat this snow- 
plug with a Bunsen-flame, and to our extreme surprise a similar 
snow-lining was found still to remain coating, quite dry, the 
whole long part and much of the short part of the U-bend., 
The flame was applied, and the whole tube was heated violently 
without for some time appearing to have the least effect upon 
the white crust within, notwithstanding the tube was too hot to 
be touched! <A small flake weighing at most a few tenths of a 
grain, at the bottom of the U, withstood the strongest heat there 
for several minutes, wasting insensibly away, and unchanged in 
shape, until it vanished with perhaps a moment’s collection to a 
drop, as it disappeared. As it slowly grew thinner the white 
coating in the tube seemed in general to be no more affected by 
the heat than white feathers would have been ; but in particular 
parts there often occurred partial liquefaction or pasty fusion 
allowing pieces of the film to turn over by their weight and roll 
or slip down the glass while still adhering to it, quite in the 
manner of drops. ‘That the liquid itself, completely freed from 
air, refuses to boil, and may be described in that respect as practi- 
cally oily, was evident enough in the preparation of the flask, 
when except by sudden bumps the distillation of vapour, how- 
ever much it was urged by heat, and seen to be passing copiously 
through the bent worm-tube, proceeded almost entirely from the 
surface of the water in the flask. 

In these drops at least, adhering to the heated glass, it seems 
difficult to believe that the solid ice which makes them angular, 
jagged in form, and pasty, can be anything but superheated ; 
and it seems also scarcely credible that the latent heat of sub- 
limation of the insignificant weight of a few grains of ice-crust 
in the tube resisting its strong heat for many minutes can reach 
the large amount of its gain of heat in that time by conduction 
and radiation from the surrounding tube, if the ice-film is at no 
higher temperature than its natural melting-point. These are 
questions however which the calorimetric methods devised and 
pursued by Prof. Carneiley are best designed to answer, and to 
which replies without such positive determinations can only be 
urged at present as probable conjectures, or as clear preceptions 
and presentiments, on the other hand, of the action and opera- 
tion of some hitherto undiscovered thermal laws. 

Whether by direct sublimation, or by evaporation accompanied 
by liquefaction, the slender snowdrift with its enlargement at 

_ the top was gradually reduced in thickness, and subdivided into 
remaining parts along its length, which all adhered to the tube 
until they wasted away, and the largest top piece never fell by 
withdrawal of support below, but, like the rest, it clung like a 
thin scale to the last to its original place on one side of the tube. 
This power of adhesion of hermetically volatilised ice to hot 
bodies with which it is in contact forms, as Prof. Carnelley 
observes, one of its.most marked, although not at all one of its 
most prognosticable, properties, and it certainly prompts, if it 


does not unequivocally substantiate, the supposition that the 
ice in such close contact with extremely hot bodies must be 
supetheated, or at a temperature sensibly higher than its natural 
melting-point. 

The perfect success of the experiment and the beautiful ap- 
pearance of the ineffaceable white snow-lining of the tube 
afforded us unqualified pleasure and surprise, and the simple 
preparation and preservation of the cryophoric apparatus needed 
for its exhibition will, I have no doubt, cause the experiment to 
be often reproduced and shown wherever freezing-mixtures and 
the cryophorus, and Boutigny’s and Leidenfrost’s phenomena, 
and Prof. Carnelley’s theory and researches, are subjects of 
lecture-demonstrations, A. S. HERSCHEL 

College of Physical Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne, February 15 


Dust, Fogs, and Clouds 


I NEED not say that the information contained in M. H. Te: 
H. Groneman’s letter in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 337, was a most 
unexpected surprise. Nothing whatever seems to have been 
known in England about the results obtained by Messrs. Coulier 
and Mascart ; and my astonishment was not diminished when I 
considered that their important investigation had borne no fruit, 
never having been practically applied by meteorologists or 
others. 

I have just seen the article by M. Coulier in the Yournal de 
Pharmacie et de Chimie, and will (with your permission) make a 
few remarks on his paper and on my own. M., Coulier was led 
to the discovery of the important part played by dust in the con- 
densation of vapour, by making experiments on the well-known 
cloudy condensation produced by expanding saturated air. * In- 
stead of the ordinary air-pump arrangement M. Coulier’s appa- 
ratus consisted of a glass flask, in which was placed some water. 
This flask was connected by a tube to a hollow india-rubber ball. 
He first compressed the india-rubber ball, thus compressing the 
air in the flask. The pressure was then removed from the ball, 
when the air in the flask expanded, and the condensation became 
visible. 

In making repeated experiments with this apparatus M. 
Coulier noticed that the action of the air was capricious. After 
the air had remained in the flask some days he found it quite 
inactive. He also found it inactive after shaking it up with the 
water in the flask, and that on expelling some of the inactive air 
and replacing it with the air of the room the cloudiness again 
appeared. He then found that if he filtered the air before 
admitting it to the flask it did not give any cloudiness when 
expanded, and he explains with perfect clearness that the dust in 
the air formed the nuclei on which the vapour condensed. 

Having explained the manner in which M. Coulier approached 
the subject I shall now give the history of the corresponding 
part in niy work and show the direction from which I approached 
it. I had been studying the action of ‘‘ free surfaces” in water 
and other forms of matter, when changing from one state to 
another. I knew that water could be cooled below the freezing- 
point ; I wasalmost certain ice could be heated above the melting- 
point, and I had shown that water could be heated far above the 
boiling point ; that the material of which the vessel holding the 
water was composed had no influence on the result—and all that 
was necessary to prevent the change of state taking place, at the 
freezing and boiling points, was an absence of ‘‘ free surfaces” at 
which the change could begin. Arrived at this point, the pre- 
sumption was very strong that vapour could be cooled below 
the ‘‘ condensing point ” without changing to water, if no ‘‘ free 
surfaces” were present. I first intended to experiment with 
steam at the pressure of the atmosphere, but found difficulties in 
operating at so high a temperature. I then made arrangements 
to conduct the experiments at a lower temperature, and for con- 
venience experimented on steam mixed with air. I then saw 
that dust in the air would form ‘‘free surfaces” on which the 
vapour would condense. I therefore attached a cotton-wool 
filter to the apparatus, and filtered the air before it entered the 
receiver. When this was done I found that the steam on entering 
the receiver was perfectly invisible, and gave rise to no cloudy 
condensation, the air remaining supersaturated. The experiment 
was immediately afterwards repeated somewhat in the same way 
as was done by M. Coulier, the air being supersaturated -by 
expanding it by means of an air-pump. 

Though the two investigations approached the subject from 
very different points, they seem afterwards to have flowed in 
almost parallel directions, Starting from his first experiments, 


— 


Feb. 24, 1881 | 


M. Coulier made experiments with the products of combustion 
from flames in which the combustion was as perfect as possible. 
He found these gases much more active than the air of the room, 
This he attributed to particles of uncousumed carbon. He also 
found the air after rain and storms to be less active, and the air 
in summer less active than in winter. After extending the experi- 
ments to alcohol and benzine, the paper concludes with some 
remarks on the peculiar action of ozone. 

Up to this point the two investigations run perfectly parallel, 
and the strange likeness between the two sets of experiments is 
not the least interesting point connected with them. After 
going over this first paper by M. Coulier, [ found he had com- 
municated a second paper, which will also be found in the same 
volume of the Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie, at page 254. 
This second paper is almost entirely occupied with a description 
of some experiments in which inactive air was heated and 
rendered active. 

In the first experiment described in M. Coulier’s second 
paper a platinum wire was heated in the purified air of the 
flask, after which the air was active. In the second experi- 
ment pure air in which hydrogen was burned became 
active. In the third experiment pure air which was passed 
through a glass tube surrounded with tinsel (‘‘clinquant”), 
and moderately heated, was made active. Fourth experiment, 
oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen became active after they had 
been heated ina tube. After describing some effects in ventila- 
tion when /zghly heated air is used, he says, “ In the preceding 
note (the first paper) I believed I could attribute the activity of 
the air to the presence of solid bodies, and it seemed to me that 
the only solid body that could escape from a carbon flame could 
be nothing but carbon it-elf. It was the remarkable experiment, 
so easily made, of filtering air through cotton-wool, that led me 
to form this hypothesis, which the experiments above related 
invalidate (a faire cette hypothése, que les expériences relatées 
plus haut infirment).” He concludes by saying, ‘‘ The explana- 
tion of these phenomena remains still to be found.” 

Experiments exactly corresponding to some of those described. 
in M. Coulier’s second paper will be found in mine. Wishing 
to test the effect of combustion on air, I first made experi- 
ments to test the effect of heat on the apparatus to be used in 
collecting the hot gases. For this purpose I passed filtered air 
through a heated glass tube, after which I found it was remark- 
ably active. It was found however that this activity is not due, 
as M. Coulier seemed to suppose, to the heating of the air, but 
to impurities driven off the surface of the tube by the heat. 
This was proved by showing that the air remained inactive 
when the hot tube through which it was passed was thoroughly 
cleansed. 

In making experiments on the effect of burning gas I arranged 
a platinum wire, connected with a battery, to enable me to light 
the gas in the pure air of the receiver. On testing the action 
of the heated wire alone, it was found that simply heating the 
wire gave rise to cloudiness. It was however found that by 
highly heating the wire its activity was destroyed, all impuri- 
ties being driven off. 

These experiments explain M. Coulier’s first and third experi- 
ments. The fourth experiment is also to be explained by the 
nuclei driven off the tube by the heat. These nuclei may be 
driven off in the solid state, or as gases which condense without 
nuclei when /zgh/y supersaturated on being cooled to the tempe- 
rature of the flask. The nuclei are in some cases formed by 
chemical union of the gases driven off by the heat, and in other 
ways unnecessary to enter upon here. As to the second experi- 
ment, more information is required as to arrangement of appa- 
ratus, &c., before any opinion can be formed as to the origin of 
the nuclei. 

It now appears to me that this second paper explains why the 
first results of M. Coulier, though repeated and confirmed by 
M. Maseart, have not received that general acceptance we should 
have expected. In his second paper he describes a number of 
results which he did not succeed in fitting into his hypothesis. 
They even seemed to him to shake his first conclusions, and the 
uncertain sound given by his second paper seems to have blighted 
any fruit his first paper was likely to have produced. There can 
however be no doubt that M. Coulier was the first to show the 


_ important part played by dust in the cloudy condensation of the 


vapour in air, and his first paper clearly explains its action. It 
seems highly probable that if it had not been followed by his 
second paper, or if he had succeeded in getting the key to the 
explanation of his experiments, and his conclusions had con- 


NATURE 


firmed instead of weakening the teaching of his first paper, his 
result would long ere now have been applied to explain the 
different causes and the different forms of cloudy condensation 
in our atmosphere, as well as other physical phenomena. 
Darroch, Falkirk, February 15 JouHN AITKEN 


Geological Climates 


I DESIRE to express my thanks to Dr. John Rae for the 
valuable contribution of ‘‘facts” which he has added to this 
interesting question, of which I hope to make use in due time. 

I wish also to answer the question asked by Prof. Woeikoff in 
his letter of February 17. My authority for January, July, and 
mean temperatures in the northern hemisphere and in the 
southern is the most recent and accurate available, viz., United 
States Coast Survey, ‘‘ Meteorological Researches for the use of 
the Coast Pilot,” Part 1, by William Ferrel (Washington, 1877). 


Mr. Ferrel gives the January and July temperatures for every ten 


degrees of longitude and latitude, up to 80° N. and 60°S. as 
follows, so far as regards the annual means :— 


Lat. N. Annual. Lat. S. Annual, 
oO So'r F 5 So'r F. 
Io ro ae) ” Io 78°7 ” 
20 77° ,, 20 74°7 95 
3° 67°6 42 3° 66°7 22 
40 50°5 ” 40 57°9 ”? 
50 434» 50 47°38 5, 
60 29°3 ” 60 35°3 2? 
79 T4°4 55 Ob 79 =a 
80 Aching 7 80 — 


This table fully justifies what Isaid of the southern hemisphere 
as compared with the northern, and is, of course, explained by 
the existence of three great gulf streams in the south, which 
raise the mean temperature, producing insular climates with a 
small range from July to January. 

Mr. Ferrel adds, at the close of his discussion (p. 22) :— 

From Dove’s Charts of Isothermal Lines, which do not ex- 
tend beyond the middle latitudes in the southern hemisphere, it 
has been inferred that the southern hemisphere is colder than the 
northern, and this has been the accepted view ever since his 
charts were first published, in the year 1852; but from the re- 
sults obtained above it is seen that the mean temperature of the 
southern hemisphere is the greater of the two.” 

T was well aware that the east coast of Asia is colder, latitude 
for latitude, than the east coast of North America, but this has 
nothing to do with reducing the temperatures of the east coast 
of America, by means of alterations in the ocean currents of the 
North Atlantic, which I deny to be possible. 

SAMUEL HAUGHTON 

Trinity College, Dublin, February 19 


Climate of Vancouver Island 


AS questions connected with ‘the climate of Vancouver Island 
and the influence on it of ocean currents have lately been the 
subject of several communications in the pages of NATURE, it 
may be worth while to draw attention to the fact that Esquimalt, 
at the southern extremity of the island, ‘together with several 
places on the mainland of British Columbia, have now been for 
a number of years occupied as regular stations of the Canadian 
Meteorological Service, and that trustworthy meteorological 
results are to be found in the annual reports to Government. 

When writing a report on British Columbia for the Canadian 
Pacific Railway Survey in 1877, I applied to Prof. Kingston, 
then in charge of the Meteorological Department, for some 
information on climate, and received from him an abstract, 
which was published at the time (“Can. Pacific Ry. Report, 1877,” 
p- 246), by which it appears that the mean summer temperature 
of Esquimalt is 57°82 F., mean winter temperature 34°°45, 
mean annual temperature 47°97. This does not include how- 
ever the additional results of the last few years. 

Much information on the climate of the northern part of the 
north-west coast may also be found in the Alaska Coast Pilot, 
1869, and the U.S. Pacific Coast Pilot, Appendix 1, 1879. In 
the latter, series of monthly and mean annual isothermal lines 
are given for the air and sea surface, which—though the observa- 
tions at command are by no means complete—are doubtless 
nearly correct. A partial abstract of these, with some discussion 


386 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 24, 1881 


of the climatic features of British Columbia, may be found in 
an appendix written by me for the Canadian Pacific Railway 
Report of 1880, p. 107. 

The mean temperature of Tongass at the southern extremity 
of Alaska, from two years’ observations, is stated as 46°'5. 

Observations have been maintained at Sitka with little 
interruption for a period of forty-five years. The latitude of 
this place is 57° 3’, or about one degree north of Glasgow. The 
mean temperatures are as follows :—spring 41°°2, summer 54° °6, 
autumn 44°°9, winter 32°'5, and for the year 43°°3. 

According to the Pacific Pilot above quoted, that portion of 
the Kuro-siwo, having a temperature of 55° F. or more, 
approaches the coast in the vicinity of Vancouver Island. 
Temperatures not much lower than this however prevail much 
further north. The average temperature of the surface of the 
sea during the summer months in the vicinity of the Queen 
Charlotte Islands as determined by me in 1$78 (‘Report of 
Progress, Geological Survey of Canada, 1878-79”) is 53°°8. 
Observations by the U.S. Coast Survey in 1867, in the latter 
part of July and early in August between Victoria and Sitka, 
gave a mean surface-temperature of 52°-1. 

GrorGE M, Dawson 

Geological Survey of Canad, February 1 


“The New Cure for Smoke” 


Ir was not my intention to trouble you further on this subject 
at present, but as Dr. Siemens has been good enough to notice 
the result of my trials with the coke-gas grate, and has asked a 
question with reference to the grate used by me, it is due to that 
gentleman that I should at once explain that the grate in which 
the trials were made is of modern coastruction and permanently 
fitted with side-cheeks and back of fire-clay lumps, and that 
when in use with the coke and gas the back was fitted with a 
copper plate, and in all other respects the grate was arranged in 
the manner described and illustrated in NATURE, vol. xxiii. 
p. 26. J. A. C. Hay 


On the Space Protected by Lightning-Conductors 


THE very interesting article by Mr. W. H. Preece on the 
“* Space Protected by a Lightning-Conductor” (Péi. Mag. 5th 
series, vol. x. p. 427 ef seg., December, 1880) revives this im- 
portant practical question. The old rule, first enunciated by 
M. Charles, which makes the radius of the protected circular 
area around the base of the rod equal to twice its vertical height, 
has never been satisfactorily verificd either on theoretical or 
experimental grounds. This rule was adopted in the Report of 
the Commission of the French Academy of Sciences drawn up 
by M. Gay-Lussac in 1823 (Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. 2nd 
series, t. 26, p. 258), and also in two cther reports drawn up by 
M. Pouillet, one in 1854 (Comptes rendus, t. 39, p- 1142), and 
the other in 1867 (Comptes rendus, t. 64, p. 102). But still more 
recently the Committee appointed by the Préfet de la Seine to 
superintend the construction of lizhtning-conductors in the City 
of Paris, in their Report in February, 1876, reduced the radius 
of the protected area to 1°45 times the heizht of the rod. Iam 
ignorant on what grounds the Commission adopted this precise 
number. 

In this state of the problem Mr. Preece’s paper was both 
apposite and welcome. The rule which he deduces certainly has 
the merit of definiteness ; but it seems to me that it fails to be 
practically satisfactory. For it is very evident that his investi- 
gation is exclusively applicable to ‘‘ B/znt-Conductors,” since the 
“ Power of Points” is entirely left out of consideration. His 
deductions might apply to the 4/t-conductors which crowned 
the Royal Palace of George IIl., but are scarcely applicable to 
the fointed rods now employed! His investigation assumes that 
the distance of the earth-connected objects from the electrificd 
cloud is the omy element which determines the direction of the 
discharge. It seems to me that the well established “ power of 
points” to discharze, or rather to meutralise the electricity of 
charged conductors, is an essential element in the problem of 
the protected space. 

It is a well-known fact that when an electrified cloud ap- 
proaches a fo’nted lizghtning-conductor which is in good con- 
ducting connection with the earth, the sharp point becomes 
charged by induction with opposite electricity of Aigh tension 
long before the distance between them approximates that re- 
quircd for a disruptive discharge; s> that electricity of the 
opposite kind from that of the cloud escages from the point 
in the form of a connective discharge or electrical glow, and 


neutralises that of the cloud, and thus silently disarming it, 
averts the disruptive stroke of lightning. This neutralisation, 
due to the power of points, constituting the preventive action 
of lizh‘ning-conductors, is justly regarded as the ost important 
fuaction of such rods; although, under certain extraordinary 
circumstances, they may be forced to carry disruptive discharges. 
Under any circumstances, however, it is obvious that Jointed 
conductors must en/arge the protected area as compared with 
blunt conductors. 

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to estimate in a precise 
manner how this ower of points would modify and distort the 
equipotential surfaces in the iutervening electric field. The 
problem is evidently one of great complexity. The following 
circumstances must obviously influence, to a greater or less 
extent, the magnitude and direction of the resultant electromotive 
force, which determines the path of discharge, convective or dis- 
ruptive, viz: (1) Déstance of thunder-cloud from the point of 
the conductor ; (2) variable dielectric properties of the intervening 
air ; (3) size of the cloud; (4) the variable ¢en:ion of its electric 
charge, especially under the neutralising action of the pointed 
rod ; and (5) the velvcity with which the thunder-cloud approaches 
the point of the conductor. The /ast consideration is very im- 
portant, and at the same time most difficult to formulate ; for 
the convective neutralisation isa gradual process requiring time. 
It is evident that a heavily-charged thunder-cloud rapidly driven 
towards the point of the conductor might give rise to a disruptive 
spark, while, if s/ow/y approaching the same, it would have been 
silently neutralised, and the stroke averted. In fact the strength 
and direction of the resultant force is influenced by so many 
variable conditions that it would tax the resources of a powerful 
calculus to indicate a formula which would satisfy, even approxi- 
mately, the demands of practice in the construction of lightning- 
conductors. 

Nevertheless, it is quite certain that Mr. Preece’s rule, which 
makes the radius of the protected circular area equal to the 
height of the rod for é/unt conductors, is perfectly safe for 
pointed rods ; for there can be no question as to the fact that the 
“* power of points” ex/arges the protected area. - 

The late Prof. Henry frequently witnessed the efficacy of 
convective discharges from the point of the lightning conductor 
attached to the hizh tower of the Smithsonian Institution. 
During violent thunder-storms at night, at every flash of lightning 
he observed that ‘‘ajet of light, at least five or six feet in length, 
issued from the point of the rod with a hissing noise.” 

It is proper to add that while the circumstances influencing 
disruptive discharges of electricity have been experimentally in- 
vestigated by a number of physicists, the laws of convective 
discharges from points do not séem to have received attention 
from any experimenter. Thus I have not been able to finda 
satisfactory answer to the following elemeatary inquiry, viz.—- 
Under given conditions, at what ds/ance will a pointed conductor 
connected with the earth 4egiz to neutralise the electricity of an 
insulated conductor by the convective discharge of the opposite 
kind of electricity from the point ? 

In short, the whole subject of the ‘‘ power of points,” although 
one of the best-established and most conspicuous phenomena in 
electricity, is sadly in need of experimental investigation. This 
class of electrical phenomena is pretty much in the same condi- 
tion in which Franklin left it more than a century ago. 

Berkeley, California, January 1 JoHN LE CONTE 


[Mr. Preece has shown by considering the area between the 
conductor and the charged cloud as an electric field mapped out 
in equipotential surfaces and lines of force, that ‘‘a lightning- 
rod protects a conic space whose height is the length of the rod, 
whose base isa circle having its radius equal to the height of 
the rod, and whose side is the quadrant of a circle whose radius 
is equal to the height of the rod.”—PAi/. Mag., December, 
1880.— Ep. ] 


Localisation of Sound 


My friend the Rev. H. J. Marston, Second Master of the 
School for Blind Sons of Gentlemen at Worcester, has com- 
municated to me some very singular instances of the power of 
localising sound possessed by blind boys. 

One of the games in which his pupils most delight is that of 
Zowls. A bell is rung over the nine-pins just as the player is 
ready to throw the bowl, when, totally blind as he is, he delivers 
it with considerable accuracy of aim. Mr. Marston vouches for 
the fact that it is no uncommon feat for a boy to strike down a 
single pin at a distance of forty feet three times in succession. 


Feo. 24, 1881 | 


It is significant that this game cannot be played by the blind 
boys in windy weather, And yet the allowance for windage on 
a heavy bow] can be no very large quantity. 

The boys also play football with great zeal and considerable 
skill. Bells are rung at the goals throughout the game, and the 
ball contains two little bells. With these guides the boys 
manage both to follow the ball and to direct it to the goals, 

Clifton College, February 15 H. B. Jupp 


Migration of the Wagtail 


THE inclosed extract from the New York Zuvening Post, a 
newspaper of high standing for accuracy and intelligence, con- 
tains statements which are not, I think, generally known in 
regard to the migration of the water-wagtail, and your insertion 
of the came may be the means of drawing from other corre- 
spondents some evidence in confirmation or disproof. Though 
riding is not quite unknown among animals other than men, yet 
such purposeful riding as is here described is, to say the least, 
very extraordinary. E, W. CLAYPOLE 

Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Dec. 12, 1880 


The Singular Methods of Travel the Wagtail adopts to Cross the 
Mediterranean Sea.—In the autumn of 1878 I spent several weeks 
on the Island of Crete. On several occasions the papas—village 
priest—a friendly Greek with whom I spent the greater part of 
my time—frequently directed my attention to the twittering and 
singing of small birds which he distinctly heard when a flock of 
sand-cranes passed by on their southward journey. I told my 
friend that I could not see any small birds, and suggested that 
the noise came from the wings of the large ones. This he denied, 
saying, “No, no! I know it is the chirping of small birds. They 
are on the backs of the cranes. I have seen them frequently fly 
up and alight again, and are always with them when they stop 
to rest and feed.” I was still sceptical, for with the aid of a 
field-glass I failed to discover the ‘‘small birds” spoken of. I 
inquired of several others, and found the existence of these little 
feathered companions to be a matter of general belief among 
both old and young. I suggested that possibly the small birds 
might go out from the shore a short distance and come in with 
the cranes, ‘No, no,” was the general answer, ‘‘ they come 
over from Europe with them.” I certainly heard the chirping 
and twittering of birds upon several different occasions, both 
inland and out upon the sea. But in spite of the positive state- 
ments of the natives I could not believe their theory until con- 
vinced one day while fishing about fifteen miles from the shore, 
when a flock of cranes passed quite near the yacht. The fisher- 
men, hearing the ‘‘small birds,” drew my attention to their 
chirping. Presently one cried out ‘‘ There’s one,” but I failed to 
catch sight of it. Whereupon one of them discharged his flint- 
lock. Three small birds rose up from the flock and soon disap- 
peared among the cranes. 

I subsequently inquired of several scientific men, among whom 
were two ornithologists, as to the probability of such a state of 
affairs. They all agreed that it could not be, and J, too, was 
forced to cling to my original judgment, and let the matter go. 
Recently however while reading the Garten/ause my atten- 
tion was attracted to an article bearing directly upon the subject. 
The writer, Adolf Ebeling, tells the same story, and adds the 
statements of some ornithologists of distinction, which makes 
the whole matter so striking and interesting that I quote the 
paragraph from his book :— 

‘¢ Shortly after my arrival in Cairo I greeted various old German 
friends among the birds that I observed in the palm-garden of 
our hotel. First, naturally, was the sparrow, the impudent pro- 
letariat—I had almost said social democrat, because the whole 
world to-day has that bad word in the mouth. He appeared to 
me to be more shameless than ever in the land of the Pharaohs, 
for he flew without embarrassment on the breakfast table, and 
picked off the crumbs and bits from every unwatched place, But 
the mark of honour we paid to the wagtails, and in truth chiefly 
because we did not then know that the wagtails were birds of 
passage. We had thought that they passed the winter in Southern 
Europe, or at farthest as many of them do, in Sicily and the 
Grecian Islands. That they came to Africa, and especially to 
Nubia and Abyssinia, was then unknown to us. This appeared 
to us singularly strange, nay, almost incredible, particularly on 
account of the peculiar flight of the wagtail, which it is well 
known always darts intermittingly through the air in longer or 
shorter curves, and apparently, every few moments, interrupts 


NATURE 


387 


its flight to sit again and ‘wag its tail.’ But there was the fact, 
and could not be denied. Everywhere in the gardens of Cairo 
you could: ee them under the palms that border the banks of the 
Nile; on the great avenues that lead to the pyramids; nay, 
even on the pyramids themselves in the middle of the desert. 
And there it was that I first heard of this singular phenomenon. 

‘*One evening we were sitting at the foot of the pyramid of 
Cheops, sipping our cup of fragrant Mocha and in jolly conver- 
sation, rolling up clouds of blue smoke from our Korani cigar- 
ettes. We were waiting for the sinking of the sun to make 
our return to Cairo, The deep silence of the surrounding desert 
possessed something uncommonly solemn, only now and then dis- 
tui bed by the cry of the hoar-e fishhawks far above us. Still higher 
the pelicans were grandly circling. - Their flight, though heavy 
when seen from anear, possesses a majesty in the distance at- 
tained by no other bird. Right before us several wagtails were 
hopping around and ‘tilting.’ They were quite tame, and flew 
restlessly hither and thither. On this occasion I remarked, ‘I 
could not quite understand how these bir’s could make the long 
passage of the Mediterranean.’ Sheik Ibrahim heard this from 
our interpreter. The old Bedouin turned to me with a mixture 
of French and Arabic as follows, which the interpreter aided us 
to fully comprehend :— 

*©*1o you not know, Hadretch (noble sir), that these small 
birds are borne over the sea by the larger ones ?’ 

‘*T laughed, as did our friends; for at first we thought we 
had misunderstood him; but no: the old man continued quite 
naturally :— 

“**Every child among us knows that. These little birds are 
much too weak to make the long sea journey with their own 
strength. This they know very well, and therefore wait for the 
storks and cranes and other large birds, and settle themselves 
upon their backs, In this way they allow themselves to be 
borne over the sea. The large birds submit to it willingly ; for 
they like their little guests, who by their merry twitterings help 
to kill the time on the long voyage.’ 

“Tt appeared incredible to us. We called to a pair of brown 
Pedouin boys, pointed out the wagtails to them, and inquired :-— 

*©¢T)o you know whence come these small birds ?’ 

‘© Certainly,’ they answered, ‘The Abu Saad (the stork) 
carried them over the sea.’ 

“At supper, in the Hotel du Nil, I related the curious story 
to all present, but naturally enough found only unbelieving ears. 

“The only one who did not laugh was the Privy Councillor 
Heuglin, the famous African traveller, and, excepting Brehm, 
the most celebrated ornithologist of our time for the birds of 
Africa, I turned to him after the meal, and inquired of his 
faith. The good royal councillor smiled in his caustic way, and 
with a merry twinkle remarked: ‘Let the others laugh: they 
know nothing about it. I do not laugh, for the thing is known 
tome. I should have recently made mention of it in my work 
if I had had any strong personal proof to justify it. We must 
be much more careful in such things than a mere story-teller or 
novel-writer ; we must have a proof for everything. I consider 
the case probable, but as yet cannot give any warrant for it.’ 

“‘My discovery, if I may so call it, I had kept to myself, even 
after Heuglin had thus expressed himself, and would even now 
maintain silence on the subject had I not recently discovered a 
new authority for it.” 

I read lately in the second edition of Petermann’s great book 
of travels the following :— 

“Prof, Roth of Munich related to me in Jerusalem that the 
well-known Swedish traveller, Hedenborg, made the following 
interesting observation on the Island of Rhodes, where he 
stopped. In the autumn tide, when the storks come in flocks 
over the sea to Rhodes, he often heard the songs of birds without 
being able to discover them, Once he followed a flock of 
storks, and as they lighted he saw small birds fly up from their 
backs, which in this manner had been borne over the sea, -The 
distance prevented him from observing to which species of 
singing birds they belonged.” 

Thus wrote the famous geographer Petermann, Prof, Roth 
and Hedenborg and Heuglin are entirely reliable authors. This 
was a matter of great curiosity to me, and after I found others 
had made similar observations and expressed them in print, I 
thought they would be of no less curiosity and interest on this 
side of the Atlantic, and equally deserving of public notice. I 
hope that connoisseurs, amateurs, and experts may be excited by 
this to extend their observation in this line also. The instinct of 
animals is still, in spite of all our observations and experience, 


388 NATURE 


| Feb. 24, 1881 


almost a sealed book to us. By a little attention we mizht hear 
of still more curious things in this field. PHONE 
New York, November 20, 1880 


Subsidence of Land caused by Natural Brine-Springs 


A THEORY has been put forward to account for the subsidence 
of land in the salt districts of Cheshire. It is said that, sup- 
posing the manufacturers of salt ceased to pump up the brine, 
it would run away to the sea, and subsidence would go on at as 
rapid a rate as now. Can any of the readers of NATuRE tell 
me ef any facts to substantiate such a theory, or refer me to any 
district where such rapid subsidence is going on, owing to the 
escape of natural brine-springs to the sea? Any reference to 
works giving information on this point will be thankfully 
received. THOS. WARD 

Northwich, February 15 


Chlorophyll 


THE following experiment may be interesting in its bearing on 
the relation between chlorophyll-development and light. 

If cress seed are grown fora few days in the dark on damp 
cotton-wool, and then, beneath the surface of water, introduced 
into an inverted glass jar filled with water, they may be exposed 
to daylight for an indefinite time without chlorophyll being 
developed. But the plants are not dead; for if, aftera few 
days’ exposure, the cotton-wool on which they have been grown 
is cut in two beneath the surface of the water, and one half, 
with its plants, is restored to the inverted jar of water, while the 
other is placed under an inverted glass jar containing air only, 
and then these two jars be exposed to full daylight, the plants 
beneath the jar containing air rapidly become green, while the 
others never do so. 

Light therefore cannot always cause the development of 
chlorophyll in the etiolated leaves of living plants. 

Liverpool, January 24 WILLIAM CARTER 


[This is an interesting observation, but seems to need some 
further investigation. As shown by Sachs (‘‘ Text-book,” pp. 
665, 666) the formation of chlorophyll has a complicated depen- 
dence upon light. If the temperature be sufficiently high it is 
formed in the cotyledons of conifers and the leaves of ferns even 
in complete darkness, The seedlings of angiosperms require 
exposure to light for the production of chlorophyll, but it does 
not take place at low temperatures. All the visible parts of the 
spectrum possess the power of turning etiolated grains of chloro- 
phy!l green, although the yellow and adjoining rays are most 
effective. The failure of the seedlings immersed in water to 
become green can hardly therefore be attributed to the absorp- 
tion of the heat rays. Is it possible that their water-bath keeps 
their temperature too low ?] 

Squirrels Crossing Water 

In Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 340, I read that Mr. Godwin- 
Austen never had heard of a squirrel taking to the water. As 
here are perhaps more readers of NATURE in Mr. Godwin- 
Austen’s case, I take this opportunity to transcribe what 
Bachman related to us about that matter in the year 1839. 

The northern grey and black squirrel Scirus leucotis, has 
occasionally excited the wonder of the populace by its wandering 
habits and its singular and long migrations. Like the lemming, 
Lemnus norvegicus, of the Eastern Continent, it is stimulated, 
either from a scarcity of food or from some other inexplicable 
instinct, to leave its native haunts and seek for adventures or for 
food in some distant and, to him, unexplored portion of our 
land. The newspapers from the West contain frequent details 
of these migrations ; they appear to have been more frequent 
in former years than at the present time. The farmers in the 
Western wilds regard them with sensations which may be com- 
pared to the anxious apprehensions of the Eastern nations of 
the flight of the devouring locust. At such periods, which 
usually occur in autumn, the squirrels congregate in different 
districts of the far North-West, and in irregular troops bend 
their way instinctively in an eastern direction. Mountains and 
cleared fields, the head-waters of lakes and broad rivers, present 
no unconquerable impediments. Onward they come, devouring 
on their way everything that is suited to a squirrel’s taste, laying 
waste the corn and wheat-fields of the farmer ; and as their 
numbers are thinned by the gun, the dog, and the club, others 
are ready to fall in the rear and fill up the ranks, till they occa- 
Sion infinite mischief and call forth no empty threats of revenge. ; 


It is often inquired how these little creatures, that on common 
occasions have such an instinctive dread of water, are enabled 
to cross broad and rapid rivers, like the Ohio and Hudson, for 
instance. It is usually asserted, and believed by many, that they 
carry to the shore a suitable piece of bark, and seizing the 
Opportunity of a favourable breeze, seat themselves upon this 
substitute for a boat, hoist their broad tails as a sail, and float 
safely to the opposite shore. This, together with many other 
traits of intelligence ascribed to this species, I suspect to be 
apocryphal. ‘That they do migrate at irregular and occasionally 
at distant periods isa fact sufficiently established ; but in the only 
instance in which J had an opportunity of witnessing the migra- 
tions of the squirrel, it appeared to me that he was not only an 
unslalful sailor, but a clumsy swimmer. It was (as far as my 
recollection serves me of the period of early life) in the autumn 
of 1808 or 1809, troops of squirrels suddenly and unexpectedly 
made their appearance in the neighbourhood, but among the 
grey ones were varieties not previously seen in those parts ; some 
were broadly striped, with yellow on the sides, and a few with 
a black stripe on each side, bordered with yellow or brown, 
resembling the stripes of the iittle chipping squirrel ( Zamias 
Zysteri). They swam the Hudson in various places between 
Waterford and Saratoga ; those which I observed crossing the 
river were swimming deep and awkwardly, their bodies and 
tails wholly submerged ; several that had been drowned were 
carried downward by the stream, and those which were so for- 
tunate as to reach the opposite bank were so wet and fatigued 
that the boys stationed there with clubs found no difficulty in 
securing them alive or in killing them. Their migrations on 
that occasion did not, as far as I could learn, extend farther 
eastwardly than the mountains of Vermont ; many remained in 
the county of Rensellaer, and it was remarked that for several 
years afterwards the squirrels were far more numerous than 
before. It is doubtful whether any ever return westwardly ; 
but finding forests and food suited to their tastes and habits, 
they take up their permanent résidence ia their newly-explored 
country ; there they remain and propagate their species until 
they are gradually thinned off by the effects of improvement 
and the dexterity of the sportsmen around them. (The JZaga- 
zine of Natural History, vol. iii., new series, 1839.) 

Leyden, February 16 F, A, JENTINK 

Flying-Fish 

WITH reference to the letter of Mr. Pascoe in NATURE, vol. 
xxili, p. 312, allow me to offer a suggestion as to the mechanical 
means by which the flying-fish moves when out of the water. 
During a voyage to India and back I took a great interest in 
observing the movements of these beautiful creatures by means 
of a powerful opera-glass ; and soon came to the conclusion that 
a slight but rapid tremor of the pectoral fins could.be seen for a 
few moments after the fish left the water. In very calm weather 
I noticed a series of little ripples on each side of the fish as it 
skimmed along the surface before rising for its flight, evidently 
caused by the wing-points tipping the water. My idea is that 
the flying-fish springs from the sea, and by beating the surface 
rapidly with its pectoral fins obtains an impetus which carries it 
along for some distance in the air. It then descends to the 
surface, and in the same manner acquires a fresh accession of 
speed. This process however is never repeated more than twice, 
though the fish does sometimes resume its flight after a moment 
of immersion. Rk. E, TAYLOR 


THE TRANSIT OF VENUS 


Apes President of the Royal Society presents his com- 
pliments to the Editor of NATURE, and will be 
much obliged to him if he will, at as early a date as 
may be convenient, be so good as to give publicity to the 
enclosed minute of the Transit of Venus Committee. 
The Royal Society, Burlington House, 
London, W., February 21 


“ THE Committee appointed by therRoyal Society, at the 
request of the Government, to make arrangements for 
observing the Transit of Venus in 1832, would be glad to 
be informed whether astronomers have at their disposal, 
and are willing to lend, for use in the observations, 4-inch, 
5-inch, or 6-inch refracting telescopes, and 10-inch or 
12-inch reflectors, with equatorial mountings ; also port- 
able transits or altazimuths. 


| 


‘ 


Feb. 24, 1881 | 


NATURE 


389 


“ The instruments would be returned, in perfect order, as 
soon as possible after the transit, and, in any case, before 
the end of 1883. 

“ All communications should be addressed to the 
Secretary, Transit Committee, Royal Society, Barling- 
ton House.” 

The Committee, we are informed, is constituted as 
follows :—The President of the Royal Society is the 
chairman, the other members being Prof. J. C. Adams, 
the Astronomer-Royal, the Eari of Crawford and Bal- 
carres, Mr. De la Rue, Mr. Hind, Dr. Huggins, Vice- 
Admiral Sir G. H. Richards, Prof. H. J. S. Smith, Prof. 
Stokes, and Mr. E. J. Stone. 


DR. F. ¥. BIGSBY 


ET another of the links that have bound the geologists 
of the present time in association with the early 
leaders of their science has been severed by the removal 
of the kindly and venerable form of Dr. Bigsby. Up- 
wards of sixty years ago he began his geological career in 
North America, devoting himself mainly to the investi- 
gation of the structure of the older Paleozoic rocks of 
Canada and of the adjoining tracts of the States. As 
secretary to the Boundary Commission under the Treaty 
of Ghent he had opportunities of investigating the region 
from Quebec to Lake Superior, and published numerous 
descriptions, of which the exactness has been amply 
verified by the subsequent researches of the Geological 
Survey of Canada. It is chiefly as an admirable pioneer 
in Canadian geology that his name will be inscribed in 
the records of scientific progress. But he has other 
claims to grateful remembrance. Since he returned to 
spend his later years in this country he has devoted 
himself with the most untiring patience to the compi- 
lation of his “Thesaurus Siluricus” and ‘“ Thesaurus 
Deyonicus”—works in which the geological and geo- 
graphical range of the organisms of the earlier half of 
Paleozoic time is clearly shown in a series of valuable 
tables. 

Still more recently, in 1877, he presented to the Geologi- 
cal Society a bronze medal which, with a sum of money de- 
rived from the interest of a fund also given by him, is to be 
awarded every two years as an incentive to geological study. 
The terms according to which he directed that the prize 
should be given are that the medal and interest from the 
fund should be awarded “as an acknowledgment of emi- 
nent services in any department of geology, irrespective 
of the receiver’s country ; but he must not be older than 
forty-five years at his last birthday, thus probably not too 
old for further work, and not too young to have done 
much.’ The founder lived to see two fitting awards of 
his prize go to the eminent palzontolozists of the United 
States, Professors O. C. Marsh and E. D. Cope. He died 
just before the third presentation was made, last week, to 
Dr. Charles Barrois of Lille. 


ON TIDAL FRICTION IN CONNECTION WITH 
THE HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM} 


{Ps paper forms one of a series on the subject of 
tidal friction which have been read from time to time 
before the Royal Society and reported in NATURE, 

The first part of the paper contains the investigation of 
the changes produced by tidal friction in the system 
formed by a planet with any number of satellites revolving 
about it in circular orbits. As the results cannot be con- 
veniently stated without the aid of mathematical notation, 
they are here passed over. 

The previous papers treated of the effects which tidal 


t An account of a pyper entitled ‘On the Tidal Friction of a Planet 
attended by several Satellites, and on the Evolution of the Solar System,” 
by G. H, Darwin, F.R.S., read before the Royal Society on January 20, 
1881. 


friction must have had on the motions of the earth and 
moon, on the supposition that time enough has elapsed 
for this cause to have its full effect. It then appeared 
that we are thus able to co-ordinate together the various 
elements of the motions of these two bodies in a manner 
too remarkable to be the product of chance. 

The second part of the present paper contains a dis- 
cussion of the part which the same agency may have 
played in the evolution of the solar system as a whole and _ 
of its several parts. 

It is first proved that the rate of expansion of the 
planetary orbits, due to the reaction of the frictional tides 
raised by the planets in the sun must be very slow 
compared with that due to the reaction of the tides 
raised by the sun in the planets. Thus it would be much 
more nearly correct to treat the sun asa rigid body, and 
to suppose the planets alone to be subject to frictional 
tides, than the converse. It did not, however, seem 
expedient to attempt to give ‘any numerical solution of 
the problem thus suggested which should apply to the 
solar system as a whole. 

The effect of tidal friction is to convert the rotational 
momentum of the tidally disturbed body into orbital 
momentum of the tide-raising body. Hence a numerical 
evaluation of the angular momentum of the various parts 
of the solar system will afford the means of forming some 
idea of the amount of change in the orbits of the several 
planets and satellites, which may have been produced by 
tidal friction. Such an evaluation is accordingly made 
in this paper, with as much accuracy as the data permit. 

From the numerical values so found it is concluded 
that the orbits of the planets round the sun can hardly 
have undergone a sensible enlargement from the effects 
of tidal friction since those bodies first attained a separate 
existence. 

Turning to the several sub-systems, it appears that, 
although it is possible that the orbits of the satellites of 
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn about their planets may have 
been considerably enlarged, yet it is certainly not possible 
to trace the satellites back to an origin almost in contact 
with the present surfaces of their planets, in the same 
manner as was done for the case of the moon in the 
previous papers. 

The numerical values above referred to exhibit so 
marked a contrast between the case of the earth with 
the moon, and that of the other planets with their satel- 
lites, that it might @ pr7ovz be concluded as probable that 
the modes of evolution have differed considerably. The 
conclusion above stated concerning the satellites of the 
other planets cannot therefore be regarded as unfavour- 
able to the acceptance of the views maintained in the 
previous papers. It must, however, be supposed that 
some important cause of change other than tidal friction 
has been concerned in the evolution of the solar system 
and the planetary sub-systems. According to the nubu- 
lar hypothesis of Laplace, that cause has been the con- 
densation of the heavenly bodies. Accepting that hypo- 
thesis, the author then proceeds to consider the manner 
in which contraction and tidal friction are likely to have 
worked together. 

A numerical comparison shows that, notwithstanding 
the greater age which the nebular theory assigns to the 
exterior planets, yet the effects of solar tidal friction in 
reducing planetary rotation must in all probability be 
considerably less for the remote than for the nearer 
planets. It is, however, remarkable that the number 
expressive of the rate of retardation of the Martian rota- 
tion by solar tidal friction is nearly the. same as the 
similar number for the earth, notwithstanding the greater 
distance of Mars from the sun. This result is worthy of 
notice in connection with the fact that the inner satellite 
of Mars revolves with a periodic time much shorter than 
that of the planet’s rotation; for (as suggested in a 
previous paper) solar tidal friction will have been com- 


590 


NATURE 


[ Feb. 24, 1881 


petent to reduce the planetary rotation without directly 
affecting the satellite’s orbital motion. 

It is then shown to be probable that solar tidal friction 
was a more important cause of change when the planets 
were less condensed than it is at present. Thus we are 
not to accept the present rate of action cf solar tidal 
friction as indicating that which has held true in all past 
time. 

It is also shown that if a planetary mass generates a 
large satellite, the planetary rotation is reduced after the 
change more rapidly than before; nevertheless the 
genesis of such a satellite is preservative of the moment 
of momentum which is internal to the planetary sub- 
system. This conclusion is illustrated by the compara- 
tively slow rotation of the earth, and by the large amount 
of angular momentum residing in the system of moon 
and earth. 

An examination of the manner in which the difference 
of distances of the various planets from the sun will have 
affected the action of tidal friction leads to a cause for 
the observed distribution of satellites in the solar system. 

According to the nebular hypothesis a planetary mass 
contracts, and rotates quicker as it contracts. The 
rapidity of the revolution causes its form to become un- 
stable, or perhaps, as seems more probable, an equatorial 
belt gradually detaches itself; it is immaterial which 
of these really takes place. In either case the separa- 
tion of that part of the mass which before the change 
had the greatest angular momentum permits the central 
portion to resume a planetary shape. The contraction 
and increase of rotation proceed continually until another 
portion is detached, and so on. There thus recur at 
intervals a series of epochs of instability or of abnormal 
change. 

Now tidal friction must diminish the rate of increase of 
rotation due to contraction, and therefore if tidal friction 
and contraction are at work together the epochs of insta- 
bility must recur more rarely than if contraction acted 
alone. 

If the tidal retardation is sufficiently great, the increase 
of rotation due to contraction will be so far counteracted 
as never to permit an epoch of instability to occur. 

Now the rate of solar tidal friction decreases rapidly as 
we recede from the sun, and therefore these considera- 
tions accord with what we observe in the solar system. 
For Mercury and Venus have no satellites, and there is a 
progressive increase in the number of satellites as we 
recede from the sun. 

Whether this be the true cause of the observed distri- 
bution of satellites amongst the planets or not, it is 
remarkable that the same cause also affords an explana- 
tion of that difference between the earth with the moon 
and the other planets with their satellites, which has 
permitted tidal friction to be the principal agent of 
change with the former, but not with the latter. 

In the case of the contracting terrestrial mass we may 
suppose that there was for a long time nearly a balance 
between the retardation due to solar tidal friction and the 
acceleration due to contraction, and that it was not until 
the planetary mass had contracted to nearly its present 
dimensions that an epoch of instability could occur. 

If the contraction of the planetary mass be almost 
completed before the genesis of the satellite, tidal friction, 
due jointly to the satellite and the sun, will thereafter be 
the great cause of change in the system, and thus the 
hypothesis that it is the sole cause of change will give an 
approximately accurate explanation of the motion of the 
planet and satellite at any subsequent time. It is shown 
in the previous parers of this series that this condition is 
fulfilled with the earth and moon. 

The paper ends with a short recapitulation of those 
facts in the solar system which are susceptible of explana- 
tion by the theory of the activity of tidal friction. This 
Series of investigations affords no grounds for the rejection 


of the nebular hypothesis, but while it presents evidence 
in favour of the main outlines of that theory, it introduces 
modifications of considerable importance. 

Tidal friction is a cause of change of which Laplace’s 
theory took no account, and although the activity of that 
cause is to be regarded as mainly belonging to a later 
period than the events described in the nebular hypothesis, 
yet its influence has been of great, and in one instance 
of even paramount, importance in determining the present 
condition of the planets and their satellites. 

G: ELD: 


INDIGO 


[2 July, 1878, an account was given in this journal of the 
synthesis of indigo-blue from phenylacetic acid, accom- 
plished by Prof. Baeyer of Munich (NATURE, xviii. 251). 
The process there described did not permit of the suc- 
cessful production of indigo-blue on a manufacturing 
scale at reasonable cost. Since that time Prof. Baeyer 
has continued to work at the problem, and he has so far 
succeeded that he has now taken out a patent for the 
artificial manufacture and application of indigo-blue. 

In a paper in the last number of the Berliner Berichte 
Baeyer gives an interesting résumé of the steps whereby 
progress has been slowly made, since 1865, in solving the 
problem of the synthesis of indigo. 

Following up the work sketched in the article already 
referred to, Baeyer attempted to prepare orthonztrophenyl 
acetic aldehyde, expecting that this substance would yield 
indol, which may be regarded as the parent substance of 
the indigo group of compounds. But as the work pro- 
ceeded Baeyer became more and more convinced that 
the hypothesis which had guided his earlier work was 
that which should still regulate his experiments. In 1869 
he had written, “In order to prepare indol- synthetically 
it is necessary—in accordance with the formula already 
given—to introduce a pair of carbon atoms and one 
nitrogen atom into benzene, and to link these together. 
The necessary conditions are found in wmdztyo-cinnamic 
acid, if one supposes carbon dioxide and the oxygen of 
the nitro-group to be removed. And indeed it has been 
shown that nitro-cinnamic acid yields indol by fusion 
with potash.” The steps in the preparation of indigo- 
blue, according to Baeyer's patent, are these :— 

1. Cinnamic acid (or phenyl acrylic acid) — 

CsH; - CoH.. CO2H. 
2. Orthonitrocinnamic actd— 
NO, 
CoHK CH. CO,H. 
3. Orthonitrocinnamic acid dibromide— 
ZNO 
CoHsK C,H,Bry. COQH ; 
with gaseous bromine and 


9 


prepared by acting on No. 2 
crystallising from benzene. _ é ; 

The dibromide in alcoholic solution is then treated 
with alcoholic potash, in the proportion of 1 : 2 molecules ; 
and after dilution with water ; ; 

4. Orthonitromonobromcinnamic act@— 

Cn,c ree 
6 4NG, Bre CO pH, 

is precipitated. By again treating this acid with three 
molecules of alcoholic potash 

5. Crthonitrophenylpropiolic acid— 

ZNCg 
CoH c,. CO,H 

is produced. When an aqueous solution of this acid is 
warmed with such feeble reducing agents as grape- or 


milk-sugar, in presence of caustic or carbonated alkali, 
indigo-blue separates in crystals. It is not however 


NATURE 


oon 


Feb, 24, 1881] 


necessary to prepare pure orthonitrophenylpropiolic acid ; 
if orthonitrocinnamic acid (No. 2 above) be treated with 
bromine, then with alcoholic potash, and lastly with 
grape-sugar, without separating the various products 
indigo-blue is produced. Orthonitrocinnamic acid may 
be prepared, without difficulty, from oil of bitter almonds. 

Artificial indigo may be directly printed on cloth by 
mixing orthonitrophenylpropiolic acid—or orthonitro- 
phenyloxyacrylic acid described below—with soda and 
grape- or milk-sugar, and after proper thickening, soak- 
ing the cloth in the mixture, and heating: or the material 
may be simply soaked in orthonitrophenyloxyacrylic acid 
and heated. 

Orthonitrophenyloxyacrylic acid is prepared by the 
action of alcoholic potash on an alcoholic solution of 
orthonitrophenylchlorolactic acid (itself prepared by the 
action of chlorine on orthonitrocinnamic acid), in accord- 
ance with the equation— 


eH NO : 
6 "4\.C,H,0Cl. CO.H + 2KOH= 
Cie yy 
\.C,H,O . CO,K + KCl + H,0. 
By boiling an aqueous solution of orthonitrocinnamic 
acid dibromide (No. 3 above) with sodium carbonate, 
indigo blue separates out. M. M. P. M. 


MICROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF MALLEABLE 
METALS 


HE following observations on the minute structure of 
metals, which have been hammered into thin leaves, 
are instructive. Notwithstanding the great opacity of 
metals, it is quite possible to procure, by chemical means, 
metallic leaves sufficiently thin to examine beneath the 
microscope by transmitted light. Silver leaf, for instance, 
when mounted upon a glass slip and immersed for a 
short time in a solution of potassium cyanide, perchloride 
of iron, or iron-alum, becomes reduced in thickness to any 
required extent. The structure of silver leaf may also be 
conveniently examined by converting it into a transparent 
salt by the action upon it of chlorine, iodine, or bromine. 
Similar suitable means may also be found for rendering 
more or less transparent most of the other metals which 
can be obtained in leaf. 

An examination of such metallic sections will show two 
principal types of structure, one being essentially granular, 
and the other fibrous. 

The granular metals, of which tin may be taken as an 
example, present the appearance of exceedingly minute 
grains, each one being perfectly isolated from its neigh- 
bours by still smaller interspaces. The cohesion of such 
leaves is very small. 

The fibrous metals, on the other hand, such as silver 
and gold, have a very marked structure. Silver, especially, 
has the appearance of a mass of fine, elongated fibres, 
which are matted and interlaced in a manner which very 
much resembles hair. In gold this fibrous structure, 
although present, is far less marked. The influence of 
extreme pressure upon gold and silver seems to be, there- 
fore, to develop a definite internal structure. Gold and 
silver in fact appear to behave in some respects like 
plastic bodies. When forced to spread out in the direc- 
tion of least resistance their molecules do not move uni- 
formly, but neighbouring molecules, having different 
velocities, glide over one another, causing a pronounced 
arrangement of particles in straight lines. 

This development of a fibrous structure, by means of 
pressure, in a homogeneous substance like silver, is an 
interesting lesson in experimental geology, which may 
serve to illustrate the probable origin of the fibrous 
structure of the comparatively homogeneous limestones 
of the Pyrenees, Scotland, and the Tyrol. 

J. VINCENT ELSDEN 


ISLAND LIFE} 
II. 

1S the second half of his volume Mr. Wallace proceeds 

to apply to the elucidation of the history of the 
characteristic assemblages of plants and animals in 
islands, the principles laid down with so much explicitness 
in the first half. He points out that for the purposes of 
the naturalist a fundamental difference exists between 
islands that have once formed part of continents and 
those which have not. Continental islands are those 
which, by geological revolutions at more or less remote 
periods, have been severed from the continental masses 
in their neighbourhood. They are recognisably portions 
of the continental ridges of the earth’s surface. This 
relation is usually made strikingly apparent by the chart 
of soundings between them and the nearest mainland 
(Fig. 2). Further, in geological structure they resemble 
parts of the continents, like which they contain both 
old and new formations, with or without volcanic ac- 
cumulations. In some cases the evidence of recent 
severance from the adjacent continent is abundant. 
In others it is less distinct ; for example, where the 
islands are separated from the nearest land by a depres- 
sion of a thousand fathoms or more, and where their 
fauna, though abundant, is of a fragmentary nature, almost 
all the species being distinct, many of them forming dis- 
tinct and peculiar genera or families, while many of the 
characteristic continental orders or families are entirely 
absent, and in their place come animals to which the 
nearest allies are to be found only in remote parts of the 
world. Oceanic islands, on the other hand, exhibit no 
geological connection with any continental area, but owe 
their birth either to upheaval of the ocean floor or to the 
piling up of lavas and tuffs round submarine vents of 
eruption. Their geological structure is of the simplest 
kind. As Mr. Darwin long ago showed, they consist of 
volcanic rocks or of coral reefs, or of volcanic and coral- 
line formations combined. Ancient formations, so cha- 
racteristic of continental islands, are wholly wanting. 
These islands lie far removed from a continent, and rise 
from water of profound depth. Their fauna is in curious 
keeping with this isolation, for it contains no indigenous 
land-mammals or amphibians, but abounds in birds 
and insects, and usually possesses some reptiles. These 
animals or their ancestors must have reached the islands 
by crossing the ocean. 

Mr. Wallace first attacks the problems presented by 
the Oceanic Islands (Fig. 1). He describes the characters 
of the flora and fauna of the Azores, Bermuda, the 
Galapagos, St. Helena, and the Sandwich Islands, and 
endeavours in each case to show how the resemblances 
and differences between them and the plants and animals 
of the continents may be accounted for. The contrast 
offered by two groups of islands on either side of the 
American continent—the Bermudas and Galapagos— 
brings vividly before the mind the nature of the diffi- 
culties with which the author grapples, and the methods 
by which he seeks to solve them. In the case of the 
Bermuda group a series of coral islets having a total area 
of no more than fifty square miles rises from the very 
deepest depression in the Atlantic basin in 32° N. lat. at 
a distance of 700 miles from North Carolina. The chief 
elements in the fauna of these islands are birds and land- 
shells. Upwards of 180 species of birds have been 
observed, more than half of which belong to wading and 
swimming orders, while eighty-five are land-birds, of which 
twenty species are frequent visitors. Only ten species 
live as permanent residents on the island, and these are all 
common North American birds. No bird, and indeed no 
vertebrate animal, save a species of lizard, is peculiar to 
Bermuda. The feathered population of the islands is de- 

1 «Jcland Life ; or, the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and 
Floras,” &c. By Alfred Russel Wallace. (London: Macmillan and Co., 
1880.) Continued from p. 359 


392 


NAT GRE 


| Fed. 24, 1881 


rived from the North American continent, whence every year, 
especially during the autumnal storms, numbers of birds 
are blown out to sea. Most of these no doubt perish, but 
some succeed in reaching Bermuda. Hence from this 
constant introduction of fresh individuals there has been 
no development even of any distinct variety in the avian 
fauna. The land-shells include twenty species, of which 
at least four, or about a fourth of the whole, are peculiar. 
The proportion of peculiar land-shells among the Azores 
is about a half of the whole number of resident species. It 
is obvious that these organisms have comparatively feeble 
and uncertain means of transport as compared with birds. 
They may be carried only at widely separated and irre- 
gular intervals, enclosed in drift-wood from some other 
islanl or continent. Hence the conditions for their 
gradual change under the new circumstances of their 
insular home are exceptionally favourable. The flora of 
Bermuda contains a majority of tropical and West Indian 
plants, and includes a number of species identical with 


of the Galapagos however and that of the nearest part of 
South America a remarkable difference obtains. As 
usual, no indigenous mammalia or amphibia occur in 
these islands; but a few species of reptiles abound—land- 


| tortoises, lizards, and snakes, that find their nearest allies 


on the American continent, whence doubtless their 
ancestors at some remote period were derived. Cut of a 
total of fifty-seven species of birds no fewer than thirty- 
eight are peculiar. In particular the land-birds number 
thirty-one species, which are all, with but one exception, 
confined to the Galapagos, and more than half of them 
are so peculiar as to be ranked in distinct genera, though 
all are undoubtedly allied to birds inhabiting Tropical 
America. Mr. Wallace points out that every gradation 
can be traced, from perfect identity with continental 
species to marked generic divergence, and that “this 
diversity bears a distinct relation to the probabilities 
of and facilities for migration to the islands.” A species 
which is widely diffused and essentially migratory will, 
by frequent arrival of fresh individuals 
from the parent stock and intercrossing, 


continue unchanged, while others, in 


proportion to the rarity of their re- 


introduction, will be subject to all the 


variation which change of habitat and 


prolonged isolation may induce. The 


flora-of these islands includes 174 


peculiar flowering-plants, and 158 com- 


mon to other regions. Among the 


latter occur forms found both in North 


and South America, with some that 
rangeinto the West Indies. Sir Joseph 
Hooker has observed that the peculiar 
plants of the Galapagos are allied to 
forms now found in temperate America, 
or in the high Andes, while the non- 
peculiar species are such as live in 
tropical latitudes near the sea-level. 


These facts in zoological and botanical 


distribution the author seeks to explain 
by the meteorological conditions and 
geological history of the region. The 


Galapagos Islands lie in a tract of 


almost perpetual calms. The storms 


that annually transport a fresh immi- 


gration of birds and seeds to the Ber- 


mudas are there unknown; conse- 


quently the fauna and flora present a 


far greater contrast to those of the 


continent than is the case of Bermuda. 


The presence of West Indian species 


is regarded as pointing to the former 


Fic. 1.—Map of Bermuda and the American Ccast. 


those in the Southern States of the American Union. 
The origin of this vegetation is thus easily traced, first, 
to the operation of marine currents, whereby plants of 
the West Indian Islands have been actually observed to 
be washed ashore on Bermuda and to germinate there; 
next, of cyclones by which fine seeds transported in the 
higher parts of the atmosphere may doubtless be easily 
carried from the American continent; and thirdly, of 
birds, which among their feathers and in the mud adhering 
to their feet are known to transport living seeds to 
enormous distances. 

The Galapagos, though less distant from the west side 
of the American continent than the Bermudas are from 
the east side, rise nevertheless out of a profoundly deep 
ocean. The whole group of seventeen islands ranges 
over an area of 300 miles in length by 200 in breadth, being 
of volcanic origin, and still containing in the western 
islands numerous active volcanoes. Between the fauna 


d The darker tint indicates sea more than 1000 
fathoms deep, the lighter shows sea less than rooo fathoms. The figures mark the depth in fathoms. 


submergence of the Isthmus of Panama 
and the consequent drifting of those 
forms from the north-east, perhaps by 
a deflected branch of the Gulf Stream. 
Again, the affinity of a portion of the Galapagos flora 
to plants of northern or sub-alpine types is looked upon 
as an indication of that ancient southward migration of 
northern forms consequent upon the extension of the 
snow and ice of the Glacial Period. 

As examples of Continental Islands the author describes 
the British Isles, Borneo, Java, Japan, Formosa, and the 
Madagascar group. The difference between the plants 
and animals of continental islands and those of the 
neighbouring continents varies extensively, one main 
effective element in the case being the length of time 
during which insular relations have been established. 
Taking Britain as perhaps the most typical illustration of 
a large and recently separated continental island (Fig. 2), 
Mr. Wallace points out how many are the proofs of com- 
paratively recent subsidence, which he regards as the 
cause of the severance of Britain from the continent. 
Undoubtedly subsidence was one, probably the prircipal. 


ee 


VX 


ey 


Feb. 22, 1881 | 


NATURE 


393 


operation whereby the British Islands were isolated. We 
must not forget however that denudation also played its 
part. The excavation of the Strait of Dover, for example, 
may have been in large measure effected by streams 
diverging from the watershed and partly by the littoral 
erosion of the waves as they advanced upon the slowly 
foundering land. The recent date of the separation of 
Britain is shown by the identity of the fauna as a whole with 
that of Franceand Germany. But as compared with the 
continent, the British Isles are remarkably poor in species. 
In Germany, for example, there are nearly ninety species 
of land mammals; even Scandinavia possesses about 
sixty ; but Britain can boast only forty—-a number which 
in Ireland is reduced totwenty-two. Still more remarkable 
is the contrast presented by the reptiles and amphibia ; 
for while Belgium possesses twenty-two species, Britain 
can show no more than thirteen, and Ireland has only 
four. This progressive diminution of the fauna 
westward is even illustrated by animals possessing 
the power of flight, though, as might be supposed, 
it is in these cases less strongly marked. The 


_these is discussed the important question of the origin of 
the European element in the floras of the temperate 
southern latitudes. 

Enough has been said here to show the nature and 
value of this new contribution to scientific literature. 
Even where Mr. Wallace’s conclusions may be disputed, 
they are always of the most suggestive kind. His volume, 
as he acknowledges, is the development and application of 
a theory; but it is not written in the spirit of a mere 
partisan. Its facts are of course marshalled in such form 
as most effectively to sustain the theory; yet with a trans- 
parent directness and honesty of purpose that runs 
through the whole book, and gives it one of its great 
charms. The writer does not consciously shut his eyes to 
any of the difficulties of his case. Candidly admitting 
them, he presents such explanation as seems to him to 
offer the most likely pathway to their ultimate solution. 


twelve bats of Britain are reduced to seven in 


Ireland, the 130 land-birds to about 110. In 


Britain 1425 species of flowering plants and ferns 


are known, but in Ireland only 970, or two-thirds 


of the British flora. The reason assigned by Mr. 


Wallace for this poverty of species is the exten- 


sive submergence of the British Islands during 


the later stages of the Glacial Period. He be- 


lieves that the interval between the subsequent 


elevation and the final separation of Britain from 


the continent cannot have been of long duration. 


the migration westwards of a considerable part 


of the Post-glacial fauna and flora, but the insular 


condition was established before more than a 
part had succeeded in reaching Britain, where 
both the soil and climate would have been 
eminently favourable for the reception of the rest. 
The time that has elapsed since our area ceased 


to be continental has been long enough for the 
production of a few peculiar varieties. No dis- 
tinct species or variety of mammal, reptile, or 
amphibian has arisen. But we possess three 
peculiar birds—the coal-tit, long-tailed tit, and 


grouse—fifteen peculiar species of fresh-water 
fishes, sixty-nine lepidopterous insects, seventy-two 


beetles, four caddis-flies, and four terrestrial and 


fluviatile shells believed to be peculiar. In the 


flora the chief contrasts are exhibited by the 


It was indeed sufficiently prolonged to allow of 
H 


mosses and hepaticze, of which respectively seven- 


teen and nine forms appear to be peculiar. This 


mode of considering the British fauna and flora 


brings out in clear relief the relations between 
them and those of the continent, and their bear- 
ings upon the question of the origin of peculiar 
forms. Not only do the British Islands as a whole 
contain species or varieties that do not appear 
on the mainland of Europe, but some of our outlying 
islands, such as the Shetland Isles, the Isle of 
Man, and Lundy Island, possess each its local forms 
that are not met with on the main island. 

As “anomalous islands” the author classes together 
Celebes and New Zealand, the former because it belongs 
to no one of the six zoological regions of the globe, and 
cannot be certainly affirmed to have been united to a 
continent, the latter because in some respects it may be 
regarded as an oceanic, in others as a continental island. 
Celebes is supposed by Mr. Wallace to be probably a 
fragment of Miocene Asia, preserving down to the present 
time a few remnants of its Tertiary fauna, together with 
an intermixture of more modern types that have been 
introduced by ordinary means of dispersal. Three 
interesting chapters are devoted to New Zealand, and in 


Fic. 2.—Map of the shallow bank connecting the British Isles with the Continent. The 
dark tint marks sea of more than, the paler tint shows sea of Jess than, 1000 fathoms 
in depth. ‘The figures show the depth in fathoms. The narrow channel betwee 
Norway and Denmark is 2580 feet deep. 


He deserves the thanks alike of geologists and of biologists 
for a treatise, the appearance of which marks another 
epoch in the history of the doctrine of Evolution. 

ARCH. GEIKIE 


HONOUR TO MR. DARWIN 


ap Be following address to Mr. Darwin, from New 
Zealand, speaks for itself :— 
To Charles Darwin, Esq. 


S1r,—We, the members of the Council of the Otago 
Institute, beg to offer you our congratulations on this, the 


394 


NATURE 


[ Fed. 24, 1881 


twenty-first anniversary of the publication of your great | 


work, the “ Origin of Species.” 

However limited the field of our own labours may be, 
we cannot but be sensible of the influence which that 
work has had throughout the whole domain of Natural 
Science, and especially upon Biology, which, as one great 
comprehensive Science, may be said to owe its very exist- 
ence to the fact that you made belief in Evolution pos- 
sible by your theory of Natural Selection. 

We are glad to think that you have lived to see the 
almost universal acceptance of the great doctrine which 
it has been the work of your life to establish ; it is hardly 
an exaggeration to say that every important Botanical or 
Zoological discovery of the last twenty-one years, particu- 
larly in the departments of Embryology and Palzontology, 
has tended to fillup some gap in the evidence you had 
originally collected, and to make Evolution no longer a 
theory, but an established doctrine of Science. 

We hope that you may long live to continue your 
labours and to see the further spread of their influence 
upon all scientific thought and upon all higher scientific 
work. 

We are, sir, your obedient servants, 


TuHos. MORGAN HOCKER President 

F. W. HutTron : “> 
GeorGE H. F. ULRIcH Vice-Presdents 
GerEorGE M. THOMSON Ffon. Sec. 


HENRY SKEY Fon. Treasurer 
ROBERT GILLIES 


C. W. BLAIR 


Z Z JS 

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY | ee 
T. JEFFERY PARKER : 

Council 


W. MAcDONALD 
DONALD PETRIE 
Dunedin, New Zealand, October t, 1880. 


DEGREES TO WOMEN 
E trust the Grace which is to-day to be submitted to 
the Cambridge Senate, advocating the admission 
of women to receive University degrees, will meet with 
the approval of that body. In fact, as the 7zmes put it 
yesterday, the point was ruled ten years ago. “Cam- 
bridge, in conniving at its public examiners examining 
Girton and Newnham students precisely as if they were 
Trinity or Johnian scholars, gave in spirit what is now 
demanded. It seems ungenerous, and not very rational, 
for a university to let its authorities proclaim a man in 
the Senate House eighth wrangler, and inform Girton 
College that the real eighth wrangler was a woman. 
Even a country clerical passman would not venture to 
withdraw the existing licence; all that remains is for the 
Senate to ratify with a good grace the principle upon 
which its officials have long and openly been acting.” 
The following paper, which has been issued from Cam- 
bridge in view of to-day’s discussion, puts the case as 
fairly as it can be put :— 
Reasons why the university should be one of the leading 
centres of female education. 


1. Because no line can be drawn separating main subjects of | 


study or whole branches of learning into those suitable for men 
and unsuitable for women, or vice versd. No true classification 
of human knowledge will admit of the distinction, ‘* Propria 
quee maribus tribuntur, mascula dicas.” 2, Because the Uni- 
versity as a chief inheritor and transmitter of learning from 
generation to generation has no right to dissociate itself from 
any great movement connected with the advancement of learning. 


the higher studies of their time must be a great fact and factor 
in the future of education, 3. Because whatever elucational 
resources may be found elsewhere, those of Cambridge and 
Oxford are peculiar ; and though as long as there was no public 
demand for these resources except from male students they were 
properly applied only to male education, now that a demand 


has sprung up and persistently declared itself on the part of the | 


other sex, the university will incur the reproach of inhospitable 


partiality if it bars its doors, like a monastery, to female appli- 
cants for admission. 4. Because one of the legitimate wants and 
aspirations of the University—leisure for continued study and 
research—is likely to be promoted by increasing the amount of 
remunerative educational work done in the university. The 
more work, the more workers, and the more remuneration ; and 
out of work, workers, and earnings, the legitimate and sure 
outcome will be leisure for the worthiest work and workers. 
5. Because the education of women in England must, from irre- 
sistible national feelings and convictions, bz religious and 
Christian ; and if female education is céntred in the university 
a stimulus will be given to the best religious influences in study 
and life; and from these. the English universities have never 
for any long period been dissociated. 6, Because any mis- 
chievous consequences that might be feared, whether to the 
university or to the students, by the admission of women can be 
guarded against by suitable regulations, and still more by 
responsible authorities ; whereas the diversion of the interests 
and influences that are gathering round the question of women’s 
education from the university to other centres would be an irre- 
trievable step, isolating the university for the future from a 
movement of great force and promise. J. L. BRERETON 
February 16 


NOTES 
AT the anniversary meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, 
on the 11th inst., Mr, Hind, president, in the chair, the gold medal 
was presented to Prof. Axel Moller, Director of the Observatory at 
Lund, in Sweden, for his investigations on the motion of Faye’s 
comet. Prof. Mdller’s researches commenced in 1860, soon after 
attention had been directed to this comet by the offer of a prize for 


| the accurate determination of its orbit by the Society of Natural 


Sciences of Dantzic, and they have been continued to the present 
time, the comet’s track at each of the three subsequent returns in 
1865-66, 1873, and 1880-81, having been predicted with a pre- 
cision which has excited in no small degree the ‘admiration of 
astronomers ; indeed, at the re-appearance in 1873, M. Stephan’s 
first observation at the Observatory of Marseilles, showed that 
the error of predicted place was less than six seconds of arc, 
and after the last revolution, when the perturbations from the 
action of the planets were greater than in any previous revolution 
since the comet was first detected by M. Faye in 1843, the 
agreement between observation and calculation was still very 
close. One important result of these investigations has been a 
striking confirmation, from the motion of Faye’s comet, of the 
value for the mass of Jupiter deduced by Bessel from the elonga- 
tions of the satellites, the two values according within the limits 
of their probable errors. Prof. Méller also carried back the 
accurate computation of the perturbations to December, 1838, so 
as to ascertain the effect of a pretty near approach to Jupiter 
in March, 1841, upon the previous orbit, and having done this he 
examined the probable circumstances of a very near approach 
of the two bodies near the passage of the node in 1816, to 
which attention had been drawn by Valz soon after the comet’s 
orbit was fairly determined. Thus Moller’s laborious investiga- 
tions extend over a period of forty-three years, during which he 
has followed the motion of the comet with all the refinements of 
which the actual state of the science admits. It will be 
generally accorded that the medal has been well earned -in 
Prof. Méller’s case. The last occasion on which it was 
awarded for investigations of a similar kind was as far back 
as 1837, when the Astronomer-Royal presented the medal to 


Z ; | Rosenberger for his researches on the motion of Halley’s comet. 
The participation of women in the geueral and particularly in | 


Ar the anniversary of the Geological Society on Friday the 


| medals were awarded as follows :—The Wollaston medal to Prof. 


P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S.; the Murchison 
medal to Prof, Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., F.G.S.; the Lyell 
medal to Principal Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., of McGill 
College, Montreal ; and the Bigsby medal to Dr. Charles Barrois 
of Lille. The Wollaston Fund was awarded to Dr. R. H. 


a 


Feb, 24, 1881] 


Traquair, F.G.S., of Edinburgh ; the Murchison fund to Frank 
Rutley, F.G.S.; the Lyell Fund in equal parts to G. R. Vines 
of Sheffield, and to Dr. Anton Fritsch of Prague. 


In addition to the amount reported last week, we have received 
two guineas from Mr, William Black for the John Duncan Fund, 
making the total received through NATURE £67 45. 3d. 


THE first of Prof, Flower’s nine lectures on the Anatomy, 
Physiology, and Zoology of the Cetacea, in the theatre of the 
College of Surgeons, will be given on Monday next, The 
Com) arative Anatomy of Man, which formed the subject of the 
last four courses of lectures, is far from being exhausted, 
especially as the acquisition of the Barnard Davis collection has 
more than doubled the materials at the disposal of the lecturer 
for its illustration, But the work of removing, cleaning, arranging, 
and cataloguing the numerous specimens of this collection has 
absorbed so much time, that little has been left as yet for their 
scientific examination. As any attempt at exposition of the 
variations of the osteological structure of man, from which the 
evidence afforded by the newly-acquired specimens is omitted, 
would be very incomplete, it has been thought advisable to 
postpone the continuation of the subject to a future time. The 
anatomy of the group selected for consideration this year is of 
great interest, and particularly well illustrated in the Museum, 
(as it is a subject to which John Hunter devoted much attention, 
and upon which he published a valuable memoir in the Phz/o- 
Sophical Transactions for 1787, entitled ‘*‘ Observations on the 
Structure and (Economy of Whales”) :—General characters of 
the Cetacea ; Division into two di-tinct groups—JAZystacoceti or 
whalebone-whales, and Odontoceti or tooth whales ; Anatomy of 
the lesser rorqual (Lalenoptera rostrata) as a type of the AZysta- 
cocett ; Other whalebone-whales—rorquals (Salenoptera), hump- 
backs (A#-gaptera), and right whales (4a/ena); Anatomy of the 
porpoise (Phocena communis) as a type of the Odontoceti ; Other 
toothed whales—De/phinide, dolphins, beluga, narwhal, pla- 
tanista, &c. ; Physeteride—sperm-whale and its allies; Extinct 
Cetacea—position of the order in the animal kingdom, and 
relation to other groups. 


WE regret that the Lords should have thrown out the Bill on 
Tuesday for the Opening of Museums and similar places on 
Sundays. ‘he smallness of the majority leads us to hope that 
this forward and really beneficial step will be taken ere very 
long. As the Zimes very well juts it:—‘‘ The gravity of the 
question is that London has in its midst people to whom 
anything of the nature of intellectual toil—and prolonged 
sight-seeing is of that character—is essentially irksome. But 
they are human beings, and not lost to all salutary influence: 
It would be folly to despair of making the Sunday more toler- 
able than it is to them. Our climate does not often admit of men 
and women sitting out of doors talking or listening to elevating 
music. Some substitute must be found to put us on equality 
with the people of more sunny lands. It is the task of true 
friends of the working classes to suggest means by which, 
without any revolution in national ideas as to the sacredness 
of Sunday, they may be enabled to taste those simple and primi- 
tive pleasures—for example, the pleasure of pure repose of mind 
and body, or that of hearing music—which all, even the un- 
tutored, can enjoy. The movement is directed towards the 
cure of a real social evil, and those who oppose it are bound to 
suggest a more effectual remedy.” 


By an oversight, for which the American authorities must be 
held partly responsible, we did not observe that the volume on 
‘*Odontornithes,” by Prof, Marsh, briefly alluded to in NATURE 
of last week, was the same work which had already been reviewed 
in our columns as far back as September 16 of last year (vol, 
xxil. p. 457). Ihe monograph now sent to us bears no reference 


NATURE 


39DF 


to the previous issue of the same work, It is announced as a 
portion of the Survey of the Fortieth Parallel under Mr. Clarence 
King ; but no number is assigned to it as a volume of that 
splendid series of quartos. We hope that this new issue of the 
work will secure for it a still wider circle of readers, as it 
certainly adds additional lustre to the Survey of the Fortieth 
Parallel. 


Tue Hunterian Oration this year was so far original that the 
orator, Mr, Luther Holden, gave the results of some original 
research he has been making into the early life of John Hunter, 
It is usually said that Hunter, up to the time of his coming to 
London, led a completely idle life, giving no promise whatever 
of future eminence. Dr. Holden however thinks he ha 
proved that Hunter, instead of being apprenticed to a cabinet- 
maker, entered Glasgow University when he was seventeen 
years old, and had the advantage of a regular training under the 
eye of Cullen. Whatever may be thought of the evidence Mr. 
Holden adduced, he has certainly opened fresh ground, quite 
deserving to be worked out by future orators, 


THE freedom of the Cutlers’ Company was conferred upon 
Sir Henry Bessemer last week, At the dinner which followed 
he stated that a young and rising American ‘‘ city” had been 
named after him, 


CAN any reader send us information concerning the fate of 
the instruments which belonged to the late Dr. Dick of Broughty 
Ferry, Scotland, the author of a number of theologico-scientific 
works (‘‘ Philosophy of a Future State,” &c.), rather remarkable 
for their advanced views, considering the time at which they 
were published—about forty years ago? He is said to have left, 
among other things, a large telescope, the subsequent history and 
present possessor of which we are anxious to trace. 


THE Commissariat-General of the Paris International Exhi- 
bition of Electricity are anxious that all requests for space be 
sent in as soon as possible, and not later than March 31. 


THE following are prize-subjects lately proposed by the 
Society of Arts and Sciences at Utrecht :—Researches on the 
development of one or several invertebrate species of animals 
whose history is not yet known; exact anatomical description 
of the larva and nymph of the common cockchafer (Aelolontha 
vulgaris); means of purifying the rivers of Holland so as to 
render them potable, and expense of application on a large 
scale; results of experiments in recent times as to the move- 
ment of liquids and the resistance they offer to moving bodies ; 
study of the theories of electric phenomena in muscles and 
nerves ; critical afer¢u of the methods for determining the place 
occupied in bodies of the aromatic ceries by substituted atoms 
and groups of atoms (according to Kekulé and Ladenburg’s 
theory regarding benzol) ; quantities of heat liberated or absorbed 
in the allotropic change of two or several simple substances ; 
heat given by the moon in different phases. Papers may be 
written in French, Dutch, German, English, or Latin, and ~ 
must be sent to the Secretary, Baron R. Melvil, of Lynden, 
before December 1, 1881. The prize is a diploma of honour 
and 300 Dutch florins. 


A CLASSIFIED list of the books published in Germany during 
1880, just issued by Hinrichs of Leipzig, shows the number of 
publications to be steadily increasing. We find a total of 14,941 
new works against 14,179 in 1879. The largest number belongs 
to the class of school-books and other works for the young, viz., 
2446 (against 2175 in 1879). We give the further classes in a 
descending scale, adding the numbers for 1879 :—Law, politics, 
statistics, conveyancing, 1557 (1683); theology, 1390 (1304) ; 
Belles Lettres, 1209 (1170); medicine, 790 (732); natural 
history, chemistry, pharmacy, 787 (841) ; historical works, 752 


396 


NATURE 


| Fed. 24, 1881 


(680) ; popular works, almanacs, 657 (642); fine arts, steno- 
graphy, 627 (584) ; commerce, 583 (577) ; classical and oriental 
languages, archeology, mythology, 533 (481); modern lan- 
guages, old German literature, 506 (485) ; agriculture, 433 (421) ; 
miscellaneous writings, 423 (378); architecture, railways, engi- 
neering, mines, and navigation, 403 (384); bibliography, ency- 
clopedias, 377 (278); geography, travels, 356 (306); war, 353 
(337); maps, 301 (300); mathematics, astroncmy, 201 (158) ; 
philosophy, 125 (139); forests and game, 112 (103); free- 
masonry, 20 (21). 


Messrs. MACMILLAN AND Co. have in preparation, and will 
publish this year, “ A Course of Instruction in Zootomy (Verte- 
brata),” by T. Jeffery Parker, B.Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology 
in the University of Otago. ‘The work will consist of full direc- 
tions for the dissection of the Lamprey, Skate, Cod, Lizard, 
Pigeon, and Rabbit, and will be illustrated by numerous wood- 
cuts from the author’s original drawings. 


THE death is announced of Count Alexander Erdédy, a 
Member of the Pesth Academy of Sciences, vice-president of 
the Society for Plastic Art, and a liberal patron of science and 
art. His death occurred on January 24 at Vep (Hungary); he 
was eighty years of age. We regret also to announce the 
death of Herr Gabriel Koch, :a Frankfort tradesman and an 
eminent lepidopterist, whose ‘‘Schmetterlingsbuch” has a wide 
reputation in Germany. He died at Frankfort-on-Main on 
January 22, aged eighty. On February 2 died Prof. Gorini at 
Lodi, well known by his works on volcanic phenomena, He 
was a teacher at the Lodi High School, and one of the warmest 
advocates of cremation in Italy. 


EARTHQUAKES continue at Berne. A new shock, directed 
from east to west, was felt in the north of the town on February 
8, at 5.25 p.m. Shocks of earthquake are reported from Braila 
on February 11 at 7h. 15m, a.m., and from Galatz at the same 
time. 

Ir was not difficult to foresee that the warm weather which 
prevails now in the Alpine region, together with immense quan- 
tities of snow fallen during the previous days, would occasion 
several avalanches. On February 13 terrible one descended 
from the slopes of Mont Pourri, and covered with a mass 
of snow, thirty feet deep, the village of Bréviéres, in the 
Tignes commune. Thirty-two persons were buried under the 
snow, and no less than three hundred peasants from the neigh- 
bourhood were engaged in sinking pits to reach the buried 
houses. Of the buried, twenty-five were found alive, four 
were dead, and three are not yet discovered. Two days later, 
another avalanche descended from the same mountain, and 
covered a space 10,000 metres wide, with a mass of snow 
fifteen to twenty metres deep. The pressure of air displaced 
by the avalanche was so great that all the windows of the 
village were broken within a few seconds. The quantity of 
- snow fallen during the previous days was so great that all 
communication was broken up between Bréviéres village and 
the bottom of the valley ; a peasant from Tignes took thirteen 
hours to reach the next town, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, travelling in 
the snow more than one metre deep. 


THE provincial governments of Navarre and Logrofio (Spain) 
have received the royal sanction to the necessary outlay for 
constructing and maintaining meteorological stations in these 
provinces. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


ENCKE’s COMET IN 1881.—So far as can be judged without 
the calculation of the perturbations since 1878 this comet will 
again arrive at perihelion’about November § in the present year. 
In 1848, when the comet passed this point of its orbit on 


November 26, it was detected with the 15-inch refractor at 
Cambridge, U.S., on August 27, as ‘fa misty patch of light, 
faint and without concentration : its light coarsely granulated, so 
that were it not for its motion it might be mistaken for a group 
of stars of the 21st magnitude” (Bond). The theoretical intensity 
of light at this time was 0'21, and we find that, assuming the 
perthelion passage to occur on November 8, the comet should have 
this degree of brightness soon after the middle of August next, so 
that it may be anticipated observations will be practicable with 
the waning moon about the 20th of that month. The last peri- 
helion passage took place on July 26, 1878, the period of revo- 
lution at that time being 1200°58 days accordins to the late Dr. 
von Asten, The aphelion distance is 4°c879, the perihelion 
distane2 0°3335, and the minor semi-axis 1°1675 (the earth’s 
mean distance from the sun = 1). The approach to the orbit of 
the planet Mercury is still very close (0'031) in about 126°°5 
heliocentric longitude. The nearest approximation of the two 
bodies that has occurred since the discovery of the comet’s 
periodicity took place on November 22, 1848, when their dis- 
tance was only 0°038. It is known that from his investigations 
on the motion of Encke’s comet, von Asten inferred a much 
smaller value for the mass of Mercury than had been previously 

. . I 

SS12" _—_—. 
assigned, viz. TRG) 

CINCINNATI MEASURES OF DOUBLE STARS.—Mr. Ormond 
Stone has issued an important series of measures of double stars 
made at the Observatory of Cincinnati, which is under his 
superintendence, between January 1, 1878, and September 1, 
1879. The number of stars measured is 1054, of which 622 are 
south, and 432 north of the celestial equator: 560 belong to 
Struve’s catalogue, 171 were discovered by the Herschels, 162 
by Mr. Burnham, and 85 were found with the Cincinnati re- 
fractor, which has an aperture of eleven inches. The measures 
of the southern stars have a special interest, as there are com- 
paratively few previous ones upon record. In his introduction 
Mr. Stone points out the most notable differences between the 
Cincinnati measures of angle and distance, and those of Struve, 
Sir John Herschel, and others; we shall refer to several of these 
cases in a future column, ‘The volume is published by the Board 
of Directors of the University of Cincinnati, and will be a 
necessary addition to the libraries of those who are making the 
double stars their special study. Mr. Stone acknowledges his 
obligation to the Manual of Double Stars lately published by 
Messrs. Crossley, Gledhill, and Wilson, and M. Flammarion’s 
**Catalogue des Etoiles Doubles et Multiples en Mouvement 
relatif certain.” 


THE MINOR PLANETS IN 1881.—The usual supplement to 
the Berliner astronomisches Jahrbuch (1883), containing its spe- 
cialty, elements and ephemerides of the small planets for the 
present year, has been issued. We have in it approximate 
ephemerides for every twentieth day throughout’ the year of 210 
planets, the latest being No. 217, and accurate opposition 
ephemerides of 58. Three planets are omitted for want-of proper 
data for computation, viz. No. 99 Dike, No. 155 Scyl/a, and 
No. 206 Hersilia, A glance at this long series of ephemerides 
shows how wide a range over the heavens the apparent tracks of 
these small bodies present: thus we find Zzphrosyne in opposition 
in 524° south declination, in the constellatioa Indus, and Viobe 
in the vicinity of ¢ Persei, with 43° north declination, A favour- 
able opportunity for repeating observations for determination of 
the solar parallax would have been afforded if, in the first place, 
the actual position of No. 132 Gthra were pretty accurately 
known, and if Mr. Gill were able to utilise his heliometer at the 
Cape of Good Hope: this planet on February 28 being distant 
from the earth less than 0°84 of the earth’s mean distance from 
the sun, with 47° south declination and rather greater brightness 
than a star of the ninth magnitude. 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


HAUTEFEUILLE AND CHAPPUIS state (Comptes rendus) that 
when a high tension spark is passed through a mixture of nitrogen 
and oxygen, ozone and ‘‘pernitric acid” are produced, but the 
latter compound is readily decomposed with production of a less 
oxygenated body and oxygen. When the electric discharge is 
passed through air in presence of water vapour very noticeable 
quantities of nitric acid are formed. The same observers have 
examined the absorption-spectrum of ozone and have recognised 
certain bands which they state are also found in the solar 


Feb, 24, 1881 | NATURE 


397 


spectrum. They think that the blue colour of the sky may 
probably be partly due to the presence of ozone. 


BRAME (in Comptes rendus) recommends the use of baryta in 
place of sodium carbonate and charcoal, in the ordinary dry test 
for arsenic. If arsenious oxide is heated with baryta a mirror is 
obtained consisting partly of metallic arsenic, and partly of 
barium arsenate: the test does not succeed so well with arsenious 
sulphide. 


A CONSIDERABLE deposit of crystallised (octahedral) sulphur 
has been found under the soil of Paris, where organic refuse 
matter has long accumulated. The sulphur appears to be a 
product of the deoxidising action of the carbon compounds 
present in the refuse on the calcium sulphate of the soil. 


M. LouGHININ continues, in the Yournal of the Russian 
Chemical Society, his interesting researches on the quantities of 
heat produced by burning alcohols of the ally] series ; he pub- 
lishes in the /owrnal the figures corresponding to two new 
bodies of this series (CgH,,O and C,)H» 0), which figures, 
together with those he has already published in the Compies 
vendus (vol. xci.), allow him to draw a complete table of the 
calories disengaged by the whole of the alcohols of this series. 


THE first number of the Gazetta Chimica Italiana for the 
present year is devoted, with the exception of a paper by M. Fileti 
on gas analysis, to papers on organic chemistry: these include 
work on Camphor Derivatives by Schiff; on Picrotoxin by 
Paterno and Oglialoro; and on Synthesis of Aromatic Aldehydes 
by the use of Chromy] Dichloride, by Paterno and Scichiloni. 


IN the course of a paper on the Photo-chemistry of Silver 
Chloride, Eder states (in Wien. Akad. Ber.) that this substance is 
more sensitive to light when substances which absorb chlorine 
are present, than when in the pure state. To develop the latent 
image he recommends especially ammonium ferrocitrate, and 
hydroquinone along with ammonium carbonate. 


By the action of potassium dichromate and sulphuric acid on 
caffeine, Hinteregger has obtained as much as 40 per cent. of 
dimethyl parabanic acid, and 39 per cent. of the monomethyl 
acid from theobromine. 


IN continuation of his investizations into the action of hydro- 
chloric acid on metallic chlorides, Ditte describes (Com/¢. rezd.) 
several new hydrated salts which crystallise from aqueous solu- 
tions when these are saturated with hydrochloric acid. In the 
absence of hydrochloric acid hydrated salts with more water of 
crystallisation are always produced. The following table contains 
the principal results obtained by Ditte :— 


Aqueous solution. Solution saturated with HCl at 12”. . 
Grams of salt {Grams of salt 
dissolved = Crystals which form dissolved Crystals which form 
per litre. per litre. 
700 CaCl,.6H,O | “270 CaCl,.2H,O 
500 SrCl,.6H,0 20 SrCl,.2H,O 
720 MgCl,.6H,O 65 MgCl,.2H,O 
415 ... (CoCl,.6H sO ae) 2CoCl,.3H,0 
600 ... NiCl,.6H,O 5 and CoCl.H,O 
870... MnCly.4H,O | 40 NiCl,.H,O 
630 ... CuCl,.2H,0 190 MnCl,.H,O0 
e290 CuCl,. H,0 


M. PoucueET describes in Compt, rend. a method for destroying 
organic matter before testing for mineral poisons in contents of 
a stomach, &c. ; the method is based on the oxidising action of 
Bee awd ones sulphate followed by addition of sulphuric 
acid, 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


IN a little mathematical note in the Comptes rendus M, Thollon 
investigates the general equation for the passage of light through 
a prism, and thence deduces the proposition that for every prism 
there is an angle of minimum resolving power. Differentiating 
the general equation with respect to the index of refraction, he 
obtains, first, a differential equation expressing the dependence 
of the angular distance between two rays upon the dispersive 
index. A separate differentiation with respect to the angle of 
incidence yields a second differential equation expressing the 
dependence of the apparent width of the slit as seen through the 
prism upon the angular aperture cf the slit, as viewed from the 
prism through the collimator. Hence a relation can be obtained 
between the angular distance between two rays and their apparent 


breadth. Further examination of the equations shows that for a 
certain incidence there will be a minimum of resolution (z.e an 
incidence at which the rays are least well defined), and that for 
another incidence there will be a minimum of dispersion; these 
two incidences being symmetrically related to the angle of 
incidence corresponding to minimum deviation, M. Thollon 
states that these deductions may be readily verified by the 
following experiment :—A dense flint glass prism is adjusted in 
the position of minimum deviation for the rays D upon its sup- 
porting table in the spectroscope, lit by a sodium flame. ‘The 
slit is then narrowed or widened until the two yellow rays are 
just in mutual contact. On then turning the prism around its 
axis so as to increase the angle of incidence the two rays are 
seen to separate and to become perfectly distinct, he angular 
distance between them diminishing all the while, ‘ut if the prism 
be turned in the opposite direction, so as to decrease the angle 
of incidence, the yellow band is seen to become wider, but without 
being resolved into two rays. Perhaps this research may explain 
why the so-called ‘‘half prism” spectroscope failed to realise all 
the hopes of its inventor. 

RECENT observations by Hrn. Wiillner and Grotrian (Wied. 
Ann. No. 12) seem to prove that the specific volume of 
vapours is independent of the size of the space in which it is 
determined. They also confirm Herr Herwig’s result, that 
vapours always undergo precipitation before reaching the so- 
called maximum tension. Further, the tension at which conden- 
sation begins is found to have a relation to the maximum tension, 
which depends on the nature of the liquid, but is nearly inde- 
pendent of the temperature. Experiments made in order to find 
in what measure vapour must be compressed so as to present 
maximum tension, gave the unexpected result, that there is in 
general no maximum tension in the sense hitherto accepted ; but 
that the tension of saturated vapours, even when they are in 
contact with a large and excessive quantity of liquid, is perceptibly 
increased by compression, 


THE varieties of the electric discharge in gases are fully 
investigated by Herr Lehmann in a recent paper (Wied, Ann 
No. 12). The chief conclusion is that there are four well- 
characterised modes of discharge to be distinguished, viz. glow, 
brush, band, and spark discharge; and these may all be 
obtained in air of ordinary (as well as of less) density, and also 
in other gases, with inserted resistances and breaks, and 
with sharp and rounded form of electrodes, at great or small 
distances. The principal characteristics are these:—1. Glow- 
discharge ; positive glow, negative light pencil, consisting of two 
parts separated by a dark space. 2. Brush-discharge ; positive 
brush, consisting of stem and branches; negative light-pencil. 
3. Band-discharge; positive light with two places of intermit- 
tence, sometimes stratified, and separated from the negative glow 
by adarkspace. 4. Spark-discharge: band of light connecting 
both electrodes ; with two places of intermittence, brushes of 
metallic vapour at both ends, the positive longer, the negative 
thicker ; sometimes oblique dark spaces. 


THE influence of traction and vibrations of a metallic wire on 
its electric conductivity is the subject of a paper by Dr. De 
Marchi in the Reale Lst. Lomb. Rend. (vol. xiii. fasc. xix.). The 
results he arrives at are summed up thus: I. Any traction of a 
metallic wire increases in general its resistance ; when the traction 
is very slizht however there is diminution instead of increase ; 
with increase of traction the case comes under the general law. 
2. In general the increments are proportional to the increments 
of traction, up to a certain limit, beyond which the variations of 
resistance are manifested in sudden bounds, indicating an instan- 
taneous and profound perturbation of the molecular state of 
the wire. 3. The law of increments of resistance is apparently 
independent of that of the elongations. 4, Any vibration of a 
wire is accompanied by a variation of resistance generally very 
perceptible. In most cases there is decrease of resistance if the 
vibration be sonorous, and more so if harmonic; increase, if 
the vibration be silent. This last law however requires con- 
firmation. 


Ir is known that M. Plateau distinguishes between an internal 
and a surface viscosity of liquids, a distinction which Signor 
Marangoni does not consider warranted. Herr Oberbeck (Wied. 
Ann. No, 12) has approached the question experimentally thus : 
A brass cross is hung bifilarly with two platinum wires by one 
arm ; its horizontal arms carry weights whose positions can be 
varied by screwing, so as to vary the swing; it carries a mirro 
reflecting a scale, and to the lower arm is attached a thin plat 


398 


NATURE 


| Fed. 24, 1881 


or cylinder of brass to swing in the liquid at various depths. 


The whole can be raised or lowered with a micrometer screw, 
and it is thrown into slight oscillation by means of a magnet. 
A rectangular glass vessel is used for the liquid. The author 
finds that with distilled water the resistance increases suddenly 
and to a quite consid-rable extent whenever the upper edge of 
the plate comes into the free surface, and he does not doubt this 
is due to increased friction in the surface layer. The increase 
of resistance from the last previous position of the plate was 
60'9 per cent., and with four aqueous salt solutions there was also 
an increase, varying between 75°1 to 54°I per cent. Precautions 
adopted to prevent the presence of foreign particles on the sur- 
face (filtration, covering with moist filter-paper, &c.) had hardly 
any influence on the values. Long-standing of the liquid in- 
creased the surface-resistance, and stirring then diminished it ; 
still it was always considerable at first. With M. Plateau, Herr 
Oberbeck found a decrease of resistance at the surface in some 
liquids ; this was comparatively small (alcohol II‘g per cent., 
oil of turpentine 12°6, sulphide of carbon 2673, &c.). A small 
addition of alcohol to water lessens its surface-resistance pro- 
perty in a marked degree, and with further addition the mixture 
behaves like pure alcohol. 


IN a paper on dew and fog (Zetts. fiir Meteor. Bd. xv. cE 
381) Herr Dines, from observations of the former with watch- 
glasses exposed on different substances at night, estimates the 
annual dew formation to be about 35°5 mm. (on grass, 26 mm.) ; 
at the best 38mm. The average nightly dew (in 198 observa- 
tions) was hardly o°1 mm. ; in a few cases 0°3 mm. ; average on 
grass.0°07 mm, Moruing fog along a river course arises when 
the water is warmer than the air over it. The evaporation 
goes on more quickly than the vapour can be carried away ; 
hence the latter is condensed and spreads as fog (similarly with 
fogs over the Gulf Stream), The evening fog on moist low-lying 
meadows is due to the fact that the grass surface cooled by radia- 
tion cools the lowest air-layers, so causing condensation of the 
aqueous vapour. The fine drops of dew, Herr Dines estimates, 
are about [o’0or mm, in diameter ; while the finest rain-drops 
have a diameter of 0°3 to0°33mm. The particles of fog vary 
in diameter from 0°016 to 0°127 mm. 


THE colour-changes presented in the microscope by variou$ 
substances (chiefly mineral) of uneven surface, when immersed 
successively in liquids of different refracting power, have been 
made by Herr Maschke (Wied. Ann. No, 12) the basis of a 
method of distinguishing substances. Such changes may be had, 
e.g. with small glass particles, observed in water, in oil of 
almonds, and in mixtures of the latter with oil of cassia, The 
dark and the bright parts of the image show different series of 
colours, That the effects are simply due to prismatic action of 
the object appears from the fact that they may be got without the 
microscope, by looking ¢.g. through a tube at a piece of rock- 
crystal in water, &c. For mineral objects Herr Maschke used 
five liquids ; amylic alcohol and glycerine, besides the three just 
named, By various mixtures of these a series of liquids is 
obtained, giving any desired index of refraction from 1°333 to 
1606. (Coloration begins when the refraction of the liquid is 
near that of the object; when the former greatly exceeds the 
latter a certain stability of colour appears.) The method is not 
applicable to bodies opaque in the microscope, or having too 
strong colours of their own; nor yet to bodies having a greater 
index of refraction than oil of cassia, It may, too, prove 
difficult sometimes to find a liquid sufficiently indifferent to the 
object. Herr Maschke indicates how the refractive indices of 
substances may be compared by his method, and (a more 
difficult task) numerically determined, He also gives a number 
of his own determinations. 


AN interesting study, by Herr Holtz, of the electric discharge 
in insulating liquids appears in Wiedemann’s Annalen, No. 12. 
Among other results the length of spark is found hardly at all 
dependent on quantity or on retardation of the discharge, 
Naturally it differs in different liquids, but only in one liquid 
(sulphuric ether) did it increase with velocity of rotation of the 
disk (this appears to be due rather to the mode of preparation 
than to the nature of the liquid), As in air, with dissimilar 
electrodes, the spark-length is conditioned by the polarity of the 
electrodes. The thickness, sound, and luminous force of the 
spark depend chiefly on the electric quantity and the retardation. 
The spark is thinner than in air, but brighter (brightest in <ul- 
phide of carbon, least bright in olive-oil and ether). It is more 
crooked than in air, Throughout its length it shows innumer- 


l 


able very small dark spaces. With large striking distance it 
appears within a largely-branching brush. (The appearances of 
the brush discharge, gct best in petroleum, are also described.) 


From data obtained in various parts of Germany, Austria, 
and Switzerland (Wied, Ann, No. 12), Herr Holtz finds a well- 
marked increase in risk from lightning in these parts since 1854, 
while no such increase appears in the number of thunderstorms. 
Hence he infers the causes to be telluric, and he suggests as pro- 
bable causes the clearing of forests and increase of railways 
(attracting storms more to towns and villages) ; further, the 
increased use of metal in buildings. 


Pror. BomBinr has lately communicated to the Bologna 
Academy an interesting paper on spherohedry in crystallisation 
(Az. Sci. Ind, No, 21), by which he means any known manner 
of production of a fibrous-radiate structure. From a survey of 
facts he concludes that the great phenomenon of crystallisation 
comprises two different orders of attractive energy. In the first 
there is simple centralised attraction, with concurrence of the 
elements attracted toa common centre. In the second there is 
attraction with directive polarity according to certain axes of 
symmetry, and concurrence of the attracted elements towards 
nodal points in a certain reticular system, Between these two 
kinds of crystallogenic action there are many gradations, or 
rather syntheses, superpositions, Further, the correlations 
between the sphericity characteristic of the liquid state; the 
spherohedry of globosity with radiated structure; the isometry 
of radiate pseudocubical groups; leading from the amorphous 
state of liquids to the absolutely reticular state of the true crys- 
tals (isotropic, orthoprismatic, and clinohedric) confirm the 
cubicity of the first system, and at the same time point to some 
further significant terms in the progressive series of the physical 
states of inorganic matter. Prof. Bombini indicates three con- 
ditions: I. Spherohedric crystallisation ; II. Polyhedric crys- 
tallisation ; and III. Pseudocubic, &c., crystallisation. The 
third may be considered intermediate between the first and the 
second ; the first appearing as a term of transition between the 
sphenay of the liquid state and the polyhedry of physical 
solidity, 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


THE February Proceedings of the Geographical Society opens 
with Capt. Holdich’s paper on the ‘‘ Geographical Results of 
the Afghan Expedition” ; but of more importance from a geo- 
graphical point of view are Mr. Wilfred Powell’s ‘ Observations 
on New Britain and Neighbouring Islands.” The latter is 
accompanied by a sketch-survey of the north-east portion of 
New Britain by the author, which of itself is of considerable 
value. A correspondence between Admiral Ryder, Naval Com- 
mander in-Chief at Portsmouth, and the Council of the Society 
follows, by which we learn that the latter, in declining his offer 
to establish certain medals, are of opinion that ‘‘the plan of 
granting medals to officers and seamen for independent surveys 
is impracticable,” and further that they do not consider it their 
business to take any action in regard to an international congress 
of hydrographers, 


Unper the title of ‘‘ Union Géographique du Nord de la 
France,” a geographical association was formed some time ago, 
with its head-quarters at Douai, and branches at Amiens, Arras, 
Boulogne, Cambrai, Charleville, Dunkerque, Laon, Lille, St. 
Omer, St. Quentin, and Valenciennes. In the first part of the 
Bulletin of the Union, which has been sent to us, the list of 
members covers about fifty pages. The object of the associa- 
tion is by every means to promote the development and spread 
of geographical knowledge, investigating specially questio s re- 
lating to the industry,.commerce, and agriculture of the region of 
the Nord. The Bulletin, a volume of some size, contains papers 
on the Exploration of the Sahara, Nordenksjéld’s last voyage, 
a Project for Exploring the Wellé, the Proposed Canal between 
the Atlantic and the Mediter:anean, and the Maritime and Com- 
mercial Statistics of Dunkerque. In the Comptes rendus of the 
meetings of the various societies are abstracts of papers on a 
great variety of subjects, and there are besides a geographical 
chronicle and a pretty full bibliography. We have no doubt 
the Association will do much good in the North of France. 


PrRoF. UJFALVY has left St. Petersburg on his return from 
Central Asia. The journey he made during last summer was 
not so successfulas his preceding ‘travels, because of a serious 


Feb, 24, 1881 | 


illness which kept the traveller in his bed for more than two 
months. Nevertheless the ethnographical collections brought in 
are very interesting, 

THE Smolenshy Vestnik gives the following information as to 
Colonel Prjevalsky. He was born on April 12, 1839, at the village 
of Otradnoye, in the Smolensk district. His mother and his old 
nurse, both still alive, were the first who inspired him with a 
warm love of nature, and his life, on the estate of his mother, 
contributed to the development of this love. He studied at the 
Smolensk College (gymnasium), and notwithstanding the desire 
of his mother, who wished him t» enter a university, he entered 
as a sub-officer in the Polotzk infantry regiment. Promoted to 
the grade of officer, he went to the military academy, and soon 
we find him as an officer during the Polish campaign, and after- 
wards as a teacher of geography and history in the cadet school 
at Warsaw. A keen hunter, he could not stay long ina city, 
and he sjon undertook a journey to the Oussouri. This deter- 
mined his ultimate career; the richnes; of the fauna and the 
pleasure of hunting in uncivilised countries determined him to 
undertake further journeys, first to Southern Mongolia, then to 
Lob-nor, and finally to Tibet, which he reached last year. 


UNDER the title of ‘‘ The Expiring Continent,” Mr, A. W. 
Mitchinson gives an account of his travels in Senegambia, 
mainly of journeys he made up the rivers Senegal and Gambia. 
The work contains no dates, thus detracting somewhat from its 
scientific value, and abounds with speculations and reflections on 
all sorts of subjects connected with Africa. His notes on what he 
saw during his journeys are of value as showing the recent con- 
dition of the country visited, and, as may be inferred from the 
title, the author’s views are rather desponding. His inference 
from his observations on the small district visited by him, that 
the African continent as a whole is ‘“‘expiring,” is far too 
sweeping. While like the other continents it contains ‘‘ desert 
places,” the bulk of it, so far as we knowit, is capable of the 
greatest industrial development. That its waters are drying up 
as; a whole there is no reason for believing; but evidently in this 
and in other respects there is ample room for trustworthy scientific 
examination. ‘The publishers are Allen and Co. 


THE February number of Petermann’s Mitthetlungen begins 
with a paper on the Chukchis on the shores of the Arctic 
Ocean, their number and present position, based on two articles 
by O. Nordqvist and Lieut. Hovgaard. Dr, Gustav Radde 
contributes the first part of a narrative of his journey to Talgsch, 
Aderbeijan, and Sawalan in 1879-80. From the papers in the 
North American Rewiew a long account is given of M, Désiré 
Charnay’s explorations of the ruins in Central America. There 
is an elaborate and detailed map, with accompanying text, 
illustrating Dr. Junker’s journey through the valley of the 
Chor Baraka, in the Egyptian province Taka in 1876, 


Messrs, W. AND A, K. JOHNSTON have sent us the first two 
parts of a ‘‘ Statistical Atlas of England, Scotland, and Ireland,”’ 
by Mr. G, Phillips Bevan. These two parts include Religious 
and Educational Statistic:, and subsequent parts will be devoted 
to Industry, Crime, Marine, Agricultural, Railways, Geology, 
and Mining, &c. ; there will be fifteen parts in all. In the first 
two parts a vast amount of useful statistics are graphically 
exhibited on the maps, and systematically arranged in separate 
tables. Much of the information thus exhibited could not be 
obtained from any other single source. 


No. 90, the concluding part of the fifteenth volume of the 
Zeitschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society, contains the con- 
clusion of the late Dr, Erwin von Bay’s interesting journal of his 
journey from Tripoli to Ghat and Air, and a paper on the region 
which caused the recent contest between Chili and Bolivia, by 
Dr. C. Marten. The rest of the number, 130 pages, is occu- 
pied with the bibliography of the past year, one of the most 
valuable features of this most important of geographical journals, 
The bibliography is practically exhaustive, is arranged in a 
thoroughly systematic manner, and includes works relating to 
all departments of geography. 


M. SrprriAkoFF has safely returned to St. Petersburg, where 
he had a brilliant reception. Ata meeting of the Society for the 
Furtherance of Russian Commercial Navigation, M. Sibiriakoff 
pointed out the grave errors contained in Russian marine charts, 
which caused two of his captains to mistake the Gydan Bay for 
the Yenisei Estuary. Thy entered it on September £2, and soon 
met with thick-packed ice. The Word/and had stopped at once, 
the Oskar Dickson proceeding some 100 versts further to the 


NATURE 


| soath. 


399 


Thence the travellers had journeyed to Obdorsk, with 
Samogedes as guides. 


THE Riippell fund at Frankfort-on-the-Main, which was 
founded in honour of the Nestor of African travellers, Dr, 
Eduard Riippell, and for the exclusive object of supporting 
scientific exploration, consisted of the sum of 35,570 marks 
(1770/.) at the end of last year. From this the Senkenberg 
Naturforschende Gesellschaft, at their last meeting, granted the 
sum of 3000 marks (150/.) to Dr. Wilhelm Kobelt of Schwan- 
heim, an eminent conchologist. Dr. Kobelt is now engaged 
upon the investigation of the existing and fossil molluskan fauna 
of the Mediterranean, and had during the last few years re- 
peatedly visited Italy and Sicily for this purpose. His next 
tour, which is to extend from March to September, will com- 
prise Spain, Algeria, and, if possible, Morocco. We may 
remind our readers that the journeys of Drs, Noll and Grenacher 
to Spain and the Canary Islands in 1871, as well as those of 
Verkriizen to Newfoundland in 1874 and 1875, were also largely 
supported by grants from the Riippell fund. 


GEODETICAL measurements will be begun next spring on the 
stretch between Great St. Bernard and the St. Gothard for 
connecting together the Italian and the Swiss geodetical net- 
work, 


A NEW expedition will start, next spring, for the exploration 
of the Obi, under the direction of M. Moiséeff. Six pupils of 
the Marine School of Arkhangelsk will accompany him. 


THERE is some talk of uniting the three geographical societies 
of Switzerland, those of Berne, Geneva, and St. Gall, as well as 
those which may be created afterwards, into one great Swiss 
geographical association, which will have a central committee 
and an annual general assembly devoted to the study of geo- 
graphical questions, and especially of those which have a 
commercial interest. 

UNDER the title of ‘* Das Frauenleben der Erde,” illustrated 
by A. von Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, A. Hartleben of Vienna has 
published a highly interesting description of the social life of the 
women of all nations. The work contains much that is of 
ethnographical value, and the numerous well-executed illustra- 
tions, as well as the attractive style of the text, are likely to 
render it of popular interest. 


THE Austrian Section of the German and Austrian “Alpine 
Society held its annual meeting at Vienna, on January 26 last. 
The Section now numbers 1302 members. 

ON January 29 a branch of the Berlin ‘‘ Centralverein” for 
commercial geography was formed at Diisseldorf. The new 
branch is directing its mainattention to South Africa. 


In the place of the late Dr. Mook, Dr. Manthey has joined 
the Riebeck expedition, which will leave Cairo in the course of 
a few days, and will, first of all, proceed to Socotra by way of 
Aden. 


ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC 
PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS AND THEIR 
RELATIONS TO SUN-SPOTS, RAINFALL, 
AND FAMINES 


M R. F. CHAMBERS, in his valuable and highly interesting 

article (vol. xxiii. p. 88) under the above title, has made an 
important step towards placing therelation betweensecular weather 
changes and sun-spots ona more substantial basis thanit has hither- 
tooccupied. This has been mainly effected by his employing the 
most reliable data we at present possess of the latter phenomena, 
thereby bringing the salient features of their #/zoy variations for 
the first time into direct ‘comparison with a definite meteoro- 
logical element, which, it may be remarked, possesses the distinct 
advantage of representing the integrated effect of changes 
occurring throughout the eatire atmospheric envelope, 

He has also shown how the remarkable lag which takes place 
in the occurrence of the critical barometric epochs at the more 
easterly stations may be utilised to previse famines from a 
knowledge of what is going on at more westerly ones, 

This however would only be practicable if we knew for certain 
that famines in all the districts mentioned. invariably took their 
rise from one set of conditions, such as failure of the usual 
summer rains, preceded and accompanied by high barometric 
pressure. In attributing the majority of the famines occurring 
within the tropics to such a proximate cause, Mr. Chambers 


400 


NATURE 


| Feb. 24, 1881 


| 
would no doubt be correct ; but this relation between pressure | stations, could only be utilised to previse famines if we knew 


and rainfall, strange though the fact may appear, does not appa- 
rently hold in the winter in the sub-tropical region of Northern 
India, nor is famine always caused in ¢#zs region by a failure of 
summer rain alone. 

For as Mr. S. A. Hill has shown in a paper on ‘‘ Variations 
of Rainfall in Northern India” (‘‘Indian Meteorological 
Memoirs,” Ne. vii. p. 204), a /eavy winter rainfall generally 
coincides with a Aigh barometric pressure over Northern India, 
and vice versd, while two of the most severe famines in Mr. 
Chambers’ list, viz., those of 1837-33 and 1860-61, in Northern 
India were caused by ‘‘a partial failure of the summer rains, 
followed by an almost complete absence of the usual winter 
fall.” 

It is straining the evidence therefore to attempt to relate the-e 
famines, as Mr. Chambers has done, to the previous occurrence 
of high barometric pressures, since if the law just quoted held 
good, the famine of 1860-61 was mainly due to the absence of 
winter rain, caused by the dow pressure which observations show 
actually existed at that time, and the samme was very probably 
the case in 1837-38, a strongly-marked epoch of .sun-spot 
maximum, 

It has moreover been shown by Mr. Hill in the paper just 
referred to that ‘‘the summer rains of the North-West Provinces 
and Rajpootana have failed quite as often when. sun-spots were 
numerous as when they were few, but whereas in the former 
case a comparatively slight scarcity has generally been developed 
into a severe famine through the failure of the winter rains, this 
has seldom happened in the latter case, the distress at such 
times being alleviated by the in-gathering of the rabi harvest, 
rendered more abundant than usual by a copious winter fall.” 
This saving clause with respect to the winter rainfall of Northern 
India does not unfortunately apply to Southern India, where 
failure of the usual mcnsooa supply means drought and probably 
famine until the next monsoon, z ¢. for an entire year. 

On the whole it is plain that high and low atmospheric 
pressures differ specifically in their effects in different parts of 
the Indian peninsula, since while the former is generally acso- 
ciated with drought in the southern provinces, the latter in the 
winter is almost equally fatal in the northern provinces. If 
therefore the future prevision of famines is to be based on the 
empirical law connecting high barometric pressure with the occur- 
rence of drought and famine, propounded by Mr. Chambers, it 
must be remembered that this law strictly applies only to regions 
where the annual water-supply is dependent upon the monsoons 
alone, and therefore lying for the most part between the two 
tropics. 

It may be remarked that at least half of the Indian peninsula 
lies north of the tropic of Cancer. 

Though I am sceptical as to the idea of motion from west to 
east, conveyed by the existence of a lag at the more easterly 
stations, this in no way affects the possibility of prevision as long 
as the lag remains fairly constant. I am therefore of opinion 
that in regard to this question the evidence furnished by Mr. 
Chambers is exceedingly valuable, and that so long as districts 
are only taken into account that lie within the tropics, such as 
Southern India, the possibility of prevising famines by noting 
the occurrence of barometric maxima at more westerly stations 
may in time be accomplished. For Northern India, and pro- 
bably other similar sub-tropical regions, the matter is at present 
more complicated. EK, DouGLas ARCHIBALD 


P.S.—In the preceding letter I have only dwelt upon the 
limitation to be applied to Mr. Chambers’s conclusions in the 
case of Northern India, It is obvious however that there are at 
least two distinct difficulties to be explained, before they can be 
finally accepted, even for countries within the Tropics, viz. (1) 
Why the barometric waves should commence on one meridian 
rather than on another, and (2) if, as Mr. Chambers thinks, the 
waves of pressure travel slowly round the earth, why they do 
not reappear at the place where they started after an interval of 
about one year and eight months (calculated from the lags given 
in Mr, Chambers’s paper). At present there does not appear to 
be the slightest evidence to show that they reappear at all, and 
if they do not, when and where do they disappear ?—E, D. A. 


Mr. E. D. ARCHIBALD states in his friendly criticism of my 
paper on *‘ Abnormal Variations of Barometric Pressure in the 
Tropics, and their Relations to Sunspots, Rainfall, and 
Famines,” that the occurrence of a decided lag in the baro- 
metric movements at easterly, as compared with westerly 


for certain that famines in those districts to which the method is 
applied invariably took their rise from ome set of conditions, 
such as failure of the usual summer rains, preceded and accom- 
panied by high barometric pressure. It appears to me, how- 
ever, that if the variations of the rainfall can be: definz/ely related 
in azy manner to the corresponding variations of the barometric 
pressure, there is no necessity for such a limitation. If, for 
instance, in Northern India, ‘‘a heavy winter rainfall generally 
coincides with a high barometric pressure, and vice versa,” as 
Mr. Archibald seems prepared to admit, then the occurrence in 
the wezter of a high pressure would portend a /eavy winter rain- 
fall, and wce versa, and in this case the failure of the winter 
rains might be foreseen by observing the progress eastward of 
the barometric wzzz2ma, 

But I am not aware that the relation above mentioned between 
the barometric pressure and the winter rainfall of Northern India 
has yet been worked out with sufficient definiteness for the pur- 
pose in view, for although there does appear to be some evi 
dence in favour of that relation when the average pressure and 
the Zofa/ rainfall of the whole winter are taken into account, yet 
on the other hand it is now known that the short rainy periods 
of the winter are periods of relatively Jow pressure. It is not 
improbable that these periods of low pressure, and the rainfall 
which accompanies them, are connected with the feeble cyclonic 
disturbances which (as appears from the charts of storm- 
tracks published by the American Government) occasionally 
enter the north-west of India in the winter months and travel 
down the Ganges Valley sometim:s as far as Bengal. The facets 
concerning these winter rains seem to accord far better with this 


| view of their origin than with the old notion of their connection 


with the upper anti-monsoon current, an idea which I observe 
has now been abandoned by Mr. Blanford, the Meteorological 
Reporter to the Government of India, although up to a recent 
date it was still retained by some other Indian meteorologists. 
The question is as yet involved in much obscurity, and I must, 
with the above suggestion, leave it to be dealt with by those 
more immediately concerned, 

But whatever the relation between the winter rainfall and the 
barometric pressure may be, I cannot help thinking that Mr. 
Archibald attaches an exaggerated relative importance to these 
winter rains, for, from the register of Allahabad, the capital of 
the province, it appears that the winter rain amounts on the 
average to only 1°54”, whereas the average summer rain amounts 
to 36°84”. And similarly at Delhi, the average total winter rain 
is only 3'0r”, while that of the summer is no less than 24°60". 
Such being the case, I think it would be difficult to prove that 
“the famine of 1860-61 in the North-West Provinces was 
mainly due to the absence of the winter rain,” more especially as 
the summer rain of 1860 in that province was deficient to the 
extent of nearly one-half, the fall having amounted to only 54 
per cent. of the average. 

Neither does it seem clear why the methods of forecasting the 
general character of a coming season, which are suggested in my 
paper, should of necessity be applicable only to intertropical 
regions, It is true that I have dealt only with barometric data 
furnished by stations lying within the tropics, but my only reason 
for doing so was that there seemed a better prospect of obtaining 
definite results from the records of tropical stations, where the 
weather is generally of a comparatively settled character, than 
from those of stations situated in extra-tropical regions, where 
the weather is generally more disturbed. Indeed I am not 
without hope that the results I have obtained will induce 
European meteorologists to take up the subject with a view to 
the possibility of prevising the general character of coming 
seasons in Europe from observations recorded in America. 

FRED, CHAMBERS 


STANDARD THERMOMETERS 


EAR SIR,—The Kew Committee have instructed me to 
forward you the enclosed Memorandum on Standard 
Thermometers, and to request on their behalf that you would be 
so good as to publish it in NaTuRE if you consider it suitable 
for insertion. G. M. WHIPPLE 
Kew Observatory, Richmond, Surrey, February 9 


Dr, LEONARD WALDO has recently communicated to the 
American Journal of Science an article entitled ‘‘ Papers on 
Thermometry from the Winchester Observatory of Yale College.” 


Feb. 24, 1881] 


NATURE 


401 


In it he treats of the errors of three standard thermometers con- 
structed for him at the Kew Observatory, and after describing 
minutely the instruments, the manner in which he verified the 
accuracy of the positions of the fixed points, and the appliances 
he used in the work, proceeds to state that he then rigorously 
examined the thermometers for errors depending on calibration. 
Of these he says : ‘* The results of our calibration are given in 
the following table. The observations were made with Appa- 
ratus II., and special care was taken to guard against any changes 
of temperature. The reduced results are as follows, where each 
line is the mean of three observations :— 


Com- 
Thermo- Date Extreme puted Correction for 
meter. 7 readings. length of calibration error. 
col. 
1880. ° a | 6 A A 
Kew, 578} Oct. 15 }- 11+ 33°6 | 32°487 At 32 C.=+0°007 


+ 31°0+ 65°1 | 32°507 65 C.=—o'014 


+ 63°7+ 986 | 32°487 99 C.=-+0'007 
Kew, 584) Oct. 15 |+ 32°2+ 82°3| 49040, 79 F.=+07021 
+ 76°1+127 3) 49°068 | 123 F.= —0'006 
+119'I+170'1 | 49°078 166 F.= —o'016 
+162°2+213°2 | 49°060 212 F.=+0*ooI 
Kew, 585| Oct. 15 |— 1'0+ 50°9| 49°813, 50C.=+0°015 
|-+ 49'°0+100°9 | 49°843, I100C.= 0°000 


+ 99°1+151°7 | 49°820 
+148°9+201'0 | 49°807 
| +199°2+250°8 | 49°747 


150 C.= +0'008 
200 C.= +0029 
250C.=+0°110 


REMARKS.—The observations were all made by daylight, and 
at one sitting for each thermometer. The extreme variations of 
the temperature of the room during the observations as measured 
by two thermometers, one at each end of the tube being measured, 
were as follows :— ' 

Kew, 578 = o'o F. 
584 = o'1 F. 
5S 0711 F. 

The length of the column used for the Kew calibration, and 
by which the thermometers were graduated, was 5°°026 C., for 
Kew 578, 10°'405 F. for 584, and 10°°673 F. for Kew 585. We may 
therefore conclude that between o° and 100° C, the errors of the 
three Kew standards depending on the calibration are practically 
insensible ; for the errors shown above are too small to be 
certainly detected, owing to the width of the lines which make 
up the graduation of the thermometer scales. 

Accidental errors of graduation could not be guarded against 
except by the direct examination of every degree, and that 
accordingly has been done. 

The tedious examination of each degree was accomplished 
with the aid of Prof, J. E. Kershner. We used the apparatus I., 
and each degree was measured twice. The resulting means were 
expressed in terms of hundredths of one division of the eye-piece 
micrometer, and gave a subdivision of about z)55, sgy5, and 
aro Of 1° in the cases of Kew 578, 584, and 585 respectively. 
There were about 2300 separate micrometer readings made, and 
the result of the reductions shows that no sensible accidental 
errors have been introduced into the graduations of these 
standards. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


CAMBRIDGE,—The latest edition of the schedule of subjects 
for the Moral Sciences Tripos fully recognises physiology. In 
the advanced part of the examination special knowledge is 
required (1) of the physiology of the senses and of the central 
nervous system; (2) of experimental investigations into the 
intensity and duration of psychical states ; and (3) of such facts 
of mental pathology as are of psychological interest. Questions 
will also be set relating to the philosophic treatment of the 
relation of body and mind as regards both the method and the 
general theory of psychology. Mr. Lewes’s ‘‘ Problems of Life 
and Mind,” vols. iii.-v., Dr. Michael Foster’s ‘‘ Text-book of 
Physiology,” Book iii, Wundt’s ‘‘ Physiologische Psychologie,” 
Fechner’s ‘‘ In Sachen der Psychophysik,” Mandsley’s ‘‘ Physio- 


logy of Mind” and ‘‘ Pathology of Mind” are among the books 
recommended, 


Mr. J. M. H. Munro, D.Sc. Lond., F.C.S., has been 
elected resident Professor of Chemistry in the Wilts and Hants 
Agricultural College, Downton, Salisbury, and he will act in 
co-operation with Prof. A. H. Church, M.A.Oxon. Dr. Munro 
headed the list in first-class honours in chemistry at both of the 
examinations for the B.Sc. degree, and obtained the chemical 
exhibition of the University in 1874. He was also classed in 
botany and vegetable physiology, and in logic and moral philo- 
sophy, and took the Doctor’s degree in 1877. He recently 
received a grant from the Chemical Society in aid of a research 
on which he is at present engaged. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


THE Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (‘ Science”), part 
5, vol. iil., series 11, December, 1880, contains—W. R. Roberts, 
on the satellite of a line meeting a cubic.—A. H. Anglin, mathe- 
matical notes.—Prof, J. P. O'Reilly, on the directions of main 
lines of jointing observable in the rocks about the Bay of Dublin, 
and their relations with adjacent coast-lines ;—also on the corre- 
lation of the lines of faulting of the Palamow coal-field district, 
Northern India, with the neighbouring coast-lines.—Prof. E. 
Davy, preliminary report on some new organic nitroprussides.— 
Prof. W. King, preliminary notice of a memoir on rock-jointing 
in its relation to phenomena in physical geography and physical 
geology.—J. F. Knott, on some anomalies in human anatomy 
(woodcuts).—Prof. Mackintosh, note on the occurrence of a 
premaxillo-frontal suture in the skull of the koala (Phascolarctos 
cinereus (with plates 10 to 13).—G. H. and G. A. Kinahan, 
eurites or basic felstones of Silurian age. —G. H. Kinahan, sup- 
posed Upper Cambrian rocks in the counties of Tyrone and 
Mayo. 


THE Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.— Polite 
Literature and Antiquities,” part 2, vol. ii. series 11, December, 
1880, contains the following papers of interest to the student of 
nature :—W. Frazer, description of a great sepulchral mound near 
Donnybrook (in Co, Dublin), containing human and animal re- 
mains, as well as some objects of antiquarian interest referable to 
thetenth or twelfth centuries (woodcuts).—G. Allmann Armstrong, 
particulars relative to the fiuding of human remains in the neigh- 
bourhood of Dundalk (woodcut).—R. J. Ussher and G. H. 
Kinahan, on a submarine crannog at Ardmore, Co. Waterford 
(plate 1 and woodcut).—Thos. Plunkett, on an ancient settlement 
found about twenty-one feet beneath the surface .of the peat in 
the coal-bog at Boho, Co, Fermanagh (plate 2). 


THE Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, vol. ii. 
new series, part vii., November, 1880, contains:——V. Ball, on 
the mode of occurrence and distribution of diamonds in India.— 
A. B. Wynne, on some points in the physical geology of the 
Dingle and Iveragh Promontories.—Dr. C, A. Cameron, on the 
action of water upon mercuric sulphate.—J. H. Luby, voluntary 
act of self-destruction by the worker bee.—G, F. Fitzgerald, 
F.I.C.D., notes on fluorescencex—Thos. Plunkett, on chert in the 
limesténe of Knockbeg, county of Fermanagh (woodcut).— 
R. M. Barrington, M.A., on the introduction of the squirrel into 
Treland (with a map). 

Vol. iii., new series, part i., January 1881, contains :—C. E. 
Burton and Howard Grubb, on a new form of ghost micrometer 
for use with astronomical telescopes (plates 1 to 4).—E. T. 
Hardwan, on a travertine from Ballisodare near Sligo, containing 
a considerable amount of strontium.—W, Smith, preliminary 
note on the manufacture of paper from melic grass (Molinia 
cerulea).—D. M‘Ardle.-—On some new or rare Irish | | epaticz 
(with plates 5 and 6).—Percy Evans Freke, on North American 
birds crossing the Atlantic (with tables), 


Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South 
Wales, vol. xiii., 1879 (Agents in London Messrs. Triibner 
and Co.), contains—On the ‘‘gem”? cluster in Argo, by H. C. 
Russell. —On the water of Sydney Harbour, by the Rev. W. H. 
Sharp.—On the anatomy of Distichopora, with a monograph of 
the genus, by Rey. J. E. Tenison- Woods (two plates).—On the 
geological formations of New Zealand compared with those of 
Australia, by Dr. Jas. Hector.—On the languages of Australia 
in connection with those of the Mozambique and of the south of 
Africa, by Hyde Clarke.—On Ofételia preterita, F. v. M., by 
Baron von Miiller, witha plate (an alisma-like leaf-impression 
from the green-bush quarry near to Parramatta, apparently allied 


402 


NATURE 


[ Fed, 24, 1881 


to Of¢telia ovalifolia).—On a compiled catalogue of latitude 
stars, epoch 1880, by H. S. Hawkins.—On the occurrence of 
remarkable boulders in the Hawkesburg rocks, by C. S. Wilkin- 
son.—On the Wentworth hurricane, by H, C. Russell.—Abstract 
of the meteorological observations taken at the Sydney Observa- 
tory, by H. C. Russell. (January to December, 1879). 


American Fournal of Science, December, 1880.—Note on the 
zodiacal light, by H. C. Lewis.—The early stages of renilla, 

E. B. Wilson.—Geological relations of the limestone belts of 
Westchester, co. New York, by S. D. Dana.—Abstract of some 
palzeontogical studies of the life-history of Spirifer brevis, H, by 
H. S. Williams.—Index to vols, xi.-xx. 


Fournal of the Franklin Institute, January.—Experiments 
with the Parkins machinery of the steam yacht Anthracite, by 
Chief-Engineer Isherwood.—The determination of silicon and 
titanium in pig-iron and steel, by Dr. Drown and Mr. Shimer. 
—An adaptation of Bessemer plant to the basic process, by Mr. 
Holley.—The value of the study of the mechanical theory of 
heat, by Mr. Wolff.—Blasting, by Mr. Kirk.— On the whole- 
someness of drinking-water, by Mr. Haines.—An inquiry into 
the laws of the beautiful in music, by Prof. Clarke, 


THE last number of the Jowrnal of the Physical and Chemica 
Society (Russian) contains, besides minutes of meetings, papers 
on the electrolyse of formic and mellite acids, by M. N. Bunge. 
—On the variations of the quantity and pressure of oxygen in the 
lungs, by Prof. Ivan Setchenoff.—On products of the decompo- 
sition of albuminous matters, by Dr. Danilevsky.—On hops, by 
M. Tchekh; and several smaller notes on organic chemistry.—In 
the physical part, M. Shvedoff continues his researches on hail, 
trying to establish by various very interesting arguments the 
cosmic origin of hail, which he considers as a variety of meteo- 
rites.—M. Reinboth describes a new naphtha barometer which 
has a great sensibility—M. Van der Flith gives several new 
mathematical formule concerning electrodynamics. 


THE Schriften der physikalisch-dkonomischen Gesellschaft 2u 
Konigsberg (1879, i. and ii.; 1880, i.).—These parts contain 
the following papers :—On the Uyedo fungus, by Dr. Caspary.— 
On the Gastraa theory, by Prof. Kupffer.—On pisciculture, by 
Dr. Seidlitz.—On some acoustical and optical experiments with 
the telephone, by Prof. Berthold.—On the phonograph, by 
Dr. Zenker.—On the ancestors of carnivora, by Dr. Albrecht.— 
What is species, and what variety ? by Dr. Caspary.—On bacteria, 
by Dr. Baumgarten.—On the observations made at the station 
for measuring the temperature of the soil in various depths at 
the Botanical Gardens at KGnigsberg, by Prof. E. Dorn,—On 
some periodical phenomena in inorganic nature, by Dr. Jentsch. 
—On the ancestors of hoofed animals and Edentata, by Dr. 
Albrecht.—On the rhythmical motions in the animal and in the 
human body, by Prof. Griinhagen.—On the fauna of New 
Zealand, by Prof. Zaddach.—On the archzopteryx, by Prof, 
Zaddach.—On the ancestors of rodentia, by Dr. Albrecht. 


Bulletin de? Academie Royale des Sciences (de Belgique), No. 12, 
1880.—A pplication of the tuning-fork to study of the propagation 
of sound and vibratory movements in liquids, by M. Montigny.— 
On the falling stars of November 27, 1880, observed at Brussels 
Observatory, by M. Houzeau.—On two plesiosaurs of the lower 
lias of Luxembourg, by M. van Beneden.—Science and the 
imagination (lecture at public séance), by M. Stas.—Voyages 
and metamorphoses of a drop of water, by M. Van der 
Mensbrugghe.—Announcement of the results of prize compe- 
titions.—Reports on memoirs, &c. 


Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, No. 1, January 15.—Singular 
verticillate configuration (in the form of a rose) of theflaminze of 
crystallised water, by Prof. Bombicci.—On storms, by Prof. 
Cantoni.—A modification of the Ruhmkorff coil, by Dr. Scarpa 
and S, Baldo.—Two new species in the Mediterranean fauna, by 
Prof. Richiardi—Some ammonites of the middle lias, by S. 
Canavari.—Paramagnetism and diamagnetism of liquids, by 
Prof. Marangoni.—Experiments proving that air saturated with 
moisture is an insulator as well as dry air, by the same. 


Journal de Physique, January.—Atmospheric absorption of 
ultra-violet radiations, by M, Cornu.—Experimental researches 
on the psychrometer, by M. Macé de Lépinay.—On the division 
of instantaneous currents, by M. Brillouin.—Electric explorateur 
of M. Trouvé, by M. Guriel.—M. Trouveé’s apparatus for exa- 
mination of deep natural or artificial cavities, by the same.—On 
resultant sounds, by M. Nicotra. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 


Royal Society, February 3.—Prof. Owen read a third part 
of his description of the great extinct horned lizard of Australia 
(Megalania prisca). The materials had been transmitted from 
the same formation ard locality-petrified drift-bed of King’s 
Creek, Queensland, as the subjects of Part 2, and were discovered 
by Mr. Geo. Fred. Bennett, about thirty feet from the fossil 
skull. They proved to be, when recomposed, the opposite 
extremity of the animal, and consisted of an ossificd sheath of 
the tail, in annular segments supporting conical cores of horn-like 
weapons. Of these segments the three terminal cnes had 
coalesced ; a fourth detached segment fitted the antepenultimate 
ring. Each ring, save the last, supported two pairs of horn-cores, 
of which dimensions were given and drawings exhibited of the 
natural size. From tip to tip of the dorsal pair of the antepen- 
ultimate segment measured ten inches. In this segment was 
included the corresponding vertebra, exemplifying the caudal 
modifications of the type of the dorsal, sacral, and other vertebrae 
of Megalania described in the parts communicated to the Royal 
Society in 1858 and 1880. The author then entered into an 
exhaustive review of analogous caudal armatures in other animals. 
The nearest approach, in the class Reptilia, was made by the 
small existing Australian lizard (Moloch horridus) and by the 
Uromastix princeps, recently described by the late Arthur W. E. 
O’Shaughnessy, of whom Prof. Owen spoke in terms of deep 
regret and respect. 

The supports of the caudal horns or spines in the above small 
lizards retained the immature condition of fibro-cartilage, Ex- 
amples where histological development had proceeded to ossifica- 
tion were cited from recent and fossil Repti/ia. In the latter the 
nearest approach to the caudal armature of A/egalania was pre- 
sented by the Scelidosaurus, of the Dorsetshire lias. A still 
nearer resemblance to the singular structures described in the 
present paper was made by certain extinct species of gigantic 
armadillos, e.g. Glyptodon asper, from South American tertiaries. 

The author associated this repetition or lingering of a reptilian 
osteodermal character in the mammalian class with the previously- 
known repetition of the horny scutation of lizards in the mam- 
malian pangolins (A/amzs) ; he referred to the low dental condition 
in the numerous similar simple teeth of armadillos and the still 
lower characters which had suggested the ordinal term ‘‘ Eden- 
tata.” He cited the tenacity of life and long continuance of the 
muscular irritability after death in the sloths; the winter sleep 
of bats and certain rodents, with their faculty of circulating blood 


in the venous state ; the quills in hedgehogs and porcupines as 
indicative of a repetition of a dermal character of an oviparous 
class ; the anatomical modifications giving a faculty of flight, as 
in Pterosaurians. 

The sole common organic character of, and peculiar to, such 
members of a large and otherwise much varied group of mam- 
mals was a cerebrum, small, not extending upon the cerebellum, 
smooth or with few and simple convolutions, but with the hippo- 
campal commissure ascending to connect the hemispheres above 
the lateral ventricles, and so constituting the anthropotomical 
“corpus callosum.” A still lower group of mammals had no 
such commissural development, but this common cerebral charac- 


ter was associated with as many and great variations of inferior 
structures as in the Lissencephala. The Lyencephala included 
the marsupials and monotremes. 

In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper the 
chief objection was an averment that the author had no evidence 
of its subjects having belonged to A/egalania prisca, and that 
they were more probably parts of some Chelonian reptile. 

To this the author replied that he had evidence both negative 
and positive. From the year 1857 he had received parts of the 
skeleton of a great terrestrial reptile from localities hundreds of 
miles apart in the provinces of New South Wales, Victoria, 
Queensland, but not a single fragment of a carapace, plastron, 
or other characteristic part of a Chelonian; every large rep- 
tilian fossil was not only ‘‘ Lacertian,” but of the very genus and 
species Megalania prisca. Perhaps no part of the axial skeleton 
was more differentiated than the occipital vertebra in a lizard 
and a tortoise. In the latter the elements remained as distinct 
as in a fish; in the former as confluent as in the mammal ; this 
at least was the case in Mo/och as it is in Wegalanza. Finally 
Prof. Owen pointed to the vertebra in organic connection with 
the tail-sheath in the fossils last received ; it was Lacertian, not 


| Chelonian, 


Feb. 24, 1881 | 


NATURE 


403 


©€Qna Method of Destroying the Effects of Slight Errors of 
Adjustment in Experiments of Changes of Refrangibility due to 
Relative Motions in the Line of Sight,” by E. J. Stone, F.R.S., 
Director of the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. 

Let arrangements be made for the reversion of the prisms 
without any disturbance of the other optical arrangements, in- 
cluding, of course, the position of the cylindrical lens, if one be 
used. Any slizht errors of adjustment which prevent the light 
from the star and the comparison light from falling upon the 
train of prisms under the same optical circumstances, so far as 
mere direction is concerned, will have opposite effects in the re- 
versed positions of the prisms ; but the separation of the emergent 
lights due to relative motion will remain unchanged by the 
reversal of the positions of the prisms. 

If, therefore, the apparent change of refrangibility due to 
relative motion remains unchanged by the reversion of the 
prisms, all doubts about the effects of errors of adjustment will 
be removed. Butif the results in the reversed positions of the 
prisms sensibly differ, then the existing errors of adjustment 
must be removed, or their effects allowed for by taking a mean 
of the results in reversed positions, before any reliance can be 
fairly placed upon the determination of relative motions in the 
line of sight. 

A reversible spectroscope was arranged by me, and made by 
Mr. Simms, some years ago, but I have never since had an 
equatorial, with a good driving clock, under my control, with 
which the experiment indicated could be properly tried. 

With the direct prisms now ia use the required reversion can 
be easily arranged. I am not likely for some time to have the 
use of a good equatorial, and I therefore publish the plan with 
the hope that some one more fortunately situated may give it a 
fair trial. 

The experiment is a crucial one, and in my opinion should be 
tried. 

Chemical Society, February 3.—Dr. Gladstone, vice-pre- 
sident, in the chair.—It was announced that a ballot for the 
election of Fellows would take place at the next meeting of the 
Society.—Th2 following papers were read :—On the estimation 
of organic carbon in air, by Drs. Dupré and Hake. The carbon 
is converted into carbonic acid by passing the air over heated 
oxide of copper; the carbonic acid thus produced is absorbed by 
baryta water, and the carbonate is converted into sulphate which 
is weighed. The carbonic acid present in the air, as such, is 
estimated in a similar way and deducted. The mean quantity of 
organic carbon in ten litres of ordinary London air was 0°000154 ; 
Boussingault and Verser found ten times as much. The authors 
also refer to the results obtained by Pettenkofer in his well- 
known experiments on the elimination by animals of H and 
CH, Pettenkofer seems to have entirely neglected the organic 
carbon in the atmosphere, and thus his results require very 
important corrections.— On jthe action of the copper-zinc couple 
upon nitrates and the estimation of nitric acid in water analysis, 
by M. W. Williams. Some strips of clean zinc foil are placed 
in a wide mouth stoppered bottle and covered with a 3 per cent. 
solution of copper sulphate: when the zinc has acquired a suffi- 
cient coating of copper the solution is poured off and the copper 
zinc couple washed. ‘The water to be analysed is then poured 
on the couple and allowed to remain for some hours at 24° C., 
after the addition of a little pure sodium chloride. The nitrates 
are thus completely converted into ammonia, which is estimated 
by nesslerising.—On the position taken by the nitro-group on 
nitrating the dibromo-toluenes, by R. Nevile and A. Winther.—> 
On some of the various derivatives of toluene and the toluidines, 
by R.«Nevile and A. Winther. 


Anthropological Institute, January 25.— Anniversary 
Meeting.—Edward B. Tylor, F.R.S., president, in the chair.— 
Dr. Tylor, the retiring president, gave the annual address on 
the year’s progress of the science of man and civilisation. He 
described the excellent arrangements in the United States for 
supplying Indian agents, missionaries, and others in contact with 
native tribes, with manuals to guide them in collecting informa- 
tion as to laws, customs, languages, religion, &c., the very 
memory of which will die out with the present generation of 
Indians. He contrasted the active intelligence of the United 
States in this with the fact that the Dominion of Canada, though 
kindly and wise in their practical management of the Indians, 
do not seem alive to the value of the scientific knowledge which 
is being lost among them for want of a little cost and trouble in 
collecting it. Dr. Tylor also spoke of Prof. Flower’s study of 
the mountaineers of Fiji, the Kai Colo, a race who have the 


narrowest skulls of all mankind. The public have not yet 
become aware of the value of minute measurement of skull- 
dimensions, but Prof. Flower has clearly shown in it a means of 
bringing the stuly of races under arithmetical calculation, a step 
which will do much to bring anthropology among the exact 
scienves.—The new president is Major-General A, Pitt-Rivers, 
F.R.S. 


Physical Society, February 12.—Prof. W. G. Adams in 
the chair.—This being the annual general meeting, the yearly 
report was read by the Chairman. ‘rhe report showed that the 
Society now numbered 321 members as against 298 of last year. 
Two eminent members, Sir T, H. Elliot and the Rey. Arthur 
Rigg, had been lost by death. The Society had decided to 
republish the scientific papers of Dr. Joule ina collected form. 
—Dr. Atkinson, treasuter, read the balance-sheet for the past 
year, which showed the Society to be flourishing. —The new 
Council and Officers were then elected, Sir W. Thomson retain- 
ing the presidency.—Mr, Bakewell and Herr G, Wiedemann 
were created Honorary Members.—Votes of thanks were passed 
to the Lords Commissioners of the Council of Education for 
granting the use of the meeting-room to the Society, to Prof. 
Adams and to Dr. Guthrie, the demonstrator, the auditors, and 
the secretaries, Professors Rheinhold and Roberts. —The meeting 
was then resolved into a special general meeting, and a resolution 
put and carried giving the Council power to invest money of the 
Society in the name of the Society, or of persons appointed by 
them, in certain stock, home and foreign.—The meeting was 
then constituted an ordinary one, and Mr. T. Wrightson, C.E., 
read a paper by Prof. Chandler Roberts and himself on the 
density of fluid bismuth. By means of the oncosimeter, an 
instrument which records on a band of paper the sinking or 
floating effect of a ball of the solid metal immersed in the 
molten metal, they had determined the density of fluid bismuth 
from six experiments to be 10°055. A former value by a dif- 
ferent method was 107039. In the discussion which ensued, 
Mr. Wrightson stated that his experiments proved solid cast 
iron to be heavier than fluid, and to sink in the latter when first 


| immersed, but it rapidly became lizhter as its temperature rose, 


till it floated when in its plastic state, and was consequently 
lighter than when in the molten state. The oncosimeter could 
be utilised for determining the change of volume in melting 
rocks, and Prof, Chandler Roberts suggested that it might throw 
light on the difference of state between the carbon of grey pig 
and white iron.—Dr. O. J. Lodge exhibited working models 
showing the hydrostatic analogies between water and electricity. 
A battery was represented bya pump, conductors by open pipes, 
dielectrics by a pipe closed by an elastic membrane, electrome- 
ters by pressure gauges. With these analogues he showed the 
action of a Leyden jar, and the passage of telegraphic signals 
along a cable. 


Geological Society, February 2.—Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Joseph Groves, George Lewis, Rev. 
Edouard Méchin, S.J., James Osborne, and the Rev. William 
Sharman were elected Fellows of the Society.—The following 
communications were read :—On the coralliferous series of Sind 
and its connection with the last upheaval of the Himalayas, by 
Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S.—This communication is the 
result of the author’s study and description of the fossil corals 
of Sind, undertaken at the request of the Geological Survey of 
India, The history of the researches in the geology of the 
Tertiary deposits of Western Sind was noticed in relation to a 
statement made some years since by the author and Mr, H. M. Jen- 
kins, F.G.S., that there was more than one Tertiary series there, 
in opposition to both D’Archiac and Haime. After a brief 
description of the geology of the Khirthar and Laki ranges of 
hills, which were called Hala Mountain by the French geolo- 
gists, the succession of the stratigraphical series demonstrated 
by the survey under Blanford and Fedden was given, and the 
author proceeded to discuss the peculiarities of the six coral 
faunas of the area, and to argue upon the conditions which pre- 
vailed during their existence. A transitional fauna, neither 
Cretaceous nor Eocene, underlies a trap; to the trap suceeds a 
great development of Nummulitic beds containing corals, the 
Ranikot series, some of which are gigantic representatives of 
European Nummulitic forms. A third fauna, the Khirthar, 
succeeds, and a fourth, Khirthar-Nari, which was a reef-building 
one; and a fifth, the Nari, is included in the Oligocene age. - 
An important Miocene coralliferous series (the Gaj) is on the 
top of all. These faunas above the trap are Nummulitic, Oligo- 
cene, and Miocene in age, and in the first two European forms 


404 


NATURE 


| fed. 24, 1881 


which are confined to definite horizons, are scattered indefinitely 
in a vertical range of many thousands of feet. The corals grew 
in shallow seas, but most of them were not massive limestone 
builders, but there were occasional fringing reefs, or rather banks 
of compound forms, which assisted in the development of lime- 
stones. Many genera of corals which elsewhere are massive are 
pedunculate in Sind, and the number of species of the family 
Fungidz is considerable. There are also alliances with the 
Eocene coral fauna of the West Indies. The depth of the 
coralliferous series and the intercalated unfossiliferous sand- 
stones, &c., is, according to the Survey, 14,000 feet, without 
counting an estimated 6000 feet’ of unfossiliferous strata in one 
particular group. The subsidence has therefore been vast, but 
not always continuous. After noticing the numbers of genera 
and species in this grand series of coral faunas and the remark- 
able distinctness of each, the author proceeded to discuss the 
second part of his subject. When president of the Society he 
had stated in his anniversary address for 1878 that he was not 
convinced of the truth of the theory of the Geological Survey 
of India regarding the Pliocene age of the last Himalayan up- 
heaval. The considerations arising from the position of a vast 
thickness of sedimentary deposits overlying the Gaj or marine 
Miocene, and containing Amphicyon, Mastodon, Dinotherium, 
and many Artiodactyles of the supposed pig-like ruminant 
group, lead to the belief that the author was not justified in 
opposing the theory enunciated by Lyddeker and the directors 
of the Survey. The position of these Manchhar strata on the 
flanks of the mountain system of Sind was compared with that 
of the sub-Himalayan deposits. The faunas were compared, 
and the Sewalik deposits, the equivalents of the Upper Manch- 
har series of Sind, were pronounced to be of Pliocene age. 
They were formed before and during the great upheaval of 
the Himalayas, and in some places are covered with glacial 
deposits. A comparison was instituted between these ossi- 
ferous strata and the beds of Eppelsheim and Pikermi, 
and the auihor discussed the question relating to the age 
of terrestrial accumulations overlying marine deposits.—On 
two new crinoids from the Upper Chalk of Southern Sweden, 
by P. H. Carpenter, M.A. Communicated by Prof. P. Martin 
Duncan, F.R.S. Stem-joints of a crinoid resembling those of 
Bourgueticrinus have long been known in the Planerkalk of 
Streben (Elbe) ; but on the discovery of the calyx it was found 
to differ considerably from thai genus. It was then referred to 
the genus Avedon by Prof. Geinitz. Stems also resembling 
Bourgueticrinus have been found in the upper chalk of Kopinge (S. 
Sweden), and a calyx resembling that described by-Prof, Geinitz 
has also been found. Prof. Lundgren kindly entrusted this to 
the author for description. For these two fossils he considers 
not only a new genus but also a new family required. He 
proposes for the former the name JZesocrinus, as the characters 
of its calyx ally it to the Pentacrinidee, The author describes 
the characteristics of the genus A/esocrimus and of the species J. 
suecica (the Swedish) species, and its differences from JZ, fischeri 
(from Streben), and discusses the relationships of the genus, 
which combines the characters of a /entacrinus-calyx with a 
Bourgueticrinus-stem.—A new species of Comatula (Axtedon 
impressa) from the Ignaherga limestone of Scania was also 
described, and its systematic position discussed. 


Entomological Society, February 2.—Mr. H. T. Stainton, 
president, in the chair.—The president thanked the Society for 
electing him to that office, and nominated Sir John Lubbock, 
Bart., and Messrs. Meldola and Distant as vice-presidents for 
the ensuing year. Two new members were then elected.— 
Exhibitions and communications :—Mr. O. Salvin exhibited two 
boxes of insects collected by Mr. Champion in Guatemala,—Mr, 
W. A. Forbes exhibited a leaf from New Britain, having a 
curious filamentous growth upon it, caused by a Coceus ; and 
also the larva of one of the Blattidz, from Pernambuco, which 
presented a remarkable resemblance to an Isopod crustacean.— 
Mr. R. McLachlan exhibited a coleopterous larva from South 
America attacked by a fungoid ; arasite (Sphevia), and a 
Noctua from South Wales similarly attacked by an /casta. He 
also exhibited 7horve concinna, a beautiful new dragon-fly from 
Ecuador.—Mr. T. R. Billups exhibited Pezomachus distincta, a 
hymenopterous insect new to Britain; and a new species of 
Stibentes.—Mr. F. P. Pascoe exhibited a specimen of Peripa/us 
Nove-Zealandigz, and made some observations on the structure and 
affinities of this anomalous genus. —Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited 
a new species of Platypfleura from Madagascar.—Mr. W. F. 
Kirby announced the death of Dr. Gabriel Koch, of Frankfort- 


on-the-Main, the author of several works on the geographical 
distribution of Lepidoptera.—Mr. R. Meldola read a letter from 
M. André in reply to some criticisms made at a former meeting 
of the Society respecting the publication of new species on the 
wrapper of a periodical work.—The Secretary read a cutting 
from an Australian newspaper, communicated by Mr. G. Giles, 
relative to the death of a child, in consequence, as was supposed, 
of the bite of a small spider.—Papers read :—Mr. A. G. Butler 
communicated a paper entitled ‘‘ Descriptions of new genera and 
species of Heterocerous Lefidoftera from Japan.”—Mr. R. 
McLachlan read some notes on Odonata of the sub-families 
Corduliine, Calopterygine, and Agrionine (Legion Pseudostigma) 
collected by Mr, Buckley in the district of the Rio Bobonaza in 
Ecuador.—Mr. W. F. Kirby read a list of the Hymenoptera of 
New Zealand, in which eighty-two species were enumerated, five 
being described as new.—Mr. Joseph S. Baly communicated a 
paper entitled descriptions of new species of Galerucide. 


Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, February 21.—A paper 
on the im} lements of the Stone age as a primitive demarcation 
between man and other animals, by Dr. Thompson, LL.D., of 
Harvard University, was read ; after which a second brief paper 
on the caves of Devonshire was read by Mr. Howard, F.R.S., 
in which the author, asa chemist, pointed out the important 
bearing that the new investigations into the mode of formation 
of the cave floor had upon the whole question at issue. 


VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, February 17.—V. Burg in 
the chair.—Prof. Schmarda presented a paper by Henry B. 
Brady, F.R.S., on Arctic foraminifera from soundings obtained 
on the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition of 1872-74, 
It will be published in the Denkschriften der Academie.—F. 
Steindachner, ichthyological materials (part 10).—F. Wald, 
studies on chemical processes producing enersy.—E. Briicke, 
supplement to his communication of January 7 on an unerystal- 
lisable acid obtained by oxidation of egg albumen. It is not 
a pure substance, but a mixture.—E. Weiss, on the com- 
putation of the differential quotients of the radius vector and the 
apparent anomaly in orbits of great excentricity.—T. V. Rohon, 
on Amphioxus lanceolatus.—Dr. Td, H. Skraup, on synthetical 
experiments in the Chinolin series. 


CONTENTS Pie 
Prorgessor Max MuELLer aT UNIveRSITyY COLLEGE. . . . . - 382 
ATIAS|OFHISTONOGY! Vi Si ae ci a) ets) edge 382 
Our Book SHELF :— 
BOT non Ere cD ol OMONIS IR Owe nc 00 5 385 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Infusible Ice.—Prof. A.S. Herscumr . . . . . . « 6 « « 393 
Dust, Fogs, and Clouds.—JoHN AITKEN. . . . . « » « « + 384 
Geological Climates.—Prof. SamuEL Haucuton, F.RS.. . . . 385 
Climate of Vancouver Island.—Dr. Gzorczk M. Dawson. . . - 385 
“The New Cure for Smoke.”"—J, A. C. Hay . . « . .76386 
On the Space Protected by Lightning-Conductors.—Prof. Joun 
16) KOO} Goons GMa ot HO man a oe tr Ma 386 
Localisation of Sound.—H. B. Jupp. . . + + . 1 « « @ 386 
Migration of the Wagtail.—Prof. E.W. CLaAypoLE. . . + « « 387 
Subsidence of Land caused by Natural Brine-Springs.—Tuos. 
WiaRD'.) sit ey wee scel at fel 6) | oN keel ol eh 
Chlorophyll.—WiLLtt1aM CARTER « «. « + + « + «© « = « = 388 
Squirrels Crossing Water.—F. A. JENTINK. . « Pie Seeae Calor, Bch 
Flying-Fish.—R. E. TaytorR « . . « » + 2 « » wn © tie) 388) 
THe TRANSITIOFIVENUS) (02096) 05 Se) “oil > 2) oe a 
Dri Je, Je) BIGseyy yop ar, on, So ketesen. oly ie) Fal ot cals eee ED 
On Tipat Friction in CoNNECTION WITH THE HisTORY OF THE 

Sorar System. By G H. Darwin, F.R.S.. . san kets 389 
INDIGO. wee ey ere) eel le, afer gop elu lop is 0 (el cuca il a eR 
Microscopic StrRUCTURE OF MALLEABLE Metats. By J. VINCENT 

EXUSDEND A 8h ens so eke 6 8 cod) Vo ce pea 
Istanp Lirg, II. By Prof. Arcu. Gerk1E, F.R.S. (With Maps) . . 39% 
Honour TO MR. DARWIN, . . «© « «© © © © © © «© «© «© ~ = 393 
DEGREES TO WOMEN. - = 2 0) « 0 © © «fie gin so) clones suns erate 
Nores . a 6 i Cp ee POMC Ort Oo ee 
Our ASTRONOMICAL CoLUMN :— 

Encke’s Comet in188r. . . . « + ©) 04a) os eked Resin 396 

Cincinnati Measures of Double Stars. . . + » + + « « + + 396 

The Minor Planetsin188r  . . . 1 « © «© « o) a ie! 3) QO 
CHEMICATANOTHS) a (o> fe) 6) cal cl (ot) cols ae Geo oO, eet 
PHYSIGALINOTES (5) 7 2 ai ieh 2) ol) fei leMse lk Seem) (=e Aa, 
GuoGrapiicat NOTES «00 +e = ene 8 8 2 es ee ge 
ABNORMAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IN THE TROPICS 

AND THEIR RELATIONS TO SuN-SpoTs, RAINFALL, AND FAMINES. 

By E. Douctas ARcHIBALD and FRED. CHAMBERS . « + «© + + 399 
STANDARD THERMOMETERS - . «+ + + © © e + © # # # # 400 
UNIVERSITY AND EpucaTIONALINTRLLIGENCE . + + + + + + « 40% 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS... 2 0 © © + 0 © © 0 19 © 6» =) wl eunemmaOU 
SocreTrgs AND ACADEMIES - + + s+ + © © «© # + + & 2 » 402 


NA TOE: 


405 


THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1881 


NATURAL CONDITIONS AND ANIMAL LIFE 

The Natural Conditions of Existence as they Affect 

Animal Life. By Karl Semper, Professor in the 

- University of Wiirzburg. International Scientific 

Series. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., 1881.) 

HIS is in many respects one of the most interesting 
contributions to zoological literature which has 
appeared for some time. The author is well known 
as an accomplished anatomist and microscopist who, 
after spending some years in exploring the fauna of 
the Philippine and neighbouring islands, returned to 
Europe, and having been appointed to the Chair of 
Zoology in Wirzburg, set himself to work at the mor- 
phological problems which so largely occupy at pre- 
sent the attention of anatomists. His most remarkable 
productions in this department have been his speculations 
and observations on the segmentation of animals and on 
the origin of the vertebrate kidney. But Prof. Semper 
has the advantage of being something more than an 
anatomist ; as a traveller and one who has seen and 
studied life under most varied conditions, he has thought 
much and collected many facts bearing upon the problem 
of the influence of changed conditions of life in modifying 
the structure of animals submitted to those conditions. 

With the leading theoretical consideration advanced by 
Prof. Semper no naturalist who knows the history of evo- 
lutional theory will agree, but the large collection of well- 
described and well-illustrated facts for which he claims 
attention in consequence of his theoretical preconceptions, 
are none the less interesting. ‘The book has the great 
merit of being one which will be found equally readable 
by the professed zoologist and by the general reader. 

Prof. Semper, whilst accepting the doctrine of the 
origin of new forms of life by the natural selection of 
fittest varieties of pre-existing forms, is unable to conceive 
of the “ fittest varieties’’ in question, being such slightly 
divergent forms as are normally to be found in the 
offspring of all parents. Though he does not explicitly 
deny the physiological importance of even such minute 
variations as are not readily perceived by the human eye, 
and consequently does not openly controvert Mr. Darwin’s 
theory to the effect that such of these minute variations 
as are fitted to given conditions of existence, are per- 
petuated and intensified by the survival of those animals 
in which they occur, and the failure and death of those in 
which they do not occur, yet Prof. Semper is among those 
who look for a more rapid and conspicuous method of the 
production of new species than that taught by pure 
Darwinism. He thinks that Mr. Darwin has overlooked 

_ or underrated the importance of “ dvectly-transforming 
agents.” He is no doubt aware that it is equally possible 
to over-estimate the importance of such action, and that 
this was done by Mr. Darwin’s predecessors. Accordingly 
he examines in the volume before us such cases as may 
tend to give evidence on the subject. 

Such cases are to be found when an animal living 
upon special food, or in given temperature, or light, or 
in water (still or running, fresh or saline), or air (dry or 
moist, still or breezy), or in isolation, or as parasite, is 

VOL. xxiII.—No. 592 


subjected to a change in those conditions either by natural 
processes or by experiment. A large series of natural 
instances are afforded by pairs of representative species 
of one genus, the one living under one set of condi- 
tions, thé other under conditions in which the factor, 
the influence of which is sought, is removed or altered. 
Very few experiments, as Prof. Semper remarks, have 
been made upon this subject, but some of remarkable 
interest are cited. 

The result of the examination of the instances which 
have been gathered together in this volume is zof 
such as to lead to the conclusion that directly trans- 
forming agents play an important part in the produc- 
tion of new species. ‘* Changed conditions,” Mr. Darwin 
has said, ‘‘induce an almost indefinite amount of 
fluctuating variability, by which the whole organism 
is rendered in some degree plastic,’ and it is to the 
non-significant variations so produced which are selected 
by survival and fixed by heredity that new forms are 
due, and not to those dvect adaptations effected in 
the individual by changed conditions, which are remark- 
ably rare, and moreover, as Prof. Semper recognises 
(p. 38), are not transmitted, as a rule, to offspring. In 
order to establish his point Prof. Semper should have 
been able to give us, firstly, numerous instances of 
change of structure in the individual brought about in 
adaptation to a change in that individual’s conditions of 
life. He produces very few, whilst the most striking and 
numerous facts which he records are instances of physio- 
logical adaptation to or toleration of new conditions 
without any corresponding change of structure. Secondly, 
he should have been able to give instances of the trans- 
mission to offspring of peculiarities acquired by the parent 
by undoubted action of the environment on the individual 
parent. Such instances are excessively rare, though a 
few are on record; but none are cited by Prof. Semper, 
and indeed the evidence as at present before us is such 
as to warrant the conclusion that such transmission 
cannot be in any way an important factor in the produc- 
tion of new races. 

In his concluding paragraph (p. 405) Prof. Semper 
states that “there is a universal difficulty of deciding 
whether a modification which has taken place is to be 
ascribed to some direct determining and modifying cause, 
or to the enhancing of a previously modified character 
which is frequently connected with selection,’ and then 
deprecates the habit of theoretical explanations from 
general propositions. He holds apparently that we are 
not to seek an explanation of such modifications in those 
truths of heredity and adaptation, of variation and selec- 
tion, which have been actually demonstrated and esta- 
blished by Mr. Darwin, but must, if we would behave as 
right-minded philosophers, keep before us the possibility 
of these modifications being due to—what? Not to a 
cause which has been shown to be necessarily or even 
usually at work, as have those to which Mr. Darwin 
points, but to a cause which has always proved illusory, 
namely, the “ directly-transforming” action of the en- 
vironment. It was because they appealed to this cause 
and could not show that it had a real existence that the 
“transformists”’ of the beginning of this century failed, 
where Mr. Darwin, appealing to another cause which he 


showed was an existing cause, has succeeded. Prof. 
a 


406 


NATURE 


[March 3, 1881 


Semper’s contribution to the subject does not tend to 
alter the low estimate which has been formed of the 
efficiency of directly-transforming agents, nor to justify 
the ‘‘final warning” which closes his book. It is then 
as a repertory of physiological facts of a kind usually 
neglected both by the professed physiologist and by the 
professed zoologist that this book will be found of value, 
not as the expository of new or of old theory. 

After an introduction in which, amongst others, some 
interesting observations on the casting of the skin of 
reptiles and of crayfish are given with illustrative cuts, 
we find a chapter on ‘Food and its Influence.” The 
variety of mineral and organic substances which consti- 
tute the food of animals is noted, and monophagous and 
polyphagous animals distinguished; curious adaptations 
to a special food such as that of egg-eating snakes, with 
their gastric teeth formed by processes of the vertebre, 
are cited, and some remarkable examples of change of 
diet naturally occurring in a species without any modifi- 
cation of structure, e.g.the New Zealand parrot, which 
used to feed on the juices of plants and flowers, but now 
sucks the blood of sheep. Again, horses eating pigeons, 
vegetivorous snails (Lymnzus) eating young newts, croco- 
diles, some eating men, and others of the same species 
not prone to the habit. The only well-established in- 
stances of modification of structure caused by change of 
food are due to John Hunter, who fed a gull for a year on 
grain, and so hardened the inner coat of the bird’s 
stomach as to make it resemble the gizzard of a pigeon ; 
whilst Dr. Holmgren is cited as having obtained the 
converse result by feeding a pigeon on meat. The change 
brought about here is, however, not strictly speaking a 
change of structure, but rather a modification of the 
chemical activity of the gastric epithelium. 

Many instances of wide difference of diet in closely 
allied species of animals not accompanied by any corre- 
sponding difference of structure are given in the text and 
in the valuable notes at the end of the book, 

The influence of light is next discussed, and we have 
some statements as to the difference in their relation to 
light, of plants and animals. Prof. Semper does not 
admit the presence of chlorophyll in any animal, and goes 
so far as to say that the similarity of the spectrum of the 
solution of the green pigment of an animal with that of 
chlorophyll would not prove the pigment to be chloro- 
phyll. If by “similarity ’? exact correspondence is meant, 
we should differ from him; but it is no doubt true that 
further exact observation is needed of those cases among 
invertebrate animals in which chlorophyll has been 
supposed to be present. 

Semper holds that there is a high degree of probability 
in the view that the green-coloured bodies present in 
some lower animals in such abundance are really parasitic 
Algze like the gonidia of lichens. As an argument in 
favour of this view he adduces Max Schultze’s observa- 
tion that the “chlorophyll-bodies” of the worm Vortex 
viridis divide and multiply spontaneously, which he 
States (in opposition to the generally received observa- 
tions of Nageli and the statements of his colleague Sachs) 
the chlorophyll bodies of plants do not. It would be 
interesting if this should prove to be the case, and if Prof. 
Semper should be destined to reform our notions of 
Vegetable histology among other things. 


In a note Semper attacks Paul Bert for saying that 
“Tnfusoria containing green matter decompose carbonic 
acid in the same way as vegetable cells.” The French 
physiologist is well within the facts, for Priestley’s 
green matter was the Flagellate Euglena viridis. 

It is necessary to point out that it is by no means 
proved by Cienkowski’s observations that the yellow cells 
of Radiolaria are parasitic one-celled Alga, as Semper 
assumes, though it is possible that such is their nature. 

Light affects animals mostly through the eye only, and 
its intensity undoubtedly has a modifying influence upon 
that organ ; but whether the degeneration of the eye in 
cave animals and deep-sea Fishes and Crustacea is due 
directly to disuse in any instance or to altered selection 
and heredity, is not clear. Many important facts and 
some good drawings bearing on this matter are given. 
Dr. Hagen informed the author that in all the species of 
cave-beetles of the genus Machezerites the females ov/Zy are 
blind, while the males have well-developed eyes, although 
both live together in total darkness, whilst it is well 
known that many blind animals, e.g. certain Mollusks, 
Crustacea, and Worms, live in bright daylight. 

Facts are cited showing that the colours of animals are 
not developed by or dependent on light, whilst the 
change of colour effected by cuttle-fish, fishes, and Am- 
phibia when light acts on the eye are discussed at length, 
and the researches of Lister and of Pouchet cited. Prof. 
Semper, in common with other naturalists, explains the 
difficulty presented by the colouration of some animals, 
such as those which live in ‘the dark (many marine 
polyps and worms), by the assumption that the pigment 
is the inevitable secondary product of some indispensable 
physiological process. The same explanation is applied 
to the phosphorescent material of many marine organisms, 
which is apparently useless or even injurious to the 
animals which produce it. 

Temperature affords subject-matter for a chapter, 
abounding in important records of fact, which are, it 
must be admitted, quite antagonistic to the notion that 
variations in the environment in this respect can directly 
produce adafiative change of structure. The most re- 
markable instance of temperature effecting a change of 
structure is that quoted from Weissman, who, by arti- 
ficially lowering the temperature, succeeded in rearing 
Vanessa levana from the eggs of Vanessa prorsa-levana, 
the two supposed “species,” being only winter and 
summer varieties of one. But here, though the colouring 
is different in the two varieties, there is no adaptational 
character about it, nor a transmission of the changed 
colouring to offspring. 

A number of facts are cited as to the supposed change 
of colour of Arctic animals in winter, but the conclusion 
seems to be that no such change occurs. Facts esta- 
blishing the possibility of freezing whole fish and other 
animals are given, and other facts showing that 5° below 
o° C. kills the tissues of such animals as frogs, and may 
thus cause death to the whole animal. Important re- 
searches of Horvath are cited, showing that the Ground- 
squirrel (Spermophilus), the temperature of whose body 
is in summer like that of man, about 38° C., can, during 
its winter sleep, sink to as low a temperature as 2° C. 
without injury ; its body,in fact has, at this period, the 
same temperature as that of the surrounding air. The 


ol 


March 3, 1881 | 


NATORE 


407 


rabbit, on the other hand, is infallibly killed when the 
temperature of its body is reduced to 15° C. The 
glacier flea (Desoria glacialis, one of the Thysanura) is 
cited as an example of an animal taking up by preference, 
as it were, a permanently cold life-arena ; whilst as 
examples of endurance of high temperatures we have 
Crustaceans found in hot springs of 60° C., and fish 
(Sparus) in hot springs of 75°C. The acclimatisation of 
Mr. Buxton’s parrots in Norfolk is described at length, 
and amongst many other details of the kind concerning 
the influence of temperature on the spawning and hatching 
of eggs of various animals, the fact is recorded that at 
10°'5 C. the common frog requires 235 days to pass from 
the egg through complete metamorphosis, whilst at 15°°5 
C. only 73 days are required. ‘“ Nothing in the Philip- 
pine Islands struck me so much,’’ Prof. Semper writes, 
“as to observe that there all true periodicity had disap- 
peared even from insects, land mollusks, and other land 
animals ; I could at all times find eggs, larve, and propa- 
gating individuals, in winter as well as in summer.’”’ An 
important reflection in this connection is the following :— 
“Tt is generally assumed that we are justified in attri- 
buting to extinct animals a mode of life analogous to that 
of the nearest related surviving forms; ... as soon as 
we reach the deeper strata, and the identity of the 
species with those now living ceases, our right to con- 
struct a theory of the climate of past epochs by a com- 
parison of fossil and living species, absolutely disappears.” 
How far, it may well be asked, is this true when plants 
are substituted for animals ? 

In a chapter on “The Influence of Stagnant Water” 
we have a large series of interesting facts ‘and records of 
experiment under the headings “ Freshwater Animals that 
Live in the Sea” and “ Marine Animals in Fresh Water.” 
In both these categories we find a number of animals, 
whilst as a matter of experiment it is found that, though 
very few animals will endure sudden transference from 
fresh to saline water, or vice versd, yet a large number 
will tolerate the change if it be accomplished by slow 
degrees, whilst others will not endure it, however brought 
about. ‘The same effect of gradation is noted with regard 
to change of temperature. But in neither the one case 
nor the other is Prof. Semper able to cite an instance 
which tends to favour the view that direct modification 
of structure is produced by such changes of life con- 
ditions. 

The instances cited, though not so distinguished by 
Prof. Semper, may be divided into those afforded by certain 
species living in one kind of water (fresh or salt), whilst 
the other species of the genus live in the other kind of 
water; and secondly, those afforded by exceptional indi- 
viduals naturally found in one kind of water, whilst 
normally the individuals of the samze species occur in the 
other kind of water. Results derived from the experiment 
of gradual transference from one kind of water to the 
other would form a subdivision under this second head. 
The rare instances of animals living in brine may also be 
classified in the same manner, Many species allied to 
river-worms and earth-worms (Oligocheta) are now 
known to occur in the sea; also Crustacea allied to fresh- 
water forms. Sea-insects and sea-spiders (like the 
common fresh-water diving spider) are cited in the valu- 
able list of references given at the end of Prof. Semper’s 


Cyclas, Unio, and Anodonta (found living in the Livonian 
Gulf with Telluria and Venus). Paludina and Neri- 
tina are found living in the Caspian with Mytilus and 
Cardium : Planorbis glaber, in 1415 fathoms in the Medi- 
terranean. Many freshwater species of fishes are recorded 
from marine waters, and the whole group of sea-snakes 
form an example in point. 

Of marine animals living in fresh-water we have, 
besides the polyp, Cordylophora lacustris (of which some 
interesting facts, showing its historical advance into 
fresh-waters, are given by Prof. Semper), and the new 
jelly-fish Limnocodium, and other jelly-fish and polyps 
living in estuarine conditions (see Quart. Journ. of 
Microsc. Science, October 1880, for observations by 
Agassiz and Moseley), some Bryozoa of marine affinities, 
e.g. Membranipora, some Nemertines, and one cephalo- 
branchiate Annelid, numerous Crustacea, such as Balanus, 
Mysis, Palemon. Among Mollusks Pholades and Tere- 
dines are recorded from fresh-water, their congeners being 
marine, whilst actual marine species of fish (the grey- 
mullet and the basse) have been bred successfully for the 
market in the fresh-water Lake of Acqua, near Padua. 
The common stickleback, as is well known, can be kept in 
a marine aquarium. Migratory fish such as the salmon 
are further examples. 

The experiments of Beudant and Plateau on the 
influence on animals of the change of saline to fresh- 
water or vice versd@ are given in detail, and both are of 
great interest. Beudant’s experiments were made with 
two series of molluscs—a fresh-water series transferred to 
salt-water, and a salt-water series transferred to fresh- 
water. The Pulmonata and species of Paludina were 
found to be very tolerant of sea-water, whilst Unio, 
Anodonta, and Cyclas were all eventually killed by it. 
Patella vulgata, Purpura lapillus, Arca barbata, Venus 
maculata, and Ostrea edulis survived in large proportion 
the gradual transference to absolutely fresh-water, whilst 
of Mytilus edulis not a single specimen died in the course 
of the experiments; species of Fissurella, Haliotis, 
Buccinum, Tellina, Pecten, and Chama were, on the other 
hand, killed by the same process. 

For full reference to sources of information on this and 
all the many interesting observations recorded we must 
refer the reader to Prof. Semper’s book. 

In successive chapters we have similar details as to the 
influence of dry air, of currents of water, and of change 
of life from aquatic to terrestrial conditions ; the land 
leeches, land planarians, land crabs, and land fishes 
being described and sometimes figured. 

Some very remarkable observations on pulmonate 
snails living in the Lake of Geneva made by M. Forel 
and by Dr. Pauly are given at length on pp. 197, 198. 
Certain Lymnzi live at great depths in the lake with 
their lung-sac filled with water ; they never come to the 
surface, and actually breathe water all their lives ; but if 
brought to the surface they take air into the lung-sac and 
will not again return to the submerged existence. If 
forced to do so they retain air in their lung-sac and 
breathe water by the general surface of the body. “In 
no single case,’”’ Prof. Semper frankly observes, “have 
we as yet succeeded in proving that such a change 
of function as is involved in the transformation of a gill- 


408 


NATORE 


_ [March 3, 1881 


cavity into a lung must necessarily be accompanied by 
definite changes in the structure of that organ.” 

After chapters expounding Prof. Semper’s original 
observations and special theory as to the formation of 
coral islands, in which he characteristically seeks to 
improve upon Mr. Darwin, and a chapter upon the 
influence of parasitism, we come to a final chapter 
entitled “The selective influence of living organisms 
upon animals.” Here new facts bearing upon the 
competition for similar conditions, the relations of the 
pursuer and the pursued, and mimicry, are set forth in 
abundance. The curious dorsal eyes of the marine slug 
Onchidium are described and figured, and an ingenious 
attempt is made to account for their evolution in relation 
to the pursuit of the Onchidium by the leaping-fish 
Periophthalmus. Prof. Semper is not blundering when 
he states that these eyes are constructed on what he calls 
“a type identical with those of the vertebrata.” At the 
same time such a statement is very misleading, for these 
eyes differ essentially in their origin and structure from 
those of vertebrates, although having one superficial 
resemblance to the vertebrate eye in the fact that the 
retinal nerve is distributed to the anterior instead of to 
the deep surface of the retinal cells. This arrangement 
exists also in Pecten, contrary to Prof. Semper’s statement 
that Onchidium is a solitary example of its occurrence in 
invertebrata. 

As to mimicry Prof. Semper brings forward a new 
instance among land-snails where a Philippine Helicarion 
which sheds its tail (metapodium) and so escapes when 
seized by a bird or lizard, is imitated closely in appearance 
by a Xesta which has not the power of shedding its tail, 
but benefits by the reputation for elusiveness of the 
Helicarion. On the genera] subject of mimicry Semper 
does not consider the doctrine of selection adequate, but 
thinks it necessary to improve the current theory relating 
to it by some original touches. He has made the not very 
new discovery that “ under some circumstances the most 
perfect and complete resemblance between two creatures 
not living associated may originate without its being 
referable to the selective power of mimicry, ze. a protec- 
tive resemblance.” The resemblance referred to is of 
course a superficial one of colour or appearance of 
one part of the body, and not really “ perfect” or ‘“‘ com- 
plete.” From this he goes on to suggest that sub- 
“sequently to this stage a necessity for protection may 
arise, and the previously-established resemblance may 
become protective to one or other of the reciprocally 
counterfeit organisms. On the strength of this suggestion 
he proceeds further to question whether natural selection 
has ever produced mimicry, and declares that some 
causes “ 7st have availed to produce by their direct 
action an advantageous and protective change of colour- 
ing” in the first instance. Similar to this, he states, is 
the conclusion which is arrived at in each chapter of his 
book in reference to other adaptations besides those 
coming under the head of mimicry, viz. that natural 
selection cannot operate until directly transforming 
agencies have produced advantageous characters of a 
definite and obvious kind upon which it may operate. 

With the whole of this reasoning, and especially with 
the statement that any such conclusion can be derived 
from the facts stated in earlier chapters, we disagree. 


On the contrary, we maintain that natural selection 
operates upon advantageous variations which are exceed- 
ingly small, and do not, by an immense interval, amount 
to such coarse advantages as those assumed by Prof. 
Semper. Such small variations are incessantly caused by 
the action of external forces on the complex physiological 
units of the parents and by the action of those of one 
parent upon those of another. These causes of variation 
are not transforming causes, but produce irrelative and 
multifarious variations of small amount. It is upon these 
that natural selection acts. The existence of such varia- 
tions, the power of selection to intensify them, and so to 
transform species and further the natural existence of a 
necessary selection, have been established by Mr. Darwin 
by an enormous mass of evidence. Prof. Semper, so far 
from having brought his reader in each chapter to a con- 
clusion favourable to his views, has not adduced any 
evidence to show that natural selection cannot or does 
not act as taught by Mr. Darwin, and has moreover 
completely failed to adduce any evidence making it even 
probable that large changes of structure are ever effected 
by “directly transforming agents,’’ of the very existence 
of which he can offer no evidence. Still less has he 
succeeded in showing that natural selection does or even 
that it could make use of such large changes—concerning 
which it is difficult to reason, since nothing is known about 
them excepting that Prof. Semper believes in them.! 

The supposed cases of minute resemblance without 
mimicry which are given by Semper are either to be 
explained as due to a protective resemblance to a third 
object, or as due to like advantages secured independently 
in each case by natural selection in a way which may 
become apparent when we have more ample knowledge 
of the particular cases, or lastly, as due to an accidental 
superficial identity in two things having absolutely no 
relations in common. To argue that the last account of 
the matter is the true one, and that the elaborate mimicry 
of insects is to be explained with the assumption of the 
frequent occurrence of such coincidences rather than by 
the doctrine of natural selection, is, it may be conceded, 

« It is necessary to plainly and emphatically state that Prof. Semper and a 
few other writers of similar views (e.g., the Rev. George Henslow in 
Modern Thought, vol. ii. No. 5, 1881), are not adding to or [building on 
Mr. Darwin’s theory, but are actually opposing all that is essential and 
distinctive in that theory by the revival of the exploded notions of *‘directly 
transforming agents ’’ advocated by Lamarck and others. They do not 
seem to be aware of this, for they make no attempt to seriously 
examine Mr. Darwin’s accumulated facts and arguments. The doctrine 
of organic evolution has become an accepted truth entirely in con 
sequence of Mr. Darwin having demonstrated the mechanism by which 
the evolution is possible; it was almost unanimously rejected, whilst 
such undemonstrable agencies as those arbitrarily asserted to exist by Prof. 
Semper and Mr, George Henslow were the only causes suggested by its 
advocates. Mr. Darwin’s argument rests on the Aroved existence of minute 
many-sided, irrelative variations ot produced by directly transforming 
agents, but showing themselves at each new act of reproduction as part of 
the phenomenon of heredity. Such minute “sports” or ‘‘ variations ’’ are 
due to constitutional disturbance, and appear not in individuals subjected to 
new conditions, but in the offspring of all, though more freely in the off- 
spring of those subjected to special causes of constitutional disturbance. Mr. 
Darwin has further #voved that these slight variations can be transmitted 


and intensified by selective breeding. They have in reference to breeding 
a remarkably tenacious or persistent character, as might be expected from 
their origin in connection'with the reproductive process. On the other hand 
mutilations and other effects of directly transforming agents are rarely, if 
ever, transmitted. ? 

It is little short of an absurdity for persons to come forward at this epoch, 
when evolution is at length accepted solely because of Mr. Darwin’s doctrine, 
and coolly to propose to replace that doctrine by the old notion so often tried - 
and rejected. 4 P - . 

That such an attempt should be made is an illustration of a curious weak- 
ness of humanity. Not unfrequently, after a long-contested cause has 
triumphed and all have yielded allegiance thereto, you will find when 
few generations have passed that men have clean forgotten what or who it 
was that made that cause triumphant, and ignorantly will set up for honour 
the name of a traitor or of an impostor, or attribute toa great man asa merit, 


deeds and thoughts which he spent a long life in opposing. 


March 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


409 


original and startling ; but it involves a deliberate renun- 
ciation of the exercise of reason. 

The translation of Prof. Semper’s highly entertaining 
and really valuable and suggestive book has been remark- 
ably well executed. Throughout great care has been 
taken to give the correct English equivalents for the 
German names of many obscure animals, and to preserve 
the sense of the original. At the same time there is not 
from beginning to end any trace of that awkward diction 
which sometimes infects a translation from the German. 
It is not too much to say that it is the best executed 
translation of a foreign work on science which has 
appeared for twenty years. E. Ray LANKESTER 


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. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible, The pressureon his space is so great that i 
zs impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


Movements of Plants 


Fritz MULLER, in aletter from St. Catharina, Brazil, dated 
January 9, has given me some remarkable facts about the move- 
ments of plants. He has observed striking instances of allied 
plants, which place their leaves vertically at night, by widely 
different movements; and this is of interest as supporting the 
conclusion at which my son Francis and I arrived, namely, that 
leaves go to sleep in order to escape the full effect of radiation. 
In the great family of the Gramineze the species in one genus 
alone, namely Strephium, are known to sleep, and this they do 
by the leaves moving vertically upwards ;_ but Fritz Miiller finds 
in a species of Olyra, a genus which in Enlicher’s ‘‘ Genera Plan- 
tarum” immediately precedes Strephium, that the leaves bend 
vertically down at night. 

Two species of Phyllanthus (Euphorbiacez) grow as weeds 
near Fritz Miiller’s house; in one of them with erect branches 
the leaves bend so as to stand vertically up at night. In the 
other species with horizontal branches, the leaves move vertically 
down at night, rotating on their axes, in the same manner as do 
those of the Leguminous genus Cassia, Owing to this rotation, 
combined with the sinking movement, the upper surfaces of the 
opposite leaflets are brought into contact in a dependent posi- 
tion beneath the main petiole; and they are thus excellently 
protected from radiation, in the manner described by us, On the 
following morning the leaflets rotate in an opposite direction, 
whilst rising so as to resume the diurnal horizontal position with 
their upper surface exposed to the light. Now in some rare 
cases Fritz Miiller has observed the extraordinary fact that three 
or four, or even almost all the leaflets on one side of a leaf of 
this Phyllanthus rise in the morning from their nocturnal verti- 
cally dependent position into a horizontal one, without rotating, 
and on the wrong side of the main petiole, These leaflets thus 
project horizontally with their upper surfaces directed towards 
the sky, but partly shaded by the leaflets proper to this side. 
I have never before heard of a plant appearing to make a 
mistake in its movements ; and the mistake in this instance is a 
great one, for the leaflets move 90° in a direction opposite to the 
proper one. Fritz Miiller adds that the tips of the horizontal 
branches of this Phyllanthus curl downwards at night, and thus 


_ the youngest leaves are still better protected from radiation. 


ik no el 


The leaves of some plants, when brightly illuminated, direct 
their edges towards the light ; and this remarkable movement I 
have called paraheliotropism. Fritz Miiller informs me that the 
leaflets of the Phyllanthus just referred to, as well as those of 
some Brazilian Cassize, ‘‘take an almost perfectly vertical posi- 


tion, when at noon, on a summer day, the sun is nearly in the 


zenith. To-day the leaflets, though continuing to be fully ex- 
posed to the sun, now at 3 p.m. have already returned to a nearly 
horizontal position.” F, Miiller doubts whether so strongly 
marked a case of paraheliotropism would ever be observed 
under the duller skies of England; and this doubt is probably 
correct, for the leaflets of Cassza neglecta, on plants raised from 


seed formerly sent me by him, moved in this manner, but so 
slightly that I thought it prudent not to give the case. With 
several species of Hedychium, a widely-different paraheliotropic 
movement occurs, which may be compared with that of the leaf- 
lets of Oxalis and Averrhoa ; for ‘‘ the lateral halves of the leaves, 
when exposed to bright sunshine, bend downwards, so that they 
meet beneath the leaf.” CHARLES DARWIN 
Down, Beckenham, February 22 


Barometric and Solar Cycles 


REGARDING one of the conclusions drawn by Mr, F. 
Chambers in his paper on ‘Abnormal Variations of the 
Barometer in the Tropics,’’ and Dr. Balfour Stewart’s remarks 
concerning the same in the first article of NATURE (vol. xxiii, 
p- 237), I and other meteorologists would like very much to 
know which side of the earth is to be considered the east, and 
which the west. 

In other words, if waves of high barometer travel slowly from 
west to east, on what meridian do they commence, and is there 
any reason why they should commence on one meridian more 
than on another? The only reason that I can think of is that 
some meridians embrace more land than others; but in this 
respect the meridians passing through the centres of America, 
Europe-Africa, and East Asia-Australia are very much alike. 
Again, if barometric changes originate, say at St. Helena, and 
travel slowly eastwards, as Mr. Chambers supposes, they cught 
after several months to reappear on the meridian from which 
they started, but Mr. Chambers’s paper gives no evidence of this 
whatever. 

Dr. Balfour Stewart says it is unmistakably indicated by all 
the elements that the connection between the state of the sun’s 
surface and terrestrial meteorology is of such a nature as to 
imply that the sun is most powerful when there are most spots 
on his surface. The barometric evidence, however, is all the 
other way. 

Mr. Bianford, following up a suggestion originally made by 
the present writer, has shown clearly enough that the decennial 
variation of the height of the barometer has nearly opposite 
phases in the Indo-Malayan region and in Western Siberia, 
especially if the winter season, when the pressure is higher 
over Siberia than in South-Eastern Asia, be considered alone 
(NaTuRE, vol. xxi. p. 480). From Mr. Blanford’s paper it is 
clear that the barometrical differences, on which the strength of 
the winds depends, are greater when the sun-spot area is small 
than when it is large. 

The true relation between the variations of sun-spot area, solar 
radiation, and barometric pressure will, I feel confident, be 
soon discovered through the agency of the United States 
Weather Maps in the manner pointed out by you at page 567, 
vol, xxi., in discussing the United States Weather Map for July, 
1878, It is there shown that in the middle of summer in the 
last year of minimum sun-spot, the pressure of the air was below 
the average over all the great continents, and above it over the 
neighbouring oceans. In India, it is true, the pressure was 
above the average; but then India is not Asia, but merely a 
narrow triangular peninsula surrounded on two sides by the 
ocean, and on the third by a broad zone of snow-covered 
mountains which may be likened to an oceanic area as far as 
constancy of temperature is concerned. 

Meteorologists will all agree with Dr. Balfour Stewart that 
“~mexceptionable observations of the sun’s intrinsic heat-giving 
power, if these could be obtained, would furnish a more trust- 
worthy instrument of prevision than the sun-spot record,” We 
may soon hope for a nearly continuous series of such observa- 
tions, for, according to the last published Administration Report 
of the Indian Meteorological Department, a trustworthy form of 
actinometer is being sent to Leh, 11,500 feet above the sea, in 
the dry region of Tibet, where observations will be taken with it 
under the superintendence of Mr. Ney Elias. 

Meantime we may perhaps adopt what is considered by Mr. 
Blanford the best criterion of the sun’s heating power which can 
be obtained from ordinary meteorological observations, viz. the 
highest excess of the vacuum black-bulb thermometer above the 
maximum in shade for each month. At ten stations in India 
where comparable thermometers have been used since 1875, the 
mean maximum solar excess has been :— 


1876 
67°°2 


1878 
68°°1 


1877 
68°°8 


1875 
67°°0 


410 


The means of thirty-eight ‘stations since 1876 give similar 
results, viz. :— 
1876 1877 1878 
68°°2 68°°8 68°°3 
For 1$79 and 1880 the figures have not yet been all worked up, 
but as far as they have been reduced they indicate that the 
intensity of solar radiation was a good deal less than in 1878. 
Allahabad, February 3 S. A. HILL 


The Continents always Continents 


Mr. WALLACE, in his recent excellent work on “ Island Life,” 
places me in a wrong relation to the question as to the continents 
having always been continents, After sustaining the view at 
length in Chapter VI. of his work, without any reference to my 
arguments on the subject, he later, in Chapter IX., says that “‘it 
appears to be the general opinion of geologists [sic] that the great 
continents have undergone a process of development from earlier 
to later times,”’ and then quotes a paragraph of mine by way of 

roof 

é My first discussion of the subject was published in the American 
Fournal of Science for 1846 (vol. ii. of second ser. p. 352), where 
the ‘‘ opinion” is partly speculative, the origin of the continents 
being made one of the initial results of the earth’s refrigeration ; 
but it is not left without the mention of facts sustaining it derived 
from the actual geological progress of the American continent. 
In the following volume, in an article entitled ‘‘ On the Origin of 
Continents,” the view is presented at more length, with some 
additional confirmatory facts connected with the structure of the 
continent ; and facts from the eirth at large bearing the same 
way are brought out in a second paper, ‘‘On the Origin of the 
Grand Outline Features of the Earth.” In my “ Geological 
Report ” (published in 1849) of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition 
around the World, in which the same views are briefly presented 
(p. 431), I argue against ‘‘the existence of a continent in the 
Pacific Ocean within any of the more recent geological epochs ” 
[referring here to those of the Tertiary and Quaternary], on the 
ground of ‘‘the absence of all native quadrupeds from its 
islands, and even from New Zealand.” 

A few years later (in 1856) I published, in vol. xxii. of the 
American Fournal, two papers under the titles ‘On American 
Geological History” and ‘‘On the Plan of Development in the 
Geological History of North America,” and in them I gave 
what I have regarded as a geological demonstration of the view 
by stating with some detail the facts with respect to the succes- 
sively-developed features and geological formations of the 
American continent. Again, in my ‘‘ Manual of Geology,” the 
first edition (that of 1863), the progress of the rocks and moun- 
tains of the continent is traced out, from the V-shaped Archzean 
(Azoic) nucleus, in British America, onward ; and in the account 
of the Archzean the statement is made (p. 136) that the structure 
lines apparent over the continent at the close of Archean time 
were ‘‘ features that were never afterwards effaced ; instead of 
this, they were manifested in every new step in the progress of 
the continent” ; and in the edition of the Manual of 1874, after a 
fuller account of the positions of Archzean mountains, it is then 
added (p. 160): ‘‘ Hence, in the very inception of the continent, 
not only was its general topography foreshadowed, but its main 
mountain chains appear to have been begun, and its great inter- 
mediate basins to have been defined—the basin of New England 
and New Brunswick on the east; that between the Appalachians 
and the Rocky Mountains over the great continental interior ; 
that of Hudson’s Bay, between the arms of the northern V. 
The evolution of the grand structure-lines of the continent was 
hence early commenced, and the system thus initiated was the 
system to the end. Here is one strong reason for concluding 
that the continents have always been continents; that, while 
portions may have at times been submerged some thousands of 
feet, the continents have never changed places with the oceans. 
Tracing out the development of the American continent from 
these Archzean beginnings is one of the main purposes of geo- 
logical history.” In the course of the following pages (nearly 
400) on Historical Geology in both editions, the evidence on 
this point is variously set forth—evidence afforded by the limits 
of the successive geological formations, by the occurrence of 
beds of shallow-water deposition at many levels in the long 
series, and by the progressive origin of the mountain-ranges. 
Then, in the edition of 1874 (and also that of 1880) I bring in 
(p. 525) the paragraph which Mr. Wallace cites in his Chapter 
TX. (p. 196)—not as the expression of an ‘‘ opinion,” but as the 
summing up after a demonstration. 


NATORE 


[March 3, 1881 


The view that the continents have always been continents, 
which I have held for forty years, is written so plainly in the 
geology of North America that I am sure it would never have 
been set down among speculations, even by the most exacting 
of British geologists, had attention been fairly given to American 
facts. If the truth is not taught by British rocks, it is because 
these represent only a narrow margin of a continent, and hence 
could not be expected to illustrate general continental develop- 
ment, hardly more than an animal’s leg, however profoundly ~ 
studied, the embryological laws of the species. 

James D, DANA 

New Haven, Connecticut, February 8 


The Aurorazof January 31; Position of Auroral Rays 


THE bright loop shown in G. F. Seabroke’s drawings of the 
aurora on January 31 at 6.30 and 6.35 p.m., as seen at Rugby, 
remind me of a striking feature seen here. If it was the same, 
a comparison of the observations will give some idea of the 
height of the phenomenon. As seen here at about 6.24% this 
feature was the most conspicuous part of the aurora ; it was a 
somewhat pear-shaped bright patch, with a region along the 
middle of it not quite so bright. Its edge was 10° above the 
moon, at Venus, Jupiter, 8 and 7 Pegasi; its pointed end being 
low down, and a good deal further to the right. At 6.264 Venus 
was in the midst of its left end, and Jupiter quite outside, The 
moon was 5° below the lower edge. The dusky region gradually 
darkened, and finally opened through the right end of the patch, 
which became united by a rather serpentine bright band to a 


east-north-east. This bright band formed the southern border 
of the aurora. At 6.314 the position of the central line of this 
band, including the western bright patch which now formed a 
loop in it open to the north, was about as follows :—At or near 
the moon, one-third of the way from « Ceti to Venus, ¢ Cygni 
(the junction of the patch with the new band), a Pegasi I think, 
6 Trianguli, @ Tauri, and below Procyon. 

The motion of these features, as well as of all the larze masses 
of the aurora throughout the evening, was approximotely from 
east to west (magnetic), so far as I could observe. The four or 
more arches seen at Rugby by G. M. Seabroke at 6.35 were not 
seen by me. 

The spectrum of this aurora was very similar to those of 
February 4, 1874, and October 4, 1874, as given in Capron’s 
‘ Aurore,” Plate V.; the band marked 4 of the former being 
sometimes present and sometimes absent. 
the red line at times. 

I am surprised that Prof. S. P. Thompson (NATURE, vol. xxiii. 
p. 289) is not aware that it is a thoroughly ascertained fact that 
the rays of auroras lie in the direction of the magnetic dip. I 
may add that the flashes or pulsations also generally appear to — 
move away from the earth in the direction of the magnetic dip. 

Sunderland, February 24 T. W. BACKHOUSE 


IT also saw traces of 


Auroric Light 


As Mr. W. H. Preece records the magnetic storms, if not too 
much trouble would he record what took place on the night 
of January 16 ?—as at midnight there was all the appearance of a 
grand display:; but as the windows were all frost-masked, and 
my only place of observation was exposed to a cutting wind that 
would have ‘‘ shaved a cast-iron policeman,” to quote Punch, I 
could not observe what took place. I should also like to know 
why the grand displays this winter are of white lights. Those I 
saw in previous years—the best being while stationed in West 
Galway between 1867 to 1872—were principally red lights, some of 
them being most brilliant between midnight and morning, while 
all of them this-year have been best early in the night, all lights 
usually disappearing before or a little after eleven. I am used 
to white lights in the summer months, but I never before saw 
them so prominent in the winter months—main lights, cross 
lights, and glows being white; while usually, each respectively 
have different colours. I have not seen an aurora that changes 
so much in character as the last, except that of September, 1867 


or 1868 (I think, but I have not my notes to give the exact year). 


That of 1867 or 1868 was a grand display, rising in a red mass 

to the zenith, and then shooting out pencils of red, green, white, 

purple, and orange lights. G, H. KINAHAN 
Ovoca, February 20 


i 
; 
q 
1 
somewhat similar, but partly red, bright patch rising up in the’ 


: 


Jail 


March 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


411 


The Recent Severe Weather 


GRANTING (1) that solar periodicity produces a corresponding 
periodicity in any of the elements which make the climate of the 
earth as a whole what it is, and (2) that the expression for that 
periodical change contains only the two first terms of the general 
expression, z.e, that there are no secondary . . . periods, both 
large admissions in the present state of our knowledge, it does 
not appear how a simple fluctuation of solar temperature, re- 
curring, we will say, every eleven years, could produce several 
periodic fluctuations of terrestrial temperature, identical in 
duration but not simultaneous, some one or more being therefore 
partially or completely opposed in phase to some one or more of 
the remainder, and to the causal fluctuation. 

Further, we know that solar conditions are not as simple as 
those above assumed, and that the sun-spot period is subject to 
large and seemingly capricious variation amounting to something 
like + 3 years at least. If then, as some able physicists believe, 
solar atmospheric changes are reflected in marked variations in 
terrestrial climate, we shall find these latter to be common to 
the whole earth, and to be represented by a function of the 
same form. ‘The mere citation of local (for in this view even the 
climate of Europe is merely local) phenomena which have 
occurred at intervals approximately equal individually to the 
average length of a sun-spot period, proves nothing in favour 
of the view supported by your correspondent ‘*H. W. C.,” in 
NATURE, vol. xxiii. pp. 329, 363 ; and an analysis of the dates given 
in his first communication, which would make the occurrence of 
great frosts simultaneous, sometimes with <un-spot maxima, at 
other times with sun-spot minima, seems calculated to weaken 
his case in a material degree, on the supposition of an wniform 
eleven-year cycle, 

Arranging the dates given by him in parallel column with 
the eleventh years of the present century, we get 


Dates of severe frost. 1800 + 
I. 1801—2 ; cae we fo) 
2. 1810—11 ass ate is zee II 
3. 1813—14 = 
4. 1819—20 en a5 se ate 22 
; 5. 1837—38 Ae “5 oe ae 33 
6. 1840—41 fae me oa nae 44 
7. 1856—57 55 
<- 8, 1860—61 66 
9. 1870—71 77 
10. 1880—81 88 


2 and 7are placed as above, as those positions seem to favour the 
cyclic theory more than their original ones did. A complete list of 
great frosts collated with actwal sun-spot variations is however 
most desirable, and would be specially valuable if representative of 
terrestrial climate in the cosmical sense, I trust that H. W. C. 
will favour us with such a table. 


London, February 19 M.R.I. A, 


Migration of the Wagtail 


I FEAR I may be attempting to trespass too frequently on the 
columns of NATuRE recently, but the paper in vol. xxiii. p. 387 
on the subject of wagtails taking a passage on the backs of 
cranes in a long flight, resembles so much a somewhat similar 
story told and believed in by the Indians in several parts of 
North America, that I venture to send you an account of it. 

All the Indians (Maskegon Crees) round the south-western 
part of Hudson’s Bay, assert that a small bird of the Fringillidze 
tribe takes a passage northward in the spring on the back of the 
Canada goose (4. Canadensis), which reaches the shores of 
Hudson’s Bay about the last week of April. 

They say that they have often seen little birds fly away from 
geese when the latter have been shot or shot at. 

An intelligent, truthful, and educated Indian named George 
Rivers, who was very frequently my shooting companion for 
some years, assured me that he had witnessed this, and I believe 
I once saw it occur. 

It is only the Canada goose that these little migrants use as an 
aérial conveyance, and certainly they both arrive at the same 
date, which is a week or two earlier than the other kinds of 
geese (4. hyperboreus and albifrons) make their appearance. 

I knew the little bird well and have preserved specimens of it, 
but it is so long ago that I have forgotten the name. 

The Indians on the shores of Athabasca and Great Slave 
Lakes—hoth great resorts of wild geese—tell a similar story. 
If a fabrication, I do not see why it should be invented about the 


Canada goose only, and not about other species which are 
equally numerous. 

It may perhaps be necessary to explain that all the Coast 
Indians of Hudson’s Bay devote a month or more every spring 
to wild fowl (chiefly geese) shooting, the game killed forming 
their entire food for the time. 

As soon as the geese begin to arrive, the Indian constructs a 
concealment of willows and grass, usually near a pool of open 
water, at the edge of which he sets up decoys. When geese are 
seen approaching (usually flying at a great height) the Indian 
imitates their call, and the geese on seeing the decoys circle 
round, gradually coming lower down until within shot, when 
they are fired at. It is from these high-flying geese that the 
small birds are seen to come. 

If the geese are flying low it is a pretty sure indication that 
they have already rested on the ground somewhere near, after 
their long flight, when of course their tiny passengers would 
have alighted. JOHN RAE 

Royal Institution, February 26 


Phosphorescence of the Sea 


You will perhaps permit me to record the occurrence of a 
phenomenon very rarely witnessed on this coast—I mean the 
general and quasi-spontaneous luminosity of the sea. 

It is of course common enough to observe sparkles of light 
more or less abundant when sea-water is briskly disturbed by 
contact with an oar or the bow of an advancing vessel; but 
it has only once before been my fortune, and that was twenty 
years ago, to witness the crest of each wavelet illuminated by the 
pale silvery light proceeding from countless phosphorescent 
organisms present in the water. 

The night, being cloudy, favoured observation, but there was 
considerable haze. The wind was south-east or thereabouts, 
the tem) erature of the air being 52° F., that of the sea close by 
the shore 47°'5 F. 

The phenomenon was visible on the night of Thursday, 
February 17 only. The following night was equally favour- 
able for observation, and the temperatures were the same 
within a degree, but the cause or causes no longer operated. 
On casting into the sea a shower of pebbles, which the night 
before produced brilliant flashes of light, or larger stones, which 
then developed concentric luminous wavelets, only a doubtful 
effect was observed. The organisins had, it seemed, already 
expended their force—probably had actually died—and I thought 
I perceived an unusual frothiness in the water. 

Is it not uncommon for this to occur so early in the year? It 
is in sammer, when the temperature of the sea is high, that we 
expect to see the water ‘‘ fiery,” Was the phenomenon observed 
on other paris of the coast ? Tuos. B. GRovEs 

Weymouth, February 21 


Minerva Ornaments 


I HAVE twice had an opportunity of being in London during 
the time Dr. Schliemann’s Trojan antiquities were exhibited at 
South Kensington, and the examination of them gave me very 
much pleasure. My last visit took place at the time Mr. Clay- 
pole’s first letter and Prof. Sayce’s reply appeared in NATURE, 
and I gave the ‘‘ Minerva ornaments” particular attention. My 
interest in the subject has been revived by seeing another letter 
from Mr, Claypole in a recent number, and having refreshed my 
memory from notes taken during my visits, perhaps you would 
kindly afford me space for a few remarks. 

Some of the ‘‘ Minerva ornaments ’”’ appeared to me somewhat 
similar to Irish objects in my possession, but mine are more 
symmetrical, less flattish, end on the whole more suitable, I 
should say, for net-sinkers than the others, yet I never thought 
of ticketing them as such, I think that both sets of objects have 
had too much labour expended on them to favour the idea that 
they were used for such a common object as net-sinking. The 
Trish objects, which I should say are of stone, are identical in 
form with a class of glass ornaments known as double glass 
beads, found in most collections of Irish -antiquities, which are 
certainly not net-sinkers. ‘‘Net-sinker” is a very common 
name in Ireland for almost any stone with a hole in it, and, with- 
out intending the slightest disrespect to Mr. Claypole, I believe 
the term is one of a set, of which ‘‘sling-stone” is another, 
applied in doubtful cases to cover our ignorance. As regards 
the use of the objects discovered by Dr. Schliemann, there may 


412 


NATURE nes 


[March 3, 1881 


be good grounds for believing that they were idols; but had I 
been left without help to interpret for myself I should not have 
guessed them to be net-sinkers, but rather children’s playthings 
—the ancient representatives of modern dolls. To show how 
little pains are sometimes taken in the preparation of net-sinkers, 
_ I may mention that a few months ago, while walking along the 
banks of the River Bann, I saw a fisherman cutting the tough 
sward into pieces about two inches by three or four, which, in 
answer to my inquiry, he informed me were intended for net- 
sinkers. I asked him why he did not use stone or lead, and he 
replied that turf sinkers were much superior, as in using them 
the nets never became entangled in the bottom of the river. I 
wonder if this custom is a recent invention or a survival from 
earlier times. 

I was struck by the close resemblance which several other 
objects in the Schliemann collection bore to Irish antiquities. I 
have noted several tool-stones with the usual hollowed marks on 
the sides, especially those bearing the double numbers 26 and 
1578, 26 and 1478, 26 and 1522, 45 and 1499, and also a stone 
celt or hatchet with marks on the sides like those on the tool- 
stones, and hammered at the edge, numbered 13 and 1505, all of 
which I could match from my own collection. Several whorls are 
marked in my notes as being similar to others found in Ireland, 
and an object bearing the numbers 6 and 1636 as being almost 
identical with double stone beads in my collection, Ihave alsoa 
large series of rubbing or polishing stones similar to others in 
Dr. Schliemann’s collection. Hammer-stones numbered 6 and 
7268, 26 and 1529, 26 and 1566, 13 and 1570 are perfect dupli- 
cates of some of those found by myself, with flint and bone 
implements, &c., at Portstewaritand Ballintoy. The ornamenta- 
tion on a few of the stone and glass whorls and beads in my 
collection have a sort of resemblance to that on some of the 
terra-cotta whorls exhibited by Dr. Schliemann, 

Cullybackey, Belfast, February 10 W. J. KNOWLES 


Selenium 


THE use of selenium for the automatic registry of star transits, 
proposed by me in a letter which you were good enough to 
publish in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 218, leads to the idea of 
applying it in a somewhat similar way for photometric purposes, 
in order to improve the existing scale of star magnitudes, and to 
watch any variations therein, W.M.C. 

Bombay, February 5 


A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
CONIFER 


pee Sequoias form the third genus of the Taxodiee 
in the “ Genera Plantarum.’’ The only existing spe- 
cies are the Wellingtonia and the Red-wood of California, 
both of which are confined to the south-west coast regions 
of the United States. Their nearest living allies are 
Taxodium and Glyptostrobus; but these were as com- 
pletely differentiated in the Eocene as at present, and 
they all appear, like the Ginkgo, to be survivals from 
more ancient floras; Sequoia especially had formerly a 
far wider range than it has at the present day. 

The Sequoias are moncecious, and have obtusely ovate 
ligneous solitary and terminal cones one to two inches in 
length, which are persistent and gaping after shedding 
the seed. The scales are spirally disposed, sixteen to 
twenty in number, wedge-shaped, with an orbicular or 
transversely oblong nail-like head, depressed, wrinkled, 
and mucronate in the centre, sharing thus to some extent 
the ornamentation which seems a characteristic of the 
Taxodiez. The foliage is distichous and yew-like in 
Sequoia sempervirens, and spiral and imbricated in S. 
gigantea, but both occasionally foliate in the opposite way. 
The former, or red-wood, occupies the Coast Range, a 
sandy rock rising to 2000 feet, of supposed Cretaceous 
age,and forms dense forests twenty to thirty miles in width, 
from a little south of Santa Cruz to the southern borders 
of Oregon, following the coast line for some 350 to 500 
miles, its distribution depending, according to Prof. 
Bolander, upon the sandstone and oceanic fogs. The 
S. gigantea extends at intervals along the western slope of 


| ment. 


the Sierra Nevada for nearly 200 miles, and at elevations 
of 5000 to 8000 feet. ‘‘ Towards the north the trees 
occur as very small, isolated, remote groves of a few 
hundreds each, most of them old and _ interspersed 
amongst gigantic pines, spruces, and firs, which appear 
as if encroaching upon them ; such are the groves visited 
by tourists (Calaveras, Mariposa, &c.). To the south, on 
the contrary, the Big-trees form a colossal forest forty 
miles long and three to ten broad, whose continuity is 
broken only by the deep sheer-walled cafions that inter- 
sect the mountains; here they displace all other trees, 
and are described as rearing to the sky their massive 
crowns; whilst seen from a distance the forest presents 
the appearance of green waves of vegetation, gracefully 
following the complicated topography of the ridges and 
river-basins which it clothes.”+ ‘The leaves are scale- 
formed, rounded dorsally, concave on the inner face and 
closely inlaid, regularly imbricated on the branchlets, 
longer and looser on the branches. In young trees they 
are much larger and freer, with long and awl-shaped leaves 
atan acute angle to the stem. No trees under cultivation 
in this country seem yet to have completely assumed the 
small imbricated foliage characteristic of the giant trees of 
California. 

Although the types of foliage in the two existing species 
appear to be perfectly distinct, they are not really entirely 
so; for S. sempervirens preserves the spiral scale-like 
leaves for a short distance at the base of each branchlet, 
and .S. gigantea sometimes assumes the distichous arrange- 
Besides, the foliage of the former is not in two 
rows as it is in Taxodium, being spirally arranged round 
the stem; but the leaflets, where they are flat and 
comparatively expanded, have a strong tendency to crowd 
into two marginal rows, so that every surface becomes 
exposed to light and moisture. The leaflets take a half 
twist near their base, and then diverge upward or down- 


wards towards the sides of the branchlet, an additional © 


row frequently lying centrally along the branch. 

The earliest-known Sequoias are Cretaceous, and were 
described by Carruthers, one as S. Woodwardit from Black- 
down, and others as S. Gardnerd and S. ovalis from the 
Folkestone Gault. The foliage from the latter has faleate 
leaves like Araucaria, and it is only inferred that it and 
the cones belonged to the same trees. It is not impossible 
that the cones may have been brought down from some 
high ground, and the foliage been shed by trees nearer 
the sea-level. Although Sequoia itself cannot be traced 
farther back than the Cretaceous, Schimper speculates on 
its probable derivation from some much older Araucarian 
form, and believes its position to be between the Cupres- 
sine and the Abietinez. 

Saporta regards the Chalk period as the age of Sequoias, 
and our principal knowledge of them is derived from 
Heer’s “ Flora fossilis arctica,’’ where a large number are 
figured. Saporta speaks of Pattorfik as a Sequoia wood 
carpeted with ferns, and Ekkorfat as a forest composed 
of cycads, sequoias, and firs. .S. Reichenbachitis the chief 
form, and occurs in the Cretaceous of Kome, Spitzbergen, 
and doubtfully at Atane. The foliage resembles the 
larger foliage of S. gZgantea, being spiral, awl-shaped, 
set at an acute angle to the stem, and with the points 
overlapping. It differs in being less regularly spiral, and 
often combines an approach to the more distichous 
S. sempervirens type, being called in such cases, S. 
Smittiana. in several of the figured specimens from the 
Komeschichten the branchlets of the two forms are almost 
united, and a very slight degree more care in collecting 
would, it seems, have placed the reality of the union 
beyond the possibility of doubt. One instance is repro- 
duced from plate xx., and a fragment from the same plate 
determined as S. Retchenbachiz, to show that even apart 
from the frequent association of the two species on the 
same slabs, their distinctness cannot be maintained if the 


2 Lecture before Royal Institution, April 12, 1878, by Sir J. Hooker. 


Mer tote ty 


March 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


413 


plates are faithfully drawn. The separation of another 
species, S. vigida from S. Smittiana, seems even less 
warranted ; but S. abiguva has somewhat smaller foliage 
and cones, and .S. gracilis still smaller foliage, approach- 
ing S. Couttsiz, yet compared, for no obvious reason, with 
S. Gardner. ; 
Spitzbergen has no Cretaceous species peculiar to it, 
but the Upper Cretaceous of Atanekerdluk possesses, 
besides two of the Komeschichten species, S. /astigzata, 
Sternb., and S. széulata, Heer. These two bear the 


a, b, S. Reichenbachii ; c, S. Smittiana, Fis. 7, pl. xx. vol, ili. ‘* Flora foss: 
Arctica. 


same relationship to each other that we have seen 
between S. Reichenbachit and S. Smittiana, only they are 
both considerably smaller, and were, as in the other case, 
doubtless the same tree. 

S. Reichenbachit is said to be met with in other Cre- 
taceous deposits in Bohemia, Saxony, Moravia, Belgium, 
&c., and S. fastigiata over the same, but a more restricted 
area; their wide distribution being held by Saporta to 
evidence a former universal equality in temperature. 

It is of course useless, without further material, to seek 


S. vigida, Fig. 11a, pl. xxii. 


S. Reichenbachit, Fig. 8, pl. xx. 


to unite the whole of the above species, since they have 
been described as distinct by Heer ; but it seems perfectly 
certain that had collecting been systematically carried on, 
a small proportion only of the specific distinctions could 
have been maintained. The excessive subdivision is to 
_ be regretted, since it has given undue prominence to the 
Arctic Sequoias of this age as a group, and will otherwise 
lead to inconvenience. Their chief and most interesting 
characteristics have been overlooked by Heer. These are 
first the union in one plant of the now almost completely 


differentiated S. sempervirens and S. gtgantea types ; and 
second, that the foliage, which then approached to the 
distichous S. sempervirens form, was produced, if the 
plates are correctly drawn, by the shortening almost to 
abortion of the upper and under leaves, and not to their 
being narrowed at the base and twisted, as at present, 
towards the sides of the branchlets. 

The Arctic Tertiaries have yielded ‘no foliage of the 
spiral, needle-leaved .S. gigantea type, except that which 
has been referred to S. Couttsie@. The large Araucaria- 
like foliage of .S. Sternbergi does not seem at that time to 
have existed much farther north than Iceland, while the 
S. sempervirens type seems to have been abundant. 
Seguotta Lagnsdorfit is in fact the prevailing fossil in 
Greenland, scarcely any stone with leaf impressions 
being without some remains of it. The branchlets are 
generally simple and single, rarely forking, and seem thus 
to have had a short season of growth and been quickly 
shed, an adaptation probably to the long Arctic winter. 
Flowers, fruits, and seeds have been collected. It is 
hardly less abundant at Spitzbergen, Mackenzie River, 
and other localities near the Arctic circle and in Iceland. 
The cones are said to be somewhat larger, and with more 
scales, and the leaves less pointed than in the existing 
species. The more decidedly imbricated character of 
the fruit-bearing branchlets implies a closer affinity with 
the Cretaceous forms. Heermakes six duly-named varie- 
ties out of the Spitzbergen species, being probably un- 
aware of the extent to which foliage on the same tree 
may vary at the present day. .S. dvevifolia, again, is at 
best a variety, and S. dsticha has leaves in opposite 
pairs, and while unlike in this respect, has nothing besides 
to support its reference to Sequoia. S$. Langsdorfit next 
appears in the Miocene Baltic and in the Aquitanian and 
Mayencian stages in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and 
France, but does not seem to appear in any Upper Mio- 
cene beds except as far south as Italy, where it occurs in 
several localities. This distribution is important, as well 
as the fact that branchlets from beds of Central Europe 
are more compound than those from the far north. An- 
other Spitzbergen species, extremely abundant where first 
found, is S. Vordenskioldt, said to be distinguishable by 
smaller and softer foliage, narrower leaflets scarcely 
tapering at the base and at more acute angles to the 
stem, the last being the chief distinctive character. None 
seem to have been met with in the 1872 expedition, only 
S. Langsdorfii being illustrated in the fourth volume ot 
the “ Flora fossilis arctica.” ‘ 

Another species belonging to the same group, described 
by Saporta as S. Tournali, is found in the Miocenes of 
Manosque, Armissan, and Kumi. It is principally charac- 
terised by the clustered, rarely solitary cones, and while 
the foliage resembles generally that of the existing species, 
the branchlets bearing fruit were much more imbricated, 
and in this respect resembled those of S. Langsdorfit of 
the Arctic floras. 

Most of these types have also been met with in America 
—where Lesquereux, following Heer, has over-subdivided 
the fragments into species. 

The S. gigantea type had by far the more restricted 
distribution of the two in the Tertiaries. Much of this 


“form of foliage from the Lower and Middle Eocenes ot 


England and France has been referred to Araucaria; but 
elsewhere, in the Oligocenes especially, almost the whole 
of it is referred toa single species of Sequoia, S. Sterndergi. 
It agrees with that of young plants of S. gigantea, the 
leaflets being less falcate, longer, and at a more acute 
angle to the stem than in the nearest existing Araucaria, 
On the other hand, however, no nearer approach to 
the ordinary adult foliage of S. g2gantea is ever as- 
sociated with them. The characteristic cones of Sequoia, 
which are small and numerous, and very persistent 
on the branches after the seed is shed, remain at- 
tached in several fossil species, as S. Cowttsi@, wherever 


414 


NATURE 


[March 3, 1881 


they are met with: but are rarely associated with the 
foliage figured as S. S/ernbergi, none having been found 
at such important localities as Sotzka, Haring, Monte 
Promina, and Bilin, where foliage abounds. This absence 
of cones is very stronz negative evidence against their 
foliage in the above localities at least being Sequoia, and in 
favour of their being Araucaria. The cones of Araucaria 
are few and large, shaken to pieces by the wind almost as 
as soon as ripe, and when carried by water the flotation 
of the winged seeds and of the foliage would differ enough 
to lead to their being separately imbedded. The foliage 
was described for years 2s Avaucarites, and a well-defined 
immature cone of Araucaria was found in the deposit at 
Haring and figured by Sternberg! and by Goeppert 2? as 
Araucarites Goepperti, and afterwards considered by 
Unger and Ettingshausen®* to belong to A. Sternbergi. 
Another small Araucaria-like cone is figured by Massa- 
longo from Chiavon,* which was found associated with 
foliage identical with that from Bournemouth. Similar 
foliage, but still nearer to Araucaria, is found at many 
places in France, and in England at Sheppey, Bourne- 
mouth, Bracklesham, the Isle of Wight, &c., but also 
always without any Sequoia cones, although I have found 
an Araucaria cone at Sheppey. 

Against all this evidence we have to set the fact that a 
branch with compressed cones attached has been found 
in the Upper Miocene near Turin, and that Sequoia cones 
are found in the same strata with somewhat similar 
foliage in Iceland. In both these instances however the 
foliage differs materially from the typical S. Sterndbergi of 
Sotzka. If we consider that foliage of existing species of 
Araucaria, Sequoia, Cryptomeria, and Arthrotaxis can 
with difficulty be distinguished, and that species which 
have died out may have approached each other still more 
closely, the evidence upon which Heer has changed the 
determination of all the Austrian and German specimens 
must appear insufficient. The possibly accidental simi- 
larity, not identity, of foliage occurring in deposits far 
apart and of widely different age, does not, I hold, out- 
weigh the other facts I have advanced. 

This type of foliage, whether it belong to one or many 
genera, has not been found of Tertiary age north of Ice- 
land, nor in the newer Miocenes of Central Europe, if we 
set aside two more than doubtful fragments from Oeningen. 
It abounds however in England, France, Germany, and 
Austria in Eocenes and Oligocenes, and recurs, as an 
Upper Miocene form, in Italy only. 

The British Eocenes have been credited with several 
Sequoias, as S. Sternberg: and S. Bowerbankit from 
Sheppey, S. Lanxgsdo7fit from Alum Bay and Bournemouth, 
S. du Noyert from Antrim, Xc., &c. There is, I believe, 
no good evidence yet of the presence of any Sequoia 
except S, Cov¢ts¢@, confined to Bovey, Hempstead, and 
perhaps Bournemouth, in any Tertiary rock of Great 
Britain. This question however cannot here be profitably 
discussed. .S. Cowtésée was originally described by Heer 
from Bovey Tracey, where it literally abounded. The 
foliage resembles that of S. g¢gantea, though smaller and 
more delicate, and must have been very graceful; but 
Heer’s restoration of it, since copied into other works, is 
very stiff and unnatural. The foliage in the “Flora 
fossilis arctica’? is much coarser, and should not have 
been referred to the same species. Saporta describes a 
beautiful variety “ Polymorpha” from Armissan, in which 
the ultimate branchlets take on the sempervirens 
character. .S. Couftsie seems to have been capable of 
supporting considerably greater heat than any of the 
other species, if we may judge from the associated 
plants. 

The leading facts known to us respecting the past 
history of the Sequoias may be summed up thus. They 
are not known to be older than the Cretaceous, when they 

7 “ Verst.,”” vol. ii. p. 204, Pl 39, Fig. 4. 


? “ Monogr. foss. Conif.,”’ 1850, Haarlem 7vans., p. 237, Pl. 44, Fig 2. 
3 “Flora yon Haring,” p. 36. 4 “Specim. Photogr.,” pl. xxi. 


were principally a northern form. The differentiation of 
the existing types has progressed from that period to the 
present, being slight in the Cretaceous (e.g. S. Reichen- 
bachit) ; more pronounced in the Eocene (e.g. S. Coutisie 
v. polymorpha); yet more so in the Oligocene and 
Miocene (.S. Lazgsdorfii), and most so at the present day, 
though even now there is a tendency to approach each 
other. The number of fossil species should be consider- 
ably reduced, and much of the supposed Sequoia foliage 
transferred to other genera. The genus is known to 
have ranged as far south as Central Europe during the 
Cretaceous, seems to have retreated north during the 
Lower and Lower Middle Eocenes, re-occupied its former 
habitats in the Upper Middle Eocene and Oligocene, first 
through .S. Cowttst@, and then through S. Langsdorfit, 
and ranged into Italy during the Upper Miocene. It was 
well-nigh exterminated during the Glacial epoch, and has 
been strangely preserved in two isolated spots, perhaps 
beyond its original range, where the moderating in- 
fluence of the Pacific enabled it to survive on, or occupy 
at a remote period lofty mountain spurs between the sites 
of ancient glaciers. Fixed on exceptionably favourable 
stations with congenial soil, the existing species may have 
slowly adapted themselves to a temperature far more 
genial than that supported by their polar ancestors, and, 
in adapting themselves to an always increasing mildness, 
have acquired that stupendous habit of growth which 
makes them the giants of vegetation." 

The moral to be drawn from the history of the Sequoias 
is that we should not place implicit credence in the 
minimum temperature of the so-called Miocene Green- 
land, Spitzbergen, Vancouver’s Isle, Sitka, and Arctic 
America and Asia, as settled by Heer. Such bald 
argument, as for instance that because Sequoia now 
requires such and such a temperature, therefore former 
but different species must have required the same, is 
entitled to but little deference; yet Heer's facts and 
opinions are quoted as axioms by a wide range of 
workers. When examined they are seen to be disputable, 
whether taken as physiological, geological, palazeonto- 
logical, or any other data. Provisionally they were of 
use, but the questions depending on the accuracy of the 
data are so important and the evidence so intricate that 
they should not be deemed settled until some greater 
amount of care has been bestowed on them. 

J. STARKIE GARDNER 


GEOMETRICAL TEACHING? 


NY E are glad to see that the Association for the 

Improvement of Geometrical Teaching has been 
by=no means idle, though no report has been issued 
since January, 1878, but that there has been a good deal 
of silent work going on in the way of sub-committee dis- 
cussions upon the several syllabuses of solid geometry, of 
higher plane geometry, and of geometrical conics. All 
who know the president will heartily sympathise with him 
in his bereavement, and will understand how unfitted he 
must have been for any other work than that which his 
position at Harrow imperatively required of him. He 
has now thrown himself with much energy into the cause, 
and proof of his interest in the labours of the Association 
is manifest throughout the interesting address which is 
printed on pp. 12-17 of this Report. It is well known 
that he has long advocated an extension of the scope of 
the Association, and in this address he takes the oppor- 
tunity of putting his views well forward. 

“Tt was doubtless well at the outset of our work to 
concentrate our attention and confine our efforts to the 
definite field, in which perhaps the need for improvement 

1 If we can really trace back the history of S. gigantea to fossil forms, it 
becomes curious to notice that it is only now apprcaching S. Couttsi@, the 
type which there is reason to believe formerly supported the highest tempera 
ture of any Tertiary Sequoia. 


2 Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching. 
General Report, January, 1881. 


Seventh 


March 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


415 


was most pressing, that of the teaching of geometry. 
But it can hardly be denied, I think, that there are other 
branches of mathematics whose teaching might also be 
greatly improved by an association of teachers, conferring 
together as to the defects of existing books or methods, 
and intrusting to sub-committees the task of suggesting 
means of remedying such acknowledged defects. If this 
be granted it appears to me that it is our next duty to 
bring the strength of our existing organisation to bear on 
other branches of mathematics besides pure geometry. 
To do this would, I believe, assist rather than injure the 
work which we have still to do for geometry. 

“T cannot doubt but that we have to some extent 
suffered from the restriction of the field within which we 
have hitherto worked. Elementary geometry is essentially 
a school subject, that is, one in which a student of mathe- 
matics ought to be fairly proficient before he enters on 
his university course, and which therefore is not a subject 
of real teaching in our universities or higher colleges at 
all. To this, and not to any ingrained spirit of oppo- 
sition to improvement, which in the face of the changes 
going on in our universities it seems to me it would 
be absurd to charge upon any body of active workers 
therein, I am inclined to attribute the small amount of 
interest and attention which we have hitherto been able 
to obtain for our work, and our failure as yet to procure 
any recognition of our syllabus in any university of the 
United Kingdom. Where a subject is not taught, but is 
only a subject, and rather a subordinate subject, of ex- 
amination, there can hardly be any very lively and active 
interest in the improvement of its teaching. It is reason- 
able to expect, therefore, that, by extending the scope of 
our work to other subjects, of which only the elements 
can in general be taught in schools, and which will after- 
‘wards be more fully studied at the universities, we shall 
enlist the sympathies of a wider circle of mathematical 
teachers, extend the list of our members, and connect 
ourselves more intimately with the living mathematical 
teaching of our universities, and then we shall, I believe, 
greatly promote the recognition of the work which we 
have already done..... / Algebra and trigonometry are 
perhaps less in need of our attention than other subjects, 
though even as regards these I believe valuable sugges- 
tions as toimproved methods and range of teaching would 
arise in the discussion of a committee specially interested 
in them. But it is only necessary to mention the subjects 
of analytical geometry, higher geometry, higher algebra, 
elementary kinematics and dynamics (or mechanics), to 
bring before the minds of those whom I am addressing a 
number of questions as to their teaching, from the discus- 
sion of which great advantages might arise. Further, I 
think no one can have followed the more recent exposi- 
tions of mathematical physics, more especially in the 
‘Matter and Motion’ of Maxwell, and the ‘Elements 
of Dynamic’ (alas, only a fragment) of Clifford—to 
mention only the names of two of the most penetrative 
geniuses and profound thinkers of our age, whom we 
have loved and admired while living, and whose premature 
deaths we, in common with the whole world of mathe- 
matical and physical science, deplore as an irreparable 
loss—without feeling convinced that the time is not far 
distant when the notion of a vector or step, as Clifford 
happily names it, and the simpler consequences of that 
notion forming a vector or stef-geometry (the basis 
of the calculus of quaternions), must be made a part 
of the elementary studies of every student of mathe- 
matics, more especially for the purposes of mathematical 
physics, but perhaps not less for its application to pure 
geometry. And if this be so I cannot help thinking that 
our Association, extended as I have suggested, might be 
the means of bringing together the right men to organise 
the method and bring it into a suitable stage for ele- 
mentary instruction . . . I refer to the improvement of 
the teaching of arithmetic. I suppose there are none of 


us here who have had any experience in the teaching of 
arithmetic, who have not often wished that they could 
make a /adia rasa of their pupils’ minds, as regards this 
subject, so fatally destructive of all appeals to reason have 
early unintelligent teaching and bad traditional methods 
shown themselves to be. In an effort to reform in many 
points the teaching of arithmetic, we might naturally 
expect to associate with us the best teachers in prepara- 
tory and even in primary schools ; and perhaps also mem- 
bers of that very important body of men, the Government 
Inspectors of Schools ; and thus our organisation might 
become the means of linking together all grades of 
mathematical teachers, from the humblest to the highest, 
in an association which could not fail, if heartily sup- 
ported, to become a powerful influence for good on the 
whole education of the country.” 

As the President’s proposal took many of the members 
present by surprise, it was ultimately resolved, as we read, 
that a special meeting of the Association should be held 
about Easter next, to consider the desirability or the 
contrary of thus extending the scope of the Association. 

In connection with this matter we have also received 
a letter addressed to non-members to ascertain, if such 
an extension of the aims of the Association were adopted, 
whether they would allow themselves to be proposed as 
members of the new Association. A draft of rules ac- 
companies the Report, from which we extract the follow- 
ing proposed rules :—“ That the Association be called 
‘The Association for the Improvement of Mathematical 
Teaching’; that its object shall be to effect improvements 
in the teaching of the various branches of elementary 
mathematics and mathematical physics by such means 
as may appear most suitable in each particular case. 
This object to be carried out by the reading of papers or 
raising discussions at meetings of the Association, by the 
appointment of committees to report on existing defects in 
the usual methods, order, range, &c., in teaching special 
subjects, and the expediency of drawing up syllabuses 
or text-books of such subjects; by the employment of 
suitable means for bringing the work done by the Asso- 
ciation before the universities and other educational or 
examining bodies, and using its influence to obtain recog- 
nition ofisuch work from those bodies.” 

Another action on the part of the meeting was the 
passing a resolution ‘that a sub-committee be appointed 
to draw up proofs of the propositions of the syllabus of 
plane geometry.’’ It was shown that many teachers had 
adopted the syllabus, and that it was meeting with a 
growing acceptance was evidenced by the steadily im- 
proving annual sale, 2033 copies having been already 
sold. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEW OR RARE ANIMALS 
IN THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S LIVING 
COLLECTION? 

JE 


ORTH-EASTERN ASIA has of late years disclosed 

to its explorers a number of very curious novelties 

in the class of Mammals. Amongst them are several 

species of great interest, examples of which have reached 
the Gardens of the Zoological Society alive. 

4. The Tcheli Monkey (Macacus Tcheliensis) was so 
named by the distinguished zoologist, M. Alphonse Milne- 
Edwards of Paris, from the Chinese province of Tcheli 
(or Petcheli), in which it is found. The existence of a 
monkey in a latitude so far north—on nearly the same 
isothermal line as the city of Paris is a very remarkable 
fact, and quite new to zoological distribution. 

The occurrence of this monkey in the mountains of the 
north-eastern district of the province of Petcheli seems to 
have been first ascertained by M. Fontanier, who was for 
some years French Consul at Pekin, and who transmitted 


1 Continued from p. 38. 


416 


many valuable specimens to the Museum of the Jardin 
des Plantes at Paris. Amongst these was an example of 
the present animal—a female, not quite adult—which was 
described and figured by M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 
his “ Etudes pour servir a I’Histoire Naturelle des Mam- 
miféres” (Paris, 1868-1874). The celebrated naturalist, 


Pére David, also seems to have met with this monkey in | 


the same district, as he includes it in several lists of the 
Mammals of Northern China which he has recently 
published. 


For their pair of this scarce monkey now living in the | 


Regent’s Park, the Zoological Society are indebted to the 
kind exertions of one of their Corresponding Members, 
Dr. S. W. Bushell of H.B.M. Legation at Pekin. Dr. 
Bushell obtained these animals in 1880 from the Yung-ling, 
or Eastern Mausoleum, of the reigning Manchu dynasty, 
situated about 70 le from Pekin to the north of 40° N.L. 
The Tcheli monkey belongs to the same section of the 


NATURE 


[Warch 3, 1881 


rhesus), but has a shorter tail, and is generally of a more 
rufous colour. It is also readily distinguishable by its 
dense coat of short thick fur, adapting it to endure the 
bitter winter climate of its native hills, where the thermo- 
meter often descends 10° below zero. Like most of its 
congeners it is rock-loving in its habits. 

5. The Water-deer (Hydropotes inermis) is another 
Chinese animal which has only lately become known in 
Europe. : 

Until of late years it was supposed that the annual 
production of deciduous bony processes (antlers) from 
the frontal bones was an invariable characteristic of the 
males of the deer-tribe (Cervidz). In some cases these 
antlers might attain enormous dimensions, as in the 
Wapiti (Cervus Canadensis) and the Elk (Alces machiis) ; 
in others they might consist only of diminutive points, as 
in the Pudu-deer of Chili (Pudua humilis). But they 
were always present to a greater or less extent. The dis- 


group as the well-known Rhesus monkey (dZacacus | covery of this little animal served to confirm, however, 


Fic. 4.—Jhe 


the truth of the axiom, that in Nature at least there is no 
law without an exception. Here we have a deer complete 
in everything except its antlers, usually the most charac- 
teristic feature in the males of these animals. In place 
of antlers the buck Water-deer is provided with other 
organs of defence in the shape of two long exserted 
canine teeth, which grow to a considerable size in the 
adult, and give him ample means of exercising his 
pugnacious powers. 

For our first knowledge of the existence of this singular 
deer we are indebted to the exertions of the late Robert 
Swinhoe, who, during his residence in various parts of 
the Chinese Empire, added so largely to our knowledge 
of every part of its fauna. Mr. Swinhoe obtained his 
first specimens of the Aydropotes in the market of 
Shanghai in the winter of 1879, and described it at one 
of the meetings of the Zoological Society in the following 
year, 


Tcheli Monkey. 


“In the large riverine islands of the Yangtsze above 
Chinkiang,” Mr. Swinhoe tells us, ‘“‘these animals occur 
in large numbers, living among the tall rushes that are 
there grown for thatching and other purposes. The 
rushes are cut down in the spring; and the deer then 
swim away to the main shore and retire to the cover of 
the hills. 

“Tn autumn, after the floods, when the rushes are 
again grown, they return with their young and stay the 
winter through. They are said to feed on the rush- 
sprouts and coarse grasses, and they doubtless often 
finish off with a dessert from the sweet- potatoes, cabbages, 
&c., which the villagers cultivate on the islands during 
winter. 

“They cannot however do much damage to the latter, 
or they would not be suffered to exist in such numbers as 
they do; for the islands have their villages and a pretty 
numerous agricultural population. Fortunately for the 


March 3, 1881 | 


NATURE 


417 


deer, the Chinese have an extraordinary dislike for their 
flesh. They are therefore only killed for the European 
markets, and sold at a low price. The venison is coarse 
and without much taste, but is considered tolerable for 
want of better; it is the only venison procurable in 
Shanghai. The animal itself gives sport to the gunner ; 
and numbers are slaughtered every winter by the European 
followers of Nimrod in the name of sfov7. Their numbers 
however do not appear to get much thinned.” 

Another most remarkable characteristic of these antler- 


less deer is their extraordinary fecundity. Mr. Swinhoe 
states that according to the testimony of the natives the 
mothers have four or five young at a birth, and that this 
is corroborated by Europeans who have killed gravid 
females and found the like number of embryos in the 
uterus. This account is to some extent confirmed by 
observations on the Water-deer in captivity in Europe. 
Although the Zoological Society have not succeeded in 
inducing this animal to breed in the Regent’s Park, this 
feat has been accomplished by M. Josephe Cornély of the 


Cate 


Tic. 5.—Lhe Water-deer. 


Chateau Beaujardin, near Tours, in France—one of the 
most successful “acclimatisers’’ in Europe. In M. 
Cornély’s beautiful park one of these deer produced three 
young ones in the spring of 1879, two of which, it is 
believed, lived to attain maturity. There can be no 
doubt therefore that the Water-deer is much more fruitful 
than the rest of its congeners, which certainly never 
produce more than two at a birth, and for this reason at 
least would be a valuable animal for domestication. 

The adult water-deer standing reached at its shoulder 


a height of about twenty inches, and is generally of a pale 
fawn-colour, paler below. 2 

According to Mr. Swinhoe the “Chinese at Shanghai 
call this animal the Xe, but at Chinkiang it is named 
Chang --the classical term for the Muntjac (Cervulus 
Reevest). The Chinese dictionary, compiled under 
authority of the Emperor Kazghe, descrikes the Ke as 
‘stag-like, with feet resembling those of a dog, has a 
long tusk on each side of the mouth, and is fond of 
fighting.’” 


NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE COREAN 
ARCHIPELAGO‘ 


es archipelago, which consists of a number of 

smaller groups of islands separated by a depth 
of water varying from twenty to fifty fathoms, lies off the 
south-west coast of the peninsula of Corea. Whilst many 
of the larger islands vary from two to six miles in their 
extreme length, they are all of considerable height : their 
highest summits attain an elevation generally ranging 
between 600 and 1000 feet above the sea—Ross or 
Alceste Island, in the south-west corner of. the archi- 
pelago, reaching to a height of as much as 1935 feet. 
The large and naked masses of rock which crown their 
summits give to these islands a somewhat rugged and 


= pede during a brief visit of H.M.S. Hornet to these islands in October, 
1878. 


uninviting aspect; and their quaint inhabitants view with 
ill-concealed dislike the presence of foreign ships within 
their waters. 

I was enabled to land on two occasions on the Island of 
Mackau—the largest of a group of islands bearing that 
name. About six miles in length, it possesses some half- 
dozen lofty peaks, which range in height from 800 or 900 
feet to 1400 feet above the sea. Naked masses of quartzite 
or quartz-rock crown the summits and often compose the 
upper third of the hills, whilst a thick and dense growth 
of creepers, shrubs, and mimosas clothes the hill-slopes 
for their lower two-thirds. The quartzite passes insensibly 
into a compact quartzitic sandstone underlying it; and 
lower down this rock assumes a coarse-grained texture, 

ccasionally containing pebbles of quartz embedded in it. 
From the nature of the ground it was difficult to find 


418 


NATURE 


| March 3, 1881 


trustworthy signs of bedding in these rocks. Cropping 
out in the lower third of the hills—from the cliffs and the 
slopes immediately above them—are beds of a highly 
micaceous rock—greisen—-and a gneissose rock some- 
times approaching in its characters the typical gneiss ; 
these beds are inclined at an angle of 15° to the east- 
north-east. Veins of quartz are observed to traverse 
both these rocks, whilst occasionally a layer of quartz— 
an inch in thickness—separates contiguous beds. 

I had no opportunity of landing on any other islands of 
the archipelago, many of which in their general appear- 
ance resemble that of the Island of Mackau. 

H. B. Guppy 


NOTES 


THE International Medical Congress which it is proposed to 
hold in London in the beginning of August will be the seventh of 
its kind. The previous meetings have been held biennially in the 
principal university towns of the Continent. At the last meeting 
in Amsterdam in 1879, a general wish was expressed that the 
next should be in England, and the wish having been informally 
communicated to the Presidents of the College of Physicians and 
the College of Surgeons, they called a meeting of presidents or 
other delegates of all the Univerities, Medical Corporations, 
Public Medical Services, and the Medical Societies. The pro- 
posal to hold the Congress in London was heartily agreed to, 
and an Executive Committee was appointed under whose direc- 
tion, and, especially, by the energy of the General Secretary, 
Mr. MacCormack, a very large scheme has been arranged for 
the discussion of the most interesting questions in all the 
divisions of the Medical Sciences. The Meetings will be 
held in fifteen sections, in rooms of most of which the 
use has been granted by the University of London, the Royal 
Academy, and all the learned Societies at Burlington House. 
Others have been engaged at Willis’s Rooms. The officers 
and councils of the several sections include, with very few 
exceptions, all the chief and most active teachers and workers in 
the several subjects of medical science and practice, not in 
London alone, but in all the universities and great towns in the 
United Kingdom. In so far as general consent to the design 
of the Congress may be regarded as a promise of success, 
all looks well, and the agreement of our own countrymen is well 
matched by the assurances of co-operation already received from 
a large: number of the most distinguished medical investigators 
and practitioners in both the Old World and the New. About 
4000 invitations were issued, and it is expected that the roll of 
members will include at least 2000 names. Of course there are 
large arrangements for receptions and various hospitalities, and 
for making London as agreeable and instructive as may be in 
August ; but if the design in the programme of the Congress be 
fairly fulfilled, a great quantity of hard and useful scientific work 
will be well done. 


AT a meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
held in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 12, the Rumford 
medal was conferred on Prof, Josiah Millard Gibbs, of Yale 
College, for his researches on Thermodynamics. 


WE regret to hear of the death of Prof. James Tennant, 
F.G.S., the well-known mineralogist. Mr. Tennant was the 
assistant and afterwards the successor of Mr. Mawe, author of 
“* Travels in Brazil,” and of a ‘‘ Treatise on Diamonds,” and by 
adding to the series obtained by Mr. Mawe many fine specimens 
from every part of the globe, succeeded in thus forming a very 
large and valuable collection of minerals, Mr. Tennant was an 
excellent authority on gems, and his advice was taken by the 
Government with respect to the cutting-of the Koh-i-Noor and 
other crown jewels, Besides holding the office of ‘‘ Mineralogist 
to the Queen,” Mr. Tennant was for many years Professor of 


Geology and Mineralogy in King’s College, London, and after he 
resigned the professorship of the former science, still retained 
the post of Professor of Mineralogy, which he held at the time 
of his death, Mr, Tennant, in conjunction with the late Prof. 
Ansted and the Rev. W. O. Mitchell, wrote the treatise jon 
Geology, Mineralogy, and Crystallography for Orr’s ‘‘ Circle of 
the Sciences,” and he was also the author of some smaller 
educational works. Mr. Tennant did much useful work in 
preparing collections of minerals and fossils suitable for educa- 
tional purposes ; and by popular lectures and in other ways he 
aided in disseminating a knowledge of those sciences in which 
he was so greatly interested. Mr. Tennant had reached the age 
of seventy-three at the time of his death. 


Pror, MARTIN Duncan, F.R.S., has been elected president 
of the Royal Microscopical Society. 


THE Daily News Naples correspondent writes with reference 
to the Zoological Station at Naples that the average number of 
naturalists working in the laboratory was formerly about twenty- 
five, but this year it will be above thirty, adding to which the 
permanent staff of the station, there are altogether nearly forty 
naturalists bent fupon ‘promoting original research into marine 
zoology and botany, while enjoying the most unusual facilities 
and elaborate technical arrangements that have ever yet been 
contrived, The use of the diving apparatus has enabled the 
naturali-ts to find marine plants hidden in cracks and crevices 
and on the undersides of overhanging rocks, which otherwise would 
never have been brought to light, for the ground-net cannot reach 
them. By this means many interesting botanical problems have 
been brought nearer to a solution. 


COLONEL PREJEWALSKI has just returned to St. Petersburg 
with a fine botanical collection he has made in Kansu. Dr. 
Maximowicz states that upon a cursory examination his previous 
impression is strengthened that we have to do here not with the 
flora of China, but with an altogether different one, belonging to 
the border of the great Central Asiatic plateau. There are no 
Chinese forms of trees or shrubs whatever, not even an Acer. 
The general character is entirely high alpine and cold. Dr. 
Maximowicz thinks that this Central Asiatic plateau has a flora 
with a distinct individuality of its own, and proposes to call it 
the Tangut flora, from the name applied by its first European 
explorer, Marco Polo, to the people inhabiting this inclement 
and inaccessible region. 


THE arrangements for the international medical and sanitary 
exhibition of the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, which is to be 
held at South Kensington from July 16 to August 13, are now 
complete. The exhibition is to comprise everything that is of 
service for the prevention, detection, cure, and alleviation of 
disease, 


THE Clarendon Press is about to issue a new edition of the 
late Admiral W. H. Smythe’s “Cycle of Celestial Objects,” a 
book which by universal consent has done more to promote 
popular astronomy in England than any other work of the kind, 


“The new edition has been edited by Mr. G. F. Chambers, 


F.R.A.S., whose ‘‘ Handbook of Astronomy,” another Claren- 
don Press book, is well known. This volume, though professedly 
only a new edition, may be regarded as almost a new work, 
Whereas the original edition comprised only 850 objects, the 
new one comprises no fewer than 1604. But it is not merely in 
the number of the objects dealt with that the usefulness of the new 
edition will consist. It will be found that Mr. Chambers has cut 
down here, expanded there, and revised everywhere, Admiral 
Smythe’s printed matter, so as to embody the progress of the 
science down to the year 1880. What this means in the case of 
hundreds of double-stars annually undergoing re-measurement, 
and many of them annually undergoing change, can only be 


a 


March 3, 1881 | 


understood by those who have been called upon to perform 
similar literary work. But this is not all. Admiral Smythe’s 
observations having been made in England, his labours only 
extended to those stars and nebulz which were visible in Eng- 
land ; but Mr. Chambers, by means of materials gathered from 
various sources, has extended the book to the whole of the 
southern hemisphere, and has thus made it an observer’s hand- 
book for the large English-speaking populations of India and 
the Australian and American continents. The New ‘‘ Cycle” 
will be found to contain a great number of double-star measures 
by Burnham and others, many of them as recent as 1880. The 
places of the objects have been uniformly set out for the epoch 
of 1890, so that in this respect the book will be up to date for 
many years to come. A chromolithograph of twenty four typical 
star disks in different shades of colour intended for the methodical 
record of star colours forms an appropriate frontispiece. 


WE have received a very satisfactory report from the Sunday 
Lecture Society. It refers to an interesting experiment in Edin- 
burgh of a Sunday Science School, in which ninety-two pupils 
were enrolled, with an average attendance from November to 
July of sixty. The pupils were mostly of the artisan class and 
youths who, owing to late business hours, could not avail them- 
selves of evening classes. 


MEASUREMENTS of the ‘‘ Midgets” who have lately been to 
Buckingham Palace and Marlborough House are being taken by 
Quarter-Master Sergeant Riordan, under the direction of the 
Anthropological Society. Successful casts of the mouths, 
showing an apparently abnormal dentition, have been obtained 
by Mr. F. S. Mosely, and were exhibited in the library of the 
Royal Institution last Friday evening. 


AT a meeting of the Electricity Exhibition Commission in 
Paris on Monday, M. Berger announced that arrangements had 
been made for the Palace of Industry being lighted up during 
the exhibition by all the French and foreign systems concurrently. 
This will involve $00 horse-power, and more than 50 kilometres 
length of wire. There will be six classes, viz. :—1. Production 
de l’électricité ; 2. transmission de l’électricité ; 3. électro-métrie ; 
4. applications de l’électricité ; 5. mécanique générale dans ses 
applications aux industries électriques ; 6. bibliographie et his- 
toire. A proposal will be made to the Municipal Council of 
Paris to grant to Herr W. Siemens the concession of an elec- 
trical railway to the Hippodrome, in the Bois de Boulogne, 
in consideration of the expenses incurred by the construction 
of the railway from Place de la Concorde to the Exhibition 
Palace. The railway being constructed on a viaduct, the 
expense is estimated at 300,000 francs, and it is impossible to 
expect it will be recovered during the 107 days of the exhibition, 
The transmission of force at a distance by electricity will be 
tried in the Palais de I’ Industrie during the Electrical Exhibition. 
Currents generated in the ground-floor will be utilised to work 
electro-magnetic machines, which will do various kinds of work. 
The Publishers’ Union, under the direction of MM. Hachette, 
will establish an exhibition of electrical publications, and a 
reading-room, into which will be admitted all the scientific 
papers of the world, irrespective of their language. 


THE difficulties in the way of taking the census of our vast 
and heterogeneous Indian Empire have been sometimes very 
curious. In Burmah the census operations in the interior created 
no little consternation among the Karens, who were doing all 
they could to evade enumeration. The native officials employed 
to collect statistics seem to have shown their zeal in a curious 
way. The Pioneer declares that a census enumerator in the 
Central Provinces put down in his book a certain old tomb as a 
**house with one inhabitant.” The phrase ‘‘to be numbered 
with the dead” will henceforward bear a new and vital meaning; 
and death will be robbed of his majority, Another anecdote 


NATURE 


419 


states that when the census commissioner entered a certain com- 
pound with the forces of enumeration in his train, an ayah who 
had been taken account of by enumerator and supervisor both, 
ran excitedly to her mistress and warned her that there would be 
certainly some mistake in the hisab, for that the sirkar had 
counted her twice already and was going to count her again! 


In a note on the Russian and Siberian varieties of the 
Gaunnarus pulex (Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Society of 
Naturalists, vol. xi. fasc, 1) M. Semenovsky shows .that the 
representatives of this species in Lake Baikal and in Lake 
Gokcha of High Armenia, 6400 feet above the sea-level, 
are quite identical, and most akin to the Norwegian typical 
representative of this species, described by Prof. Sars. On the 
contrary, the G. Awdex, which inhabits the lakes of the Taimyr 
tundras of Northern Siberia, that of the Baraba Steppe in 
Western Siberia and of the Ural region, belongs to another 
variety. A second variety, very different from the two pre- 
ceding, was discovered in two salt lakes of the Government 
of Orenburg, notwithstanding the close proximity of one of 
these lakes to those of the Ural region. A third variety inhabits 
the northern lakes of European Russia and those of the Valdai 
Hills, whilst a fourth variety, being most like to that which is 
known from the lakes of Savoy, was discovered in the lakes 
near St, Petersburg. 


Ir is known that the young horns of the Cervus maral 
(Severtzoff), when they are filled with blood and not yet ossified, 
are very much prized by the Chinese, who purchase them at the 
Siberian frontier, paying as much as six to twenty pounds the 
pair. A very active chase of the maral has therefore always 
been carried on in Siberia, and since it became rather rare, the 
Cossacks in the neighbourhood of Kiakhta have domesticated 
this stag. Now we learn from a communication by M. Polakoft 
that its domestication has greatly extended in Western Siberia, 
so that there are herds of seventy head; but the horns of the 
domesticated deer, as might be expected, have lost a good many 
of their original qualities. 


In a recently-discovered stalactite cave at Kirchberg, near 
Kremsmiinster (Austria), a jaw-bone of a man with well-preserved 
teeth was found among numerous remains of Ursus speleus. 


IT is reported from Stuttgart (Wirtemberg) that bones of 
mammoth and rhinoceros have been brought to light by digging 
in a cellar on loamy ground, Dr, Fraas has recognised, besides 
tusks (60 cm. and 200 cm. long), two pieces of a jaw-bone 
belonging to a mammoth, and parts of mandibles, scapula, and 
maxilla of a rhinoceros. 


THE Mineralogical Museum at Breslau University has received 
a large number of bones belonging to the woolly-haired Rhino- 
ceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus). They were found near Skarsine 
in Silesia. The jcompletesskeleton was found ina marl-pit at 
a depth of sixteen feet. Unfortunately the skull and several 
bones were broken through inattention on the part of the 
workmen, This is the fifth skeleton of the kind found in 
Silesia, 


On February 20 a slight shock of earthquake occurred at 
Agram at 2h, 15m, a.m., anda more severe one at 6h. 15m, a.m., 
accompanied by a subterranean noise. During the last week 
wave-like motions were also felt. 


THE Daily News Lisbon correspondent, telegraphing on 
February 23, states that thirty-six successive shocks of earth- 
quake have been experienced at St. Michael’s in the Azores. 
‘The church and 200 houses fell in, Several people were 
killed. A religious and penitential procession had taken place, 
the Civil Governor at the head, A volcanic island has been 
formed. At latest advices slight shocks continued. Many 
people were in tents outside the town.” 


420 


NATURE 


| March 3, 1881 


THE Khedive of Egypt has nominated M. Gaston Maspero to 
the directorship of the museums in the place of the late archzo- 
logist, M. Mariette. To the latter a monument is to be erected 
at Cairo. A committee has already been formed, of which the 
Foreign Minister is president. 


A NEw Italian serial will shortly le published at Naples. Its 
title will be Rassegna critica di opere sctentifiche e letterarie, and 
its editor Prof. Andrea Angiulli. It will appear six times a 
year. 


Last Thursday the Hackney Microscopical and Natural 
History Society held their annual sozrée, always a very successful 
event. Many other similar London societies were represented at 
the meeting. 


AN elaborate report upon the opening up of two of the 
pyramids at the boundary of the Libyan Desert near Sakkara 
is now published by Prof. Brugsch. The learned professor 
estimates the matter to be of the most important and valuable 
kind. At the close of 1880 the entrances to the sepulchral 
chambers of the three pyramids were laid bare. The ceilings 
were taken off, and only the two sides, all covered with hiero- 
glyphics, rose from the dérzs. The hieroglyphics point to the 
reign of Pharaoh Apappus. 


THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 
past week include a Bactrian Camel (Camels bactrianus) from 
Afghanistan, presented by Col. O. B.C. St. John, R.E., F.Z.S. ; 
a Punjaub Wild Sheep (Ovis cycloceros) from Afghanistan, pre- 
sented by Capt. W. Cotton; a Mona Monkey (Cercopithecus 
mona) from West Africa, presented by Mr. W. Macmillan 
Scott ; two Common Peafowls (Pavo cristatus) from India, pre- 
sented by Mrs, Edward Brown; a Roseate Cockatoo (Cacatwa 
roseicapilla) from Australia, presented by Miss Mary J. Richard- 
son; a Stump-tailed Lizard (Zrachydosaurus rugosus) from 
Australia, presented by Mr. F. O. Maitland; a Horsfield’s 
Tortoise (Zéstudo horsfieldi) from Cabul, deposited ; two Globose 
Curassows (Crax globicera) from Central America, a White- 
browed Amazon (Chrysotis albifrons) from Honduras, purchased: 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


WE take the following from the March number of the Proc. of 
the Royal Geographical Society :—The eminent Russian traveller 
and savant, Col. Prejevalsky, intends, we are informed, to devote 
himself for some time to the preparation in retirement of a great 
work on the results of his travels, including, besides his recent 
expedition to Tibet, his previous journey to Lob-nor, of which 
he was prevented, by want of time, from giving more than a bare 
outline. The work is to consist of eight volumes, and to be 
entitled ‘‘ Travels in the Deserts of Central Asia.” Volumes i. 
and ii. will contain the narrative and an account of the physical 
geography and ethnography of the countries he has visited, and 
will include also his surveys, the pictorial illustrations being from 
original sketches by his com;anion, Lieut. Robarofsky. Vol. 
iii, will be devoted to the mammalia of Central Asia ; vol. iv. to 
the birds ; vol. v. to the reptiles, amphibia, and fishes ; vol. vi. 
to the flora of Mongolia; and vol. vii. to that of Tibet. Vol. 
viii. and last will contain the geology and mineralogy as far as 
materials will permit. The first two volumes, each containing 
500 pages, and perhaps more, will be written by the traveller 
himself, and will appear towards the close of 1882. The 
ornithology will also proceed from his pen, as well as that 
portion of the zoology which treats of the antelope, buffalo, and 
a few other of the more important animals. The remainder will 
be written by the Academicians Strauch and Maximovitch, Pro- 
fessors Kepler, Inostrantsef, and Bogdanof, and will be issued in 
parts. The whole will not becompleted for several years. The 
work will be brought out under the auspices of the Geographical 
Society, and a special grant for the purpose will be asked for 
from H.M. the Emperor. 


AT the Geographical Society on Monday evening Sir Richard 
Temple delivered a lecture on the lake-region of Sikkim on the 
frontier of Tibet, which, in point of fact, was a description of 


the impressions acquired during a tour which he made as Lieut,- 
Governor of Bengal. Sir R. Temple told his audience that the 
fact of any part of Sikkim being British territory was due to the 
imprisonment of Sir Joseph Hooker and Dr, Campbell by the 
Rajah; and he then gave a geographical sketch of the whole 
region. Possibly the most important matter dealt with was the 
construction of the politico-commercial road from Darjiling to 
the Jyalap Pass into the Chumbi Valley, which Sir R. Temple 
considers the frontier-line between British and Chinese territory, 
Sir R. Temple is apparently sanguine that the Tibetans will 
continue the road on to Lhasa, but he did not say when they 
were likely to do so. Mr. W. T. Blanford, who had also 
visited Sikkim, afterwards explained to the meeting that he 
believed these lakes to be due to glacial action, and that the 
Bidan Tso was a beautiful specimen of this kind of lake. Mr. 
Blanford also called attention to the opening afforded for 
exploration in Northern Sikkim, which has not as yet been 
visited by Europeans. 

WE understand that Mr. Joseph Thomson has been elected 
a life-member of the Royal Geographical Society, in further 
recognition of his eminent services to geography during the 
recent East African expedition. The Council of the Society 
have presented to the British Museum the collection of shells 
which he made during his journey. 

THE Oe8sterreichische Monatschrift fiir den Orient of this 
month contains a highly interesting paper by Prof. H. Vambery, 
on the proposed Hyrkanian railway, a valuable description of 
the roads and land communications of Persia by Baron Gédel- 
Lannoy in Tcheran, a paper on the coffee districts of Yemen 
by Baron Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, besides two well-written 
historical papers, 

AT the last meeting of the Berlin Geographical Society Prof. 
W. Forster, the director of the Berlin Observatory, made an 
interesting communication regarding one of the most important 
tasks of travellers in unknown regions, z.e. the exact determina- 
tion of latitude, longitude, and elevation above sea-level. With 
several of the results of recent German expeditions serious 
errors in this regard were detected. Prof. Forster stated that 
the Berlin Observatory staff would shortly be in a position to 
undertake the practical and theoretical instruction of travellers 
and to superintend the selection, testing, and packing of the 
necessary scientific instruments for the various expeditions before 
starting. 

THE last number of the Zour du Afonde contains an instal- 
ment of Dr. Crevaux’s account of his journey from Cayenne to 
the Andes, the present part dealing more particularly with the 
exploration of the River Parou. The illustrations are from 
original sketches, and are admirably drawn. 


In a recent issue Les Missions Catholigues publishes a letter 
from a missionary among the Kakhyens, which contains some 
interesting notes concerning that comparatively unknown people, 

A SypNey telegram states that a bushman named Skulthorpe 
has telegraphed from Blackall asserting that he has found the 
explorer Leichhardt’s grave, and has recovered the diary of the 
whole of his last expedition, together with other relics. Skul- 
thorpe refuses to show any of the articles until his arrival in 
Sydney. 

THE last number of Ze Globe contains part of a paper entitled 
‘* Tartarie,” by M. F. de Morsier, in which the writer proposes 
to deal with the Tartar, Turcoman, and Kirghiz steppes. 


By a telegram from Brisbane we learn that the Queensland 
Government expedition for the survey of the projected Trans- 
continental railway started on January 14, presumably from 
Blackall. A previous survey, it will be remembered, was 
made by a party under Mr. Favene, despatched by the proprietors 
of the Quzenslander, but so far as we are aware no detailed 
account of his explorations has ever been made public, and 
possibly the new expedition has been sent to endeavour to find 
a better line of route. 


THE Wellington correspondent of the Colonies and India 
states that the Southern Alps and other of the principal moun- 
tains of New Zealand are to be explored next year by members 
of the Alpine Club, who will find ample scope for their energies, 
The top of Mount Cook, the loftiest peak in New Zealand, 
between 13,000 and 14,000 feet in height, has not yet been 
reached. 

THE International Alpine Congress will meet at Salzburg in 
1882, The committee is now being formed. 


a ae 


1 vy 
os ia ed 
A eee 


March 3, 1881 | 


ON THE VISCOSITY OF GASES AT HIGH 
EXHAUSTIONS + 


BY the viscosity or internal friction of a gas is meant the 

resistance it offers to the gliding of one portion over another. 
In a paper read before the British Association in 1859 Maxwell * 
presented the remarkable result that on theoretical grounds the 
coefficient of friction, or the viscosity, should be independent 
of the density of the gas, although at the same time he stated 
that the only experiments he had met with on the subject did not 
seem to confirm his views. 

An elaborate series of experiments were undertaken by Max- 
well to test so remarkable a consequence of a mathematical 
theory ; and in 1866, in the Bakerian Jecture for that year,® he 
published the results under the title of ‘‘ The Viscosity or In- 
ternal Friction of Air and other Gases.” He found the coefficient 
of friction in air to be practically constant for pressures between 
30 inches and o°5 inch; in fact numbers calculated on the hypo- 
thesis that the viscosity was independent of the density agreed 
very well with the observed values. 

The apparatus used by Maxwell was not of a character to 
admit of experiments with auch lower pressures than 0°5 inch, 

Maxwell’s theory that the viscosity of a gas is independent of 
the density presupposes that the mean length of path of the mole- 
cules between their collisions is very small compared with the 
dimensions of the apparatus; but inasmuch as the mean length 
of path increases directly with the expansion, whilst the distance 
between the molecules only increases with the cube root of the 
expansion, it is not difficult with the Sprengel pump to produce 
an exhaustion in which the mean free path is measured by inches, 
and even feet,? and at exhaustions of this degree it is probable 
that Maxwell’s law would not hold. 

The experiments recorded in this paper were commenced early 
in 1876, and have been continued to the present time. In 
November, 1876, the author gave a note to the Royal Society on 
some preliminary results. Several different fozms of apparatus 
have since been used one after the other, with improvements and 
complexities suggested by experience or rendered possible by the 
extra skill acquired in manipulation. The earlier observations 
are now of little value, but the time spent in their prosecution 
was not thrown away, as out of those experiments has grown the 
very complicated apparatus now finally adopted. 

The-Viscosity Torsion Apparatus, with which all the experi- 
ments here given have been performed, is a very complicated 
instrument. It consists essentially of a glass bulb, blown with 
a point at the lower end, and sealed on to a long narrow 
glass tube. In the bulb is suspended a plate of mica, by means 
of a fine fibre of glass 26 inches long, which is sealed fo the top 
of the glass tube, and hangs vertically along its axis. The plate 
of mica is ignited and lamp-blacked over one-half. The tube is 
pointed at the upper end, the upper and lower points are 46 
inches apart, and are accurately in the prolongation of the axis 
of the tube. Sockets are firmly fixed to a solid support, so that 
when the tube and bulb are clamped between them they are only 
able to move around the vertical axis, The glass fibre being 
only connected with the tube at the top, rotating the tube on its 
axis communicates torsion to the fibre, and sets the mica plate 
swinging on the same axis without giving it any pendulous move- 
ment. The diameter of the fibre is about o*oor inch. The 
viscosity apparatus is connected to the pump by a flexible glass 
spiral, so as to allow the apparatus to rotate on the pivots and at 
the same time to be connected to the pump altogether with sealed 
glass joints. Anarm working between metal stops limits the 
rotation to the small angle only which is necessary. 

The torsional movement given to the mica plate by the light 


* Abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society, February 17, 188r, 
by William Crookes, F.R.S. 

* Phil. Mag., 4th ser. yol. xix. p. 31. 

3 Phil. Trans. 1866, part 1, p. 249. 

4 Thus, supposing the mean free path of the molecules of air at the ordi- 
nary pressure is the 1-10,oooth of a millimetre, at an exhaustion of the ten- 
thousandth of an atmosphere, the mean free path will be 1 millim. At one- 
millionth of an atmosphere the mean free path will be 10 centimetres, and atan 
exhaustion of one hundred millionth—by no means a difficult point toattain with 
present appliances—the mean free path will be oyer 30 feet. This rarefaction 
corresponds to that of the atniosphere at a height above the earth of a little 
more than ninety miles, assuming that its density decreases in geometrical pro- 
gression as its height increases in arithmetical progression, and neglecting 
the small corrections for diminished gravity and temperature. As the height 
above the earth increases, the length of the mean free path of the molecules 
of air rapidly approaches to planetary distances ; at about 200 miles height 
the mean free path is 10 million miles, whilst between eighty and ninety miles 
ener the rarity is such that the mean free path would extend from here to 

irius. 


NATURE 


421. 


of the candle shining on it or by the rotation of the bulb and 
tube on its axis by the movement of the arm between the stops, 
is measured by a beam of light from a lamp, reflected from a 
mirror to a graduated scale. 

The pump employe has already been described. The mea- 
suring apparatus is similar to that described by Prof. McLeod? 
before the Physical Society, June 13, 1874. As it contains 
several improvements shown by experience to be necessary when 
working at very high vacua, a detailed description is given in the 
paper. 

When taking an observation the arm is moved over to the 
stop, and in a few seconds allowed to return to its original 
position by the action of a spring, This movement rotates the 
viscosity apparatus through a small angle, and sets the mica 
plate vibrating, the reflected line of light traversing from one 
side of the scale to the other in arcs of diminishing amplitude till 
it finally settles down once more at zero. 

The observer watching the moving index of light records the 
scale number reached at the extremity of each are. The numbers 
being alternately on one and the other side of zero are added 
two by two together, to get the value of each oscillation. The 
logarithms of these values are then found, and their differences 
taken ; the mean of these differences is the logarithmic decrement 
per swing of the arc of oscillation, or the state of brevity this 
is called the log dec. 7 

A very large number of experiments have been made on the 
viscosity of air and other gases. Observations have been taken 
at as high an exhaustion as 0’02 M, but at these high points they 
are not sufficiently concordant to be trustworthy. The pump 
will exhaust to this point without difficulty if a few precautions 
are taken, but at this low pressure the means of measuring fail 
in accuracy. 

The precautions which experience shows to be necessary when 
exhausting to the highest points are fully described in the paper. 

Viscosity of Air.—The mean of a very large number of closely 
concordant results gives as the log decrement for air for the 
special apparatus employed, at a pressure of 760 millims. of 
mercury and a temperature of 15° C., the number 0°1124. 
According to Maxwell the viscosity should remain constant until 
the rarefaction becomes so great that we are no longer at 
liberty to consider the mean free path of the molecules as 
practically insignificant in comparison with the dimensions of 
the vessels. 

The author’s observations show that this theoretical result of 
Maxwell’s is at least approximately and may be accurately true 
in air up to comparatively high exhaustions ; and that at higher 
exhaustions the viscosity falls off, as it might be expected to do 
according to theory. 

The results are embodied in a table and diagrams. 

The first half of the table gives the viscosity of air, in so far 
as it is represented by the log dec., at pressures intermediate 
between 760 millims, and 0°76 millim. (1000 millionths of an 
atmosphere). In order to avoid the inconvenience of frequent 
reference to small fractions of a millimetre, the millionth of an 
atmosphere? (= M) is now taken as the unit instead of the 
millimetre. The second half of the table is therefore given in 
millionths, going up to an exhaustion of 002 millionth of an 
atmosphere.? 

Starting from the log dec, 071124 at 760 millims., the vis- 
cosity diminishes very regularly, but at a somewhat decreasing 
rate. Between 50 millims. and 3 millims. the direction is almost 
vertical, and a great change in the uniformity of the viscosity 
curve commences at a pressure of about 3 millims. At this point 
the previous approximation to, or coincidence with, Maxwell’s 
law begins to fail, and further pumping considerably reduces 
the log decrement. 

From 1000 M the diminution of viscosity is very slight until 
the exhaustion reaches about 250 M ; after that it gets less with 
increasing rapidity, and falls away quickly after 35 M_ is 
reached. 

The curves of increasing mean free path and diminishing vis- 
cosity closely agree. This agreement is more than a mere coin- 
cidence, and is likely to throw much light on the cause of 
viscosity of gases. 2 


l Philosophical Magazine, vol. xlvill. p. 110, August, 1874. 

2 M = 000076 millim. ; 1315°789 M = 1 millim. 

3 To give some idea of the high exhaustions at which its measurements 
can be taken it may be mentioned that the highest exhaustion on the table— 
0°02 M—bears about the same proportion to the ordinary atmospheric pressure 
that x millimetre does to thirty ‘miles, or, ‘converting it into time, that one 
second bears to twenty months. 


422 


In the table is also given the measurements of the repulsion 
exerted on the blackened end of the mica plate by a candle-flame 
placed 500 millims. off. The repulsion due to radiation com- 
mences just at about the same degree of exhaustion where the 
viscosity begins to decline rapidly, and it principally comes in at 
the exhaustions above 1000 M. 

The close agreement between the loss of viscosity and the in- 
creased action of radiation is very striking up to the 35 millionth, 
when the repulsion curve turns round and falls away as rapidly 
as the viscosity. 

Experiments are next described on the resistance of air to the 
passage of an induction spark. 

Since the publication of the author’s researches on the pheno- 
mena presented by the passage of the induction discharge through 
high vacua, the present results—which, although never published, 
precede by a year or two those just mentioned—have lost much 
of their interest. 

The phenomena at the very high exhaustion of 0°02 M may be 
of interest. With a coil giving a spark 85 millims. long, no 
discharge whatever passes. On increasing the battery power 
till the striking distance in air was 100 millims, the spark 
occasionally passed through as an intermittent flash, bringing 
out faint green phosphorescence on the glass round the end of 
the — pole. 

On one occasion the author obtained a much higher exhaustion 
than o’o2 M. It could not be measured, but from the repulsion 
by radiation and the low log dec. it was probably about o‘or M. 
The terminals of the vacuum tube and wires leading to them 
were well insulated, and the full power of a coil giving a 20-inch 
spark was put on to it. At first nothing was to be seen, Then 
a brilliant green light flashed through the tube, getting more and 
more frequent. Suddenly a spark passed from a wire to the 
glass tube, and pierced it, terminating the experiment. 

Since these experiments vacua have frequently been got as 
high, and even higher, but the author has never seen one that 
would long resist a 20-inch spark from his large coil. 

Viscosity of Oxygen.—The series of experiments with air show 
a complete history of its behaviour between very wide limits of 
pressure. It became interesting to see how the two components 
of air, oxygen and nitrogen, would behave under similar 
circumstances, Experiments were therefore instituted exactly 
as in the case of dry air, but with the apparatus filled with pure 
oxygen. 

The results are given in the form of tables and plotted as 
curves on diagrams. 

The figures show a great similarity to the air curve. Like it 
the log dec. sinks somewhat rapidly between pressures from 760 
millims. to about 75 millims. It then remains almost steady, 
not varying much till a pressure of 16 millims. is reached. Here 
however it turns in the opposite direction, and increases up to 
I°5 millim. It then diminishes again, and at higher exhaustions 
it rapidly sinks. This increase of viscosity at pressures of a few 
millimetres has been observed in other gases, but only to so small 
an extent as to be scarcely beyond the limits of experimental 
error. In the case of oxygen however the increase is too great 
to be entirely attributable to this cause. 

Oxygen has more viscosity than any gas yet examined. The 
viscosity of air at 760 millims, being o°1124, the proportion 
between that of air and oxygen, according to these results, is 
MoLISH. | 

This proportion of 1°1185 holds good (allowing for experi- 
mental errors) up to a pressure of about 20 millims. Between 
that point and 1 millim. variations occur, which have not been 
traced to any assignable cause: they seem large to be put 
down to ‘‘experimental errors.” The discrepancies disappear 
again at an exhaustion of about 1 millim., and from that point 
to the highest hitherto reached the proportion of 1°1185 is fairly 
well maintained. 

Viscosity of Nitrogen.—The proportion between the viscosities 
of nitrogen and air at a pressure of 760 millims is, according to 
these experiments, 0°9715. 

A comparison of the aircurves with those given by oxygen and 
nitrogen gives some interesting results. The composition of the 
atmosphere is, by bulk, 


Oxy penance aesspalsc si peace 20'S 
UNTER Sen eteteess/ ics) ccna 79°2 
100°0 


The viscosity of the two gases is almost exactly in the same 
2roportion : thus at 760 millims— 


NATURE 


[March 3, 1881 


20°8 vis. O+79'2 vis. N 
100 
20°8 (0°1257) +79'2 (0"1092) ES 
100 


=ws, air, 


” 


=O'112 
100 55) 


a result closely coinciding with 0*1124, the experimental result 
for air. Up to an exhaustion of about 30 M the same proportion 
between the viscosities of air, oxygen, and nitrogen is preserved 
with but little variation, From that point divergence occurs 
between the individual curves of the three gases. 

Observations on the Spectrum of Nitrogen.—Spectrum obserya- 
tions during exhaustion give the following results :— 

At 55 millims. pressure the band spectrum of nitrogen com- 
mences to be visible. The red and yellow bands are easily seen, 
and the green and blue are exceedingly faint. As the pressure 
grows less the bands bezome more distinct, until at 1°14 millim. 
the band spectrum is at its brightest. 

At a little higher exhaustion a change comes over the spectrum, 
and traces of the line spectrum are observed. 

At 812 M both the band and the line spectrum can be seen 
very brilliantly. 

At 450 M the line spectrum is seen in great purity. As the 
exhaustion becomes higher the lines commence to disappear at 
the two ends of the spectrum, 

At 188 M the lines below A 610 ms. of m.m. at the red end, 
and above A 400, cease to be visible. 

of 94 M a bright greenish yellow line is visible atfabout 
d 567. 

At 55 M this greenish yellow line is still very prominent. The 
red lines have disappeared altogether, and the highest blue line 
visible is oneat A 419. The line 567 varies much in visibility ; 
one it cannot be seen, whilst at others it is very visible. 

us— 

At 40 M the line 567 has quite disappeared. 

At 17 M line 567 is visible again, being the most prominent 
line left. 

At 12 M line 567 is not seen, although several other green and 
blue lines are left. 

At 3 M only three lines are visible in the green, and these are 
very faint. 7 

At 2°8 M line 567 is detected again. 

At 2 M only traces of one or two lines can be seen, the faint 
light of the lines being overpowered by the green phosphores- 
cence of the glass, 

Line 567 has been seen on several occasions at high exhaus- 
tions when the gas under examination has been mixed with a little 
air. It is probably a nitrogen line, for ene of the most brilliant 
nitrogen lines has a wave-length of 567°8 (Thalén), 568-0 
(Huggins), or 568*1 (Pliicker), and the author’s interpolation 
curve is not sufficiently accurate to enable him to say that the 
line entered in as being at 567 may not in reality be a trifle 
higher, The reason of its being only sometimes visible may 
be accounted for by a difference in the sensitiveness of the eye 
at different times, or by a difference in :battery power. This 
however cannot be the whole explanation, for other lines are not 
found to vary in the same manner. 

The curve of Repulsion exerted by Radiation is much lower 
than in oxygen or air, and sinks rapidly after the maximum is 
passed, 

Viscosity of Carbonic Anhydride.—The curves of this gas are 
given in diagrams plotted from the observations. At first the 
curve seems to follow the same direction as the air curve. But 
at a pressure of about 620 millims. it slopes more rapidly till the 
pressure is reduced to about 50 millims., when the curve again 
takes the direction of the air curve. The total diminution 
between 760 millims. and 1 millim, is nearly double that of air, 

Observations have also been taken with the spectroscope 
during the exhaustion of carbonic anhydride. The maximum 
brilliancy of the spectrum occurs at an exhaustion of about 
300 M. After that it gets fainter; at alout 75 M the blue band 
(A 409 to 408 ms. of mm.) disappears; as the exhaustion gets 
higher the other bands vanish until, at a vacuum of about 40 M, 
nothing is visible but the two lines A 519 and A 560. At higher 
exhaustions these lines disappear, and the phenomena of 
“Radiant Matter *’ commence. 

The proportion between the viscosity of carbonic anhydride 
and air at 760 millims, is 0°9208. 


March 3, 1881] 


Viscosity of Carbonic Oxide.—The results with this gas are 
remarkable as showing an almost complete identity with those of 
nitrogen both in position and shape. The viscosity at 760 
millims. is in each case 0’ 1092. 

Like that of nitrogen the curve of carbonic oxide is seen to be 
vertical—z.e., assuming the curve to represent the viscosity, the 
gas obeys Maxwell’s law, at pressures between 90 millims, and 
3 millims. The straight portion in nitrogen is at a little higher 
pressure—between 100 millims. and 6 millims. 

The curve of repulsion resulting from radiation is lower in 
carbonic oxide than in any other gas examined, and, unlike the 
other gases, there is no sudden rise to a maximum at about 
40 M. At lower exhaustions the curve is, however, higher than 
it is in nitrogen. 

During exhaustion observations were continued on the varia- 
tions in the spectrum. The ordinary band spectrum is first seen 
with a few sharp lines terminating the bands. 

At 12 millims. pressure a sharp green line is first seen, A 515 
ms of mm. This line rapidly grows brighter as exhaustion 
continues, and then fades out; it is last seen at a pressure of 
about 0’9 millim. This line is probably the bright oxygen-line, 
the wave-length of which is given by Pliicker at 514°4. 

Ata pressure of 2°8 millims. the spectrum agrees in appear- 
ance with the ‘‘ Carbon No, 2” in Watts’s ‘‘ Index of Spectra.” 

At 553 M the bands between the sharp lines appear to be 
breaking up into masses of fine lines. 

At 211 M these fine lines are distinctly visible. 
ness of this spectrum is now near its maximum, 

At 100 M the general spectrum is growing faint, but a sharp 
green line at A 534 makes its appearance by fits and starts. 
This is coincident with Pliicker’s bright oxygen line A 534. 

After this degree of exhaustion the spectrum rapidly gets 
fainter. The line A 534 soon disappears, and the carbon lines 
also go one after the other, until at an exhaustion of 4 M only 
two lines are visible, A 560 and A 519. 

Viscosity of Hydrogen.—\t has been found that hydrogen has 
much less viscosity than any other gas; the fact of the log dec. 
not decreasing by additional attempts at purification is the 
test of its being free from admixture. ‘This method of ascer- 
taining the purity of the gas, by the uniformity of its viscosity 
coefficient at 760 millims., is more accurate than collecting 
samples and:analysing them eudiometrically. 

Several series of observations in hydrogen have been taken. 
For a long time it was considered that hydrogen, like other 
gases, showed the same slight departure from Maxwell’s law of 
viscosity being independent of density that appeared to be indi- 
cated with other gases; for the log dec. persistently diminished 
as the exhaustion increased, even at such moderate pressures as 
could be measured by the barometer gauge. Had it not been 
that the rate of decrease was not uniform in the different series of 
observations, it might have been considered that this variation 
from Maxwell’s law was due to some inherent property of all 
gases. After working at the subject for more than a year it was 
discovered that the discrepancy arose from a trace of water 
obstinately held by the hydrogen. Since discovering this 
property extra precautions (already described at the commence- 
ment of the paper) have been taken to dry all gases before 
entering the apparatus. 

The remarkable character of hydrozen is the uniformity of 
resistance which it presents, It obeys Maxwell’s ‘law almost 
absolutely up to an exhaustion of about 700 m., and then it com- 
mences to break.down. Up to this point the line of viscosity is 
almost perfectly vertical. It then commences to curve over, 
and when the mean free path assumes proportions comparable 
with the dimensions of the bulb and approaches infinity, the 
viscosity curve in like manner draws near the zero line. 

The repulsive force of radiation is higher in hydrogen than in 
any other gas. It commences at as low an exhaustion as 14 
millims., but does not increase to any great extent till an exhaus- 
tion of 200 M is attained ; it then rises rapidly to a maximum at 
between 40 and 60 M, after which it falls away to zero. The 
maximum repulsion exerted by radiation in hydrogen is to that 
in air as 70 to 42'6, This fact is now utilised in the construction 
of radiometers and similar instruments when great sensitiveness is 
required. 

‘Taking the viscosity of air at 760 millims. as 01124, and 
hydrogen as 0'0499, the proportion between them is 0°4439. 

The Spectrum of lHydrogen.—The red line (A = 656), the 
green line (A = 486), and the blue line (A = 434) are seen at 
their brightest at a pressure of about 3 millims., and after that 


The bright- 


NATURE 


423 


exhaustion they begin to diminish in intensity. As exhaustion 
proceeds a variation in visibility of the three lines is observed. 
Thus at 36 millims, the red line is seen brightly, the green faintly, 
whilst the blae line cannot be detected. At 15 millims. the blue 
line is seen, and the three keep visible till an exhaustion of 418 
Mis reached, when the blue line becomes difficult to see. At 
38 M only the red and green lines are visible, the red being 
very faint. It is seen with increasing difficulty up to an exhaus- 
tion of 2 M, when it can be seen no longer, The green line now 
remains visible up to an exhaustion of 0°37 M, beyond which it 
has not been seen. 

It is worthy of remark that although when working with pure 
hydrogen the green line is always the last to go, it is not the 
first to appear when hydrogen is present as an impurity in other 
gases. Thus, when working with carbonic anhydride insuffi- 
ciently purified, the red hydrogen line is often seen, but never 
the green or the blue line. 


( To be continued.) 


SEEING BY ELECTRICITY * 


N being called upon by the chairman to show his experi- 
ments, Prof. Ayrton stated that he and Mr. Perry thought 

that the occasion of the reading of Mr. Bidwell’s paper was a 
suitable one for their showing to the Society that they were 
constructing the apparatus described by them in a letter in 
Nature, vol. xxii. p. 31. The feasibility of their plan had been 
combated, and at the last meeting of the British Association at 
Swansea it was confidently asserted that the action of selenium 
was not quick enough to register rapid changes of light intensity— 
an idea, however, which they stated in the discussion at the time 
there was experimental evidence to disprove. After that came 
the publication and exhibition of the photophone, proving that 
selenium changed its electrical properties synchronously with 
rapid changes in light intensity. Fora light telegraph however 
not only was this property necessary, but in addition that the 
electric changes in the selenium should be considerable for a 
comparatively small change in the light. They had, therefore, 
tried to make sensitive selenium cells of low resistance. The 
method they had employed consisted in winding two wires 
parallel on strips of box-wood, ivory, and other non-conductors 
in section, somewhat like that of a paper-knife in the manner 
subsequently described by Mr. Bidwell in NaTuRE, but they 
had not found it necessary to cut a screw on the wood or mica 
ina lathe. Of the twenty-five cells that they had constructed 
they had invariably found, like Mr. Bidwell, that only those 
were sensitive that had a high resistance, They were aware 
that Prof, Adams had made sensitive cells of low resistance, 
and had he been present they would have liked to ask 
whether it was not only for very small electromotive forces 
that the cells were sensitive. They had also found that 
when sensitive cells of 100;000 ohms resistance diminished 
in resistance to only a few hundred ohms by natural annealing 
extending over some months, the cells lost entirely their sensi- 
bility. Further that certain sensitive cells of high resistance 
were sensitive as long as an electromotive force of not more than 
about seven volts was employed to send a current through them, 
but for electromotive forces much above this the cells were com- 
paratively unsensitive to light, but the sensibility was not destroyed 
for electromotive forces smaller than seven volts used subsequently. 
These phenomena, which they believed had not been previously 
noticed, pointed, they suggested, to the sensibility of selenium 
being due almost entirely to a polarisation and not merely to 
a change of resistance, as was commonly supposed and stated. 
Might it not be possible, they asked, that there was an electro- 
motive force developed in selenium by light, which, for different 
cells, increased more rapidly than the resistance of the cell, and 
which was the greater, the greater the electromotive force of the 
auxiliary battery employed; that in fact selenium became 
rapidly polarised by the auxiliary current flowing through 
it, and that this polarisation, the amount of which depended 
on this current, was removed in proportion to the inten- 
sity of the light. That a small electromotive force was de- 
veloped in selenium by light when no auxiliary current was 
sent through it, had been conclusively shown by Prof. Adams 
and Mr. Day in 1876, a result that they had also experienced ; 
and they would mention that a careful examination which they 
had recently made of the paper published by Prof. Adams and 


* Paper communicated to the Physical Society, February 26.1 4 


424 
Mr. Day in the Phil, Transactions for 1876, showed that if we 
assumed a// the instances therein mentioned of sensibility of 
selenium to light were due to an electromotive force set up, and 
not to change of resistance at all, then on the whole all the 
results would have been arrived at if this electromotive force set 
up in different cells, for the same intensity of light, increased 
more rapidly than the resistance of the cell, and was the greater, 
the greater the electromotive force of the auxiliary battery 
employed. They disagreed therefore from Mr. Bidwell in- his 
idea that the name ‘‘ cell” was at all inappropriate. 

_ Professors Ayrton and Perry referred the Members to their 
original letter in NATURE for the account of their plan for seeing 
by electricity. Shortly, it consisted in projecting at the sending- 
station an image on a screen consisting of a number of selenium 
cells, the current flowing in each of which from an auxiliary 
battery was controlled by the intensity of the light falling on it. 
At the receiving-end of the line a light was thrown on a screen 
intercepted more or less by little shutters, the opening or closing 
of each of which was controlled by the current allowed to pass 
through the corresponding selenium cell at the sending end. 
Hence on the receiving screen a picture in mosaics was cast cor- 
responding with the image projected on the screen at the sending- 
end, and varying with ‘every change in the image cast on the 
sending-screen. 

The experiment they desired to show the Society was the suc- | 
cessful reproduction on the receiving-screen of every change of | 
illumination of one square of the sending-screen. The shutter | 
Was an elliptical blackened aluminium disk suspended in a 
blackened tube of a kind of galvanometer, and making an angle | 
of 45° with the tube when all the light tending to pass through 
the tube was cut off. When this disk was deflected through 45° 
all the light passed through the tube and an image of a square 
hole was formed by a small lens attached to the tube. For every 
intermediate position of the shutter an image of the square hole 
was formed on thescreen, but varying in intensity of illumination. 
Attached to the shutter was a small magnet making an angle of 
673° with it, and the two were suspended by a silk fibre about 
one-twentieth of an inch in length. These particular angles were 
selected so that first all variation in intensity of the illumination 
could be produced with a small motion of the shutter, and 
secondly, so that the magnet should always be in its most sensi- 
tive position in the coil through which passed the electric current 
which traversed and was controlled by the corresponding selenium 
Square at the receiving-end of the line. [The apparatus was 
then shown in action.] 

They explained how their method of putting, say, thirty or 
forty selenium cells on a revolving arm would enable them, 
while dispensing with a large number of cells, to transmit elec- 
trically a complete picture of even moving objects, and would in 
addition obviate the difficulty arising from abnormal variations | 
of selenium. 

Instead of the apparatus exhibited to the meeting to show the | 
perfect feasibility of the scheme, Professors Ayrton and Perry men- 
tioned that they were also experimenting with a large thin mirror 
with many thick ribs at the back crossing one another. Electro- 
magnets firmly fixed behind the thin parts of the mirror produced 
by their expansion and contraction very small convexities and 
concavities on the mirror’s face. From their experiments, pub- 
lished in the Prec. Roy. Soc., on the so-called Japanese magic 
mirrors, it was known that excessively small convexities and con- 
cavities of this kind might be made to show themselves in a very 
decided way on a screen by a divergent beam of reflected light. 
They proposed to have a circular mirror in rotation, but with only 
a certain sectional space at the back fitted with electro-magnets as 
described, and they anticipated that this in conjunction with the 
rotating section of selenium cells at the other end of the line 
would produce on a screen a picture over the whole area of the 
murror corresponding with the distant image projected on the 
area traced out by the revolving sector of selenium cells. 


EARTH CURRENTS—ELECTRIC TIDES 


At & meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of 

Electricians on Thursday evening, February 10, Prof, G. 
C. Foster in the chair, a communication was read by Mr. Alex. J. 
S. Adams upon “ Earth Currents—Electric Tides,” in which the 
author related that, from investigations he had carried on in 
connection with earth currents since the year 1866, he con- 
sidered the globe we inhabit as an electrified sphere whose 
normal electrical condition was liable to disturbance both from | 


NATURE 


| March 3, 1881 


within and from without. Starting upon this theory as a basis, 
and finding from the result of his observations no evidence that 
the sun eaerted sufficient influence to materially disturb the earth’s 
electricity, he undertook a series of systematic observations upon 
the daily earth-current variations in strength, to elucidate the 
question, and obtained consecutive observations every quarter of 
an hour during the interval from April 1 to 21, 1879, witha 
result that the curves of those observations coincided throughout 
with the curve of moon-phases for the same period, and clearly 
indicated that the chief disturbing power was the moon, and that 
the earth current variations were strictly /ar-diurnal. 

‘*But,” said he, ‘‘there is a yet deeper meaning to the lunar- 
diurnal current curve than at first sight appears, for an examina- 
tion shows that the curve for each day represents four electrical 
maxima, two of a kind, and that each maximum is divided from 
the other by a zero or point of no current.” He further explained 
that whilst two of these maxima always exist upon the opposite 
sides of the globe, which are in a line fer-fendicular to the moon, 
two other maxima were also found upon the sides of the globe 
lying at right angles to the former maxima, and that from a long 
and careful consideration of these features of the phenomenon he 
had arrived at the conclusion that whilst the earth’s disturbed 
electricity was, as it were, heaped up by the moon upon the sides 
of the earth nearest to and farthest from her, much as are the 
waters of the globe in forming the oceanic tides, the two 
/ateral maxima, upon the other hand, must be considered as parts 
of a belt or band of electrical maximum that encircles the earth 
in a position at right angles to a line drawn between the earth 
and moon, Thus it appeared that there were zones of maxima 
at the sides of the globe nearest to and farthest from the moon, 
and a circfe of maximum at right angles between them, but 
divided from them by zones of no current. This arrangement of 
the earth’s elec'ricity by the moon the author termed the earth's 
lunar electric di.tribution ; the electric maximum facing the moon 
he designated the major electric fole, that farthest from the moon 
the minor electric pole, and the belt of maximum that encircles 
the earth the e/ectric circle, Likewise the zone of no current that 
divides the electric circle from the major pole he terms the major 
sero circle, and that zero which separates the electric circle from 
the minor pole, the minor sero circle. 

The earth’s electricity, as thus arranged by the moon, followed 
that orb in her course through the heavens, and this motion of 
the earth’s disturbed electricity round the earth, yet irrespective 
of the globe itself, was termed the /unar diurnal electric circula- 


| tion, and the axis upon which it turned the /unar-diurnal axis. 


A due apprehension however that ‘Ae maon’s influence is in 
proportion felt by the earths electricity at every part of the earth's 
surface he considered necessary for the proper appreciation of 
the reasonings which led to the foregoing deductions. 

It was then pointed out that there existed a regular retardation 
or lagging of the earth-current variations behind the correspond- 
ing phases of the moon to the extent of nearly three hours, this 
curious phenomenon being in no way, so far as he could trace, 
attributable to solar influence. 

The magnetic variations were then considered, and a striking 
coincidence between the electric and the magnetic lunar-diurnal 
variation-curves was shown to obtain. The author reasoned 
that the earth’s electric forces-as constituted in the electric distri- 
bution revolved also about an axis parallel to a line passing 
through the centres of the earth and moon, ze. a line drawn 
between the major and minor electric poles—a motion of the 
electric forces that agreed with the odserved direction of the earth 
current, and which appeared fully sufficient to account for the 
effect of lunar-diurnal magnetic variation. 

In conclusion he said that a comprehensive consideration of 
earth-current phenomena opens out a much wider sphere of 
investigation than that simply embracing variations of strength : 
it has to recognise directive influence which, applied to electricity, 
means the production of magnetism, and that the electric cireu- 
lating systems that appear to obtain by reason of these three 
motions, the ear#h’s diurnal rotation, the lunar current circula- 
tion, and the terrestrial current circulation—causes which result 
in the apparently disconnected variations observable in the 
movements of the magneticneedle. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
CAMBRIDGE.—The examiners for the Natural Science Tripos 
during this year are Dr. W. H. Gaskell, Prof. Bonney, Mr. P. 
T. Main, Prof. Watson (Owens College), Prof. Lewis (recently 


March 3, 1881 | 


appointed Professor of Mineralogy), Messrs. W. Garnett, F. M. 
Balfour, and S. H. Vines. 

The Rey. W. Cunningham, M.A., of Trinity College, has been 
appointed Deputy for the Knightbridge Professor, Prof. Birks, 
and has resigned the Assistant-Secretaryship of the Local 
Examinations and Lectures Syndicate. 

Mr. W. Hillhouse, B.A., of Trinity College, Assistant-Curator 
of the Botanical Museum, has been approved as a teacher of 
botany, and Mr. J. J. Lister, B.A., of St. John’s College, 
Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy, as a teacher of that 
subject for the purposes of medical certificates. 

It was resolved last Thursday to admit women students at 
Cambridge to the Previous Examination and to the various 
Tripos Examinations, to publish separate class-lists for women, 
and in cases where order of merit is indicated in the men’s class- 
lists, to indicate the position which any female student would 
have taken in the corresponding list of men. The examiners 
may also state that any candidate who does not attain an honour 
standard is adjudged to have deserved an ordinary degree. It 
will be necessary to present a further report on minor details of 
fees and regulations, but it can hardly be doubted that students 
duly qualified may be admitted formally to the examinations 
coming on in June next. 

The University accounts just published show that examiners 
cost the University last year 2200/., professors, demonstrators, 
lecturers, &c., 8400/., in addition to those specially endowed. 
The ordinary expenses of the museums and lecture-rooms have 
been 2500/., while the grant from the University is 20007. The 
botanic garden has cost nearly 1000/., and 660/. has been so far 
spent on a curator’s house. The Local Examinations and Lectures 
Board have received 8400/., and have invested a further sum 
of 500/., which at a future time may help to provide a building 
for this extensive work. The University Library has overdrawn 
its balance nearly goo/., and the Museums and Lecture Rooms 
Building Fund is in debt 27257. On the whole it appears that 
the University has been very careful not to sanction new expendi- 
ture in this time of transition, and has succeeded in laying by 
3000/., now possessing a capital of 27,000/. in stocks. 3000/. 
was the University’s income last year from common rents and 
dividends, while 27,0007, was paid by members of the University 
in fees for examinations, degrees, &c. 


THE Calendar of St. David’s College, Lampeter, for 1881, is 
of interest in connection with the forthcoming report of the 
Commission on Higher Education in Wales. It contains a full 
account of the foundation and history of the University, the 
means at its disposal, and the nature of the education it offers to 
students, The examination for the B.A. degree of this college 
includes either physics or chemistry. 

In the Special Examinations for the ordinary B.A. degree last 
year thirty-six candidates entered in Chemistry, nine of whom 
failed ; two in Geology, nine in Botany, three in Geology ; only 
one failed, viz. in Botany. The examiners report that in 
Chemistry the requirement of practical work has exerted a useful 
influence. This requirement however entails much additional 
work on the examiners in Natural Science, and the appointment 
of a third examiner is recommended. 

Next Monday at three o’clock, Dr. W. H. Gaskell will make 
a communication to the Philosophical Society on the action of 
the vagus nerve upon the frog’s heart; and Mr. F. M. Balfour 
will discuss the ancestral form of the chordata. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, No. t, January 
15.—Contributions to knowledge of the family of the Pintinnodea, 
by H. Fol.—On the use of the microphone in the service of the 
astronomical hour, by M. W. Meyer.—Exercises of analytical 
geometry, by L.. de la Rive.—On the use of some azoic colours 
in physiological chemistry, by A. Danilewsky.—Comptes rendus 
of the Geneva Chemical Society, by S. Walter.—On the botanical 
geography of Southern Tessin, by S. Calloni.—Annals of Berne 
Observatory, by A. Forster. 


Rivista Scientifico Industriale, No. 24, December 31, 1880,— 
Description of three new species of the aphides of Sardinia, by 
L. Marchiati. 


Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. Rendicontt, 
vol, xiii. fasc. xx.—On the rotatory movement of the heart, by 
E. Oehl.—On a new nuclearia ; description and considerations as 
to its position in the geological system and its importance in 


NATURE 


425 


animal ontogeny, by L. Maggi.—Registering instruments in 
meteorology, by C, Chistoni.—Synthesis of two new acids iso- 
meric with vanillic acid, by G. KGrner and G, Bertoni. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Royal Society, January 27.—‘‘ On the Iron Lines widene 
in Solar Spots.” By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S. : 

The observations put forward with reserve in my last commu- 
nication to the Society have now been confirmed. 

In the fine spots visible on December 24, January 1 and 6, 
many lines in the spectrum of iron were seen contorted, while 
others were steady. 

The facts are given in the following table :— 


The iron lines 


: i e Iron lines, visible in the same 
indicating motion. 


field of view, steady. 


Dec. 24, 1880 54032 
5404°8 ... ... 5410°0 
£ §5409°0 ... we 5414°5 
54088 
5396'0 
5379°5 
5369°0 ... 5366°5 
4919'S 
4918'0 ... - 4923°0 
B42 ieee «.. 5269°8 
5138°5 ... . 5268°5 
In another part of the same spot— 
5269°8 ... cen SREB 
5268°5 ... - 5327'0 (double). 
Jan. 1, 1881 Pepi) cece anoge cog Losey ses) 
532770 (double) ... ... 5268°5 
Jan. 6,1 1881 4919'S 
AQISOT 5 4923°5 


Alllines between a 5323°5 
and 5410°0 except... 5382°1 


It is to be noted that these observations furnish us with an 
instance of inversion similar to those frequently obtained in our 
observations of the most widened lines in spots. . 

The inferences to be drawn from these observations, and those 
on which we are now continuously engaged, must be matter for 
future communication. But I cannot resist calling attention to 
the crucial nature of the evidence, at least as regards iron, in 
favour of the view first put forward by Sir B. Brodie, whom we 
have so recently lost, that the constituents of our terrestrial 
elements exist in independent forms in the sun.? 

I have thought it right to send in a record of this work at 
once, with a view to induce other observers to follow the con- 
tinually varying phases of the spots during the approaching 
maximum. 

The observations have been made by Mr. H. A. Lawrance, 
and confirmed by myself in the majority of cases. 


Chemical Society, February 17.—Prof. Roscoe, president, 
in the chair.—The following papers were read :—On the estima- 
tion of organic carbon and nitrogen in water analysis simul- 
taneously with the estimation of nitric acid, by M. W. Williams, 
The author has modified the well-known process of Frankland 
and Armstrong. Instead of reducing the nitrates with sulphurous 
acid, he uses the copper-zine couple of Gladstone and Tribe, 
which converts nitrates into ammonia. The ammonia produced 
is distilled off and the distillate nesslerised ; the water left in 
the retort, after distilling off the ammonia, is evaporated to dry- 
ness and the residue burnt in the ordinary way. The errors 
which accompany the use of sulphurous acid are thus avoided, 
and the time required for the analysis is much shortened.—Capt. 
Abney and Col. Festing then gave an account of their recent 
researches on the influence of the molecular grouping in organic 
bodies on their absorption in the ultra-red region of the spectrum. 
The authors have photographed the absorption-spectra of 
numerous inorganic and organic liquids in the region beyond the 
red. In many cases the presence of an organic radical seems:to 
In this spot the D lines indicated motion, and did not retain. their 


parallelism. 
? Lecture delivered before the Chemical Society, June 6, 1867. 


426 


NATORE 


[March 3, 1881 


be characterised throughout its compounds by particular bands. 
Further research will probably throw much light on the internal 
structure of chemical substances. —On absorption-bands in the 
visible spectrum produced by certain colourless liquids, by Dr. 
Russell and Mr. Lapraik. The authors have carefully drawn 
the absorption-spectra of various liquids—water, ammonia, &c,— 
as seen through an ordinary spectroscope.—On the action of 
hydrochloric acid on ethylene alcohol, by C. Schorlemmer. By 
heating glycol with an excess of fuming hydrochloric acid in a 
sealed tube to 100° the author has converted this substance into 
ethylene dichloride, and has thus disproved the conclusion that 
the two hydroxyl groups had different functions.—On an attempt 
to accelerate the process of determining the soluble salts in a soil, 
by E. W. Prevost. The author added calcium sulphate and 
barium carbonate to the soil, but in neither case were satisfactory 
results obtained. 


Linnean Society, February 17.—Frank Crisp, LL.B., 
F.L.S., in the chair.—Mr. Wickham exhibited two collections 
of Arctic plants. Of fifty-seven species collected by Capt. 
Markham in Novaya Zemlya (1879) thirty-seven of the most 
interesting Phanerogams were shown, The absence of species 
of Gentian is noteworthy, for Arctic Russia, in proximity, pos- 
sesses six species. Leguminose are unrepresented in Spitzbergen 
and Arctic Greenland, but three species of the order obtain in 
Novaya Zemlya. Other features of the latter island’s flora are 
equally remarkable. The second collection of typically Polar 
plants exhibited were those obtained by Mr. Grant in Mr. Leigh 
Smith’s successful voyage to Franz-Josef Land, 1880, and where 
sixty-one flowering plants were obtained; though the facies of 
the flora indicates the probability of more yet to be got in this 
high latitude.—Mr. A. Hammond drew attention to a micro- 
scopic specimen and drawing of portion of the wall of the so- 
called glandular sac of the larva of the Puss moth, from which 
that insect ejects an acid liquid when alarmed or irritated. Al- 
though doubtless the organ is the source of the excretion, it yet 
is questionable to regard it as a true glandular structure, inasmuch 
as its tissue is largely composed of chitinous matter.—Dr. Francis 
Day read a paper, observations on some British fishes, In this he 
pointed out :—that Pimelepterus Cornudbiensis is identical with the 
American Pammelas perciformis, Mitchell; that great confusion 
exists in the works of Yarrel and Couch respecting the Tunnies 
and their allies, most, if not all, the examples of the short-finned 
Tunnies being in reality specimens of Pelamyo sarda; that the 
Comber Wrasse (Zabrus Donovani, Cuv. and Val.), is a peculiarly- 
coloured variety of Z. maczlatus, Bloch ; that Crenilabrus Bail- 
lonii, Couch, is the C. melops, Cuy. and Val. Adult examples 
of Brill and Sole, coloured on both sides, but in which the eyes 
were normal, were exhibited. Some Sprats obtained off St. 
Ives were adverted to, which had fully-developed ova in January 
this year. It was also proved that the specimen of Ostracion 
guadricornis figared by Couch as a British fish had been brought in 
salt from abroad bya sailor, Observations also were made by Dr. 
Day concerning the habits of the Thresher Shark towards the 
Whale.—Mr. C. B. Clarke gave a communication on right-hand 
and left-hand contortion of the corolla. In this he maintains that 
Linnzeus’s definition of right-hand contortion is correct, and that 
the criticisms published by M. Alph. de Candolle in ‘‘ Phyto- 
graphie” are founded on a misconception. Mr. Clarke holds :— 
that everybody understands the same direction (viz, the watch- 
hand direction) by the term right-hand contortion; that the 
apparent direction of the heavenly bodies is reversed if the spec- 
tator looks north instead of south; that the direction of rotation 
is the same whether the observer supposes himself within or 
without the helix, but that the apparent direction of a helix is 
altered if the spectator reverses the direction in which he looks 
along the axis.—Prof. P. M. Duncan read a paper on some 
sponges obtained among a mass of fistulose coral from deep water 
off the coast of Spain during the expedition of the Porcupine. 
One kind, apparently new, is described as a species of Leoder- 
matium, L. affine, Dunc., and another belongs to the genus 
Aphrocallistes. 


Geological Society, February 18.—Annual General Meeting. 
Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The Secre- 
taries read the Reports of the Council and of the Library and 
Museum Committee for the year 1880, the Council announcing 
with much satisfaction that the financial depression under which 
the Society had been suffering during 1878 and 1879 had 
proved, as was anticipated, only temporary, and that the Society 
is now in a very prosperous condition. The Council’s Report 


also announced the publication of the new Catalogue of the 
Library, which, although considerably larger than was at first 
expected, will be issued to the Fellows at the price originally 
fixed for it. The Report further announced the awards of the 
various medals and of the proceeds of the donationcfunds in the 
gift of the Society. In presenting the Wollaston Gold Medal 
to Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S., the Presi- 
dent addressed him as follows :—Professor Dunean,—It is with 
no ordinary.pleasure that the Council have awarded to you the 
Wollaston Medal, the highest honour that it is in their power to 
bestow, in recognition of the valuable services which you have 
rendered during so many years to the advancement of geology, 
and especially of paleontology ; and I may add that it is equally 
productive of gratification to me that this honour is to be for- 
mally conferred upon you by my hands. Since the year 1863 
palzontologists have been indebted to you for no fewer than 
twenty-six memoirs relating to the history, structure, and distri- 
bution of the fossil Actinozoa, a group which you have made 
peculiarly your own by long-continued and most careful re- 
searches. Further, you have enriched the publications of the 
Paleontographical Society with several most important treatises 
on the British fossil corals, supplementary, or rather perhaps 
complementary, to the classical monograph of MM. Milne- 
Edwards and Haime. These labours alone, and the value of - 
their results, might have justified the Council in awarding you 
the Wollaston Medal; but besides your researches upon the 
Actinozoa, we have to point to several important papers upon 
the fossil Echinodermata, to others relating to subjects of physi- 
cal geology (also freely touched upon in your more special 
memoirs), and particularly to your exceedingly important work 
in connection with the Geological Survey of India, in describing 
the fos:il corals of that peninsula, and discussing the questions 
of both zoological and geological interest which naturally arise 
out of the study of those organisms. Patiently and unobtru- 
sively for nearly twenty years you have followed out the line of 
research necessary for the fulfilment of your self-imposed task ; 
you have sacrificed the advantages of professional life to devote 
your energies to the advancement of science. On all accounts 
it is with much pleasure that I hand to you the Wollaston 
Medal. The President then presented the Murchison Medal 
to Prof. Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., F.G.S., and addressed 
him as follows :—Prof. Geikie, —If any one Fellow of 
our Society more than another could be selected to 
receive the Murchison Medal for his valuable contribubutions 
to geology, it would be yourself; since no man living has 
contributed more to the advancement of that science which it is 
the special object of our Society to cultivate and diffuse. Your 
labours in the field connected with your duties as Director of the 
Geological Survey of Scotland, your learned and valuable contri- 
butions to the ¥ournal of our Society, the Zvansactions of the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Glasgow Geological Society, 
and other publications too numerous to mention, eminently 
qualify you to be the recipient of the medal founded by your late 
chief and friend Sir Roderick Murchison. To enumerate your 
contributions to the literature of the geology of Scotland, or your 
many important writings connected with our science, would lead 
me too far—some thirty papers, besides educational works, have 
resulted from your industry and knowledge. Your able paper 
alone, on the ‘‘OJd Red Sandstone of Scotland,” published in 
the Zransactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, would 
entitle you to the highest consideration of the Society. Able 
indeed are other contributions, especially those ‘‘ On the Chrono- 
logy of the Trap Rocks of Scotland,” ‘* On the Date of the Last 
Elevation of Central Scotland” (in vol. xviii. of our Fournat), 
“*On the Phenomena of Succession amongst the Silurian Rocks 
of Scotland” (Zyazs. Glasgow Geol. Soc. vol. iii.), and ‘* On 
Earth Sculpture.” The President next handed the Lyell Medal 
to Mr. Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S., for transmission to Dr. 

W. Dawson, F.R.S., of Montreal, and addressed him as 
follows :—Mr. Warington Smyth, I need hardly say that the 
Council, in awarding the Lyell Medal to Principal Dawson, have 
done so with a sincere appreciation of the high value of his truly 
great labours in the cause of paleontology and geology. When 
1 refer to his published papers I find that they number nearly 
120, and that they give the results of most extensive and valuable 
researches in various departments of geology, but more especially 
upon the paleontology of the Devonian and Carboniferous 
formations of Northern America. Considering the nature of 
these numerous contributions, the Council would have been fully 
justified in awarding to Dr, Dawson one of its medals, upon the 


March 3, 1881 ] 


sole ground of the value of their contents ; but these are far from 
representing the whole of the results of his incessant activity in 
the pursuit of science. His ‘‘ Acadian Geology,” ‘‘ Post-pliocene 
Geology of Canada,” and ‘‘ Fossil Plants of the Devonian and 
Upper Silurian of Canada,” are most valuable contributions to 
our knowledge of North American geology; whilst in his 
*¢ Archaia,” ‘*Dhe Dawn of Life,” and other more or less popular 
writings he has appealed, and worthily, to a wider public. We 
are indebted to his researches for nearly all our knowledge of 
the fossil flora of the Devonian and other Precarboniferous rocks 
of America, and of the structure and flora of the Nova- 
Scotian coal-field; and finally I must refer especially to 
his original investigation of the history, nature, and affinities 
of Eozoon, ‘These researches are so well known that they have 
gained for Dr. Dawson a world-wide reputation. The President 
then handed the Bigsby Medal to Prof. Morris, F.G.S., for trans- 
mission to Dr. Charles Barrois, and addressed him as follows: 
—Professor Morris, Dr. Barrois’s chief or most important work 
(written in the year 1876, and published at Lille) is ‘‘ Recherches 
sur le terrain crétacé supérieur de |’Angleterre et de I’Irlande,” 
a production almost exhaustive inits description of the cretaceous 
rocks of England and Ireland, and of the utmost value to English 
students of geology. Dr. Barrois in this work has been the first 
to attempt to arrange the English Cretaceous rocks in palzeonto- 
logical zones, and eminently has he succeeded in defining and 
correlating the horizons of France and Britain. In handing to 
Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., Sec.G.S., the balance of the Wollaston 
Donation Fund for transmission to Dr. Ramsay H. Traquair, 
F.G.S., the President said :—Professor Judd, in handing to you, 
to be forwarded to Dr. Traquair, the balance of the proceeds of 
the Wollaston Donation Fund, I have to request that you will 
inform him of the feeling of the Council, that it is rarely that 
they can have the opportunity of awarding this fund to a more 
able and accomplished naturalist than himself. His long-con- 
tinned researches upon the ganoid fishes of the Carboniferous 
formation haye rendered his name eminent in this department of 
paleontology. The President next presented the balance of the 
proceeds of the Murchison Donation Fund to Mr, Frank Rutley, 
F.G.S.; one moiety of the balance of the proceeds of the Lyell 
Donation Fund to Mr. G. R. Vine; the second moiety of the 
Lyell Donation Fund to Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., F.G.S., for 
transmission to Dr. Anton Fritsch, of Prague. The ballot 
for the council and officers was taken, and the following were 
duly elected for the ensuing year: President, R. Etheridge, 
F.R.S. ; Vice-Presidents: John Evans, F.R.S., J. W. Hulke, 
F.R.S., Prof. J. Morris, M.A., and H. C. Sorby, F.R.S. ; 
Secretaries: Prof. T. |G. Bonney, F.R.S., Prof. J. W. Judd, 
F.R.S, Foreign Secretary, Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S. ; 
Treasurer, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S. Council: H. Bauerman, 
Rey. J. F. Blake, M.A., Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., W. 
Carruthers, F.R.S., Prof. P. M. Duncan, F.R.S., Sir P. de M. 
Grey-Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., R. Etheridge, F.R.S., 
John Evans, F.R.S., Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., 
J. Clarke Hawkshaw, M.A., Rev. Edwin Hill, M.A., W. H. 
Hudlestone, M.A., J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., J. Gwyn Jeffreys, 
F.R.S., Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., Prof. N. S. Maskelyne, 
M.P., F.R.S., J. Morris, M.A., J. A. Phillips, F. W. Rudler, 
Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S., 
H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., H. Woodward, F.R.S. 


Zoological Society, February 15.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Secretary read a report 
on thé additions that had been made to the Society’s Menagerie 
during the month of January, ani called special attention 
to a White-nosed Saki (Pithecia albinasa), purchased January 11 ; 
an American Monkey of the genus Ca//zthrix—probably refer- 
able to C. érunnea, purchased along with the preceding ; and 
an example of an Insectivore of the genus Zaza (probably 
TZ. tana), obtained by purchase on the same day.—Mr. Sclater 
exhibited and made remarks on some eggs of Ofzsthocomus 
cristatus, obtained at Obydos on the Amazons.—Mr. Howard 
Saunders exhibited on behalf of Capt. E. A. Butler, and made 
remarks on specimens of the eggs of Dromas ardeola.—The Rev. 
O. P. Cambridge, C.M.Z.S., exhibited and made remarks ona 
Hymenopterous parasite, hatched from larvae found on two 
spiders—Linyphia obscura, Blackw. 2 and L. zebrina, Menge 


6. The larvz were stated to be apodous, and to adhere to the | 


abdomen of the spider, which, when full-grown, they fully 
equalled in size.—Mr, E. W. H. Holdsworth exhibited a speci- 
men of White’s Thrush ( Zuvdus varius), killed in South Devon- 
shire in Jannary last.—Mr. C. O. Waterhouse read a paper on 


NATURE 


427 


the Coleopterous Insects belonging to the family /ispide, col- 
lected by Mr. Buckley in Ecuador. Seventeen species of 
Hispide had hitherto been recorded as inhabiting that country ; 
of these Mr. Buckley had met with fifteen, which, together with 
nineteen new species, made a total of thirty-six species in the 
series now described.—Mr. W. L. Distant read a paper on some 
additions which had been lately made’ to the Rhynchotal Fauna 
of the Ethiopian Region, nine new species belonging to the 
families Pentatomide, Coreide, and Pyrrhocoride were pointed 
out, and in the Coreide two new genera, allied to Petillia and 
Petascelis, were described. The specimens had been obtained 
from Western, Southern, and Eastern Africa. —A communica- 
tion was read from Mr, Edgar A. Smith on some shells from 
Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa and from other localities in East 
Africa, lately received by the British Museum. Great interest 
attached to some of the shells from Lake Tanganyika, from the 
fact that they had all the appearance of being modified marine 
types.—Lord Walsingham read a paper on some new and little 
known species of North American Tineide, amongst which were 
three new generic forms. 


Meteorological Society, February 16.—Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—I. L. Bell, F.R.S., J. Bernays, 
A. W. Blyth, |. Church, F. W. Cory, S. Cutler, T. L. K. 
Edge, C. Horsley, W. D. Howard, C. Kelly, M.D., G. Ling- 
wood, W. Macgeorge, Capt. J. P. Maclear, R.N., A. Rigg, 
and H. C. Stephens were elected Fellows of this Society.—The 
following papers were read:—Relative humidity, by Charles 
Greaves, M. Inst. C.E., F.G.S. The object of this paper was to 
show that the term ‘‘relative humidity” was frequently the cause 
of misunderstanding, and that it was desirable that some other 
tables with a more correct denomination should be used in order 
that reliable values of this factor in our climate should be 
recorded.—On the frost of January, 1881, over the British Isles, 
by William Marriott, F.M.S. The author pointed out that the 
severe frost of the 7th to the 26th was remarkable for its unex- 
pected appearance, its long continuance, and its sudden breaking 
up. The weather during the first week of January was com- 
paratively mild, but frost set in over the north of Scotland on 
the 5th. The author then gave the lowest thermometrical 
readings from about 300 stations in the United Kingdom for 
each day of the frost, which were plotted upon diagrams, clearly 
showing the relative severity of the weather experienced in each 
district. The lowest readings were — 15° at Garstang on the 
16th, and — 22° at Blackadder, — 16° at Kelso, — 15° at Stobo, 
— 11° at Thirlestane Castle, and — 10° at Melrose, on the 17th. 
Reference was also made in detail to the rivers and lakes which 
had been frozen over, and to other incidents proving the remark- 
ably low temperatures which had occurred. Some idea of the 
intensity of the frost may be gathered by the fact that in the 
south of Scotland the temperature fell below 10° on more than 
eleven .occasions, below 20° on nineteen occasions, and was 
below 32° on twenty-five to twenty-nine occasions. In the 
London district readings below 10° occurred on two or three 
days, below 20° on ten days, and below 32° on twenty days. 
In Ireland temperatures below 10° were registered on six or 
seven occasions, below 20° on twelve or fourteen occasions, and 
below 32° on twenty-two to twenty-four occasions. No place 
in the British Isles was exempt from the frost, even at Scilly the 
tem, erature was below 32° on three days, the lowest being 
z9° on two occasions. The winter sea-side health resorts 
afforded no protection from the frost ; at Penzance the tempe- 
rature fell below 32° on ten occasions, at Torquay on eleven 
occa-ions, and was below 20° on six occasions, At Ventnor it was 
below 32° on nineteen occasions, and below 20° on three occa- 
sions, and at Bournemouth it was below 32° on twenty-three, and 
below 20° on ten occasions. The heavy falls of snow prevented 
the frost from penetrating far into the ground, but where the 
snow was cleared away th~ temperature of the soil fell consider- 
ably. A diagram was exhibited showing the mean temperature 
of January, in the neighbourhood of London, for each year, from 
1774 to 1881, from which it appeared that the low mean tempera- 
ture of 31°°6 for last month had only jbeen surpassed on five 
occasions, and that the three years, 1879-81, have been very 
cold, the mean for this period being only 32°°2; there is no 
instance during the past 100 years of any three consecutive 
Januarys having so low a mean temperature. 


Royal Microscopical Society, February 9 (Anniversary 
Meeting).—Dr. Beale, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The 
Report of the Council showed an addition of forty-nine Fellows 


428 


NATURE 


[March 3, 1881 


during the year (making 611 in all), with a considerable increase 
in the revenue and capital accounts of the Society. The attend- 
ance at the meetings was also shown to have increased by nearly 
50 percent. The President read his annual address, in which 
he dealt with the theory of evolution. A vote of thanks was 
passed by the meeting on the occasion of his retirement from the 
presidency, as also to the retiring treasurer, Mr. J. W. Stephen- 
son.—The following Council was elected for the ensuing year :— 
President, Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S.; Vice-presidents : 
Prof. F, M. Balfour, F.R.S., W. B. Carpenter, C.B., F.R.S., 
John Millar, L.R.C.P. Edin., John Ware Stephenson ; Treasurer, 
Lionel S. Beale, F.R.S. ; Secretaries: Charles Stewart, M.R.C.S., 
Frank Crisp, LL.B., B.A.; Members of Council: Robert 
Braithwaite, M.D., Charles James Fox, William H. Gilburt, 
James Glaisher, F.R.S., A. de Souza Guimaraens, William J. 
Gray, M.D., John E. Ingpen, John Matthews, M.D., John 
Mayall, jun., Albert D. Michael, Frederic H. Ward, M.R.C.S., 
C. Tharters White, M.R.C.S. 


Photographic Society, February 8.—J. Glaisher, F.R.S.; 
president, in the chair.—A paper on sensitometers, was read 
by Leon Warnerke. After alluding to those already existing, he 
exhibited and explained one of his own, the ‘‘standard sensi- 
tometer.” This consisted of a frame constructed to hold a thin 
block made of phosphorescent calcium sulphide mixed with 
paraffin, and made luminous by burning one inch of magne- 
sium ribbon in close proximity ; next is a glass, having upon it 
a series of squares (with consecutive figures on them) increasing 
in opacity ; then a photographic plate, or any other material 
sensitive to light, is placed in front, and the phosphorescent 
light is then permitted to pass through the glass containing 
the squares; and the highest number visible represents the 
sensitiveness of the matter experimented upon; the numbers 
enabling relative values to be determined. 


Statistical Society, February 15.—Mr. Jas. Caird, C.B., 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—A paper was read on the number 
of deaths from accident, negligence, violence, and misad- 
venture in the United Kingdom and some other countries, by 
Mr. Cornelius Walford, Barrister-at-Law, wherein he reviewed 
the numbers and causes of deaths of this class from the earliest 
periods at which records existed in the United Kingdom, 
bringing them down also to the latest date, and noting the cir- 
cumstances which had helped to increase them, as also those 
which had a retarding influence. He was of opinion, supported 
by the statistics adduced, that violent deaths of various kinds 
had advanced with the progress of civilisation. New forces, as 
also increasing mechanical productiveness, rendered the risk to 
life and limb continually greater. 


3 PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, February 14.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—The following papers were read :—Progress of the zoo- 
logical station of Roscoff, by M. de Lacaze-Duthiers. Since 
1872 there have been 114 workers of various nationalities at the 
station, the numbers rising from three in 1872 to twenty-seven 
last year. Last August seventeen were accommodated at once. 
A keeper now stays at the station constantly, and despatches live 
animals to various laboratories in France. Zoologists can be 
lodged in winter. The station has a good sea-going vessel, and 
is about to acquire a diving-dress. (Particulars of the aquarium, 
laboratory, &c., are given.) A new station is being formed at 
Port Vendres, on the Mediterranean.—Existence of large spiral 
cells distributed in the parenchyma of certain Crinum, by M. 
Trécul.—Theorems relative to the equation of Lamé, by M. 
_ Brioschi.—On periodic movements of the ground, by M. Planta- 
mour. In the year ending September 30, 1880, a great lowering 
took place on the east side, from October 4 to January 28, viz, 
95°80 (as against 28°08 the previous year), The mean tempe- 
rature of December was unusually low, but the author thinks 
some other cause must have operated also. The level placed in 
the meridian showed nearly the same oscillation as the previous 
year (4°56). In winter the south side rises with rise of tempe- 
rature ; in summer it falls:—On the earthquake in Switzerland 
on Jan, 27, 1881, by M. Colladon.—Lithological and geological 
examination of the meteorite that fell on Oct. 13, 1872, in the 
neighbourhood of Soko Banja, in Servia, by M. M. Sunier.— 
On Fuchsian functions, by M. Poincaré.—On the laws which 
rule periods and coefficients of intensity in one of the principal 
groups of elementary electromotive forces due to solar induction, 
and on the possibility of using the magnetic needle to measure 
the velocity of rotation of the sun about its axis, by M. Quet.— 


On the relations which exist between the temperature, pressure, 
and circulation of the air on the Iberian peninsula, by M. 
Teisserenc de Bort. In winter the peninsula is colder than the 
seas around; it shows a barometric maximum, the air flowing 
outwards to the coasts. In summer the isotherms group round 
a maximum inthe middle of Spain, where, on the other hand, 
the pressure shows a minimum, and the winds tend inwards. In 
intermediate seasons the isotherms are nearly perpendicular to 
the meridians; the isobars are grouped uniformly round great 
centres of atmospheric action, the most important being the 
oceanic barometric maximum. Spain is somewhat like monsoon 
countries. (The author also studies the action of the peninsula 
as revealed in daily phenomena).—On m’boundou (test-poison 
of the Gaboonese), new physiological, chemical, histochemical, 
and toxicological researches, by MM. Heckel and Schlagden- 
hauffen. It contains only one alkaloid, strychnine. The 
division of Strychnos into tetanising and paralysing is un- 
warranted. The effect depends on the dose employed.— 
On the treatment of phylloxerised vines by insufflation of 
vapours of sulphide of carbon, by M. Bourdon. He sends 
the vapours through a permanent drainage-system.—The Secre- 
tary made reference to the death of M. Kuhlmann.—Researches 
on the specific magnetism of ozone, by M. Becquerel. Ozone is 
found to be more magnetic than oxygen, and the ratio of the 
one specific magnetism to the other is considerably greater than 
the supposed ratio of the densities. Thus the specific mag- 
netism of ozone is greater than that corresponding to the quan- 
tity of oxygen contained in it.—On the electric phenomena of 
tourmaline and of hemihedral crystals with inclined faces, by 
MM. Jacques and Curie.—On the combination of hydrochloric 
acid with bichloride of mercury, by M. Ditte. These substances 
may unite in several proportions.—Violet illumination of the 
retina under the influence of luminous oscillations, by M. Char- 
pentier. If the sky, uniformly illuminated by diffused white 
light, be looked at steadily, and two fingers (separate about 
0°02 m.) passed to and fro rapidly before the eye for about half 
a minute, one perceives a mosaic system of hexagons of violet 
purple colour separated by white lines. The author supposes 
the hexagons to represent the cones in the fovea and yellow 
spot, and the white lines filaments from the choroidian cells.— 
Determination of fundamental colour-sensations by study of the 
distribution of complementary colours in the chromatic circle 
(continued), by M. Rosenstiehl.—On a glucoside extracted from 
common ivy, by M. Vernet.—On cultivation of the microbe of 
rot, by M. Toussaint. This succeeds best in rabbit and 
mutton bouillon. The microbe appears in two states, that 
of bacteria and that of spores.—Structure and texture of the 
ink-bag of Sepia, by M. Girod.—Artificial reproduction of 
basalts, by MM. Fouqué and Lévy. They followed the igneous 
method. The peridote was crystallised at a higher temperature 
than the other minerals. The black earth used consisted of six 
of olivine, two of augite, and six of labrador.—Map of the 
central part of thé Spanish Pyrenees, by M. Schroder. 


CONTENTS PacE 

NaturaLt ConpiTions AND ANIMAL Lirg. By Prof. E. Ray 
LANKESTER, F-RiS) 20) 02, Rl yee cde Ge. of oar 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 

Movements of Plants. —CHARLES DarwIN, F.R.S.. . . . 400 
Barometric and Solar Cycles.—S. A. H1tt. . « « + + «© + « 409 
The Continents always Continents.—Prof. James D. DANA. _. 410 

The Aurora of January 31; Position of Auroral Rays.—T. W. 
BACKHOUSE.) « isilee ss el 0 1s wh fe) fel fon o) Nop Sallis etal meine 
Auroric Light.—G. H. KinAHAN . « 0 6 + 6 © © © © + © 410 
The Recent Severe Weather.—M. R.I.A.. . . «© - « © «© + 41F 
Migration of the Wagtail.—Dr. Jonn Raz, F.R.S.. . « + + + 432 
Phosphorescence of the Sea.—Tuos. B, Groves. + - + + + + 41% 
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ILtLusTRATIONS OF NEW OR RaRE ANIMALS IN THE ZOOLOGICAL 
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SociETFEs AND ACADEMIES . + + + + «© + + * 


NA PORE 


429 


THURSDAY, MARCH to, 1881 


STR WILLIAM HERSCHEL 
L 

N March 13, 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered 
by William Herschel, and very opportunely at this 
centenary of that memorable addition to the planetary 
system, Prof. Holden has presented us with a popu- 
lar biography of the great astronomer and an outline of 
his works, which he has been careful to make intelligible 

to the general reader. 

Of the great modern philosophers, writes Prof. Holden, 
that one of whom least is known, is William Herschel, 
and we may appropriate the words which escaped him as 
one of the starless spaces in the constellation Scorpio 
passed through the field of his telescope, when his sister 
Caroline Herschel, his constant attendant during his 
night-watches, tells us he exclaimed, “ Azer ist wahr- 
haftig ein Loch im Himmel.” A life of Herschel which 
shall be satisfactory in every particular, Prof. Holden 
remarks, can only be written after a full examination of 
the materials which may have been preserved by the 
family ; but as two generations have passed since his 
death, he thinks no apology will be needed for a con- 
scientious attempt to make the best use of material 
already in hand, scanty as it may be. 

Herschel did prepare, about the year 1818, a biographi- 
cal note or memorandum, which was then placed amongst 
his papers, and which has not been made public, and his 
sister, writing in June, 1842, mentions having commenced 
a work which she almost despaired of finishing, ‘The 
History of the Herschels,” in which presumably her 
brother’s life and work would have formed the main 
feature, but we do not hear that in her then infirm state 
of health any considerable progress was made with it. 

The only authentic sources of biographical information 
before the world are in the ‘‘ Memoir and Correspondence 
of Caroline Herschel,’ published in 1876, and ina much 
less known sketch of his life furnished by Herschel him- 
self in a communication to Lichtenberg, dated November 
15, 1783, and printed in the Gottingen Magazine of 
Science and Literature, iii. 4; this sketch was forwarded 
at the request of Lichtenberg, when acknowledging the 
receipt of memoirs on donble stars, &c., which Herschel 
had sent him. 

William Herschel was born in Hanover on November 
15, 1738, and was the second son of Isaac and Anna 
Herschel. The musical taste which he exhibited early in 
life appears to have been inherited from his father, who 
formed one of the band of the Hanoverian Guards in 
1731. The eldest son Jacob was a clever musician, and 
first violin in the Court orchestra in 1759; he afterwards 
joined his brother William in this country, and on return- 
ing to Hanover carried on a correspondence with him on 
musical subjects till his death in 1792. The youngest 
brother Dietrich also shared in the musical abilities of 
the family, and at fifteen years of age was so far advanced 
as to be admitted into the Court orchestra. Towards the 
end of 1755, when the Hanoverian Guards were ordered 


1 “Sir William Herschel, his Life and Works.”” By Edward S. Holden, 
aoe ney Observatory, Washington. (New York: Charles Scribner’s 
ons, 1881, 


VoL. xx111.—No. 593 


to England, Herschel accompanied them as one of the 
band, and remained in this country about a year, when 
he returned to Hanover. During part of the disastrous 
campaign of 1757 he was on active service with the 
regiment, but after the defeat at Hastenbeck in July, it 
became evident that he had not the physical strength for 
the service, and his parents resolved to remove him. In 
connection with this circumstance Prof. Holden recalls a 
statement made by Sir George Airy, that the “ removal” 
was a desertion, as he was told by the Duke of Sussex 
that on Herschel’s first visit to the king after the dis- 
covery of the Georgium Sidus, “his pardon was handed 
to him by the king himself, written out in due form.” 
Herschel returned to England, though at what time 
does not appear. In fact from 1757 to 1760 we know 
nothing of his life. It is related in the Memoirs of 
Caroline Herschel that several pages referring to this 
period had been torn out in both her original Recollec- 
tions and in the unfinished Memoir commenced in 184o, 
In 1760, however, he is again heard of, at Pontefract, as a 
young German in the band of the Durham militia, who 
spoke English almost as well as a native, and who was 
an excellent performer on the violin. It is conjectured 
that till his appointment as organist at Halifax in 1765, 
pupils and public concerts must have filled up his time; 
during a portion of this interval of five years he resided 
at Leeds, and in April, 1764, we are told he returned to 
Hanover on a very brief visit. In 1766 he obtained an 
engagement at Bath, and soon after was appointed 
organist at the Octagon Chapel. In this year, says Prof. 
Holden, he began a life of unceasing activity. His 
engaging manners made him friends, while “‘ his talents 
brought him admirers and pupils, and pupils brought him 
money” ; at this time he was giving thirty-five or more 
musical lessons in a week. In August, 1772, he proceeded 
to Hanover to take back to England his sister Caroline, 
afterwards his untiring assistant and companion in his 
surveys of the heavens. At this time his residence was 
in New King Street, Bath, and here in 1774 he had made 
himself a Gregorian telescope, probably on the model of 
Short’s. In the preceding year, it is related of him, 
that he used to retire to bed with Smith’s Harmonics 
and Optics, Ferguson’s Astronomy, &c., and his first 
thoughts on rising were how to obtain instruments for 
viewing the objects of which he had been reading. We 
are told no optician had settled in Bath at that time. 
Prof. Holden mentions that in Journal No. 1, pre- 
served at the Royal Society, is a copy of Herschel’s first 
observation of the nebula of Orion, made with his 54-feet 
Gregorian reflector on March 4,1774. In 1775, with a 
Newtonian telescope of 4} inches aperture, and power of 
222, also made by himself, he made his first review of the 
heavens, consisting in the examination of every star of 
first to fourth magnitudes and the planets ; no records of 
these observations are now known to be in existence. In 
the same year the first 7-feet reflector was finished, and 
in 1777 one of 10 feet and one of 20 feet had been pro- 
jected, and a grass-plot behind a house near Walcot 
turnpike, to which Herschel had removed at midsummer, 
1774, was prepared for its reception: this house offered 
more room for workshops, and the roof was available for 
observations. Of his early attempts at the construction 
of telescopes he wrote to Lichtenstein : “When, in the 
U 


430 


WA TURE 


| March 10, 1881 


course of time, I took up astronomy, I determined to 
accept nothing on faith, but to see with my own eyes 
everything which others had seen before me. Having 
already some knowledge of the science of optics, | 
resolved to manufacture my own telescopes, and after 
many continuous, determined trials, I finally succeeded 
in completing a so-called Newtonian instrument, seven 
feet in length. From this I advanced to one of ten feet, 
and at last to one of twenty, for I had fully made up my 
mind to carry on the improvement of my telescopes as 
far as it could possibly be done.” A very good twenty- 
feet reflector was finished in 1783, but the celebrated 
forty-feet instrument was not commenced until 1785. 
Herschel tells us in his description of the latter telescope 
that in all he made “not less than 200 7-feet, 150 1o-feet, 
and about So 20-feet mirrors, not to mention those of the 
Gregorian form, or of the construction of Dr. Smith’s 
reflecting microscope,” of which he also made a great 
number. : 

In or about 1779 Herschel removed to 19, New King 
Street, which was his last change of residence at Bath, 
and it was at this house that the planet Uranus was dis- 


covered. 


the Philosophical Transactions for 1780: he had pre- 
viously contributed a paper (his first publication) to the 
Ladies’ Diary in 1779, in answer to a prize question pro- 


posed by Landen, viz. “ the length, tension, and weight of 


a musical string being given, it is required to find how 
many vibrations it will make in a given time, when a 
small given weight is fastened to its middle, and vibrates 
with it.’ In the same volume of the PAz7. Trans. he 
published observations relating to the mountains in the 
moon ; at this time and subsequently he measured the 
heights of about 100, on three different methods. Most 
of these measures were never printed, and as Prof, Holden 
remarks at this date they would probably be of no material 
service to science. 

His next paper presented to the Royal Society on 
January 11, 1781, is entitled “ Astronomical Observations 
on the rotation of the Planets round their Axes, made 
with a view to determine whether the Earth’s Diurnal 
Motion is perfectly equable,’’ a paper which Prof. Holden 
views as affording the first obvious proof of the truth of 
the statement made by Herschel thirty years later, when 
he said, “ A knowledge of the construction of the heavens 
has always been the ultimate object of my observations.” 
Jt marks too an advance in practical astronomy: not 
only are the results given, but careful estimates of the 
errors to which they may be liable is made, with a 
discussion of the source of such errors. 

On March 13 following Herschel made his great dis- 
covery of the planet Uranus, that Georgium-Sitdus, as it 
was his wish it should be called, which made his name at 
once familiar throughout Europe. The discovery was 
announced in a paper communicated to the Royal Society 
on April 26 by Dr. Watson of Bath, an intimate friend 
of Herschel’s, and strange as it may now appear to us, 
it is entitled “Account of a Comet.” His own words 


referring to the circumstances of the discovery are as fol- | 


lows :—* On Tuesday, the 13th of March, between ten and 
eleven in the evening, while I was examining the small 
stars in the neighbourhood of H Geminorum, I perceived 


His first astronomical paper, on the variable | 
star Mira Ceti, was written from thence, and appeared in | 


one that appeared visibly larger than the rest: being 
struck with its uncommon magnitude, I compared it to 
H Geminorum and the small star in the quartile between 
Auriga and Gemini, and finding it so much larger than 
either of them, suspected it to be a comet. I was then 
engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the 
fixed stars, . . . . and those observations requiring very 
high powers, I had ready at hand several magnifiers of 
227, 460, 932, 1536, 2010, &c., all of which I have suc- 
cessfully used upon that occasion. The power I had on 
when I first saw the comet was 227. From experience I 
knew that the diameters of the fixed stars are not pro- 
portionally magnified with higher powers as the planets 
are; therefore I now put on the powers of 460 and 932, 
and found the diameter of the comet increased in propor- 
tion to the power, as it ought to be, on a supposition of 
its not being a fixed star, while the diameters of the stars 
to which I compared it were not increased in the same 
ratio. Moreover, the comet being magnified much beyond 
what its light would admit of, appeared hazy and ill- 
defined with these great powers, while the stars preserved 
that lustre and distinctness which from many thousand 
observations I knew they would retain.” The observa- 
tions given in this paper extend to April 19, and Herschel 
adds he was “happy to surrender it to the care of the 
Astronomer-Royal” (Dr. Maskelyne) and others as soon as 
he found they had begun their observations upon it: so 
little idea had he six weeks after he first glimpsed the 
object of the great discovery he had made. 

It is certain that at the date of this discovery the name 
of Herschel was unknown to the principal astronomers 
on the Continent, and it is almost ludicrous to read of 
the various guesses that were made respecting it. Prof. 
Holden transcribes the amusing passage from Bode’s 
account of the discovery of Uranus; “In the Gazette 
Littéraive of June, 1781,°this worthy man is called 
MERSTHEL; in Julius’ Fournal Encyclopédigue, HERT- 
SCHEL; in a letter from Mr. Maskelyne to M. Messier, 
HERTHEL; in another letter of Maskelyne’s to Herr Mayer 
at Manheim, HERRSCHELL [doubtless mis-readings] ; M. 
Darquier calls him HERMSTEL. What may his name be? 
He must have been born a German.” In the first notice 
of the discovery in the Coxnaissance des Temps he is called 
HOROCHELLE. 

The telescope which Herschel was using on the evening 
of March 13, 1781, was that with which his second review 
of the heavens was made, a reflector’ of 852 inches focus, 
62 inches aperture, and power, 227. This survey, he 
writes in 1783, “extended to all the stars of Harris’s maps 
and the telescopic ones near them, as far as the eighth mag- 
nitude. The catalogue of double-stars and the discovery 
of the Georgium Sidus were the results of that review.” 

Arago says if Herschel had directed his telescope towards 
the constellation Gemini eleven days earlier (March 2 
instead of March 13) the proper motion of the planet 
would have escaped him, for the planet was on the 2nd 
near one of its stationary points, and adds, “On voit 
par cette remarque & quoi peuvent tener les plus grandes 
découvertes astronomiques.” This implies a total mis- 
conception of the case: as Prof. Holden remarks :—“The 


2 When Sir John Herschel contemplated presenting one of his father’s 
7-feet telescopes to the Royal Astronomical Society, Caroline Herschel 
wrote: ‘‘Its only being painted deal was because it should look like the 
one with which the Georgium Sidus was discovered.’” 


March to, 1881] 


NATURE 


431 


new planet was detected by its appearance and not by its 
motion.’’ Herschel, referring to his discovery in his 
communication to Lichtenberg, says: “This was by no 
means the result of chance, but a simple consequence of 
the position of the planet on that particular evening, 
since it occupied precisely that spot in the heavens which 
came in the order of the minute observations that I had 
previously mapped out for myself. Had I not seen it 
just when I did I must inevitably have come upon it soon 
after, since my telescope was so perfect that I was able to 
distinguish it from a fixed star in the first minute of 
observation.” It is not to be supposed that so striking 
an object would have been viewed once and forgotten, 
even if no motion were immediately detected. 

As is well known, Herschel feeling deeply his indebted- 
ness to the liberality of George the Third, desired to 
testify his gratitude by giving his planet a name which 
would mark the epoch of its discovery, and in his letter 
on the subject addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, then 
president of the Royal Society, writes, “I cannot but 
wish to take this opportunity of expressing my sense of 
gratitude by giving the name Georgium Sidus, 

Georgium Sidus 
—jam nunc assuesce vocari, 
to a star, which (with respect to us) first began to shine 
under his auspicious reign.” 

Prof. Holden dwells upon the changes which may be 
considered to have been effected in the state of astronomy 
not only in England but in the whole world, simply by 
the discovery of Uranus. “Herschel’s researches would 
have gone.into the Philosophical Transactions as the 
work of an amateur astronomer, Mr. Herschel, of Bath. 
They would have been praised and they would have been 
doubted. It would have taken a whole generation to 
have appreciated them. They would have been severely 
tried, entirely on their merits, and finally they would have 
stood where they stand to-day—unrivalled. But through 
what increased labours these successes would have been 
gained! ... Certainly, if Herschel’s mind had been 
other than it was, the discovery of Uranus, which brought 
him honours from every scientific society in the world, 
and which gave him authority, might have had a hurtful 
effect. But as he was, there was nothing which could 
have aided his career more than this startling discovery. 
It was needed for him. It completed the solar system 
far more by affording a free play to a profoundly philo- 
sophical mind, than by occupying the vacant spaces 
beyond Saturn. His opportunities would have been pro- 
foundly modified, though his personal worth would have 
been the same.’’ We think there are few astronomers 
who will not be able to follow Prof. Holden in the views 
he has thus forcibly expressed. 

At the hands of Sir Joseph Banks, Herschel received 
the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1781, for his 
“discovery of a new and singular star,’’ and was formally 
admitted a Fellow of the Society on May 30, 1782. It 
was during this visit to London that Herschel was 
received by the king, and as he wrote to his sister the 
same day, met with a very gracious reception. Prof. 
Holden reproduces from the Memoirs of Caroline 
Herschel his letter of July 3, in which he describes his 
visit to the Court with a 7-feet reflector, and the evening 
having been very fine, how the instrument had given 


general satisfaction ; the king in particular, he states, 
“enjoys observations with telescopes exceedingly.’ 
Herschel returned to Bath in the last week of July, and 
immediately prepared for removing to Datchet. 

Here, at the end of his second chapter, we close our 
present notice of Prof. Holden’s welcome volume, reserv- 
ing for another week his third chapter on “Life at Datchet, 
Clay Hall, and Slough,” and the concluding one on the 
general scientific labours of Herschel. It should be 
stated that while taking Prof. Holden’s work as our text, 
particulars have been included in this notice which are 
not specially referred to in it, in view of the interest 
attaching to them at the present time, when, as stated 
above, a hundred years have elapsed since Herschel’s 
discovery of Uranus doubled the known extent of the 
planetary system. J. R. HtinpD 


EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS 
British Animals Extinct within Historic Times; with 
some Account of British Wild White Cattle. By J. E. 
Harting, F.L.S. (London: Triibner, 1880.) 
HE wild animals formerly inhabiting Britain, which 
disappeared before the advance of the hunter 
and farmer in historic times, have hitherto only been 
treated in a disconnected fashion, in essays scattered 
through various periodicals, or in portions of books 
relating to other subjects. Mr. Harting has collected 
together in the present volume his own essays in the /7e/d 
and in the Popular Science Review, and has brought to bear 
upon his subject a knowledge of records, and an acquaint- 
ance with sport, which render his work extremely valuable. 
His references are accurate, and he has availed himself 
of nearly every source of information. Consequently we 
have before us a work dealing with the bear, wolf, beaver, 
reindeer, and “ wild cattle,’’ worthy to be classed between 
Bell’s “British Quadrupeds ” on the one hand, and White’s 
“History of Selborne” on the other, relating not merely 
to the animals, but to the forests in which they lived and 
to the mode in which they were hunted. 

The common brown bear made its appearance on the 
Continent in the Pleistocene age, and crossed over to 
Britain while the areas of the North Sea and of the 
English Channel were fertile valleys abounding in animal 
life. Its remains occur both in the river-deposits and in 
the caves, and have been met with in the turbaries and 
alluvia of England and of Scotland, which belong to the 
prehistoric period. It was hunted by the Neolithic 
inhabitants of Britain, and used for food by the inhabitants 
of Colchester and Richmond in Roman times. From the 
“Penitentiale” of Archbishop Egbert (A.D. 750), in which 
the flesh of any animal torn by dog, wolf, fox, or bear, or 
any other wild animal is forbidden to be used for human 
food, it is clear that it was alive in this country at that}time. 
In the days of Edward the Confessor Norwich furnished 
annually one bear to the king and sixfdogs for the baiting 
of it. This however does not prove the existence of wild 
bears in Britain at that date, because bear-baiting was 
almost a national sport among the English until bears 
became too costly and the public ‘taste too refined for 
such brutal} exhibitions. Fitz-Stephen tells us, in the 
reign of Henry II., that the young Londoners amused 
themselves in the forenoon of every holiday in the winter 


432 


NATURE 


[March 10, 1881 


season with boar-fights, or bull- and bear-baiting. A 
grand exhibition of bear-baiting took place at Hatfield 
House when Queen Mary visited her sister, the Princess 
Elizabeth, during her confinement there, “with which 
their Highnesses were right well content.’’ Soon after 
the ascension of the latter to the throne she entertained 
the Spanish ambassadors with bulls and bears, and some 
years afterwards she received the Danish ambassador at 
Greenwich, and entertained him with bear-baiting, 
“tempered with other merry disports.”” On one occa- 
sion at Kenilworth no less than thirteen bears were 
baited before the queen with large ban-dogs. From these 
notices it is evident that Queen Elizabeth was very fond 
of this sport. Some of the great nobles and ecclesiastics 
also kept bears and bear-wards. Latterly there were 
travelling bear-wards dependent upon their patrons. The 
bear was probably extinct in Britain about the time of 
the Norman Conquest, and is not known to have existed 
in Ireland within the historic period. 

The wolf abounded in Britain in the Pleistocene and 
prehistoric periods, and varied in numbers in the historic 
age in proportion to the waste lands. It was a subject of 
many legal enactments, and grants of land were held for 
its capture. To the numerous references which Mr. 
Harting gives we may add an extract from the Litany of 
Dunkeld current in Scotland in the eleventh or twelfth 
century: ‘‘A cateranis et latronibus, a lupis et omni mala 
bestia, Domine, libera nos,” 

The animal had a price set upon its head by statute in 
1621; the price paid for one wolf in Sutherlandshire was 
six pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence. In Ireland, 
in 1683, “‘for every bitch wolfe the price was six pounds, 
for every dog wolfe five pounds, for every cubb which 
preyeth for himself forty shillings, and for every suckling 
cubb ten shillings.” It is obvious from these large 
prices that the wolf was becoming rare in Scotland and 
Ireland in the middle of the seventeenth century. The 
last of the British wolves was killed in Scotland in 1743 
by MacQueen, a man remarkable for his stature and 
courage, who died in the year 1797. The memory of the 
exploit is still preserved by tradition. In Ireland the 
animal lingered until 1770. Mr. Harting deserves great 
credit for having collected together the evidence by which 
these dates can be fixed. The wolf became extinct in 
England in the reign of Henry VII. 

The wild boar still lingered in Lancashire in 1617, and 
the last notice of the animal in the south of England is of 
the hunting of the wild boar at Windsor by James I. and 
his court. Mr. Harting considers that an entry in an 
account book of the steward of the manor of Chartley 
“1683.—February. Pd. the cooper for a paile for ye wild 
swine, 0. 2.0.,” proves that it was not extinct in England 
at that date. It seems however to us very unlikely that 
wild boars would have such attention paid to their wants, 
and more probable that they were domestic swine turned 
out into the woodlands to get the greater part of their 
own living. : 

The reindeer, so abundant in the late Pleistocene age, 
and so generally found along with Palzolithic implements, 
and so strangely associated with the remains of hippo- 
potamus in the hyzena-dens of this country (a fact which 
proves the two animals to have been contemporaneous), 
was rare in the prehistoric period, and disappeared alto- 


gether from its last foothold in Caithness about the latter 
half of the thirteenth century. We may remark that the 
recent attempts to introduce the animal into Switzerland 
have failed, apparently from the great heat of summer. 

The beaver was living in the River Teivi, according to 
Girald du Barry, in 1159; and, according to Boethius, was 
taken in Lochness for the sake of its fur towards the end 
of the fifteenth century. We would call the attention of 
our readers to the remarkably interesting account of its 
reintroduction by the Marquis into the Island of Bute, 
where they are now increasing rapidly and building their 
dams. There is evidently no difficulty in naturalising 
them in this country. 

We close this review regretting that it is impossible to 
do justice to the careful account of the different breeds of 
the “wild white cattle,’ which we believe to be the 
descendants of the domestic cattle introduced by the 
English, and which have always lived in uninclosed 
lands. W. Boyp DAWKINS 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Notes of Observations of Injurious Insects. Report, 
1880. By Eleanor A. Ormerod. 8vo. pp. 1-48. 
(London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Allen. Edin- 
burgh : J. Menzies, 1881.) 


MIss ORMEROD and her assistants are to be congratu- 
lated on this very excellent Report, which is far more 
bulky than its predecessors, and correspondingly useful 
and interesting, and well illustrated. At the outset 
a very significant fact is mentioned. The season 
of 1880 was remarkably suitable for vegetation, and the 
attacks of insects consequently less severe; a high condi- 
tion of vitality enabled the plants to more successfully 
cope with their insect enemies. The most injurious 
species for the year was the well-known larva of 7zpula 
(daddy-long-legs), which not only attacked its more 
usual food, the roots of grasses, but proved itself ex- 
tremely injurious to peas, so that in one field of twenty 
acres the prospective value in March was reduced to a 
realised value of only about one half in June; other 
crops were also attacked. Stimulating remedies, such 
as guano, salt, ammoniacal liquor, &c., had a good effect, 
but the grubs appeared to be remarkably indifferent 
to ordinary poisonous solutions. An experiment at the 
Kew Observatory as to the amount of cold they can endure 
showed that some survived 42° of frost. Another very 
injurious species was 7ephritis onopordinis (the celery-fly) ; 
a dressing of gas-lime, unslaked lime, and soot had a good 
effect. The singularly misnamed Psz/a vos@ (the carrot 
fly) was also obnoxious ; sowing the seeds in a mixture 
of leaf-mould, ashes, &c., proved of excellent service in 
this case. Sztones lineatus was very injurious to peas. 
We think Miss Ormerod acts injudiciously in calling this 
insect the “ pea-weevil.” Its larva is certainly very much 
given to attacking peas and many other plants, by eating 
the young shoots, but the true pea-weevil is Bruchus Pist, 
which destroys the peas themselves by feeding inside them. 
For the gooseberry saw-fly nothing proved so effectual as 
digging out the earth round the bushes when the larve 
and pupe are underground, the removed portion being 
taken away and burnt; a suggestion that if pieces of 
woollen cloth be placed on the bushes the parent fly will 
deposit her eggs thereon seems far-fetched. Miss Or- 
merod has great faith in the efficacy of paraffine. In 
future it is proposed to extend the Report to insects not 
hitherto specially mentioned as desirable for observation, 
such as the larch-aphis and pine saw-fly. We are glad 
to note that the authoress has a Manual of Economic 
Entomology in the press. 


March 10, 1881] 


Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Physiques et Natur- 
elles de Bordeaux. 2° série, tome iv., 1™° cahier. 
(Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1880.) 


Tuisnumber contains Conférences de Géométrie supérieure 
by M. Saltel, in which is given an exposition of the method 
of analytical correspondence with two applications, the 
object of the one being to find the number of common 
solutions in # equations between & unknowns, and of 
the other to find the degree of a geometrical locus defined 
by certain algebraic conditions. The methods employed 
are based on that of M. Chasles’s “Principe de Corre- 
spondance.” The next paper, by M. Imchenetsky, “ Dé- 
termination en fonction des coordonnées de la force qui 
fait mouvoir un point matériel sur une section conique,” 
is an interesting one, and is founded upon a remark of 
M. Bertrand’s (“Sur la possibilité de déduire d’une seule 
des lois de Kepler, le principe de Vattraction, Comptes 
vendus, April 2, 1877), “il serait intéressant de résoudre 
la question suivante. En sachant que les planétes dé- 
crivent des sections coniques, et sans rien supposer de 
plus, trouver l’expression des composantes de la force qui 
les sollicite en fonction des coordonnées de son point 
d application.” The author arrives at his result by 
taking his equation in the form— 
petogyv torr =(ax+byt+c). 

Prof, Teixeira of Coimbra has a short note ‘‘Sur les 
principes du calcul infinitésimal,’’ which calls for no 
special comment. Dr. G. Sous follows with what appears 
to us a good article entitled “ Phakométre et Optométre.”’ 
For the uninitiated ‘Les phakométres sont des instru- 
ments destinés & mésurer la distance focale d’ une lentelle 
quelconque.” The principle of construction of Silber- 
mann’s and of Snellen’s is, when an object is placed at 
twice the focal distance from a converging lens, the real 
image of the same size as the object is situated also at 
double the focal distance from the lens. The objection 
to Silbermann’s appears to be its length, which renders 
it awkward to carry, and to Snellen’s that it is not appli- 
cable to diverging lenses. 

Dr. Sous gives a form which is not liable to either of 
these defects, and the construction of which is based 
upon a physical theory, not hitherto, he states, applied 
to these instruments; but we must refer those interested 
in optics to the paper itself (fourteen pages in length). 
The rest of the book is devoted to “ Morphologie de la 
membrane de Schrapnell,” Dr. Coyne; “Etudes d’Optique 
Physiologique ; Influence du Diamétre dela Pupille et des 
Cercles de Diffusion sur l’acuité visuelle,’ Dr. Badal; 
“Les Températures de la Mer dans I’estuaire Girondin et 
a Arcachon en décembre, 1879, et janvier, 1880,” M. 
Hautreux ; ‘‘ Des Os et de leur Emploi dans la Fabrication 
du noir Animal, du Suif, du Sulfate d’ammonique, des 
Boutons,”’ &c., M. Huyard. 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space is so great that it 
ts impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts. | 


Aberration of Instinct 


CAsEs of individual variations of instinct are of importance in 
relation to Mr. Darwin’s theory of the development of instincts 
by natural selection. Under the belief that aberration of instinct 
may be regarded as a case, more or less extreme, of variation, I 
think that the following instance is worth publishing in NATURE, 
It has been communicated to me by a correspondent on whose 
trustworthiness I haye reason to rely :— 

““A white fantail pigeon lived with his family in a pigeon- 
house in our stable-yard. He and his wife had been brought 


433 


originally from Sussex, and had lived, respected and admired, to 
see their children of the third generation, when he suddenly 
became the victim of the infatuation I am about to describe. . . . 
‘*No eccentricity whatever was remarked in his conduct until 
onz day I chanced to pick up somewhere in the varden a ginger- 
beer bottle of the ordinary brown stone description. I flung it 
into the yard, where it fell immediately below the pigeon house. 
That instant down flew paterfamilias, and to my no small 
astonishment commenced a series of genuflexions, evidently doing 
homage to the bottle. He strutted round and round it, bowing 
and scraping and cooing and performing the most ludicrous antics 
I ever beheld on the part of an enamoured pigeon. . . . Nor did 
he cease these performances until we removed the bottle; what 
proved that this singular aberration of instinct had become a fixed ° 
delusion was this, whenever the bottle was thrown or placed in 
the yard—no matter whether it lay horizontally or was placed up- 
right—the same ridiculous scene was enacted ; at that moment the 
pigeon came flying down with quite as great alacrity as when his 
peas were thrown out for his dinner, to continue his antics as 
long as the bottle remained there. Sometimes this would go on 
for hours, the other members of his family treating his move- 
ments with the most contemptuous indifference, and taking no 
notice whatever of the bottle. At last it became the regular 
amusement with which we entertained our visitors, to see this 
erratic pigeon making love to the interesting object of his affec- 
tions, and it was an entertainment which never failed, throughout 
that summer at least. Before next summer came round he was 
no more,” GEORGE J. ROMANES 


Prehistoric Europe 


A FEW last words with Prof. Dawkins, and I have done :— 

I. Having discovered that a certain absurd opinion which he 
attributed to me is nowhere to be met with in the volume he was 
supposed to be criticising, Mr, Dawkins now imagines that he 
has found grounds for his assertion in my ‘‘Great Ice Age,” 
written and published some yerrs ago. Here again he is quite 
mistaken. The passage cited by him, even if it be considered 
apart from its context, will not bear the interpretation he puts 
upon it. Had he read the page he quotes from with intelligent 
attention he would have seen that I was referring to the well- 
known fact that the ossiferous and Paleolithic gravels of East 
Anglia are represented in the North by the equivalent ossiferous 
Cyrena-heds near Hull, which dovetail with and are overlapped 
by glacial deposits. In other words, they rest upon a /ower, and 
are covered by an afer boulder-clay. But I have nowhere said, 
nor would any candid reader infer from what I have written, 
that this upper boulder-clay (that of Hessle) ever extended sonth 
so as to cover the Palzolithic gravels throughout East Anglia. 
Iam surprised that a professor of geology does not apparently 
understand the meaning of the term ‘‘overlap.” Were I to 
state that in certain districts in Scotland the Carboniferous strata 
are overlapped by a conformable series of Red Sandstones, should 
Ibe understood to imply that these Red Sandstones formerly 
covered the entire area now occupied by the Carboniferous rocks 
of Great Britain? 

2. Mr. Dawkins has accused me of having suppressed evidence 
which told against my views, and he now repeats this offensive 
accusation, citing in justification my description of the Victoria 
Cave, from which, he says, I have omitted all reference to the 
discovery of reindeer in the lower cave-earth. Now it is not 
true that I have ignored this alleged discovery, for I remark 
that ‘‘it seems doubtful whether the remains of that animal, said 
to have been obtained from the lower earth, really belonged to 
that deposit.”” My reasons for this doubt (which I share with 
other geologists) I did not consider it necessary to give, but they 
are simply these :— 

(t) The explorations in the cave were carried on at first, under 
Mr. Dawkins’s superintendence, by means of shaft-digging, a 
very unsatisfactory system of ‘‘cave-hunting,” and one which, 
even with the most conscientious care, is liable to give false 
results. 

(2) During the subsequent prolonged and scientifically-con- 
ducted explorations no recognisable reindeer remains were ever 
obtained in the lower stratum, These facts alone are sufficient 
to justify my scepticism. I quite agree with Mr, Dawkins, 
however, that the mere cccurrence or non-occurrence in this 
particular cave of reindeer associated with hippopotamus is not 
of paramount importance. Even the most inattentive reader of 
“Prehistoric Europe’ can hardly miss the statement, again and 
again repeated, that the southern and northern forms are often 


434 


NATURE 


| March 10, 1881 


enough commingled in one and the same accumulation. It is to 
account for this remarkable commingling that a large portion of 
my book was written. 

3. Mr. Dawkins seems to be ignorant of the fact that the 
ossiferous deposits of Mont Perrier occur on two separate and 
distinct horizons. The dower bed, characterised by the presence 
of Mastodon arvernensis and other extinct forms, is unquestion- 
ably true Pliocene. It is overlaid by the ‘‘pumiceous con- 
glomerate,” with its far-transported and glacially-striated erratics. 
Upon the denuded surface of this well-marked morainic accu- 
mulation rests the wsfer bed, which contains a very different 
mammalian fauna—Llephas meridionalis, Rhinoceros leptorhinus 
(Cuy.), hippopotamus, tapir, horse, cave-bear, hyzena, hedgehog, 
&c. The flora associated with this fauna is not Pliocene but 
Pleistocene. The upper bed is overlaid in turn by a newer set 
of glacial moraines and erratics. The list of Upper Pliocene 
Mammalia from Mont Perrier and Issoire, given by Mr, Dawkins 
in his ‘‘ Early Man in Britain,” consists of a ‘‘hash-up” of the 
species derived from those two separate and distinct horizons. 

4. The most recent list of mammalia from the lignite-beds of 
Leffe and Borlezza is quoted by me from Prof, Stopanni, on the 
authority of Dr. Forsyth Major. All the species in that list, 
without exception, have frequently occurred in Pleistocene beds, 
the age of which is generally admitted. The plants and shells 
associated with these species are all likewise Pleistocene forms. 
Moreover, as Stopanni has demonstrated, and as I can testify, the 
stratigraphical evidence proves that the beds pertain to the 
Glacial series. Prof. Mayer, no mean authority, has shown 
that the upper beds of the so-called Pliocene of the Val d’ Arno 
(containing Zvephas meridionalis and hippopotamus) are not the 
equivalents of the marine Pliocene, as has hitherto been the 
belief of palzeontologists, but must be classified as Quaternary or 
Pleistocene. 

5. All that I say with regard to the age of the skull of Olmo 
occurs on p. 318 of my book, and what I say is simply this, ‘‘ It 
pertains to Pleistocene times—to the period during which Zlephas 
meridionalis belonged to the European fauna.” I do not assert 
its Interglacial age. It may be either Preglacial (ze early 
Pleistocene) or Interglacial as the Leffe beds are. 

I was not aware that geological classification is always based 
on zoology alone. I am under the impression that botanical 
evidence, when it can be obtained, is not despised, and that 
stratigraphical and other physical evidence is not usually ignored. 
In trying to work out the historical geology of the Pleistocene, 
I have considered the palceontological as fully as the physical 
evidence. Mr. Dawkins would have me rest contented with that 
of the mammalia alone, as interpreted by himself. 

Perth, February 19. JAMES GEIKIE 


As my name has been imported into the controversy between 
Prof. Dawkins and Dr. James Geikie, will you kindly permit me 
to state that Iam quite prepared, after re-reading the account 
given by Dr. Geikie of the Victoria Cave, to accept all responsi- 
bility for its correctness. 

Without entering into the general question, in the particular 
case of the Victoria Cave the evidence for the contemporaneity 
in the same area of the reindeer and hippopotamus is not very 
cogent ; areview of all the evidence from that sousce indeed 
points the other way. The specimen mentioned by Prof. 
Dawkins was, according to his Report,* found in digging a shalt, 
a method of exploration unfortunately at that time (1872) em- 
ployed by the Committee. ‘The subzequent explorations, which 
were not conducted in this manner, but by carefully removing 
the deposits, layer by layer, to prevent any possibility of acci- 
dental mixture of the remains, gave abundant evidence of rein- 
deer in the upper beds, but not any satisfactory evidence of its 
presence in the lower beds, containing Hippopotamus, Elephas 
antiguus, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, &c. This is a point, amongst 
others, to which, as Reporter to the Committee, I paid careful 
attention, and the details were impartially given in the Reports.? 
The absence of reindeer from a lower bed, the only one con- 
taining the same fauna in the Creswell caves explored by the 
Rey. M. Mello and Prof, Dawkins, is worthy of note as bearing 
on the same subject. 

As regards the evidence for the antiquity of man from the 
Victoria Cave, Dr. Geikie has fairly stated both sides of the 
question, and he certainly does not deserve the accusation that 


1 Report on the Victoria Cave; British Assoc. Report, 1372, Sections, 


p- 179. 
? Victoria Caye ; British Assoc. Reports, 1871-78. 


he ‘has only called those witnesses which count on his side.” 
Prof. Dawkins, in dismissing the whole of this evidence as 
“‘founded on a mistake,” must be aware that he is using a con- 
venient formula which can only apply fairly to a part of it, the 
doubtfulness of which has already been fully conceded. He 
entirely shelves other evidences which are the result of a long 
and careful exploration.? 

To state that he doubts their cogency would be to take a 
course of which no one would complain ; but to say as if it were 
a matter of general agreement that they are ‘‘founded on a 
mistake,” looks like an attempt to stifle discussion. 

But his remarks are so obviously polemical that to most 
geologists they will probably carry more amusement and less 
conviction than the writer contemplated. 

Hastings, February 19 R. H. TIDDEMAN 


Les lettres d’Outre-mer 


In the Notes, published in NATURE of January 13, p. 254, 
the last paragraph gives, as a fact, an announcement of ‘‘the 
simplest post-office in the world” in Magellan Straits, as still in 
existence. 

At least fourteen years ago there was published a graphic 
account of this unique establishment by the most eminent of all 
living French writers, M. Victor Hugo, who introduces the cir- 
cumstance into his famous work of fiction, ‘‘ Les Travailleurs 
de la Mer”’; and ever since reading the account I have wondered 
where the great author obtained his circumstantial relation, which 
refers to the year 1823. Nor can I believe that such a system 
of oceanic exchange ever really was in existence, at least on the 
spot indicated, for a very good reason; that at the point indi- 
cated, viz. the neighbourhood of Port Famine, when the Beagle 
was there in 1834 (see Darwin’s ‘‘ Naturalist’s Voyage,” chap. 
xi.), ‘‘the Fuegians twice came and plagued ” the crew; so that 
an open barrel would hardly be safe. Darwin, also, who ascended 
Mount Tarn, the most elevated point in this district, would surely 
have mentioned this famous barrel post-office, had it existed (?). 

I am therefore curious to know whence the note in NATURE 
was compiled, but I fancy the accountis apocryphal. That there 
were however other oceanic post-offices somewhat similar in 
principle is a fact in reality. 

In 1673 Ascension was visited by the Dominican, Father 
Navarette, who speaks of it then as the ‘‘.Sai/or’s Post-Office.” 
“‘ Mariners of all nations being accustomed at that time to leave 
letters here, sealed up in a bottle, in a certain known cranny of 
some rock, to be taken away by the first ship which passed in an 
opposite direction” (Mrs. Gill’s ‘Six Months in Ascension,” 
p. 61). And again in 1769 we find the following extract :— 


“1769, Febry. 3-4 

“* Ascension island. 

Bougainville. 

Louis de Bougainville, Colonel of Foot and Commodore of the 
Expedition in the Frigate Za Boudeuse. 

Arrd. and auchored in the North-west creek or ‘ Creek of the 
Mountain of the Cross.’ 

Anchorage according to Abbé la Caille. 

7° 54’ s.—16° 19’ west, of Paris. 
Variation 9° 45’ NW. 
Three creeks caught turtle. 
N.E. creek. N.W. creek. English creek, S.W. 


‘Tn the afternoon the bottle was brought to me which con- 
tains the paper whereon the ships of every nation generally write 
their name, when they touch at Ascension Island. 

“‘ This bottle is deposited ina cavity of the rocks of this bay, 
where it is equally sheltered from rain and the spray of the sea. 
In it I found written the Szva//ow, that English ship which 
Captain Carteret commanded, and which I was desirous of join- 
ing.? He arrived here the 31st of January, and set sail again 
on the 1st of February ; thus we had already gained six days 
upon him, after leaving the Cape of Good Hope. I inscribed 
the Boudeuse and sent back the bottle.” i 

At page 4 of Melliss’ ‘‘ Account of St. Helena (1875) is a 
wood-cut of the South Atlantic Post Office of 1645, Speaking 
of the island of St. Helena, Mr. Melliss says :— 

“Tt became about this time—little more than a century after 
its discovery—a resort of Dutch and Spanish ships, as well as 


! Victoria Cave Report, of. cit. 1877, pp. 218-220, and 1878; Fourn. 
Anthrop. Inst. vol. vii pp. 166-173- 
2 La Boudeuse caught up the Swad/ow, 25th February. 


——_ 


March to, 188t | 


NAPORE 


435 


English ; and Portuguese authority seems to have been lessened, 
through that Power being interested in acquiring possessions 
elsewhere, and the island was for a while deserted, though still 
used by the captains and crews of ships as a South Atlantic 
post-office. It was customary to place letters under huge 
boulders of stone, marked in a conspicuous manner, so that 
the crews of ships returning from India might obtain news 
from home. An interesting record of this period is still to be 
seen ona rude block of lava measuring nearly five feet high and 
two feet six inches wide, which has been preserved by being 
subsequently built into a large mass of masonry in the James- 
town burial-ground.” 

In the Galapagos Islands there is a bay named Post-Office 
Bay, which seems to indicate an analogous nautical exchange 
station. 

I subjoin Victor Hugo’s description, and shall be much 
obliged io any of your readers who can refer me to any ac- 
count of the earlier voyagers whence this scene was derived. 

S. P. OLIVER 

2, Eastern Villas, Anglesey, Gosport, February 28 


P.S.—If any one can give me a reference, also, where I can 
find an account of the wreck of the Grosvenor on the south-east 
coast of Africa in 1782, I shall be extremely obliged. 


“ Tes Travailleurs de la Mer, édition illustrée (1866). 
cinquieme, ix. 
—Renseignement utile aux personnes qui attendent, ou 
craignent, des lettres d’outre-mer” (p. 91). 
‘*Ne disiez-vous pas, Capitaine Gertrais que la Zamaulipas ne 
relachera point ? 
—Non. II va droit au Chili. 
—En ce cas il ne pourra pas donner de ses nouvelles en route, 
—Pardon, Capitaine Clubin. D’abord il peut remettre des 
dépéches a tous les batiments qu'il rencontre faisant voile pour 
Europe. 
—C’est juste. 
—Ensuite il a a borte aux lettres de la mer. 
—Quw’appelez-vous la boite aux lettres de la mer ? 
.—Vous ne connaissez pas ¢a, Capitaine Clubin ? 
—Non. 
—Quand on passe le detroit de Magellan, 
—Eh bien? 
—Partout de la neige, toujours gros temps, de vilains mauvais 
vents, une mer de quatre sous. 
—Aprés? 
—Quand vous avez doublé le cap Monmouth. 
—Bien. Ensuite? 
—Ensuite vous doublez le cap Valentin. 
—Et ensuite ? 
—Ensuite vous doublez le cap Isidore.! 
—Et puis? 
—Vous doublez la pointe Anna.! 
—Bon, Mais qu’est ce que vouz appelez la boite aux lettres 
de la mer? : 
—Nous y sommes. Montagnes a droite, montagnes a gauche. 
Des pingouins partout, des pétrels-tempétes. Un endroit 
terrible. Ah! mille saintes mille singes! Quel bataclan, et 
comme ¢a tape! La bourrasque n’a pas besoin qu’on aille a 
son secours. C’est 14 qu’on surveille la lisse de hourdi! C’est 
la qu’on diminue la toile! C’est la qu’on te vous remplace la 
grande voile par le foc, et le foc par le tourmentin! Coups de 
vent sur coups de vent. Et puis quelque-fois quatre, cinq, six 
jours de cape séche. Souvent d’un jeu de voiles tout neuf il 
vous reste de la charpie. Quelle danse! des rafales 4 vous faire 
sauter un trois-mdts comme une puce, J’ai vu sur un brick 
anglais, le ‘ Zywe Blue,’ un petit mousse occupeé a la ‘ etbboom’ 
emporté 4 tous les cinq cent mille millions de tonnerres de Dieu 
et la ‘ et00m’ avec. On va en l’air comme des papillons, quoi ! 
J’ai eu le contre-maitre de la Revenue, une jolie goélette, arraché 
de dessus le forve-crosstree, et tué roide, J'ai eu ma lisse cassée, 
et mon serre-gouttiére en capilotade. On sort de 1a avec toutes 
ses voiles mangées. Des friégates de cinquante font eau comme 
des paniers. Et la mauvaise diablesse de cdte! Rien de plus 
bourru. Des rochers déchiquetés comme par enfantillage. On 
approche du Port-Famine. La c’est pire que pire. Les plus 
rudes lames que j’ai vues de ma vie. Des parages d’enfer. Tout 
4 coup on aper¢oit ces deux mots écrits en rouge: PosT OFFICE, 
—Que voulez-vous dire, Capitaine Gertrais ? 
—Je vous dire, Capitaine Clubin, que toute de suite aprés 


1 Sta. Anna Pt. is at entrance of Port Famine, but Cape S. Isidro is past 
to the south. 


Livre 


qu’on a doublé la pointe Anna on voit sur un caillou de cent 
pieds de haut un grand baton. C’est un poteau qui a une 
barrique au cou. Cette barrique, c’est la boite au lettres. Il a 
fallu que les anglais écrivent dessus: Post OFFICE. De quoi se 
mélent ils? C’est la poste de l’océan; elle n’appartient pas 4 
cet honorable gentleman, le roi d’Angleterre. Cette boite aux 
lettres est commune. Elle appartient 4 tous les pavillons. Post 
OFFICE, est-ce assez chinois? Ca vous fait l’effet d’une tasse de thé 
que le diable vous offrirait tout a coup. Voici maintenant comment 
se fait le service, Tout batiment qui passe expédie au poteau un 
canot avec ses dépéches. Le navire qui vient de |’Atlantique 
envoie ses lettres pour l'Europe, et le navire qui vient du Pacifique 
envoie ses lettres pour l’Amerique. L’officier commandant votre 
canot met dans le baril votre paquet et y prend le paquet qwil 
y trouve. Vous vous chargez de ces lettres-la; le navire qui 
viendra aprés vous se chargera des votres. Comme on navigue 
en sens contraire, le continent d’ou vous venez, c’est celui ou je 
vais. Je porte vos lettres, vous portez les miennes. Le baril 
est bitté au poteau avec une chaine. Et il pleut! Et il neige! 
Et il gréle! Une fichue mer! Les satanicles volent de tous 
cétés, Le Zamaulifas ira parla. Le baril a un bon couvercle 
a charniére, mais pas de serrure ni de cadenas. Vous voyez 
qu'on peut écrire 4 ses amis. Les lettres parviennent. 
—C’est trés-drdéle, murmura Clubin réveur.” 


Explosive Gas in a Lake 


A FRIEND, on whom I can rely, informs me that during the 
late frost, Loch Ken in Kirkcudbrightshire was frozen over, 
affording pastime to curlers and skaters. Here and there, how- 
ever, small spots of the surface, near to the shore, resisted the 
frost longer, and when they did freeze the ice was very thin. 
These pot-holes were dangerous to skaters, the largest being 
about size enough to admit an ordinary curling stone. Gas was 
emitted from them, and when the ice for the first time was formed 
over them one person got his face severely burned by boring a 
small hole in the thin ice and setting fire to the gas thus liberated, 
with a match. After a while the gas seemed to lose its power 
of combustion and the experiment could be repeated with 
impunity, a feeble flame only being evoked, when the hole was 
first drilled. J. SHAW 

Dumfriesshire, March 4 


Colours of British Butterflies 


THE sober colouring of the under-wings of many of our 
butterflies is universally accepted as being ‘‘ protective.” Let 
the gorgeous ‘‘ peacock,” for instance, but close his wings, and it 
takes a sharp eye to see him. Why then should he and so many 
other kinds flaunt their most brilliant hues in the brightest sun- 
shine, and often be rendered even more conspicuous by perching 
ona yellow flower? One would think that this was the exact 
way to attract birds, especially as the colours are not likely to 
be ‘‘warning ” ones, for if so, why the sober hues of the under 
sides of the wings? The colours can hardly be ‘‘ warnings ” to 
particular kinds of birds and ‘‘ protective” against the attacks 
of others. The explanation may be that the facilities for recog- 
nition, and thus for the continuation of the species, are so much 
greater in bright light, as to render it advantageous on the whole 
to run the chance of easier capture in the brighter parts of the 
day : or it may be that relatively few birds feed at the times that 
butterflies choose to display their beauties. 

In watching butterflies it appears clear that they are, so to 
speak, shortsighted, for it is the commonest thing p:ssible=s 
see two entirely different sorts circle round each other for some 
time as if they had to decide whether they are of the same kind 
or not. In doing this it will be observed that they fly, as it 
were, over and over each other, so that for quite half the lime 
the gambols are going on, the dark side of the ‘* protected 
kinds is shown to the insect below. [ere steps in a provision 
which seems admirably adapted for enabling recognition to take 
place. It will be found that though the wings of protectively 
coloured butterflies appear very dark at a casual glance, yet that 
if they are held up to the light, in many cases there are bright 
spots or colourings or semi transparent spaces, that, by enabling 
the sun to shine through, make even the dark wings very con- 
spicucus. The bright spots on the ‘‘peacock” are a case in 
point. I have not an opportunity of actually handling a com- 
plete collection of our British butterflies just now, but in thirty of 

; Our commonest sorts I find &ftecr. that have distinctly protectively 


436 


NATURE 


| March 10, 1881 


coloured under-wings. Of these fifteen all have some more or less 
transparent spaces or colourings. In some cases portions of the 
under-wings are brightly coloured, though not transparent, but 
both in this case and when there are transparent places they appear 
chiefly on parts that are apparently invisible when the wings are 
closed. If these observations are correct, the insects are care- 
fully protected when at rest or when they are laying their eggs. 
Whether they pair on the ground or with shut wings I do not 
actually know, for after carefully watching every butterfly I have 
come across for two summers, I have not succeeded in seeing 
any of the protectively coloured sorts pairing. It seems likely 
enough therefore that their protective colours come into ; lay 
then. My opportunities for observation are however extremely 
limited, and it is to draw the attention of those more favourably 
situated to the subject of the colours of our common butterflies 
that I write this. In the fifteen protectively-coloured butterflies 
mentioned above I did not include the ‘‘fritillaries,” because of 
the strange metallic lustre on their under-winzgs. Still they seem 
suddenly to disappear when they settle, and the metallic spots 
may take the place of the transparent or coloured ones in other 
sorts by throwing off the light, and thus enable the insects 
to recognise each other. Eight kinds more or less transparent 
but not seemingly protectively coloured, and two common 
‘‘ blues,” make up the thirty kinds I have been able to handle. 
The under-wings of the ‘‘ Blues” are certainly protectively 
coloured, but there seems to be no transparency or bright 
markings in them. J. INNES RoGERS 
Putney, February 24 


Dust, Fogs, and Smoke 


THE present endeavours to alleviate the smoke nuisance in 
London give some interest to the description of the effects of 
coal smoke on London life in former ages. 

I do not mean to speak of the well-known petition presented 
to Edward the First by the nobility and gentry against the use of 
sea-coal in London and the consequent proclamation of that 
monarch interdicting its use. But I allude to the following lines 
written and published by Evelyn in 1661 in his ‘ Fumifagium,” 
but which I borrow from the ‘History of London,” by 
Noorthouck, London, 1773. 

“The immoderate use of, and indulgence to sea-coale alone 
in the city of London, exposes it to one of the fowlest incon- 
veniences and reproaches, that can possibly befall so noble, and 
otherwise incomparable city: and that, not from the culinary 
fires, which for being weak and lesse often fed below, is with 
such ease dispelled and scattered above, as it is hardly at all 
discernible, but from some few particular tunnells and issues, 
belonging only to brewers, diers, lime-burners, salt, and sope- 
boylers, and some other private trades one of whose spiracles 
alone, does manifestly infect the aer, more than all the chimnies 
of London put together besides. And that this is not the least 
hyperbolie, let the best of judges decide it, which I take to be 
our senses : whilst these are belching it forth their sooty jaws, 
the city of London resembles the face rather of Mount Etna, the 
court of Vulcan, Stromboli, or the suburbs of hell, than an 
assembly of rational creatures, and the imperial seat of our 
incomparable monarch, For when in all other places the aer is 
most serene and pure, it is here ecclipsed with such a cloud of 
sulphure, as the sun itself, which gives day to all the world 
besides, is hardly able to penetrate and impart it here; and the 
Weary traveller, at many miles distance, sooner smells, than sees 
the city to which he repairs. This is that pernicious smoake 
which sullyes all her glory, superinducing a sooty crust, or furr 
upon all that it lights, spoyling the moveables, tarnishing the 
plate, gildings, and furniture, and corrodding the very iron bars 
and hardest stones with those piercing and acrimonious spirits 
which accompany its sulphure; and executing more in one year 
than exposed to the pure aer of the country it could effect in 
some hundreds, It is this horrid smoake which obscures our 
churches and makes our palaces look old, which fouls our 
clothes, and corrupts the waters, so as the very rain and refresh- 
ing dews which fall in the several seasons precipitate this impure 
vapour, which with its black and tenacious quality, spots and 
contaminates whatever is exposed to it. It is this which scatters 
and strews about those black and smutty atomes upon all things 
where it comes, insinuating itself into our very secret cabinets, 
and most precious repositories : finally, it is this which diffuses 
and spreads a yellownesse upon our choysest pictures and 
hangings; which does this mischief at home, is Avernus to 


fowl, and kills our bees and flowers abroad, suffering nothing in 
our gardens to bud, display themselves or ripen; so as our 
anemonies and many other choycest flowers will by no industry 
be made to blow [sz] in London, or the precincts of it, unlesse 
they be raised on a hot-bed and governed with extraordinary 
artifice to accellerate their springing; imparting a bitter and 
ungrateful tast to those few wretched fruits, which never arriv- 
ing to their desired maturity seem, like the apples of Sodome, 
to fall even to dust when they are but touched. Not therefore 
to be forgotten is that which was by many observed, that in the 
year 1644 when Newcastle was besieged and blocked up in our 
late wars, so as through the great dearth and scarcity of coales, 
those fumous works many of them were either left off, or spent 
but few coales in comparison to what they now use; divers 
gardens and orchards, planted even in the very heart of London 
(as in particular my lord Marquesse of Hertford’s in the Strand, 
my lord Bridgewater’s and some others about Barbican), were 
observed to bear such plentiful and infinite quantities of fruits, 
as they never produced the like either before or since to their 
great astonishment: but it was by the owners rightly imputed 
to the penury of coales and the little snoake, which they took 
notice to infest them that year; for there is a virtue in the aer 
to penetrate, alter, nourish, yea and to multiply plants and fruits, 
without which no vegetable could possibly thrive.” 

The improvement mentioned by Evelyn, when tie use of coal 
was for a time less extensive in London, is particularly worthy 
of notice, and ought, I think, to be considered as an encourage- 
ment to persist in the attempt of rendering London as smokeless 
as possible. CHATEL 

Jersey, February 25 ; 


THE GERMAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 


N November 11, 1867, a meeting of about eighty 
chemists was held in Berlin to take steps for 
inaugurating a new Chemical Society. On January 13 of 
the succeeding year (1868) the first meeting of the Society 
was held, when Prof. "A. W. Hofmann was elected 
president, and the roll-call of the Society contained 105 
names. During the first year of its existence 97 papers 
were read before the Society ; at the close of the year the 
membership had increased to 275, and the Society found 
that a volume of 282 pages was needed to contain the 
papers communicated to it. 

Since 1868 the German Chemical Society has steadily 
increased in size and in usefulness ; the Berichte for 1880 
consists of two large volumes numbering, between them, 
2473 pages, and containing the 563 papers communicated 
to the Society during the year, besides numerous abstracts 
of papers published elsewhere. The income of the 
Society for 1880 amounted in round numbers to the sum 
of 2000/., and of this about 1400/. was set against the cost 
of publishing the Berichze. 

During the thirteen years of its existence the German 
Chemical Society has published in its Berichte most of 
the important discoveries in pure chemistry made in that 
period. It has been the aim of the Society to publish 
papers communicated to it with as little delay as possible. 
Meetings are held twice monthly during the session, and 
the papers read at one meeting are published in the 
Berichte, which appears on the day on which the next 
meeting takes place. Papers appearing within so short a 
time after they are communicated are necessarily brief 
and concise; but this rapid publication confers a great 
benefit on all chemists, as they are thus put in possession 
of at least the leading facts concerning all recent work 
almost as soon as these facts have been established by 
the workers. If papers in the Lerichte are sometimes 
wanting in completeness and symmetry, many of them 
are full of life and stir, telling as they do of work actually 
proceeding in the laboratory; appearing sometimes in 
short abrupt snatches, they convey something of the 
enthusiasm of the worker as he compels nature, bit by 
bit, to yield her treasured secrets. ; : 

The system of printing abstracts of papers published in 
the various chemical journals has recently been adopted 


March to, 1881 | 


by the Society ; formerly a correspondent in London or 
Paris, &c., sent a general account of chemical work pub- 
lished in the country from which he wrote. The abstracts 
of the German Society are on the whole shorter than 
those which have for many years made the Jowrnad of our 
own Chemical Society of such great value to the student ; 
they are, however, published at a shorter interval after 
the appearance of the original paper. 

Brief accounts are given of recent chemical patents, 
but little space is devoted to purely technical chemistry. 
Is not the Yourmal of the Chemical Society sometimes 
overburdened by abstracts which might better find a 
place in a book professing to collect receipts for the 
purely ‘‘ practical man”? 

The German Chemical Society in 1877 appointed Dr. 
C. Bischof of Berlin to prepare a general index for the 
first ten volumes of the Berzchte. The arduous task has 
been admirably fulfilled. Fellows of the Society have now 
in their hands not only an index to the Berichte, but a 
volume which is really a general guide to the chemical 
work published during the period 1868-1877. 

The “ Generalregister” extends to 1020 pp.; of these, 
162 pp. are devoted to an index of authors, 732 pp. to an 
index of subjects, 42 pp. to an index of patents, and 84 
pp. to a systematic classification of the carbon compounds 
referred to in the index. 

Under an author’s name are given, not the exact title 
of his paper, but a very succinct statement of the leading 
points in the paper. The same method is pursued in the 
subjects-index. Taking, for instance, such a general 
subject as “ Dissociation,” one finds, first, references to 
work on the general Theory of Dissociation, e.g. connec- 
tion between dissociation and temperature, tension, Xc. ; 
then follow special instances of dissociation, inorganic 
compounds preceding organic. In the case of individual 
elements or compounds, the references begin with those 
papers on the existence of the substance in question, 
then follow its preparation and formation, its properties, 
its action on other substances, the action of other bodies 
on it, its estimation, &c., &c. 

A systematic nomenclature is adopted, more especially 
for the carbon compounds: the principles which guided 
the compiler are stated in a few introductory pages. 

The “ Generalregister’”’? cannot but be of the greatest 
value to chemists generally. Almost every chemist is a 
Fellow of the German Society ; many possess the Berichte 
complete up to date ; with the Berichte and this admirable 
guide which Dr. Bischof has supplied, they can find 
almost everything that has been done in experimental 
chemistry within the period 1868-1877, M. M. P. M. 


IRISH ESPARTO GRASS 


ie is now over two years ago since attention was called 

in our pages to the importance of the purple Molinia 
(Molinia cerulea) as a material for making paper. Mr. 
Christie of Edinburgh sent a small quantity of it to be 
operated on by Mr. T. Routledge of Sunderland, and the 
report on this was most favourable. In January, 1879, a 
notice appeared in the Zz/es also calling attention to the 
subject, and referring to the above favourable report ; it 
expressed the hope that some effort would be used to 
have this grass collected on an extensive scale. It would 
seem to be ripe for gathering in the early autumn, when 
some hands could be spared for such work, and as the 
ground on which it flourishes—wet or partially drained 
bogs—pays, at least in Ireland, little if any rent, the crop 
would cost little over the expense of reaping it. Since 
the first notice appeared in our columns, the Spanish and 
African Esparto grass has been getting more difficult to 
obtain, and the demand for it has been steadily on the 
increase. It is said that the greater part of what is 
gathered in Morocco finds its way to the 7zmes paper- 
mills, and its value for paper-making is now known in 


NATURE 


437 


America. Several analyses of specimens of the dried hay 
made from this grass are givenin a paper by Dr. Cameron, 
“On the Composition of a Crop of Hay” (Proc. Roy. 
Dub. Soc., n.s., vol. ii. p. 101) ;$we select one of these, 
which yielded as follows :— 


100 parts contained— 
Water 


G 27° 
Albuminoids ra 
Fats e wf aoe 2°70 
Non-nitrogenous substances 30°00 
Woody fibre 31°26 
Mineral water 0°60 

100°00 

And of this the ash contained— 

Lime 28°86 
Magnesia ... wet 4°76 
Potush and soda ... 42°17 
Phosphoric acid ... 12°36 
Sulphuric acid... cd 5°98 
Oxide of iron and alumina 1°00 
Chlorine 4°32 
Silica 0°55 

100°00 


This freedom from silica of the purple Melic grass is 
very remarkable. 

From a paper by Mr. W. Smith in the recent number 
of the Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, we learn 
that a very successful trial has been made in the county 
of Galway to grow this grass in some quantity. As a 
native plant it is found in every county in Ireland, both 
on wet heaths and boggy pastures. It flowers in July 
and August, and its seeds are ripe early in September ; it 
would seem to grow well on partially drained bogs, and if 
the surface of these has been burnt, the purple Melic grass 
grows thereon most luxuriantly. It seems fond of growing 
in tufts, of somewhat large size, and it does not forma 
sod like so many other grasses. It would appear that 
in Ireland alone there are over 1,000,000 acres at the 
present moment not worth sixpence a year each for any 
agricultural purpose ; each acre would easily grow half a 
ton weight of dried Melic grass, which at its lowest value 
would be worth 27, Would not this crop, in time, more 
than compensate for the loss of the potatoe? It seems a 
pity that the manufacturer should have to go to the Port 
of Mogador for what he might get with so much greater 
ease at the Port of Dublin. 


SIBERIAN METEOROLOGY 


Gi P to the present time Yakutsk, in North-east Siberia, 
has often been cited as the place of our earth where 
the winter is coldest, while the minima observed during 
Arctic expeditions are believed to be the lowest known. 
Neither the one nor the other is true. In Maak’s book, 
“ Olekminski Okrug,” I find many data which prove that 
the coldest winter as well as the lowest well-authenticated 
minima were observed at Werkhojansk, to the north-east 
of Yakutsk. The name of the author gives us some 
guarantee that the observations are trustworthy. I give 
below the minima at some places cited by Maak, and 
compare them with those observed in Central and Western 
Siberia, and the Arctic Archipelago of America :— 


North-East Siberia 


Serdze-Kamen. 67° N. 173° E. (Nordenskjold) — 50°3 F. 

Yakutsk ‘62° Ni} ager Ee (Maak)it5 <2. 77-3)i 

Wiljuisk ) 64° NN. 1227 By (Maak)).. cs. — 7Or3 pe 

Werkhojansk.. 674° N. 134° E. (Maak)... ... — 810 F. 
Central and West Siberia 

Venisseisk ... 584 N. 92° E.... .:. .. .. = 7375 13s 

Barnaul Pepe los GL IBho aceon da con = OD 


438 


NATURE 


| March 10, 188% 


Arctic Archipelago 


834° N. Floeberg Reach (Nares) — 73°7 F. 


{British Expedi- 
814° N. Discovery Bay (Nares) — 70°7 F. 


tions, 1875-76. 


The temperature at Werkhojansk is the lowest of all 
given here, and it must be borne in mind that the obser- 
vations lasted but one year, while we have more than 
thirty-five years at Yakutsk, and eight and a half at 
Yenisseisk. 

The mean temperatures are as follows :— 


| } | 

Year | July | Nev. | Dec. Jan. | Feb. | March 
Serdze Kamen-1 yr... — ae 2°1| — 9'0| —13°1 | =132)- 69 
Ustjansk 2 years 2°8 | 52°97 | — 2'2 | —33'0] —38'9)|=3619 | —17 5 
Werkhojansk ryear) 4"3,| 60'1 
Yakutsk 10 years t 12°2| 665 
Yakutsk 24 years? | 124} 633 
Floeberg Beachryr.| — 35] 38°3 
Discovery Bay 1 yr.| — 4°2| 37°2 


Though the observations were made only during one 
year at Werkhojansk, it is probable that it would have the 
coldest winter of all observed till now, as even at Yakutsk, 
which is the next coldest, January and February were in 
no single year colder than at Werkhojansk in 1869. 
From a comparison with the other stations of North-east 
Siberia it is probable that here in 1869 February was too 
cold and December too warm. 

Now as to the reason why the winter should be colder 
in North-east Siberia than on the North American Archi- 
pelago farther to the north, it is to be found in the extent of 
the continent, the distance from any sea open in winter, and 
the prevailing calms. How important is the last reason 
is best seen by the comparison of the December and 
January temperatures of the last British expedition. The 
more northerly Floeberg Beach is warmer, because more 
exposed to winds. Now in Eastern Siberia calms prevail 
to a large extent in winter, except near the coast. 

There is a phenomenon to be considered, which is 
noticed everywhere in winter in high latitudes: during 
calms with clear sky the valleys are colder than the sur- 
rounding hills and slopes, because the cold air sinks 
downwards and stagnates there. This is confined to the 
night where the mid-day sun rises high enough, but in 
high latitudes during some months the mid-day heat of 
the sun is too small and the day too short to interfere 
much with the equilibrium of the strata of air established 
during the night. Even in middle latitudes (45°-50°), 
when calms and clear weather prevail very largely in 
December, the valleys are regularly colder than the hills. 
So it was felt in December, 1879, in Central Europe. 
What is an exception here is the rule in North-East 
Siberia, because calms and clear sky are the rule in 
winter; the valleys are much colder than the hills. On 
this account the exceedingly low temperature of Werkho- 
jansk in winter is probably not common to the whole 
surrounding country, and especially in the mountains 
rising to a short distance south we may expect a much 
higher temperature. The more we consider the conditions 
of the winter temperature of North-East Siberia, the 
more difficult it seems to drawisotherms. We know that 
plains and valleys there are colder than hills and moun- 
tain-slopes, but how much, and what conditions are most 
favourable to that so-called interversion of temperature ? 
I consider it as highly probable that both at Yakutsk and 
at Werkhojansk the Jocal topographical conditions are 
very favourable to winter cold. This being the case, it 
is quite natural that the latter place is colder in winter 
than the former, being situated 5° farther to the north, 
and yet far enough from the west to have a continental 
climate. A.WOEIKOF 


* According to Maak. 
? Older series of Neverof (1829-54). 


SPHYGMOGRAPHY 


Ape pulse has in all ages been held by physicians to 

be a valuable aid to the diagnosis of disease, but 
until the invention of the sphygmograph, or pulse-writer, 
the determination of the character of the pulse was left to 
the tutored tact of the doctor's finger, which varies much 
in delicacy of perception in different operators, and in 
the same practitioner at different times. At most the 
finger, even of the most experienced, can only detect, 
regarding the pulse, that it is soft or hard, quick or slow, 
jerky or languid, regular or irregular ; but the finger is 
incapable of analysing the beats, and detecting any 
departure from the normal standard of each of their 
component elements. The sphygmograph, which is 
quite a modern invention, causes the pulse to write its 
own autograph, enables us to see at a glance the peculiar 
characters of the pulse, and to ascertain how and where 
it differs from the healthy or normal pulse. 

Hitherto, however, the sphygmograph has been but 
little used, for those that have been introduced are large 
and expensive instruments, requiring a great amount of 
skill-and trouble to fix them on the arm and bring them 
into action ; and for these reasons they are not available 
for general or private practice. Hence their use has 
almost been confined to hospital practice; but even here 


they are not always available, for Dr. B. Bramwell. who 
is a strong advocate for employing the sphygmograph, 
relates that a patient of his was so terrified by the 
proposal to employ the instrument that he preferred 
leaving the hospital to allowing it to be fixed on his arm. 
The objections to the general use of the sphygmograph do 
not applyto the instrument recently introduced into medical 
practice by Dr. Dudgeon, and from its portability called 
‘the pocket sphygmograph.” Though this instrument is 
so small as to deserve the name of “pocket,” it is not 
inferior in sensitiveness to the most elaborate and compli- 
cated of the cumbrous instruments hitherto in use, indeed 
in some respects it is greatly superior in accuracy to any 
that have yet appeared. Its size is 2} by 2 inches; its 
weight only four ounces. It magnifies the movements of 
the artery exactly fifty times. The spring that presses 
on the artery can be regulated to press with a weight of 
from one to five ounces, and the pressure can be altered 
at will while the instrument is zz sz¢z. It requires no 
wrist-rest ; all the other sphygmographs have to be used 
with wrist-rests of more or less complexity. It can be 
used with equal facility whether the patient is standing, 
sitting, or lying. With it an accurate and extremely 
distinct tracing of the pulse can be made almost as 
quickly as the pulse can be felt with the finger. Its 


\ 


March ro, 1881 | 


NATURE 


439 


construction is so simple that if accidentally broken any | as real Custom-house stores, so that all the articles sent there 


watchmaker can repair it. The smoked paper on which 
the pulse is recorded runs through the instrument in ten 
seconds, so that the number of the beats per minute can 
be reckoned by multiplying the pulse-tracings on the paper 
by six. The patient’s name, the date, the disease, the pres- 
sure of the spring, and some conventional sign to indicate 
his position when the tracing was made, may be written on 
the marked paper with any sharp-pointed instrument, 
such as a pin or a toothpick, and the whole permanently 
‘fixed by dipping the paper in some quickly-drying varnish, 
such as is used by photographers. In this way a series 
of pulse-tracings taken during the course of the disease 
may be preserved for future study and comparison. 
Dr. Dudgeon’s pocket sphygmograph is manufactured 
by Mr. John Ganter, 19, Crawford Street, W. The wood- 
cut represents its actual size. 


NOTES 

WE understand that the fifth volume of the Catalogue of 
Birds in the British Museum will shortly -be published. Ac- 
cording to the classification followed in this work the families to 
be described will be the Thrushes and Warblers, and the volume 
will be written by Mr. Henry Seebohm, whose co-operation Dr. 
Giinther has been fortunate in obtaining. Mr. Seebohm has 
devoted a close study of several years to these families of birds, 
and may now be considered the best living authority on the 
subject. 


M. FLAMMARION, the author of several works in popular 
astronomy, has been made a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur. 
Admiral Mouchez, director of the Paris Observatory, has con- 
sented to act as his favvatz, and to hand over to him the star 
and ribbon. ‘This liberal determination has created some 
sensation in the French astronomical world. The work of 
transformation of the Observatory will begin very shortly, all 
the legal difficulties having been solved. The area of the 
establishment is now 30,000 square metres. The magnetical 
instruments will be placed in the deep trenches separating the 
old ground from the newly annexed buildings. 


WE regret to have to announce the death of M. Eugéne 
Cortambert, author of a number of geographical works, honorary 
president of the Geographical Society of Paris, and head of the 
geographical department in the National Library. 


ABOUT a year ago Admiral Mouchez asked for a credit of 
4000 francs per year in order to publish a monthly astronomical 
review. M. Jules Ferry refused the grant, but a similar review 
is now being published at Brussels under the name Ciel et Terre. 
It appears twice a month, and is devoted to meteorology and 
astronomy. 


ALTHOUGH our Government has declared the interest which 
it takes in the forthcoming International Exhibition of Elec- 
tricity at Paris, still it sees no necessity for appointing a Special 
Commissioner to take measures with regard to the participation 
of British subjects in the Exhibition which is to open in Paris 
on August I next in the Champs Elysées Palace. The French 
Government is nevertheless disposed to welcome all British sub- 
jects wishing to participate in the Exhibition. M. Berger, the 
Commissaire-Général, has placed himself unreservedly at the 
disposal of intending exhibitors to afford every information and 
assistance. He would be thankful if they would fill up and 
return to his address the printed form of demand of admis- 
sion which accompanies the copy of the general regulations. 
English exhibitors will be placed in every respect on the same 
footing as French exhibitor:. M. Berger will form a special 
section for the group of English exhibitors, and requests that 
all demands be forwarded within the briefest delay possible, 
The Exhibition rooms and dependencies will be considered 


shall be exempt from the duties to which they would otherwise 
have been liable. The French railway companies have con- 
sented to an abatement of 50 per cent. on the ordinary rates of 
transport, whether by fast or by slow trains, for all packages or 
boxes forwarded to the Exhibition Hall, and bearing the official 
labels. The Postmaster-General has been authorised by the 
British Government to exhibit in the name of the latter. 


A COMMITTEE has been formed at Dijon for erecting a statue 
to Carnot, the celebrated French geometer and politician, who 
was born in Nolay, a small country town of Burgundy, in 1753. 
The youngest son of Carnot is now living, one of the members of 
Senate, and his grandson is M. Sadi Carnot, the present 
Minister of Public Works. The other son of Carnot died fifty 
years ago, after having written a small essay, ‘‘Sur la Puissance 
motive du feu.” M. Carnot’s brother has just published a new 
edition of this work, with a number of essays, mostly unpublished, 
by the same author, and a history of his life. 


Ar the conclusion of the proceedings of the Quekett Micro- 
scopical Club on February 25 occasion was taken to present 
to Mr. J. E. Ingpen a memorial of the esteem in which he 
is held and the appreciation of his services as honorary secretary 
for the last eight years. After an ableaddress by Dr. Matthews, 
setting forth the reasons which had led to this movement on the 
part of the members, and short speeches by Dr. Cobbold, Mr. 
Crisp, and Mr. Michael, Mr, T, C. White handed to Mr. Ingpen 
a beautifully illuminated and framed memorial, together with a 
valuable microscope by Zeiss and a handsome silver tea-service, 
which were accepted and acknowledged amidst hearty demon- 
strations of good feeling on the part of the meeting. The 
attendance of members was unusually large, and in the course 
of the evening telegrams were received from Dr, M. C, Cooke 
and Mr. Henry Lee, expressing their regret at unavoidable 
absence. 


AT the ordinary meeting of the Meteorological Society, to be 
held at 25 Great George Street, Westminster, on Wednesday, 
the 16th inst., at 7 p.m., there will be an exhibition of instru- 
ments, consisting of various kinds of hygrometers and of such 
new instruments as have been brought out since January 1, 1880. 
During the evening the President will give a historical sketch o 
the different classes of hygrometers, and will also describe such 
forms as are exhibited. ‘ 


THE town of Casamicciola, in the Island of Ischia, has been 
almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake, More thin 200 
houses have been thrown down, and many others are so much 
damaged as to be uninhabitable. The number of persons thus 
far ascertained to have been killed is 104, and very many more 
have been injured. The total number of victims is estimated at 
3oo, This dreadful catastrophe was the result of two shocks— 
the first at half-past one in the afternoon of the 4th inst., lasting 
seven seconds ; the second after an interval of an hour and a 
half. The whole upper part of the town has been destroyed. 
The handsome Albergo della Grande: Sentinella is a mass of 
ruins. lefts and fissures opened in the streets 50 centimetres in 
width, It was at first supposed that this disaster was connected 
with the partial eruption of Vesuvius on the 3rd inst., but Prof. 
Palmieri has stated that the seismographic instruments having 
given no indications, he is inclined to think the catastrophe is. 
due to some local phenomenon, possibly to a sudden sinking of 
the ground through subterranean corrosion caused by the con- 
tinual working of the mineral waters. Shortly before the first 
shock of earthquake the mineral springs were observed to be in 
a state of ebullition. Another shock was felt at midnight. 


Suocks of ‘earthquake occurred at St. Ivan-Zelina (Hungary) 
on February 26 at 3h. 54m., in the night of February 26-27 at 


440 


| 
12h, 30om., and on February 27 at 5h. 28m.a.m, At Agram a | 
rather severe shock was felt on February 25 at 3h. 45m., duration 
two seconds, direction west-:outh-west ; and another at noon of 
March 4. Earthquakes are also reported from Kirchberg 
(Austria), on February 28, at 2h. 20m. a.m., duration two 
seconds, and from different parts of Switzeriand on March 3, 
e.g. Ziirich and its environs, at 3h. 35m. a.m. ; Aussersieh], at 
3h. 42m., direction west to east, duration two seconds ; Riesbach, 
Selnau, Knonau, Aaran, Zofingen, Hunzenschwyl, Rapper- 
schwyl, Glarus, Zug, Berne. The earthquake shock felt at Berne 
on Thursday morning last shortly after three o’clock was a very 
smart one. The area of disturbance was wide, extending as far 
as the Lakes of Geneva and Bienne. 


Mr. H. J. JoHNson-Lavis writes to us from Naples, under 
date March 2 :—Vesuvius has to-day been covered with snow, 
and this evening, during a short interval between the mantling of 
clouds, a splendid stream of lava is pouring down the northern 
side and has reached the Atrio del Cavallo. The stream is very | 
liquid and very abundant, and from this it may be concluded 
that its course will be progressive. 


M. Juxes Ferry has established a number of colleges for 
females in several parts of France; some of them have been 
already opened. 


THE authorities of the British Museum will very soon issue 
their scheme for publishing the great catalogue of printed books. 
The projected issue, at the rate of five volumes a year, is not 
expected to be completed in less than forty years. The work, 
however, can of course proceed no faster than the Government 
grant of 1600/. a year for this special purpose will permit. 
Altogether the catalogue is likely to comprise about 3,co00,000 
titles, which to? put in type will cost from 4d. to 6d. each. It 
has already been announced that the publication will commence 
with volumes specially devoted to certain subjects, or rather 
sub-headings, which have now become too voluminous for con- 
venient handling in their present form. Mednwhile the Trustees 
have adopted the plan of printing and publishing the titles of 
all additions to the library. It may be interesting to know that 
in this case all titles are stereotyped on separate ‘‘ plaques,” and 
are therefore susceptible of any amount of re-arrangement. 


AN important experiment in electric lighting is about to be 
made in the City. Hitherto the electric light has been used, as 
on the Thames Embankment and Waterloo Bridge, in conjunc- | 
tion with gas ; but in the City the thoroughfares selected are to | 
be lighted by electricity alone, which will be continued all night. 
The first district begins with Blackfriars Bridge, and extends 
along Bridge Street, Ludgate Hill, the north side of St. Paul’s 
Churchyard, and down Cheapside as far as King Street. The 
distance is 1648 yards, and is to be lighted by the Brush system. 
At King Street the Siemens system will begin, and will extend 
along the rest of Cheapside, the Poultry, Mansion House Street, 
King William Street, and Adelaide Place, and across London 
Bridge. The same system will be extended down King Street, | 
Queen Street, and Mansion House Street. The whole length 
of street covered by the Siemens light will be 1521 yards. 
Another district to the south of these will be lighted by the 
Jablochkoff lamps, like the Embankment. It will include 
Southwark Bridge, Queen Victoria Street, Queen Street Place, | 
and part of Queen Street, a distance of 1703 yards. The ex- 
periment is to be continued for a year, at an outlay of about | 


8000/7. 


Prof. BLAcki=£ being unable to lecture through illness, Mr. 
Shelford Bidwell, M.A., LL.B., will give a discourse on 
Selenium and its Applications to the Photophone and Telepho- 
tography, at the Royal Institution, on Friday evening next 
March 11), at 9 p.m. 


NATURE 


| March to, 1881 


THE Calendar of the Mason Science College, Birmingham, 
is a volume of respectable size, but then it contains a full report 
of proceedings and addresses at the opening meeting. We are 
glad to see that a large number of new chairs are about to be 
added, including Greek, Latin, and modern languages ; so that 
the College will shortly be as well equipped as that at Man- 
chester, As the curriculum is being extended to include really 
literature, science, and art, might it not be well to drop the 


science” from its designation? it looks so one-sided. 


THE Proceedings of the last Congress of Russian Naturalists, 
which was held at St. Petersburg, have just appeared as a 
separate bulky volume. 


A PAPER has been published by Gustav Hauser of Erlangen, 
on the organs of smell in insects, in which he describes several 
experiments. Numerous species of insects, on approaching 
vessels containing turpentine or acetic acid, showed—by retreat- 
ing and moving their antenne—a distinct perception of the 
smell. After the ends of the antennz had been cut off, the 
same insects placed close to the vessels appeared quite insensible 
to it. A number of flies, which had been attracted by a piece 
of putrid meat, showed no inclination to approach it after the 
third segment of the antennz had been cut off. 


WE have received a pleasant report of the Queenwood College 
Mutual Improvement Society for the year ending Christmas, 
1880. The Society seems to have a comprehensive programme, 


UnpDeEr the title of the Northern Microscopist, and under the 
editorship of George E. Davis, 2 monthly periodical has been 
started, beginning with January of this year, the chief aim of 
which is to keep a record of the proceedings of the chief micro- 
scopical societies in the North of England, and thereby to furnish 
each individual member of these sociéties with as much permanent 
information as such members would obtain if the society to which 
they belonged published its own Transactions, There ought to be 
abundant support for a little journal like this, and numerous sub- 
scribers ought to be obtained from large centres like Liverpool, 
Leeds, Chester, Bolton, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, and the like. If the various Northern societies were to do 
nothing more than prepare local lists of all the varied species of 
animal and vegetable life, which come under the well-known 
denomination of ‘‘ microscopical forms,” and if this journal were 
to be the medium of publishing these, it would become a journal 
of importance, one that would be constantly referred to; and it 
would in the meantime be doing a good work in advancing the 
study of the biological sciences. We wish it every success, and 
trust that it will steadily pursue the path that it has marked out 
for itself. 


A STENOGRAPHIC piano has been experimented on by the 
daughter of the inventor, in the French Chamber of Deputies, 
the Senate, and to the Municipal Council of Paris, with great 
success. The system consists of a combination of signs through 
which every sound is represented. The reproduction is as rapid 
as speaking, and the same operator can continue the work for 
hours. The signs used in this system being printed by machinery, 
the reading is immediate, and can be made by other people than 
the operator, The State stenographers propose to be trained in 
the use of the instrument. It is an affair of a few months of 
practice. 


A SCIENTIFIC society has been formed at Scarborough, called 
** Scarborough Scientific Society and Field Naturalists’ Club.” 
President-elect, Mr. J. Woodall, M.A.; Secretary, Mr. G. 
Massee. 


THE excavations in the 9th region of Pompeii are being prose- 
cuted with alacrity, and yield unexpected results. Besides a 
second mosaic fountain and valuable frescoes recently found, 


March 10, 1881} 


there were excavated the other day some vases of Egyptian 
manufacture, which will greatly interest archeologists. They 
are made of a particular kind of paste, composed of white clay 
and glass, and are extremely brittle. All round they have high 
relief representations of the animals worshipped by the ancient 
Egyptians. 

A PHONOGRAPH ofa new construction will be tried in the New 
Polyglot Institute of Paris, for the purpose of teaching pupils 
the art of pronouncing correctly the difficult words of foreign 
languages. 

A-scHoot for clockmakers has been organised in Paris, and 
was inaugurated yesterday by a meeting at the Conservatoire 
des Arts et Métiers. : 

THE new part of the 7yansactions of the Asiatic Society of 
Japan contains a paper by Dr, Edkins on the influence of 
Chinese dialects on the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese 
part of the Japanese language. 


WE have received part 3 of the 7vansactions of the Epping 
Forest Club, containing the address of the president, Mr. 
Meldola, proceedings, and list of members. 


WE have to acknowledge the receipt of a postal order for 
2s. 6d. from ‘‘ Bullphumpus” for the John Duncan Fund. 


THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include an Indian Leopard (Fe/is pardus) from India, 
presented by the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos ; an Entellus 
Monkey (Semmopithecus entellus) from India, a Greater Sulphur- 
crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) from Australia, a Blue- 
fronted Amazon (Chrysotis festiva) from Brazil, deposited ; four 
Indian Rat Snakes (7Ptyas mucosa) from India, a Matamata 
Terrapin (Chelys matamata) from Upper Amazons, purchased ; 
two Calandra Larks (MZelanocorypha calandra), European, a 
Chinese Quail (Coturnix chinensis) from China, two Fire-tailed 
Finches (Z7ythrura prasina) from Java, received from Paris, 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE SOLAR PARALLAX.—M. Faye has just communicated to 
the Academy of Sciences a paper on the actual state of our 
knowledge of the sun’s parallax, of which we subjoin some par- 
ticulars, without professing to regard his mean result as neces- 
sarily so definitive as he appears to view it himself. 

M. Faye considers that there is no other scientific constant, the 
determination of which depends on an equal number of results 
completely independent of one another, and obtained by methods 
so totally different, and subdivides the various values assigned for 
the sun’s mean parallax as follows :— 


8°85 by Mars (Cassini’s method) ... Newcomb, 
Geometrical 8°79 by Venus, 1769 (Halley’s method) Powalky. 


methods, { 8°81 by Venus, 1874 aA a Tupman, 
882 8°87 by Flora (Galle’s method)... ... Galle. 
3°79 by Juno ” ” Lindsay. 
8°81 by the lunar inequality (Laplace’s 
Mechanical meth od))\ sy Wes vs. See eee — 
8°85 by the monthly equation of the 
methods, fh it 2 
8°83 ear woo ces ee tee os, Leverrier, 
8°83 by the perturbations of Venus and 
Mars ecottares sao) «ow eG VeRniers 
Physical ( 8799 ees of light (Fizeau’s me- Pe 
ces ) 8813 Velocity of light (Foucault’s 
method) ... ... ... ... ... Michelson. 


With regard to the first value by ‘‘ mechanical methods,” M. 
Faye mentions that he has obtained it by adopting for the co- 
efficient of the inequality 125’*2, the mean between the results 


of Sir George Airy from the Greenwich observations, and that ~ 


of Prof. Newcomb, from the observations made at Washington, 
taking for the moon’s mean parallax, 57’ 2”°7, and for her mass 


I 
80°38" Leverrier found the value 8”-95 from the said equa- 


tion, which was reduced after correction by Mr. Stone for 


NATURE 


| 
two small errors to 8”*85. 


441 


The value from the perturbations of 
Venus and Mars assigned by Leverrier was 8°86, but one of the 
numbers requiring a small correction, it is reduced to 8*83,, 
Michelson, after bringing to bear upon Foucault’s method im- 
provements which M, Faye says completely surmounted all 
difficulties, found for the velocity of light 299940 km., while 
Helmert altered Cornu’s result to 299990 km. With Struve’s 
constant of aberration the corresponding values for the solar 
parallax are 8”°799 and 8’°813, as above. 

The general mean in which it may be considered that the 
errors of the individual results, »btained by so many methods, 
are to a great extent compensated is 8°82, and to this value M, 
Faye, for reasons given, attributes a probable error of + 0’*o16, 
The mean value by the physical methods is 8806, and by 
astronomical methods 8’-825. He then considers which of these 
values is the more reliable, and states that he does not hesitate 
in giving the preference to the physical result, and arrives at the 
conclusions :— 

I, That the method of the physicists is superior to all others, 
and ought to be substituted. 

2. That the value of solar parallax, 8’*813 (by physical 
methods), is now determined to about 44, of a second. 

3. That the seven astronomical methods of procedure converge 
more and more towards that value, and tend to confirm it without 
equalling it in precision. 

M. Faye adds that he has no idea of attempting to diminish 
the importance of the observation of the approaching transit of 
Venus: but as Leverrier pointed out, ‘‘il faut que les efforts 
des astronomes aient pour but d’obtenir une précision toute nou- 
velle dans leur prochaines expéditions.” Without neglecting 
the contacts, he considers it will be desirable to employ to a 
greater extent than was done in 1874 ‘‘les procédés si puissants 
de la photographie,” to which, be it observed, M. Faye from 
his own experiences drew attention a quarter of a century back. 
He thinks it will be very surprising if that admirable method of 
procedure, which has already succeeded so well in measuring 
delicate stellar groups, should fail for the transit of Venus, or 
under circumstances more favourable for its application. The 
value 8”°813 for the sun’s parallax, which appears to him defini- 
tive, is in accordance with that adopted by Laplace in the 
Mécanique céleste, 27°2 centesimal seconds or §’"812. 


Swir?’s Comet, 1880 e.—Mr,. Winslow Upton of the Naval 
Observatory at Washington, sends us elements of this comet, 
which, as he remarks, afford a further confirmation of the 
54-years’ period already assumed. He employed two observa- 
tions made with the meridian circle of the Washington Obser- 
vatory on October 25 and November 23, and one with the 
26-inch equatorial on December 22, The elements are as 
follow :— 


Epoch 1880, October 25°5 M.T. at Washington. 


Mean anomaly ... ... 357 48 49°3 


Perihelion from node ... 106 18 13°58 
Ascending node .. 296 41 55°4 TES 
Inclination .. naa Boh 5355; 1880'0 
Angle of eccentricity ... 42 31 39°7 
Log. semi-axis major ... 0°518438 


The corresponding period is 2189 days, or a little less than six 
years. The middie place is represented within the small errors 
of - 1’*2 in longitude and —o’’6 in latitude. 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


Mr. T. C. MENDENHALL of Japan has measured with a so- 
called ‘‘invariable pendulum” the acceleration of gravity at 
the top of the extinct volcano Fujiyama, which plays so promi- 
nent a part in the mythology and in the art of Japan. The value 
found for the summit of the mountain was g = 9'7886, whereas 
at Tokio the value was found to be 9°7984. The average baro- 
metric pressure at the summit was 19°5 inches, the mountain 
itself being an almost perfectly symmetrical cone of vertical 
angle 138°, and of a height of 2°35 miles. It rises alone ont of 
a plain of considerable extent, and appears to be composed of a 
nniform rock of porous nature. Tradition states that the moun- 
tain was thrown up in a single night in the year B.c. 286. The 
density of the rock in the lump was 1°75, but when reduced to 
powder the density was 2°5; competent geologists conclude the 
mean density of the mountain mass to be 2°12. Assuming the 
mountain to be a cone of semi-vertical angle of 69", and density 
2°12, Mr. Mendenhall calculated its attraction upon a particle 


442 


INA T SPE 


| March 10, 1881 


placed at the vertex, and comparing it with his result, deduced 
for the mean density of the earth the value D = 5°77. If how- 
ever the accepted density of the earth as determined by Bailly 
at 5°67 be adopted, it follows that the mean density of Fujiyama 
is only 208. 

A CAPITAL summary of the recent thermochemical investiga- 
tions of Julius Thomsen appears in the current number of the 
Am. Journ. Sci. from the pen of Prof, Josiah P. Cooke (of 
Cambridge, Mass.). The peculiar significance of these researches 
in their bearing upon the problems of molecular structure in 
general and upon the supposed ring-structure of the benzene 
molecule in particular, is pointed out in a clear and emphatic 
manner. 


M. ROSENSTIEHL has freshly determined the tints correspond- 
ing to the three primary colour-sensations, on the principle of 
rotating disks originally devised by Clerk-Maxwell. Constructing 
a disk with seventy-two sectors of gradating tints of as nearly 
equal saturation as could be judged of by the eye, he found that 
a sensation of red more powerful than any single red tint could 
be compounded from blue, violet, red, orange, and orange-yellow, 
with 2 maximum intensity in the orange, Similarly a sensation 
of green more powerful than the brightest green tint, could be 
compounded out of a set of tints having a greenish-yellow for 
their maximum point, and the sensation of blue culminated in a 
tint named “third blue” by M. Rosenstiehl. Hence M. Rosen- 
stichl proposes to accept as the primary-sensation tints of the 
Young-Helmholtz theory the orange, the yellow-green, and the 
(‘‘ third ’’) blue tints, in which the three sensations of red, green, 
and blue find their respective maxima ; further arguments on this 
point are promised shortly by M. Rosenstiehl. 


ACCORDING to Wiedemann Swedish filter-paper, pyroxylised 
by steeping in mixed strong nitric and sulphuric acids, forms an 
excellent source for electricity by friction. Prof. Guthrie’s films 
of collodion and gutta-percha, in five or six alternate layers, 
realise the same end, namely that of utilising for the generation 
of electricity the most powerfully wegafve electric known 
pyroxylin. 


DuRING a hailstorm in Geneva on January 19 Prof. Colladon 
observed the hailstones as they fell to repel each other mutually 
and to bound about after lying quiet for a moment or two on the 
ground exactly after the fashion of the pith balls in Newton’s 
well-known experiment of the electric hail. The observation 
would appear to have a bearing on Volta’s somewhat neglected 
theory of the formation of hail. 


COMMANDER O. J. SHERMAN has taken some observations of 
deep-sea temperatures during the summer of 1880 on the Arctic 
steamer Gudnare, when becalmed at about lat. 61° N., long. 56° 
W., at a point where a branch of the warm Gulf Stream current 
is represented on the maps as being overlapped by an Arctic 
current whose direction is to the eastward coast of Greenland. 
The temperatures at the surface being in two observations 
respectively 41°°9 (F.) and 45°'o, those at the depth of sixty 
fathoms were found to be 39°°0 and 4oo respectively. At 150 
fathoms a temperature of 38°°2 was observed, but at lower 
depths the temperature was again higher, reaching 40°°8 at 300 
fathoms. 


M. Paut Sfcuy, whose experience as a constructor of 
vacuum-tubes is very great, gives the following results of obser- 
vation upon the effect of cold upon the discharge through 
exhausted tubes. A tube cooled (naturally by being placed in 
a cold room) exhibits increased resistance, sometimes double its 
usual resistance, and may even require to be warmed at the fire 
or over a spirit-lamp to bring it to its usual working condition. 
But then the tube does not at once recover itself, but only 
gradually as the passage of the spark liberates heat and warms 
the glass and the electrodes. This experiment is best shown 
with a long thin tube and with a feeble induction-coil. With 
Crookes’s high-vacua tubes the effects of heat are more pro- 
nounced, and can be readily observed by arranging a discharger 
ina branch circuit, the spark leaping between the poles of the 
discharger when the air-resistance is less than that of the tube. 
A cooled Crookes’s tube does not transmit a spark equivalent to 
a 3-centimetre spark in air; but when warmed, the ‘‘ radiant ” 
effects appear to give place in turn to ordinary stratified dis- 
charges as the temperature rises. The inverse order of pheno- 
mena should take place on cooling, but does not if care has not 
been taken in the construction of the tube to expel residual 
occluded gases from the aluminium electrodes by heating them 


during the exhaustion. The effects of extreme artificial cold 
upon vacuum-tubes was not tried by M. Séguy. In conclusion 
M. Seguy asserts the existence of a curious phenomenon, namely, 
that in a tube used frequently and for a long time, the vacuum 
may grow more perfect, so as at last to be almost absolute. M. 
Seguy attributes this effect to the gradual occlusion by the 
electrodes of the residual gases. 


IT has been proved by Herren Strouhal and Barus (Wied. 
Ann,, No. 13, 1880), from experiments in which steel wire was 
treated so as to show all degrees of hardness between the glass- 
hard and annealed states, that the thermo-electric and galvanic 
properties of steel vary with the degree of hardness ina very 
sensitive manner. Their researches throw some useful light on 
the nature of the annealing process and on the magnetic be- 
haviour of steel in relation to its hardness and other properties, 


HERR HOttTz has been able ( Hed. Azzz., i. 1881) to measure 
the modulus of elasticity of rods of carbon used for the electric 
light (Carré’s, of Paris) by the acoustical method ; the rod being 
held in the middle with two fingers, and stroked lengthwise 
with two other fingers on which colophonium has been rubbed. 
The modulus increases with the density, which is, as a rule, 
greater in the thinner rods. The tone of thin rods alters a good 
deal, on repeated rubbing, through heat being generated. On 
an average the modulus is equal to that of lead. As to the 
proved increase of electric conductivity of carbon rods with rise 
of temperature, Siemens has tried to account for it by supposing 
allotropic modification (as is probably the case with selenium) ; 
Herr Holtz, however, shows that pyrolusite, a metallic oxide, 
behaves similarly, but such an explanation would not here apply. 
Nor does pyrolusite conduct as an electrolyte; there is no 
polarisation. For carbon Herr Holtz adheres to his hypothesis 
(of closer pressure of molecules caused by heat, improving the 
conduction), in default of a better. 


A CENTIGRADE photometer devised by S. Coglievina is de- 
scribed in the Azvista Sct. Ind. for January 31. He seeks to 
remedy the imperfections of ordinary methods by substituting for 
a single source of light, defined by the substance of the com- 
bustible or its hourly consumption, a flame of variable size, 
which can be reduced to a particular degree of illuminating 
force. He means to apply the same principle to the electric and 
other light sources. 


AN interesting phenomenon of polarisation of light was 
observed by Herr Sorrensen in the recent cold weather (Vatuz7., 
No. 9). Some of the ice on a window-pane had melted, the 
water forming a small pool at the bottom. In this pool various 
bright and beautiful colours appeared ; on looking closer they 
were seen to be only in the grotesque images of frost flowers on 
the lower part of the window, reflected in {the water. The 
reflecting water surface was here the analyser, while the thin ice 
crystals, varying according to position and thickness in the ice 
flowers, played the part of polychromatic gypsum and mica 
plates. To find the polariser Herr Sérrensen took a Nicol prism, 


| and observed that the daylight itself was strongly polarised ; and 


this he accounts for:by the presence of a light mist of ice 
particles reflecting the sunlight. The temperature outside was 
about — 12°. 


WITH reference to the physical conditions of heavenly bodies 
Herr Lohse (Wied. Ann. 1) has experimentally studied the 
phenomena of glow on various metallic electrodes (magnesium, 
zine, iron, cadmium, copper, &c.) ina hydrogen atmosphere of 
varying pressure. Quantitative data as to the relation of vapour 
formation to the density of the gas are furnished ; and it is 
proved, izfer alia, that with progressive rarefaction of hydrogen 
the luminous power of metallic vapours in the more refrangible 


| parts of the spectrum increases (a sign of exalted temperature). 


M. PELLAT gives, in the Journal de Physigue (February), 
results of an inquiry into the apparent difference of poten- 
tial of two metals in contact. ‘This difference he finds to 
depend essentially on the nature of their superficial layer, and 
to vary (sometimes considerably) with chemical or simply physi- 
cal changes of the surface. When an inert gas surrounding the 
metals is rarefied, the apparent difference of potential increases, 
and it recovers its former value on the pressure being restored. 
Further, the said difference has the same value as the electro- 
motive force of a battery element formed by alcohol and the 
same metals (not yet altered). 


©.Dr. Putuy has made the following experiment to prove his 
suggestion that radiant matter consists of electrode particles 


March 1c, 1881] 


pulled off by the action of electricity. The cathode of a vacuum- 
tube was covered with chalk. It exhibits phosphorescence of 
orange-yellow colour, while in a short time the tube-wall becomes 
covered by a very delicate layer of chalk, without losing its 
clearness and transparency, and phosphoresces like chalk, Puluj 
believes that the yellow-coloured phosphorescence observed on 
metallic cathodes is caused by the phosphorescence of the oxides 
covering the metal. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


AT its annual meeting the Russian Geographical Society elected 
as vice-president M, Semenoff, and Baron Osten-Secken as his 
‘‘aid.” The great Constantine medals were awarded to M. 
Moushketoff, for his geological researches in Central Asia, and 
to M. Yanson, for his remarkable work on ‘‘ Comparative Sta- 
tistics of Russia,” the two first volumes of which have already 
appeared ; the Liitke gold medal was awarded to Baron Kaulbars 
for his papers on the Lowlands of the Amu-daria ; the two great 
gold medals instituted last year for ethnographical and statistical 
researches were awarded to Dr. Pyasetzky for his work, 
‘Travels to China during the Years 1875-77,” and to M. Rous- 
soff for his statistical description of the Nyejin district. Small 
gold medals were awarded to M. Nordkvist, who took part in 
Nordenskjold’s expedition; to M. Potanin for his travels in 
Mongolia ; to M. Tyaghin, for meteorological observations on 
Novaya Zemlya, and to M. Mainoff for anthropological explora- 
tions among the Mordoyvians, Silver medals were awarded to 
Mme. Treskina and to MM. Andrianoff, Unterberger, Polonsky, 
Orloff, Skassi, Karatin, Zinovieff, Krasovsky, and Mikhalenko. 


WE learn from the last number of the /zvestia of the Russian 
Geographical Society that the Society sends this spring M. 
Polyakoff with an assistant for the exploration of Sakhalin 
Island. M. Polyakoff will start from Odessa, on board of a 
Russian ship, and proceed to Sakhalin, where he will stay 
during a year; thence he will go to the Mantchurian shore of 
the Pacific for further explorations. 


THE explorer Begaert has arrived at Lisbon. He was sent by 
the King of the Belgians to make scientific researches on the 
route of Mr, Stanley at Vivi and other parts of Zaire. 


WE are glad to learn that the U.S. Congress have decided to 
appropriate 175,000 dollars to send out an expedition in a 
whaling vessel in search of the missing steamer Feavnette, which 
was sent out in 1879 by Mr. Gordon-Bennett to carry on Arctic 
exploration by way of Behring Strait. The initiative in this 
matter is due to Chief-Justice Daly, President of the American 
Geographical Society. 

In addition to two papers descriptive of the visits of Mr. 
Leigh Smith to Franz-Josef Land and Mr, Delmar Morgan to 
Kuldja, the new number of the Geographical Society’s Proceed= 
ings gives Mr. F. C. Selous’ notes on some of his many journeys 
in South Central Africa, those dealt with here being to the 
north of the Zambesi between the 27th and 29th meridians, 
and in the neighbourhood of the River Chobe which empties 
into the great river above the Victoria Falls. We gave last 
week the text of the interesting note on Col. Prejevalsky, in 
addition to which we may refer to the record of some altitudes 
recently determined in Matabele Land, and a note of Dr. Otto 
Finsch’s explorations in Polynesia, The maps this month are 
of the South Coast of Franz-Josef Land and the Central 
Zambesi region, 


WE observe that M. Henri Duveyrier’s interesting observa- 
tions on the question of the sources of the Niger appear in the 
last (December) number of the French Geographical Society's 
Bulletin, but we regret to find that they are published without a 
map. 

IN last week’s issue of Les Missions Catholigues Mgr. Lavi- 
gerie, Archbishop of Algiers, commences an account of the 
missions of Equatorial Africa, with the direction of which he 
has been charged. There is also a letter from Pere Antonin de 
Reschio in Brazil, in which will be found some notes on curious 
traditions among the Indians, 


Marquis ANTINORI and the other members of the Italian 
expedition to Shoa are expected shortly at Zeila. It is also stated 
that Signor Libman, an Italian traveller, has gone to Assab in 
order to make an attempt to open commercial relations with the 
interior and to survey some of the little-known regions in the 
neighbourhood, Signor Giuletti, who accompanied the Italian 


NATURE 


443 


official representative to Assab in January, is charged by the 
Italian Geographical Society to undertake a journey through the 
country of the Danakil and Adel tribes, and to study the best 
means for opening a trade-route between Assab and Abyssinia. 
His mission has considerable geographical importance, as the 
region to be traversed is unknown, and he will have an oppor- 
tunity of solving the problem of the River Gualima, which 
probably he found to empty into some lake in the interior, as 
the Hanash does, if indeed it be not part of the latter river- 
system. 


Carr. Neves FERREIRA, Governor of Benguela, and other 
Portuguese officers, have placed their services at the disposal of 
the Lisbon Geographical Society for a scientific expedition across 
Africa, to start from the West Coast. 


THE Sydney Morning Herald of January 17 publishes a 
telegram from their Queensland correspondent as follows, dated 
January 14:—‘‘Skuthorpe arrived two days ago from his ex- 
ploring trip out west. He reports having travelled 200 miles 
inside the South Australian boundary, and in the Herbert River 
discovered relics of Leichhardt, consisting of his diary and 
Classen’s diary ; also a telescope with presentation engraving, 
compasses, and other things. These, he alleges, are in two 
packs which he has brought with him. The diary of Classen is 
to the effect that he left Leichhardt at the Saltwater Creek while 
he searched for water, and that on his returning he found the 
party dead, and then joined the blacks, with whom he lived 
until three years ago, Skuthorpe will not allow any one to 
inspect the alleged relics, and here it is considered doubtful 
whether they are genuine.” 


INTELLIGENCE has been received at the Foreign Office from 
Her Majesty’s Consul at Mozambique, which confirms the report 
of the deaths of Capt. Phipson-Wybrants and Messrs. Carr and 
Mears, of the Wybrants’ expedition. Mr. Mayes is stated to be 
at Umzeilas, and Mr. Owen to have left with the remainder for 
Inhambane, whither Her Majesty’s ship Rudy will proceed 
forthwith. 


ON THE VISCOSITY OF GASES AT HIGH 
EXHAUSTIONS* 
1B 


NFLUENCE of Aqueous Vapour on the Viscosity of Air.—In the 
foregoing experiments many discrepancies were traced to the 
presence of moisture in the gas, The influence of aqueous vapour 
does not appear to be great when present in moderate amount in 
gas of normal density, but at high exhaustions it introduces errors 
which interfere with the uniformity of the results. A series of 
experiments were accordingly undertaken to trace the special 
action of aqueous vapour when mixed with air. 

Up to a pressure of about 350 millims, the presence of 
aqueous vapour has little or no influence on the viscosity of air. 
The two curves are in fact superimposed. At this point, how- 
ever, divergence commences, and the curve rapidly bends_over, 
the viscosity falling from 0°0903 to 00500 between 50 and 7 
millims. pressure. Here it joins the hydrogen curve, and 
between 7 millims, and 1 millim. they appear to be identical. 

These results are partly to be explained by the peculiar action 
of water vapour in the apparatus. At the normal pressure the 
amount of aqueous vapour present in the air, supposing it to be 
saturated, is only about thirteen parts in a million, and the 
identity of the log dec, with that of dry air shows that this 
small quantity of water has no appreciable action on the viscosity. 
When the pump is set to work the air is gradually removed, 
whilst the aqueous vapour is kept supplied from the reservoir of 
liquid, As the exhaustion approaches the tension of aqueous 
vapour, evaporation goes on at a greater rate, and the vapour 
displaces the air with increasing rapidity ; until, after the 
pressure of 12°7 millims. is passed, the aqueous vapour acts 
as a gas, and, being constaatly supplied from the reservoir of 
water (as long as it lasts), washes out all the air from the 
apparatus, the log dec. rapidly sinking to that of pure water gas. 

This explanation requires that the viscosity of pure aqueous 
vapour should be the same as that of hydrogen, at all events 
between 7 millims. and 1 millim, pressure. The facts can, 
however, be explained in another way. During the action of 
the Sprengel pump sufficient electricity is sometimes generated 
to render the fall tubes luminous in the dark. It is conceivable 


I Abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society, February 17, 188r. 
by William Crookes, F.R.S. Continued from p. 423. 


444 


NATORE 


[Afarch 10, 1881 


that under such electrical influence the falling mercury may be 
able to decompose aqueous vapour at these high exhaustions, 
with formation of oxide of mercury and liberation of hydro- 
gen. Of these two theories the latter appears to be the more 
probable, 

The presence of water vapour shows itself likewise in the 
very slight amount of repulsion produced by radiation. Re- 
pulsion commences in air at a pressure of 12 millims., whilst 
at a higher exhaustion the maximum effect rises to over 4o divi- 
sions. Here, however, repulsion does not begin till the 
exhaustion is higher than the barometer gauge will indicate, 
whilst the maximum action after long-continued pumping is only 9 
divisions. 

Viscosity of Kerosoline Vapour.—The rapid diminution of 
viscosity in the last experiment after reaching the pressure of 
400 millims., is probably due to the aqueous vapour in the air 
being near its liquefying point. It was thought advisable to test 
this hypothesis by employing a somewhat less easily condensible 
vapour, which could be introduced into the apparatus without 
any admixture of air. An experiment was accordingly tried 
with avery volatile hydrocarbon, commercially known as Kero- 
soline, boiling at a little above the ordinary temperature. The 
vapour of this body was introduced into the well-exhausted 
apparatus, when the gauge at once sank 82°5 millims, After 
the usual precautions to eliminate air a series of observations 
were taken, 

The loss of viscosity is more rapid than with any other gas 
examined except aqueous vapour. Conversely a very great in- 
crease of viscosity occurs on increasing the pressure from 8 to 
$2'5 millims, The explanation of this is that the vapour of keroso- 
line is very near its liquefying point, and therefore very far from 
the state of a ‘‘ perfect” gas, 

The negative bend in the curve at about 10 millims. pressure, 
already noticed with other gases, is strongly marked with this 
hydrocarbon vapour. 

Discussion of Results—When discussing the viscosity results 
obtained with the different gases experimented with, the author 
gives the following approximate comparison of viscosities, such 
as is afforded by a comparison of the log decs. of each gas and 
that of air, comparing the ratio with that obtained by Graham, 
Kundt and Warburg, and Maxwell. 


Kundt & 

Graham. Warburg. Maxwell. Crookes. 
PATIOS rs 5 ... I'0000 10000 1‘0000 1‘0000 
Oxygen Pe LOO9 — — T1185 
Mptropen 08 cs «-. OLO7T —_— _— 0°9715 
Carbonic oxide... ... 0°971 — — 0'9715 
Carbonic anhydride .. 0°807 0°806 0°859 0°9201 
Hydrogen ... w 074855 07488 0°5156 0°4439 


Graham's numbers are the theorctical results deduced from his 
experiments on transpiration of gases. They are, he says,! the 
numbers to which the transpiration times of the gases approxi- 
mate, and in which they have their limit. Graham concludes 
that the ‘‘times of oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic oxide, and air are 
directly as their densities, or equal weights of these gases pass 
in equal times. Hydrogen passes in half the time of nitrogen, or 
twice as rapidly for equal volumes. The result for carbonic acid 
appears at first anomalous, It is that the transpiration time of 
this gas is inversely proportional to its density when compared 
with oxygen.” 

The proportion between air and oxygen, nitrogen, or carbonic 
oxide is not very different at any degree of exhaustion to that 
which it is at 760 millims. Carbonic anhydride, however, is 
different ; the proportion between it and air holds good be- 
tween 760 and 650 millims. Then it gets lower and lower as 
the pressure sinks, until 50 or 55 millims is reached, when the 
proportion between it and air again becomes constant. 

Hydrogen, however, is entirely different to the other gases ; 
its log dec. remains the same to a very high exhaustion, and, that 
of other gases sinking, it is evident that the proportion between 
this gas and any other is different for each pressure. 

It must not be forgotten that the pressure of 760 millims. is 
not one of the constants of Nature, but is a purely arbitrary one, 
selected for our own convenience when working near the level of 
the sea. In the diagrams accompanying his R.S. paper the author 
has started from this pressure of 760 millims., and has given the 
log dec. curves which approximately represent the viscosities 
through a wide range of exhaustion, But the curves might also 
be continued, working downwards instead of upwards. From 

t Loc, cit. pp. 178, 179. 


the shape and direction in which they cut the 760 line, it is 
reasonable to infer their further progress downwards, and we 
may assume that an easily liquefiable gas will show a more rapid 
increase in viscosity than one which is difficult to liquefy by pres- 
sure. For instance, hydrogen, the least condensible of all gases, 
shows scarcely any tendency to increase in log dec_ by pressure. 
Oxygen and nitrogen, which are only a little less difficult to con- 
dense than hydrogen, show a slight increase in log dec. Carbonic 
anhydride, which liquefies at a pressure of 56 atmospheres at 
15°C., increases so rapidly in log dec. that at this pressure it 
would have a log dec. of about 1°3, representing an amount of 
resistance to motion that it is difficult to conceive anything of 
the nature of gas being capable of exerting. 

Kerosoline vapour is rendered liquid by pressure much more 
readily than carbonic anhydride. Its curve shows a great 
increase in density for a very slight access of pressure. 

Again, aqueous vapour is condensible to the liquid form with 
the greatest readiness ; and the almost horizontal direction of the 
curve representing aqueous vapour mixed with air carries out the 
hypothesis, 

It follows, then, that Maxwell’s law holds good for perfect 
gases. The disturbing influence spoken of in the commencement 
of this paper as occasioning a variation from Maxwell’s law, is 
the tendency to liquefaction, which prevents us from speaking of 
any gas as ‘‘ perfect,” and which hinders it from obeying Boyle 
and Mariotte’s law. The nearer a gas obeys this law the more 
closely does it conform to Maxwell’s law. 

Maxwell’s law was discovered as the consequence of a mathe- 
matical theory. It presupposes the existence of gas in a “‘per- 
fect” state—a state practically unknown to physicists, although 
hydrogen gas very nearly approaches that state. An ordinary 
gas may be said to be bounded, as regards its physical state, on 
the one side by the sub-gaseous or liquid condition, and on the 
other side by the ultra-gaseous condition, A gas assumes the 
former state when condensed by pressure or cold, and it changes 
to the latter state when highly rarefied. Before actually assum- 
ing either of these states there is a kind of foreshadowing of 
change, with, partial loss of gaseity. When the molecules, by 
pressure or cold, are made to approach each other more closely, 
they begin to enter the sphere of each other’s attraction, and 
therefore the amount of pressure or cold necessary to produce a 
certain density is less than the theoretical amount by the internal 
attraction exerted on each other by the molecules. The nearer 
the gas approaches the point of liquefaction the greater is the 
attraction of one molecule to another, and the amount of 
pressure required to produce any given density will be pro- 
portionally less than that theoretically required by a ‘* perfect” 
gas. 

A noteworthy point in connection with the elasticity of glass 
is observed on the curves of viscosity. They are not continued 
beyond the o'o2 M exhaustion, but the general form of the curves 
indicates that, if they were produced beyond the limits of the 
observations, they would cut the line representing the absolute 
vacuum. The curve representing the repulsion accompanying 
radiation evidently goes up to the zero point, showing that: at 
an absolute vacuum there would be no repulsion. The curves of 
viscosity cannot, however, be supposed to end at the zero point 
without a sudden change in direction. They evidently touch the 
top line of zero pressure long before the log dec. of 0'00 is 
reached. This means that in an absolute vacuum there would 
still be a measurable amount of viscosity. This is probably due 
to the viscosity of the glass torsion fibre, for it has been ascer- 
tained that glass is not perfectly elastic, but will take a permanent 
set if kept under constraint for a considerable time. 

The author gives an instance which has come under his own 
notice. In 1862 he purchased a piece of glass lace, and some 
spun glass from which the lace was made. The spun glass is in 
long straight threads, about o’oo1 inch diameter, and has occa- 
sionally been used for torsion fibres, The fibres of which the 
lace was made were originally straight, but the twists and bends 
in which they have been kept for eighteen years have permanently 
altered their direction, and on dissecting a portion of the lace the 
component fibres remain distorted and bent, even when free to 
resume their original shape. 7 

Were glass perfectly elastic the log dec. in anabsolute vacuum 
would probably be equal to zero: there would thea be no dimi- 
nution in the are of vibration, and the torsion fibre once set 
swinging would go on for ever. ‘ f 

The Ultra-Gaseous State of Matter.—A consideration of the 
curves of viscosity of the gases, especially hydrogen, which are 


March 10, 1881 | 


NATURE 


445 


given in the foregoing pages, confirms the supposition that a 
gas, as the exhaustions become extreme, gradually loses its 
gaseous characteristics, and passes to what the author has ven- 
tured to call an ultra-gaseous state. Certainly it ceases to possess 
many of the properties usually held to be the essential attributes 
of gaseity. 

For instance, Maxwell’s law that the viscosity of a gas is inde- 
pendent of pressure holds good to a certain point, and then it 
rapidly breaks down. All gases appear to obey Maxwell’s law 
between some limits of exhaustion, and diverge from it at others. 
Thus the nearly perfect gas hydrogen shows signs of increasing 
in viscosity as the pressure approaches 760 millims., and it is 
very improbable that its viscosity would remain the same if the 
pressure were to be considerably increased. Between 5 and 35 
millims. the respective viscosities of carbonic anhydride, car- 
bonic oxide, nitroyen, oxygen, and air scarcely vary at all, show- 
ing that between these limits they are practically as ‘‘ perfect” 
gases as hydrogen is throughout the whole barometric range from 
760 millims. to 1 millim., and here therefore they obey Maxwell’s 
law as perfectly as hydrogen does. The change to the ultra- 
gaseous state commences to be assumed at about an exhaustion 
of half a millim. In hydrogen the change then proceeds 
slowly, but in the less perfect gases experimented with, the 
change to ultra gas takes place with greater rapidity. 

In gases, variation of pressure in different parts of a closed 
vessel equalises itself with great rapidity, but in the ultra-gaseous 
state differences of pressure may exist for twenty minutes or more 
in different parts of the apparatus. 

In gases, electrically charged bodies do not permanently 
retain their charge, but gradually discharge themselves. In 
ultra-gas, however, a pair of electrified gold leaves have re- 
mained repelled at absolutely the same angle for thirteen 
m onths.! 

Another property of gases is that of facilitating the cooling of 
bodies immersed in them, by communicating an increase of 
motion to the molecules of the gas which carry it to the walls 
of the containing vessel,—z.e. by cavviage instead of convection. 
There is little difference in the rate of cooling with increased ex- 
haustion, so long as we work with such ordinary good vacua as 
can be obtained by air-pumps. For if, on the one hand, there 
are fewer molecules impinging on the warm body (which is 
averse to the carriage of heat), yet, on the other hand, the 
mean length of path between collisions is increased so that the 
augmented motion is carried farther; the number of steps by 
which the temperature passes from the warmer to the cooler body 
is diminished, but the value of each step is correspondingly in- 
creased. Hence the difference of velocity before and after 
impact may make up for the diminution in the number of mole- 
cules impinging. . 

In gases, therefore, the rate of cooling is little affected by rare- 
faction, the law in this case being analogous to that governing 
the viscosity. 

In a paper which the author has recently read before the Royal 
Society,* he shows that when the exhaustion is carried to so higha 
point that the mean free path is comparable with the diameter of 
the containing vessel, the rate at which heat is conveyed across 
is much diminished. The molecules are now in the ultra-gaseous 
state, and further exhaustion produces a notable fall in the rate 
of cooling, an increase of exhaustion from 20 M to 2 M retarding 
the carriage of heat more than all the previous exhaustion from 
760 millims. to 20 M. 

The author has shown elsewhere? that the property of gaseity 
is pre-eminently a property dependent on collisions. A given 
space full of air at the ordinary pressure contains millions of 
millions of molecules rapidly moving in all directions, each mole- 
cule momentarily encountering millions of other molecules in a 
second. In such a case the length of the mean free path of the 
molecules is exceedingly small compared with the dimensions of 
the containing vessel, and those properties are observed which 
constitute the ordinary gaseous state of matter—properties which 
depend upon constant collisions, 

The gaseous state continues so long as the collisions are 
almost infinite in number, and of inconceivable irregularity, 
But in such high vacua as are now described the free path of the 
molecules is made so long that the hits ina given time may be 
disregarded in comparison to the misses, and the average mole- 
cule is allowed to obey its own motions or laws without inter- 
ference ; and when the mean free path is comparable to the 

* Proceedings of the R. S., No. 193, 1879, p. 347- 


2 Proc. R.4S., No, 208, 1880, p. 239. 
3 Proc. R.S., No. 205, 1880, p 469. 


dimensions of the containing vessel, the properties which con- 
stitute gaseity are reduced to a minimum, and the matter then 
becomes exalted to an ultra-gaseous state. 

In the ultra-gaseous state properties of matter which exist 
even in the gaseous state are shown drectly, whereas in the 
re of gas they are only shown zudivectly, by viscosity and so 
orth, 

The ordinary laws of gases are a simplification of the effects 
arising from the properties of matter in the ultra-gaseous state ; 
such a simplification is only permissible when the mean length cf 
path is small compared with the dimensions of the vessel. | For 
the sake of simplicity we make abstraction of the individual 
molecules, and feign to our imagination continuous matter of 
which the fundamental properties—such as pressure varying as 
the density, and so forth—are ascertained by experiment. A gas 
is nothing more than an assemblage of molecules contemplated 
froma simplified point of view. When we deal with phenomena 
in which we are obliged to individually contemplate molecules, 
we must not speak of the assemblage as gas. 

An objection has been raised touching the existence of ultra- 
gaseous matter in highly-exhausted electrical tubes, that the 
special phenomena of radiation and phosphorescence which the 
author has considered characteristic of this form of matter can be 
made to occur at much lower pressures than that which exhibits 
the maximum effects. For the sake of argument let us assume 
that the state of ultra-gas with its associated phenomena is at the 
maximum at a millionth of an atmosphere. Here the mean free 
path is about 4 inches long, sufficient to strike across the 
exhausted tube, But it has been shown by many experimentalists 
that at exhaustions so low that the contents of the tube are 
certainly not in the ultra-gaseous state, the phenomena of phos- 
phorescence can be cbserved, This circumstance had not escaped 
the author's notice, In his first paper on the ‘‘Il]umination of 
Lines of Molecular Pressure and the Trajectory of Molecules” + 
the author drew attention to the fact that a molecular ray pro- 
ducing green phosphorescence can be projected 102 millimetres 
from the negative pole when the pressure is as high as 0'324 
millim. or 427 M. In this case the mean free path of the mole- 
cules is 0°23 millim. ; and it is not surprising that with more 
powerful induction discharges, and with special appliances for 
exalting the faint action to be detected, the above-named pheno- 
mena can be produced at still higher pressures. 

It must be remembered that we know nothing of the adso/ute 
length of the free path or the adsolute velocity of a molecule ; 
these may vary almost from zero to infinity. We must limit 
ourselves to the vzeax free path and the meax velocity, and all 
that these experiments show is that a few molecules can travel 
more than a hundred times the »eax free path, and with perhaps 
a corresponding increase over the mean velocity, before they are 
stopped by collisions. With weak electrical power the special 
phosphorogenic action of these few molecules is too faint to be 
noticed ; but by intensifying the discharge the action of the 
molecules can be so increased as to render their presence visible. 
It is also probable that the absolute velocity of the molecules is 
increased so as to make the mean velocity with which they leave 
the negative pole greater than that of ordinary gaseous molecules. 
This being the case, they will not easily be stopped or deflected 
by collisions, but will drive through obstacles and so travel to a 
greater distance. 

If this view is correct, it does not follow that gas and ultra 
gas can co-exist in the same vessel. All that can be legitimately 
inferred is, that the two states insensibly merge one into the 
other, so that at an intermediate point we can by appropriate 
means exalt either the phenomena due to gas or to ultra gas. 
The same thing occurs between the states of solid and liquid 
and liquid and gas. _Tresca’s experiments on the flow of solids 
prove that lead and even iron, at the common temperature, 
possess properties which strictly appertain to liquids, whilst 
Andrews has shown that liquid and gas may be made to merge 
gradually one into the other, so that at an intermediate point the 
substance partakes of the properties of both states. 


Note on the Reduction of Mr. Crookes’s Experiments on the 
Decrement of the Arc of Vibration of a Mica Plate oscillating 
within a Bulb containing more or less Rarefied Gas® 
THE determination of the motion of the gas within the bulb, 

which would theoretically lead to a determination of the c)- 

efficient of viscosity of the gas, forms a mathematical problem 
I Phil. Trans. part 1, 1879, the Bakerian Lecture. 


2 Abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society, February 17, by 
Prof. G. G. Stokes, Sec.R.S. 


446 


NATURE 


[March 10, 1881 


of hopeless difficulty. Nevertheless we are able, by attending | 


to the condition of similarity of the motion in different cases, to 
compare the viscosities of the different gases for as many groups 
of corresponding pressures as we please. Setting aside certain 
minute corrections which would have vanished altogether had 
the moment of inertia of the vibrating body been snfficient to 
make the time of vibration sensibly independent of the gas, as 
was approximately the case, the condition of similarity is that 
the densities shall be as the log decrements of the are of vibra- 
tion, and the conclusion from theory is that when that condition 
is satisfied, then the viscosities are in the same ratio, Pressures 
which satisfy the condition of similarity are said to ‘corre- 
spond.” 

It was found that on omitting the high exhaustions, the 
experiments led to the following law :— 

The ratios of the viscosities of the different gases are the same 
for any two groups of corresponding pressures, In other words, 
if the ratios of the viscosities of a set of gases are found (they 
are given by the ratios of the log decrements) for one set of 
corresponding pressures, these pressures may be changed in any 
given ratio without disturbing the ratios of the viscosities. 

This law follows of course at once from Maxwell’s law, 
according to which the viscosity of a gas is independent of the 
pressure. It does not however by itself alone prove Maxwell’s 
law, and might be satisfied even were Maxwell’s law not true. 
The constancy however of the log decrement, when the circum- 
stances are such that the molar inertia of the gas may presumably 
be neglected, proves that at any rate when the density is not too 
great that law is true; and the variability of the log decrement 
at the higher pressures in all but the very light gas hydrogen is in 
no way opposed to it, though Mr. Crookes’s experiments do not 
enable us to test it directly, but merely establish a more general 
law, which embraces Maxwell’s as a particular case. 

The viscosities referred to air as unity which came out from 
Mr. Crookes’s experiments were as follows :— 


Oxyreneen es eee: fran wires I‘117 
Nitrogen and carbonic oxide 0°970 
Carbonic anhydride 0°823 
Hydrogen... ... "500 


The viscosity of kerosoline vapour could not be accurately 
deduced from the experiments, as the substance is a mixture, 
and the vapour-density therefore unknown, Assuming the relative 
viscosity to be 0°0380, the vapour-density required to make the 
experiments fit came out 3°408 referred to air, or 49°16 referred 
to hydrogen. 

When once the density is sufficiently small, the log decrement 
may be taken as a measure of the viscosity. Mr. Crookes’s 
tables show how completely Maxwell’s law breaks dawn at the 
high exhaustions, as Maxwell himself foresaw must be the case. 
Not only so, but if we take pressures at those high exhaustions 
which are in the same ratios as ‘‘ corresponding” pressures, the 
log decrements in the different gases are by no means in the 
ratios of the densities, 

It would appear as if the mechanical properties of a gas at 
ordinary pressures and up to extreme exhaustions (setting aside 
the minute deviations from Boyle’s law, &c.) were completely 
defined by two constants, suppose the density at a giyen pres- 
sure and the coefficient of viscosity ; but that specific differences 
come in at the high exhaustions at which the phenomena of 
“‘ultra-gas” begin to appear; and that to include these, an 
additional constant, or perhaps more than one, requires to be 
known. 


ANIMAL REMAINS IN THE SCHIPKA 
CAVERN 


ON December 6, 1880, Prof, Schaaffhausen gave a lecture to 

the Lower Rhine Society in Bonn, on the discoveries made 
by Prof. Maschke in the Schipka Cavern, near Stramberg, in 
Moravia. In this cavern were found remains of Bos, Ursus, 
Elephas, Rhinoceros, Leo, and Hyzena, besides roughly-hewn 
implements of quartzite, basalt, and flint, and some incisor teeth 
of Ursus, which were cut into on both sides at the beginning of 
the crown, perhaps because people did not yet know howto bore 
a hole into the root. Carbonised animal bones in numerous 
small fragments were met with, A solitary human relic was 
found in a protected place at the wall of a side passage of the 
cavern, and near a fireplace, It was the fragment of a lower 
jaw, amid ashes and inter-breccia of lime. The same layer con- 


tained mammoth remains and stone implements. Of the jaw 
only the front part with incisors, one canine, and the two pre- 
molars, of the right side remained. The latter three teeth were 
still in the jaw undeveloped, but were visible, because the front - 
wall of the jaw was wanting. The largeness and thickness 
of the jaw, first of all, were remarkable. The teeth-development 
corresponds to the first year of life, but the jaw and the teeth are 
as large as those of an adult, As is the rule with man, the first 
pre-molar seemed nearest being cut ; next to it came the canine, 
then the second pre-molar. 

The height of the jaw in the line of symphysis measures, to 
the alveolar border, 30mm., to the end of the incisors 39 mm. 
(In the jaw of a child seven years old the corresponding measure- 
ments were 23 mm, and 30mm. ; in a girl nine years old 24 mm. 
and 33mm. ; ina boy of 12, 22mm. and 31mm. _ The jaws of 
eight adults measured in height, to the alveolar border, on an 
average, 31mm.) The jaw fragment, at its lower border, in the 
line of symphysis, is 14mm. thick; under the canine tooth the 
thickness is 15mm. (In an ordinary adult jaw the thickness in 
the line of symphysis is about 11mm.) Now when the cutting 
surface of the incisors is placed horizontally, the under part of 
the prognathous jaw bends so much back that one misses the 
chin as a prominence. A vertical from the front alveolar berder 
falls 4 to 5 mm. in front of the lower border of the jaw. The 
hinder surface of the symphysis is placed obliquely, as occurs in 
a high degree in the anthropoids, and in lower degree in savage 
races, but has also before been observed in fossil human remains, 
as in the jaw of La Naulette, to which this jaw from the Schipka 
Cavern has much similarity. The form of the incisors is 
adapted to the thick prognathous jaw ; the broadest part of the 
root measures from front to back 84mm., whereas the ordinary 
measurement here is6mm. Further the teeth are bent convex 
in front. The curvature corresponds to a radius of 27mm, 
The sina mentalis interna is absent, and instead there is, 
as in the anthropoids, a cavity, at the lower border of which 
some unevenness can easily be felt. The prominences for 
attachment of the A/usculi digastrici are well marked, implying 
a correspondingly strong development of the antagonistic 
muscles, the masticatory. All these features were also met with 
on the jaw of La Naulette, but more developed. It is probable 
that the jaw of the Schipka Cavern also had the pithecoid pecu- 
liarity, that its tooth-line was not horizontal, but rose from the 
premolars to the incisors, and its body was higher in front than 
at the sides, because the cutting-surface of the outer incisors 
sinks obliquely outwards. The size of the canine tooth is re- 
markable, its enamel crown being 13°5 mm.long. (In the fossil 
lower jaw of Uelde the canine tooth exceeds the premolars about 
3°5mm. According to measurement on ten European adult 
skulls with the teeth hardly, or not at all, worn down, the crown 
of the canine tooth was 11°5 mm. long. Only once, among more 
than fifty skulls, was it found 14 mm.) It cannot well be sup- 
posed that this jaw, caught in dentition, belonged to an individual 
of giant growth, since in such individuals the excessive growth, 
according to Langer, first begins about nine to ten years of age. 
The assumption that some pathological cause had hindered the 
development of the three teeth that remained within the jaw 
seems quite groundless. As little can we suppose that in the 
prehistoric time the teeth development was retarded, and that 
the change of teeth occurred at a later age, since a quicker deve- 
lopment corresponds to a lower organisation. (All mammals 
come into the world with teeth, and the orang changes its teeth 
sooner than man.) ihe 

The size of the front part of the jaw however may in itself 
be regarded as pithecoid ; and there is more reason for this in 
that other pithecoid characters are present. The aspect of the 
grey-yellow bone with small dark branching spots on it is met 
with often in cavern bones. The enamel of the teeth is quite 
like that of the Quaternary cave animals; it shows longitudinal 
fissures with dark infiltration ; while near these appear bluish, 
and in some places yellow, spots. 


SOME REMARKS ON PERIPATUS 
EDWARDSIT, BLANCH. 

INCE I learnt from Mr. Moseley’s notes on the species of 
Peripatus (Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., . Set-, MW. 263), 
that one of them, referred by Grube to P. Zdwardsiz, had been 
obtained from this country, in the neighbourhood of Colony 
Tovar), I tried to get specimens of this highly interesting 

t Not Colony ¥owa7, as the name is printed in Mr. Moseley’s paper- 


March 10, 1881 | 


NATURE 


447 


animal, But all my efforts being unsuccessful for a long time, I 
finally lost all hopes, and the pressure of other business, 
scientific and not scientific, caused me to lay the matter on the 
shelf, little thinking that I had my deséderatum close at my 
elbows. 

There is within our University building a large square yard, 
where stones, old bricks, and other such refuse had been accumu- 
lating in the course of years. About a month ago it was fortu- 
nately resolved to transform this very ugly place into a garden, 
and I engaged the workmen to bring me any kind of animal they 
might turn up under the heaps of rubbish. How great was my 
satisfaction to find in the very first gatherings half a dozen of 
Peripatus among some common beetles, centipedes, and earth- 
worms! I offered immediately a prize for every other speci- 
men of the former, and so good proved the locality that in a 
few days I was in possession of more than fifty of these un- 
expected cives academici of ours, the supply being apparently 
far from exhausted. 

As there are still some points in the natural history of 
Peripatus which are not well settled, I beg leave to offer the 
following remarks-based on the careful examination of living 
or dissected specimens. 

The number of females appears to be much larger than that 
of males; for among fifty-three specimens I found only five 
males, which are about half the size of the females. These are 


Fic. 2. 


Fic. x. 
Fic. 1.—Horny claws of one of the foot-jaws in the young animal when born: 


IG. 2.—The same, from an adult female. 
claw; c, horny saw; d@, pigment-line. 


@, first claw; 2, second 


sometimes nearly 1 decimetre long, 5 to 6 millimetres broad, 
and somewhat tapering on both extremities. The colour is 
brownish black, with a diffused black line on the middle of the 
back; the ventral side is dark flesh-coloured. Full-grown 
animals have thirty-one pairs of ambulatory feet, the new-born 
animals have but twenty-nine; the length of the latter is about 
25 millimetres, their breadth two, the tentacles measure 3 mm. ; 
their colour is reddish, with a line of somewhat lozenze-shaped 
figures of a paler tint running down the middle of the back. 

I twice observed the birth of a young Perifatus. The mother 
raised slightly the hind part of the body, moving it slowly from 
one side to the other. After some minutes the head of the 
embryo protruded from the sexual porus, and in half an hour 
half the body came out, twisting around all the while in every 
direction. The old animal remained rather quiet, moving 
occasionally its head, but not crawling about. As soon as the 
process was advanced thus far, the young Perzgatus clung with its 
feet to the nearest surface in its reach ; and the mother walking 
off, the hind part of the embryo came forth in a few seconds. 

In one case a young Peri~atws was born in a tu.ubler of water, 
in which I had placed the mother, in order to kill it in an ex- 
tended condition, as recommended by Moseley in his well-known 
paper in the PA2/, Transactions. I did not see the birth, but 
found the young animal already crawling on the back of the 
mother, and there floated in the water close by a very thin skin of 


* Those desirous of obtaining specimens from me in exchange for books 
or papers on zoological topics, will be good enough to write to me. 


the size of the young animal, exhibiting its whole form, even the 
tentacles. I suppose it must have been shed soon after birth, but 
have failed hitherto to see anything alike in the other cases of 
birth, which I watched very carefully. 

I could not well make out the number of articulations in the 
tentacles ; there are, however, more than thirty in those of the 
young animal, having each a ring of short spiny bristles at the 
base. The slime-glands of the young Pevifatus are already well 
developed. It has twenty-nine pairs of feet; and as the adult 
animal has never more than thirty-one, there must be specimens 
with the intermediate number of thirty, which would settle Mr. 
Moseley’s question (dmx. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,\.c.) It is 
probable that Perifatus goes through several moultings, and 
that the new feet then make their appearance. . 

This may be further surmised from the development at th 
horny claws of the foot-jaws, which are simple, and not indented 
in the young animal, but of a much more complicate structure 


————— 
~ 
\ 


Fic. 3.—Schematic sketch of ovary (a), beginning of oviducts (2), czca (c), 
receptacula seminis (¢@), covered by tracheal tubes (e), zone of ovary 
without tracheal tubes (/). 


in the old one. The annexed figures represent these claws in 
both conditions. 

In the adult animal there is first a large pointed tooth, then 
follows a shorter one, which is obtuse ; both are formed appa- 
rently of three to four superposed lamellze, the outlines of which 
are distinctly visible by changing the focus of the microscope. 
The second maxillary claw has likewise two teeth of the same 
shape and structure, but bears behind them a kind of saw, com- 
posed of ten small teeth of the same amber-yellow colour as the 
Inner parts of the larger teeth. This saw is followed by an 
oblique line of a yellowish pigment, perhaps the rudiment of — 
another developing saw, or a reservoir of horny matter. 

The structure of the sexual organs may deserve a few remarks. 
There can be no doubt that the sexes are separate. The male 
organs are very much like those described by Moseley in his 
paper; only the wesicule seminales are not nearly so spirally 
wisted as in his figure on plate Ixxii. The testes contain {sper- 
matozoa of the same shape as those of P. Cafensis. I noticed 


448 


NA TORE 


| March 10, 1881 


that the slime-glands were much less developed in the males than | 


in the females. 

The structure of the female organs in our Caracas species 
agrees pretty well with Prof. Hutton’s drawings (Aun. and 
Mag. of Nat. Hist., iv. ser., vol. 18, pl. xvii., fig. 8); but Iam 
not prepared to accept his interpretation. The following sketch 
will give an idea of what I saw. 

Moseley’s Fig. 1 on pl. Ixxiv. is very different from the shape 
of the ovary in our species ; nor can I well understand the exist- 
ence of ova on the oxfside of the ovary as they appear in his 
drawing. The ovary in P, Edwardsii is rather long, and 
abundantly covered by fine tracheal tubes, with the exception of 
a narrow zone close to the branching out of the oviducts. I 
could not satisfy myself as to its being divided by a septum, nor 
could I find any ova in it; most likely it is not now the right 
time. Ata very short distance from the beginning of the ovi- 
ducts there is a kind of obtuse cecum on each of them, which 
is followed by a spherical body covered by tracheal tubes. 
These bodies are the organs described by Prof, Hutton as testes. 

There is however in our species no trace of what he takes for 
vasa deferentia, the spherical body adhering directly to the ovi- 
duct. Its wall is of considerable resistance, and bursts only 
under great pressure, giving issue to an immense number of thin 
rod-like corpuscula, which soon after begin to move slowly in the 
surrounding water. They are of course spermatozoa which have 
lost their nuclei, and the spherical body can therefore be nothing 
else but a receptaculum seminis. 

The oviducts of three specimens which I dissected contained 
very few embryos ; in one there was only one in each oviduct, in 
the others there were two. They were fully developed, and 
occupied the part of the oviducts close to the vulva. It would 
appear from this that the time of reproduction is now almost 
over ; further observations will show whether there is really such 
a periodicity in our species. 

It is probable that the oviducts of P. Zdwardsii never present 
the shape of strings of sausages, as seen by Mr. Moseley in P. 
Capensis, the embryos being so considerably larger, 

Animals thrown alive into alcohol] pour forth from their slime- 
glands first the viscid substance contained in these ; then there 
comes out a slightly reddish matter, which dissolves in the 
alcohol, giving it the same colour. 

With respect to all other points I can only confirm Mr. 
Moseley’s statements. 1 keep alive a colony of FPeripfatus of 
both sexes in the hope to have once a chance to observe the 
copula, 

I cannot conclude these remarks without confessing that I am 
not at all quite sure whether our Peripadus is really P. Edwardsii, 
as the figure of this species in Nicholson’s ‘* Manual of Zoology ” 
(5th edit. p. 315), which is said to be after Grube, does not 
agree well with my living specimens. Grube’s original paper I 
cannot consult here. It may be however that he made his 
drawing from a contracted alcoholic specimen. A. ERNs?’ 

The University, Caracas, January 16 


ACOUSTICS IN CHINA 


HE following letter to Prof. Tyndall has been sent to us for 

publication by the writer, Mr. Fryer. It will be seen that 

a really scientific modern correction of an old law has singularly 

turned up from China, and has been substantiated with the most 

primitive apparatus. Dr. W. H. Stone, to whom the letter has 
been submitted, has kindly appended a note. 


To. Pror. TYNDALL, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 


DEAR S1R,—My friend Mr. Hsii has brought some interesting 
facts relating to acoustics before my notice. As he is the father 
of the native official who translated with me your work ‘‘On 
Sound,” and as he refers particularly to that work, I venture to 
forward you a translation of his remarks, in the hope that you 
will satisfy his mind on a subject in which he takes such deep 
interest. He says :— 

“Tn ancient Chinese works on music it is stated that strings 
or pipes produce an octave or twelve semitones higher or lower 
by halving or doubling their length. 

“Tn a work written during the Ming dynasty by Chen-toai- 
yoh it is stated that this rule will only hold good with strings, 
but not with open pipes such as the flute or flageolet. 

“‘Some years ago I tried to investigate the cause of this dif- 
ference and its exact amount. A round open brass tube, say 
nine inches long, gave a certain note by pressing the end of it 
against the upper lip and blowing through an embouchure made 


there. Cutting off half the tube, the remaining four and a half 
inches would not sound the octave ; but by cutting off half an 
inch more, thus leaving four inches in length, the octave was 
sounded accurately, This experiment was tried on tubes of 
various lengths and diameters with a similar result, viz. that 
four-ninths of the length always sounded the octave more or less 
exactly. Looking at a foreign keyed flute I noticed the same 
principle carried out in the arrangements for producing octaves. 
I could not however see the reason why open pipes should not 
follow the same rule as strings and closed pipes. 

“When I read the translation of Prof. Tyndall’s treatise 
‘On Sound,’ I was surprised to find the old Chinese idea 
strictly maintained. It says (p. 214): ‘In both stopped and 
open pipes ‘he number of vibrations executed in a given time is 
inversely proportional to the length of the pipe,’ &c. According 
to this, as the octave of any note has to execute exactly double the 
number of vibrations in a given time, an open pipe ought to be 
exactly halved to make it sound an octave higher. This I have 
shown to be erroneous by my experiments. 

“Fearing that I have misunderstood the English professor’s 
meaning, I beg that he may be written to on this subject, and 
that my doubts may be thereby cleared up. What I want to 
know is the exact proportion in length that exists between any 
open pipe and a pipe of similar diameter sounding its octave 
higher, Also the exact proportions in lencth for each of the 
open pipes sounding the twelve semitones which form a scale of 
one octave. If the length forming the octave in open pipes 
does not agree with the length for strings or closed pipes, then 
the lengths of all the pipes giving intermediate notes must also 
differ. How are these lengths to be calculated? Can they be 
expressed by any mathematical curve or formula? Why does 
not the same rule hold good for open pipes as for strings or 
stopped pipes? I have a theory of my own, but I do not feel 
sufficient confidence in myself to make it public until I have 
bestowed more thought and attention upon it. In the meantime 
I shall be glad if any foreign scientists can enable me to under- 
stand this interesting and important subject. The theory and 
practice of music in China has gradually become vitiated through 
errors in the construction of musical instruments, and I am 
therefore desirous of having a scientific basis upon which a 
reformation may be effected.” 

There is no treatise on music or acoustics that I can find which 
throws any light on these interesting questions, and I shall 
therefore deem it a great favour if you will direct me to any 
work that will enable me to satisfy the eager inquiries of my 
native friend. 

I send by book-post a pamphlet for your kind acceptance, 
containing an account of the Department for the Translation of 
Scientific Books at the Kinagnan Arsenal. You will see that 
your ‘‘ Notes on Light” are now published in Chinese. A copy 
will be forwarded to you shortly. Your ‘* Heat a Mode of 
Motion” I hope to begin to translate at no very distant time. 
Your ‘Notes on Electricity” in \hinese will be published 
shortly. 

I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
Shanghai, June 1, 1880 JOHN FRYER 


November 25th, 1880 
P.S.—I have sent a copy of this letter to the Editor of 
NaTUuRE, and shall feel greatly obliged if you will forward your 
reply, if any, to him for publication.—J. F. 


Mr. FRYER is perfectly correct in his observations. You will 
find the explanation and formula needed at p. 167 of my little 
book on Sound, under the heading ‘‘ Correction of Bernouilli’s 
Law.” ‘‘It has long been known,” I there say, ‘‘ that if an 
open pipe be stopped at one end its note is not exactly an octave 
below that given by it when open, but somewhat less, the interval 
being about a major seventh instead of an octave.” 

Then follows the mathematical statement, from which the 
corrections needed by Mr. Fryer could easily be obtained. M. 
Bosanquet’s excellent experimental investigation of the subject is 
briefly described. His results give the correction for the open 
end of the pipe as "635 of radius of pipe, and ‘59 7 for the 
mouth. Mr. Bosanquet remarks that in Bernouilli’s theory the 
hypothesis is made that the change from the constraint of 
the pipe to a condition in which no remains of constraint are 
to be perceived takes place swdden/y at the point where the wave 
system leaves the pipe. It is however evident that the diverg- 
ence which takes place may be conceived of as sending back to 
jhe pipe @ serées of reflected impulses, instead of the single 


» - 


March 10, 1881 | 


NATURE 


449 


reflected impulse which returns from the open end of the pipe 
according to Bernouilli’s theory, and that these elementary im- 
pulses, coming from different distances, may be altogether 
equivalent to a single reflected impulse from a point at a little 
distance from the end of the pipe. It is not a little interesting 
that a confirmation of this little-known fact should have come 
from so far off, and have been obtained by such simple experi- 
mental means. W. H. STONE 
14, Dean’s Yard, S.W., January $ 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 13, 1880.—On currents 
of motion in polarised platina, by H. Helmholtz.—On the course 
of polarisation currents, by A. Witkowski.—On the changes of 
form and volume of dielectric bodies wrought by electricity, by 
W. C, Rontgen.—On Lichtenberg figures and electric valves, 
by W. von Bezold.—On the electromotive forces of some zinc- 
copper elements, by Fr. Fuchs.—On the measurement of electric 
conductivities, by G. Kirchhoff.—Some experiments on induction 
in conductors, by F, Himstedt.—On the discharge of electricity 
in rarefied gases, by E. Goldstein.—On the production of har- 
monic tones through vibrations of a fundamental tone, by R. 
Koenig.—Researches on the law of dispersion, by O. Hesse.— 
On fluorescence, by S. Lamansky.—On the law of heat-radia- 
tion and the absolute emission-power of glass, by L. Graetz.— 
On annealing of steel and measurement of its hardness, by V. 
Strouhal and C, Barus.—On the height of the atmosphere 
(continued), by A. Ritter.—Researches on the volume-constitu- 
tion of liquid compounds, by H. Schréder.--On variations of 
the sea-surface by reason of geological changes, by K. Zoppritz. 
—On the theory of Volta’s fundamental experiment, by F. 
Exner.—The theory of the galvanic element, by the same.— 
Note on the quantities of heat carried away by currents of an 
unequally heated liquid, by A. Oberbeck.—Note on Herr 
Siemens’ recent paper on electric conductivity of carbon and 
temperature, by ]. Borgmann, 

No. 1, 1881.—New researches on Newton's rings, by L. 
Sohncke and A. Wangerin.—On vapour-tension of homologous 
esters, by O. Schumann.—On the elasticity and the electric 
conductivity of carbon, by W. Beetz.—Thermal theory of the 
galvanic current, by J. L. Hoorweg.—On electric light pheno- 
mena in gases, by E, Goldstein.—On the phenomena of glow at 
metallic electrodes within a hydrogen atmosphere of varying 
pressure, by O. Lohse.—Note on Riecke’s paper on the electric 
elementary laws, by H. Lorberg.—Clausius’ law and the motion 
of the earth in space, by J. Frdéhlich.—On the application of the 
proposition of the virial in the kinetic theory of gases, by H. A. 
Lorentz.—On the influence of expansion of molecules on the 
pressure of a gas, by D. J. Korteweg.—On the velocity of light 
in various quartz surfaces, by W. Hallock.—Reply to Herr 
Dorn, by E. Edlund.—On tones arising through intermittent 
radiation on a gas, by W. C. Rontgen.—On phenomena of 
diffraction before the border of a screen, by O, Tumlirz, 


THE Journal of Physiology, vol. iii. No. 2, January, contains: 
Dr. S. H. Vines, on the proteid substances contained in the 
seeds of plants. To this important paper is appended a classifi- 
cation of aleurone grains and a classified list of the plants whose 
seeds were examined.—Dr. Sydney Ringer, the influence of 
season and of temperature on the action and on the antagonisms 
of drugs.—Dr. C. S. Roy, the elastic properties of the arterial 
wall, with plates v.~vii.—Dr. J. Ott, on crossed hypersesthesia, 
and notes 01 inhibition. 


Fournal of the Royal Microscopical Society, ser. ii. vol. i. 
part 1, February, contains: Dr, C. T. Hudson, on Ccistes 
janus and Floscularia trifolium, two new species of Rotifers 
(plates t and 2), and the usual summary of current researches 
relating to zoology and botany, microscopy, &c.—The minutes 
of the proceedings of the Society are given at the end of the 
part. 


Fournal of the Franklin Institute, February.—On the revolu- 
tion of a fluid ellipsoid with three unequal axes, by T. Craig.— 
A newly-discovered property of the ellipse, and its application 
to the “‘ oval chuck,” by F. M. Leavitt.—A simple-transmission- 
dynamometer, by E, Thomson.—Methods for judging of the 
wholesomeness of drinking-water, by R. Haines.—The basic 
dephosphorising process, by J. Reece.—Riehla Brothers’ im- 
proved vertical testing machine, 50,000 pounds capacity. : 


THE American Naturalist, February, 1881.—L. F. Ward, 
incomplete adaptation as illustrated by the history of sex in 
plants.—Sarah P. Monks, a partial biography of the green 
lizard. —G. Kk. Morris, a new, leaf-cutting ant.—S. V. Clevenger, 
comparative neurology (continued).—Justin Spaulding, the bee’s 
tongue, and glands connected with it.—Wm. E. Doyle, history 
of the buffalo, 


Revue Internationale des Sciences biologigues, January 15, 1881. 
—Prof. Hanstein, protoplasm considered as the basis of animal 
and vegetable life.—D. Debierre, an introduction to the earth’s 
history.—Ch. Letourneau, the ethics of egoism (Schopenhauer’s 
“Aphorisms on Moderation in: Life”).—J. L. de Lanessan, 
digestion in vegetables, 


The Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 
vol, iv. part 4, Sydney, 1880.—John Brazier, synonomy of, and 
remarks upon, Port Jackson, New Caledonian, and other shells, 
with their distribution ; list of land-shells found on Thursday 
Island, with description of new species ; Port Jackson and New 
South Wales brachiopods; mollusca recently dredged at Port 
Jackson Heads; on the locality of Onzscta ponderosa.—E. P. 
Ramsay, on an undetermined species of Laiage ; contribution to 
the zoology of New Guinea, part 6.—W. A. Haswell, supple 
mentary note on Australian Leucosiide ; on Australian Brachy- 
ura Oxyriiyncha, plates 25, 27.—C. Jenkins, on the geology of 
Yass Plains (3).—-W. Macleay, vn the Mugilidz of Australia.— 
C. S. Wilkinson, on the Abercrombie caves. 


Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xlix. part 2, No. 
2, August 30, 1880, contains :—Alexander Pedler, on the past 
and present water supplies of Calcutta.—R, Lydekker, on the 
zoological affinities of the bharal or blue sheep of Tibet. «While 
forming a very closely connecting link between the sheep and 
the goat ; the author thinks it cannot be referred to either of 
the genera Ovis or Capra, and that Hodgson’s genus Pseudovis 
should be retained for its reception.—J. Wood-Mason, on a new 
butterfly (/Zebomoia Roepstorfi) from South Andaman, near 7. 
sulphurea, Nallace. : 


Fournal de Physique, February.x—Ou radiophony, by E. 
Mercadier.—Kesearches on the differences of potential of two 
metals in contact ; results, by H. Pellat.—Dr. Cusco’s lens with 
variable focus, by C. M. Gariel.—On the correction of cooling 
in calorimetry, by M. Berthelot.—Edelmann’s universal support 
for physical experiments, by A. Terquem, 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 

Zoological Society, March 1.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Secretary exhibited the 
cast integument of a large spider (AZygale bistriata ?) which had 
been shed in the Society's Gardens.—Mr. G. E. Dobson, 
C.M.Z.S., read a paper on the anatomy of the family Zrinaceide, 
commencing with that of the curious and rare form Gymnura 
Raffiesii, with which the species of Lrinaceus were compared, 
Gymnura was shown to be a peculiarly central form, the survivor 
probably of a once widely-spread group. Altogether the 
anatomy of thirteen species of Erinaceidze was treated of in this 
paper.—A communication was read from Mr. F. Moore, F.Z.S., 
containing the descriptions of some new genera and species of 
Asiatic nocturnal lepidoptera, The characters of 150 new species 
were given, representing eighty-two genera, of which twenty-nine 
were new to science.—A communication was read from Mr. R. 
Collett, C.M.Z.S., containing an account of the breeding habits 
of the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), as observed on the Fro 
Islands, off Trondhjem’s Fiord, in Norway.—Mr. R. Bowdler 
Sharpe, F.Z.S., read a note on the fantail flycatcher of Western 
Australia (RAipidura presssi), of which he had lately had for the 
first time an opportunity of examining a specimen. 


Geological Society, February 23.—Robert Etheridge, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—William Henry Goss was 
elected a Fellow of the Society.—The following communica- 
tions were read :—A letter from Dr. John Kirk, communicated 
to the Society by the Right Hon. Earl Granville, dated H.M. 
Agency and Consulate General, Zanzibar, December 20, 1880. 
“Tt may be of interest to record the occurrence here of an 
earthquake shock felt in the island of Zanzibar at 6.58 a.m., 
mean time, on the morning of the 18th inst. Although the 
shock was very distinct no damage appears to have been done to 
any buildings in town. It is now twenty-four years since 2 
similar shock has been here noticed ; but on the mainland, espe- 


450 


NATURE 


| March 10, 1881 


cially in the vicinity of Ujiji, they are both more common and 
more severe than at the coast. Shortly after the cable was laid 
between Mozambique and Delagoa Bay, the communication was 
suddenly interrupted after one of these earthquake shocks, which 
seems to have caused the falling in of rocks by which the cable 
was crushed.”—The Permian, Triassic, and Liassic rocks of the 
Carlisle Basin, ‘by T. V. Holmes, F.G.S. The district dis- 
cussed in the author’s paper was worked over by him when 
engaged on the geological survey, and consists of those parts of 
Cumberland and Dumfriesshire which adjoin the Solway. Its 
southern boundary is, approximately, a line ranging from Mary- 
port to Rose Castle on the River Caldew, and touching the Eden 
about two miles above Wetheral. On the east and north-east 
its limits are the immediate neighbourhoods of the junction of 
the rivers Eden and Irthing, Hethersgill on the Hether Burn, 
Brackenhill Tower on the Line, and the border boundary on the 
Rivers Esk and Sark; and in Dunpfriesshire the small tract 
south of a line ranging from the junction of Scots Dyke with the 
Sark on the north-east, to Cummertrees on the south-west. 
The lowest bed in this area is the great Upper Permian or St. 
Bees Sandstone, which occupies a belt of country in the neigh- 
bourhood of the outer boundary. Directly above St. Bees 
Sandstone, in the west of the district, lies a formation consisting 
of shales with gypsum, whicb, though 700 feet thick in the 
neighbourhood of Abbey Town, is nowhere visible, but is known 
solely from borings, the country west of the Caldew, and of the 
Eden below the junction of the two streams, being thickly drift- 
covered and almost sectionless. In the east of the district the 
St. Bees Sandstone is overlain directly by a soft, red, false-bedded 
sandstone, called by the author Kirklinton Sandstone, from the 
locality in which the rock is best seen, as well as its relations to 
the under- and overlying beds. But while there is no evidence 
of any unconformity between the St. Bees Sandstone and the 
overlying Gypseous Shales in the west, there is evidence of a 
decided unconformity between the St. Bees and Kirklinton 
Sandstones in the east. In Carwinley Burn (for example), 
which runs into the Esk at Netherby, only from 200 to 300 feet 
of St. Bees Stone was seen below the outcrop of the Kirklinton, 
instead of the 1000 to 1500 feet which probably exist about 
Brampton on the one hand, and in Dumfriesshire on the other. 
Yet Carwinley Bum affords an almost continuous series of sec- 
tions, from the (non-faulted) Permian-Carboniferous junction to 
some distance above the outcrop of the Kirklinton Sandstone. As, 
in addition, the shales underlying the St. Bees Sandstone are 
gypseous, both near Carlisle and at Barrowmouth, close to St. Bees 
Head, the author classed the (Upper) Gypseous Shalesas Permian, 
and the Kirklinton Sandstone as Bunter. Resting unconformably 
on the Kirklinton Sandstone, in the district between Carlisle and 
Kirklinton, are the Marls seen on the Eden, between Stanwix 
and Beaumont, and on the line between Westlinton and Cliff 
Bridge, Kirklinton. Their unconformity is shown by the fact 
that on the line they rest on the lower, or red, beds, and between 
Stanwix and Beaumont on the upper, or white, beds of the Kirk- | 
linton Sandstone. The Marls have therefore been classed as | 
Keuper. So far as the evidence goes they appear to be very | 
thin, and to extend but a very small distance south of the Eden. | 
Lastly, the Lias appeared to the author to be unconformabie to 
all the beds below, and to rest partly on the Gypseous Shales, | 
partly on the Kirklinton Sandstone, and partly on the Keuper | 
Marls. Of the existence of Rhetic beds there was no evidence, | 
all fossils hitherto found having been determined .by Mr. | 
Etheridge (the president) to be Lower-Lias forms. But the Lias- 
sections are so small and few in number, and the ground so per- 
sistently drift-covered, that only a boring could settle the | 
question.—On Astroconia Grantt, a new Lyssakine Hexactinellid | 
from the Silurian formation of Canada, by Prof. W. J. Sollas, 
M.A., F.G.S. This paper contained a description of a new 
fossil Hexactinellid sponge from the Niagara chert beds of 
Hamilton, Ontario. It is the second oldest known example of 


the Lyssakina. 


Anthropological Institute, February 8.—Major-General A. 
Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The election of 
the following new members was announced: A. G. Geoghegan, 
E. H. Man, Owen Roberts, and Bruno Miiller.—Mr. W. L. 
Distant exhibited some Carib chisels from Barbadoes, which had 
been sent to him by Mr. W. J. Sollas, of Bristol. They were 
taken with about roo more from a cave, and were found six or 
eight inches below the surface. The cave is about 350 feet 
above the sea level, and is situated at a distance of two miles 
from the coast.—Mr. A. L. Lewis read a paper on two stone 


circles in Shropshire. Between five and six miles west of 
Minsterly is a circle of small stones known as the ‘‘ Hoarstone.” 
The largest stone is in the centre and is surrounded by thirty- 
three stones and fragments arranged in a circle about 74 feet in 
diameter. Abouta mile and a half in a south-westerly direction 
from the Hoarstone is another circle called in Gough’s ‘‘ Camden’s 
Britannia” ‘‘Madge’s Pinfold.” Here thirteen stones and three 
fragments stand and lie in an oval ring, the diameters. of which 
are about 86 feet and 92 feet, the longest diameter running 
north-west and south-east.—Miss A. W. Buckland read a paper 
on surgery and superstition in neolithic times; the object of 
which was to bring before the Institute the frequent use of 
trepanning in Neolithic times, as proved by the late Dr. Broca ; 
to call attention to the proofs he has given of the facts, and to 
his explanation of the reason of the practice, and of the super- 
stitions associated with it, as also its connection with the use of 
cranial amulets. 


Physical Society, February 26.—Prof. Fuller in the chair. 
The former resolution regarding the moneys of the Society 
for investment was adopted.—Dr. O. J. Lodge exhibited a 
mechanical apparatus illustrating the fact that conductors of 
electricity are opaque to light, and showed by means of a 
Wheatstone’s photometer, which combines two circular motions 
into a harmonic one, how the plane of polarisation of a beam of 
light passing through a magnetic medium is rotated.—Mr, C. V. 
Boys exhibited his new integrating machine, which is the only 
one illustrative of the mathematical process of integration, and 
is therefore specially valuable for teaching purposes.—Mr. 
Shelford Bidwell read a paper on the telegraphic transmission 
of pictures of natural objects. The process is explamed as 
follows :—The positive pole of a battery is connected through a 
set of resistance-coils to a piece of platinum wire, and the 
negative pole to a plate of zinc, upon which is placed a sheet of 
paper moistened with a solution of potassium iodide. The 
negative pole of a second ‘battery is connected through a sele- 
nium cell with the same platinum wire, and the positive pole to 
the zinc plate. The point of the platinum wire is pressed upon 
the paper, and the selenium being exposed to a strong light, the 
variable resistance is so adjusted that the currents from the two 
batteries which pass through the paper in opposite directions 
exactly neutralise each other. The platinum point will now 
make no mark when drawn over the paper; but if the selenium 
is shaded, its resistance is immediately increased: the current 
from the first battery then predominates, and the path of the 
platinum point across the paper 1s marked by a brown line due 
to the liberation of iodine. The line is fainter the feebler 
the light is. This arrangement has been applied by Mr. 
Bidwell in his ‘‘ telephotograph,” exhibited to the meet- 
ing. The transmitter consists of a brass cylinder mounted 
on a screw spindle which carries the cylinder laterally 7; inch at 
each revolution. <A pin-hole in the middle of the cylinder allows 
light to fall upona selenium cell placed behind it within the 
hollow cylinder. The cell is connected in circuit with a battery 
and the line. The receiver consists of a similar metal cylinder 
mounted so as to rotate synchronously with the first, and having 
a platinum point pressing upon a sheet of chemical paper 
wrapped round the cylinder. This receiver and transmitter are 
connected up as described above with two batteries and a set of 
resistance-coils. The image to be transmitted is focussed upon 
the cylinder of the transmitter and the resistance adjusted, and 
the receiving cylinder covered with sensitised paper. The two 
cylinders are caused to rotate synchronously, the pin-hole in the 
course of its spiral path covering successively every point of the 
focussed picture. The amount of light falling upon the selenium 
will be proportional to the illumination of that particular spot of 
the projected image which is for the time being occupied by the 
pin-hole, and the intensity of the line traced by the platinum 
point in the receiver will vary in the same yroportion. These 
variations will produce a picture which, if the instrument were 
perfect, would be a counterpart of that projected upon the 
transmitter. Simple designs cut out of tin-foil and projected 
by a lantern have been successfully transmitted. With 
selenium and paper of greater sensitiveness more perfect 
results might undoubtedly be: obtained.—Professors Ayrton 
and Perry showed an experiment illustrating their plan for 
sending light and shade images by electricity. A selenium 
cell was connected in circuit witha battery and a coil of wire 
surrounding a tube along which a beam of light passed. A 
shutter having a small magnet attached was suspended in the 
tube like a galvanometer mirror, so that when a current traversed 


vo 


March 10, 1881] 


the coils the shutter was deflected so as to close or partially close 
the tube and shut offthe beam of light. It will be understood that 
when a ray of light fell on the cell and diminished its resistance, 
the current in the coils would increase to a degree proportional to 
the intensity of the ray, and thus the shutter would proportionally 
cut off the light in the receiver. If now a number of these 
elementary circuits were combinéd so as to provide a mosaic of 
cells to transmit the reflected image of an object, and a screen 
to receive the corresponding beams of light controlled by the 
shutters at the other end of the line, there would be a means of 
sending light and shade images by wire. A rapidly rotating 
arm carrying a row of cells uponit might answer for a stationary 
mosaic transmitter, and need fewer cells, while a Japanese mirror 
having its curvature altered by electromagnets behind might be 
made to act as a receiver ; the ‘‘ magic’ images of that mirror 
being due to inequalities of curvature. Prof. Ayrton agreed with 
Mr. Bidwell in his conclusion that selenium cells of high resis- 
tance were more sensitive to light than cells of low resistance. 
Dr. Coffin suggested that Mr. Bidwell should adopt other than 
the cylindrical form of receiver, and move an image of the 
object across the pin-hole. Prof. G. C. Foster advised bringing 
the light always on one and the same part of the selenium cell. 


Quekett Microscopical Club, February 25.—T. C. White, 
president, in the chair.—Ten new Members were elected, and 
numerous donations received.—A communication was made by 
Mr. A. D. Michael, announcing the discovery by Mr. Beaulah 
of Myobia musculi upon a mole, this parasite having been pre- 
viously regarded as one confined to mice. A discussion ensued 
as to the frequent errors in classification and nomenclature 
arising from insufficient observation.—The Rev. J. E, Fase 
exhibited and described a convenient form of grooving slide, 
which could be used either with high- or low-power objectives. 


Institution of Civil Engineers, February 22,—Mr. Aber- 
nethy, F.R.S.E., president, in the chair.—The paper read was 
on the weight and limiting dimensions of girder bridges, by Mr. 
M. am Ende, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. 


EDINBURGH 

Royal Society, February 7.—Prof. Maclagan, vice-pre- 
sident, in the chair.—After reading the obituary notices of Lord 
Ormidale, Dr. Sharpey, Mr. Lassell, and other deceased Fellows, 
the chairman called on Prof. George Forbes to communicate his 
paper on a simple and accurate method of determining the 
longitude of a place by a single observer without the aid of any 
instrument for measuring time. The method consisted in taking 
advantage of the daily change in the moon’s declination, which 
for four or five days during each lunation was sufficiently rapid 
to be measured with considerable accuracy by means of a sextant 
and artificial horizon. The calculations and reductions were too 
intricate to be effected save by a method of approximation and 
interpolation such as that which the author had given in his 
paper.—Mr. J. Y. Buchanan read a short paper from Prof. 
Liversidge descriptive of a specimen of Stilbite that had been 
brought by the Chadlenger from Kerguelen’s Island.—Prof. J. 
Blyth gave an interesting account of certain experiments which 
he had made with a simple form of selenium cell, Two ordinary 
metal combs with every alternate tooth broken away were set 
close together, so that each remaining tooth in either fitted with- 
out touching into the interstice between two remaining teeth in 
the other. The two combs were then brought into electrical 
contact by the selenium, which was poured in between the teeth ; 
and thus a selenium cell was formed with a large surface and 
small resistance. In one special form of cell the combs were 
bent round a glass tube, inside which a singing flame was set. 
The accompanying rhythmic fluctuations in the luminosity of the 
flame were reproduced as sound in the telephone receiver. The 
difficulty of getting good selenium at the time induced the author 
to try if amorphous phosphorus would serve as a substitute. A 
‘*yadial cell,” in which the interstices between the dove-tailing 
electrodes" were filled with phosphorus, was found to be not 
sensitive to light ; but such an arrangement was discovered to be 
a battery in itself, giving rise to currents which varied with the 
pressure that was brought to bear upon the phosphorus. This 
property at once suggested a phosphorus cell as a possibly’ useful 
transmitter in a telephonic circuit. Another curious effect was 
noted, viz. that phosphorus under the action of a variable current 
glowed with a beautifully varying phosphorescence.—Mr. Aitken 
communicated further experiments on the formetion of fogs. 
His former experiments he had repeated at as low temperatures 
as 8° F., invariably finding that in filtered air no fog formed, 


NATURE 


451 


Discussing the production of dry fogs, z.e. fogs that are formed 
in non-saturated air, the author pointed out that certain kinds of 
fog-forming dust were much more efficient in their action than 
others. Some, in virtue probably of their deliquescent properties, 
formed clouds in non-saturated air; others only acted in satu- 
rated air; whilea third class required the air to be super-saturated. 
In connection with the change of state of moisture in the atmo- 
sphere, Mr. Aitken explained the formation of the various forms 
of ice-crystals by application of the principle that the slower the 
crystallisation the more regular and simple it is. Hence complex 
types of crystals betoken a rapid crystallisation. The paper 
ended with a few instructive remarks upon liquid surface-tension 
as an important factor in the growth and coalescence of rain- 
drops as they descend towards the earth,—Prof. Tait, in a short 
note on thermal conductivity, intimated that he had solved the 
equation for conduction, taking into account the temperature- 
variations of the conductivity and specific heat. He further 
pointed out that, at least in the case of iron, most of the decrease 
with temperature that apparently takes place in the value of the 
conductivity is in all likelihood referable at once to the change 
in specific heat ; so that perhaps after all conductivity varies 
very slightly indeed ,with temperature, and is practically constant 
through ordinary ranges. Prof. Tait also gave a simple experi- 
mental illustration of the diminution in the surface-tension of 
water produced by heating. A red-hot poker was held close 
over a level water surface on which Lycopodium dust was 
sprinkled, when at once the dust was drawn away to cooler 
regions as if violently repelled by the strongly-heated metal,— 
Dr, Haycraft communicated a paper in which he showed that 
the hepatic cells of man and other domestic animals, several of 
which he had examined, are possessed of true cell-walls. These 
may be demonstrated by placing a few scrapings from a fresh 
organ on a slide, and pressing the cover-glass down so as to 
crush them. The membranes are then to be seen projecting 
from the half-broken cells, or scattered about the preparation, 


Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 


American Academy of Arts and Sciences, February 9.— 
The president, Prof. J. Lovering, in the chair.—Prof. H. P. 
Bowditch presented some observations on the senses of sight 
and touch. An observer having noticed the position of a point 
at the centre of a target, shut his eyes, and after a measured in- 
terval of time attempted to touch this point again. It was found 
that the attempts were more successful when two seconds had 
elapsed than in the cases when more or less time had intervened. 
—Mr. N. D. C. Hodges read a paper upon the thermodynamic 
basis for the kinetic theory of gases. By means of the funda- 
mental equations of thermodynamics the mathematical analysis 
of the kinetic theory results at once ; and an expression is ob- 
tained for the absolute mass of a molecule.—Prof. Pickering, 
in a paper on variable stars, discussed their changes in brillianey 
and grouped them according to a new Jaw.—Mr. Arthur Searle 
gave some of the results of his observations on the zodiacal 
light.—Mr. Harold Whiting, in an abstract of a forthcoming 
paper, stated that he had found the rate of propagation of what 
may be called the magnetic wave to vary from 30 feet to 300 
feet per second.—Prof. Goss presented some observations on 
the strength of fir beams. 


PARIS 

Academy of Sciences, February 21.—M. Wurtz in the 
chair.—The following papers were read :—Meridian observa- 
tions of small planets at Greenwich and Paris Observatories 
during the fourth quarter of 1880, communicated by M. Mouchez, 
—On the parallax of the sun, by M. Faye. He indicates in a 
table nine methods of determining the earth’s distance from the 
sun. He holds that the method of physicists is best ; that the 
sun’s parallax, 8’"$13, is now determined by them to within ;4; 
of a second ; and that the seven astronomical methods converge 
more and more towards this result, and tend to confirm it, with- 
out having equal certainty.x—Male eels, compared with the 
females, by M. Robin.—General considerations on the Crus- 
tacean fauna of great depths in the Carribbean Sea and the Gulf 
of Mexico, by M. Alph. Milne-Edwards. This deals with some 
results of the cruises in the B/ake. Many new Crustacean species 
were obtained, and certain groups previously thought foreign to 
American waters were found abundantly at great depths. Ano- 
mouran and macrouran Crustacea there abound. Numerous forms 
intermediate between groups that have been thought very 
distinct are discovered (and the author cites several examples). 
—New clinical researches tending to prove that the cerebellum 


452 


NALOKE 


| March 10, 1881 


is the co-ordinating nerve-centre for movements necessary to 
standing and walking, considered in all their forms, by M. 
Bouillaud,—On the systems of faults or diaclases which traverse 
the series of stratified formations ; new examples furnished by 
Cretacean strata in the environs of Etretat and Dieppe, by M. 
Daubrée.—On Fuchsian functions, by M. Poincaré.—A letter 
of Ampére was presented.—On a class of Abelian integrals and 
on certain differential equations, by M. Picard.—On an inte- 
grator, or instrument for graphic integration, by M. Abdank- 
Abakanowicz.—On the cooling power of gases and vapours, by 
M. Witz. He infers equality of the cooling powers of dry air 
and air saturated with moisture. ‘The cooling power of coal-gas 
compared with that of air is equal to 3°48, that of sulphurous 
acid does not exceed 0°61 (the pressure being 760mm.). The 
velocities of cooling increase more quickly than the 1°233 power 
of the excesses. For steam they increase proportionally to the 
0°83 power.—On the surfaces of revolution limiting liquids de- 


prived of weight, by M. Terquem.—On radiophony : third note | 


by M. Mereadier. 
due to vibratory motion caused by alternate heating and cooling 
through intermittent radiations, principally in the gaseous layer 
adherent to the solid wall struck by these radiations; the 
anterior wall in opaque receivers, the posterior in trans- 
parent receivers.—Magic mirrors of silvered glass, by M. 
Laurent, He uses either pressed glass (polishing the sur- 
face opposite to the projections), or thin glass of commerce 
(engraving a hollow design on it),—On pyridic bases, by 
M. de Coninck.—On the hystolysis of the muscles of larva 
during the post-embryonic development of Diptera, by M. 
Viallanes. ‘[his relates to the phenomena of disappearance of 
muscles as the insect passes into the state of pupa,—On a 
new larva of Cestoides belonging to the type of the Cysticercus 
of Arion, by M. Villot.—On a new form of segmentary organ 
in Trematodes, by M. Macé.—Researches on the circulation and 
respiration of Ophiures, by M. Apostolidés, The circulatory 
system is formed of the general cavity and the spaces connected 
with it; and the respiratory sacs, by their alternate contraction 
and expansion, draw the blood into the peristomachal cavity, 
then drive it to the periphery. This explains how the san- 
guineous liquid, bathing all the organs, respires, and is set in 
motion.x—On a method of coloration of Infusoria and ana- 
tomical elements during life, by M. Certes. Placed in a 
weak solution of chinoline blue, or cyanine, Infusoria 
take a pale blue colour, and may continue to live twenty- 
four to thirty-six hours. After twenty-four hours in a moist 
chamber, the white corpuscles of a frog’s blood, coloured 
with cyanine (in serous solution) show amoeboid movements. 
Chinoline blue is, far excellence, the reagent of fatty matter 
(which is quite absent in nuclei and nucleoli).—On the per- 
manence of prussic acid during a month in the bodies of animals 
poisoned with this substance pure, by M. Brame. A rabbit and 
a cat were poisoned with 1 gramme of the substanceeach. In 
such dose it seems to preserve the animals perfectly at least a 
month, remaining in the tissues (especially those of the stomach), 
with which it seems to become intimately united. 

February 28.—M. Wurtz in the chair.—The following papers 
were read :—On the attenuation of virus and its return to 
virulence, by MM. Pasteur, Chamberland, and Roux. The 
bacterium of charéon in artificial cultivation produces true germs 
(unlike the microbe of chicken cholera, which multiplies by 
division), whose virulence is not affected by air. This spore- 
production can be hindered by cultivation at 16° or at 42° to 43°. 
The mycelian product, in the latter case, becomes sterile after 
about a month ; up to that point reproduction is easy, but the 
virulence is gone after the first eight days, in which time it 
passes through various stages of attenuation. The secret of 
causing a return of virulence consists in successive cultivation in 
the budies of certain animals. The facts throw light on the 
etiology of epidemics. —Action of hydracids on halogen salts 
containing the same element, by M. Berthelot. Compounds so 
formed exist both in the case of alkaline salts, where they are 
denoted by absorption of gas, liberation of heat, and special 
reactions, and in the case of metallic salts properly so called, 
where they are obtained crystallised.—M. de Lesseps presented 
a fifth series of documents relating to the history of the Suez 
Canal.—On the disinfectant and anti-putrid action of vapours 
of nitrous ether, by M. Peyrusson. Its action is shown both from 
laboratory and hospital observations. It has the advantage of an 
agreeable and harmless smell. —On a new definition of the surface 
of waves, by M. Darboux.—On the development of the infinite 
product (1—2x), (1 — 2?) (1 — x) (1 — x4)... by Mr, Franklin.— 


He proves that the radiophonic effects are | 


On radiophony, by M. Mercadier. He makes ¢hermophonic piles, 
or phonic thermomultiplers (after the analogy of electric thermo- 
multipliers), for study of radiant heat, a single element consisting 
of a short glass tube containing a thin plate of smoked foil or 
mica, and several such being connected by caoutchouc or metal 
tubes. The air in these tubes vibrates longitudinally, and by 
lengthening them he gets ¢hernzosonorous pipes, having the same 
properties as ordinary sounding-pipes.—Application of Talbot’s 
fringes to determination of the refractive indices of liquids, by 
M. Hurion.—On the displacement of the soda of chloride of 
sodium by hydrate of copper, by M. Tommasi. This takes place 
even at a low temperature (4° to 5°). With pure sodium chloride 
the reaction is almost instantaneous, Potassium chloride gives 
like results.—On the heats of combustion of some alcohols of 
the allylic series and of aldehydes which are isomeric with them, 
by M. Louguinine.—On the products of decomposition of proteic 
matters, by M. Blennard.—On a synthetic homologue of pel- 
letierine, by M. Etard.—On a cause of alteration of canvas, by 
M. Balland. This relates to an observation by Dr. Tripier on 


| some rusty-coloured hammock canvas used by the Algerian army 


in 1847. This showed dark spots after washing, and went to 
pieces in use. The spots were probably due to iron sulphide 
produced by alkaline sulphides in the artificial soda and by iron 
oxide fixed by the stuff in manufacture. The sulphide passed to 
the state of sulphate in air by a combustion involving the 
tissue.—Contribution to the study of trichinosis, by M. 
Chatin.—Contribution to the physiological action of urea and 
of ammoniacal salts, by MM. Richet and Moutard-Martin. Zzter 
alia, it is singular that injection of a concentrated solution of 
urea increases the elimination of water more than of urea. In 
uremia death cannot be attributed to non-elimination of the 
ammoniacal salts of urine.-—On the inflammatory nature of the 
lesions produced by the poison of the Bothrops serpent, by MM. 
Couty and De Lacerda.—On the pulmonary alterations produced 
by long stay in the purifying chambers of gas-works, by M. 
Poincaré. Animals kept eight months in those chambers showed 
in the lungs an accumulation of epithelial cells in some alveoli, 
but especially a prodigious nuclear proliferation in the connective 
tissue. This shows that it is not without danger to_subject 
children with whooping-cough to similar treatment.—Relation 
of the cylinder axis and the peripheral nerve-cells with organs 
of sense in insects, by MM. Kiinckel and Gazagnaire. In insects 
every nervous enlargement consists essentially of a bipolar cell 
(true nerve-termination), connected on one hand with the cylin- 
der axis of the nerve-fibre, and on the other with a nerve-rod 
which is its prolongation; this rod is surmounted by a hair 
properly so called, or a transformed hair.—On the gemmation 
of Pyrosoma, by M. Joliet.—Antiquity of Evephas primigenius 
(Blum) in the sub-Pyrenean Valley, by M. Caraven-Cachin. It 
seems to have appeared first after the diluvium of the plateaux 
on the old Pleistocene spread!in a nearly horizontal sheet over 
Tertiary and other strata, 


CONTENTS oe 
Str Witt1am Herscuet, I. By J.R. Hinp, F.RS ..... - 429 
Extinct British ANIMALS. By Prof. W. Bovp Dawkins, F.R.S. 431 
Osr Book SHELF :— 
Ormerod’s ‘‘ Notes of Observations of Injurious Insects” . . . 432 
““ Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Physiques et Naturellesde - 
Bordeaux” . . . . Saceo. CUCmON ONO volO.cClo 5 os, 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Aberration of Instinct. —Grorce J. Romanus, F.R.S. . . . ~ 433 
Prehistoric Europe.—Dr, James GEIxKig, F.R.S.; R. H. Tippe- 
tn ee rene OC oS LOR 
Les Lettres d’Outre-Mer.—Capt. S. P. OLIVER . . « »- + «© «© 434 
Explosive Gas ina Lake.—J. SHAW . .« PROT oo OS 
Colours of British Butterflies—J. Innes RoGers - - . + . 435 
Dust, Fogs, and Smoke.—M. CHATEL . . . 5 2 + 436 
Tur GERMAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY . - O0',.0 Sb 4 + +436 
Trish EXSPARTO;GRASS* 0, ¢.0 6, 0: @Jie)) = jos )hei | of je) ey eel Nod 
Srpertan Merroroiocy. By Dr. A. WoEIKOF . . . > 11 437 
SPHYGMOGRAPHY (W2th Illustration). . . « «+ « » : ei ets 
NOTES) =] ese 2 a ip 408 Joy el de ore) a) Le ODO TSO 
Our AsTRONOMICAL CoLUMN :— 
The Solar Parallax . . +. « « = F . «: jee hea 
Swift’s Comet, 1880¢ . a: duane ks Gouiepxcliss sane mao 
PuysicaL NoTzes ... - Ay abo Meciartiwes) ONO oe) 6 seeped 
GROGRAPHICAL.NOTES. 0) 0 elle. 76 deve 8) elec ow) e, Je eee 
On THE Viscosity oF GASES AT HiGH Exuaustions, II. By WILLIAM 
CRODKES, (RE RcSs, i, oho, et Beep REPRE) 40r >) Komen + 443 
AnimaL REMAINS IN THE SCHIPKA CAVERN «+ + + 0 + «© © + 446 
Some REMARKS ON Periratus Epwarpst!, Brancu. By Dr. A. 
Ernst (With Illustrations) «+ «© + ss # « we we ee 446 
Acoustics In Cuina. By Jonn Fryerand Dr. W. H. Stone . . 448 
ScizNTIFIC SERIALS. . - 6 2 «© © © © © 0 2 » © © © © 0 44Q 
SocreTigs AND ACADEMIES «© + 6 «+ «© © © © «© «© «© #© # «© # 449 


NATURE 


453 


THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1881 


STR WILLIAM HERSCHEL? 
Ti: 

ERSCHEL’S removal from Bath to Datchet appears 
to have been brought about by the unwillingness 
he felt, at the time of his visit to London, to continue the 
toils of teaching, which, with the tastes he had now 
formed, his sister tells us, ‘appeared to him an intoler- 
able waste of time,’’ and he chose rather the alternative 
of a-salary of 200/. from the king. ‘‘ Never bought 
monarch honour so cheap!” exclaimed his friend Sir 
Thomas Watson, to whom alone the sum was mentioned, 
all other inquirers being simply assured that “the king 
had provided for him.’’ From letters received by the 
family at Bath during Herschel’s stay in London, they 
had been led to infer that the king would not suffer him 
to return to his profession again. Herschel took part in 
the musical service at St. Margaret’s Chapel at Bath for 
the last time on Whit-Sunday, 1782, when the anthem for 

the day was of his own composition. 

On August 1 he arrived at Datchet. ‘‘The new home 
was a large neglected place, the house in a deplorably 
ruinous condition, the garden and grounds overgrown 
with weeds.’’ But these circumstances had no effect 
upon him: there was a laundry which would serve as a 
library, and roomy stables which were just suitable for the 
grinding of mirrors, and a grass-plot where “the small 
twenty-foot’’ could be erected. Under such conditions 
the end of the introductory epoch of his life, as Prof. 
Holden expresses it, was reached : henceforth he lived in 
his observatory, rarely leaving it, from his forty-fourth 
year onwards, except for short periods to submit his 
classic memoirs to the Royal Society, and even selecting 
for such visits periods when moonlight interfered with the 
work of the telescope. We are told that much of his time 
was occupied, soon after he was settled at Datchet, in 
going to the Queen’s Lodge, to show objects through the 
7-feet reflector to the king and Court, but ‘‘ when the 
days began to shorten, this was found impossible, for the 
telescope was often (at no small expense and risk of 
damage) obliged to be transported in the dark back to 
Datchet, for the purpose of spending the rest of the night 
with observations on double stars for a second catalogue.” 

In his paper entitled “‘An Account of Three Volcanoes 
in the Moon,” communicated to the Royal Society in 
1787, Herschel refers to previous observations of a 
similar kind, and Prof. Holden gives a translation of a 
letter written by Baron de Zach, from London, to Bode, 
the editor of the Berliner Jahrbuch, in which these 
observations are mentioned. An occultation of a star at 
the moon’s dark limb was to take place on the evening 
of May 4, 1783, and was observed by Herschel and Dr. 
Lind, a physician in Windsor. Mrs. Lind also placed 
herself at a telescope to watch the phenomenon. 
“Scarcely had the star disappeared before Mrs. Lind 
thought she saw it again, and exclaimed that the star 
had gone in front of, and not behind, the moon. This 
provoked a short astronomical lecture on the question, 
but still she would not credit it, because she saw differ- 
ently. Finally Herschel stepped to the telescope, and in 

* Continued from p. 431. .: 
VoL, xxil1.—No. 594 


guineas. 


fact he saw a bright point on the dark disk of the moon, 
which he followed attentively. It gradually became 
fainter, and finally vanished.’’. .. Zach professes to 
report what actually fell from Herschel’s lips: Mrs- 
Lind’s observation might be supposed to refer to the 
apparent projection of a star upon the moon’s dark limb, 
of which we have other instances, but that after an astro- 
nomical lecture, however brief, Herschel should have 
looked into the telescope and still found the same 
bright point is hardly reconcilable with this explana- 
tion: and further if there was no misapprehension of 
Herschel’s words on Zach’s part, he seems to have 
ascribed the appearance to a lunar volcano. 

In 1783 Herschel married a daughter of Mr. James 
Baldwin, a merchant of the City of London, and the 
widow of Mr. John Pitt: she was entirely interested in 
his scientific pursuits, and brought him a considerable 
jointure. Their only child was John Frederick William, 
born March 7, 1792. 

Writing in 1783, Herschel says he had finished his 
third review of the heavens, which was made with the 
same instrument as the second, but with the power in- 
creased from 227 to 460. It extended to all the stars of 
Flamsteed’s Catalogue, “together with every small star 
about them to the amount of a great many thousands 
of stars.’’ He tells us of this third review, that he 
had “many a night, in the course of eleven or twelve 
hours of observation, carefully and singly examined not 
less than 400 celestial objects, besides taking measures, 
and sometimes viewing a particular star for half an hour 
together.’’ The summer months of 1783 were occupied 
in energetic efforts to get the large 20-feet reflector ready 
for observations during the ensuing winter, and with 
success; the sweeps for the fourth review of the heavens 
were commenced before the end of the year. Caroline 
Herschel relates that at the end of 1783 her search for 
comets and nebule was interrupted to write down her 
brother’s observations with the large 20-foot, and states 
that in the early use of so cumbrous an instrument and 
its appurtenances in the open air, she could give “a 
pretty long list of accidents ’’ which were near proving 
fatal to her brother or to herself. 

In the long days of the ensuing summer months many 
1o- and 7-feet mirrors were finished, Prof. Holden 
mentions that in 1785 the cost of a 7-feet telescope, six 
and four tenths inches aperture, stand, eyepieces, &c., 
complete, was 200 guineas, and a 10-feet was 600 
A 20-feet telescope would cost from 2500 to 
3000 guineas. Herschel made four ro-feet telescopes 
for the king, one of which was delivered in July, 1786, 
as a present from the king to the Observatory of Gottin- 
gen. Later a 7-feet telescope complete was sold for 100 
guineas. Fora 10- anda 7-feet telescope the Prince of 
Canino paid 2310/. 

Prof. Holden reproduces a letter addressed to Bode 
about this time by De Magellan, which appeared in the 
¥Yahrbuch for 1788, from which we make one or two 
extracts. He writes:—“I spent the night of the 6th of 
January at Herschel’s at Datchet, near Windsor, and had 
the good luck to hit ona fine evening. He had his 20-foot 
Newtonian telescope in the open air and mounted in his 
garden very simply and conveniently. It is moved by an 


assistant who stands below it... . In the room near it 
x 


454 


sits Herschel’s sister, and she has Flamsteed’s Atlas open 
before her. As he gives her the word she writes down 
the declination and right ascension, and other circum- 
stances of the observation. In this way Herschel 
examines the whole sky without omitting the least part. 
... He has already found about goo double stars and 
almost as many nebulae. I went to bed about one 
o’clock, and up to that time he had found that night 
four or five new nebule. The thermometer in the 
garden stood at 13° Fahrenheit, but in spite of this 
Herschel observes the whole night through, except that 
he stops every three or four hours and goes in the room 
for a few moments. For some years Herschel had 
observed the heavens every hour when the weather is 
clear, and this always in the open air, because he says 
that the telescope only performs well when it is at the 
same temperature as the air... . He has an excellent 
constitution, and thinks about nothing else in the world 
but the celestial bodies.” 

An account of the discoveries made with the 20-feet 
instrument and the improvements effected in its mecha- 
nical parts during the winter of 1785 is given with the 
catalogue of the first 1000 new nebule in the P27. Trans. 
1786. The house at Datchet being found to be more 
and more unfit for the requirements of the family, 
Herschel removed in June 1785 to Clay Hall in Old 
Windsor, but here “a litigious woman” for a landlady 
brought unlooked-for troubles, and on April 3, 1786, the 
house and garden at Slough were taken, and all appa- 
ratus and machinery immediately removed there. “The 
last night at Clay Hall was spent,’’ as Caroline Herschel 
records, “in sweeping till daylight, and by the next 
evening the telescope stood ready for observation at 
Slough.” Here Herschel resided for thirty-six years, or 
from 1786 until his death. As Arago has said of this 
spot, “ On peut dire hardiment du jardin et de la petite 
maison de Slough, que, c’est le lieu du monde ou il a été 
fait le plus de découvertes. Le nom de ce village ne 
périra pas; les sciences le transmettront réligieusement a 
nos derniers neveux.” 

On January 11, 1787, Herschel discovered two satellites 
to the planet Uranus, and Prof. Holden relates, before 
making known his discovery to the world, he satisfied 
himself by this crucial test: he prepared a sketch of 
Uranus attended by his two satellites, as it would appear 
on the night of February 10, 1787, and when the night 
came “the heavens displayed the original of my drawings, 
by showing, in the situation I had delineated them, the 
Georgian planet attended by two satellites. I confess that 
this scene appeared to me with additional beauty, as the 
little secondary planets seemed to give a dignity to the 
primary one, which raises it into a more conspicuous 
situation among the great bodies of the solar system.” In 
the subsequent announcement of the discovery of four 
additional satellites of Uranus it is now generally conceded 
that Herschel was misled by minute stars : his American 
biographer indeed conjectures that he may have seen 
Ariel on March 27, 1794, and Umbriel on April 17, 1801, 
but however this may be, the discovery of these satellites 
in the strict sense of the term is considered due to the late 
Mr. Lassell, who, from repeated observations, was enabled 
to assign their periods of revolution and mean distances 
from the primary. 


aed TORE 


| March 17, 1881 


Herschel dates the completion of the celebrated 4o- 
feet reflector from August 28, 1789, when he writes : 
“ Having brought the instrument to the parallel of Saturn 
I discovered a szx¢h satellite to that planet, and also saw 
Saturn better than I had ever seen them before.” On 
September 17 following a sevevth satellite was discovered 
with the same instrument, of which we shall have occasion 
to say more, when we come to treat of the subjects included 
in Prof. Holden’s last chapter. 

Although Herschel’s relations with his contemporaries 
were usually of the most pleasant kind, there were several 
occasions upon which he appears to have been somewhat 
irritated by their comments respecting his work and 
writings, as in the case of the discovery, or rather sup- 
posed discovery, of mountains of great elevation upon 
the planet Venus, claimed by Schréter of Lilienthal, and — 
described in a paper which appeared in the P&z/. Trans. 
for 1792. Herschel’s memoir, “Observations on the 
Planet Venus, ” in the P/zl. Trans. of the following year, 
is viewed by Holden as intended far more as a rejoinder 
for detractors at home than for the astronomer abroad. 
At this time he considers there certainly existed a feeling 
that Herschel undervalued the labours of his contempo- 
raries, an impression no doubt fostered by his general 
habit of not quoting previous authorities in the fields in 
which he was working : but he is nevertheless of opinion 
that ‘‘his definite indebtedness to his contemporaries was 
vanishingly small.” The work of Michell and Wilson he 
always mnientioned with appreciation. Some annoyance 
may have been evinced that the papers of Christian 
Mayer, “‘De novis in ccelo sidereo phenomenis” (1779), 
and ‘ Beobachtungen von Fixterntrabanten” (1778), 
should have been quoted to prove that the method which 
he had proposed in 1782 for determining the parallax of 
the fixed stars should not have entirely originated with 
himself, but his biographer affirms that in the Memoir of 
Caroline Herschel there is direct proof that it did so, 
and further it is shown in his Catalogue of Double Stars. 
His proposal to call the minor planets detected by Piazzi 
and Olbers (Ceves and Pallas) asteroids also led to much 
criticism, and Prof. Holden transfers from the first 
volume of the Ldinburgh Review part of an article on 
the subject, as it is remarked, ‘‘ simply to show the kind 
of envy to which even he, the glory of England, was 
subject.”’ 

In the Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay we find 
various personal reminiscences of visits paid to Herschel 
both by herself and Dr. Burney between 1786 and 1799. 
In 1793 Herschel was a witness for his friend James 
Watt in the case of Watt v. Bull, tried in the Court of 
Common Pleas, and it appears that he visited Watt at 
Heathfield in 1810 Inthe ‘‘ Life and Letters of Thomas 
Campbell,” edited by William Beattie, is published a 
letter from the poet, describing his meeting with Herschel 
in September, 1813. ‘ His simplicity, his kindness, his 
anecdotes,” writes Campbell, “ his readiness to explain— 
and make perfectly conspicuous too—his own sublime 
conceptions of the universe are indescribably charming: 
He is seventy-six, but fresh and stout; and there he sat, 
nearest the door, at his friend’s house, alternately smiling 
at a joke, or contentedly sitting without share or notice in 
the conversation. Any train of conversation he follows 
implicitly ; anything you ask he labours with a sort of 


March 17, 1881 | 


boyish earnestness to explain.” Campbell relates that 
he was anxious to get from him as many particulars as 
he could, respecting his interview with Buonaparte, when 
First Consul, who, it had been reported, had astonished 
him by his astronomical knowledge. This interview must 
have taken place in 1802, his sister’s Memoir recording 
that he left Slough on July 13 in that year to go to Paris, 
returning on August 25 with his son (who had accom- 
panied him) dangerously ill. The result of Campbell’s 
inquiries was hardly confirmatory of the reports which 
were prevalent. “The First Consul,’’ he said, ‘did 
surprise me by his quickness and versatility on all 
subjects ; but in science he seemed to know little more 
than any well-educated gentleman, and of astronomy 
much less for instance than our own king. His general 
air was something like affecting to know more than he 
did know.’’ There would seem to be no other record of 
this interview; Lalande, gossip that he was, has no 
reference in his notes for 1802 to Herschel’s visit to 
Paris, though he, in common with other French astro- 
nomers, as Cassini, Mechain, Legendre, had visited at 
Slough, and might be supposed to be interested in 
Herschel’s return-visit to the French capital. In a letter 
to Alison, written in December, 1813, Campbell reverts 
to the pleasure which the day spent with Herschel had 
afforded him ; in this letter he repeats it was ‘not true, 
as reported, that Buonaparte understood astronomical 
subjects deeply, but affected more than he knew.’’ 

The occurrences of the later years of Herschel’s life are 
very briefly noticed by Prof. Holden. All through the 
years 1814-1822 his health was very feeble. The severe 
winter of 1813-14 told materially upon him. In 1814 he 
attempted to re-polish the mirror of the 4o-feet telescope, 
but was obliged to give up the work. He found it 
necessary to make frequent excursions for change of 
air and scene. In December, 1818, he went to London 
to have his portrait painted by Artaud, and while there 
his will was made. Particulars of the will appeared in 
the Gentleman's Magazine for 1822, p. 650; the instru- 
ments, telescopes, observations, &c., were given, on 
account of his advanced age, to his son for the purpose 
of continuing his studies. “It is not necessary to say 
how nobly Sir John Herschel redeemed the trust con- 
fided to him. All the world knows of his Survey of the 
Southern Heavens, in which he completed the review of 
the sky which had been begun and completed for the 
northern hemisphere by the same instruments in his 
father’s hands.” During the next three years the time he 
was able to spend in work was devoted to putting his 
papers in order, but he was daily becoming more and 
more feeble. 

Herschel died on August 22, 1822, at the age of eighty- 
four years. He was buried in the church of St. Lawrence 
at Upton, near Slough, and a memorial tablet was placed 
over his grave with an epitaph which some have ascribed 
to the late Dr. Whewell, others to a Provost of Eton, 
with three lines from which we may close the present 
notice, reserving fora concluding article the consideration 
of the scientific labours of William Herschel, which forms 
the subject of Prof. Holden’s last chapter. 


“© Novis artis adjumentis innixus 
Que ipse excogitarit et perfecit 
Calorum perrupit claustra.” 


J. R. HInD 


NATURE 


. time to come. 


455 


A POLAR RECONNAISSANCE 

A Polar Reconnaissance: being the Voyage of the 
“Isbjorn” to Novaya Zemlya in 1879. By Albert H. 
Markham, F.R.G.S., Captain R.N. Maps and Illus- 

trations. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., 1881.) 
iA RECONNAISSANCE” in military parlance is, we 
understand, a preliminary to a serious attack in full 
force ; and in this sense Capt. Markham evidently uses it 
in the work before us. Had we any doubt of this, on a 
perusal of Capt. Markham’s story of his summer cruise, 
the preface by Mr. C. R. Markham would set that doubt at 
rest. But indeed the whole tone of the volume bears on 
the resumption by Government of the search for the Pole, 
and Mr. Markham’s preface is essentially a catalogue of 
the qualifications of the captain for the Command of an 
Arctic expedition. Apart from the questionable taste of 
this preface and the unpleasant feeling that the book as a 
whole has been written with a purpose, most of those who 
are competent to form an opinion will agree with us that 
in this direction Capt. Markham’s work is premature. 
There is, we are glad to think, little chance of any 
Government Polar Expedition being sent out for a long 
No good could accrue to either science or 
navigation from an expedition similar to our last expensive 
failure, and even the additions to mere geography could 
be of the most trivial importance. While we should be 
glad enough to see the whole of the Polar area explored, 
and to know whether the “‘apex of the world’ is land or 
water, we are content to wait until polar problems of 
much greater scientific importance are solved. The 
result of Sir George Nares’s expedition has been to 
compel the enthusiasts on behalf of the Smith Sound 
Route to abandon it as hopeless, and seek for some other 
gateway to the Pole. In this it may be found they have 
been too hasty, for indeed our knowledge of the con- 
ditions of the Polar area is of the scantiest. The expe- 
dition sent out in the ¥eannette by Mr. Gordon-Bennett 
has been given up by many for lost ; though we are glad 
to learn that the U.S. Government have resolved to send 
out a search expedition. Within recent years the route 
by Franz-Josef Land has become a favourite with many, 
though why this should be so it is difficult to fathom, 
seeing that we know scarcely anything about it. It was 
discovered six years ago by the Payer-Weyprecht expe- 
dition, and since then it has been twice visited—by the 
Willem Barents in 1879, and by Mr. Leigh Smith in his 
yacht last year. Mr. Smith, as we showed at the time of 
his return, did some excellent work, having traced the 
land to a considerable distance to the north-west. He 
returns again next summer, and we trust he will be able 
to add still farther to our knowledge not only of the land 
itself, but of its physical and biological conditions, past 
and present. One or two enthusiasts who hail the 
discovery of a barren Arctic islet as if it were a new 
world, have rushed to the conclusion that Franz-Josef 
Land would form an excellent basis from which to storm 
the Pole. But we consider it useless to discuss the 
question. In a recent article we showed that in every 
country but our own scientific geographers have come to 
the conclusion that a mere search for the Pole is a wanton 
waste of resources, and that the only effective method of 
adding to our knowledge of the Polar area is by a series 
of observations continued over several years carried on at 


456 


NATURE 


| March 17, 1881 


permanent observing stations all round the Arctic region. 
Preparations are now being actively made to begin this 
work next year, and before that time we trust our own 
Government will have seen it to be its duty to join the 
international scheme. If the Geographical Society really 
wishes to advance scientific geography, let it use its influ- 
ence to promote this end; surely it has a higher conception 
of geography than that it consists of mere topography. 

Leaving the purpose of Capt. Markham’s book out of 
account, it is very pleasant reading. He did not break 
up any new ground, but he is a good observer, and has 
been able to make some fresh additions to what is already 
known of Novaya Zemlya and the neighbouring seas. 
He accompanied Sir H. Gore Booth in the Norwegian 
cutter, the Jséjérn, from May to September, 1879. 
They sailed along most of the west coast of Novaya 
Zemlya, passed through Matotschkin Schar into the 
Kara Sea, and sailed down the east coast some distance ; 
afterwards pushing northwards they reached to within 2° 
of Franz-Josef Land, which was all but touched by the 
Willem Barents, with which the /séjorn had forgathered 
in the Schar. Sir H. Gore Booth’s object was sport, and 
very good sport he had, both on the sea, the ice, and 
Novaya Zemlya. Capt. Markham made some useful 
observations on the movements of the ice, and brought 
home valuable collections in zoology, geology, and 
botany, which have been examined and arranged by a 
number of specialists, and printed as an appendix to 
Capt. Markham’s narrative. He is really skilful in the 
use of his pen, and the story of his cruise is quite 
delightful reading. Sir Joseph Hooker’s account of the 
plants of the little expedition in the appendix is specially 
interesting. “ Comparing, then,’ he says, “the Floras of 
the three high Arctic meridians of Novaya Zemlya, lat, 
70°-77°, long. E. 60° ; Spitzbergen, lat. 763°-803°, long. E. 
20°; West Greenland and Smith's Sound, &c., lat. 71°-82°, 
long. W. 60°-70", we find that they present great differ- 
ences, Greenland being the most remarkable—1. From 
the number of species of European types it contains 
which there reach so very high a parallel; 2. From 
differing more in its flora from Spitzbergen and Novaya 
Zemlya than these do from one another; and, 3. From 
the absence of Arctic Legwminose, Caltha, and various 
other plants that extend elsewhere around the Arctic 
circle. These facts favour the conclusion which I have 
expressed in the Appendix to Sir G. Nares’s narrative 
(ii. 307), that the distribution of plants in the Arctic 
regions has been meridional, and that their subsequent 
spread eastward and westward has not been sufficient to 
obliterate the evidence of this prior direction of migration. 
To this conclusion I would now add, that whereas there 
is no difficulty in assuming that Novaya Zemlya and the 
American Polar islands have been peopled with plants by 
migration from the south, no such assumption will explain 
the European character of the Greenland, and especially 
the high northern Greenland vegetation, the main features 
of which favour the supposition that it retains many plants 
which arrived from Europe by a route that crossed the 
Polar area itself, when that area was under geographical 
and climatal conditions which no longer obtain.” 

There are several very good and apparently new illus- 
trations of scenery in Novaya Zemlya, evidently from 
photographs, and two useful maps. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Contributions to the Agricultural Chemistry of Fapan. 
By Prof. E, Kinch. (Zyans. Asiatic Soc. of Japan, 
1880.) 


THIS interesting and valuable paper opens with an 
historical survey of the question: “Is the soil of Japan 
generally fertile?” The observations of former travellers 
and the evidence of recent investigators are used in 
order to show how far the productiveness of Japanese 
soils is due to natural ferv¢é/zty, and how far to artificial 
condition, using these terms in the agricultural senses 
usually attached to them in England. Prof. Kinch has 
collected some analyses of Japanese rocks made by 
various authorities, and has supplemented them by 
analyses of nine soils. The results, so far as nitrogen 
and immediately available phosphoric acid and potash 
are concerned, do not point to any high degree of natural 
fertility. Passing from the soil-question to that of manures, 
he gives analyses of fossil shells and of various vegetable 
ashes employed for enriching the land. An examination 
of crude nitre yielded 56°5 per cent. of pure potassium 
nitrate. The Japanese use certain leguminous plants 
for green manuring; they also employ as manure the 
cakes of oil-seeds, malt dust from rice, millet, and barley, 
the residues from the manufacture of rice-beer and soy, 
and the “cleanings” of rice-grain. Analyses of these 
materials have been made by Mr. Kinch, A waste pro- 
duct obtained in the manufacture of indigo was found to 
contain about 3 per cent. of potash, 5°75 per cent. of 
phosphorus pentoxide, and nitrogen equal to I°7o per 
cent. of ammonia. 

After a few remarks on fish manures and the composi- 
tion of the sweepings from barbers’ shops, Mr. Kinch 
turns to the subject of Japanese foods. The “ glutinous” 
rice was found to differ from common rice mainly by con- 
taining Zess gluten—only 5°1 per cent. instead of 6°1—both 
figures being extremely low for a main article of diet. In 
this particular three kinds of Japanese millet gave more 
favourable figures, about 12 being the average percentage 
of gluten or flesh-formers, . 

Mr. Kinch has examined the soy bean and its chief 
products with care. A white round variety of this legu- 
minous seed gave no less than 21 per cent. of fat and 
nearly 38 per cent. of albuminoids or flesh-formers. The 
seeds of Phaseolus radiatus contained about 4} per cent. 
of fat and 18 per cent. of albuminoids. The gigantic 
radish of Japan much resembles the common turnip in 
composition, and contains 95 per cent. of moisture. The 
analyses of seaweeds eaten in Japan are numerous, and 
furnish some interesting facts concerning an important 
source of food greatly neglected in Europe. A few details 
concerning the waters of Japan and certain matters 
relating to the silk industry conclude a paper which, 
though it is of necessity unsystematic and imperfect, yet 
contains a large amount of condensed and useful informa- 
tion about the chemico-agricultural subjects which the 
author discusses. ANH: 


Experimental Chemistry for Junior Students. By J. 
Emerson Reynolds, M.D.,F.R.S. Part I. Introductory. 
Pp. 142. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1881.) 


THE aim and the plan of this little book clearly mark it 
out among the numerous small treatises on practical 
chemistry which flow in such a steady stream from the 
press. ‘he aim is to teach a beginner in chemistry the 
leading principles of the science by a graduated course 
of experiments which he is himself to perform; the plan 
is to begin with the fundamental differences between 
chemical and mechanical action, and to lead the experi- 
mentalist on to the laws of definite proportion, and of 
general chemical action. Quantitative experiments are 
introduced at an early part of the course; those chosen 
seem to be well suited for the fulfilment of the author’s 


March 17, 1881] 


NATURE 


457 


aim, being fairly easily conducted, and at the same time 
definite and trustworthy in their results. 

The principal chemical differences between metals and 
non-metals are illustrated by experiments on hydrogen 
and oxygen ; the meaning of the terms “acid,” ‘‘base,’’ 
“salt,” &c., are clearly demonstrated by experimental 
evidence. The clearness of the enunciation of the fun- 
damental assumptions of the modern atomic theory ; the 
method, experimentally illustrated, of determining mole- 
cular and atomic weights ; the experimental proof of the 
splitting of elementary molecules in chemical changes ; 
the method of determining the atomic heat of a metal ; 
the proof of the gaseous laws; the determination of the 
volume of unit weight of hydrogen, and the application 
of this determination to the calculation of the weights of 
gaseous volumes generally ; these and other experiments 
and deductions are all admirably described. 

The author is certainly to be congratulated on the pro- 
duction of this book ; the care and trouble bestowed on 
it are doubtless not to be measured by the small number 
of pages which it contains ; the result is most satisfac- 
tory. No better guide to the study of chemical science 
could be placed in the hands of the beginner than this 
modest little volume of Prof. Reynolds’. M.M.P.M. 


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. No 
notice ts taken of anonymous communications, 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible, The pressureon his space ts so great that it 
ts impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


Barometric and Solar Cycles 


I sEE that Prof. Hill regards the barometric evidence as 
favourable to the hypothesis that the sun is most powerful when 
there are fewest spots on his surface. Perhaps I may therefore 
be allowed to state the reasons which have induced me to enter- 
tain a contrary opinion, which are, I imagine, the same as have 
also occurred to others, I quite agree with Prof. Hill that the 
true relation between the variations of sun-spot area and baro- 
metric pressure will ultimately be discovered by means of the 
admirable weather-maps of the United States. Nevertheless, 
we must wait until these have been produced in sufficient 
number before we attempt to generalise. 

I do not think therefore that Prof. Hill is warranted in 
drawing any conclusion from a single map, however important, 
such as that for July, 1878—a time of minimum sun-spots. 

Referring to your article (NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 567), I find 
the evidence from this map to be summarised as follows :— 

“Tt may be worth remarking that this increased pressure over 
the oceans and diminished pressure over the land of the northern 
hemisphere is in accordance with what might be expected to 
result from an increased solar radiation ; whilst on the other 
hand the increased pressure over Southern and Central Asia, 
and diminished pressure in the southern hemisphere, is not in 
direct accordance with this supposition.” 

It thus appears that this evidence is after all of a very mixed 
nature. 

Regarding the unequal distribution of barometric pressure as 
without doubt caused by tke sun, we may with much justice 
imagine that whenever the sun is most powerful these peculiarities 
of distribution will be greatest and most apparent. If we now 
look at a map of isobaric lines (Buchan, ‘‘ Handy Book of 
Meteorology”) we shall find that the Indo-Malayan region is 
one that for the mean of the year has a barometric pressure 
probably below the average. Now during years of powerful 
solar action we should imagine that this peculiarity would be 
increased. But this is precisely what all the Indian observers 
have found for years with most sun-spots. On the other hand, 
Western Siberia in the winter season has a pressure decidedly 
above the average, and we should therefore imagine that during 
years of powerful solar action the winter pressure in Western 
Siberia would be particularly high. This again is the state of 
things that Mr. Blanford has found in his discussion of the 


Russian stations (NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 479) to correspond with 
years of most sun spots. 

It therefore appears that the barometric evidence, as far as it 
goes, is favourable to the belief that years of maximum sun-spots 
are years of greatest solar power. BALFOUR STEWART 


Bi-Centenary of Calderon 


I AM requested by H. E. Don A. Aguilar, Secretary-General of 
the Royal Academy of Science of Madrid, to beg you will have 
the goodness to insert in your journal the inclosed notice from 
that body, offering a prize for an essay on the works of 
Calderon de la Barca. I am aware that the other Aca- 
demies (History and Spanish) have already offered prizes for 
similar works, but this being intimately associated with science, 
the Academy in that branch has thought it desirable to offer a 
separate and special one. ; 

I trust I may count on your kind hospitality for a foreign 
colleague if not trespassing too far on your valuable space. 

F, J. RICARDE-SEAVER 

Conservative Club, St. James Street, S.W., March 11 


RoyaL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, MADRID. 


Programme (adopted by the Council) for the adjudication of a 
Prize in Commemoration of the Bi-centenary of Calderon 
dela Barca, 1681, May 25, 1881. 

The Royal Academy of Science of Madrid being desirous 
amongst others of commemorating the bi-centenary of the great 
Spanish dramatic poet Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca, offers 
a prize for public competition on the following theme :— 

‘The conception of Nature and her laws deducible from 
the works of Calderon, as the expression of the standard of 
scientific knowledge amongst individuals at that period who, 
without specially professing science, excelled in the cultivation 
of letters. An analysis of the works of contemporary poets m 
support of their theme being optional with competitors.” 


Conditions. 

Article 1.—The author of the successful essay will receive a 
prize consisting of a bronze medal with the legend of the Royal 
Academy of Science and the sum of 500 pesetas (20/.), as also 
200 copies of the prize essay printed and bound at the cost of 
the Academy. . 

Article 2.—The competition shaJl remain open from this date 
up to the roth May next. : 

Article 3.—The essays must be written in Spanish or Latin. 

Article 4.—These must be delivered or forwarded to the 
Secretary of the Academy (H. E. Don A, Aguilar, 2, Plaza de 
la Villa, Madrid) before the above date, with a distinctive 
endorsement on the outer cover, so as to be easily recognised, 
but without further notes or indication whatever. 

Accompanying the essay the author must transmit a sealed 
letter bearing the same endorsement as the essay itself, and 
containing izside the name and address of the author. 

Further conditions may be learned from 

A. AGUILAR, Secretary-General 

2, Plaza dela Villa, Madrid, February 12 


The Photophone 


THREE years ago, whilst experimenting on the action of radiant 
heat and light on the electrical resistance of substances, I was 
induced to believe that coating selenium with varnish or lamp- 
black would largely increase its sensibility to light. I therefore 
annealed a stick of selenium about 2 cm. in length and 5 cm, in 
diameter, having previously melted into each end a platinum 
wire, and thus obtained a specimen which, though of very high 
resistance, was exceedingly sensitive to the action of light. The 
effect of diffused daylight was tested in the following manner :— 
The specimen was placed in a glass box and connected directly 
with two Leclanché cells and a very delicate Thomson’s galvano- 
meter having a resistance of 6000 ohms ; a deflection of, as far 
as I now remember, about 300 divisions of the scale was pro- 
duced, and the light was then brought to zero by means of the 
adjusting magnet; a dark blind which had previously been 
drawn down was now pulled up, and the result was a deflection 
of about 100 divisions in the same direction as before. The glass” 
box was placed three yards in front anda little to one side of 
the window, which was closed, and the sun at the time (about 
4 p.m. July, 1877) was on the other side of the house. The 


458 


NATURE 


| March 17, 1881 


selenium was then coated with shell-lac varnish, and about two 
hours afterwards again tested in the same manner as before, when 
the light was found to produce a deflection of 220 divisions, or 
more than twice the previous amount. The action of radiant 
heat was similar to that of light in the case of this particular 
specimen, but I have little doubt that ey specimen may be 
zendered more sensitive to light by coating it with varnish or 
lampblack. I hope that this suggestion will prove of service to 
those philosophers who may aspire to ‘‘hear a beam of light” 
or to ‘see by electricity,” and shall be glad to hear that such 
has been the case. HERBERT TOMLINSON 
King’s College, Strand, March 7 


Cave Animals and Multiple Centres of Species 


THE readers of Semper’s ‘‘ Existenzbedingungen der Thiere,”’ 
now translated into English, will find (vol. ii. p. 268 of the 
German edition) an interesting discussion on the question of 
monophyletic or polyphyletic evolution of species, the author 
decidedly inclining to the latter hypothesis. Considering that at 
the root of the manifold and difficult problems here involved, 
there is the relatively simple one of single or multiple centres of 
each species in a biographical sense, I take leave to ask the 
following question, hoping for an answer from among your 
readers versed in these matters. 

To me it seems impossible to maintain the single centres of 
species in a strict and definite sense without also maintaining the 
single progenitor of each species, which latter view, formerly 
considered as a necessary assumption, has been given up by Mr. 
Darwin in Chapter IV. of the later editions of the ‘Origin of 
Species” (5th ed. p. 103, 104). Of course the acceptance of 
single centres, in the sense of more or less restricted areas of 
origination, may remain valid for the vast m jority of species— 
but this is very different from considering it, once for all, as ‘a 
necessary consequence of the adoption of Darwinian views,” as 
has been formerly said by Mr, Bentham (NATURE, vol. ii. 
p- I12). 

Now, I have sometines thought that there might be a test for 
the fossibility of multiple centres, which, eventually, would amount 
almost to an experimental demonstration—namely : whether there 
are cases of the same species of blind animals occurring in different 
caves distant from and without subterranean communication with 
each other? Should such cases occur it would be most improbable 
that the animals in question had been transported from one cave 
to the other in the modified state, and most probable that they 
had been independently evolved in each cave from identical 
species which entered it from without. I formerly noted one 
instance perhaps in point, viz. a statement of Prof. Cope’s 
(NATURE, vol. vii. p. 11) that ‘the blind fish of the Wyandotte 
Cave is the same as that of the Mammoth, the Amblyopsis 
Sfelaeus, Dekay,” but I'am not aware whether subterranean 
communication is, or has been, impossible in this instance, 
Perhaps more decisive cases have become known of late ? 

Freiburg im Breisgau, March 4 D. WETTERHAN 


Prehistoric Europe 


WILL you kindly allow me to correct a clerical error in my 
letter which appeared in Natur, vol. xxiii. p- 433. For 
“**hash-up’ of ¢he species,” read ‘‘‘hash-up’ of species.” A 
number of the species from the Upper or Interglacial Bone-bel 
of Mont Perrier (and some of which are mentioned in my letter) 
are of course too characteristically Pleistocene to be claimed by 
Prof. Dawkins as Pliocene forms, and do not therefore appeir 
in his list of Upper Pliocene species to which I referred. 

Perth, March 14 JAMES GEIKIE 


Measuring the Height of Clouds 


In Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 244, Mr. Edwin Clark gives a 
method whereby the height or distance of clouds may be 
measured. This end has already been attained by me, several 
years ago, and I believe with adequate success. I have also 
worked out the method in detail, so that its practical realisation 
no longer offers any difficulty. It is very simple and easy, and 
the apparatus (““nephoscope”) is not difficult to make. A full 
description of the nephoscope will be found in the Zeitschrift der 
Oesterreich. Ges. fiir Meteorologie, edited by Jelinek and Hann, 
vol, ll. Pp. 337, in so far as the instrument serves for measuring 
the dévection and velocity of the passage of clouds. In order also to 
ascertain the absolute height of clouds (N.B. all without calcula- 


tion) I have introduced an improvement. This and a guide to 
practical use I have published in the same Zeétschrift (vol. ix. 
September, 1874, pp. 257-61). I believe Mr. Edwin Clark will 
find in the article referred to his idea fully worked out. 

C. BRAUN, 


Kalocsa, Hungary, March 3 _ Director of the Observatory 


Occultation of 73 Piscium 


I OBSERVED here this evening the occultation of 73 Piscium 
by Jupiter, which was predicted in your ‘‘ Astronomical Column” 
under the date December 23, 1880 (NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 183). 
At th, 52m. 30s. G.M.T. the star was hanging on the limb of 
the planet, and by rh. 54m. it had entirely disappeared. 

The phenomenon strongly resembled the occultation of a 
satellite, except that the disappearance was more rapid. But it 
was not instantaneous as I had expected. The planet and star 
appeared to cohere for about one and a half minute. The 
contrast in their colours was very marked, Jupiter appearing of 
a yellowish tinge, while the star shone out white like a diamond. 
During the occultation the red spot was on the planet’s disk, 
and its following end was in about the same meridian as the 
point of the star’s occultation. - 

I had no micrometer, but I inclose a diagram showing the 
estimated points of occultation and reappearance. 


S 


Point of 
reappearance 


Point ‘of 
appearance 


The G.M.T. of reappearance was 2h. 44m., when the star 
was again observed to hang on to the planet’s limb, 

The telescope used was a 4} inch refractor by Cooke 
equatorially mounted, with a power of 96. 

The plauet was well placed for observation,-being nearly in 
the zenith. 

Before and after the occultation Jupiter appeared as if with 
five moons, the star being almost indistinguishable from the 
satellites. 

As the occultation could not be observed in Europe these few 
notes may possibly prove of some interest. 

A diagonal (prism) eyepiece was used in making the sketch. 

Meean Meer, Lahore, February 3 H. COLLeTtT 


Colours of British Butterflies 


Most of the protectively coloured British butterflies pair either 
on the ground as the ‘‘ Blues,”’ or on low herbage as the majority, 
or on the leaves of trees, asisome of the ‘* Hair-streaks,” and with 
closed wings. The wings of both sexes are usually opened as 
widely as possible immediately before copulation, 

I have been struck by the fact, which I may mention in refer- 
ence to the remark of Mr. J. Innes Rogers (NATURE, vol. xxiii. 
p. 435), that I have never seen the ‘‘ peacock” attacked by any 
British bird, and I have often watched him flaunting his colours 
in the presence of shrikes, flycatchers, and other—one would 
imagine dangerous —company. W. CLEMENT LEY 

Ashby Parva, Lutterworth, March 11 


Lecture Representation of the Aurora Borealis 


I HAVE recently employed a simple device for giving to an 
audience a vivid idea of an aurora, and that has been to paint a 


March 17, 1881 | 


representation of it with Balmain’s luminous paint. When dry 
the drawing may be hung up in the lecture-hall and covered with 
black tissue-paper until required. At the appointed time the 
lights are lowered, the tissue-paper withdrawn, and magnesium 
wire burnt in front of the painting. I had-last week the pleasure 
of showing this to an audience of 500 persons, and from the 
expressions of curiosity and approval found it to be a very 
taking experiment. Wm. ACKROYD 
Sowerby Bridge, March 10 


Squirrels Crossing Water 


HAVING read in NATURE the two interesting communications 
on Squirrels Crossing Water, I was so free as to cite them in my 
paper Zumér, requesting the readers to let me know whether any 
of them had seen instances of squirrels taking to water here in 
Bohemia. Upon this I received from my friend Prof, A Tiraseh 
of Litomysl the following :— 

“*You seem to doubt of squirrels taking to water, and I hasten 
to give you notice of what I myself witnessed when a boy, With 
the help of other young fellows like myself I succeeded in driving 
a squirrel down from an old ash-tree that stood in our garden, 
not far from the River Medhuje (Metan). The squirrel must 
have come from the other side of the water, where there was a 
wood, and must have crossed the river. Of this however I 
cannot be sure, but when driven down from the tree, and seeing 
its way to landward cut off, the squirrel turned to the river, and 
sprang in, I following it. Now it swam very cleverly, but 
was overtaken by me in the middle of the water, and brought 
back in triumph, of course with my hands all bleeding from its 
sharp teeth, which the animal used cleverly too.” 

Prague, March 13 T. V. SLADEK 


Tacitus on the Aurora 


THERE is a passage in the ‘‘ Germania” of Tacitus (chapter 
xly.) which I do not think can have ever been examined by the 
historians of natural science, or it would have created a con- 
siderable stir amongst them. Side by side witha plain account 
—probably the earliest written one—of an arctic twilight, there 
lurks in it a description of the aurora borealis, which moreover 
lends countenance to the still prevailing notion that the northern 
lights are accompanied by sound. 

Speaking of the Suiones, a tribe on the northern borders of 
Germany, the great writer says :—‘‘ Beyond them {s another sea, 
calm even to stagnation, by which the circle of the earth is 
believed to be surrounded and confined ; because the last gleam 
of the setting sun lingers till he rises again, and so brightly that 
it dims the stars. I[t is believed too that a sound is heard, that 
the forms of gods and rays from a head are seen (persuasio 
adjicit sonum audiri insuper formas deorum et radios capitis 
adspici). Up to that point [however]—and the report [I have 
given] is true—everything is natural.” 

As to the question of sounds being heard, the din of carts and 
factories in our city, and the roar of trains in our suburbs make 
an observation here for determining it impossible; while the 
rarity of the phenomenon in England generally keeps spectators 
from being on the watch. But I have heard an intelligent old 
man who has often gazed on the bright streamers during the clear 
still nights of Aberdeenshire declare that he has plainly observed 
sharp switching sounds to proceed from them. It seems to me 
probable, since electricity can change into sound and takes part 
in producing the aurora, that the spectacle is attended by 
audible vibrations, M.L. Rouse 

Chislehurst, Kent 


ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF LIVING AT 
GREAT ELEVATIONS ABOVE THE LEVEL 
OF THE SEA? 


a Ue to this time most of the loftiest portions of the 
earth are totally unexplored, and this arises princi- 

pally from the fact that the mountaineer, in addition to 
experiencing all of the troubles which occur to other 
travellers, has to deal with some which are peculiar to his 
work, I do not now refer to the ‘distressing hamor- 
1 Extracts made, by permission of the author, from a lecture delivered 


by Edward Whymper to the Society of Arts in the Theatre at South Ken- 
sington, March g, 1881—‘‘ On Chimborazo and Cotopaxi.’’ 


NATURE 


459 


rhages,’ ‘alarming vomitings,’ and ‘ painful excoriations’ 
which are said to afflict him. Hamorrhage and excoria- 
tion are rather large words, and they are apt to be alarming 
if they are not translated. But they do not seem so very 
formidable if they are rendered ‘bleeding at the nose’ 
and ‘loss of skin through sunburn’ ; and it may perhaps 
tend still further to allay alarm if I say that I have never 
known bleeding at the nose to occur upon a mountain 
except to those who were subject to the complaint ; while 
with regard to vomitings, although such unpleasant oc- 
currences do happen, they have only been known when 
persons have taken that which has disagreed with them. 

“There is, however, behind these, another trouble, which 
cannot be dismissed so lightly. All travellers, without 
exception, who have ever attained to great altitudes, have 
spoken of having been affected by a mysterious complaint, 
and this complaint is known to affect native races living 
in high mountain regions, as well as casual travellers. 
With us it is usually called mountain sickness, There 
are many native names for it, and numerous conjectures 
have been put forward as to its cause. Very commonly it 
is supposed to be the work of evil spirits, or mysterious 
‘local influences’; but there is no doubt that it is simply 
an effect which is the result of the diminution in the 
atmospheric pressure which is experienced as one goes 
upward. The reduction which takes piace at great heights 
is quite sufficient to account for disturbance of the human 
system. At 20,000 feet pressure is less than half the 
amount that it is at the level of the sea; that is to say, 
whereas at the level of the sea atmospheric pressure is 
generally capable of sustaining a column of mercury of 
thirty inches, at 20,000 feet it will not sustain a column of 
fifteen inches. * a = x 

“From air-pump experiments, and from purely philo- 
sophical considerations, it is obvious that the human 
system must be liable to derangement if subjected to 
sudden diminution of the atmospheric pressure to which 
it has been accustomed. These disturbances have often 
been so severe as to render mountain travellers incapable, 
and their lives well-nigh unendurable ; and it is scarcely 
to, be wondered at that they have endeavoured to escape 
from the infliction by descending into lower regions. I 
do not know a single instance of a traveller who, having 
been attacked in this way, has deliberately, so to speak, 
sat it out, and had a pitched battle with the enemy. Nor 
am I aware that any one has even suggested the bare 
possibility of coming out victorious from such an en- 
counter. Yet, upon doing so, depended the chance of 
pushing explorations into the highest regions of the earth; 
and I long felt a keen desire to know whether my own 
organisation, at least, could not accommodate itself to the 
altered conditions. From considerations which would 
occupy too long to enter into now, I gradually acquired 
the conviction that patience and perseverance were the 
principal requisites for success ; and the journey of which 
I am now going to speak was undertaken with the view 
of bringing this matter, amongst other things, to a definite 
issue. In the course of it we camped out at very great 
heights. Twenty-one nights were,spent above 14,000 feet 
above the level of the sea; eight more above 15,000 feet; 
thirteen more above 16,000 feet ; six more above 17,000feet ; 
and one more at 19,450 feet. I shall not now anticipate 
what you will presently hear, and I have made these 
preliminary observations to render less frequent the inter- 
ruption of the narrative, and for the purpose of explaining 
allusions in it which might otherwise perhaps have been 
only half-understood.” 

After describing the route taken to Chimborazo, Mr. 
Whymper proceeded to mention the first journey he made 
to that mountain; and said that whilst returning from it 
to the town of Guaranda (8870 feet), whilst still about 
13,000 feet above the sea, he was overcome by dizziness, 
feverishness, and intense headache, and had to be sup- 
ported by two of his people for the greater part of the 


400 


NATURE 


| March 17, 1881 


way. ‘‘Imagining that I was attacked by fever, I took | our pipes almost refused to burn, for they, like ourselves, 


thirty grains of sulphate of quinine in the course of the 
night, and was covered up with a mountain of blankets ; 
but next morning there was nothing the matter, and as 
the symptoms were precisely those which occurred at a 
later period, when we were evidently affected by low 
atmospheric pressure, I ultimately concluded that it was 
through this that the indisposition was caused. 

“ At this point allow me to say a few words further with 
regard to the troubles which occur to persons who get to 
great altitudes. Although the heights of the Andes which 
we were about to visit had not been well determined, 
there was reason to believe that several of them ap- 
yproached, if they did not exceed, 20,000 feet. At the 
time of our departure there were only three tolerably 
well-authenticated instances of persons having reached 
that height on land, and I could learn nothing whatever 
which was of the least service respecting the experiences 
of those who were engaged in those expeditions. But 
from others, who had reached altitudes of from 17,000 to 
18,000 feet, I heard a confirmation of my supposition 
that, at such great elevations, I ought not to expect a 
continuance of the immunity from mountain sickness 
which I had hitherto enjoyed. 

“J made up my mind, therefore, before we left, that, 
sooner or later, we should suffer like the rest of the 
world ; but, being of opinion, as I have already said, 
that patience would overcome mountain sickness, it was 
my intention, on all our expeditions, first to establish 
camps as high as we could force the natives and mules. 
As it would be impossible to retain the natives at those 
positions, it became necessary to provide ourselves with 
food sufficient for weeks, or even for months, so that, in 
the event of our failing in our enterprises, either 
from badness of weather, mountain sickness, or other 
causes, we should not have the mortification of being 
obliged to abandon our positions simply from want of 
sustenance.” 

Mr. Whymper then described the establishment of 
his second camp on Chimborazo at the height of 
16,500 feet above the level of the sea, and said, 
«‘ Although we had succeeded in establishing our 
camp on the selected spot, it had only been done 
by the greatest exertions on the part of my people 
and their beasts. The mules were forced up to the 
very last yard that they could go, and staggering under 
their burdens (which were scarcely more than half the 
weight they were accustomed to carry), stopped repeatedly, 
and by their trembling, falling on their knees, and general 
behaviour, showed that they had been driven to the verge 
of exhaustion. When we arrived at the second camp, we 
ourselves were in good condition ; which was to be ex- 
pected, as we had ridden up the entire distance from 
Guaranda; but within an hour I found myself lying on 
my back, along with both of the Carrels, placed hors-de- 
combat, and incapable of making the least exertion. We 
knew that our enemy was upen us at last, and that we 
were experiencing our first attack of mountain sickness. 

“We were feverish, had intense headaches, and were un- 
able to satisfy our desire for air, except by breathing with 
open mouths. This naturally parched the throat, and 
produced a craving for drink, which we were unable to 
satisfy, partly from the difficulty of obtaining it, and 
partly from the difficulty of swallowing it. For, when 
we got enough, we were unable to drink, we could 
only sé; and not to save our lives could we have taken 
a quarter of a pint at a draught. Before one-tenth part 
of it was down, we were obliged to stop for breath, and 
gasp again, until our throats were as dry as ever. Besides 
having our normal rate of breathing largely accelerated, 
we found it impossible to get along, without every now 
and then giving a spasmodic gulp, just like fishes when 
they are taken out of water. Of course there was no 
desire to eat ; but we wished to smoke ; and found that 


wanted more oxygen. 

This condition of affairs lasted all night and all the 
next day, and I then managed to pluck up spirit enough 
to get out the chlorate of potash, which, by the advice of 
Dr. Marcet, I had brought in case of need. Chlorate of 
potash was, I believe, first used in mountain travel by 
Dr. Henderson, in the Karakorum range, and it was sub- 
sequently employed on Sir Douglas Forsyth’s Mission to 
Yarkand in 1873-4. The surgeon to the expedition states 
that he distributed little bottles of it amongst the members 
of the embassy, and says that, from his own experience, 
he can testify to its value in mitigating the distressing 
symptoms produced by a continued deprivation of the 
natural quantity of oxygen’in the atmosphere. Before 
my departure, Dr. Marcet urged me to experiment, with 
the view of confirming these experiences. Ten grains to a 
wine-glass of water was the dose recommended, to be 
repeated every two or three hours if necessary. I say 
distinctly that I thought it was of use, though it must be 
admitted it was not easy to determine, as one #zg/t have 
recovered just as well without taking any at all. Anyhow, 
after taking it the intensity of the symptoms diminished ; 
there were fewer gaspings, and in a degree a feeling of 
relief. I am so far in favour of its use, that I shall 
always carry it on future expeditions. Louis Carrel also 
submitted himself to experiment, and seemed to derive 
benefit, but Jean Antoine, the elder of the two, sturdily 
refused to take any doctor’s stuff, which he regards as an 
insult to intelligence. * 2 i * * us 

“Tt seems curious to relate that Mr. Perring (interpreter) 
did not appear to suffer at all. Except for him we should 
have fared somewhat badly. He kept the fire going—no 
easy task, for the fire appeared to suffer from want of 
oxygen just like ourselves, and it required such incessant 
blowing that I shall consider for the future a pair of 
bellows an indispensable part of a mountaineer’s equip- 
ment. Mr. Perring behaved on Chimborazo in an ex- 
emplary manner. He melted snow, and brought us 
drink, and attended to our wants in general. It goes, 
therefore, somewhat against the grain to say that he had 
been for a number of years in Ecuador much addicted to 
pursuits which play havoc with the human frame. He 
was so far debilitated that he could not walk a quarter of 
a mile on a flat road without desiring to sit down, or 100 
yards on a mountain side without being od/zged to rest. 
Had I been aware of his previous history, he certainly 
would not have accompained us. 

“©You will naturally inquire—How can you account for 
this man, of shattered constitution (who also was no 
mountaineer) being unaffected, when the three others, 
who where all more or less accustomed to high as- 
cents, were for a time, completely incapable? The 
explanation appears to be this. Perring had been for a 
long time residing in the interior, at heights of from 
gooo to 10,000 feet, and had several times passed back- 
wards and forwards over the Arenal, a height of over 14,000 
feet. The mean elevation at which he had resided during 
the previous ten years was, in all probability, much higher 
than the mean elevation at which we others had lived ; 
and it would probably have been found, had he been sub- 
jected to examination, that his manner of respiration, and 
even his organs of respiration, had become better adapted 
to a pressure of 16} inches, which was the height of the 
mercurial column at our second camp.” * * x 

Mr. Whymper and his Italian mountaineers remained 
in the same condition for several days. At length the 
Carrels, becoming better, were eager to be off exploring, 
and they were sent upwards to find a higher camping 
place. ‘‘ They returned soon after dusk, both extremely 
exhausted. They could scarcely keep on their legs, and 
threw themselves down and went to sleep, without eating 
or drinking. Their condition, and the report which I heard 
next day, rendered it certain that our second camp, as a 


March 17, 1881 | 


starting-point, was not placed high enough. It appeared 
that the Carrels, neglecting their instructions, had madea 
push towards the summit, but had reached a height of only 
about 19,000 feet. As they were quite unencumbered, 
carrying no instruments, and only enough food for their 
own use, and had no traveller to look after, and yet came 
back quite exhausted, it was obvious that we should have 
to get still higher up before we could make a serious 
effort to reach the summit. So, as soon as he was well 
enough, I sent Louis with Perring down to the first 
camp to fetch up a tent, which had been left there, and 
when this arrived we were in a position to go forward 
again. 

“On the following morning I went myself up the ridge 
to look for a higher camping place, and found one on 
the eastern side on some broken rocks, at a height of 
17,400 feet. By this time I was in rather better condition 
than the Carrels. TFeverishness had disappeared, and 
my blood had resumed its normal temperature. The 
gaspings had entirely ceased, and headache had 
gone. You will perhaps inquire how | knew that I was 
feverish ; for in regard to this matter one is often mistaken, 
and fever is supposed when it does not exist. By the 
advice of the distinguished physician whose name has 
been already mentioned, Dr. Marcet, I had provided 
myself with a registering clinical thermometer for the 
purpose of taking blood temperature at great elevations. 
This was duly done, and in respect to this matter 
nothing more need be said than that at our greatest 
heights the temperature of the blood was (just as it is at 
the level of the sea) higher during periods of warmth, 
and lower when it was unusually cold ; but stood at its 
normal height, when the thermometer was at 60° or there- 

. abouts, and did not appear to be affected by low atmo- 
spheric pressure at all. In recommending me to take 
this little instrument (which I have in my hand), Dr. 
Marcet rendered me a great service ; and amongst all 
the devices and instruments which have been pressed 
upon the attention of travellers in general, of late years, 
I know nothing equal to it in importance. By constant 
observation, I was able to detect the earliest advances of 
fever; and by taking proper steps in time, was able to 
get through the entire journey without having an attack 
of fever worth mentioning. Its expense is trifling, and 
it can easily be carried in the waistcoat pocket. When 
we were first laid on our backs by mountain sickness, 
it showed that my blood temperature mounted to 100°°4, 
but by the end of the year it had fallen to its usual 
height, viz., 98°. Still, although the more disagreeable 
symptoms had gone, we found ourselves remaining com- 
paratively lifeless and feeble, with a strong disposition 
to sit down when we ought to have been moving.” * * 

Mr. Whymper then described his first ascent of Chim- 
borazo, and concluded his account of this mountain by 
saying, ‘‘ My residence on Chimborazo thus extended over 
seventeen days. One night was passed at a height of 
14,400 feet, ten at a height of 16,500 feet, and six at 
17,300 feet. During this time, besides ascending to the 
summit, I also went three times as high as 18,500 feet. 
When we quitted the mountain, ad/ trace of mountain 
sickness had disappeared, nor did it touch us again until 
we arrived at the summit of Cotopaxi. * te * 

“ The height of Cotopaxi is 19,600 feet. Our camp was 
placed about 130 feet below the loftiest point, and it was the 
most elevated position at which any of us had ever slept. 
We remained there twenty-six consecutive hours, feeling 
slightly at first the effects of low pressure, having the 
same symptoms as we had noticed on Chinborazo; and 
we used chlorate of potash again with good effect. All 
signs of mountain sickness had passed away before we 
commenced the descent, and ¢hey did not recur again 
during the journey. * * a 4 a 

“This, ladies and gentlemen, nearly brings my remarks 
to a close, and, in conclusion, permit me to say a word 


NATURE 


461 


more in respect to mountain exploration in general. 
Amongst certain persons it is still fashionable to affect a 
description of scorn, bordering on contempt, for anything 
in connection with mountains and mountain work. None 
of us feel, perhaps, very deeply the criticism of those who 
are evidently ignorant of the subjects on which they talk ; 
and, in this matter, speaking for myself, I rather look 
forward to the time, which will surely come, when the 
study of mountains, the ascent of mountains, and even 
prolonged residence on mountains, will be found essential 
for the prosecution of a score of sciences. Before this 
could be carried out, it was necessary to learn whether 
life could be made endurable at great heights. We were 
always haunted by the fear of an invisible enemy who 
might strike us down at any moment. What we wanted 
to know was, not whether life could exist at a height of 
20,000 feet (that was settled seventy-five years ago, by 
Lussac), but whether man could become so far habituated 
to the low pressure which is experienced at that height, 
as to be able to live without inconvenience, and to do 
useful work. I went to the Andes in search of an answer 
to these questions, you have heard the story, and can 
form an opinion whether it affords encouragement for 
the prosecution of exploration in other quarters,’’ 


ON SOME POINTS RELATING TO THE 
DYNAMICS OF “RADIANT MATTER” 


A5 the important researches of Mr. Crookes may be 

said to have made the evidence of the molecular 
state of matter (grounded on indirect reasoning) almost 
ocularly visible—-the mechanics of gaseous matter there- 
fore acquires a fresh interest. As some years back the 
present writer devoted much thought to the clear realisa- 
tion of the nature of the motions of the molecules of gases 
in connection with a proposed explanation of the mode of 
propagation of sound on the basis of the kinetic theory 
(published in the Pxzlosophical Magazine for June, 1877), 
it then appeared to him that the systematic regularity of 
the motions of the molecules of gases was not in practice 
so generally appreciated as it might be; although of 
course the mathematical basis of the subject was well 
established. It has been not unusual to speak of the 
extreme “ irregularity’? of the normal motions of gaseous 
molecules—which is undoubtedly true of any molecule 
taken individually. The comparison of the molecules of 
a gas to a “swarm of bees” (sometimes adopted), though 
no doubt highly convenient and useful to aid the con- 
ceptions in some respects, has probably gone to support 
(rather than not) the idea of a kind of confusion in the 
motions of the constituent molecules of gases; whereby 
the systematic vegw/arity (or symmetry of the motion) 
tends to be left out of view. This will perhaps appear 
more evident if I state the following proposition in regard 
to a gas, which is only a direct corollary from the esta- 
blished mathematical principles—true in every state of 
the gas, but emphasised by rarefaction. 

The normal motion of the molecules of a gas takes place 
in such a way, that every point in the gas ts a “vadiant 
point,” such that matter passes to and from that point (to 
a certain distance) in the direction of rays; ie. as if @ 
luminous point were situated at the point in question. 
Or more generally put: If finely subdivided matter be in 
motion in space according to its own dynamics, every 
point of space becomes a radiant point ; the extent of the 
radiation of matter depending on its fineness (other things 
being equal). 

It is, I believe, the losing sight of the systematic regu- 
larity (or symmetry) of the motion of the molecules of a 
gas in its normal state, which (as it would seem, at least) 
has caused the connection of gaseous motion with the 
conditions fer gravity to be overlooked—or the fact to 
escape realisation that on rarefying the gas, this symmetry 


| of motion (existing in the normal state of the gas) gradu- 


402 NATURE 


| March.17, 188% 


ally merges, without break of continuity, into the radiant 
streams of matter moving in the right directions to produce 
gravity under Le Sage’s sheltering principle, without the 
necessity for adopting any of his postulates as to advection 
of motion, or assuming a swfply! of matter from ultra- 
mundane space in continuous currents (‘‘ ultramundane 
corpuscles’”’). As this subject was carefully thought out 
and dealt with by me in the Philosophical Magazine for 
September and November, 1877, &c., I may perhaps 
claim some right to say a few words about “radiant 
matter.” ? : 

The immense importance—in its possible practical 
applications—of this remarkable self-correcting principle 
(directly based on the mathematical results of the kinetic 
theory) whereby particles of matter, left to their own 
dynamics, rigidly adjust their motions so as to move in a 
“radiant”? manner [and to return energetically to this 
beautifully symmetrical kind of motion when after dis- 
turbance they are left to themselves], has, I venture to 
think, not been duly appreciated. For, looking at the 
case broadly, it would seem that this dynamical principle 
is capable of affording a means for substantially satisfying 
at least three fundamental objects in nature. For, firstly, 
it will appear evident that we can have thereby a means 
perpetually present in every point of space for carrying 
energy in a ‘‘radiant’’ manner (¢.¢. in the direction of the 
rays of light from a point) in all possible directions. 
Secondly, by this automatic system we can have a 
mechanism capable of causing (under the sheltering prin- 
ciple of Le Sage) the approach of the molecules of gross 
matter at any point of space—such as exhibited in the 
phenomena of “ gravity’’ and (under modifying conditions 
probably) the other phenomena of approach, “cohesion” 
and “chemical action.’? Thirdly, since the “radiant’’ 
character of the motion is inevitably attended by an exact 
balance of the momenta at every point of space, we can 
have in this system an exhaustless store of energy in 
perfect equilibrium (and therefore concealed in its normal 
state), competent to throw some rational light on such 
unexplained phenomena as explosions, combustion, or the 
violent developments of motion taking place in the 
molecules of gross matter generally.’ 

As the phenomena of rarefied gases are attracting 
attention at present, perhaps some calculations I have 
made (based on the mathematical results of others) in 
regard to conditions attending extreme rarefaction, may 
not be-without interest. The fact that the mean length 
of path of the molecules (of a gas) increases in the “ple 
ratio of the mean distance on rarefying, leads to some 
remarkable results, which would scarcely be expected 
perhaps unless they had been worked out—and have their 
application in regard to the long mean path required for 

1 These postulates of Le Sage’s theory relating to swfgly of matter from 
boundless space, &c., were unfavourably criticised by the late Prof. Clerk 
Maxwell (Zyncyc. Brit., 1875, under article Atom”). Prof. Maxwell 
remarks (p. 47) as follows:—** We may observe that according to this theory 
the habitable universe which we are accustomed to regard as the scene of a 
magnificent illustration of the conservation of energy as the fundamental 
principle of all nature, is in reality maintained in working order only by an 


enormous expenditure of external power, which would be nothing less than 
muinoils if the supply were drawn from anywhere else than from theinfinitude 
of space. 

It will be seen that this objection vanishes by regarding the gravific ether 
2s simply a siationary gas, within the limits of mean path of whose particles 
the gravitating parts of the universe are immersed; as then no sxffdy of 
matter or expenditure of external power is required. Also, it may be added, 
that a difficulty (mentioned p. 47 of same article ‘‘ Atom ’’) in regard to the 
supposed excessive heating of gross matter that would occur under the 
impacts of the gravific particles, was considered by the present writer (P/i/. 
Mag., November, 1877), and a means suggested for removing it without the 
necessity for admitting any conditions which could be regarded as in them 
selves improbable. 

* It is said that Faraday was the first to use the expression “radiant 
matter.’” 

3'To my mind, I must confess, it seems difficult to understand why 
“potential” energy (in the sense of an energy which is zo# kinetic) appears 
to be (comparatively speaking) so much brought to the fore-ground, to the 
exclusion of the intelligible view of sotion transferred from matter in 
space. Is it not in general considered a right principle to give preference to 
the intelligible or conceivable, in place of that which cannot appeal to our 
reason? Evidently the term “‘Aizetic”’ (applied to energy) would be a re- 
dundant and superfluous prefix, unless it were thereby implied that some 
other energy than ‘‘kinetic” energy, viz., an energy without motion, existed. 


gravity. For it is a consequence of this that while the 
mean distance of the molecules of a gas increases with 
extreme slowness on rarefying, the mean path augments 
at a great rate. 

This may be perhaps best elucidated by a mode of 
illustration, which I have chosen with the endeavour, if 
possible, to convey clear conceptions to the mind, which 
is far more important than the mere writing down of 
numbers (millions, &c.) which afford no defined idea at 
all. Some conception of what actually occurs when a 
gas is rarefied to a millionth of its normal density (a 
common amount in experiments) may perhaps be pre- 
sented to the mind by supposing a cubical box, say one 
foot in the side, containing gas at normal density— 
hydrogen for instance—to be opened in a room one 
hundred feet in the side, containing a vacuum. This will 
then accurately represent the actual degree of rarefaction 
in the case under notice. The mean distance of the 
molecules will then be increased (from known principles) 
in the ratio of the linear side of the cubical box to that 
of the cubical room, z.¢. as I to 100. Since the mean 
distance of the molecules at normal density is known to 
have been about one seven-millionth of an inch’ (accord- 
ing to the mathematical results obtained by the late Prof. 
Clerk Maxwell and others) ; the mean distance or rarefy- 
ing to a millionth will become one seventy-thousandth of 
an inch (a hundred times greater, but still a very small dis- 
tance). The mean length of path will have increased as the 
cubic contents of the room (ze. in the triple ratio of the 
mean distance). The mean length of path (which is known 
to have been about sggh 95 of an inch at normal density) 
will now have rapidly risen to the very perceptible 
dimensions of four inches (nearly). Here we have the 
state of “‘radiant’’ matter (previously existing however 
in the normal state of the gas, but concealed) coming to 
be quite appreciable to the senses. For the gaseous 
molecules now “radiate ” regularly to a mean distance of 
some inches from every point in the room; and if a 
portion of the gas were inclosed in a bulb, about four 
inches in diameter, the molecules would (on the average) 
strike across from one side to the other without colliding 
among themselves: the beautiful “radiant” character 
of the motion then becoming lost, and the motion (and 
consequent pressure) irregular, owing to the confined 
space and absence of those mutual encounters among the 
molecules by which the motion is forcibly corrected and 
made symmetrical.? It appears therefore that the truly 
‘radiant ” character of the motion (if we use the word in 
relation to the rays of light radiating from a luminous 
point) would then cease—though no doubt the term 
‘radiant ” may be also conveniently employed in another 
sense, viz. to express the fact [when a portion of gaseous 
matter is in a confined space where a proper adjustment 
of pressure is not possible] that the molecules may, by 
suitable means, be diverted from their paths, like the rays 
of light, so as to move in a parallel (or common) direction, 
and cast virtual shadows of objects placed in the bulb, 

It will be apparent therefore that the establishment of 

T T quote this dimension from a former paper, “On the Nature of what is 
commonly called a ‘Vacuum’” (PAz?. Mag., August, 1877), a few of the 
data of which it is convenient to use here as a commencement. It should be 
remarked that Mr. Johnstone Stoney appears to have been the first to carry 
out calculations regarding molecular dimensions and distances, and to deduce 
therefrom conclusions regarding the number of molecules in unit of volume 
of a so-called ‘‘ yacuum ’—which tended to upset preconceived ideas. 

2 Tt is evident that the “‘ radiant’’ form of motion (or motion of the mole- 
cules eguadly in all directions) is the sole conditicn for equilibrium of pressure 


in all directions in a gas, or for an exact balance of momenta in every direc- 
tion. It is an obvious corollary from this—expressing a known fact—that if 
any imaginary straight line be taken anywhere in a gas, as many molecules 
at any instant are moving towards one extremity of the line as are moving 
towards the opposite extremity—the resolved components of the motions 
along the line being taken when the motions are oblique. It appears there- 
fore that in order to bring gas rarefied to cne millionth under the normal 
conditions for correcting the moticns of its molecules (so as to move in the 
normal ‘‘radiant’’ manner); it would be necessary to employ a containing 
vessel of such size that the molecules can adjust their motions freely by 
mutual encounters. Hence a ccntaining vessel whose diameter was a ccn- 
siderable multiple of the mean path (four inches in this case) would be 
required—say some feet in diameter at least. 


March 17, 1881 | 


NATURE 


463 


the peculiar state of matter observed by Mr. Crookes does | the rays of light from a luminous point. In this case we 


not depend on the rarefaction of the gas, but on the 
dimensions of the bulb (or confining envelope) relatively 
to the mean path—inasmuch as if it were possible to 
construct a bulb approximating to the mean path of 
the molecules of gas at (or near) normal density, ana- 
logous phenomena would inevitably occur, though of 
course they could not be observed by very small dimen- 
sions. [Besides the electric discharge cannot so readily 
take place in dense gas.] What is done therefore is to 
raise the mean path approximately up to the diameter of 
the bulb (by a high degree of rarefaction), instead of— 
conversely—diminishing the bulb down to the length of 
mean path (at a lower degree of rarefaction) ; when the 
effect would be difficult to perceive from the smallness of 
scale. It will be observed that it is only a question of scale 
(rarefaction being a mere relative thing)—only it becomes 
possible to use a bulb or containing vessel of larger size (to 
produce the conditions) in direct proportion as the rare- 
faction is greater; so that the whole effect becomes more 
magnified and distinct. The truth of this view may be 
more apparent by considering the case of the atmosphere 
when, at different heights, different degrees of rarefaction 
prevail. Let us take the heights where the mean path of 
the molecules is (say) one-tenth of an inch, one inch, and 
ten inches respectively. Then at all these heights (as at 
ordinary density) the molecules of the gas move in the 
same normal ‘radiant’? manner, or there is nothing 
peculiar about the state of the gas at any degree of rare- 
faction. If now a portion of gas be inclosed at each of 
these heights in bulbs of one-tenth of an inch, one inch, 
and ten inches in diameter respectively : then the gas in 
all these bulbs will be in an abnormal condition, or in that 
peculiar state where it has ceased to have the power of 
adjusting its, pressure, and consequently the phenomena 
of diverting the molecules (by suitable means, electric, &c.) 
into any paths at desire will be possible in all the bulbs. 
These considerations will perhaps contribute something 
towards clearing up any difficulties or divergence of views 
as to the theoretic aspects of this question—which happens 
to trench on a line of inquiry pursued by the present writer 
for some years. Returning to our former example, it may 
be instructive to consider what takes place on further 
rarefying. Suppose the rarefaction to be carried to 
another millionth, by opening out our cubical room into 
another whose linear side is 100 times greater, viz., 10,000 
feet. Here the mean distance of the molecules becomes 
one seven-hundredth of an inch (multiplying by a hundred) 
—still a very small quantity, it will be observed. It maybe 
remarked that by this degree of rarefaction (about a million 
times further than a good mercurial pump could attain) 
there are still no less than 340 million molecules in each 
cubic inch of the space. The mean path however has 
now sprung to sixty miles—greater than the dimensions 
of the room (by about twenty to thirty times).! Our room 
has therefore approached the state of a confined bulb 
where the molecules of gas have lost control over them- 
selves, or cannot adjust their motions so as to move in a 
‘radiant ” manner, but the molecules rebound irregularly 
backwards and forwards from one wall to the other, 
without (as a rule) colliding together, and may produce 
considerable irregularities of pressure. In order to 
restore the uniformity of pressure, and reproduce the 
normal “radiant” form of motion, it would be necessary 
to open out our room into another a considerable multiple 
of sixty miles in the side (the mean path)—adding fresh 
gas so as to leave the density unchanged. Here we 
should have molecules moving in streams and passing 
within (on an average) one seven-hundredth of an inch of 
each other, and “radiating” from each point of the room 
with perfect symmetry to a distance of many miles, like 

t It evidently follows from these considerations that if it were possible by 
some practical means to expand a glass bulb after rarefying ; the mean path 


of the molecules of the inclosed gas would increase three times as fast as tha 
Piameter of the bulb. 


should have molecules capable of becoming virtual 
carriers of energy to radial distances such as might really 
in principle serve to some extent the practical object 
required in the case of light. 

If we imagine (for further illustration) the rarefaction 
carried a million times beyond this—viz., to a millionth X 
a millionth Xa millionth of an atmosphere—then the 
mean distance of the molecules would still only have 
risen to the small amount of one-seventh of an inch; but 
the mean length of path sixty million miles (about). We 
are thus approaching astronomical distances. It seems 
a curious fact to consider that a portion of matter can be 
projected among other portions only one-seventh of an 
inch apart, so as to move (on the average) sixty million 
miles without touching one of them. This may form an 
illustration of the smallness of molecules. A hydrogen 
molecule moving at about four times the velocity of a 
cannon ball (its normal rate) would take, calculably, 
about a year and three quarters to traverse its mean path 
under these conditions. 

These considerations may serve to show, or facilitate the 
conceptions as to how particles of matter may have 
an extremely small mean distance and yet have an 
extremely long mean path. For it is readily con- 
ceivable that since (as has been mathematically proved 
by Clausius and others) the mean length of path of 
a particle increases, ceteris paribus, as the sguare of 
its diameter diminishes (a rapid rate)—particles, such as 
those of the ether, for instance, may have such an 
adequately small diameter as to admit of being in very 
close proximity, and yet their mean path extremely 
great (many millions of miles long perhaps). These con- 
clusions, rendered more interesting by the additional 
light thrown on streams of molecules in the gaseous 
state by the experimental researches of Mr. Crookes— 
would therefore point, in their possible application to the 
gether, to a possible means for carrying energy in a 
“radiant” manner, producing gravity (or the general 
phenomena of affroach), and capable of serving as a 
great source of motion, the transferences of which are 
illustrated and exemplified in the motions developed in 
gross matter on every hand, and which to the appreciative 
mind who will not admit the cvea¢ion of motion, inevitably 
demand the presence of an agent inclosing a hidden store 
of motion. The above view would also have the advan- 
tage of correlating the ether with ordinary matter (as 
merely a body consisting of very much finer molecules— 
or a difference of scale). Why should we suppose the 
gether to be something abnormal or different from ordi- 
nary matter, without positive evidence ? Would not this 
be a deviation from the rule of admitting ove principle as 
sufficient until two are found to be necessary? This also 
holds in regard to energy. Why countenance at all ¢wo 
kinds of energy until we have evidence, or why deviate 
from ove grand fundamental principle until we are forced 
to do so— hardly a probable event, especially when this 
deviation involves something like a rush into the incon- 
ceivable represented by an energy wéthout motion ? ek 

In conclusion it should be observed that there is 
nothing hypothetical in the above deductive results re- 

I The apparently logical plan of admitting one principle until ¢wo are 


shown to be necessary would appear to be reversed in the case of energy. 
It would seein that ¢wo kinds of energy are first believed in, because the 
existence of one kind is not (as it is said) physically proved yet— e. proved 
in such a way as to be obvious to our gross senses, and not merely a deduc- 
tion derived from pure reasoning based on the observed and otherwise inex- 
plicable developments of motion taking place in gross matter everywhere 
around us. Some might think that the contrary procedure to the above 
would be the more logical—viz., to believe in one kind of energy, because the 
existence of two kinds hadnot been proved yet. But in the history of science 
there has notoriously always been a tendency to lean towards the inconceiv- 
able, rather than be contented with what our understanding can teach us, 
‘At a future day possibly the recognition that all energy is of one character 
will be thought by some a grand discovery. Some may however think it to 
be only the correction of an error which ought never to have been com- 
mitted, for which there was no real justification—all analogy, rationality of 
conception, and that oemess of principle so characteristic of nature pointing 


the other vay. 


464 


“NATURE 


[March 17 188% 


garding the mean distances, mean paths, &c., of mole- 
cules on rarefying gases. For the relations computed 
depend on known mathematical principles. The only 
possible ground for question would be the particular data 
of mean distance, &c., taken as a basis for the calcula- 
tions. But it should be noticed that these rest on an 
experimental basis : having been deduced from observed 
facts by investigators of admitted competence, and by 
means of several diverse lines of argument which are 
found to accord ina remarkable manner as to the results,— 
which is therefore strong confirming evidence of their 
substantial accuracy. Also the above inferences regarding 
a mechanism for the fundamental purposes of carrying 
energy, storing energy in equilibrium, and producing 


effects of approach (such as gravity, &c.), cannot as me- | 
For mechanical | 
principles (like mathematical truths) hold independently | 


chanical facts admit of any question. 


of any inquiry as to whether they actually find practical 
application in nature or not. The best argument for their 
practical application in nature is the incomprehensibility 
of observed facts without them. We can at least say with 
certainty that under such conditions, effects (phenomena of 
approach,} transferences of motion, &c.) of the character 
observed would be produced,—and which effects have not 
hitherto found any explanation that appeals to our reason. 
The certainty of simple and automatic mechanical con- 
ditions being conceivable which are capable of producing 
such important effects, should lend a legitimate interest 
to these inquiries, and the mechanical beauty of the 
“radiant’’ adjustment of moving particles of matter 
which adapts them to so many noteworthy purposes at 
once, should surely itself be an argument in favour of the 
practical application of the scheme in nature,—as a simple 
means to great and important ends. 
S. TOLVER PRESTON 


DEEP-SEA OPHIURANS 


ie the anniversary JZemozrs of the Boston Society of 

Natural History, Prof. Theodore Lyman gives an 
account of a structural feature hitherto unknown among 
Echinodermata which he has discovered in deep-sea 
Ophiurans. The remarkable structures described ap- 
pear under the microscope as little tufts resembling 
bunches of simple Hydroids on the sides of the arms 
of certain Ophiurans. On careful examination these tufts 
are found to be bunches of minute spines, each inclosed 
in a thick skin-bag, and in form resembling agarics, or 
parasols with small shaces. They are arranged in two 
or even three parallel vertical rows, and in this respect 
the animals on which they occur differ from all other 
Ophiuride known, for all others possess a single row 
only of articulated spines. The peculiar tufts, which 
are apparently homologous with pedicellariz, are at- 
tached to the outer joints of the arms, near the margins 
of the side arm-plates. Two new genera, Ophiotholia and 
Ophiohelus, closely allied to Ophiomyces, are described in 
which these curious appendages occur. The species of the 
genera are soft with imperfect calcification, Examples of 


* It would not be difficult substantially to imitate what occursin gravitation 
(according to the dynamical theory), by ccoling down the opposed faces of 
two metal disks freely suspended in a moderately large vessel of rarefied gas, 
at a less distance apart than the mean length of pathof the gaseous particles,— 
when from known principles (already experimented on by Mr. Crookes) the 
two disks would approach. Here the diminished velocity of rebound of the 
gaseous Particles from the cooled inner surfaces of the disks (which entails 
the approach), is imitated in gravitation by a similar diminished velocity of 
rebound of the gravific particles from gross matter, owing to their translatory 
moticn being partly shivered into vibration (and rotation) at the shock of 
impact against gross matter (in a manner elucidated by Sir W. Thomson, 
Phil. Mag., May, 1873). Ona large scale, a similar diminution of translatory 
motion at impact is universally illustrated by the known retarded rebound 
of ela:tic masses at collision,—when part of the translatory motion is (in a 
somewhat analogous way) converted into a vibratory cr rotatory motion «f 
the colliding body at the encounter. It becomes interesting ina dynamical phe- 
nomenon of the nature of gravitation to contemplate the possibility of doing 
something towarsillustrating it experimentally, and to acquire the certainty of 
the existence of the streams cf particles which produce the effect, —by almost 


ee ea ED through the means employed in the recent researches by 


| determined at a considerable dis- 


| Through the side of the stem, and 


Ophiotholia were dredged off Juan Fernandez, in 1825. 
fathoms, and of Ophiohelus off Barbadoes in $2 fathoms, 
and off Fiji in 1350 fathoms. 

Prof. Lyman states that among the Ophiuride and 
Astrophytide of the Challenger Expedition the entire 
number of new genera brought home is 20; that of 
species 167. 


AN ELECTRICAL THERMOMETER FOR 
DETERMINING TEMPERATURES. AT A 
DISTANCE 


Bae success of many industrial operations: depends 

upon the steady maintenance or proper variation of 
certain temperatures, and it is often of the highest 
importance that the person in charge of these operations 
should be able readily to ascertain by means of the 
thermometer if the workmen are performing their duties 
correctly. It sometimes happens 
that thermometers have to be placed 
in positions which are difficult of 
access, or removed some distance 
from the centre of the manufactory, 
and that considerable time has to 
be expended in visiting the different 
stations. It was in order to meet 
the requirements of such a case as 
this that the electro-thermometric 
apparatus here described was con- 
structed. 

I had for some time been much 
in need of an instrument which 
would admit of the temperature of a 
series of malt-drying kilns being 


tance from the kilns themselves, 
and, not being able to meet witha 
description of a suitable instrument, 
I was led, after several trials, to 
contrive this apparatus, which, al- 
though it does not embody any new 
principle, and is not perhaps adapted 
to accurate meteorological work, is 
nevertheless very suitable for the 
technical purpose for which it was 
originally designed, and is doubtless 
capable of extended application in 
many industries. 

The apparatus consists essentially 
of two parts, a mercurial electro- 
thermometer, and a combination of 
apparatus which constitutes an au- 
tomatic receiver and transmitter of 
signals from the thermometer. 

The thermometer, which is shown 
in Fig. 1, was constructed for me by 
Mr. J. Hicks of Hatton Garden. It 
is an ordinary thermometer about 
nine inches in height, with a large 
bulb and a stem of wide bore. 


fused into the glass, are inserted a 
series of short platinum wires, the 
free end of each being connected 
with a binding screw. ‘These wires, 
which project slightly into the bore 
of the thermometer, are, in my 
instrument, inserted at intervals of 3° F. between 120° 
and 171°, the range of temperature required in this 
case. The constructor of this part of the apparatus 
informs me that, if necessary, there is no practical diffi- 
culty in inserting wires at intervals of a single degree, or 
even less, without interfering with the calibration of the 
tube. The upper part of the bore of the tube is expanded 


Fic. x. 


March 17, 1881 | y NATURE 465, 


into a small bulb which is partly filled with glycerine, this | mercury column. A wire fused into the main bulb of the 
thermometer is connected with a binding-screw from 


which a wire leads to one pole of a battery of two 
Leclanché cells, the opposite pole of the battery being 
placed permanently to earth. 

If the free end of a wire, put to earth through a gal- 
vanometer or bell, is brought successively in contact with 
the binding-screws at the side of the thermometer, com- 
mencing at the lowest, a signal will be given from each 
wire in contact with the mercurial column, but not from 
the wires above it. By carrying a conducting wire from 
| each of the binding-screws toa series of ordinary electrical 
bell-pushes arranged on a key-board, the main bar of 
| which is put to earth through a signalling apparatus, it is 

evidently possible to ascertain at any distance from the 
thermometer the height of the mercury column, and 
_ consequently the temperature, the mean error of observa- 
|tion depending upon the intervals between the wires 
inserted in the bore of the thermometer. Such a form of 
apparatus is however inconvenient, as it necessitates 
| carrying a large number of insulated wires to the observing: 
| station. 

To avoid this difficulty I have devised the ¢ransmitting 
portion of the instrument, an apparatus which, placed as 
near as is convenient to the source of heat, is capable of 
collecting the various signals from as many different. 
thermometers as may be desired, and of transmitting alli 
these signals down a sizg/e wire to an observing station 

/at any required distance. This part of the apparatus,, 
shown in Fig. 2, was constructed for me by Messrs., 
| Tasker and Sons of Sheffield. It consists essentially of 
/an ebonite ring, through the thickness of which are: 
_inserted, at even distances, a series of small platinum 
studs, terminating level with the surface of the ebonite 
ring, and connected at the lower side: with a series of: 
binding-screws arranged round the circumference of the: 
ae Fie, 2. circular wooden frame enclosing the instrument. Within 
liquid of course also filling the bore of the tube above the | the case of the instrument is an ordinary clockwork 


Thermometer 


Wire Sor 


Starting Clock 


Line Wire for 


Push 


Earth 


Fic. 3. 


pron is a small metallic traverser, which is | the hand of a watch. This traverser, furnished at its 
pable of a somewhat rapid movement similar to that of extremity with a small piece of platinum, is caused, by 


466 


means of an adjusting screw, to press lightly against the 
face of the ebonite ring, and to produce metallic contact 
with the studs when passing over them. The binding 
screws around the case of the instrument are connected 
in serial order with the wires inserted in the bore of the 
thermometer, and the traverser is in permanent electrical 
contact with the binding screw L, to which is attached 
the Jine-wire. 

If the transmitter is intended to convey the signals 
from more than one thermometer, there are inserted in 
the ebonite ring, at suitable intervals, three small platinum 
studs very close together. These studs are not in con- 
nection with the thermometers, but with the binding-screw 
C, which is in permanent connection, through the battery, 
with earth. By this arrangement the current is short- 
circuited whenever the traverser passes over these extra 
studs, and the three signals sent down the wire in quick 
succession serve to show that the transmitter has com- 
menced to send signals from another thermometer. 

The axis which drives the traverser carries round with 
it a metallic disk, which is drilled with a hole into which 
fits, when the clockwork is at rest, a small plug. This 
plug, which acts as a detent, is attached to the heavier 
side of a light lever, the opposite end of which is furnished 
with an iron armature in close proximity to the poles of a 
very small electro-magnet. One end of the magnet coil 
is connected with the binding-screw C, and so through 
the battery with earth, whilst the other end of the coil is 


connected through the binding-screw M (Figs. 2 and 3) | 


with another line-wire which is carried to the observing 
station, and is capable of being put to earth through an 
ordinary electric bell-push. 

The general arrangement of the whole apparatus is 
shown in the diagram, Fig. 3. The action of the instru- 
ment is as follows:—The line-wire connected with M is 
momentarily put to earth at the observing station by 
depressing the bell-push ; this causes a current to circulate 
round the coils of the electro-magnet, which, attracting 
its armature, liberates the detent, and starts the clock. 
The number of signals now passed down the line-wire by 


the passage of the traverser over the platinum studs will | 


be a measure of the height of the mercury column in each 

thermometer. The traverser, having made one complete 

eeciution, is arrested by the falling of the plug into the 
isk, 

It is evident that any number of observing stations can 
be established along the line-wire, and also that, if 
desired, the apparatus may be made automatically to 
register the temperature at any required interval of time. 

HORACE T, BROWN 


THE RECENT DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF 
RHINOCEROS MERCKII IN SIBERIA 


T is a well-known fact that carcases of extinct animals, 
such as the Mammoth (E/ephas primigenius) and 
Tichorhine Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus) are ob- 
tained in a more or less perfect state of preservation in the 
frozen tundras of Siberia. A memoir recently presented by 
Dr. Leopold von Schrenck to the Imperial Academy of 
Sciences of St. Petersburg,’ informs us that the most 
recent discovery of this nature (which took place in 1877) 
is of a specially interesting character. The remains 
found upon this occasion turn out, not to belong to either 
of the above-named animals, but to a distinct species of 
Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros Merckii (better known in England 
as Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Owen), which had never 
been known previously to occur in such a condition. 
Unfortunately full advantage has not been taken of this 
extraordinary discovery. Although the carcase, as already 
mentioned, was found in 1877, it was not until March, 
* “Das erste Fund einer Leiche, Rhinoceros Merckii, Jaeg.’”? Von Dr. 


Teop: vy. Schrenck (Mém. Ac, Imp. Sc. St. Pet., vii® série, vol. xxvii. No. 7, 
2830). 


NATURE 


| March 17, 1881 


1879, that it came to the knowledge of the Imperial 
Academy. At the same time the sad fact was commu- 
nicated that only the head and one foot of the whole 
body of this extinct monster had been preserved, all the 
remaining portions having been allowed to drift away 
into the River Yana, upon the banks of which it had first 
come to light. 

The head in question, after having been exhibited in 
Moscow, at the Anthropological Exhibition of 1879, was 
presented to the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg, 
where upon comparison with the Tichorhine Rhinoceros, 
it was shown to belong, not as had been previously 
supposed, to that species, but to RAinoceros Merckit. 

Of this specimen, which is naturally reckoned among 
the greatest treasures of the Imperial collection, Dr. L. 
von Schrenck now gives us an excellent description, illus- 
trated by several figures, which show that in external as 
well as (as now already known) in osteological characters, 
R. Merckii presents many salient features to distinguish 
it from R. “échorhinus. 

As regards the former distribution of R. Merckii, 
although it was once supposed that this species was con- 
fined to Western and Southern Europe, recent researches 
had already proved that this extinct rhinoceros had a 
much more extensive range. Besides being found in 
several localities in Eastern Europe, Brandt, in his excel- 
lent Memoir on the Tichorhine Rhinoceroses, has shown 
that this species formerly existed in Eastern Siberia. It 
is therefore not now so remarkable that a whole frozen 
body of this former inhabitant of the Steppes of Siberia 
should have been discovered on the banks of one of the 
rivers, preserved frozen during many thousands of years, 
as we know to have been also the case in the previously 
obtained specimens of the Mammoth and the Tichorhine 
Rhinoceros. 


NOTES 

WE give on another page an abstract of the revised edition of 
the proposed statutes on the professoriate promulgated by the 
Oxford University Commissioners. It is, to say the least, hope- 
ful to find the Commissioners so amenable to criticism and sug- 
gestions, and the proposed revised statutes, it will be found, obviate 
most of the objections which came from all quarters to the 
harassing and humiliating nature of the first draft. Occupying the 
position we do in relation to science, we could not but condemn 
the statutes in their first form. Were we the mouthpiece of 
the College of Preceptors, then possibly we might not have 
objected to the Oxford professors being legislated for as if they 
were merely elementary school-teachers; but as we are bound 
to consider the interests of science and its advancement, and as 
we believe one of the chief duties of an Oxford professor, as 
of a German or a French professor, to be original research, we 
could not but consider the statutes in their first form as a serious 
blunder. 


ON Monday, March 15, the Paris Academy of Sciences held 
its annual sitting, when the prizes for 1880 were delivered. 
M. Ed. Becquerel was in the chair. He opened the sitting 
by an doge of M. Michel Chasles, who died quite recently, and 
who was one of the most popular members of the Academy. 
At the end of his address he reminded his fellow members of 
the completion of the ‘great work of M. Milne-Edwards, which 
has lasted for a quarter of a century. The great prize for 
mathematics was awarded to M. Halphen, with honourable 
mention to M. Poincarré; the Poncelet Prize to M. Leonte, 
engineer of the machinery constructed by the Government. A 
sum of 3000 francs was awarded to M. Ader for having ad- 
vanced in an essential manner phonetic telegraphy (also tele- 
phony). The Trémont Prize was awarded to M. Vinot, the 
editor of the only astronomical paper published in France, and 
the founder of the only astronomical society. M. Dumas, with 


March 17, 1881] 


NATURE 


467 


his usual eloquence, read the oge of M. Victor Regnault, the 
celebrated physicist. M. Regnault was born in Germany during 
the occupation of the Rhenish provinces by France, His father 
was killed during the invasion of Prussia by France, and his 
beloved son was killed during the siege of Paris. After the last 
event took place Regnault’s life was along agony, which M. 
Dumas described with touching eloquence. 


THE Transit of Venus Commission established by the French 
Academy of Sciences has resumed its labours under the presidency 
of M. Dumas. A credit has been given by the Government for 
constructing new refractors, Not less than twelve are now 
building, to be used on the several stations which have been 
already selected, and will be ready by the end of the year, The 
heads of the scientific missions will soon be appointed, as well 
as their staff. The greater number of instruments built for the 
1874 transit have been disposed of to several public institutions. 


S1r JoHNn Lussock showed a good deal of courage in intro- 
ducing his motion on Ancient Monuments into the House of 
Commons in the present temper and obstructed condition of that 
body; nevertheless he carried his point. All he did was to 
move that in the opinion of the House the Government 
should take some steps to provide for the better protection of 
ancient national monuments ; the House declared itself of this 
opinion by a considerable majority, though, we imagine, some- 
thing more must be done before Government has the power to 
step in and prevent the destruction of any ancient monument. 
That there is no time to be lost if we do not wish most of these 
relics of the past to disappear entirely, is evident from the long 
list given by Sir John Lubbock of important monuments that 
have already been mutilated or destroyed. Sir John suggested 
that any owner of such a monument who contemplated its destrue- 
tion should be compelled first to offer it for sale to the country. 
This course would be both simple and effective. 


Mr. Roserts of the Nautical Almanac Office is authorised 
by resolution of Council of the Secretary of State for India, 
dated August 7, 1880, to make it generally known that his Tide 
Predicter may be employed for the preparation of Tide Tables 
(subject to the payment of a nominal fee to the India Office for 
the use of the machine) for any port for which the requisite data 
are forthcoming on application to him, The Tide Predicter has 
already been used for the preparation of the Tide Tables for 
1880 for the -perts of Bombay and Kurrachee (published by 
authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council) with the 
most satisfactory results. It has also been used for the Tide 
Tables for 1881 for Indian ports, which include, in addition to 
those of Bombay and Kurrachee, the tides also for Aden, Okha 
Point, and Beyt Harbour (Gulf of Cutch), Karwar, Beypore, 
the Paumben Pass, and Vizagapatam. The Tide Tables for 
1882, the preparation of which is already far advanced, will 
include, in addition to the above eight ports, the following 
seven, viz. :—Madras, Rangoon, Moulmein, Port Blair, and on 
the Hooghly River, Fort Gloster, Diamond Harbour, and 
Kidderpore (Calcutta), It is anticipated that in addition to a 
still further number of Indian ports to be predicted for 1883, 
that Mr. Roberts will have the preparation of Tide Tables for 
Table Bay, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Durban, tidal 
observations at these places being now in progress, or shortly to 
be commenced for this purpose. The observations, when a 
sufficient series has been taken, will be placed in the hands of 
Mr. Roberts for the determination of the requisite data for the 
predictions. 


THE Senatus Academicus of Aberdeen University have 
resolved to confer the degree of LL.D. on David Ferrier, M.A., 
.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine in King’s College, 
ondon 


WE have received from Mr. Marsden of Regent Street, 
Gloucester, a ‘‘ List of British Birds,” with, as an appendix, 
“The Graduated List for Labeling Eggs.” With similar lists 
the present one compares favourably, and it is a pity that Mr, 
Marsden, who is evidently an intelligent man, did not make his 
catalogue still more perfect. The insertion of species like the 
Russet Wheatear (Sawicola stapazina), and the Barred Warbler 
(Sylvia nisoria), which are not entered in so recent a work as 
Newton’s edition of ‘‘ Yarrell,” show that the author is abreast 
of the latest information on the subject of rare visitants to this 
country. But the Black-winged Kite (Z/anus caruleus) has 
equal rights to a place in a British list, and we are sorry to see 
the Great Black Woodpecker (Picus martius) and the Rufous 
Swallow (Hirundo cahirica) still allowed as visitors to Great 
Britain. The careful researches of Mr, J. H. Gurney, jun., 
published in Sharpe and Dresser’s ‘‘ Birds of Europe,” have 
entirely disproved ever single supposed occurrence of the Great 
Black Woodpecker, while the so-called Rufous Swallow turned 
out to be nothing but a common Hirundo rustica in fine spring 
plumage. The abbreviations of authors’ names are, to say the 
least, ingenious, but as they differ in nearly every case from those 
adopted by all ornithologists, we cannot perceive any real advan- 
tages to be gained by their use, as they involve continual reference 
to the introductory explanation to find out the author’s meaning, 
If brevity in quoting authors’ names is desired, “‘ Bp.” for Bona- 
parte is better than ‘‘ Bo,” and is moreover frequently so employed. 
“Bon” in Mr. Marsden’s list means Bonnaterre, but in many 
ornithological works Bonaparte is thus signified, so that we cannot 
commend this portion of the au‘hor’s labours. We were at first 
puzzled as to the meaning of the ‘‘ Graduated List for Labeling,” 
but we find on referring to it that the names of the British birds 
are there printed in various-sized types according to the size of 
the different bird’s egg, and we are sorry to think that there is 
still a demand for a list of this kind whereby collectors become 
satisfied with the printed name attached to their captures instead 
of having, as every genuine egg should have, the full particulars 
of its history written upon it in ink, 


THAT we may still expect many additions to the avi-fauna of 
Eastern Africa has been amply proved during the past year or 
two by the collections sent from the East Coast by Dr, Fischer 
to Berlin and Dr. Kirk to this country. A further contributicn 
has recently been made by the veteran ornithologist, Dr, 
Hartlaub, who has just published in the Adhand/ungen of the 
Bremen Natural History Union an interesting paper on Birds, 
collected by Dr. Emin Bey in the region of the Upper Nile. 
The traveller proceeded from Lado in 5° N. lat. along the Nile 
to the Albert Nyanza, visiting the northern extremity of the 
Coja Lake, and traversing the country in a northerly direction 
to Fatico. The result of this expedition considerably modifies 
the generally received opinion respecting the relation of the avi- 
fauna of the Upper Nile region ; for although a large number of 
the species obtained are, as might be expected, Abyssinian, there 
isa certain infusion of South and West African forms, with a 
sprinkling of peculiar geuera and species. The new species 
described are as follows :—Cisticola hypoxantha, C. marginalis, 
Eminia (g.n.) lepida, Drymocichla (g.n.) incana, Dryoscopus 
cinerascens, Tricholais flavotorquata, Muscicapa infulata, Hy- 
phantornis crocata, Hyphantica cardinalis, and Sorrella emini. 
The Whale-headed Stork (Baleniceps rex) was looked for in 
vain on the Victoria and the Albert Nyanzas, and is said to exist 
only north of Schambe. 


Messrs. W. EAGLE CLARKE and William Denison Roebuck, 
secretaries of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, are preparing for 
publication ‘‘A Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata : being a 
Complete Catalogue of British Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Am- 
phibians, and Fishes, showing what Species are or have, within 


468 


NATURE 


[March 17, 1881 


Historical Periods, been found in the County of York.” The 
authors state that when engaged on the compilation of various 
papers on the natural history of the county for the Transactions 
of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, find that there is a deficiency 
of information of a reliable nature as to the detailed distribution 
in Yorkshire of the various species of vertebrated animals, and 
this in spite of the fact that all available published information 
has been by them systematically and diligently collected. This 
deficiency they believe to some extent arises from the circum- 
stance that never yet has there been published a list of the verte- 
brated animals (or of any subdivision thereof) of the county as a 
whole. Such a list they propose to supply. The Birds will be 
undertaken by Mr. Clarke, the Mammals, Reptiles, and 
Amphibians by Mr. Roebuck, and the Fishes jointly. The 
writers would be glad to have co-operation, in the way of 
supplying lists and notes for as many districts in the county as 
possible. Scattered observations on any species are as much 
desired as lists. Notes on the historical evidence of the former 
existence of species in the county, and on the local names used 
for the various species, are also desirable. Communications are 
requested to be addressed to either author at his residence, or at 
No. 9, Commercial Buildings, Park Row, Leeds. 

THE Times correspondent sends some additional facts to 
account for the recent earthquake at Casamicciola. ‘The 
lamentable accident,” Prof. Palmieri states, ‘which has hap- 
pened at Casamicciola was not only not felt by the University 
seismograph, nor by that of Vesuvius, but did not extend even 
to the whole of the island. It must be regarded, therefore, as a 
perfectly local phenomenon, produced probably by the sinking 
of the soil occasioned by the slow and continual subterraneous 
action of the mineral waters.” That there were severe shocks 
of earthquake, the Zmes correspondent goes on to say, is 
unquestionable, but unlgss the ground had, so to speak, been 
prepared for it, the disaster would probably have not been so 
great. The fact is that the island is burrowed in many parts. 
Wherever there is any chance of finding a spring the ground is 
hollowed out, and the fortunate proprietor makes a good thing 
of it during the season. In addition to this fact, a considerable 
part of the soil is formed of clay, which is held in high estima- 
tion; and not merely Naples, but the country around to a great 
extent, is provided with bricks and pottery from Ischia. This 
branch of industry has been carried on successfully for many 
years, and it may readily be understood, therefore, that the sub- 
soil is so perforated that any violent shock suffices to wreck the 
houses on the surface. Ischia is well known to be of volcanic 
formation, and has, in times long past, been subject to shocks 
and eruptions from Epomeo, the now dormant cone in the centre 
of the island. What is called the Lake of Ischia is supposed to 
have been the crater of an extinct volcano. The last great 
eruption occurred in 1301, and lasted two months, inflicting 
complete ruin on the island. A scientific Commission, composed 
of Professors Palmieri, Scacchi, Linno, and Guiscardi, have gone 
to Casamicciola to endeavour to ascertain whether the earthquake 
there was due to local causes or not. 

EARTHQUAKE shocks continue in Switzerland to an extent 
that, in view of the terrible disaster at Ischia, is causing con- 
siderable apprehension. A very strong oscillation was observed 
at Heniveil, in Ziirich, early on Monday morning, and about 
two o’clock on the following morning two separate shocks were 
felt at Lausanne. Two deaths resulted in a rather singular way 
on Friday last from the earthquake of the preceding day. The 
shock loosened a mass of rock overhanging a quarry at Oberburg, 
in Berne, and twenty-four hours afterwards it fell, literally 
grinding to powder two unfortunate men who were working 
hard by. 

Ir has been decided by a large number of friends and ad- 
mirers of the late Mr. Frank Buckland to perpetuate, by a 


substantial memorial, the services which he has rendered to the 
study of natural history and fish-culture by his numerous writ- 
ings, and also by the formation of his celebrated fish museum 
at South Kensington, which he has _bequeathed to the nation, 
A committee which has been formed with this object in view 
includes amongvothers Sir William Vernon Harcourt, M.P., Sir 
Philip Cunliffe-Owen, Prof. Owen, Mr. Spencer Walpole 
(Inspector of Salmon Fisheries), and several other gentlemen 
representing the different fishery boards throughout the country 
and the various fishery interests. 
memorial shall take has not yet been determined. This will be 


decided at the next meeting of the committee, which will shortly 
be held, 


WE hear that Mr. Walter Hill is about to retire from the 
Curatorship of the Botanic Gardens at Brisbane, in connection 
with which hisname has become widely known, It is ramoured 


that the Gardens will be placed under the management of a 
board. 


WE are glad to see that the Liverpool College of Chemistry 
has been reopened after being renovated and refitted with 
modern apparatus for research. Under the guidance of Dr. 
Tate and Mr. G. H. Sharpe, we have no doubt it will prove a 
useful centre for instruction and science. 


THE stenographic machine which we mentioned in our last 


issue was presented on March 11 to the Société d’Encourage~ 


ment, meeting under the presidency of M. Damas. It is a 
small instrument, about 1} foot long and 1 foot wide, placed on 
a stand 2} feet high, on which it is easy to play with both 
hands. The number of elementary signs is only six, which by 
mutual combination give seventy-four phonetic letters. It has 
been worked with an astounding velocity, reproducing the words 
pronounced by a man reading a passage from a book. The limit 
of velocity is stated to be 200 words in a minute, which is more 
than sufficient, no speaker having ever uttered more than 180. 
‘The signs are very neatly printed on a paper band passing auto- 
matically under the types. They can be read by any person 
conversant with the peculiarities of the system, which requires 
the teaching of a very few months. The work of the stenographer 
is more difficult, but in little more than a year he can be 
educated. Womea and persons who have an acute and correct 
hearing can practise it with success. Blind people, generally 
having very delicate hearing, will be most useful, the reading 
and translation being done by other people. The same machinery 
is available for every language in existence. The system is so 


perfect that it can be used for reproducing a language that is 


neither spoken nor understood by the operator. But under such 
circumstances the orator must speak slowly and in a very distinct 
manner. This machine was worked by a young lady belonging 
to the stenographic staff of the Italian Senate, where the machine 
is in constant use. 


THE work of laying subterranean cables is proceeding favour- 
ably fron Nancy to Paris. This telegraph line is composed of 
twelve insulated wires placed in a large tube of castiron, For 
each length of 500 metres doors have been arranged so that any 
section can be removed and replaced without having to open 
the ground, which is necessary in the German system of laying 
the cables in a solid bed of asphalte. 


WE are asked to make known that at the request of the 
Commissaire-Général, the Society of Telegraph Engineers and 
of Electricians have undertaken to supply to and collect from 
intending British exhibitors, applications for space at the forth- 
coming Exhibition, Forms of application and copies of the 
general rules can be obtained at the offices of the Society, 4, 
Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London, by letter addressed to 


The exact form which the _ 


March 17, 1881] 


NATURE 


469 


the Secretary of the Society, or by personal ajplication between 
the hours of 11 and 5. 


THE Photographic News of March 11 publishes an excellent 
photo-engraving of Fox Talbot. 


Mr. W. Hercuway has -issued a useful ‘‘ Handbook of 
Photographic Terms,” an alphabetical arrangement of the pro- 
cesses, formulz, applications, &c., of photography for ready 
aeference. Piper and Carter are the publishers. 


A NEw Natural History Society has been formed at Banbury 
under the title of ‘‘ The Banburyshire Natural History Society 
and Field Club.” Mr..T. Beesley, F.C,S., is president, and 
Mr. E, A. Walford, hon. secretary. 


THE Times Dublin correspondent telegraphed on Sunday 
night :—‘‘ A very interesting scientific work, the most important 
of its kind yet attempted in the kingdom, has just been com- 
pleted. It is the great refracting telescope, constructed by Mr. 
Grubb of Rathmines, Dublin, for the Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment, and it is to be placed in the Observatory at Vienna, A 
commission appointed by the Government to examine the work 
transmitted yesterday to the Austro-Hungarian Embassy in 
London a report expressing their full approval of the manner 
in which the task has been completed. It is a matter of no little 
pride to Ireland that she has produced the largest refracting as 
well as the largest reflecting telescope in the world.” Several 
interesting details concerning the telescope are give in the Z77sh 
Times of March to. 


M. Louts Ficuier’s L’ Année Scientifique et Industriel, pub- 
lished by Hachette and Co,, is a really useful sum nary of the 
science of the year. The twenty-fourth issue is quite up to 
previous volumes, and in the absence of anything of the kind 
published in this country may prove serviceable to English 
readers. 


THE Annuaire of the Montsouris Observatory for 18$1 con- 
tains much useful information in meteorology and allied subjects. 
Under the head of Agricultural Meteorology are a variety of 
experimental data on the action of heat, light, and water on 
vegetation, with their application to special cultures. There is 
also a meteorological véswmé for the agricultural years 1873-80, 
and an article on Bacteria in the Atmosphere. 


THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 
past week include a Bonnet Monkey (MZacacus vadiatus) from 
India, presented by Mr. R. W. Okes-Voysey ; an Azara’s Fox 
(Canis azare) from Buenos Ayres, presented by Mr. William 
Petty ; a Gold Pheasant (Zhawmalea picta ¢) from China, pre- 
sented by Mr. W. H. St. Quintin; an Ornamental Ceratophys 
(Ceratophys ornata) from Buenos Ayres, presented by Mr. E. W. 
White, F.Z.S.; a Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius), British, 
purchased; two Dingo Dogs (Canis dingo), born in the 
Gardens, 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


OBSERVATIONS have been published from time to time con- 
cerning the existence of alkaloid-like substances in exhumed 
corpses. These substances appear to be produced in organised 


matter which, after brief exposure, has been kept out of contact 
with air, A summary of these observations and a discussion on 
their bearing on toxicological examinations is given by Husemann 
in a recent number of Archiv fiir Pharmacie. Substances 
having different physiological actions appear to be produced at 
various stages of decay of flesh or vegetable matter. A substance 
resembling atropine in its action has been separated from an 
anatomical maceration fluid by Sonnenschein, and this same 
substance has been found in the bodies of persons who have died 
from typhus fever. 


AN important paper on ‘The Influence of Isomerism of 
Alcohols on the Formation of Ethereal Salts,” by Menschutkin, i 


appears in Annales Chim. et Phys. The process of etherification 
reaches a limit in every instance, but this limit varies with the 
molecular weight, and generally with the “structure” of the 
alcohol employed. In the ethylic series the limit increases with 
increase of molecular weight, but is not influenced by isomerism ; 
in the secondary alcohols the limit does not show an increase for 
increased molecular weight, The influence of isomerism is most 
marked in this series. 


It is well known that by adding dilute acid to a solution of 
sodium thiosulphate and warming, a copious precipitate of yellow 
sulphur is obtained. Colson states in Bul/. Soc. Chim. that when 
a very dilute solution of sodium thiosulphate is added to dilute 
hydrochloric acid, hydrogen sulphide and sulphuric acid are 
alone produced. He supposes that the water present acts on the 
sulphur as quickly as it is liberated from the thiosulphate, in the 
manner indicated ; if flowers of sulphur be acted on by boiling 
water, a similar reaction occurs, but proceeds only very slowly. 


From a study of the thermal phenomena which accompany the 
action of water on alcohols, and of alcohols on water, Alexejeff 
(Bull. Soc. Chim.) concludes that hydrates of the saturated 
alcohols exist, which hydrates are less stable the greater the 
number of carbon atoms in the molecule. 


THE heats of formation, and of solution, of a large series of 
metallic sulphides, and sulphydrates, principally those of the 
alkalis and alkaline earths, have been determined and published 
in Annales Chim, et Phys. (January), by M. Sabatier. 


IN an investigation of alcoholic fermentation (Annales Chim. 
et Phys.) Boussingault states that by the addition of a large 
quantity of yeast to wines rich in sugar, fermentation proceeds 
rapidly at a boiling temperature, provided the pressure be con- 
siderably diminished. 


In the Berliner Berichte Herr T. Donath describes: experi- 
ments on chinolin, in which he shows that this alkaloid possesses 
marked antiseptic properties: in 0°2 per cent. solution it stops 
the putrefaction of urine and lactic fermentation ; in 0°4 per 
cent. solution it completely stops the putrefaction of blood and 
largely decreases the coagulation of milk. Blood containing 
I per cent. of chinolin cannot be coagulated. At low tem- 
peratures the alkaloid forms compounds with albumin, which 
coagulate. 


IN a paper ‘‘ presented to both Houses of Parliament” the 
subject of ‘‘o/eomargarine”’ as manufactured in the United 
States is discussed. This substance is made from beef suet by 
disintegrating in warm water, passing through a fine sieve, melt- 
ing at 120° F., settling, draining off the oil, and allowing to 
solidify. If ‘‘dutterine” is to be made, the oil is mixed with 
Io per cent. of milk, churned, coloured with annatto, rolled 
with ice, and salted. During the year ending June 30, 1880, 
18,833,330 lbs. of oleomargarine were exported from New York, 
the greater part going to Holland. The manufacture and sale 
of this substance is strongly condemned by many butter mer- 
chants, and as strongly recommended by various well-known 
American chemists. Analyses given in the report show very 
small differences between oleomargarine and natural butter, 
except in the particular of soluble fats, of which oleomargarine 
contains considerably less than natural butter. 


Tue Newcastle-upon-Tyne Chemical Society publishes in its 
Proceedings a paper by R, Hasenclever, on the alkali manufac- 
ture in Germany in 1880, in which it is shown that the consump- 
tion of alkali in Germany at present exceeds the supply, and 
that manufacturers are now extending their works and building 
new ones. The ammonia process is coming largely into use ; 
the cost of plant and expenses are les; than when Leblanc’s pro- 
cess is em,loyed ; but the latter process is also extending year 
by year. 

A NEW journal, devoted to analytical chemistry, has just made 
its appearance with the title Repertorium der analytischen 
Chemie; it is published by Voss of Leipzig, and promises to 
be useful to those who are interested in this branch of applied 
science. 


OBSERVATIONS on the production of crystalline albuminoid 
compounds have from time to time been published. Ina recent 
number of Zeztschrift fiir Krystallographie a general account of 
these observations is given by Herr Schimper, and the following, 
among other, general statements are made: albumenoid sub- 
stances are capable of crystallising, but the crystals (or erystal- 
loids, as they are called) differ from ordinary crystals in their 


a 


470 


mode of growth ; the angles of crystalloids are also probably 
somewhat variable. The crystalloids being chiefly regular and 
rhombohedral forms, some are compounds containing metals— 
chiefly magnesium, calcium, barium—others are free from metals. 
The growth is connected in a definite manner with the crystal- 
line form ; the forms of the regular crystalloids remain unchanged, 
while the rhombohedral crystallo‘ds undergo changes in their 
angles, the maximum growth being in the direction of the 
principal axis, The growth and solubility of the erystalloids are 
not equal throughout; they increase from without inwards, so 
that in dilute reagents the growth or the solution begins in the 
middle. The crystalloids are also frequently distinguished, like 
starch granules, by layers of unequal growth. 


HERR BALLO states in Gerliner Berichte that if camphor be 
heated with a quantity of spirit of wine, containing from 36 to 
65 per cent. ethylic alcohol, such that some of the camphor 
remains undissolved, fusion of the camphor occurs on the surface 
ofthe alcohol, and the melted camphor either floats on the surface 
of the alcoholic solution, or sinks to the bottom according to 
the specific gravity of: the liquid. 

IN reference to the observations of Hautefeuille and Chappuis 
regarding ‘‘ pernitric acid,” recently mentioned in these Notes, 
the following details may be of interest. If a perfectly dry 
mixture of oxygen and nitrogen is ozonised, and the absorption 
spectrum of a layer about two metres long of this mixture is 
observed, certain fine dark lines are noticed in the red, orange, 
and green, in addition to the characteristic absorption bands of 
ozone. ‘These lines are not exhibited by nitrogen, nitrous 
anhydride, nitrogen tetroxide, or nitric anhydride, when sub- 
mitted to the action of the electric discharge. If the gas which 
exhibits: the new lines be conducted through water, the water 
acquires an acid reaction, and the ozone bands alone remain in 
the spectrum. If the gas be heated to redness the spectrum of 
nitrogen tetroxide appears. If the gas be allowed to remain at 
ordinary temperatures the new lines gradually fade away ; after 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours they have entirely disappeared ; 
the spectrum of nitrogen tetroxide becomes gradually more 
prominent, and reaches a maximum after a few days. The same 
lines are noticeable in the absorption-spectrum of the gas pro- 
duced by the action of the electric discharge on a mixture of 
nitrogen tetroxide and oxygen. The authors conclude that the 
newly-observed lines are due to the presence of an oxide of 
nitrogen containing relatively more oxygen than N,O,;, 2.2. to 
the anhydride of ‘* pernitric acid.” 


METEOKOLOGICAL NOTES 


IN a paper on the ‘‘ Marche des Isotherms au Printemps dans 
le Nord de Europe,” Prof. Hildebrandsson of Up:ala Meteoro- 
logical Observatory has struck out a fresh line of inquiry and 
produced results at once of great scientific and practical value. 
In a series of five maps he shows the advances with season 
northwards over North-Western Europe of the isotherms of 
32°°0, 37°°4, 42°°8, 48°°2, and 53°°6 respectively, the isotherms 
being thus 5°*4 (or 3°°0 C.) apart. On January 15 the isotherm 
of 32°0 proceeds along the south coasts of the Black Sea and 
thence westwards to near Lyons, from which point it strikes 
northwards, passing into the North Sea at Groningen, and skirts 
the west of Norway as far as Christiansund. The progress 
northwards and eastwards of this isotherm at the subsequent fort- 
nightly epochs is extremely instructive, the advance northwards 
over the plains of Russia being manifoldly more rapid than its ad- 
vance over the south-west of Norway. By May 1 the mean tem- 
perature of the whole of North-Western Europe has risen above 
32°°0 except a small portion from the North Cape to the White 
Sea. In the height of summer the isotherm of 53°°6 (12° C.) 
reaches its northern limit, and then includes the whole of Europe 
except a thin slice of Norway from Vard6 to the Lofoden Isles, 
Since on April 15 this isotherm skirts the southern shores of the 
Black Sea, its advance northwards is much more rapid than that 
of 32°°0. Specially instructive is it to note the influence of the 
various seas ad mountain systems on the seasonal advance of 
the different isotherms. An interesting table is given showing 
the time taken by various natural phenomena to advance a 
degree of latitude northwards ‘along the shores of the Baltic. 
The flowering of plants takes 4°3 days in advancing overa degree 
of latitude in April, 2°3 days in May, 1°5 days in June, and o°5 
days in July; the ripening: of fruits generally 1°5 days ; and 
the fall of forest leaves 2°3 days. Hence the phenomena are 


NATURE 


| March 17, 1881 


propagated with the greatest rapidity when the {temperature 
approaches and reaches the annual maximum. 


SOME months ago Miss Ormerod made a present to meteoro- 
logists of some value in her book entitled ‘‘The Cobham 
Journals,” which gives an appreciative, well-written, and in some 
respects novel and ingenious account of the meteorological and 
phenological observations made by the late Miss Caroline 
Molesworth at Cobham, from 1825 to 1850. For each of the 
years complete tables are given of temperature, rainfall, and 


wind, which include also a comparative table for temperature ~ 


and rain for Chiswick, taken from Glaisher’s discussion of the 
Chiswick meteorological observations from 1826-69. Along 
with these tables are printed full notes setting forth the main 
features of the weather of each month, the month being divided 
into more or fewer sections, according to the number of types of 
weather which prevailed ; and a detailed account of the accom- 
panying phenomena of vegetation and animal life. In the 
general summary appended to the work the bearings of weather 
on plant and animal life are more specially dealt with, and a 
valuable table is given showing the dates of the flowering of 
plants, the leafing of trees, the ripening of fruits, and the arrival 
of birds. What is much to be admired in the work is ‘the 
modesty, conscientiousness, and earnestness everywhere manifest, 
and these qualities of the scientific worker, it may be added, 
equally characterise the admirably-planned and worked scheme of 
Observations of Injurious Insects the author is now conducting 
so successfully. 


AT the General Meeting of the Scottish Meteorological Society 
held on Friday last, Mr. Buchan read a paper on the atmo- 
spheric pressure of the British Islands, based on the observations 
of the last twenty-four years at about 300 stations. The mean 
pressure of these Islands taken as a whole is very nearly 
29°900 inches, this isobar crossing the country from Galway to 
Newcastle. From this it rises southwards to 29°983 inches in 
the Channel Isles, and falls northward to 29780 inches at North 
Unst in the extreme north of Shetland, there being thus a 
difference of about two-tenths of an inch of mean pressure 
between the extreme south and north. As regards individual 
stations the annual monthly maximum is attained in May, to the 
north of a line drawn from the mouth of the Shannon to the 
Wash, and thence round to Colchester, and the excess of this 
month’s pressure is the greater as we advance north-westwards 
to the Hebrides ; it is greatest in July over the extreme south of 
Ireland and the extreme south-west of England ; but elsewhere 
the highest monthly mean is in June. The maximum in May 
over the whole of the northern portion of these Islands is con- 
nected with the maximum during the same month over arctic 
and sub-aretic North Atlantic, and regions adjoining, and the 
maximum in July over the south-west is connected with the high 
pressure which obtains in this month over the Atlantic between 
Africa and the United States. The July pressure of the south-east 
of England is lowered from its proximity to the Continent, where 
pressure falls to the minimum in July. The mean monthly mini- 
mum occurs in January everywhere to the north of a line from 
Galway to Berwick ; in March to the east of a line from Hull to 
Osborne ; and in October over the rest of England and Ireland, 
which thus includes the larger portion of the British: Islands, 
Of these depressions in the annual march of the pressure, by far 
the largest is the January one, which in the Outer Hebrides falls 
to o'080 inch below the mean of any other month, It is there 
accordingly where the great diminution of pressure in the north 
of the Atlantic during the winter month is most felt. The 
greatest difference between the extreme north and south, amount- 
ing to nearly 0°400 inch, takes place in January, and it is in this 
month when the isobars lie most uniformly from west-south-west 
to east-north-east, thus giving the gradient for the south-westerly 
winds which prevail in this season, ‘The least variation occurs 
in May, the extremes being 30°002 inches in Scilly in the south, 
and 29°906 inches at North Unst in the north, being thus only a 
fourth part of the difference which obtains in January. The 
greatest divergence from parallelism among the isobars occurs in 
July, where the arrangement somewkat resembles a fan with the 
hand part in the west of Ireland, and the lines opening out to 
their greatest extent in the east of Great Britain—adisposition of 
the lines due to the position of Great Britain between the high 
pressure which at this season overspreads the Atlantic to the 
south-west, and the low pressure which is so characteristic a 
feature of the meteorology of the old Continent in summer, 

THE temperature of January last was of a character sufficiently 
striking and unusual as to call for a permanent record in ou 


March 17, 1881 | 


pages. Lower mean temperatures of particular months have 
occurred previously in Shetland, Orkney, and the extreme north 
of Caithness and Sutherland, January, 1867, having been colder 
in these northern regions. Other months, notably February, 

1855, were as cold as, or colder than, January last over England 
generally except its north-western counties. But in this latter 
district and over the whole of the rest of Scotland January was 
colder than any month on record, going back for the different 
districts on observations which extend over periods varying from 
24 to 118 years. The mean temperature fell below that of any 
previously recorded month in varied amounts up to 4°°0, this 
excessive degree of cold being experienced chiefly in the upper 
narrow valleys of the interior of the country, such as Lairg in 
Sutherland, Upper Deeside, and Tweeddale, and the uplying 
valleys of the Cheviots. The greatest absolute cold occurred 
on the nights immediately preceding the great London storm of 
the 18th, the lowest, so far as the facts have reached us, being 
—16°'0 near Kelso; —15°'0 at Stobo Castle in Peeblesshire ; 
—13°'0 at Paxton House near Berwick ; —11°°0 at Lairg, and 
Thirlestane Castle near Lauder; and -—8°°o at Milne Graden 
near Coldstream. This depression of temperature thus equal- 
led that of the memorable night of December 4, 1879, when it 
fell, at Springwood Park near Kelso, to — 16°°0, which is abso 

lutely the lowest authentic temperature that has been recorded 
in Great Britain since thermometers came into use, leaving out 
of view as incomparable and misleading all observations made 
with exposed thermometers. In Scotland, the mean temperature 
of each of the five months ending with February was under the 
average, the depression being greatest just where as stated above 
the cold of January was greatest. The mean temperature of 
these five months was 5°°6 under the average in West Perthshire, 
5°-o at Lanark, 4°°5 at Thirlestane Castle, Braemar, and Culloden, 
and about 3°-0 in the west from North Unst to the Solway Firth. 
In South Britain, the mean temperature of this period did not 
fall so low owing to the milder weather there during November 
and December. The snowstorms of this winter are, at least, 
equally memorable, particularly the great storm of the third week 
of January in the south of England, and the great storm in 
Scotland in the first week of March, when railway traffic was 
paralysed, many trains being buried under snow-wreaths, twenty, 
thirty, and even in some cases forty feet in thickness. 


THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMMISSIONERS 
AND THE PROFESSORIATE 


‘THE University Commissioners have i-sued a revised edition 

~ of the proposed statutes on the professoriate. The scheme 
laid before the Hebdomadal Council last November met with 
considerable opposition, which re-ulted in representations being 
made by the Council to the Commissioners in favour of certain 
modifications in the duties assigned to the professors. On com- 
paring the revised with the old proposals, it is evident that the 
Commissioners have become convinced that it is desirable to 
allow each professor a larger individual liberty in the mode of 
giving instruction in his department than was granted in the 
former scheme, In the General Regulations of last November 
Clauses 4 and 5 ran as follows :— 

4. During the period of each term over which his course of 
lectures shall extend, and on so many days in the week as the 
particular regulations applicable to his chair require, he shall be 
ready to give private instruction to such students, being members 
of the university and attending his lectures, as may desire to 
receive it, in such matters relevant to the subjects of his lectures 
as may more conveniently be explained in that manner, and also 
to test by questions or otherwise, as may be convenient, the 
knowledge of such students in those subjects. Such private 
instruction shall be open without fee to students who are members 
of a college out of the revenues of which his chair is wholly or 
partly endowed, and to other students on payment of such fees 
(if any) as the professor may require, not exceeding in number or 
amount the Jimit set by any statutes of the university in that 
behalf which may be in force for the time being. 

5. At the end of each term in which he has delivered lectures 
he shall examine the students who have attended them, and 
shall, on the request of the head of any college, inform the 
college of the results of the examination as regards the students 
who are members of such college, and shall also, if requested, 
give like information to the Delegates of students not attached to 
any college or hall. 

In the new statutes the obligation to examine the whole class 


NATURE 


471 


is removed ; but each professor at the head of a laboratory or 
observatory must inform the college authorities of the regularity 
and proficiency of students attending his department. The new 
general regulations run as follow :— 

Duties of Professors 

I. It shall be the duty of every professor in his department to 
give instruction to students, assist the pursuit of knowledge, and 
contribute to the advancement of it, and aid generally the work 
of the university. 

2. Every professor shall in respect of the lectures to be given 
by him conform to the particular regulations applicable to his 
chair. He may lecture in such manner and form as he judges 
to be best for the instruction of students and the advancement of 
knowledge. 

3. It shall be his duty to give to students attending his ordinary 
lectures assistance in their studies by advice, by informal instruc- 
tion, by occasional or periodical examination, and otherwise, as 
he may judge to be expedient. For receiving students who 
desire such assistance he shall appoint stated times in every week 
in which he lectures. ” 

4. At the request of any student who has regularly attended 
any course of lectures he shall certify in writing the fact of such 
attendance, 

5. The ordinary lectures of every professor shall be open to 
all students who are members of the university without payment 
of any fee, unless the university shall otherwise determine. But 
the university may, if it should deem it expedient so to do, by 
statute or decree authorise any professor to require payment of 
fees not exceeding a specified amount in respect of all or any of 
his lectures or of the instruction to be given by him. 

6. Every professor shall in addition to his ordinary lectures 
deliver from time to time, after previous public notice, a public 
lecture or lectures to be open to all members of the university 
without payment of any fee. 

With regard to the manner of election to professorships and 
to the dispensations and leave of absence granted by the visita- 
torial boards, little or no alterations have been made, The pro- 
fessoriate is divided into three schedules. With the exception 
of the professors of geology, mineralogy, and botany who come 
under Schedule B, the professors in the different departments of 
natural science come under Schedule C, to which division the 
following particular regulations are applicable :— 

(a) The professor shall reside within the university during 
six months at least in each academical year, between the first 
day of September and the ensuing first day of July. 

(6) He shall lecture in two at least of the three university 
terms. His lectures shall extend over a period not less in 
any term than six weeks, and not less in the whole than fourteen 
weeks, and he shall lecture twice at least in each week. 

(c) The laboratory under the charge of each professor, and 
in the case of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, the Univer- 
sity Observatory, shall be open for eight weeks in each term, and 
at such other times and for such hours as the university may by 
statute determine. 

Students shall be admitted to the university observatory, and 
to the laboratory under the charge of each professor, upon such 
conditions as the university shall from time to time by statute 
determine, and upon the terms of paying such fees, not exceed- 
ing such amountas may be fixed by any statute of the university 
in force for the time being, as the professor may from time to 
time require. 

(¢@) Except for some grave reason to be approved by the 
Vice-Chancellor, the professor shall, for seven’ weeks in each 
term, and during some part of three days in each week, be 
ready to give instruction in the subject of his chair to such 
students as shall have been admitted to the laboratory under his 
charge (or in the case of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, 
to the University Observatory) ; and such instruction shall be 
given in the laboratory or observatory (as the case may be) or in 
some class-room connected therewith. 

(2) Ihe professor shall also, at the close of each term, inform 
any college which may request him to do so as to the regularity 
of attendance and the proficiency of the students belonging to 
such college who have been admitted into the laboratory or 
observatory under his charge, and shall give like information, 
if requested, to:the Delegates of students not attached to any 
college or hall. : ; 

4. The particular regulations next following shall be appli- 
cable to the several professors named in them respectively (that is 
to say)— 


Age 


NATURE 


[March 17, 1884 


(2) The Savilian Professor of Astronomy shall have the charge 
of the University Observatory, and shall undertake the personal 
and regular supervision of the same, and of the several 
demonstrators and other assistants employed therein, and shall 
be responsible for all the work carried on there, 

(6) The Professor of Experimental Philosophy shall have the 
charge of the Clarendon Laboratory, and shall undertake the 
personal and regular supervision of the same, and of the several 
demonstrators and other assistants employed therein, and shall be 
responsible for all the work carried on there. 

(c) The Waynflete Professor of Chemistry shall have the 
charge of the chemical laboratories in the University Museum, 
or such part thereof as the university may by statute assign to 
him, and shall undertake the personal and regular supervision of 
the same, and of the several demonstrators and other assistants 
employed therein, and shall be responsible for all the work 
carried on there. 

(@) The Linacre Professor of Human and Comparative Ana- 
tomy shall have the charge of the anatomical and ethnological 
collections and the anatomical laboratories in the University 
Museum, or such part thereof as the university may by statute 
assign to him ; and shall undertake the personal and regular 
supervision of the same and of the several demonstrators and 
other assistants employed therein, and shall be responsible for 
all the work carried on there. 

(e) The Professor of Botany and Rural Economy shall have 
the charge and supervision of the Botanical Gardens and botani- 
cal collections belonging to the university ; and it shall be part 
of his duty to make such gardens and collections accessible to, 
and available for the instruction of, students attending his 
lectures. 

(7) The Professors of Geology and Mineralogy respectively 
shall have the charge and supervision of the geological and 
palzontological collections and of the mineralogical collection 
belonging to the university ; and it shall be part of their duties 
to make such collections respectively accessible to, and available 
for the instruction of, students attending their lectures. 

To the class of teachers to be called University Readers some 
of the duties assigned to the professoriate under the old scheme 
are now transferred. The ‘‘ informal instruction” twice a week 
to all students who may demand it becomes now part of the 
regular duty of the Reader, and not of the Professor. The fol- 
lowing are the most important clauses on University Readers :— 

(2) Every appointment of a University Reader shall be made 
by the Delegates of the Common University Fund, or by persons, 
not fewer than three in number, nominated for that purpose by 
the Delegates. 

(6) Every University Reader shall hold his office for five years, 
but shall be re-eligible. 

(c) He shall receive from the Common University Fund 300/, 
per annum. 

(@) He shall in every year lecture in each of the three Uni- 
versity Terms (Easter and Trinity Terms being counted as one), 
His lectures shall extend over a period not less than seven weeks 
in each term, nor than twenty-one weeks in the whole, and he 
shall lecture twice at least in each week. In addition to these 
lectures he shall, twice at least in every week in which he 
lectures, receive students desirous of informal instruction and 
other assistance in the studies with which his readership is 
connected. 

(e) He may require from students receiving the informal in- 
struction and assistance mentioned in the foregoing regulation 
payment of a fee not exceeding 2/. for any university term. With 
this exception his lectures shall be open to all members of the 
university without payment of any fee. 

5. Itshall be the duty of every reader to lecture and give 
instruction in the subject or branch of study for which he is 
appointed, and in arranging the subjects and times of his 
lectures it shall also be his duty to have regard to the arrange- 
ments made or proposed to be made by the professors, if any, 
lecturing in the same department of study. 

The most important change in the new scheme is the libera- 
tion of the professor and reader from the immediate control of 
the council or board of his faculty. Under the old scheme 
each professor and reader was obliged during Easter term to seud 
in to the faculty a schedule of all his lectures and other instruc- 
tion for the ensuing year, giving the days, hours, and subjects 
of the lectures. ‘The faculty was to have the power of criti- 
cising the schedules and of recommending alterations, and the 
two following clauses were intended to reduce a refractory 
professor to submission :— 


14. The Council shall not alter any schedule without the 
consent of the person named in it. But if a recommendation 
made by the Council as to any schedule be not acceded to, the 
Council may, if they think fit, exclude the schedule or the part 
of it affected by such recommendation from the list, unless such 
schedule was sent in by a Professor or University Reader. In 
the last-mentioned case the Council shall not exclude the 
schedule, but may, if they think fit, report the fact to the 
Vice-Chancellor, who shall lay the report before the Visitatorial 
Board. 

15. If a Professor or University Reader wilfully neglect to 
send in schedules of his lectures, the Visitatorial Board may, on 
a report of the Council of the Faculty, and without any charge 
laid before the board, proceed against him by admonition or 
otherwise as for a neglect of the duties of his office. Refusal 
on the part of a Professor or University Reader to accede to 
any recommendation of the Council of his faculty respecting his 
lectures may likewise be treated by the board as a neglect of 
duty, if, on a consideration of the circumstances, the board be 
satisfied that such refusal was without reasonable justification. 
Provided that if the recommendation relate to the subjects of the 
proposed lectures it shall be sufficient for the Professor or 
University Reader to show that such lectures are in respect of 
their subject-matter a bond fide fulfilment of the statutory duties 
of his office. 

The following are the new clauses which regulate the relation 
between the professoriate and the board in the different faculties 
of arts, theology, Jaw, and natural science :— 

The board of each faculty shall have the following duties and 
powers :— 

It shall be the duty of the board to prepare and send to the 
Vice-Chancellor for publication— 

(z) Before the end of each term a list of the lectures which 
are to be given in the ensuing term in the subjects of the faculty 
under the authority of the university or of any college, or of 
the Delegates of students not attached to any college or hall, 
and are to be open to persons other than the members of any 
one college, or (as the case may be) other than the students not 
attached to any college or hall. 

(2) In Easter or Trinity Term annually a general scheme or 
statement showing, as far as may be, the lectures to be given as 
aforesaid during the course of the ensuing academical year. 

(c) In Michaelmas Term, or at such other time in each year 
as the university may by statute appoint, a summary statement’ 
of the lectures given during the preceding year in the subjects 
of the faculty by Professors and University Readers, and of all 
other lectures which have been advertised in the published lists 
of the faculty and given in conformity therewith. The board 
shall add to this statement such further information (if any) 
respecting the studies and instruction of the faculty as the uni- 
versity may by statute require, and may point out any deficiencies 
in the provision made for instruction, andamake recommendations 
for supplying them. a= 

to. It shall be the duty of every Professor and University 
Reader to send to the Secretary of the Boards of Faculties 
timely notice of the lectures he proposes to give in any of the 
subjects of any faculty to which he belongs, pursuant to the 
statutes and regulations in force for the time being, and in 
arranging his lectures to have due and reasonable regard to the 
recommendations of the board of the faeulty; but this duty 
shall not be deemed to preclude him from the free use of his 
discretion in selecting for his lectures any subject or part of a 
subject which he deems most advisable within the province 
assigned to him by statute. 


GOLD IN NEWFOUNDLAND 


EPORTS having been circulated for some time past that 

gold had been discovered in quartz veins in the regions near 

Brigus of Conception Bay, Newfoundland, Mr. Murray has 
recently made a personal examination of the ground. 

In his report to the Governor of the Colony, dated October 8, 
he states that by the first blast from two to three cubic feet of 
rock were removed, all of which was carefully broken up, 
washed, and examined ; which operation finally resulted in the 
display of ten or twelve distinct ‘‘sights” of gold. In one 
fragment about five pounds weight, largely charged with dark 
green chlorite, the gold shows itself in three places distinctly, 
while many small specks are perceptible by means of a good 
lens. The fracture of a fragment of milky white and translucent — 


March 17, 1881 | 


NATURE 


473 


quartz, which was broken off the large piece, revealed two | a pendulum, has recently been applied by me to a clock driving 


patches of gold, both of which together, if removed from the 
matrix, would probably produce about a dwt. (pennyweight) of 
the metal ; whilst several small masses or nuggets were found 
adhering to the small broken fragments of quartz at the bottom 
of the pail in which the rock was washed, the largest of which 
contained about ten or twelve grains of gold. From some 
specimens in which no gold was perceptible to the naked eye, 
and had been selected for analysis, a small nugget weighing 
three grains was obtained in the dust of the bag in which the 
specimens were carried. In the specimen from Fox Hill the 
metal occurs thickly in the minutest specks, scarcely, if at all, 
perceptible to the naked eye, but readily recognised under the 
lens, where it chiefly surrounds a small patch of chlorite. 

The rock formation intersected by these auriferous quartz veins 
is of Huronian or Intermediate age, or the group of strata next 
‘below the asfidel/a slates of St. John’s. The group consists 
chiefly of greenish fine-grained felsite slates, which, judging by 
the weathering of the exposed surfaces, are also magnesian and 
ferruginous. The cleavage is exactly coincident with the bed- 
ding, and the slates occasionally split into very fine laminz, but 
frequently into strong stout slabs, which are used to a consider- 
able extent at Brigus for paving, for hearthstones, and for 
building foundations and walls. 

A rough and hummocky belt of country from three-quarters 
to one mile wide, which forms the nucleus of the peninsula 
between Bay-de-Grave and Brigus Harbour, is thickly intersected 
by reticulating quartz veins varying in thickness from less than 
an inch to upwards of a foot, which often appear to ramify 
from a central boss or great mass of quartz, often extending 
over many square yards, and usually forming low isolated hum- 
mocks or hills. The general run of the belt is as nearly as 
possible north-east and south-west from the true meridian. 
Although many of the veins, both small and large, may be seen 
for considerable distances to run exactly parallel with the bed- 
ding, the net-work of the whole mass runs obliquely to the 
strike of the beds, which are also minutely intersected by the 
smaller veins crossing and reticulating in all directions. 

The resemblance in general character of the strata with their 
included auriferous quartz veins in Newfoundland to those of 
Nova Scotia is striking, although accnrding to Dr. Dawson the 
auriferous country of Nova Scotia is probably of Lower Silurian 
age, while that of Newfoundland is undoubtedly unconformably 
below the Primordial group, which, with abundant characteristic 
fossils, skirts the shores of Conception Bay. 

That a large area of country in the regions referred ‘to is auri- 
ferous there can scarcely be a doubt, although nothing short of 
actual mining and practical experience can possibly prove what 
the value of the produce may be, or whether the prospects of 
obtaining a remunerative return for the necessary outlay are 
favourable or otherwise. The specimens which have been ob- 
tained, although an unquestionable evidence of the presence of 
the precious metal, cannot by any means be taken as indicative 
of a certain average yield. An analysis of quartz collected, in 
which gold is imperceptible to the naked eye, may aid in reveal- 
ing some evidence of its constancy, and may throw some light 
upon the possible average of superficial contents over certain 
areas under similar circumstances; but it may safely be pre- 
dicted that the irregularities of distribution, so conspicuously 
displayed by the veins on the surface, will extend beneath it, 
and that it will be mainly on the stronger and more persistent 
bands, where intercalated with the strata, that mining will 
extend to any considerable depth. 

The indications of gold in Newfoundland are certainly suffi- 
ciently favourable to merit a fair trial; and there are good 
reasons to hope and expect that ample capital applied to skilled 
and judicious labour may be found remunerative to future adven- 
turers, while a new industry will be added to give employment 
to the labouring population of the island, and possibly bring 
this despised and but little-known colony into more prominence 
and consideration abroad than it hitherto has enjoyed. 


A SPEED GOVERNOR FOR CONTINUOUS 
MOTION 


J* NATuRE, vol. xxiii. p. 61, a speed governor for’a chrono- 

graph is described, the invention of the Astronomer-Royal, 
in which a conical pendulum acts on a paddle moving'in a viscous 
fluid, so as to make it dip more deeply into the fluid when the 
speed is increased. A similar apparatus, with a spring instead of 


a recording seismograph whose motion is required to be con- 
tinuous and fairly uniform. As the apparatus is very simple and 
easily made, requiring no nice fitting, and has proved itself to be 
a ey effective governor, a description of it may perhaps be 
useful, 

@ is a vertical spindle driven by the clock, and making about 
one turn per second. Near the top of it a cross-bar is fixed 
whose ends are forked, and in them are jointed two bell-crank 
levers bc, 6c, At the top of 64 are two masses, which in my 
instrument are two smooth-bore musket balls. These are tied 
together by a spiral spring between two hooks at the top, At 
the ends of cc are two flat paddles, and when the balls fly out 
from the axis of rotation the paddles dip into glycerine contained 
in the annular trough @d, which is shown in section. The trough 
rests on the top of the clock frame. By using only one spring, 
instead of tying each ball to the spindle by a separate spring, I 
secure that the pull inwards is necessarily the same for both, 


WANA Sec- 
Nn, 


As the balls go out a component of their weight comes into 
action, helping this motion and opposed to the pull of the 
spring. For small displacements this force increases very nearly 
in proportion to the displacement, and hence, by choosing a 
spring of suitable stiffness, a small change of speed can be made 
to produce a relatively very large dispJacement, the proper con- 
dition for approximate isochronism. 

A governor whose actual size is about twice that of the sketch, 
roughly made in my laboratory, gives only a slight rise im speed 
when the driving weight is doubled, and works very smoothly, 
The apparatus can easily be applied to a clock, perhaps most 
easily by rolling contact between a horizontal disk on @ and a 
vertical disk on one of the axles of the clock, and it gives suffi- 
cient control for many purposes. If great accuracy were required 
the resultant effect of change of temperature on the elasticity of 
the spring and on the viscosity of the fluid might be corrected by 
makirg c of two metals, so as to bend and raise or lower the 
paddles. It is well to put stops to prevent the balls from falling 
inwards beyond the vertical position. J. A. Ewine 

The University, Tokio, Japan, January 21 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


Oxrorp.—The electors to the Radcliffe Travelling Fellowship 
have, after examination, awarded the Fellowship to Mr. A. J. 
Anderson, B.A., late Natural Science Demy of Magdalen 
College. 

The examiners for the Burdett-Coutts (Geological) Scholar- 
ship have recommended Mr. J. B. Nias, B.A., scholar of 
Exeter College, for the scholarship. : 

The Junior Studentships in Natural Science at Christchurch 
have been awarded to Mr. G. C. Chambres, Commoner of 
Balliol College, and late of Dulwich School, and to Mr. R. E. 
Moyle (private tuition). Proxime accessit, Mr. C. D. Spencer, 
of Clifton College. Mr. W. C. Hudson was elected to an 
Exhibition in Natural Science. 

The various lecturers and demonstrators in physics met last 
week at the instance of Prof. Clifton, and arranged a scheme of 
lectures for next term, similar to that carried out during the 
present term, The object of the scheme is to divide the subjects 
among the independent college and university lecturers, so that 
students may attend, by going from one lecturer to another, all 
the lectures required for any particular course of study. 


Tue annual meeting of the Governors of the City and Guilds 
of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Educa- 


474 


— 


tion was held on Monday at the Mercers’ Hall, Sir S. Waterlow, 
M.P., one of the vice-presidents, in the chair, The most im- 
portant points referred to in the report were the course taken in 
reference to the plans and estimates for the central institution, 
the settlement of the plans for the Technical College, and the 
technological examinations, With regard to the central institu- 
tion the Board thought it ought not to authorise the entering into 
any contract beyond that for which they had the money in hand. 
The Chairman earnestly hoped that some of the companies that 
had not yet contributed would subscribe and enable the 20,000/. 
which was yet required to be made up. With reference to the 
Technical College at Finsbury there was no reason why the 
foundation-stone of the building should not be laid at an early 
date. He was glad to be able to state that the Drapers’ Company 
had announced its intention of increasing its subscriptions from 
2000/7, to 4000/7. per annum, the additional sum to be applied for 
the first two years towards the cost of building and fitting the 
Finsbury Technical College. The Vintners’ Company had like- 
wise signified its intention of contributing 250/. per annum, 
which showed its sympathy in the work. During the past year 
the income had been 13,549/., and by the subscriptions received 
it was raised to 20,7657. for the year 1881. The chairman con- 
cluded by moving the adoption of the report. Mr. W. 
Spottiswoode-seconded the motion, which was unanimously 
carried. 

AT ameeting held at 68, Grosvenor Street, W., on February 
18, Mr. George Palmer, M.P., in the chair, it was decided to 
raise a fund for the purpose of founding an annual prize or 
scholarship for mathematics in memory of Miss Ellen Watson, 
to be open for competition equally by men and women, at either 
University College or the London University. Miss Watson 
was the first woman to enter the classes of mathematics at Uni- 
versity College, London. Her success as a student of mathe- 
matics was brilliant, and at the end of the session, in June, 1877, 
she gained the Mayer de Rothschild Exhibition, which is awarded 
annually to the most distinguished mathematical student of the 
year. After passing the 1st B.Sc. examination at the London 
University, in July, 1879, Miss Watson was obliged by failing 
health to leave England for Grahamstown, South Africa, where 
she died last December, aged twenty-four years. It may be 
added that the Ellen Watson scholarship, or prize, would be the 
first that has been founded in memory of a woman’s mathematical 
genius and promise of scientific work. A second meeting to 
determine to which of the above institutions the scholarship 
should be offered, and to arrange other matters in connection 
with it, was held yesterday. Subscriptions will be gladly received 
and may be paid to Miss Alice M. Palmer, hon. sec., 68, 
Grosvenor Street, W., or to the account of the ‘‘ Ellen Watson 
Fund,” Messrs. Dimsdale and Co., Bankers, Cornhill, E.C. 

PRINCE LEOPOLD will formally open the new University 
buildings at Nottingham on Thursday, June 30. 

AT a meeting of the Council of the Wilts and Hants Agri- 
cultural College, at Downton, Salisbury, on Wednesday, it was 
unanimously resolved that the College should henceforth be 
called the College of Agriculture. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No, 2.—On absorption of 
carbonic acid by wood charcoal, and its relation to pressure and 
temperature, by P. Chappuis.—On absorption of dark heat-rays 
in gases and vapours, by E. Lecher and J. Pernter.—New re- 
searches on Newton’s rings (continued), by L. Sohncke and A. 
Wangerin.—On the discharge of electricity in rarefied gases 
(continued), by E. Goldstein.—On the question as to the nature 
of galvanic polarisation, by F. Exner.—On the same, by W. 
Beetz.—On excitation of electricity on contact of metals and 
gases, by F. Schulze-Berge.—Note on F. Exner’s paper on the 
theory of Volta’s fundamental experiment, by the same. 


Bulletin de V Academie Royale des Sciences (de Belgique), No. 1. 
—Geodetic junction of Spain and Algeria in 1879, by M. Perrier. 
—Fire-damp and atmospheric perturbations, by M. Comet.— 
On the excretory apparatus of rhabdoccelan and dendroccelan 
Turbellaria, by M. Fancotte. 


Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienzee Lettere, Rendiconti, 
vol, xiv., fasc. i. and ii—Synoptic tables of results obtained in 
the Botanical Garden of Pavia University from cultivation of 
fifteen qualities of vine (Asiatic and American species and 
varieties), by S. Giacomo.—Contribution to the pathology of 


NATURE 


| March 17, 1881 


voluntary muscles, by C. Golgi.—Contribution to the physio- 
logy of strychnic tetanus, by G, Ciniselli—On Cremonian 
correspondences in the plane and in space, by C. F, Archieri.— 
The invasion by the /évonosfora viticola in Italy, by:S. 
Garovaglio.—On the damage which Peronospora may do in 
Italy in future, by V. Trevisan.—Statistical note on inflamma- 
tion, on cancer, on cirrhosis, on tuberculosis, and on pyzmia, 
by G. Sangalli.—Proposed classification of the stature of the 
human body, by S. Zoja. 


Atti della R, Accademia dei Lincei, vol, v. fasc. 2 (December 
18, 1880). —Reports on prize competitions. 

Fasc. 3 (January 2).—Contributions to the study of medullated 
nerve fibre and observations on amylaceous corpurcles in the 
brain and spinal cord, by A. Ceci.—On the bacillus of contagious 
mollusca, by M. Domenico.—On an equation between the 
partial derivatives of the inverse distances of three planets which 
attract one another, by Dr. G. Annibale-—Two small fossil 
hymenoptera of Sicilian amber, by G. Mulfattii—On some rare 
species of Italian birds, by P. Luigii—On Stilbite from Miage 
(Monte Bianco), by C. Alfonso.—On ollenite, an amphibolic 
rock of Mount Ollen, by the same. 


_Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, No, 2, January 31.—Coglie- 
vina’s centigrade photometér, by R. Ferrini. 


Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists.—The 
last volume of the A/emoirs of the St. Petersburg Society of 
Naturalists contains, besides the minutes of meetings of the 
Society, a most interesting paper by Prof. Kessler, on the ‘‘ Law 
of Mutual Help,” or sociability, which he proves to be the neces- 
sary complement of Darwin’s law of the struggle for existence. — 
Ornithological observations in Transcaucasia, by M. Mikhai- 
lovsky.—Observations on the motions of diatomacez and their 
causes, by M. K, Merejkovsky.—Materials for the knowledge of 
the infusorial fauna of the Black Sea, by the same author.—A 
sketch of the flora of the province of Toula, by MM. D. Kojev- 
nikoff and W. Tzinger, with a map.—Figures showing the 
quantities of gases in the blood and the quantities of urea and urine 
secreted by man under various conditions of life, by M. Shitz; 
and a paper on Medusz, by M. K. Merejkovsky. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 


Royal Society, February 3.—Dr. Klein communicated a 
paper by John Haycraft, Senior Physiological Demonstrater 
in the University of Edinburgh, on the cause of the striation of 
voluntary muscular fibre, The author showed that all the cross 
strize observed are due not to any differences of structure along 
the fibre, but simply to the shape of the fibre itself. The fibre 
is not a smooth cylinder, but is ampullated, alternate ridges and 
depressions occurring with beautiful regularity across its length. 
The strize correspond with these in position, and are caused by 
their action on the transmitted light. He showed theoretically 
how this must be so, and illustrated it with a model of the same 
shape but of uniform structure, which exhibited down to the 
minutest detail the cross striz seen in the muscle itself. He 
then showed the true explanation of the action of staining agents 
and of polarised light. 


Mathematical Society, March 10.—S. Roberts, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Prof. Cayley read a paper on the equi- 
librium and flexure of a skew surface —Mr. Tucker communicated 
portions of papers, viz. :—An application of elliptic functions to 
the nodal cubic, by Mr. R. A. Roberts ; and note on Prof, C, Se 
Peirce’s probability notation of 1867, by Mr. H. McColl.—Mr. 
J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S. (vice-president), having taken the 
chair, the president communicated the following direct analogue 
in space of the well-known plane theorem, “If we take an 
arbitrary point on each side of a triangle and describe a circle 
through each vertex and the two points on adjacent sides, the 
three circles meet in a point,” viz. if we take an arbitrary point 
on each edge of a tetrahedron and describe asphere through each 
vertex and the three points on adjacent edges, the four spheres 
meet ina point. The analogue was used as a point of departure 
for the study of four spheres meeting in a point. 


Chemical Society, March 3.—Prof. Roscoe, president, in 
the chair.—The following papers were read :—On the action 
of Bacteria on various gases, by F, Hatton, An aqueous ex- 
tract of flesh was used as the source of the Bacteria-containing 
liquid. A small flask half full of this liquid and half full of 


March 17, 1881 | 


_ mercury was inverted in mercury, The gas was then passed up. 
In the case of atmospheric air a large absorption of oxygen was 

observed. The other gases experimented with were hydrogen, 
' oxygen, carbon monoxide, cyanogen, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen, 
nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, and coal-gas ; in all 
cases the Bacteria remained alive and (except with cyanogen) 
flourished well. Acetylene, salicylic acid, strychnia (10 per 
cent ), morphine, narcotin, and brucin were equally without 
effect on the Bacteria. Spongy iron, phenol, and alcohol were 
very destructive to these organisms.—On the influence of inter- 
mittent filtration through sand and spongy iron on animal and 
vegetable matters dissolved in water, and on the reduction of 
nitrates by sewage, by Mr. F. Hatton. In the case of peaty 
water some diminution was observed in the organic carbon, but 
none in the organic nitrogen. Sewage promotes the reduction 
of nitrates. Spongy iron converts nitrates into ammonia and 
free nitrogen.—Prof, Tidy then read a lengthy paper on river- 
water. This is a reply to the criticisms of Dr, Frankland and 
Miss Lucy Halcrow on a former paper by the author. In the 
present paper the author restates:his firm conviction that a fairly 
-rapid river, having received sewage in quantity not exceeding one- 
twentieth of its volume, regains its purity after the run of a few 
miles, and becomes wholesome and good for driaking.—On p 
diquinoline, by F. Japp, Ph.D., and C. Colborne Graham. 
This substance was obtained by heating quinoline and benzoyl 
chloride in sealed tubes to 240°-250° C. ; it gave on analysis the 
formula C,,H,.No; it erystallises in colourless satiny laminz, 
and fuses at 191° C, 


___ Anthropological Institute, February 22.—F. W. Rudler, 
F.G.S., vide-president, in the chair.—The election of F. E. 
Robinson was announced.—A paper on arrow-poisons prepared 
by some North American Indians, by W. J. Hoffman, M.D., was 
read. The information was obtained from prominent Indian 
_ chiefs who visited Washington in 1880, and the tribes alluded to 
_ in the paper were the Shoshoni and Banak, Pai-ute, Comanche, 
_Lipan Apache, and Sisseton Dakota; this last tribe have a 
| method of poisoning bullets by drilling four small holes at equal 
distances around the horizontal circumference and filling the 
cavities with the cuticle scraped froma branch of cactus (Opuntia 
_ missouriense), the projecting rim of metal caused by the drilling 
_ is then pressed over the scrapings to prevent their being rubbed 
off or lost. As the opuntia is a harmless plant, the idea of 
poison is evidently suggested by the pain experienced when 
carelessly handling the plant, which is covered with barbed 
spines. —A paper by David Christison, M.D., on the Gauchos of 
San Jorge, Central Uruguay, was read. Having given a 
description of the country and a history of the people, the 
_ author remarked that it had often been a matter for surprise that 
Englishmen should be able to live safely among a turbulent race 
of people such as the Gauchos, but our countrymen, when 
placed in a higher sphere and independent of their political or 
private feuds, ran little risk in ordinary times ; moreover here, 
as elsewhere, the innate capacity of the British for managing 
semi-barbarous races by a combination of fair-dealing and kind- 
ness was conspicuously manifested. The Englishman had 
| acquired a certain liking fer the Gauchos which grew rather 
than diminished with time. The Gaucho could not be a per- 
manent type, and in the Banda Oriental was rapidly being 
modified. The more strict definition and sub-division of 
Property, the increase of sheep-farming and change in the 
management of cattle to the tame system, the rapid extension 
of wire fencing, and the introduction of agriculture, conspired 
to cramp his movements and to do away with the necessity for 
his peculiar accomplishments. It was even to be feared that he 
himself would pass away, and that the race which ultimately 
_ possesses the Campos will show but slight traces of his blood or 
of the aboriginal Indian race which he represents, The great 
mortality from murder and homicide which the place was noted 
for was increased by the numbers who perished under quack 
doctors. The Gauchos had been badly governed, and much of 
the evil in them was due to this cause. 


Entomological’Society, March 2.—H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Mr, E, A. Fitch exhibited a specimen 
of Strangalia 4-fasciata, taken at West Wickham by Mr. A. S. 
Olliff last August.—Mr. W. C. Boyd exhibited a specimen of 
Nonagria lutosa, taken outside the Great Eastern terminus at 

_ Liverpool Street, and a curious variety of Zxnomos tiliaria from 
-Cheshunt.—Mr. W. F. Kirby called attentiontoa general illustrated 
work on insects on which Herr Buckecher of Munich is engaged, 
and laid specimens before the meeting. —The following papers 


NA TORE. 
a ee eee 


475 


were then read :—Mr. F. P, Pascoe, On the genus /ilipus and its 
neotropical allies.—Mr. W. L. Distant, Descriptions of new 
genera and species of Rhynchota from Madagascar.—Prof. J. O. 
Westwood, Observations on the hymenopterous genus Scleroderma 
and some other allied groups.—Mr. McLachlan then called the 
attention of members to an important paper by Dr, Adler on the 
dimorphism of oak-gall flies (Cynipid@), which has just been 
published in Siebold and Kélliker’s Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaft- 
liche Zoologie, vol, xxxv.—Mr, E. A. Fitch read a report from 
the Western Daily Mercury of the trial which has lately taken 
place at Yeahampton (South Devon) in reference to the posses- 
sion of living specimens of the Colorado potato-beetle by a 
farmer who had brought them from Canada. 


Institution of Civil Engineers, March 1.—Mr. Abernethy, 
F.R.S.E., president, in the chair.—The paper read was on the 
tide-gauge, tidal harmonic analyser, and tide-predicter, by Sir 
William Thomson, LL.D., F.R.SS. L. and E. 


EDINBURGH 


Royal Society, February 21.—Prof, Fleeming Jenkin in the 
chair.—Sir William Thomson communicated a paper by Mr. 
Witkowski on the effect of strain on electric conductivity, A 
cylindrical brass tube, with a magnet and attached mirror suspended 
horizontally in the centre at right angles to the axis, was traversed 
from end to end by an electric current. In its original unstrained 
isotropic condition the cylinder so conducted the current that the 
inclosed magnet was unaffected. A couple was then applied in 
a plane at right angles to the axis, so as to distort the metal tube 
by a definite twist, thus rendering it zeolotropic as regards its 
electrical conductivity, and giving to the current a spiral set, 
which was evidenced by the deflection of the suspended magnet. 
The lines of flow set spirally round in a direction contrary to 
that of the applied couple—a result in complete accordance 
with the theory of twists, which requires a lengthening (and 
therefore an increase of resistance) along spiral lines that 
set round with the couple and a simultaneous compression 
(and corresponding decrease of resistance) along lines at right 
angles tothese, Quantitative results were obtained by balancing 
the electro-magnetic action of the current in the strained tube by 
means of an external circular movable conductor traversed by a 
steady current.—Sir William Thomson described certain experi- 
ments which he had lately made on the effect of moistening the 
opposing surfaces in a Volta-condenser, and of substituting a 
water-arc fora metallic arc in the determining contact. The 
main features of the paper were, the non-existence of any 
measurable difference of potential when contact was made by 
means of a drop of clean water between opposed polished 
surfaces of zinc and copper, the effect of oxidising the surfaces 
in the pure metallic contact experiment, and the exact similarity 
in the action of dry polished zinc and wet oxidised zinc when 
oppesed to dry copper and brought into contact by a metallic 
arc. Sir William also described the ‘‘ vortex sponge.” A 
vortex column spinning at the heart of a mass of fluid revolving 
irrotationally inside an imperfectly elastic cylindrical case forms 
a system in a position of maximum energy ; and any slight dis- 
turbance from the truly circular rotation of the vortex core results 
in a gradual drawing off of energy, in virtue of the imperfectly 
elastic character of the bounding material, until the system 
assumes its position of minimum energy with the rotationally- 
revolving fluid on the immediate inner surface of the inclosing 
case and altogether surrounding the irrotational fluid, which is 
now ina state of quiescence. The intermediate stages between 
these first and last conditions are what Sir William Thomson 
characterises by the name of vortex sponge.—Mr. T. Muir pre- 
sented a paper on continuants, to which special form of deter- 
minant he could, by suitable transformations, reduce any given 
determinant of ordinary type, and so was able to express a deter- 
minant as a continued fraction.—Prof. Chrystal added a note on 
this paper showing how in the most general case # equations 
between 7 unknown quantities can be made to yield by suitable 
elimination # other equations, in no one of which more than 
three terms appear, so that a continuant form of determinant is 
got which bears a simple relation to the determinant formed by 
the coefficients of the original equations, 


MANCHESTER 


Literary and Philosophial Society, November 9, 1880,— 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., president, in the chair.— 
On gravitation, by the Rey. Thomas Mackereth, F.R.A.S. 

December 28, 1880.—E. W. Binney, F.R.S., president, in 


476 


NALORE 


[March 17, 1 881 


the chair.—The literary history of Parnell’s ‘‘ Hermit,” by 
William E. A. Axon, M.R.S.L. 

February 22, 1881.—E. W. Binney, F.R.S., president, in the 
chair,—The president reminded the members present that 
yesterday was the hundredth anniversary of the first meeting of 
the Society. —Dr. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., communicated a letter 
from Mr. Herman Hager containing notes from Schultz’ “* Das 
hofische Leben” with regard to severe winters and famines from 
{100 to £315.— Ozone and the rate of mortality at Southport 
during the nine years, 1872-1880, by Joseph Baxendell, 
F.R.A.S. 

PARIS 

Academy of Sciences, March 7.—M. Wurtz in the chair.— 
The following papers were read :—On observations of contact 
during the transit of Venus of December 8, 1874, by M. 
Puiseux. He is led to divide the nine French observers into two 
groups (of six and three respectively), there being a marked 
difference between them in the way of estimating the hour of a 
contact. Hence the necessity of a sort of common education, 
ensuring that observers work in the same way.—On the reciprocal 
displacements of hydracids, by M. Berthelot.—Spiral cells of 
very great length, by M. Trécul. By macerating, in water, the 
leaves of certain Crinum he found cells from 5 mm. to 13°40 mm. 
long. —Note on photography of the ashy light of the moon, by 
M. Janssen. He presented a photograph showing that part of 
the moon illuminated by light from the earth. The exposure 
was for 60 seconds. The moon was three days old. The general 
figure ot the lunar continents can be made out. With photo- 
graphy the interesting phenomena in the double reflection of 
solar light, under varying circumstances, may be more exactly 
studied.—On the presence of trichinz in pork of American im- 
portation, by M. Bouley. Infection of this pork with trichinz 
has probably long been a fact, though observed more lately. 
Trichinosis is little known in France, thanks to the culinary 
habits of the people. M. Bouley was sent to Havre to 
see if a sanitary service of inspection, sufficient for the public 
hygiene, could be organised. He recommends the initiating of a 
number of children and young girls in microscopical prepara- 
tions, for assistance of the meat-inspector to make his examination 
with the necessary despatch. Should this plan succeed the prohi- 
bition of American pork will probably cease.—On the presence of 
alevhol in the ground, in water, and in the atmosphere, by M. 
Miintz. He has developed the method depending on the change 
@ alcohol into iodoform, so that one-millionth of alcohol in 
water can be detected. Alcohol is found in all natural waters 
exvept very pure. spring water ; also (and more of it) in snow. 
Rain water and Seine water contain about 1 gr. per cubic metre. 
Alcohol no doubt also exists as vapour in the air, In soils, 
especially those rich in organic matters, there is a considerable 
quantity. The destruction of organic matter by various agents 
of fermentation accounts for the wide diffusion of alcohol in 
nature.—Observation of solar spots, faculz, and protuberances 
at the observatory of the Roman College during the last quarter 
of 1880, by P. Tacchini. There was a progressive diminution 
of frequency of spots. The maximum of faculze of September 
extended into October. The minimum of extension and height 
of protuberances fell in October, as well as the minimum of 
size of spots. For spots and faculze the maximum frequence 
was in the same zones as the previous quarter, viz., + 10° 
+ 30°. For protuberances the two maxima are not symmetrical. 
We are still far from the maximum of solar activity.— Observa- 
tions of the moon and of Jupiter’s satellites at Algiers Observa- 
tory during the last quarter of 1880, by M. Trepied. M. 
Mouchez, in presenting these, the first, astronomical observations 
from Algiers (where onlya little meteorology has been done hither- 
to), said M. Tripied had lately gone from Montsouris to take charge, 
and felicitated the Academy on having observations of the moon, 
&c., in the Algerian climate.—On the algebraic integration of 
an equation similar to the equation of Euler, by M. Picard.— 
The formula of interpolation of M. Hermite expressed alge- 
braically, by M. Schering,—On a general reason, justifying 
syuthetically the use of the various developments of arbitrary 
functions employed in mathematical physics, by M. Boussinesq. 
—On an integrator, by M. Abdank-Abakanowicz.—On circular 
double refraction and the normal production of the three systems 
of fringes of circular rays, by M. Croullebois.—On the enlarge- 
ment of hydrogen lines, by M. Fievez. He finds from ex) eri- 
ment (with Geissler tubes) that the enlargement is correlative 
to rise of temperature. Thus the temperature of one heavenly 
body is higher than another when its hydrogen lines are wider 
and more nebulous. This agrees with the ideas of Huggins and 


Vogel.—On some phenomena of optics and vision, by M. Tréve. 
Both in vision and in photography it appears that light is propa- 
gated with more intensity through a horizontal than through a 
vertical slit.—On the solubility of chloride of silver in hydro- 
chloric acid in presence of water, or of little soluble metallic 
chlorides, by MM. Ruyssen and Varenne.—On the heat liber- 
ated in combustion of some substances of the saturated fatty 
series, by M. Louguinine.—On the transformation of glucose 
into dextrine, by MM. Musculus and Meyer.—On an active 
amylamine, by M. Plimpton.—On active propylglycol, by M. 
le Bel.—On the winter of 1879-80 in the Sahara, and on the 
Saharan climate, by M. Rolland. The winter was exceptional. 
North-east and north winds prevailed. The mean tempera- 
ture from January 17 to April 16, between 35° and 30° Iat., 
was only 14°1; the extremes —4°'7 in the might of January © 
17-18, and 31°°r on April 13 in the day. Rain fell several times 
in the Algerian Sahara, and abundantly in the end of January. 
It comes generally at intervals of over ten years. The Saharan 
climate seems to have degraded. The region had probably at 
one time a larger population.—M. Melsens showed in a letter 
the economy realised by his lightning-conductors.—M. Zenger 
presented a photograph of the sun taken at Prague during total 
eclipse, in a very clear sky. 


VIENNA 

Imperial Academy of Sciences, March 10.—L. T. 
Fitzinger in the chair.—Dr. P. Weselsky and Dr. R. Benedikt, 
on the influence of nitrous acid on pyrogallic acid.—T. B. 
Tanovsky, on a new azosulfobenzoic acid.—Dominico Co- 
glievina, on the Centigrade-photometer, a new optical instru- 
ment for determining the intensity of any source of light.—— 
Dr. M. Buchner, analysis of the water from the ‘Linden- 
brunnen,” at Zlatten, near Pernegg (Styria).—Dr. Max Margulies, 
on the determination of the coefficients of friction and sliding by 
the plane motions of a fluid.—Dr. T. Kreuz, on the development 
of the lenticells in the shadowed branches of <Ampelopsis 
hederacea, Mels——Dr. Hann, on the daily course of the 
meteorological elements on the plateau of the Rocky Mountains. 
—T. B. Heindl, on crystalline combinations of chloride of 
calcium with alcohols:—Dr. T. Herzig, on the? influence of 
sulphuric acid on mono- di- and tribromo-benzol.—Alex. Lustig, 
on the determinations of nerves in the smooth muscles.—F.— 
Toula, report on his geological researches in the western regions” 
of the Balkans. 


Imperial Institute of Geology, March 1.—R. M. Paul, on 
the occurrence of petroleum in Wallachia.—Dr. E. Tietze, on 
some detritus-formations on the southern slope of the Persian 
Albur Mountain.—Dr. V. Hilber, exhibition of geological maps 
of Eastern Gallicia. 


CONTENTS Pace 
Srr WitiaM Herscuet, II. By J. R. Hinp, EURSSo 0. =) is) Seems 
(APOLAR RECONNAISSANCE = @ |» %. 2 = == >is) in) loieiReioiag 455_ 
Our book SHELF :— 
Kinch’s “* Contributions to the Agricultural Chemistry of Japan”. 456 
Reynolds’ ‘‘ Experimental Chemistry for Junior Students”. + - 456 
LETTEKS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Barometric and Solar Cycles.—Prof. BALFOUR Srewart, F.RS.. 457 
Bi-Centenary of Calderon.—Major F. J. RICARDE-SEAVER. « + 457) 
The Photophone.—HERBERT TOMLINSON . = - = - <0 0 ss) ARMM 
Cave Animals and Multiple Centres of Species.—D. WETTER- 2 
HAN) co gb a echt. vaya eect) te +e eae a! 
Prehistoric Europe—Dr. JAMES GEIKIF, BARS) Ge eee 458 
Measuring the Height of Clouds.—Dr. C. Braun, S.J. + + + 458 
Occultation of 73 Piscitum.—Col. H. Cottetr (With Diagram) - 458 
Colours of British Butterflies Rev. W. Clement Ley . pr 
Lecture Representation of the Aurora Borealis Wm AckRoyD . 458 
Squirrels Crossing Water. —T.V StADEK. - <2) Sabb sul 7aSa 
Pacitus on the Aurora.—M. L. RousE . - - + + + 2 « 5 8 459 
On THE PRacTICABILITY OF LIVING AT GreAT ELEVATIONS ABOVE 
THE LEVELOF THE SEA. By EDWARD WuHYMPER. - « «© = = * 459° 
On somE PoINTS KELATING TO THE Dynamics oF ‘‘ RADIANT 
Marrer.” By S. TorveER PRESTON - - + + + * 2 = = © 461 
DerEp-SEA OPHIURANS - - + 2 = 2 * = 2 ¢ woth ete oteteweea cl 
An ELECTRICAL THERMOMETER FOR DETERMINING TEMPERATURES 
‘aT A DISTANCE. By Horace T. Brown (With Illustrations). - 464 
Tur Recent DiscOVERY OF THE Bopy OF Ruinoceros MERCKI IN 
SE ee a a ee te a? aneet enacts at) ee 
NOTES Vohs ce) cel 0) Vac ens esa 1 Aa a om 408) 
GHEMIcAc NopRs!.. <i lacie eh fer fouye 8 048° *> 469 
MaxvEOROLOGICAL NOTES fue) <0 eh = inc) 2-1 2) 87 ence 47° 
Tue Oxrorp UNiveRsITY COMMISSIONERS AND THE PROFESSORIATE | pe 
Goup 1n NEWFOUNDLAND. - 2+ + se s+ ee , 
‘A Sprep GOVERNOR FOR CONTINUOUS Morton (With Diagram) + + 47. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCER - + + - . ~ 47a 
Sciantiric SERIALS. - + 2 ss * * * °° Merrow ye 
SocreTrgs AND ACADEMIRS + + + + 5 * * * * ° eels oye 


NARORE 


THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1881 


MACQUORN RANKINE’S SCIENTIFIC 
PAPERS 


Miscellaneous Scientific Papers by W. J. Macquorn Ran- 
kine, C.E., LL.D., F.R.S., late Regius Professor of 
Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the University of 
Glasgow. From the Transactions and Proceedings 
of the Royal and other Scientific and Philosophical 
Societies and the Scientific Journals. With a Memoir 
of the Author by P. G. Tait, M.A., Professor of Natural 
Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. Edited by 
W. J. Millar, C.E., Secretary to the Institute of Ship- 
builders in Scotland. With Portrait, Plates, and Dia- 
grams. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., 1881.) 

HE volume before us contains thirty-seven papers of 
rare scientific interest written by the late Prof. 

Rankine, who died now eight years ago. As to the cause 

of this long interval the Editor gives us no hint, nor is 

there anything in the volume to explain it. All the papers 
are reprints, without note or comment, except such as is 
contained in the concise but extremely graceful Memoir. 

These papers are not by any means all Rankine’s original 

works. They are principally those relating to Thermo- 

dynamics and Hydrodynamics. There are however two 
important papers on the latter subject which are not con- 
tained in the volume (“On Stream Lines,” Phzlosophical 

Magazine, 1865; “On the Mathecal Theory of Stream 

Lines,” PAz/. Trans. Royal Society, 1871). These can 

hardly have been omitted by design, as in the very last 

paper contained in the volume the author resumes the 
subject, directing attention to his paper of 1865, while 
the paper of 1871 is the most general and important paper 

Rankine wrote on this subject, besides being his last 

work. 

The first twenty-seven papers contain the development 
by Rankine of that most modern of mathennatical sciences, 
Thermodynamics, from its foundation-stone to the com- 
plete edifice as it exists at the present day. This by no 
means constitutes Rankine’s entire work, nor do we think 
it his most useful work. But it is the largest gem in the 
casket, and should he be forgotten in all the rest this 
alone will secure for him a foremost place amongst those 
who have left their mark on philosophy. 

The rapidity of the development of this branch of 
science is unrivalled. As profound as anything ever 
brought to light by the power of reason, it only occupied 
Rankine four years from the publication of his first paper 
until the theory was completed and applied to all cases. 
That the burning of coal was necessary to the production 
of steam, which was necessary for the working of an 
engine, and that the proportion of coal burnt bore some 
relation to the work done, were facts which for 200 years 
had been forcing themselves into notice, and gradually 
there had come to be an idea that in some way heat was 
the same thing as other forms of mechanical energy. 
But this was all, till, in 1843, Dr. Joule published his first 
experimental determination of the mechanical equivalent 
of heat. Published in an obscure way, it was some years 
before this novel but definite relation between heat and 
energy excited notice. The first published notice is by 
Thomson in 1849, although that Rankine had known it 

VoL. XxIII.—No. 595 


477 


for some time previously is shown by the first of these 
papers, published in July of that year. In December of 
the same year Rankine sent in the Papers III. and XIV.,1 
containing the elements and some applications of his 
theory, and in 1854 he had published the complete theory 
and its applications to various engines, making instant 
use of the splendid experimental results just then obtained 
by Regnault. From this time it has been as possible 
definitely to forecast the result to be expected from any 
kind of engine as from 1690 to predict the behaviour of 
the moon. : 

From a philosophical point of view, there was a keen 
race in discovery between Thomson, Rankine, and Clau- 
sius, a race in which Thomson had the start, but which 
was neck and neck between Rankine and Clausius. But 
from the practical point of view Rankine was alone. And 
in this respect these papers, as indeed all his others, have 
a value both intrinsic and as examples of method which 
even transcends their philosophical value. 

It was Rankine’s practical knowledge which gave him 
his great advantage, but he had in some respects an ad- 
vantage in having based his theory by means of an hypo- 
thesis on the fundamental laws of motion. Rankine 
worked from an hypothesis of his own creation as to the 
molecular constitution of matter, which was perfectly 
definite and capable of including all the phenomena which 
he had to consider. The definiteness of his hypotheses 
gave that definite form to his formula which suggested 
many points otherwise overlooked. 

But as often happens, the definiteness of his hypotheses 
was also his source of weakness ; he assumed the atoms 
of matter to be masses of fluid subject to eddies and 
vibrations, but otherwise at rest. This suited the condi- 
tions of his problem, but it was only an hypothesis, and as 
it was definite, so any phenomenon with which it was in- 
compatible sufficed to disprove the hypothesis and bring 
down the edifice raised upon it. And such phenomena, 
those of diffusion, existed; although they did not come 
within the range of his work, 

Rankine was himself fully alive to his position, and 
having once obtained his ideas and framed his formulze, 
took and acknowledged a hint from his contemporaries, 
Thomson and Clausius ; and having shown that Carnot’s 
theorem, which they had modified and made the basis sf 
their reasoning, was a consequence of his molecular vor- 
tices, he adopted a general law as the base of his 
reasoning, and cut himself off from his hypotheses. This 
was easy for him to do, for, as may be seen in § 15a of 
Paper III., he had with no small care framed his hypo- 
theses so as to fit the same law, though expressed in other 
words. This article is also interesting as showing the 
unlimited faith he must have reposed in the design and 
care of Providence. Not only does he conceive each atom 
of matter to possess a fluid atmosphere, in which exist a 
number of similar cyclones or eddies, symmetrically 
placed all over the atom, but he required that wherever 
two atoms touched there two eddies should face, and so 
exactly as to be coaxial. Many complicated properties 
were attributed by Newton and others to the corpuscles 
of light, but such a demand as is here implied on the 
attention of Providence has probably never been equalled 


* Why this paper is placed so far out of its chronological order does not 
appear, 
Y 


478 


—a whole crew of Maxwell’s demons on each atom would 
be required to warp and moor for every movement that 
might occur. But so true was Rankine’s knowledge of 
mechanics that all this elaborate refinement did not 
prevent his hypothesis leading him to correct results. 

This refined organisation, however, which renders his 
hypothesis in the highest degree improbable, suggests a 
most important consideration. For the almost infinite 
complexity of his particular arrangement indicates almost 
to the extent of a proof that the results he obtained must 
depend upon circumstances so general as to be indepen- 
dent of any particular hypothesis, so long as it is in con- 
formity with the laws of motion, and hence the trail of 
these general circumstances is crossed. 

In Rankine’s hypothesis the temperature comes out 
as a direct measure in any particular substance of the 
kinetic or actual energy of the molecular motion. 
This conclusion, to which he adhered in the final 
foundation of his theory, is general, but it does not appear 
to be the most general conclusion of which our present 
experiments admit. It led Rankine to give a definite form 
as wellas name to his thermodynamic function, which forms 
the fundamental equation of all the mathematical work. But 
it was subsequently shown that the differential equation to 
the same lines could be obtained without the assumption 
with regard to temperature, and then it did not appear 
that there was sufficient experimental data for the com- 
plete determination of the constants which enter into the 
integral. This is owing to the hitherto impossibility of 
determining the exact form of the adiabatic curve for 
solids and liquids. With gases it is different, and with these 
Rankine’s law is found to fit, but so might a law framed 
on the supposition that in other cases the kinetic energy 
was some other function of the temperature. What is 
proved therefore is not that the temperature is a direct 
measure of the kinetic energy, but that this is some 
function of the temperature. This is apparently all that 
has yet been accomplished, so that Rankine’s definite 
conclusion must be looked upon as suggested rather than 
proved by experiment. There can be no doubt however 
that this definiteness led to a vast development of the 
subject, and hence it was no mere fancy or partiality for 
his own view which led him to adhere to that form of 
second law which included his earlier view. Nor will the 
study of Rankine’s earlier papers be time wasted on the 
part of those who seek to understand this extremely 
difficult subject. They will there find a model of the 
machinery by which the general result might be obtained, 
and if, as is the case with most new inventions, the 
machinery is unnecessarily complex, it is still the only 
machine which has accomplished the results. 

They will also find, what must for ever add an interest 


to these papers, the first use of the terms thermodynamic | 


function, adiabatic curve, potential energy, and others 
now in general use ; for Rankine’s nomenclature, to a great 
extent his notation, and entirely his graphic method, have 
been universally adopted. 

Rankine’s methods have been called “uncouth,” 
‘“‘diffuse and obscure,’’ and without doubt they must 
seem all this to those who come to the subject with all 
the latest inventions in the form of mathematical machine 
tools in perfect working order,—just as the axe or adze 
must seem barbarous when there is a planing machine at 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


hand to do the work, and the material has been prepared 
for it. But let the shape required be of a novel kind, or 
let the material be in the rough, and then how does it 
fare with the planing machine ? 

Like that of Green, the whole career of Rankine is one 
rebuke to those who would exhaust the finest material on 
this earth—the best brain of our youth—converting it 
into elaborate mechanism only adapted to reduce, in 
however elegant a manner, already prepared billets to 
elegant and improved copies of masterpieces which, 
having once been shaped, although roughly with primitive 
tools, can never have to be shaped again. The material 
at last existed for a great mathematical edifice, of which 
the want had long been felt, and our great mathematical 
workshop was crowded with the most refined mechanism 
rusting for want of material to work upon. But this 
material was in the rough, and while waiting for some 
one to strip off the bark the chance was lost, for the 
obscure, self-taught mechanic who set to work with axe 
and adze did not stop at the bark, but with rapid and well- 
directed strokes brought out the form divine. However 
uncouth Rankine’s methods may be, they have the great 
merit that they require nothing but a bold front—the 
result being obtained without adventitious aid. They 
are inscrutable to those who, having learnt the relations 
between quantities as expressed by symbols, have for- 
gotten if they ever knew the purpose of their formule: 
But to the reader who thinks Rankine’s methods are a 
statement of his thoughts, and though often a rough 
task, any one who succeeds in understanding Rankine 
finds to his satisfaction that he has done more than this, 
that he understands what Rankine understood. 

Nor is this true only of his great work. What seems 
to us his most useful work is that of showing how 
the elementary mathematical methods were sufficiently 
adaptable to be applied to almost all cases of practical 
mechanics. The results are only approximate ; but where 
neither the data nor the desired result can be exactly 
measured, this is all that could be obtained, were the 
methods never so exact. One might as well set bricks 
by Sir Joseph Whitworth’s millionth-of-an-inch machine 
as use the exact equation of thermodynamics to deter- 
mine the probable work to be obtained from a steam- 
engine. 

The graphic method was Rankine’s great weapon. 
This, which is probably as old as any mathematical 
method, had been long neglected, except that it was 
sometimes used for engineering purposes. Rankine early 
perceived its applicability to the subjects he had to teach, 
and in his treatises on Applied Mechanics, Shipbuilding, 
and the Steam-Engine there are many instances of its 
novel and useful application which have been copied far 
and wide, while his graphic treatment of the subject of 
thermodynamics has been universally adopted. But the 
height of his achievement in the application and develop- 
ment of the graphic method is only reached in his papers 
on the motion of fluids. 

These papers, with the omission already noticed, are 
collected at the end of the volume, and they constitute by 
no means its least valuable part. They are comparatively 
his later work. The first, “ On the Exact Form of Waves 
at the Surface of Deep Water,” was published in 1862, 
after his thermodynamical work was essentially complete. 


. March 24, 1881 | 


NAGOR FE: 


479 


Both the method and matter of this paper are unique. 

The results are obtained by a simple geometrical study 
of rolling circles. And there for the first time definite 
reasoning is adapted to the actual proportions of deep- 
sea waves, all previous work on the subject having been 
based on the assumption that the height of the wave is 
small compared with its length. : 
- It is however in the next paper that he first shows what 
may be done by Maxwell’s method of the graphic use of 
families of surfaces or curves. Here we have what is 
invisible in the fluid itself and had only been expressed 
by complex algebraical formula—the internal motion of 
the fluid—shown in such a way that not only the direction 
but the magnitude of the motion at every point may be 
taken in at a glance as well as definitely measured, and 
all deduced by simple but rigorous geometrical methods. 
The credit of this, which is certainly one of the highest 
achievements in the art of expression, must be divided. 
It was Faraday who first conceived the force of a magnet 
expressed by a family of lines; and it was Maxwell who 
discovered the rigorous method of drawing Faraday’s 
lines ; while Rankine realised _in this the means of apply- 
ing and expressing the principles of the steady flow of 
fluids propounded by Stokes now forty years ago. 

In these papers on Hydrodynamics, as in all his other 
work, Rankine had a practical purpose in view. In this 
case it was the skin resistance and wave resistance of 
ships. And if, owing to the neglect of friction in the 
fundamental] equations of motion, some of the results are 
still doubtful, yet in this respect the work is on a par 
with all the rest that has been done on this subject. And 
these papers, owing to the clear conception they convey 
of the internal motions of fluid and the direct purpose of 
the means adopted to elucidate these, afford by far the 
best chance for any one wishing to pursue the subject up 
to the highest position it has at present attained. 

That Rankine himself owed much to having early 
directed his thoughts to fluid motion appears in all his work, 
as well as being shown by his theory of molecular vortices 
—a strictly hydrodynamical conception—amongst the in- 
tricacies of which nothing but his exact knowledge of the 
subject could have kept him straight. 

It must be remembered however by those who would 
make a like use of such knowledge that Rankine did not 
begin his career by the study of mathematics; but that 
as an engineer from his birth, as we are told in the 
Memoir, he first became aware of the circumstances and 
problems of mechanics, and only evolved or acquired his 
mathematics as he found them necessary to his work. 
In this way his knowledge of mathematics must have 
included the knowledge of the necessity for each step. It 
was necessity first, and then method or invention ; and 
not, as is too often the case with those who begin to learn 
mathematics before they are aware of what it is they are 
to do, all means and no ends. 

In Rankine’s text-books, as in his original papers, the 
ends are always kept in view. It is often impossible for 
others to follow him unless they begin by actually 
mastering the circumstances of the problem and trying to 
solve it for themselves, then if they honestly fail they will 
find that Rankine will help them; while if they succeed 
they will find that Rankine was before them. These books, 
both as regards originality of matter and the attention 


paid to the circumstances of each problem, have more the 
character of original papers than orthodox text-books, 
From this as well as his other writings it is clear that he 
acquired his knowledge of mathematics from the original 
works of the master, and not from text-books. 

His example should therefore be the best recommenda- 
tion for all those who would really understand mechanics 
to read the works direct from the hand of this master— 
a task which, with the aid of this volume, they may now 
accomplish without that trouble of search which, small az 
it is, leaves many a masterpiece on the shelf in some dark 
corner, while a mutilated and’garbled extract disgusts the 
reader and discredits the thinker. 

OSBORNE REYNOLDS 


THE FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA 
The Ferns of North America; Coloured Figures and 
Descriptions, with Synonymy and Geographical Distri- 
bution, of the Ferns of the United States of North 
America and British North American Possessions. 
By D. C. Eaton, Professor of Botany in Yale College. 
The Drawings by J. H. Emerton and C, E. Faxon. 
2 Vols. quarto, pp. 352 and 285; 81 Plates. (Boston: 
S. E. Cassino, 1880.) 
HIS handsome work, which has been brought out in 
parts, issued about one every two months, beginning 
with 1878, is now completed. Although ferns have long 
been popular in the United States, both with collectors 
and cultivators, this is the first large illustrated mono- 
graph of the indigenous species which has been attempted. 
For our ow country we have several, of which the best 
known are Hooker’s ‘British Ferns,’ with coloured 
figures, in large octavo; Lindley and Moore’s ‘“ Nature 
Printed Ferns,’ in more than one edition; and Newman’s 
“British Ferns,’’ in which the plates are uncoloured 
woodcuts ; but of the American ferns there are but few 
figures, and those widely scattered in general works, and 
even leaving figures out of the question there has been no 
descriptive handbook specially devoted to them, so that 
those who wanted to work at the subject have been 
placed at a great disadvantage. Prof. Eaton, who is the 
grandson of a well-known botanical author, has been 
universally recognised for the last twenty years as the 
leading authority on the subject. He has a large library 
and general collection of his own, has visited Europe and 
studied the American ferns in the public herbaria of the 
Old World, has proved himself in other departments of 
botany to be a careful and judicious systematist, and he 
is a teacher of botany of many years’ experience, and has 
been looked up to for a long time by all the collectors of 
ferns throughout the Union as their referee in cases of 
doubt and difficulty ; so that he has had every advantage 
for dealing with his subject in a thorough and exhaustive 
manner, and as he has been ably seconded by his two 
artists, the result is a monograph which is thoroughly 
satisfactory in every way, and which will be universally 
accepted both at home and in Europe as a standard work, 
The geographical area which it covers is the whole of 
the American continent, from the Pole to the southern 
boundary of the United States. The true ferns only are 
included, not the Lycopodiacex, Equisetacez, and Rhizo- 
carps, which are monographed along with the ferns by 


48c 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


Hooker, Milde, and in the earlier editions of Newman. | 


In North America the order is represented by 139 
species and 31 genera. The number of species is quite 
double what we have in the whole of Europe. The 
northern area outside the United States produces very 
few species that have not been found within the bounds 
of the Union. As in Europe there are no Cyatheacee, 
Marattiacez, nor Gleicheniacez. Of the other sub-orders 
the Schizoeaceze, which we do not possess, are represented 
in the United States by three genera and four species. 
Ceratopteris, of which Prof. Eaton makes a special 
sub-order, is also American, but not European. The 
other four sub-orders—Polypodiaceze, Hymenophyllacez, 
Osmundacez, and Ophioglossaceae—are represented, both 
in America and Europe. One peculiarity of ferns is that 
the genera show exceedingly little tendency to geogra- 
phical localisation. The nearest approach to this that we 
have in North America is the predominance of Pellza, 
Cheilanthes, and Nothochlzna, which are allied dwarf 
types with a greater power of resisting drought than any 
other set of ferns, and which are represented in this area 
by a large proportionate number of endemic species. 
These three genera take up thirty-nine species in North 
America against four for Europe. Out of the 139 species 
about forty are endemic, and about forty are European 
the latter including several of our high mountain types, 
such as Cystopteris montana, Aspidium Lonchitis, Poly- 
podium alpestre, Woodsia ilvensis, glabella, and hyperborea. 
The southern boundary of the States corresponds broadly 
with the limit in a northern direction of the great tropical 
flora of Equatorial America, the richest tropical flora in 
the world. But out of the 139 ferns at least twenty are 
characteristically widely-spread tropical species which do 
not extend beyond Florida, which have several of them 
only been discovered there within the last few years. 
Such are Ophioglossum palmatum, Aerostichum aureum, 
Polypodium aureum, P. Phyllitidis, P. Plumula, and P. 
pectinatum, Vittaria lineata, and Nephrolepis exaltata. 
Amongst the remaining species there are some curious 
cases of a v0/e of distribution it is difficult to explain or 
understand. Adiantum pedatum and Osmunda cinna- 
monea are examples in ferns of a considerable group of 
American plants which reach Asia by way of Japan and 
run down through China to the Eastern and Central 
Himalayas ; Pteris serrulata, found lately in America in 
Alabama, and South Carolina, reappears only in China; 
Pellza andromede@folia, which from California passes 
down the Andes to Chili, reappears in Cape Colony. 
Nothochlena tenera is supposed to be divided between 
Southern Utah and the Andes of Bolivia and Chili, but 
here I think that the States plant will most likely have 
to rank as a distinct species. Asfidium mohrioides, 
long supposed to be endemic in extra-tropical South 
America, has been discovered lately by Mr. Moseley in 
Marion Island, and by Mr. Lemmon in one place at an 
elevation of 8000 feet above sea-level amongst the moun- 
tains of California. 

As regards the limitation of genera and species Prof. 
Eaton differs but little from Sir William Hooker, as the 
English author’s views are expounded in his great 
monograph of the ferns of the whole world, his “Species 
Filicum.” Prof. Eaton treats Hymenophyllaceze and 
Ceratopterideze as distinct sub-orders ; the former at any 


rate a decided improvement upon Sir W. Hooker's clas- 
sification, and he maintains Ophioglossacez as a distinct 
order. In genera the principal deviations are that he 
keeps up Phegopteris as distinct from Polypodium, and 
merges Nephrodium in Aspidium. 

A very curious North American fern is Asplentum 
ebenotdes of Scott. It is very rare, and always grows in 
company with the walking leaf (Camptosorus rhizo- 
phyllus) and Asplenium ebeneum, two common American 
species. These are very dissimilar plants, but A. 
ebenoides is quite intermediate between them. Prof. 
Eaton seems not disinclined to the idea that it may be 
produced by natural hybridisation, as was suggested by 
the Rev. M. J. Berkeley in the /owsnal of the Royal 
Horticultural Society for 1866, p. 87. 

An observation of Prof. Eaton’s under Wothochlena 
Fenalert is interesting as bearing upon Milde’s classi- 
fication of ferns into a catadromous and anadromous 
series, according as to whether their lowest secondary 
branches originate on the posterior or anterior side of 
the pinne. Prof. Eaton notes that in this species there 
is always a decided inequality in their origin; but that 
it is sometimes on the anadromous, and at others on the 
catadromous plan. J. G. BAKER 


KOLLIKER ON ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT 
Grundriss der Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen u. 

der hiheren Thiere. Von Albert Kolliker, Professor der 

Anatomie an der Universitat Wtrzburg. (Leipzig: W. 

Engelmann, 1880.) 

HIS book is essentially a reproduction of Prof. 
Kolliker’s large treatise on Embryology, with a great 
part of the detail and controversial matter omitted, and is 
intended for the use of medical students. The larger 
work has more the character of a monograph on the 
development of birds and mammals than of a text-book ; 
and as such, though of very great value to those engaged 
in teaching and research, is necessarily too bulky for the 
use of ordinary students. We think, therefore, that Prof, 
K6lliker has done very wisely in publishing the work 
before us; and we need hardly say that, his larger treatise 
having been already universally recognised as one of the 
most important contributions to embryology during recent 
years, the present work may safely be regarded as an 
accurate statement of the facts of avian and mammalian 
embryology. We may add that no trouble has been 
spared in the illustrations, which fully come up to the 
high standard characteristic of German works of this 
class. 

While, however, we can say this much in praise of 
Prof. Kélliker’s treatise, we cannot help recognising that 
it has some rather serious defects. Prof. Kélliker is an 
extremely objective writer. He describes with great 
clearness the objects as they present themselves to the 
observer, but he scarcely ever attempts to connect them 
together or to point out the general principles which 
underlie the mass of detail with which he has to deal. 
In his larger work this peculiarity is of comparatively 
small importance, in that those who are likely to use it 
are able to supply the general principles for themselves ; 
and the work has already become a great mine of facts 
to which every anatomist who is engaged in studying the 
morphology of vertebrates will necessarily turn. 


March 24, 1881 | 


In a book however intended for medical students, it is, 
in our opinion at least, of the utmost importance that the 
facts of embryology should not merely be stated in suc- 
cession, but that their significance should be pointed out. 
Embryology is of but little practical value to a medical 
student, and the small amount he must necessarily know 
could be given in a very few pages, and is, we believe, 
usually to be found in works on human anatomy. Con- 
sidered however as an educational instrument, embryology 
is of the utmost value. It gives to the student an insight 
into the meaning of the structures which he meets with 
in his dissections, and by so doing often renders details 
of anatomical structure comparatively easy and pleasant 
of acquisition, which would otherwise be a great and 
almost repulsive strain on the memory. 

Embryology should be taught to the medical student as 
a comparative science; with the facts duly marshalled, 
their significance pointed out, and general principles 
deduced from them. In such a form it ought to constitute 
an important part of medical training, which every medical 
school of any pretence to excellence should impart to its 
students. 

We would venture to call attention to the following 
instances as illustrative of what we consider the unsatis- 
factory treatment of certain parts of the subject to be 
found in Prof. Kélliker’s work. In dealing with the 
phenomena of segmentation Prof. Kélliker makes no 
effort to point out that the differences in the early deve- 
lopment of the mammal and bird are in the main the 
result of the presence of food yolk in the one case and its 
absence in the other. After reading his very careful and 
elaborate treatment of the primitive streak, the student 
would, we think, be left in complete ignorance of the real 
significance of this interesting structure. 

Again, in his account of the placenta, which he describes 
in man and the rabbit, he has so little to say as to any 
comparison between the two that we are at a complece 
loss to understand why he should have made any mention 
of the former. 

In his account of the development of the vascular and 
excretory systems we are struck with the almost entire 
lack of any attempt to put the facts which have been so 
admirably described to their legitimate use, viz. to the 
explanation of the arrangement of these and other struc- 
tures in the human body, and of the presence of rudi- 
mentary organs. 

In making these strictures on Prof. Kolliker’s work we 
should be sorry to convey the impression that we under- 
estimate the value of this in most respects admirable 
treatise.’ It has already become justly popular in Germany, 
and we trust that it will also become widely known in this 
country. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical 
Survey of the Territories, 1879-80. Vol. v. (Wash- 
ington, 1880.) 

THE publications issued by the American Government 

under the above title are so appreciated in this country 

that it seems unnecessary to compliment Dr. Hayden 
and his coadjutors on the appearance of another of their 
useful volumes. During the last few years, however, there 
have been brought out by the U.S. Department of the 
Interior some works by Dr. Elliot Coues, which for 


NATURE 


481 


patient industry must compare with any that have ever 
been compiled in scientific literature. The title of the 
volume now before us reads as follows :—Art. 26. Third 
Instalment of American Ornithological Bibliography, by 
Dr. Elliot Coues, U.S.A., and consists of 545 octavo 
pages of small print. How many titles of papers and 
books are quoted in this laborious treatise we should be 
sorry to have to count. The labour must have been 
enormous, and it is only those who have to follow the 
intricate windings of synonymic literature who can appre- 
ciate the work here performed by Dr. Coues. We learn 
that we may expect at some future time a similar con- 
spectus of titles relating to the ornithology of the Old 
World, but although the present volume professedly 
deals with American Birds only, many standard works of 
general interest are passed in review by the author, who 
exhibits great judgment as a critic. Taking Gray’s 
“Hand-List of Birds’? as a basis of classification to 
follow, Dr. Coues treats of each family separately, and 
then in chronological order he records every work, every 
paper, and every note which directly or indirectly affects 
the American species, and as regards each year the publi- 
cations are separately entered under the authors’ names in 
alphabetical order. We must however again warn orni- 
thologists that so many collateral references are given to 
Old World papers where the families are at all cosmo- 
politan, that therefore no one writing on any group of 
birds can afford to neglect this book. As for Dr. Coues 
himself, we can only imagine the sigh of relief with which 
he must have corrected the last proof of such a toilsome 
undertaking, although he must have been assured before- 
hand of the heartfelt gratitude of every ornithological 
confrére throughout the globe. R. B.S. 


(i.) Exposition Géométrique des Propriétes générales des 
Courbes. Par Charles Ruchonnet (de Lausanne). 
Quatriéme dition augmentée. (Paris, 1880.) 

(ii.) Eléments de Calcul approximatif. Par C. Ruchonnet 
(de Lausanne). Troisi¢me édition revue. (Paris, 1880.) 


HAVING noticed both these works on the appearance of 
the last previous editions in 1874, we need say little here. 
The reasoning in i., we may remark, is always upon the 
curve itself, and is not derived by taking the limiting form 
of the inscribed polygon; and similarly in the case of 
surfaces. The work has grown from 160 pp. to 174 pp., 
and there is one more plate of figures. 

The pamphlet ii. is, what it is stated to be, a revised 
form of the last edition. It consists of 64 pp. in place of 


65 pp. 


Geschichte der geographischen Entdeckungsreisen im 
Alterthum und Mittelalter. Von J. Lowenberg. (Leip- 
zig und Berlin: Otto Spamer, 1881.) 


THIS is a volume in the publisher’s Illustrated Library of 
Geography and Ethnology. It is, as its title indicates, 
a History of Geographical Discovery in Antiquity and 
during the Middle Ages. The story is brought down 
to the time of Magellan and Martin Behaim. The 
first book, under the heading of Night and Morning, 
treats of the earliest dawn of geographical knowledge 
with the Hebrews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, 
Greeks, and Romans; the second book embraces the 
period from Herodotus to Ptolemy ; the third, the Middle 
Ages; and the fourth the Century of Discovery, in which 
Spain and Portugal did such splendid work. Herr Lowen- 
berg has evidently taken great pains to master his subject, 
and has been quite successful. He treats it in consider- 
able detail, both in its historical and scientific aspects ; 
the arrangement is excellent, and while popular and at- 
tractive in style, the work seems to us to be accurate and 
altogether trustworthy. There are numerous illustrations, 
some of them rather fanciful, but most of them useful and 
appropriate—portraits, ships of various periods, maps, 
some of them reproductions of very early ones, and 


482 


NATORE 


[Alarch 24, 1881 


places and monuments illustrative of various countries. 
Altogether the work is a really good specimen of its kind. 
Another volume will bring the story down to the present 
time. 


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. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressureon his space ts so great that wt 
is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


The Tide Predicter 


I sEE in your last number (p. 467), among the editorial 
notes, the following :—‘‘ Mr. Roberts of the Mawtical Almanac 
office is authorised, by resolution of Council of the Secretary of 
State for India, dated August 7, 1880, to make it generally 
known that his Tide Predicter may be euployed for the pre- 
paration of Tide Tables for any port for which the requisite data 
are forthcoming.” 

I think it right to call your attention to the fact that the Tide 
Predicter is in no sense of Mr. Roberts’s invention or design. 
He was employed in 1873 by me, as chairman of the British 
Association Tidal Committee, to calculate the number of teeth 
in the wheels of the first Tide Predicter (now the property of 
the British Association, permanently deposited in South Kensing- 
ton Museum),and to superintend its construction in London by 
Messrs. A. Légé and Co. ‘The second Tide Predicter was made 
for the India Office, according to my advice, by Messrs. A. Légé 
and Co. of London, under the superintendence of Mr. Roberts. 
In respect to the plan of the wheelwork, which is wholly due to 
Messrs. Légé, it is a copy of the first instrument. It is an 
improvement on the first instrument in having twenty tidal com- 
ponents instead of ten, and in having the well-known rigorous 
method of the slide (Thomsonand Tait’s ‘‘ Natural Philosophy,” 
§ 55, or ‘Elements of Natural Philosophy,” § 72) for producing 
simple harmonic motion in a straight line from circular motion, 
instead of the approximate method of pulleys centred on crank- 
pins, which for simplicity and economy I used in the first 
instrument. WILLIAM THOMSON 

The University, Glasgow, March 19 


The Magnetic Storm of 1880, August 


Tue Astronomer-Royal has handed to me a copy of the 
photographic record of the variations of magnetic horizontal 
force as registered at Toronto during the disturbed period of 
August 11 to 14 last. The records of declination and vertical 
force were imperfect and have not been received. 

The comparison of the Greenwich and Zi-ka-wei (China) curves 
for the same period (NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 33) indicated that 
the commencement and end of disturbance (especially the c»m- 
mencement) occurred nearly simultaneously at both places, and 
this circumstance is now further corroborated .by the Toronto 
horizontal force curve. 

In what follows, the reference throughout is to Greenwich 
time. 

The disturbance at Toronto commenced on August 11 at 
10.20 a.m. At Greenwich (NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 33) it 
commenced also at 10.20 a.m., and at Zi-ka-wei at 10,16 a.m. ; 
at Melbourne (NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 558) it commenced at 
10,33 a.m. 

Disturbance ceases at Toronto at about midnight of August 11, 
and at Greenwich and Zi-ka-wei also at about or near midnight, 
but it dies out more or less gradually, not allowing the limit of 
disturbance to be always very precisely fixed. 

Sudden motion is again shown (after some hours of quiet) at 
Toronto on August 12 at 11.40 a.m.; also at Greenwich at 
1I.40 a.m. ; some minutes sooner at Zi-ka-wei ; and at Melbourne 
at about 11.38 a.m. 

Disturbance again dies out more or less gradually at Toronto 
on August 14 about 7 a.m.; at Greenwich and Zi-ka-wei at 
about 6 a.m. ; and at Melbourne at about 7 a.m. 

The commencement of disturbance in the above instances is 
definite, and the agreement in time, considering the widely- 
separated geographical position of the four places concerned, is 


noteworthy. The cessation of disturbance is less definite, as has 

been already remarked, but even here the discordance in time is 

not very wide, WILLIAM ELLIs 
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, March 12 


Prehistoric Europe 


I must adhere to my decision not to play the part of Secutor 
any further to a glacial Retiarius in the arenaof NaTuRE. If his 
net be strong enough to carry the Upper Pleiocene and the Pleisto- 
cene mammalia of Europe, as well as Paleolithic man and the 
Neolithic skull of Olmo, I wish him joy of them. If, further, 
he will kindly give me the proof that the mammalia of Auvergne, 
considered Upper Pleiocene by Falconer, Gaudry, Gervais, and 
other leading paleontologists, are, as he terms them, ‘‘a hash 
up,” they shall be properly served and zced, if necessary, in my 
second edition. 

I feel however that it is only right for me to notice the new 
gladiator who springs to the aid of his friend. The antiquity of 
man in the Victoria Cave is solely due, as it appears to me, to 
the ferfervidum ingenium (I speak in all respect) of Mr, 
Tiddeman. It was first based on a fragment of fibula which 
ultimately turned out to belong to a bear. Then it was shifted to 
the cuts on two small bones, which were exhibited and discussed 
at the British Association, at the Anthropological Institute, and 
at the Geological Society of London. The bones are recent, 
and belong to sheep or goat, two domestic animals introduced 
into Britain in the Neolithic age. The cuts have been probably 
made by a metallic edge. Numerous bones of the same animals, 
in the same condition and hacked in the same way, occurred in the 
Romano-British refuse-heap on the top of the clay, and fre- 
quently slipped down over the working face to the bottom of 
the cutting before I resigned the charge of the exploration to 
Mr. Tiddeman after nearly four years’ work. There were frequent 
slips afterwards. Under these circumstances the reader can 
decide whether it is more probable that the mutton-bones in 
question did slip down from a higher level to be picked out at 
the bottom, or that there is evidence of ‘‘ interglacial” (J. 
Geikie) or ‘‘ preglacial ” (Tiddeman) man possessed of domestic 
animals and probably using edged tools of metal. The mutton- 
bones seem to me to prove so much on the latter hypothesis, 
that they may be thrown aside without further thought. 

The reindeer (bones of feet) was found in 1872 along with fox, 
rhinoceros, elephant, hycena, and bison in the cave at the lower 
horizon, which afterwards was proved to contain the hippopota- 
mus. It was omitted in Mr. Tiddeman’s lists up to 1876, when 
1 called his attention to the fact. Then he wrote that the fact 
that it was so found was ‘‘ noteworthy,” and that ‘‘ these remarks 
{his generalisations] were made solely on the evidence which 
passed through your present reporter’s hands since he undertook 
to conduct the exploration of the cavern” (Brit. Ass. Rep., 1876, 
p. 118). Surely it is too late, in his letter to NATURE (March Io, 
1881), to recall this on the grounds that these remains were 
discovered in a shaft, that my exploration was not carried on 
so accurately as his own, and further, that because he did not 
find the reindeer in the lower strata that Idid not. It is not for 
me to compare my own experience in cave-hunting with his, or 
to point out the value of negative evidence. The exploration 
while under my charge was mo¢ carried on by shafts only. When 
the hyzena-layer was reached it was followed in the deep cutting 
visited by the British Association in 1873. The presence of 
reindeer in the hyzena-layer renders Mr. Tiddeman’s views un- 
tenable which are based on its assumed absence. Most of these 
points have been so fully argued out before the above-mentioned 
societies, that I am sorry to be obliged to repeat them in this 
letter. W. BoypD DAWKINS 

Owens College, March 11 


Oceanic Phenomenon 


H.M.’s surveying ship 4/er¢ was recently engaged in searching 
for a “‘shoal” which was reported as existing some 200 miles to 
the southward of Tongatabu, in the South Pacific. In the course 
of the survey—which I may add tended to disprove the existence 
of any such shoal—it was observed that for several days the sea- 
surface exhibited large discoloured patches, due to the presence 
of a fluffy substance of a dull brown colour, and resembling in 
consistency the vegetable scum commonly seen on the stagnant 
water of ditches. This matter floated on the surface in irregular 
streaky patches, and also in finely-divided particles impregnated 


- 


March 24, 1881 | . 


NATURE 


483 


the sea-water to a depth of several feet. Samples for examina- 
tion were obtained by ‘‘ dipping” with a bucket, as well as by 
the tow-net. It seemed to be a Confervoid Alga. 

On slightly agitating the water in a glass jar, the fluffy masses 
broke up into minute particles, which, under a magnifying power 
of sixty diameters, were found to be composed of spindle-shaped 
bundles of filaments. Under a power of 500 diameters these 
filaments were seen to be straight or slightly-curved rods, articu- 
lated but not branching, and divided by transverse septa into 
cylindrical cells, which contained irregularly-shaped masses of 
granular matter. These rods, which seemed to represent the 
adult plant, measured 3,5 inch in width. On carefully examin- 
ing many samples, some filaments were detected, portions of 
which seemed to have undergone a sort of varicose enlargement, 
being more than twice as wide as the normal filaments. These 
propagating filaments (if I am right in so calling them) were 
invested by a delicate tubular membrane, and contained some 
granular semi-transparent matter, in which was imbedded a row of 
discoid bodies ; the latter appearing as if about to be discharged 
from the ruptured extremity of the tube. These bodies measured 
tvsoth of an inch in diameter: when seen edgewise presented a 


lozenge-shaped appearance, ard were devoid of cilia or strize. 
Conjugation was not observed. 

On allowing a jarful of the sea-water to stand by for twenty- 
four hours it was found that the confervoid matter had all risen 
to the surface, forming a thick scum of a dull green colour, 
while the water had assumed a pale purple colour, resembling 
the tint exhibited in a weak solution of permanganate of 
potash. 

From November 24 to 29, during which time the’ ship tra- 
versed slowly a distance of 330 miles, the sea contained these 
organisms, For the first three days the large patches were 
frequently in sight, and during the rest of the time the sur- 
rounding water presented a dusty appearance from the presence 
of the tiny spindle-shaped bundles. On the evening of the 26th 
an unusually dense patch was sighted and mistaken for a reef, 
being reported as such by the look-out-man aloft. 

Sydney, January 24 R. W. CopPpINGER 


Feeding a Gull with Corn 


In Prof. Semper’s recently-published work on the ‘‘ Condi- 
tions of Existence as they Affect Animal Life,” a review of 
which from the pen of Prof. Lankester appeared in your columns 
a fortnight ago (vol. xxiii. p. 405), allusion is made on pp. 67, 68, 
and elsewhere to John Hunter’s celebrated experiment of feeding a 
gull with corn, Prof. Semper, however, seems not to have 
been aware of the precise nature of the result of Hunter’s experi- 
ment. He says: ‘‘The English anatomist Hunter purposely 
fed a sea-gull for a whole year on grain, and he thus succeeded 
in so completely hardening the inner coat of the bird’s stomach, 


which is naturally soft and adapted to a fish diet, that in appear- 
ance and structure it precisely resembled the hard, horny skin of 
the gizzard of a pigeon.” 

The original account, I believe, of Hunter’s experiment, was 
published in Sir Everard Home’s ‘‘ Lectures on Comparative 
Anatomy ” (vol. i. p. 271, 1814), and an extract from that work 
is appended to the description of Hunter’s original preparation, 
still preserved in the College of Surgeons, in the descriptive 
catalogue of that collection (vol. v., 1833, pp. 149-50, Prep. 
523). What Hunter succeeded in effecting was to very much 
Increase the thickness of the muscular walls of the gizzard, 
which, as may be seen by comparing his specimen (No. 523) 
with that of the stomach of another gull close by, have become 
developed to an extent about double their usual size. There is 
no manifest increase in the thickness of the ‘‘inner”—or so- 
called ‘‘ epithelial” —coat of the stomach visible in the prepara- 
tion, nor do Home or Owen allude to any such feature in their 
descriptions, Hunter’s experiment, therefore, simply comes 
under the numerous well-ascertained instances of the increased 
development, consequent on increased use, of muscle, and has 
no real connection with the ‘‘ modifying effects of food,” such as 
that produced in canaries by feeding them on cayenne pepper, 
and others cited by Semper, W. A. FORBES 

Zoological Society’s Gardens, N.W., March 18 


Dynamics of ‘‘ Radiant Matter” 


As the chief object of Mr. Preston’s paper under the above 
title in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 461, seems to be to support Le 
Sage’s ‘‘shelter theory” for gravity, you will perhaps let me 
point out one objection to that theory in any form which has 
hitherto been deemed conclusive, and with which Mr, Preston 
does not deal. It is that under it gravity would not vary, as it 
is known to do, equally with mass, but would vary zo¢ equally. 

The theory applies perhaps so long as you consider only the 
case of isolated atoms, but it fails entirely when applied to 
clusters of atoms, 

Observation shows that gravity varies only with distance and 
with mass ; but if it were caused by any form of shelter hitherto 
imagined, it would vary also with density and with bulk in such 
a way that a pound of, say water, would weigh more than a 
pound if raised into steam, because its atoms, in loose order as 
steam, would give each other less shelter from the action of the 
kinetic zether than when in close order as water, and in such a 
way also that two spheres of, say iron, each weighing one pound, 
would weigh less than two pounds if welded into one sphere, 
because some atoms in the one sphere would be better sheltered 
than any atoms in the two spheres. Wm. MuIR 

March 21 


The Oldest Fossil Insects 


Mr. S. H. ScuppDER has published (Anniversary A/emoirs of 
the Boston Society of Natural History, 1880, pp. 41, plate 1) a 
memoir on the Devonian Insects of New Brunswick. The 
fragments of the six described species were discovered by the late 
Prof, C. F. Hartt in 1862, and have been since 1865 described in 
several papers by the same author. The new paper is a very 
detailed and elaborate one, with entirely new and improved 
figures, and is followed by a number of conclusions, as the final 
result of his work (Report, Amer. Journ. of Sci., Feb. 1881). 
The conclusions would be of prominent importance for the 
history of the evolution of insects, if they could be accepted 
without reserve. Of course facts and conclusions should 
be able to stand the most severe test; and that is not the 
case with this publication, ‘‘As the simpler Devonian insects 
have certain special relations,” he says, ‘‘ with the Ephemeride, 
their description is preceded by an account of the wing-structure 
of the modern Mayflies as a basis of comparison” (p. 4). 

The simple fact that not one of the described species has any 
relationship to the Ephemeride is sufficient to cause us to object 
to his descriptions and conclusions related to this family. This 
statement is not based upon a difference of opinion, but simply on 
the evidence of facts which cannot be denied by any one conver- 
sant with the families Ephemeridz and Odonata. . 

Platephemera antigua is a part of the apical half of the wing, 
without the tip, of a gigantic dragonfly. The suddenly narrowed 
second cubital space is to be found in Isophlebia of the Solenhofen 
slate. The imperfectness of the fragment allows no further con- 
clusions. 

Gerephemera simplex is a diagonal fragment of the middle ot 


484 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


a wing of a gigantic dragonfly. The reverse has a small part of 
the base, not to be seen in the obverse, with a straight sector 
crossing the horizontal ones. The same arrangement is to be 
seen in Isophlebia. Every other character important for nearer 
determination is wanting in the fragment. 

Lithentomum Harttii,—The fragment is very insufficient, and 
recalls the venation of the Sialids, and among them those of the 
Chauliodes type. 

Flomothetus fossilis——This is a Sialid of the Corydalis type, 
with a small number of transversals. The basal vein, spoken of 
as homologous with the arculus of the Odonata, and as proving a 
synthetic type, is the part in which the wing breaks off easily in 
actually living species. I have not seen the type. 

Xenoneura antiquorum.—Some details given for this species 
are not exact. It has not been observed that parts of one wing 
cover the other; I can only say that the wing belongs to the 
Neuroptera, and that the venation is nearer to the Chauliodes 
type than to any other. The famous ‘‘stridulation” apparatus 
at the base is justly retracted by the author. 

Four new families are proposed for these insects by the author. 
One of them, the Atoxina, is now out of the question, as Gere- 
phemera belongs to the Odonata, The three others are only 
indicated by extremely vague characters, in fact by no characters 
at all. Can science accept such families? I believe not. 

I omit Dyscritus vetustus because this fragment is undeter- 
minable. 

My conclusions are, that two of the insects belong to the 
Odonata, three to the Sialids. There is no Ephemerid among 
them, nor any synthetic species. The proofs for my statements 
will be given in a detailed paper, H. A, HAGEN 

Cambridge, Mass, 


Ice-Casts of Tracks 


As I was riding along the highway late this afternoon, my 
attention was attracted to a phenomenon no less curious than 
beautiful. A couple of days ago there was a fall of a few inches 
of very damp snow, after which the temperature fell rapidly, 
and this morning everything was frozen hard. A large dog had 
trotted along in the snow while it was yet damp, and where it 
lay upon the old drifts by the road-side. To-day the sun has 
been shining very warm, cutting away all the new snow and 
leaving the tracks of the dog in exquisitely perfect ice-casts, thin 
as writing-paper, and standing on the» most delicate thread-like 
columns, about an inch above the surface of the old snow. 

Lyons, N.Y., March 7 J. T. BROWNELL 


Migration of Birds 


THE following extracts from a work entitled ‘‘ Bible Customs 
in Bible Lands,” by Henry J. Van Lennep, D.D. (1875), may 
prove interesting to some of your readers, as containing im- 
portant and reliable evidence with regard to the migration of 
birds, which has formed the subject of two recent letters in 
NATURE. 

Speaking of the great numbers of small birds which inhabit 
Western Asia, as compared with Europe and North America, 
Dr. Van Lennep explains the circumstance by the fact that 
““even those of feeblest wing have an easy road from Palestine, 
Syria, and Mesopotamia, by the Isthmus of Suez, and over the 
narrow Red Sea, to their winter quarters in tropical Africa, 
while nature has provided them with extraordinary means of 
conveyance from Asia Minor southward across the Mediterranean 
. .. The swallow, and many other birds of similar powers of 
flight, are able to cross over the entire breadth of the Mediter- 
ranean, especially by taking advantage of a favourable wind. 
But many birds are quite incapable of flying over a surface of 
350 miles from headland to headland across the Mediterranean 
without alighting, and would require many days, and even weeks, 
to perform the trip through Syria and Palestine. Such are the 
ortolans, darnagas, bec-figs, wren, titmouse, smaller thrushes 
and finches, with a hundred other diminutive specimens of the 
feathered tribes . . . and as the severity of the winter would 
be fatal to them, not only in Asia Minor but even in Syria and 
Palestine, He who is ever mindful of the smallest of His 
creatures has provided them with means of transportation to a 
more genial clime, Many of them, indeed, find their way 
downward from Palestine into Arabia and Egypt, but this would 
be difficult, if not impossible where lofty mountains and broad 
seas intervene, and to meet such cases the crane has been pro- 
vided. . . . Most of these birds are migratory. In the autumn 


numerous flocks may be seen coming from the north with the 
first cold blasts from that quarter, flying low, and uttering a 
peculiar cry as if of alarm, as they circle over the cultivated 
plains. Little birds of every species may then be seen flying up 
to them, while the twittering songs of those already comfortably 
settled upon their backs may be distinctly heard. On their 
return in the spring they fly high, apparently considering that 
their little passengers can easily find their way down to the earth, ’ 
As Dr. Van Lennep has ‘‘spent almost a lifetime in the 
East,” I conclude he has been an eye-witness of the above facts, 
and therefore his testimony is conclusive. 
Bath, March 16 


Sound of the Aurora 


WITH reference to the question mooted in last week’s 
NATURE (p. 459) by M. L. Rouse as to the sounds emitted by 
aurore, perhaps the accompanying extracts may be of interest.) 

Brighton, March 20 Epwp. ALLOWAY PAUKHURST 

“* Record of a Girlhood,” F. A. Kemble. Vol. TZ. 

“Standing on that balcony [at Edinburgh] late one cold clear 
night, I saw for the first time the sky illuminated with the 
aurora borealis. It was a magnificent display of the pheno- 
menon, and I feel certain that my attention was first attracted to 
it by the crackling sound which appeared to accompany the 
motion of the pale flames as they streamed across the sky ; 
indeed crackling is not the word that properly describes the 
sound I heard, which was precisely that made by the flickering 
of blazing fire; and as I have often since read and heard 
discussions upon the question whether the motion of the aurora 
is or is not accompanied by an audible sound, I can only say 
that on this occasion it was the sound that first induced me to 
observe the sheets of white light that were leaping up the sky. 
At this time I knew nothing of such phenomena or the debates 
among scientific men to which they had given rise, and can 
therefore trust the impression made on my senses.” 


I BEG to assure Mr. Rouse that about fifteen years ago, early 
in the evening, in this very quiet locality, I listened, along with 
my father, to the sound of an aurora, pulsing above us, across 
the zenith, and appearing nearer to us, or lower, than most 
auroras I had seen, The sound was somewhat like the rustling 
or switching of silk, and we listened to it for some time with 
great curiosity. The aurora was not coloured, as more imposing 
ones have sometimes appeared, but white. It recalled to me the 
lines of Burns in a fragment entitled ‘‘ A Vision.” 


“ The cauld blue north was streaming forth 
Her lights, wi’ hissing eerie din ; 
Athort the lift they start and shift, 
Like fortune’s favours tint as won.”’ 
Dumfriesshire, March 20 


J. SHAW 


Tacitus on the Aurora 


WITH reference to the passage of Tacitus, ‘‘ Germ.” 45, quoted 
in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 459, I would suggest that the reading 
eguorum, proposed by some commentators, is far happier than 
deorum. ‘It is believed that a sound is heard, that the forms of 
the horses and rays from a head are seen.” k. 0. S. 

Heidelberg, Germany 


Aberration of Instinct 


As an instance of ‘‘ Aberration of Instinct,” or I should rather 
say of instinct at fault, may be mentioned the following :—It is 
well known, I believe, that rooks in attacking young mangold- 
wurtzel pick out the plants to obtain the wireworm at their roots. 
It happens that plants most infested with these insects are the 
most flagged in the leaf. Now a neighbour whose sowing had 
been a partial failure transplanted some young wurtzels into the 
vacant places. These of course for a few days presented a flagged 
appearance, and were all seized on by the rooks to the exclusion 
of the rest. Poor disappointed creatures, what must have been 
their chagrin at finding no wireworm as they evidently expected! 

T. H. WALLER 

Waldringfield Rectory, Woodbridge, March 16 


Squirrels Crossing Water 


A CORRESPONDENT in NATURE (vol, xxiii. p. 340) is surprised 
to learn of the squirrel taking to the water. It is not an un 


March 24, 1881 | 


common thing for them to do so here, and they are frequently 
drowned in making attempts beyond their strength. 

Some years ago I was rowing on Lake George in this State, 
when I observed one of these little animals in an open place, 
where from the course he was pursuing he must have swum 
nearly half a mile. He seemed almost exhausted, and when I 
held my oar towards him he readily accepted the invitation to 
come on board, ran up the oar, and then to my surprise ran up 
my arm and ascended to my shoulder! I do not know whether 
he simply followed his climbing instincts, or whether he sought 
an elevated point to get an observation. However this may have 
been, after a short pause he descended and took his station in 
the bow of the boat, from which in a few minutes he plunged 
into the lake and struck out for land, He evidently miscalculated 
his remaining powers, for he was unequal to the effort, and soon 
gladly availed himself of a second opportunity of gaining a place 
of refuge. He now sat quietly while I rowed him towards the 
land,‘evidently satisfied that he was in friendly hands, and that 
his wisest plan was to remain as a passenger. When close to 
the shore he made a flying-leap and scampered for the trees, 
doubtless grateful in his little heart for the kindness that had 
helped him over the critical part of his voyage. 

This was near the narrows of the lake, where it is about one 
mile in width, with groups of islands which shorten the traverses 
to less than a quarter of a mile. My little friend however had 
not availed himself of the easier and more circuitous route, but 
had boldly undertaken a directer course and a longer swim, which, 
but for the timely rescue, would very likely have been his last 
aquatic attempt. FREDERICK HUBBARD 

New York, March 10 


IN connection with a recent letter in NATURE on the squirrel 
taking to water, the foilowing facts may be of interest :—While 
camping for two summers recently in the wilderness of northern 
New York, I was much surprised at frequently seeing squirrels 
crossing the ponds and lakes of the region. We would some- 
times find several of these strange navigators in the course of an 
afternoon’s row. They were seen most abundantly during the 
early part of July; iadeed, later in the season, they were but 


rarely found. During many summers of camping elsewhere IL 


have never seen them take to the water. It has occurred to me 
that the explanation of this peculiarity (if it be such) of the 
squirrels of this locality may be found in the nature of the region 
visited ; for we find there a most intricate water-system, the 
whole region being dotted with ponds and lakes connected by 
small streams. The necessity of taking to the water at times 
has perhaps enabled the squirrels to overcome their aversion to 
this element, and they have thus become semi-aquatic in their 
habits. The squirrel to which reference is made is the common 
“red squirrel,” Sciwras Hendsonius. 
Worcester, Mass., March § 


In the autumn of 1878 I was salmon fishing in the River 
Spey, a few miles from its mouth, where the stream was broad, 
strong, and deep—when just beyond the end of my line J per- 
ceived a squirrel being carried down, but swimming higher out 
of the water than is usual wih most animals, Its death by 
drowning seemed inevitable, as the opposite bank was a high, 
perpendicular cliff of Old Red Sandstone, where even a squirrel 
could hardly land. However it swam gallantly on, heading 
straight across the stream, and finally, after being swept down a 
long distance, emerged on the other side, where a burn inter- 
sected the rock, and fir-trees grew down to the water’s edge. 
The left bank, where the squirrel must have entered the river, 
was low and shelving, and it selected a spot, accidentally or 
otherwise, whence the current carried it opposite to an easy 
landing-place on the right bank. CECIL DUNCOMBE 

March 18 


LHE LATE UR. E.R: ALSTON 


= death of Edward Richard Alston, which took 

place at his rooms in Maddox Street on the 7th 
inst., leaves a vacancy in the thin ranks of the working 
naturalists of this country that will uot be easily filled up. 
At the time of his death Mr, Alston was secretary to the 
Linnean Society, a member of the Council of the Zoological 


Society, and treasurer to the Zoological Club, and up to | 


NATURE 


485 


within a few days of his decease was engaged in active 
zoological work. Mr. Alston, who died of phthisis at the 
early age of thirty-five, although somewhat retiring in 
disposition, was of a particularly kind and amiable nature, 
always most friendly with those with whom he was brought 
into contact, and ready to help them by advice or assist- 
ance. Mr. Alston was of Scotch parentage, and a native 
of Ayrshire. Being from infancy of delicate constitution 
he was educated chiefly under private tuition, and did not 
go to school or college. Notwithstanding these disad- 
vantages he was a good scholar and a neat and concise 
writer, and had an excellent acquaintance with compara- 
tive anatomy. Taking early to the pursuit of natural 
history he became a contributor to the Zoologzst and 
other popular journals, principally upon mammals and 
birds. Mr. Alston’s first important paper was an account 
(published in the Zézs) of his journey to Archangel, made 
in 1872, in company with his friend Mr, J. Harvie 
Brown, in which excellent observations are given on the 
summer migrants and other feathered inhabitants of 
that previously little explored district. Shortly after- 
wards Mr. Alston moved his head-quarters to London 
during the first part of the year, and undertook the com- 
pilation of the portion of the Zoological Record relating 
to mammals, which he carried on in a very painstaking 
and methodical way for six years (1873-78). A new edi- 
tion of Bell’s British Mammals, which had long been 
called for, appeared in 1874. Mr. Alston, although he is 
only credited with having ‘‘assisted” in this work, was, 
we believe, its virtual compiler. From that date also he 
became a frequent reader of papers at the meetings of the 
Zoological Society and author of several excellent memoirs 
in the Proceedings. Amongst these we may call special at- 
tention to his revision of the genera of Rodentia, published 
in 1876, as a most successful exposition of the many 
difficult points connected with the arrangement of this 
group of mammals, and to his memoirs on the Mammals 
of Asia Minor, collected by Mr. C. G. Danford (1877 and 
1880). Mr. Alston’s last and most important work, which 
he had fortunately just brought to an end before his 
untimely death, was the ‘‘Mammals” of Salvin and 
Godman’s “ Biologia Centrali-Americana’’—a great work 
on the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America. 
The first part of this was published in 1879, the eighth 
number containing the completion of the Mammals in 
December last. The death of this promising naturalist, 
when in the full tide of work, must be a subject of universal 
regret among all lovers of science. 


RECENT MATHEMATICO-LOGICAL MEMOIRS 


HE Boolian reform of logical science is at las 
beginning to manifest itself and to bear the first- 
fruits of controversy. Thirty years ago Boole’s remark- 
able memoirs were treated as striking but almost in- 
comprehensible enigmas. Even De Morgan did not 
know exactly how to regard them, and in his “ Syllabus 
of a Proposed System of Logic” (p. 72) thus allows their 
mysterious truth :—° In these works the author has made 
it manifest that the symbolic language of algebra, framed 
wholly on notions of number and quantity, is adequate, 
by what is certainly not an accident, to the representation 
of all the laws of thought.” But time and the efforts of 
several investigators have cleared up much of the mystery 
in which Boole wrapped his logical discoveries. The 
controversies now going on touch rather the precise form 
to be given to the calculus of logic, than the former 
question of the new logic against the old orthodox Aristo- 
telian doctrine. 

The most elaborate recent contributions to mathematico- 
logical science, at least in the English language, are the 
memoirs of Prof. C. S. Peirce, the distinguished mathe- 
matician, now of the Johns Hopkins University, Balti- 
more. Not to speak of his discussions of logical ques- 


486 


NATURE 


[| March 24, 1881 


tions in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences (vol. vii. pp. 250-298, 402-412, 416-432), 
we have from him the wonderful investigation con- 
tained in his “ Description of a Notation for the Logic of 
Relatives, resulting from an Amplification of the Concep- 
tions of Boole’s Calculus of Logic” (Memoirs of the 
American Academy, vol. ix. Cambridge, U.S., 1870, 4to). 
The contents of this remarkable treatise, which fills sixty- 
two quarto pages, demand the most careful study, but it 
would be quite impossible in this article to enter upon 
such study. Prof. Peirce has however quite recently 
interpreted his own views in a new memoir ‘On the 
Algebra of Logic,” of which the first part, completed by 
the author in April last, was printed in the American 
Journal of Mathematics, vol. iii., and issued in September 
(4to, 57 pp.). After noticing the beautiful typography in 
which the Americaz Journal rejoices, we find in this 
memoir a very careful inquiry as to what is really the 
form and nature of logical inference. 


Prof. Peirce treats in succession of the Derivation of 


Logic, of Syllogism and Dialogism (a new name for a 
form of argument), of Forms of Propositions, the Algebra 
of the Copula, the Internal Multiplication and the Addition 
of Logic, the Resolution of Problems in Non-relative 
Logic, with a further chapter on the Logic of Relatives. 
The fundamental point, however, which is under discussion 
in the first two chapters touches the nature of the copula. 
There is abundance of evidence to show that given a few 
elementary forms, it is possible to spin out logical or 
mathematical formule simply without limit. But the 
superstructure rests entirely upon the basis of elementary 
truth contained in the first axioms. In logical science it 
is emphatically true that “ C’est le premier pas qui coiite.” 
There is a momentous choice to be made at the outset, 
and if we then take a wrong view of the nature of the 
logical copula, we can never come right again by any 
amount of development or formulisation. 

Prof. Peirce after mentioning that four different alge- 
braic methods of solving problems in the logic of non- 
relative terms have been proposed by recent English and 
German logicians, adopts a fifth, which he thinks is 
perhaps simpler and certainly more natural than any of 
the others. Peirce commences by expressing all the 
premises by means of the copulas —< and Zz, “re- 
membering that A=B is the same as A—< B and 
B —<«< A”? (p. 37). These new symbols are to be inter- 
preted so that A —< B means (A implies B), in the way 
that water implies liquidity, or all water is liquid. The 


symbol —< is the negative of the above, so that C—< D 
means that C does not imply D. He then lays down five 
other processes which give the elementary theorems of 
the calculus, showing how to develop, simplify, transpose, 
and infer equivalency by these symbols. “As however 
these processes occupy two quarto pages in their first 
statement, it is evident that they cannot be reproduced 
here. The question which really emerges is not as to the 
power and originality shown by Prof. Peirce, about which 
no reader of his memoirs can entertain the slightest 
doubt, but as to the wisdom of the first step, the selection 
of the relation expressed by the symbol —< instead of 
that expressed by the familiar sign of equality =. Prof. 
Peirce begins by remarking that A=B is the same as 
A—<B with B—<A. For instance, all equilateral 
triangles are equiangular, and all equiangular triangles 
are equilateral. But though these two assertions are 
equivalent to “ equilateral triangle = equiangular triangle,” 
Prof. Peirce elects to treat the two parts of the apparently 
compound proposition separately, his reasons being given 
partially on p. 21. This is not the first time that the 
same choice has been made; for, not to speak of Aristotle 
and the Aristotelians generally, De Morgan elected to 
base his systems of logic upon inclusion and exclusion, 
instead of upon equality. In his symbols X || Y is com- 


pounded of X )) Yand X((Y (Syllabus, p. 24), that is 
to say all Xs are all Ys is made of all Xs are Ys and all 
Ys are Xs. Now without going far afield, I believe that 
a sufficient reason may be given for holding that both De 
Morgan and Peirce have chosen wrongly. A class is 
made up of individuals, and the very conception of a class 
thus implies the relation of identity expressed in A = B. 
If I say the colour of glacier ice is identical with the 
colour of pure rain water, it is impossible to break this 
assertion up into “The colours of glacier ice are among 
those of pure rain water,’ and ‘“‘ The colours of pure rain 
water are, &c.” The colour is one indivisible and identical. 
Now if there is at the basis of all reasoning an elementary 
assertion of the form A = B, which is incapable of reso- 
lution into anything simpler, this sufficiently proves that 
Peirce’s A —< B, or De Morgan’s A )) B cannot be the 
original elementary form of assertion. Moreover, when 
we say that all equiangular triangles = all equilateral 
triangles, the real basis of assertion is that-each possible 
equiangular triangle is identical with one possible equi- 
lateral triangle. The plural is made up of the singular, and 
the singular is incapable of logical decomposition. You 
may decompose A = B into As are Bs, and Bs are As, 
but ultimate decomposition gives us A’ = B’, A” = B”, 
Al” = Bl", A’, A”, &c., being individuals, 

It is highly curious, however, that this very question 
arises again with reference to the so-called Calculus of 
Equivalent Statements recently published by Mr. Hugh 
MacColl, B.A., in the Proceedings of the London Mathe- 
matical Society (First paper, November 1877, vol. ix. pp. 
9-20; Second paper, June 13, 1878, vol. ix. pp. 177-186 ; 
Third paper, vol. x. pp. 16-28 ; Fourth paper, vol. xi. ; 
see also Mznd, January 1880, pp. 45-60, and the Pz/o- 
sophical Magazine for September 1880). ‘ 

There can be no doubt that Mr. MacColl has shown 
much skill in devising neat symbolic forms, and much 
power in using them, Comparing his processes with 
those of De Morgan, for instance, it is impossible not to 
admire their symmetry and lucidity. But when we touch 
the real point, the nature of assertion and inference, I am 
obliged to hold that Mr. MacColl has, like De Morgan 
and Peirce, elected wrongly. What De Morgan expressed 
by X )) Y, and Peirce by X —< Y, MacColl puts in the 
form x: y, calling the assertion an zwzplication. Curiously 
enough, he professes never to treat of things, but only of 
assertions, so that with him +: y means that the assertion 
x implies the assertion y, or whenever +r is true, y is true. 
Having carefully considered Mr. MacColl’s proposals, I 
felt obliged to write of them in a recent publication as 
follows :—‘“It is difficult to believe that there is any 
advantage in these innovations; certainly, in preferring 
implications to equations, Mr. MacColl ignores the neces- 
sity of the equation for the application of the Principle of 
Substitution. His proposals seem to me to tend towards 
throwing Formal Logic back into its Ante-Boolian con- 
fusion.” 

In a paper printed in the Philosophical Magazine for 
January 1881, Mr. MacColl takes me to task and invites 
me to make good the charge about Ante-Boolian con- 
fusion, by entering into a friendly contest in the problem 
columns of the Educational Times. Having just recently 
spent the better part of fifteen months in solving other 
people’s problems, and in inventing some two or three 
hundred new ones, published in “Studies in Deductive 
Logic,” I certainly do not feel bound to sacrifice my 
peace of mind for the next few years by engaging to 
solve any problems which the ingenuity and leisure of 
Mr. MacColl or his friends may enable them to devise. 
I therefore decline his proposal with thanks, But I can 
easily explain what I mean by ante-Boolian, or what 
comes to much the same thing, anti-Boolian confusion. 
The great reform effected by Boole was that of making 
the equation the corner-stone of logic, as it had always 
been that of mathematical science. Not only did this 


March 24, 1881 | 


yield true and simple results within the sphere of logic, 
but it disclosed wonderful analogy between logical and 
mathematical forms, to which De Morgan adverts in the 
passage quoted above. All true progress in the philo- 
sophy of those fundamental sciences depends upon ever 
keeping in view the fundamental identity of the reasoning 
processes, as depending on the process of substitution, 
practised explicitly by algebraists for some two or three 
centuries past, and implied in the geometrical reasoning 
of Euclid. 

But Mr. MacColl takes a backward step; he says he 
can make a simpler notation by taking a: @ instead of 
mya=af8. In regard to form there is absolutely no 
novelty in the implication, for it is simply De Morgan’s 
X)) Y, or the ancient Aristotelian proposition A is B. 
It is true that Mr. MacColl makes his terms consist of 
assertions, so that all his assertions would appear to be 
assertions about assertions—a needless complexity, landing 
us in the absurdity that a calculus of equivalent statements 
has no means of exhibiting the statements themselves. 
Mr. MacColl claims indeed considerable advantage for 
his notation on the ground that in the syllogism (a:) 
(8:y):(a:y), the very same relation which connects a 
with 8, and 8 with y, connects also the combined premises 
(a:8) (8:y) with the conclusion a:y. He thinks that 
my notation is very clumsy and roundabout, because, as 
my propositions treat of things or qualities, I should have 
to use words to express the inference of one proposition 
from others. In that case Mr. MacColl must bring the 
like charge of clumsiness against the whole body of 
mathematicians, because their equations are between 
things or their magnitudes, and they still use language 
“hence,’ “ therefore,’ &c., to express the fact that 
certain equations lead to other equations. If there is 
any mathematical sign to denote inference, it is rarely 
used, unless it be the familiar *.* and .*., which are merely 
shorthand signs. 

Mr. MacColl however, while pointing out the excellence 
of his implications, objects tomy statement that he rejects 
equations in favour of implications on the ground that his 
method admits of both forms: “As a matter of fact,” he 
says. ‘I employ both, sometimes even in the same 
problem. In my first paper... I adopt the equational 
form throughout ; in my second and third papers, which 
relate entirely to questions of pure logic, I generally adopt 
the implicational form, as the simplest and most effective; 
while in my fourth paper, which treats of probability, I 
mainly adopt the equational form.” There is nothing 
which I can see in this to contradict my objection that 
Mr, MacColl rejects equations 7 favour of implications. 
Mr. MacColl uses implications as ‘‘the simplest and 
most effective,’ but he adopts the equational form, I 
suppose, when he finds it indispensable ; if not, why does 
he not hold to his simple and effective implication? If 
he finds one form besi in logic and the other in mathe- 
matics, then he is ante-Boolian, because it was the whole 
point of Boole’s labours to establish identity of method 
in logic and mathematics. I have really no wish to 
condemn Mr. MacColl’s calculus or to enter into con- 
troversy with him, but in the interests of truth and 
sound science I must assert my belief that his impli- 
cation a; is at the best but a shorthand rendering of 
a = a8, which is Boole’s formadopted by me. I have not 
said, and do not undertake to say, that Mr. MacColl’s for- 
mule are not concise and neat. But a shorthand notation is 
bad if it obscures the real nature of the reasoning operation, 
and the fact that Mr. MacColl always keeps the equation 
in the background as a reserve method to call into opera- 
tion when needed, shows to my mind that his methods 
are mistaken in a philosophical point of view. The very 
name of his method is “The Calculus of Equivalent 
Statements,’’ and the word equivalent sufficiently implies 
that the equation is at the bottom of the matter. The 
end of it allthen is that a; 8 has one letter less in it than 


NATURE 


487 


a = af, and to save the trouble of writing this one little 
letter Mr. MacColl would have us obscure all the grand 
and fertile analogies which Boole disclosed to the astonish- 
ment of mathematicians in 1847 and 1854. Mr. MacColl 
says: ‘‘The question whether the implication a: 8 or its 
equivalent the equation a = af should be preferred in a 
symbolical system of logic, must be decided on the broad 
grounds of practical convenience.’ It is not however a 
question of practical convenience, but of philosophical 
truth which is at issue, and in thus playing fast and loose 
with the equation, Mr. MacColl shows his entire want of 
comprehension of what is involved in the Boolian reform 
of logic. It may be added that were Mr. MacColl to 
discard implications and use only the equations which he 
admits are equivalent to them, there would be no formal 
difference between his calculus and that modified form 
of Boole’s calculus which I proposed in 1864, and have 
been ever since engaged in developing, excepting indeed 
Mr. MacColl’s unaccountable adoption of assertions as 
terms. 

Perhaps it ought to be added that Boole, both in his 
“Mathematical Analysis of Logic,” and in his great 
“Laws of Thought,” introduces chapters on what he 
calls ‘‘ Secondary Propositions’’ or Hypotheticals, which 
deal, like Mr. MacColl’s assertions, with the truth of 
other assertions; but nothing emerges from Boole’s dis- 
cussion of secondary propositions except that they obey 
exactly the same formal laws as primary propositions, 
and are of course expressed equationally. 

W. STANLEY JEVONS 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEW OR RARE ANIMALS 
IN THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S LIVING 
COLLECTION} 

Ill. 


HE animals we now speak of are again inhabitants of 
North-Eastern Asia—a country which, as before 
remarked, has of late years produced a considerable 
number of accessions to the list of Mammals. Both of 
them also belong to the great group of Ruminants—which 
is of special interest, as embracing all the animals upon 
the flesh of which civilised man principally subsists. 

6. The Japanese Goat-Antelope (Capricornis crispa). 
For many years Siebold’s “ Fauna Japonica” was almost 
our only authority on Japanese zoology. The Dutch, 
having long had a monopoly of Japan, were enabled to 
stock their great National Museum at Leyden with a host 
of objects unknown to the other cabinets of Europe, but 
of which their travellers and residents managed to obtain 
specimens from various parts of the land where they only 
were permitted to penetrate. The “ Fauna Japonica,” 
although Japan is now open to all the world, still remains 
the best work of reference on the mammals of Japan. In 
it will be found the first description of the singular goat- 
like antelope of which the Zoological Society have recently 
obtained their first living example, drawn up by the cele- 
brated naturalist Temminck, formerly director of the 
Leyden Museum. Temminck named the animal Anéelope 
crispa, from the rough coat of hair which covers it, and 
tells us that it inhabits the higher alps of the Japanese 
Islands Nippon and Sikok, and is known to the Japanese 
as the “ Nik.” But a more complete account of its habits 
has lately been published by Capt. H. C. St. John in 
his recently-issued “ Notes and Sketches from the Wild 
Coasts of Nipon.” Capt. St. John tell us that the 
Japanese chamois, as he calls it, “is a very difficult 
animal to find, and to bag when found; they keep to the 
highest mountains, and to the highest and must rugged 
peaks of these ranges. I have hunted them with the 
natives, and with their dogs, and this often ; and yet only 
once, although often close to the creatures, have I hada 


* Continued from p. 417. 


488 


NATURE 


March 24, 1881 


glimpse of one, much less a shot. 
was lucky enough to see one, and this was by mere acci- 
dent, and when not in search of game. I have often 
been told fabulous stories about the Nigou, the native 
name for this wary animal. ‘They were supposed to have 
one horn, and to use this single frontal ornament as a 
means of hanging on to trees as well as in self-defence. 
After some years of anticipation and endeavour to get 
even a dead specimen, I got a couple, and then, strange 
to say, several others were brought to me. A young 
male, alive, was caught, after its mother was shot. 
Only one specimen of all that were brought to me by the 
native hunters had both their horns intact—always one, 
and often both, being more or less broken. In hunting 
them with dogs, it soon became evident why this was so 
generally the case. The Japanese, who knew the ani- 
mal’s habits intimately, invariably placed me near some 


On one occasion I 


huge bare slab of rock, on which the Nigou, when pressed | 


older they get the lighter-coloured they become. Until I 
actually had one in my hands, I was unable to decide 
whether they had a beard or not, and was pleased to find 
they do not possess this ornament—therefore they are 
true antelopes, and not goats.” 

For their unique specimens of this scarce animal the 
Zoological Society are greatly indebted to the energetic co- 
operation of oneof their Corresponding Members, Mr. H. 
Pryer ef Yokohama, Japan, by whom it was transmitted 
as a present to the Collection in April, 1879. The animal 
was then quite young, but has now attained full stature, 
and presents avery singular and characteristic appearance 
—quite different from that of either goats or antelopes— 
which is well shown in Mr, Smidt’s drawing (Fig. 6). 

The goat-like or mountain antelopes, to which the 
presents animal belongs, constitute a small group of the 
family Bovidz, which is distributed over the mountain 
chains of Eastern Asia and its islands. The nearest 
geographical neighbours of the 
Japanese animal are Caprz- 
cornis Swinhotz of Formosa, 
and C. caudata of China. In 
the Himalayas the genus is 
represented by C. dubalina— 
the Thaar or Tahir of Indian 
sportsmen, and in the higher 


ranges of Sumatra by C. Swma- 
trensis. In the Rocky Moun- 
tains of North America is found 
a far-separated member of the 
same group, which is known 
= as the “‘ Mountain Goat’’ by 
the American hunters (Az/z- 
locapra Americana). Our Eu- 
ropean Chamois (Aupicapra 


tragus) is not very distantly 


related to these animals, 


7. Luhdorf’s Deer (Cervus 


Luehdovjfi).—The existence in 


North-Eastern Asia of a large 


deer of the same form as the 
North American “Wapiti” has 
long been known, although the 
animal has never been very 


SN TN (5 
Wa ayy = bene} bin) 


I Gap CNY 
STATA a] r 


“og 


Wilh 


Fic. 6.—The Japanese Goat-Antelcpe. 


by the dogs, was expected to appear, and on looking at 
these slippery sloping platforms, I tried to conjecture— 
when waiting for the animal to appear—where, if I 
knocked one over, it would tumble, and what shape or 
form it would be in by the time it stopped. I could 
then easily understand why the horns were usually so 
damaged. 

“T have no doubt also they are often caught in the 
bushes or trees by the slightly turned-back horns, on 
their falling and reaching the foot of these rocks; hence 
the origin of the story of their holding on to the trees. 

“The young one which was brought to me alive was 
the most fierce little thing I ever saw. Any dog, large or 
small, that approached its cage, down went its head, and 
with a quick sudden spring the creature invariably came 
bang up against the wooden bars. Its horns were about 
two inches long, as sharp as needles, and quite capable of 
inflicting a very nasty wound. 

“The colour of the ‘Nigcu’ is a brownish slate; the 


clearly identified. By some 
authors it seems to have been 
referred to the Red-deer (Ces 
wus elephas), by others to the 
Persian Deer (C. Zara), whilst 
the horns upon which the 
name Cervus eustephanus was 
founded by Blanford (in the 
Zoological Society’s Pvroceed- 
ings for 1875) appear to belong 
to the same species, It is 
only quite recently however that examples of this fine 
animal have reached Europe alive, and its form and 
characters have become better known. In the autumn 
of 1876 two pairs of this deer were sent by Herr 
Lihdorf, the German Consul at Nicolajefsk, on the 
Pacific coast of Siberia, as a present to the Zoological 
Garden of Hamburg. They had been brought down the 
river Amoor from the far interior, having been obtained 
from some Nomads in the Bureati Steppe of Northern 
Mantschuria. The strangers throve well in their new 
quarters at Hamburg under the care of Director Bolau, 
and propagated their species. Several male fawns 
having been produced, one of them was parted with 
in exchange to our Zoological Society in London, and 
received in the Regent’s Park in May last. From the 
specimen thus obtained, which is at present unique in 
this country, the accompanying illustration has been 
prepared. 

It will beat once evident to those who zre acquainted 


March 24, 1881} 


with the various forms of true deer, that the new stag 
from Amoorland is exceedingly like the Wapiti. The 
resemblance indeed of the two animals is so close that 
except for the character of the horns it would be 
exceedingly difficult to distinguish them. But so far 
as can be ascertained from an examination of the present 
specimens, which is now believed to be nearly four years 
old, and from the particulars given of other horns by Dr. 
Bolau in his description of the present animal,! Liihdorf’s 
deer, as regards the character of its antlers, more nearly 
resembles our red deer than its American ally. 

The discovery of a deer so closely allied to the Wapiti 
in Eastern Asia is a fact of special interest in geo- 
graphical distribution. Taken in connection with other 
similar phenomena which have lately come to light, it 
tends to show very evidently that 
Northern America owes its many 
resemblances to the Palzearctic fauna, 
not to any former land connection 
between Europe and North America, 
as was formerly supposed by the 
advocates of the fabulous “ Atlantis,” 
but to a bygone extension of Jand 


NATURE 


489 


pressure remains pretty constant during the year. This 
peculiarity becomes strongly marked at Zacatecas, the 
highest station, 8189 feet above the sea, where the 
January and July pressures are the same, and the lowest 
mean, that of March and August, falls only o’016 inch 
below the annual mean, and the highest, that of November, 
rises only 0’024 inch above it. At all the stations the 
singular protrusion of a high pressure into the Atlantic 
and adjoining regions in the height of summer is repre- 
sented in the means. 

Of the greatest possible interest are the curves of the 
diurnal oscillations of the barometer, deduced from the 
hourly observations at the central station at Mexico, 
these curves being quite distinct, so far as we are aware, 
from the curves of any other intertropical place for which 


between Eastern Asia and Western 
America. By some such passage 
there can be little doubt that the 
ancestors of the Wapiti, the Ameri- 
can Bears, the Mountain Goat, and 
the Rocky Mountain Sheep found 
their way into the New World, to — 
the more original fauna of which they 
have no sort of relationship. 


METEOROLOGY IN MEXICO? 


HE intertropical position of 
Mexico, on a high plateau 
between two continents and two vast 
oceans, renders the investigation of 
its meteorology peculiarly interest- 
ing. It is now more than four years 
since this problem was begun to be 
worked out with no little ability by 
the . Mexican meteorologists, and, 
when the resources of the country are 
taken into account, with a spirit and 
liberality deserving of every com- 
mendation. This praise will not ap- 
pear overstrained when we say that 
we have now before us for the city 
of Mexico a statement of the pres- 
sure, temperature, humidity, clouds, 
rainfall, direction and velocity of the 
wind, ozone, and other miscellaneous 
phenomena for every hour of the 
night as well as of the day, from 
March 6, 1877, down to October 16, 1880 ; and on the same 
sheet, in addition to the above, a daily statement of the 
chief meteorological elements for some thirty stations 
situated in various parts of Mexico, and at heights 
varying from 7 to 8189 feet above the sea. Annual 
résumés are also before us, that for 1879 having been 
received some time since. : 

During 1879 the mean atmospheric pressure at Tlaco- 
talpam, Situated near the sea and only 11 feet above it, 
was 29938 inches, rising to the maximum, 30°075 inches 
in January, and falling to the minimum 29°851 inches in 
August. This seasonal distribution of the pressure holds 
good till the more elevated stations are reached, when 

z Abh. d. Nat. Vereins zu Hamburg, 1880, p. 33. 

_ ‘Datos Meteorclogicos: Resumen de las Observaciones practicadas en 
varios Lugares de la Repiiblica durante el Afio de 1879."”_ (Pcr el Ingeniero 


Civil V. Reyes. (Mexico, 1880.) “‘Bole:in del Ministerio de Fomento de 
la Reptiblica Mexicana.” Tom. ii. iii., iv v. 


Fic. 7.—The Liihdorf’s Deer. 


observations exist. The peculiarity lies in this, that while 
the morning maximum and the afternoon minimum 
remain large at all seasons, the morning minimum di- 
minishes in amount as the summer advances ; and during 
the strictly summer months it does not even fall so low 
as the daily mean. Now this is an outstanding pecu- 
liarity of the curves of diurnal pressure in the extra- 
tropical inland region of the great Europeo-Asiatic 
continent, and it becomes the more pronounced the more 
we advance into the interior of that continent. This 
result, viewed in connection with the other diurnal curves, 
forms a very valuable contribution to this difficult branch 
of the science. 

The mean temperature for 1879 at Mexico, 7434 feet 
high, was 59°°5, May being the warmest month, 64°°6, 
and December and January the coldest, 55°-4; and these 
were generally the months of extreme temperature over the 


490 


different districts of Mexico. The period of the year 
when temperature is highest is also the period when the 
air is driest, the mean relative humidity of Mexico for 
April and May for 1878 and 1879 being only 42. The 
mean temperature of Tlacotalpam, the lowest station, 
was 77°'5, and of Zacatecas, the highest from which 
mean temperatures are published, 61°°7. The difference of 
the two is thus 15°°8, and as the difference of height is 8178 
feet, the fall of temperature with the height is compara- 
tively slow, being only one degree for each 518 feet. 

At Mexico during 1879, out of the 8760 observations 
made of the wind, 4156 cases were reported as calm, 
being nearly a half of the whole of the observations. By 
far the most frequent wind is the north-west, which was 
observed 1299 times; next follow the north-east, 789 
times, and north 636 times; and the least frequent, south, 
174 times, and south-west 278 times. As regards direc- 
tion, the prevailing winds at Mexico were a point to the 
north of east in February and March, from which they 
gradually worked round to north-east in the beginning of 
May, north in July, north-west in September, thence 
again to north in the end of November, and back to east 
in February. On these changes of the wind, considered 
with reference to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, 
largely depends the rainfall. The rainy season extends 
from about the middle of May to the end of October ; 
but at eastern stations showers are of not infrequent 
occurrence from November to April, when prevailing 
winds are northerly and easterly. The largest annual 
rainfall was 89'16 inches at Tlacotalpam, and the least 15°66 
inches at San Luis Potosi. Thunder and lightning are 
of common occurrence during the summer months, these 
phenomena occurring on 66 per cent. of the days during 
June, July, and August. During the five months from 
December to April thunderstorms occur only on 7 per 
cent. of the days. The position of Mexico, as already 
stated, marks it out as a region peculiarly suited for the 
investigation of some of the more interesting meteoro- 
logical problems, particularly those which concern the 
vertical distribution of the phenomena, in connection 
with which an increase to the number of low-level 
stations on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific sea-boards 
is very desirable. 


ON THE IDENTITY OF SOME. ANCIENT 
DIAMOND MINES IN INDIA, ESPECIALLY 
THOSE MENTIONED BY TAVERNIER 


H AVING recently endeavoured to correlate the diamond 

deposits of India, I have been surprised to find what 
a mass of contradiction exists in both Indian and English 
literature as to the identity of some of the most famous 
mines which were worked little more than 200 years ago. 

In this brief account I propose to give results, not the 
steps which have led me to them. ‘Tavernier about the 
middle of the seventeenth century visited and described 
three diamond-mines, which were named respectively 
Raolconda in the Carnatic, Gani, called Coulour by the 
Persians, and Soumelpour on the Gonel River. 

Raolconda, Tavernier says, was five days distant from 
Golconda and eight or nine from Bijapur, and most 
writers with signal unsuccess have tried to fix it accord- 
ingly. But elsewhere Tavernier gives nine stages, aggre- 
gating probably 189 miles, on the road from Golconda to 
Raolconda, so that in the first statement the distances 
were probably transposed. With these new indications 
we are led to an old town called Rawdukonda, lat. 15° 41’, 
long. 76° 50’. I have not yet succeeded in obtaining any 
independent testimony of the existence of diamond-mines 
at this locality, but hope to be able to hear more about it 
ere long. 

Gani, or Coulour, where Tavernier says the Great 
Mogul diamond was found in the sixteenth century, has 
been variously located by authors, being supposed by 


NATURE 


| March 24, 1881 


many to be identical with Gani Purtial, on the Kistua 
River ; but I am satisfied from the evidence afforded by 
old maps that it is to be identified with Kollur, lat. 16° 42’ 
30", long. 80° 5’, which is also on the Kistna, about twenty- 
six miles further to the west. Now as to this word Gani, 
which has been treated of as a proper name, its recur- 
rence in connection with two different localities suggests 
that it means mine. In fact since Gand K are inter- 
changeable letters in some Indian languages we should 
probably read for Gani Kav-z, or the mine of Purtial or 
of Kollur. 

If, as seems most probable, the Koh-i-nur is identical 
with the Great Mogul diamond described by Tavernier, 


and that the great age claimed for it by the Hindus is to » 


be regarded as mythical, then in fact for the first time 
the identity of the source from whence this famous 
diamond was obtained may be regardedas settled. Maps 
of the eighteenth century indicate diamond mines at Gani 
(z.e. Kan-i) Kollur, though local memory of their former 
existence appears to have died out. 

Soumelpour, on the Gonel Riyer of Tavernier, has 
generally by recent authors been identified with Sambal- 
pur, on the Mahanadi, in the Central Provinces. But 
Tavernier’s somewhat precise indication of its position has 
led me to the conclusion that it was situated much further 
to the north, namely, in the valley of the Koel River, a 
tributary of the Sone. At about the distance stated by 
Tavernier (which I calculate to be the equivalent of 
eighty miles), to the south of the well-known fortress of 
Rhotas, there are near the banks of the Koel River (ze. 
Tavernier’s Gonel) the remains of an ancient town called 
Semah, which word is identical with Sevz/ (the native 
name of a species of cotton-tree, Bombax Malabaricum), 
Semulpour, or the town of the Sel, is therefore, it 
seems probable, Tavernier’s Soumelpour. The position 
of Semah is lat. 23° 45’, long. 84° 21’; it is included in 
the sub-division of Palamow, in the Chutia Nagpur 
Province. There is independent evidence of important 
diamond mines having existed in a neighbouring part of 
Chutia Nagpur in the sixteenth century, but there have 
been none in operation there for many years. 

The last locality is Beeragurh, which is mentioned in 
the Azn-2-Akbari, and also in several other native 
writings. This is unquestionably identical with the 
modern Wairagarh in the Chanda district of the 
Central Provinces, where excavations locally known to 
have been diamond mines are stillto be seen. Wairagarh 
is in lat. 20° 26’, long. 80° 10’. Many allusions which I 
believe to refer to this locality might be quoted. One of 
the fifteenth century by Nicolo Conti-is of especia 
interest. He says that at Albenigaras, fifteen days 
journey north of Bijapur (Bijengalia), there is a mountain 
which produces diamonds. The method of obtaining 
them, which he describes on hearsay, is similar to that of 
the celebrated Arabic myth which the travels of Sindbad 
the sailor and of Marco Polo have made familiar to 
every one. 

The idea of the diamonds being collected by throwing 
pieces of meat freshly cut from a slaughtered cow or 
buffalo into a valley inhabited by venomous serpents, 
which pieces, with diamonds sticking to them, were picked 
up by birds of prey and recovered from them by the 
diamond-seekers, probably took its rise from some sacri- 
ficial custom in connection with the worship of the 
sanguinary goddess of riches, whom Heyne (“ Tracts,” 
p- 95) alludes to under the name of Ammarwaru, as the 
partners of the mine. The pieces of meat cut from the 
victim were probably thrown about over the ground, and 
were naturally picked up and carried off by the birds. 
This I believe to have been the foundation upon which 
the fabulous superstructure was erected. ; 

Beeragurh, or Wairagarh, is, as the crow flies, about 
324 miles from Bijapur, northwards, and the distance 
might therefore have been accomplished in fifteen days. 


March 24, 1881 | 


NATURE 


491 


In the name 4/benigaras there is. sufficient resemblance 

to the name Beeragurh with the Arabic prefix 47’ to make 

it probable that they were identical. V. BALL 
Calcutta, January 12 


NOTES 

WE hear that good progress is being made with the reprint of 
the late Prof. A. H. Garrod’s scientific papers, the publication 
of which may be expected early in the summer. It will form a 
volume of about 500 octavo pages, illustrated by more than 
thirty plates and about 200 woodcuts, Mr. Hubert Herkomer, 
A.R.A., the well-known artist, has most kindly undertaken to 
execute an etching of the late professor, as a frontispiece to the 
volume. The edition will be limited to a very small number of 
copies only, most of which are already subscribed for. Those 
who wish to add their names to the list of subscribers betore 
it is closed, are requested to communicate at once with the 
secretary of the Garrod Memorial Fund, 11, Hanover Square, 
W., who will also be glad to receive subscriptions already 
promised, Cheques to be crossed ‘‘ London and County Bank, 
Hanover Square.” 


WRITING to the Zimes on Friday last, Mr. Sclater calls 
attention to the fact that the collection of birds of the late John 
Gould, the ornithologist, had been offered to the Trustees of the 
British Museum for 3000/., and expressed a hope that there will 
be no difficulty on the part of the Treasury in sanctioning the 
expenditure, The collection is stated to embrace about 1500 
mounted and 3800 unmounted specimens of humming-birds, 
being the types from which the descriptions and figures in the 
celebrated ‘‘ Monograph of the Trochilidz ” were taken, There 
are besides 7000 other skins of various groups, amongst which 
are splendid series of the families of Toucans, Trogons, Birds of 
Paradise, and Piltas. 


THE following course of lectures will be given by Members of 
the Committee on Solar Physics appointed by the Lords of the 
Committee of Council on Education :—An Introductory Lecture, 
by Prof. Stokes, Sec. R.S.; April 6. A Lecture on the 
Practical Importance of Studying the Influence of the Sun on 
Terrestrial Phenomena, by Lieut.-General Strachey, R.E., 
C.S.I., F.R.S.; April 8. Two lectures on the Connection 
between Solar and Terrestrial Phenomena, by Prof, Balfour 
Stewart, F.R.S.; April 27 and 29. Six lectures on Spectro- 
scopy in relation to Solar Chemistry, by Mr. J. Norman 
Lockyer, F.R.S.; May 4, 6, 11, 13, 18, and 20. Three 
lectures on the Photography of the Infra-red of the Spectrum in 
its Application to Solar Physics, by Capt. Abney, R.E., F.R.S., 
May 25 and 27, and June 1. The lectures will be delivered in 
the Lecture Theatre of the Sonth Kensington Museum at 4 p.m. 
on the days stated above. Admission will be by tickets, which 
may be obtained, as far as there is room, on application by letter 
to the Secretary, Science and Art Department, South Ken- 
sington, S.W. 


WE must remind our readers that the French Association 
will hold its next session in April at Algiers, beginning on the 
14th, Those who have been enrolled members will have the 
advantage of half price for railway travelling, and of a special 
steamer sfrom Port Vendres to Algiers. This ship will leave 
Marseilles on the 11th, calling at Port Vendres on the 12th. 
The lists were closed some time ago, but by addressing, without 
loss of time, M. Gariel, General Secretary of the Association, 
Paris, Rue de Rennes, all particulars relating to the excursions, 
which are very numerous and attractive, some of them includ- 
ing a tour in the Algerian Sahara, will be given, An industrial 
exhibition has been organised in Algiers, with races, fées, and 
imauguration of the Algerian Institute, which is directed by M. 
Pomel, Senator, Mr. F, Maxwell-Lyte, Hon. Foreign Secre- 


tary of the Association, Science Club, Savile Row, will be 
happy to afford further information to intending English visitors, 


THE arrangements for the International Medical and Sanitary 
Exhibition are progressing so satisfactorily that it promises to be 
the most important Sanitary Exhibition hitherto organised in this 
country. Applications for space are now being rapidly sent in, as 
the 3Ist inst. is the last day fixed by the Committee for receiving 
them. Up to March 15 applications for 984 feet had been 
received by the Committee. ‘The Certificates of Merit which 
are to be given will be valuable awards to the public and to the 
successful exhibitors on account of the high character of the list 
of jurors, which already includes among many other the follow- 
ing :—Medical Section: Christopher Heath, F.R.C.S., Wm. 
S. Playfair, M.D., Charles Higgins, F.R.C.S., Chas. S. Tomes, 
F.R.S., Prof. John Marshall, F.R.S., Dr. Robert Farquharson, 
M.P., the president of the Pharmaceutical Society, C. H- 
Golding- Bird, F.R.C.S., Lionel Beale, F.R.S., W. B. Carpenter, 
C.B., F.R.S., J. S. Bristowe, M.D., Major Duncan, R.A., 
Surgeon-General Longmore, C.B., E. H. Sieveking, M.D., &c., 
&e, ; Sanitary Section: Sir Joseph Fayrer, K.C.S.1L, M.D., 
F.R.S., Geo. Aitchison, F,R.I.B.A., Edwd. C. Robins, F.S.A., 
T. Roger Smith, F.R.I.B.A., F. J. Monat, M.D., Alfred 
Waterhouse, A.R.A., Capt. Douglas Galton, C.B., F.R.S., 
Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S., Prof. Corfield, Wm. Eassie, C.E., 
Roger Field, M, Inst. C.E., R. Thorne Thorne M.B., Prof. 
Prestwich, F.K.S., &c., &c, In addition to the interest taken 
in the Exhibition by medical men, architects, and manufacturers, 
the general public have recognised the importance of the work 
thus initiated by the Executive Committee of the Parkes Museum 
of Hygiene by subscribing to the Guarantee Fund, which at the 
meeting of the Committee last Tuesday was reported to amount 
to 1026/7. 7s. At this meeting the Secretary read a letter from 
Mr, MacCormac, the Hon, Sec. General of the International 
Medical Congress, forwarding the following resolution which 
had been unanimously passed by the Executive Council of the 
International Medical Congress at their last meeting :—‘‘ That 
the sum of fifty pounds be guaranteed to the Committee of the 
International, Medical, and Sanitary Exhibition, to be held at 
South Kensington in connection with the Parkes Museum 
of Hygiene, on the occasion of the International Medical 
Congress.” 


THE programme for the annual meeting of the Iron and Steel 
Institute on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of May has just been issued. 
The first item on the programme is the presidential address of 
Mr, Josiah T. Smith, the president-elect, whose experience as 
one of the earliest and for many years one of the largest stee 
manufacturers in this country, and as the head of the most exten- 
works of their kind in the world, will give his address an excep- 
tional interest. The papers to be read cover pretty fairly the 
whole field of the manufacture and application of steel for ship- 
building purposes. A paper will be read by Mr. Alexander 
Wilson of Sheffield on the manufacture of armour plates. The 
subject of the manufacture of steel and steel plates will be dealt 
with by Mr. Sergius Kern of Russia, who will describe improve- 
ments recently practised in Russia; while the experience lately 
gained in the practical use of steel for shipbuilding purposes will 
be dealt with in a paper by Mr. Denny of Dumbarton, at whose 
works on the Clyde a considerable amount of steel shipbuilding 
has been turned out during the last two years. The important 
question of the relative corrosion of iron and steel will be dis- 
cussed by Mr. William Parker of Lloyd’s, Another paper 18 
promised by Capt. Jones, manager of the Thomson Steel Works, 
Pittsburg, on the manufacture of Bessemer steel and steel rails 
in America. 


ScIENTIFIC honours are being paid to John Duncan, the 
weaver botanist. Recently the Inverness Scientific Society and 


492 


Field Club elected him an honorary member with a gift of 5/., 
and the Banff Field Club gave 17, 1s. When his story was first 
told by Mr. Jolly in Good Words in 1878, the Largo Naturalists’ 
Society, one of the most active in the country, elected him an 
hon. member. The Edinburgh Field Naturalists’ Club have 
lately issued a special circular and appeal on his behalf. Last 
week he was elected an hen. member by the Aberdeen Natural 
History Society, when a sketch of his life was given by Mr. 
Taylor, one of his pupils. Miss E. Brown has sent us 1/, for 
the John Duncan Fund. 


WE see from a long article on the subject in the New York 
Nation, that the ‘‘ Reports on the Total Solar Eclipses of July 
29, 1878, and January 11, 1880, issued by the U.S. Naval 
Observatory,” have appeared. We have not received a copy 
of the work yet, but from the article in the Vaéon it is evi- 
dently a valuable contribution to some of the questions suggested 
by solar eclipses. 


THE Commission Supérieure of the Paris Electrical Exhibition 
has already deliberated on all the demands sent by French elec- 
tricians. The utmost liberality has prevailed, and only a few 
technical questions have been reserved for more mature delibera- 
tion. But the authorisations will not be made definitive until 
after April 1, when the list of would-be exhibitors will be 
closed. The resolution of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 
and Electricians to organise the English section has been received 
with great satisfaction. 


WE take the following from the Gardener's Chronicle :—Dr. 
Aitchison, Surgeon-Major in the Punjaub army, whose collec- 
tions in the Kurrum Valley we alluded to on a former occasion, 
has returned from Afghanistan with another extensive collection 
of dried plants, and is now at Kew engaged in working them 
up. Amongst other interesting museum objects Dr. Aitchison 
has brought home specimens of Chamerops Ritchieana, a palm 
that covers miles of the alluvial plains with a dense bushy 
thicket. Frequently too it occurs as a branching tree fifteen to 
twenty-five feet high, but then usually in the vicinity of other 
trees or buildings. .Dr. Aitchison’s specimens illustrate this 
peculiarity exhibited by comparatively few other palms. 


WE are glad to learn that the museum building begun some 
time ago under the auspices of the Perthshire Society of Natural 
Science is approaching completion. To equip and endow the 
museum a bazaar will be held in Perth towards the end of the 
year. 


Tue translation of Nageli and Schwendener’s treatise on the 
Microscope is approaching completion. Messrs. W. Swan 
Sonnenschein and Allen now announce its speedy issue to the 
public, which they trust will be effected during the present spring. 
The English editors, whose names will appear on the title-page, 
are Mr. F. Crisp (Secretary of the Royal Microscopical Society) 
and Mr. J. Mayall, jun., F.R.M.S., though several others have 
collaborated in the work. Messrs. Sonnenschin and Allen also 
announce for immediate issue an illustrated ‘‘ Manual of Insects 
Injurious to Agriculture,” by E. A. Ormerod, whose ‘‘ Report 
of Injurious Insects for 1880” we reviewed in a recent number ; 
anda second edition of ‘‘ Prantl’s Text-Book of Botany,” by 
Vines, greatly revised, the first edition of which appeared last 
year. 


WuHEREis Mackay? ‘‘ Here,” we fancy a score of our readers 
will reply ; but none of them would be ‘‘the real Mackay,” as 
they say in the North, at least not the Mackay whose local 
habitation we inquire after. Happily we can answer our own 
question from the Christmas number of the Mackay Standard, a 
fact that shows that our Mackay must be considerably to the fore 
somewhere. ‘‘ Mackay, according to the single archive at 
present extant to which we have been able to attain access, was 


NAT ORGS 


| March 24, 1881 


first discovered by a gentleman of the name of Mackay, a 
Scotchman as his name would denote. That this is correct is 
more than probable, but it does not appear that, beyond giving 
his name to the place, he ever did anything to render himself 
famous. It may accordingly be accepted as a fact that he dis- 
covered the existence of the Pioneer River on which the town is 
situated, and the date of this discovery is placed at 1861, so that 
within a few days Mackay is twenty years of age. The Mackay 
District is in latitude 21° Io’, and is situated at a distance of 625 
miles to the north-west of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River.” So 
then Mackay is nobody at all, but a flourishing new town (it 
would be a ‘‘city”’ in the States) in Queensland, with shipping 
and wharves and warehouses, and prosperous sugar-mills, and 
“* Clifton-on-the-Sea,” a fashionable summer resort of the 
Mackayites, twelve miles off. The municipality (3450 acres) is 
said to have fifty miles of streets under its control; there is 
nothing said about houses, so most of them may not have left 
the quarry or the brick-kiln yet. The population of the district 
is given as 7500. 

On Friday will take place at Pére Lachaise the inauguration 
of the monument erected by public subscription to Croce- 
Spinelli and Sivel, the two victims of the tragic Zenith ascent. 
Speeches will be delivered by M. Paul Bert, Professor of 
Physiology to the Sorbonne, who organised the ascent; M. 
Hervé Mangon, director of the Arts-et-Métiers, who was the 
president of the Société de Navigation Aérienne, then in office ; 
and M. Gaston Tissandier, who was a party in the ascent, and 
escaped by a marvellous concurrence of circumstances. 


ON Wednesday last week at 12.10a.m. another shock of earth- 
quake was felt at Casamicciola and Lacco Ameno. All the 
people fled to the open country; much consternation exists, as 
the people fear other shocks. Little damage was done, only a 
few injured walls and a tile factory have fallen, Vesuvius quiet. 


A RATHER severe shock of earthquake was felt at Agram on 
March 17 at 3h. p.m., duration two seconds. It was accom- 
panied by wave-like motions of the ground. 


Ir is announced that the entire length of the St. Gothard 
Railway between Airolo and the Lago Maggiore will be finished 
by the end of June; but the great tunnel, owing to difficulties 
about the vaulting, cannot be completed before November. 


THE Conseil d’Hygiéne of Paris has just issued a large 4to 
volume of 700 pages recounting all the precautions taken against 
several so-called ‘‘ Industries Insalubres ” practised in Paris. The 
work of the Conseil d’Hygiéne extends over a period of five 
years, from 1872 to 1877, and relates to more than 200 industries 
in some of their essential details, Amongst the recommendations 
made are a refrigerating machine for dead-houses and a special 
establishment for cleansing contaminated objects with super- 
heated vapours. Amongst the curious observations is the 
analysis of a parasitic vegetation developing on bread for the 
military. It appears the original sporule were brought from 
Germany by soldiers taken prisoners in the Franco-German war, 
returning home. 


As the preparation of dynamite has acquired great importance, 
M. Gobi shows (Memoirs of the St. P-tersburg Soc. of Nat.) that 
formerly the best dynamite was made with the “ Kieselguhr” of 
Hanoyer, which can absorb as much as 75 per cent. of nitro- 
glycerine, but is now made with the diatomaceous deposits from 
Randanne, in the department of Puy-de-Dome, which can 
absorb from 73 to 78 per cent. of nitroglycerine. It is worthy 
of notice that both these formations have been described by 
Ehrenberg. It is obvious that the good quality of dynamite 
prepared from these two deposits depends upon the porosity of 
the small déris of the frustules of the microscopical diatoms, 


| and that, when determining the qualities of a diatomaceous 


March 24, 1881 | 


deposit, we must take into account not only its purity, but also 
the size of the diatomacee it contains; thus, M. Gobi recom- 
mends especially those deposits which contain mostly frustules 
from the species of Epithemia, Navicula, Synedra, and Melosira, 
their frustules being of a greater size and more porous than 
those of the Fragillaria, Cocconeis, Nitaschia, &c. As to the 
use of pounded coal or bricks, and of sand, it ought to be quite 
given up. 

Ar the Annual Meeting of the Davenport (U.S.) Academy of 
Sciences on January 6 a very satisfactory report was given of the 
condition of the Society and of the good work it is doing. The 
president gave an address, in which he sketched the progress 
which has been made in a knowledge of the Mound Builders, 
the prehistoric people of the Mississippi Valley, to whose 
remains the Academy has all along devoted special attention. 


A SMALL well-printed in memoriam volume on the late Prof. 
Benjamin Peirce has been issued at Cambridge, Mass. It con- 
sists of the various notices, poems, addresses, &c., that appeared 
in consequence of-his death, including three funeral sermons. 


THE third Annual Report of the Dulwich College Science 
Society speaks hopefully of its condition. The Society has been 
steadily progressing, and has already collected a museum * ‘which 
would do credit to many an older society.” The Refort contains 
abstracts of several of the papers and lectures given during the 
year. 


AN encouraging Annual Report (the forty-seventh) has been 
sent us from the York School Natural History Society ; all its 
sections have evidently been doing well. In connection with 
this we are glad to notice that, under the title of the Natural 
History Fournal and School Reporter, the journal conducted by 
the Societies in Friends’ Schools has assumed a new and more 
attractive form, at the same time that its programme has been 
somewhat extended. The two numbers for February and March 
contain some creditable original papers. 


A SECOND edition of Mr. W. C. Wyckoff’s ‘Silk Goods of 
North America” has been published!; the first edition was 
noticed in NATURE, vol. xx. p. 574. 


THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a White-fronted Capuchin (Cebus albifrons) 
from South America, presented by Mr. C. Drake Sewell; a 
Ring-tailed Coati (Waswa rufa) from South America, presented 
by Mrs. Fuller; a Common Badger (AZe/es ¢axus), British, pres 
sented by Mr. Rocke; a Black-winged Peafowl (Pavo nigri. 
pennis) from Cochin China, presented by Mr. J. Marshall; a 
Rough-eyed Cayman (Ad/igator sclerops) from South America, 
presented by Mr. Arthur C. Ponsonby; a Horrid Rattlesnake 
(Crotalus horridus) from Brazil, presented by Mr. C, A. Craven ; 
a Jararaca (Trigonocephalus atrox) from Brazil, presented by 
Dr. A. Stradling, C.M.Z.S.; a Macaque Monkey (AMacacus 
cynomolgus) from India, deposited ; a Goral Antelope {(Vemo- 
rhedus goral), two Bar-headed Geese (Anser indicus) from India, 
purchased ; a Javan Chevrotain ( Zvagedus javanicus) from Java, 
a Red Bird of Paradise (Paradisea sanguinea), a Twelve-wired 
Bird of Paradise (Se/eucides albus), a Manucode (Manucodia 
atra) on approval. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE SOLAR PARALLAX.—Ina communication to the Academy 
of Sciences of Paris on the 7th inst., M. Puiseux has discussed 
the observations of internal contacts during the last transit of 
Venus, which were made at stations occupied by the French 
expeditions. These include observations of second and third 
contacts at Pekin, St. Paul, Nagasaki, Saigon, and Kobe, and 
of second contact at Noumea. Seventeen equations are fur- 
nished by these data, and various combinations are made by 
Halley’s method and by the method of Delisle. The former 


NATURE 


493 


method supplies twelve separate results, the concluded parallaxes 
varying from 8’°78 to 9°17, which are arranged according to the 
amount of the parallax factor: the simple arithmetical mean is 
898. On Delisle’s method the combinations for second contact 
give fourteen values between 8-86 and 9°20, of which the mean 
is 9’"o1, and those for third contact furnish ten values between 
8°63 and 8”*g0—the mean being 8'"92. These figures considered 
with respect to others which have been obtained from observa- 
tions of the same transit and on other methods, cannot be said 
to enlighten us materially as to the true amount of the sun’s 
mean parallax. M. Puiseux thinks the observations of contact 
in 1874 have not given results so accordant as astronomers had 
looked for, but he nevertheless is far from discouraging efforts 
to secure observations of contacts in 1882 ; the phenomena in 
1874 did not present that geometrical simplicity which had been 
formerly expected, but presented a succession of phases which 
were the more difficult to identify in the records of the observers 
according as the telescopes employed were more dissimilar ; and 
he urges (1) that the different stations should be provided with 
telescopes of large aperture, to be employed under as identical 
circumstances as practicable, and (2) that the observers should 
be exercised ‘i l'aide d’appareils convenables,” to appreciate 
in the same manner the appearances which the contacts may 
offer. The former consideration at least is too well understood 
as of paramount importance to be likely to be overlooked by 
any of the national committees now engaged in arranging for 
the most efficient observation of the transit in 1882. 


VARIABLE STARS.—Minima of Algol occur by Schénfeld’s 
formula on April 3 at 10h. 51m. G.M.T., and April 6 at 
7h. 4om., and the next series observable in this country com- 
mences on May 13 at 14h. 17m, 

In the uncertainty that exists with respect to the period of 
Ceraski’s circumpolar variable, the following calculated times of 
minima are only to be regarded as rough indications :— 


h. m, h. m. 

April 3... 12 56G.M.T. | April 18 11 58 G.M.T. 
8. un. SEZES | 23 11 38 
U3) ws Zaay | 28 Il 19 


A constant period of 2°49326 days is here assumed, Prof. 
C. H. Peters publishes details of his observations of a number 
of new variable stars (Astron. Nach., No. 2360), and Dr. 
Duner notifies the variability of the red star Schj. 57 2, which 
stands thus in the Durchmusterung :— 


h. am. 6: Cale 
9'4m. R.A.5) 17 3277 Decl. + 34 2°1 
This star was invisible in the Lund refractor on January 20, but 
was well seen on February 23; in September and October, 
1878, he had confirmed its fiery-red colour, and found the 
spectrum of the Class III. 4. V Herculis varies from 8m. to 
12m., and the period seems to be about 290 days; the next 

maximum may be expected in October of the present year. 


ANCIENT ASTRONOMY.—In No, 2 of the new periodical, 
Urania, is an elaborate paper by Prof. Schjellerup of Copen- 
hagen, ‘‘Sur le Chronométre Céleste d’Hipparque,” in which 
he discusses the question ‘‘ Comment les anciens astronomes ont- 
ils déterminé Pheure de la nuit, et 4 quelle exactitude ont-ils 
pu parvenir?” In this paper he has calculated by the strict 
trigonometrical formule (an investigation of which is prefixed) 
the positions of the forty-four stars mentioned in the third book 
of the only work of Hipparchus which has descended to us. His 
“Three Books of Commentaries on the phenomena of Aratus 
and Eudoxus,” printed for the first time in 1567 (Lalande, 
“ Bibliographie,” p. 91) from two manuscripts of the Biblioth. 
Mediccea and the Library of the Vatican. Petau brought out a 
new edition, in which he availed himself of an ancient well- 
written manuscript preserved in the Bibliotheque Royale, and 
which forms part of the third volume of his “ Uranologion.” 
Prof. Schjellerup gives the Greek text essentially after the 
edition of Petau, with as nearly as possible a literal translation. 
He concludes his paper with the remark, ‘‘ Dans Pétat actuel on 
peut prouver que les Astronomes d’Alexandrie ont pu déterminer 
le temps sidéral presqu’ 4 une minute pres.” It contains the 
right ascensions and declinations of the stars in question for 
every hundredth year, from — 300 to + 100, with the amount of 
proper motion to the respective epochs, and is a production which 
merits the attention of those who are interested in the Astronomy 
of the Ancients. 

THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, Paris.—At the annual public 
sitting of the Paris Academy on the 14th inst. the Lalande Prize 


494 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


was awarded to Mr. E. J. Stone, director of the Radcliffe Obser- 
vatory, Oxford, for his great catalogue of southern stars, involving 
newly-determined places of all the stars observed by the French 
astronomer Lacaille during his memorable visit to the Cape of 
Good Hope, in the years 1751 and 1752; the observations for 
the catalogue having been made while Mr. Stone occupied the 
position of Her Majesty’s Astronomer at the Cape. The com- 
mission to whom the consideration of the award was referred 
consisted of MM. Faye, Mouchez, Loewy, Janssen, and Tisserand, 
who have called attention in their Report to the ‘‘ fundamental 
importance” of the Catalogue, in view of the study of the proper 
motions, &c., of the stars in the southern heavens. 

At the same sitting the Valz Prize was adjudged to M, Tempel 
of Florence for his numerous cometary discoveries. 

The Damoiseau Prize (10,000 frances) has been again proposed 
for 1882. It had been offered without response in 1869, 1872, 
1876, 1877, and 1879; the subject on all occasions being the 
same and a very important one in the actual state of astronomy, 
viz., ‘‘ To review the theory of the satellites of Jupiter, to discuss 
the observations and to deduce the constants which it contains, 
and particularly that which furnishes a direct determination of 
the velocity of light; and lastly, to construct special tables for 
each satellite.” 


BIOLOGICAL NOTES 


ALG# OF THE GULF OF FINLAND.—M. Chr. Gobi made an 
excursion along the borders of the Gulf of Finland in the 
summer of 1879 with the object of investigating the algee of this 
district. In spite of the weather being of the most unfavourable 
character he was enabled to work out the whole south-west 
coast of this district, from St. Petersburg to the comparatively 
open sea at Hapsal. Along the southern coast of the Island of 
Kotlin, on which Cronstadt is built, and also along the opposite 
coast shore at Oranienbaum, chlorophyllaceous algz were almost 
exclusively met with, and these belonging to species to be also 
met with in the fresh waters of the adjoining lands, for example, 
three distinct species of Cladophora (among these C. g/omeraia), 
several forms of the genera Oedogonium, Spirogyra, Zygnema, 
and other filamentous Mesocarpez ; various Desmidiacez (Cos- 
marium, Closterium, Scenedesmus), a much-branched, very fine, 
almost hair-like Fnteromorpha (apparently £. salina), also 
various oscillatoriaceous forms and diatoms, Besides at Cron- 
stadt an Ulothrix, more commonly in the early summer months, 
and a Merismopeedia (probably JZ. K7itzingii) at Oranienbaum, 
the pretty Spirulina Jenneri, amidst various Oscillatoria, was 
met with, also Vaucheria, and in larger quantities Aydrodictyon 
utriculatum, in the various stages of development (middle of 
August), About seven versts west of Oranienbaum Tolypothrix 
was met with in some quantity, forming floating ball-shaped 
masses. By the end of July some excursions to the environs of 
Hapsal led to the discovery of the interesting Phceospore, which 
up to this had only once been found by Pringsheim at Heligo- 
land, and called by him Streblonema; in Hapsal Bay it 
lived on Ruppia, several Charas, and in company on these with 
Ulothrix confervicola, which latter grew in great abundance on 
these plants and on Ccramia and other red algz. It is inter- 
esting to note that along with marine forms there grew some of 
the fresh-water filanientous alge, such as Spirogyra, Zygnema, 
and in large quantities that half fresh-water species Mono:troma 
Balticum, Out in the bay towards the open sea the red algz 
increased in number, but the merging of the fresh-water forms 
into those of a truly marine type could be well studied in the 
Bay of Hapsal. (Botanische Zeitung, February 20.) 


THE ‘* BLAKE” CRUISE.—Numbers 1 and 2 of volume § of 
the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard 
College contain preliminary reports on the Echini collected during 
the cruises of the Blake, by Alex. Agassiz, and on the Crustacea 
by Alphonse Milne-Edwards, have just reached us. The report 
on the Echini contains descriptions of thirteen new species belong- 
ing to such genera as Dorocidaris, Ccelopleurus, Asthenosoma, 
Phormosoma, Palzeotropus, and Schizaster. Perhaps no group 
of animals has received such marked additions to its ranks 
through the deep-sea dredging expeditions. There was a time, 
and that not long ago, when we remember that the prevalent 
idea was that in this class new species were scarcely to be ex- 
pected to turnup. Alphonse Milne-Edwards’ report, of which 
the first part only is published, treats of the Brachyurous Deca- 
pods and of a portion of the Macrura. Many new genera and 
species are described, and several are figured. One very re- 


markable new genus, Corycodus, is formed to receive a some- 
what mutilated example, which however exhibits characters 
different from any known Crustacea, belonging apparently to 
the family Dorripedze. Its carapace is globular, and intimately 
connected to (soudée) the sternal plastron and between the 
insertion of the articulations of the first and those of the second 
pair of feet there is to be found a considerable space. Some 
very interesting new genera belonging to the Paguride are de- 
scribed. Among the new species of the Galatheade there are 
no less than eleven belonging to the genus Munida; and a new 
genus allied to Munida, Galathodes is described with ten new 
species. It is evident that the number of species belonging to 
the Crustacea have been very largely increased by the deep- 
sea exploration carried on by the United States Coast Survey- , 
steamer Blake, 


Foop oF BirDs, FISHES, AND BEETLES.—Thej State Legis- 
lature of Illinois authorised at its last session an investigation of 
the food of the birds of the State, with especial reference to 
agriculture and horticulture, and a ‘similar -investigation of the 
food of the fishes, with especial reference to fish-culture. As a 
result several Bulletins have been issued from the State Labora- 
tory of Natural History, of which the last just received (No. 3) 
contains a report on the food of fishes by S. A. Forbes, the 
director of the Laboratory, the class especially reported on being 
the Acanthopteri, and another on the food of birds by the same. 
A very interesting series of notes on the food of predaceous 
beetles, by F. M. Webster, is added. Many species are proved 
to be vegetarians, sometimes doing the growing crops a good 
deal of mischief, 


PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TRANSPIRATION OF 
PLANTS.—Prof. Weiss concludes from experiments (Vienna 
Acad. Anz.) that transpiration is only prejudicial to the 
functions of plants, excepting the process of lignification of the 
cell-walls, which it favours; hence it is to be regarded as a 
necessary evil for plants. Prof. Weiss also obtains striking evidence 
in favour of Wiesner’s theory of heliotropism; and he seeks to 
prove that through transpiration certain inorganic constituents of 
the ground are carried to plants in excess, and are got rid of 
on the fall of leaves in autumn, and consequently that transpira- 
tion is also the cause of the influence exercised by the nature of 
the ground on the quantitative composition of the ashes of 
plants. The view that the stronger growth of non-transpiring 
plants is due to mere expansion of cells without simultaneous 
over-production of organic substances, is controverted. 


Signs oF DEATH.—Observations with regard to the last 
manifestations of life in animals variously killed have been 
lately made by Drs. Verga and Biffi (Real. lst. Lomb. Rend.). 
The following conclusions are arrived at:—1. in the higher 
animals, when sensibility, circulation, and respiration have 
ceased, the life of histological elements of the nervous centres, 
especially of the ganglionic system and the spinal cord, remains 
for a short time. 2. Contraction of the pupil and of the spleen 
are effects of this reduced latent life, and more remarkable 
effects, in guinea-pigs, rabbits, and cats, are the constant and 
uniform movements of inward curvature, which have the signi- 
ficance of respiratory efforts, presented under like conditions by 
the dog and the acs. 3. These movements appear in the animals 
whether drowned in water, or hung, or bled to death. 4. They 
indicate the point beyond which the organism loses the power of 
recovery. 

CLASSIFICATION OF STATURES.—lIn view of the increasing 
need of exactness in anthropological descriptions, Prof. Zoja 
has lately proposed in the Lombard Institute a system of classi- 
fication of human statures. He first constitutes three divisions, 
denoting by the terms mesosoma, megasoma, and microsoma, 
medium, high, and low stature respectively. At the ends of the 
series are added divisions for gigantic and dwarfish statures, 
gigantosoma and nanosoma, Each of these five classes is divided 
into three parts, on this plan : medium mesosoma, hypermesosoma, 
and Aypomesosoma. To attach numerical values to all these fifteen 
divisions is more difficult. The author makes 2°00 metres the 
division between very high and gigantic stature, and gigantosoma 
ranges from that point up to 2°51 m. or more (hypergiganto- 
soma), On the other hand 1'25 m. is made the limit between 
very low and exceptionally low stature; and nanosoma ranges 
from this to 0°74 or less (hyponanosoma). Medium stature (or 
mesosoma) ranges from 1°60 m, to 1°70 m. 


Equus PrJEVALSKI.—The St. Petersburg |Geographical 
Society has just published a pamphlet, by M. Poliakoff, on the 


| 
| 
| 


March 24, 1881 | 


NATURE 


495 


Equus Pryevalski, a new species of wild horse discovered in 
Central Asia. It was killed by hunters who were sent from the 
post of Zaisan, and its skull and skin were sent to the St. 
Petersburg Academy of Sciences. M. Poliakoff discusses at 
length the relations of this new species of horse to our domestic 
horses, and illustrates his memoir with drawings of the new horse 
and of its anatomical features. 


Sir JoHN DaizELL’s ANEMONE,—Many of our readers will 
be glad to hear of the good health and wonderful activity of this 
celebrated sea anemone. From the annual address of the presi- 
dent of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, as published in the 
recently issued part of this Society’s Zyansactions, we learn that 
the late Dr. James M‘Bain was the faithful custodian of that 
Actinia mesembrianthemum, which, among naturalists, has long 
borne the honourable appellation of ‘‘Granny,” and which, 
though having entered upon her fifty-second if not her fifty-ninth 
year of existence, has not yet ceased to people the waters with 
her progeny, for from the 4th day of March, 1879, to the 4th day 
of October in the same year, on which occasion the last official 
registry of birth occurs, she has given origin to twenty-seven 
young ones. This is nothing to her prolific powers in 1857, for 
in one single night in that year she gave birth to no less than 240 
young ones. This would have put Priam himself to shame, 
seriously alarmed Malthus, and taxed all the energy of all the 
accoucheurs in Edinburgh and its surrounding districts. She was 
gathered from the rocks at North Berwick by Sir John Dalzell, 
and at his death was handed over to the care of Prof. John 
Fleming, then to Dr. James M’Bain ; he on the prospect of his 
decease was most solicitous to find a proper guardian for such a 
treasure. Some to whom he spoke declined to undertake so 
responsible a duty, till at last Mr. Sadler, the curator of the 
Royal Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh, cordially responded to 
the request, and when last heard of the old lady was doing well. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


AT the meeting of the Geographical Society on March 14 Mr. 
James Stewart, C.E., of Livingstonia, read a paper on Lake 
Nyassa and the Water-route to the Lake-region of Africa. In 
his preliminary observations he remarked upon the fact that, 
though the lake is but 350 miles in length, no fewer than seven 
different languages are spoken on one side only, all belonging to 
the Great Bantu group, and that natives from the south end 
cannot understand those at the north end. He dwelt upon the 
advantages the Livingstonia missionaries enjoyed for performing 
geographical work at an exceedingly small cost, though their 
other duties prevented them from doing very much. Mr, Stewart 
afterwards gave an account of his journey up the western side of 
the northern part of the lake and thence to Tanganyika and 
back. During this he passed one stream, the Mera, which he 
thinks may be considered one of the most remote of the sources 
of the Congo. Mr. Stewart concluded by stating that he was 
shortly about to return to Lake Nyassa, where he hoped to have 
opportunities for resuming his geographical work in opening a 
route to the south end of Lake ‘Tanganyika. 


WE have the new numbers of several geographical journals 
before us. In the March number of Petermann’s Mittheilungen 
Herr Richard Buchta describes his journey, in considerable 
detail, to the Nile Lakes in 1878. To accompany a map of the 
South Argentine Pampas Herr H. Wichmann summarises the 
latest information we have on that region. M. Sibiriakoff 
describes his journey in the Oscar Dickson to the mouth of the 
Jennissei in 1880. This number contains the geographical 
necrology of the past year, besides the usual monthly summary. 
—In the Zeitschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society Herr 
C. J. Biittner in a long paper gives some valuable directions for 
the study of the Bantu group of languages. Herr K. Himly has 
a short paper on some of the forms of Turkish, Mongolian, and 
Chinese names of places in books of geography. Herr Gustav 
Niederlein describes in a long paper some of the scientific results 
of an Argentine Expedition to the Rio Negro in Patagonia, 
Appended is a reproduction on a large scale of Dr, Kiepert’s 
map of the new boundaries in the Balkan Peninsula,—In the 
Verhandlungen of the same Society is a paper by Herr K, 
Kessler on the Caucasus and their exploration, and some 
valuable remarks on the thickness of the ice formed each year 
in the Arctic regions, and its connection with Arctic tempera- 
tures, —The first number of vol. iv. of the Deutsche geagraphische 
latter (Bremen) contains a long paper by Dr. Lindemann on 


the woods of the Bavarian Spessart, and by the same author a 
summary of recent Arctic work.—To the December number of 
the Bulletin of the French Geographical Society M. De Castries 
contributes a paper on the region of the Wed Draa; M. Ch. 
Velain, geological notes on Upper French Guana; and M. H. 
Duveyrier, on the question of the sources of the Niger. 


Dr. RAE sends us the following extract from a letter to him 
by Capt. Howgate, dated Washington, March 4, 1881 :—‘‘I 
write . . . to tell you that Congress has given the appropriation 
asked for the continuance of our work dé Lady Franklin Bay, 
and also for an expedition w/é Behring Strait—ostensibly to look 
after the ¥eannette, but also to prosecute the work of discovery 
in that direction, In addition to this it is propable that the 
Signal Service will this year establish the Point Barrow sta- 
tion, making a noble programme of Arctic work for the United 
States, and one in which I take just pride, for it is the direct 
result of my persistent work, since 1877, in raising public interest 
in the cause.” 

THE preparations for the commencement of the survey of 
Eastern Palestine are now complete. The War Office have 
granted to the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund the 
services of Lieut, Conder, who executed most of the survey of 
Western Palestine, and Lieut. Mantell, both of the Royal 
Engineers. The party will include the two non-commissioned 
officers (now both pensioners) Black and Armstrong, who first 
went out in the year 1871. Lieutenants Conder and Mantell 
started for Beyrout on Tuesday evening, March 15, and the men 
will follow with the instruments. The work will be commenced 
in the north—the land of Bashan. 

FRoM a Buenos Ayres paper we learn that the long-promised 
exploring expedition to Neuquen, the most fertile spot perhaps 
in all South America, and part of the territory secured by General 
Roca’s memorable expedition, has at last started, and important 
results are expected from it. This territory lies along the foot 
of the Andes, is watered by innumerable streams flowing from 
the great range into the Rio Neuguen, one of the two rivers 
which form the Rio Negro, and presents facilities for agriculture 
unknown in any other part of the Republic. 

THE current number of Les Aissions Catheliques contains a 
long letter from Pére Schmitt, written from Mboma on the Lower 
Congo, in which he describes a journey lately made to the foot 
of the Yellala Falls. He paid a visit to the station of the Living- 
stone (Congo) Inland Mission at Matadi or Matavi, which is 
situated on the left bank of the Congo, opposite Mr. Stanley’s 
settlement at Vivi. Owing to the whirlpools in the river, landing 
at Matadi was accomplished with great difficulty. From Pere 
Schmitt’s account, the spot hardly appears to have been well 
chosen, being a melancholy sort of place, covered with rocks, as 
its name imports. The mission establishment consists of five or 
six tents, the interior of which reminded the visitor of a bazaar, 
On the return journey Pére Schmitt spent a few days at Noki, 
where he had an opportunity of collecting information respecting 
the Congo region from the son of the king, who had been 
educated at St. Paul de Loanda. 

ACCORDING to the London and China Express, the sole 
obstacle to the contemplated maritime surveying operations in 
China and Japan, under the direction of the United States 
Hydrographic Office, has been removed by the consent of the 
Russian Government to the occupation of an astronomical station 
at Viadivostock by United States naval officers. They are to 
proceed there at once, and by telegraphic exchange of time 
signals, working from Vladivostock through Japan and China to 
Madras, will determine with great exactness the longitudes of 
Yokohama, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Amoy, Hong-kong, Manila, 
Saigon, and Singapore. 

THE Wellington correspondent of the Colonzes and India states 
that the New Zealand Government have just succeeded in 
acquiring a large tract of land at Rotorua, in the famous Hot 
Lake district, every acre of which the Maoris have hitherto 
jealously preserved. Even now tourists from all parts of the 
world visit this wonderful and beautiful district, but, when it is 
made more accessible, it is thought that Rotorua will become a 
great sanatorium for India and the colonies. 

Kinc Oscar of Sweden has just conferred decorations on 
Prof. Virchow, Dr. Nachtigal, and Herr William Schénlank, in 
recognition of their services in the cause of geographical discovery 
and commerce. 

Dr. Bayor has been deputed by the French {Minister of 
Marine to explore the upper part of the Niger. 


496 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


ON THE CONVERSION OF RADIANT ENERGY 
INTO SONOROUS VIBRATIONS * 


MESSRS: GRAHAM BELL and Sumner Tainter (American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, 
August 27, 1880) have shown that under certain conditions 
intense rays of light, if allowed to fall with periodic intermit- 
tence upon thin disks of almost every hard substance, will set 
up disturbances in those disks corresponding to this periodicity 
which result in sonorous vibrations. Mr. Bell (Fournal of the 
Society of Telegraph Engineers, December 8, 1880) has subse- 


quently shown that such effects are not confined to hard sub- | 


stances, but that they can be produced by matter in a liquid 
or gaseous form. 

These discoveries have elicited a considerable amount of in- 
terest, and have led to the inquiry whether the sonorous effects 
are due, as the discoverers themselves surmised, to /igh¢, or as 
the president of the Royal Society, Prof. Tyndall, and others 
have suggested, to radiant heat. 

Messrs. Bell and Tainter have partially answered this question 
by showing that the disturbances are not necessarily due to light, 
for they found that sheets of hard rubber or eJonite—a substance 
opaque to light—do not entirely cut off the sounds, but allow 
certain rays to pass through, which continue the effect. M. 
Mercadier, who has studied the subject with great care (Comptes 
vendus, December 6, 1880), lias shown that the effects are con- 
fined to the red and ultra-red rays. Moreover Mr. Bell has 
shown that gases, such as sulphuric ether, which Prof. Tyndall 
has proved to be highly absorbent of heat rays, while they are 
transparent to light rays, are remarkably sensitive to this inter- 
mittent action. Dr. Tyndall has more recently read a paper 
before the Society (Proc. Roy. Soc., January 3, 1881) proving 
that these sonorous effects are a function of all gases and vapours 
absorbing radiant heat, and that the intensity of the sounds pro- 
duced is a measure of this absorption. 

The negative proof of Messrs, Bell and Tainter can be ren- 
dered positive if it can be shown that ebonite is diathermanous. 

By very careful experiments made upon the diathermancy of 
different materials, ebonite proved to be as diathermanous as 
rock-salt, 

It is therefore clear that the sonorous vibrations of Bell and 
Tainter are the result of disturbances produced by some thermic 
action rather than by any luminous effect. 

Now the questions arise, Is this thermic action expansion and 
contraction of the mass due to its absorption of heat? Or is it 
a disturbance due to molecular pressure similar to that which 
produces the rotation of the radiometer? Or is it due to some 
other cause ? 

The argument against the first assumption when applied to 
hard disks is that ¢2me is a material element in such actions, and 
that the rate of cooling of warmed diaphragms is too slow to 
admit of such effects. Lord Rayleigh (NATURE, January <0, 
1881) has questioned the validity of this argument, and has 
shown that if the radiating power of the body experimented on 
were sufficiently high a slow rate of cooling would be favourable 
to rapid fluctuations of temperature. It became desirable to 
test this point experimentally. Very delicate apparatus was 
constructed for the pur; ose. 

Heat from various sources and at various distances, from bright 
lime-light to dull heat from hot metallic surfaces, was allowed 
to fall through rotating vanes intermittently on different bodies ; 
but notwithstanding every precaution, and the many materials 
used, not more than six interruptions per second could be pro- 
duced, although the system was beautifully sensitive to the 
smallest changes of temperature. 

It was evident from these experiments that the sonorous 
effects of hard disks could not be explained by the change of 
volume due to the impact of heat rays and their absorption by 
the mass of the disk, 

Is the action then due to molecular pressure similar to that 
which produces the rotation of the radiometer ? 

It is quite true that the radiometer effect is one visible only in 
very high exhaustions, but Mr. Crookes (Piz/. Tyans., 1878, 
Part i., § 220) detected ‘‘the existence of molecular pressure 
when radiation falls on a black surface in air of normal 
density.” 

Whenever radiant energy falls on an absorbent surface in air, 
such as a disk of blackened wood, its wave-length is degraded 


Abstract of a paper by Mr. William Henry Preece, read at the Royal 
Society, March ro. 


or lowered, and itis converted in thermometric heat. The 
molecules of air striking this warmed surface acquire heat, and 
move away from it with increased velocity, and as action and 
reaction are always alike in moving away, they give the body a 
‘*kick.” Since there is no such action on the other side of the 
disk, there is a difference of pressure between the two sides 
which gives it a tendency to move away from the source of 
energy. The effect is very much smaller in air at ordinary 
pressures than in air at a very low vacuum, because in the 
former case the mean free path of the molecules is very small, 
and the rebounding molecules help to keep back the more 
slowly approaching molecules, Nevertheless, molecular pressure 
is experienced, and if of sufficient magnitude and rapidity, it 
ought to produce sonorous vibrations. It seemed probable that 
the element of time does not enter here so prominently as in 
the previous case, for the radiometer effect is a mere surface 
action of the disk, and not one affecting its mass. Hence it 
was hoped that the retarding effects would be eliminated. If 
the sonorous action, therefore, be due to a radiometer action, a 
difference of effect would be observed if the side of a disk 
exposed to the source of energy be either blackened by lamp- 
black or camphor carbon, or if it be polished or whitened. 

An apparatus was constructed similar in principle to that 
described by Messrs. Bell and ‘lainter. 

An ebonite disk well blackened on one side when exposed to 
the intermittent rays was found to produce sounds, while a 
similar ebonite disk equally well-whitened, gave slightly less 
intense sounds. A zinc disk blackened gave weak sounds, while 
a similar disk polished gave sounds much weaker. A mica disk 
blackened gave scarcely any sounds at all, while a clean mica 
disk gave slightly better sounds. 

These effects were produced many times and on different 
occasions, and they were so unsatisfactory as to throw doubts on 
the accuracy of the radiometer explanation. They were not so 
decided as theory led one to anticipate. The effects produced 
by the zinc disk, though very weak, favoured the theory ; those 
given by the mica disk completely refuted it ; while those given 
by the ebonite disks were almost of a neutral character. 

The question occurred whether in Bell and Tainter’s experi- 
ments the disks vibrated at all. 

A delicate microphone was fixed in various ways on the case 
holding the disks, Although the sounds emitted in the hearing- 
tube were quite loud, scarcely any perceptible effect was detected 
| on the microphone. Had the disk sensibly vibrated, its vibra- 
tions must have been taken up by the case. A microphone, 
never fails to take up and magnify the minutest mechanical 
disturbances, 

It was thus evident that the disk did not play a prime part in 
| this phenomenon, but that the result might be due wholly to an 
expansion and contraction of the air contained in the air space 
behind the disk, 

With a new clean case and an ebonite disk the sonorous effects 
were feeble, but if a lens were placed close in front of the 
ebonite disk, so as to make a second air space in front of the 
disk, the sonorous effects were magnified considerably. 

The ebonite disk was fitted with an extremely delicate micro- 
phone, which in this case gave good indications upon the tele- 
phone, but whether the vibrations were the results: of the 
vibrations of the disk itself, or of the air in which the microphone 
was placed, was doubtful. ; ® 

If the lens were removed and the disk left supported without 
any air cavity, either behind or in front of it, xo perceptible sound 
could be obtained, proving that the effects were really due to the 
vibrations of the confined air, and of to those of the disk. It 
was therefore determined to dispense with the disk altogether. 
The disk was therefore removed, the lens remaining; the 
sonorous effects were 772/. 

Another case was taken under similar circumstances, i.e. wath- 
out the disk, but the effects were very loud—6o ; in fact, the best 
| results which had yet been obtained. Now the only difference 
| between the one case or cup and the other was that the one was 
blacked in the interior, and the other was not. } 

Hence the former case was again taken without the disk, and 
| though when clean it gave no effect, when its interior was blacked 
| by camphor smoke, it gave sounds as strong as the loudest effect 
yet produced. It was thus evident that the sonorous effects were 
materially assisted by coating the sides of the containing vessel 
with a highly-absorbent substance, such as the carbon deposited 
by burning camphor. It remained to be seen how far the lens 
played a part in this phenomenon. 


March 24, 1881 | 


NATURE 


497 


The lens was now removed from the front of the case, and it 
was replaced by a movable glass plate (1°5 millims. thick) ; the 
sounds were the same, but they gradually ceased on gradually 
uncovering the front opening of the case, so as to ’give the air 
room to expand. 

The glass plate was replaced by a heavy rigid plate of rock-salt 
13 millims, thick, and the sounds were equally loud. The plate 
was replaced by white note-paper. The sounds were very faint, 
but perceptible. It was replaced by thin cardboard, and the 
effect was 7z7/. 

Hence it is abundantly evident that these sonorous vibrations 
are due to the motions of the contained air, and not to those of 
the disk ; that they are actually improved by the removal of the 
disk ; that their production is materially assisted by lining the 
surface of the containing space with an absorbent substance ; 
that they are dependent on the heat rays that pass through ; and 
that they disappear when the rays are cut off from the air cavity 
by an athermanous diaphragm. 

Dr. Tyndall having shown in the paper already referred to, 
that water vapour responded actively to these intermittent 
actions, a clean empty one-ounce glass flask was taken and 
exposed to the intermittent beams. No sound was produced. 

Tt was then filled with water-vapour by pouring a small 
quantity of water into it, and warming itina flame; fair sounds 
were the result. 

The flask was filled with the dense smoke from burning 
camphor, and the sounds were intensified considerably. 

Another clear one-ounce glass flask was taken. When clear 
no sounds were heard. When filled with tobacco-smoke fair 
sounds, but when filled with heavy camphor smoke very loud 
sounds were obtained. One side of the flask was blackened on the 
outside, the other side remaining clear. On exposing the clear 
side to the light fair sounds were obtained, but on exposing the 
blackened side, 2o sounds were produced. The flask was 
blackened ix ¢he interior onone side only. When the blackened 
side was near the source fair sounds, and when it was away from 
the source better sounds were heard. When the flask was 
cleaned all sounds disappeared. A thin glass plate was now 
blackened on one side and placed in front of the case. When 
the black surface was outside 20 sounds were obtained, When 
the black surface was inside good sounds were the result. 
When the glass was cleaned the sounds became still better. An 
ebonite plate was similarly treated. When the blackened surface 
was outside fair sounds were obtained. When the blackened 
surface was inside very poor sounds were the result. 

This being an anomalous result, several experiments were now 
made to test the behaviour of opaque and transparent bodies, 
when used as disks, for while in the previous experiments the 
effect was greatest when the blackened surface faced the interior, 
here we find the opposite result produced, viz., the greatest 
effect was produced when the blackened surface was on the 
exterior. 

Several experiments were then made, from which it appeared 
that transparent bodies behave in an opposite way to opaque 
bodies. Glass and mica can be rendered athermanous and silent 
by making the carbon deposit sufficiently thick. Zinc, copper, 
and ebonite can produce sonorous effects by a proper disposition 
of carbon. The effect in these latter cases may be due either to 

_ molecular pressure, in fact to a radiometer effect, though very 
feeble in intensity ; or it may be the result of conduction through 
the mass of the diaphragm, that is, radiant heat is reduced to 
thermometric heat by absorption by the carbon deposit on the 
outside of the disk ; and this heat is transmitted through the disk 
and radiated to the absorbent gases in the interior. 

Several experiments were made which fully establish the in- 
ference that the effect is one of conduction, and that the black- 
ened surface of an opaque body like zinc acts as though the 
sous of heat were transferred to the outside surface of the 

isk, 

Tubes of various sizes and dimensions were now tried to 
confirm Messrs. Bell and Tainter’s observations on tubes. They 
invariably gave out satisfactory sounds when the intermittent 
rays were directed into the interior of the tubes, which were 
always considerably intensified by blackening their interiors and 
closing the open end with a glass plate. 

It was shown that there is a time element, and that the loud- 
ness of the note emitted depends upon the rapidity with which 
the contained air not only absorbs the degraded enerzy, but upon 
the rapidity with which it gives up its heat to the sides of the 
case and the exits open to it. Though the pitch of the maxi- 


mum note varied with the cavity and the amount of radiant heat 
transmitted, its quality never varied, notwithstanding the great 
diversity of materials used as diaphragms. 

Since these sonorous effects are due to the expansions of 
absorbent gases under the influence of heat, and since wires are 
heated by the transference of electric currents through them, it 
seemed possible that if we inclosed a spiral of fine platinum wire 
in a dark cavity, well blacked on the inside, and sent through it 
by means of the wheel-break, rapid intermittent currents of 
electricity from a battery, heat would be radiated, the air would 
expand, and sounds would result. This was done, and the 
sounds produced were excellent. In fact, with four bichromate 
cells sounds more intense than any previously observed were 
obtained. 

Furthermore it was evident that if the wheel-break were 
replaced by a good microphone transmitter, articulate speech 
should be heard, This was done, and an excellent telephone 
receiver was the consequence, by means of which speech was 
perfectly reproduced. 

The explanation of these remarkable phenomena is now 
abundantly clear. 1 

It is purely an effect of radiant heat, and it is essentially one 
due to the changes of volume in vapours and gases produced by 
the degradation and absorption of this heat in a confined space. 
The disks in Bell and Tainter’s experiments must be diather- 
manous, and the better their character in this respect the greater 
the effect ; remove them, and the effect is greater still. Messrs. 
Bell and Tainter (Yournal of Society of Telegraph’ Engineers, 
December 8, 1880) showed that the sounds maintained their 


‘timbre and pitch notwithstanding variation in the substance of 


the disk, and M. Mercadier found that a split or cracked plate 
acted as well as when it was whole. These facts are consistent 
with the expansion of the contained air, but not with any 
mechanical disturbance of the disks. Moreover M. Mercadier 
showed that the effect was improved by lampblack, but he 
applied it in the wrong place. 

The disks may, and perhaps do, under certain conditions, 
vibrate, but this vibration is feeble and quite a secondary action. 
The sides of the containing vessel must possess the power to 
reduce the incident rays to thermometric heat, and impart it to 
the vapour they confine, and the more their power in this respect, 
as when blackened by carbon, the greater the effect. The back 
of the disk may alone act in this respect. Cigars, chips of 
wood, smoke, or any absorbent surfaces placed inside a closed 
transparent vessel will, by first absorbing and then radiating 
heat:rays to the confined gas, produce sonorous vibrations. 

The heat is dissipated in the energy of sonorous vibrations. 
In all cases, time enters as an element, and the maximum effect 
depends on the diathermancy of the exposed side of the cavity, 
on its dimensions and surfaces, and on the absorbent character 
of the contained gas. 


THE EARTHQUAKE IN ISCHIA 


“THE Island of Ischia, the Pithecusa of the ancients, is some 

twenty miles in circumference, and appears to be the con- 
tinuation of the north-western boundary of the Gulf of Naples 
It consists of an old volcanic mountain sloping down on all side 
to the sea. The southern rim of the old crater has been remove 
by denudation, leaving the northern as a curved serrated ridge, 
forming the peak of Monte Epomeo. 

Situated on the southern slopes of the island are only a few 
and unimportant villages. 

Going from east to west along the northern slope we have 
first the capital Ischia, then we encounter the great trachytic 
lava stream which issues laterally from the slope of Epomeo, 
and after a course of two miles entered the sea, forming a 
promontory. This is the so-called lava Del’ Arso, of A.D. 1302. 
Next are encountered two very fresh-looking craters, from which 
lava streams have flowed. Then we come to Casamicciola, a 
small town of about 4000 inhabitants, to the north-west of which 
is the village of Lacco Ameno. At the eastern end of the island 
is the town of Forio. 

The district in which are situated Casamicciola and Lacco is 
thus bounded on the north by the sea, on the south by the ridge 
of Monte Epomeo, on the west by a spur stretching from the 
latter into the sea, forming the Punta Cornacchia, and on the 
east are the two hills called Monte Rotaro and Montagnone, the 
new-looking craters already spoken of. 


498 


It is worth observing that from this side of the island the four 
or five historic eruptions have occurred, and all the principal 
the rmo-mineral springs are confined mostly to this district. 

It is at this very spot that the late earthquake has taken place, 
resulting in the total destruction of Casamicciola, with the ex- 
ception of the hotels, baths, and a few well-constructed private 
houses. A hundred and twenty bodies have been excavated, 
and they are not all, besides 160 seriously wounded. At the 
village of Lacco thirteen houses have fallen, and five deaths are 
reported, 

On March 4, at five and a half minutes past one p.m., a terrific 
shock shook the whole island, but its maximum intensity was at 
this point leaving Ischia and Forio almost uninjured, together 
with the villages on the opposite side of the mountain. 

There was but a moment of premonitory trembling, when the 
terrific blow shook the houses about the ears of their inhabitants. 
The corpse of the shoemaker was found in his usual position, 
with the last between his knees, and we saw the corpse of a 
woman with the half-finished stocking in her hand and the 
needle in its sheath, The two cases show the suddenness of the 
catastrophe. 

The first shock was described as a sudden blow beneath the 
feet, followed by a series of undulations, which appear from 
accounts to have radiated from a point which I shall immediately 
describe. This was followed shortly by faint vibrations, accom- 
panied by loud subterranean thunder, such as was heard in the 
slight earthquake of last July. 

On visiting the island a few hours after we were struck by the 
severity of the shock and by its extremely limited area. Fol- 
lowing the methods adopted by our eminent countryman Mr. 
Mallet, F.R.S., in his investigations of the great Neapolitan 
earthquake of 1857, we have come to the conclusion that the 
undulations occurred in a series of closed curves radiating from 
a point which must have been situated about a quarter of a kilo- 
metre to the south-west of the upper town, that is in the direction 
of Lacco. 

It is interesting to note that the seismographs at Naples and 
Vesuvius were not at all affected by the earthquake. This led 
Prof, Palmieri to conclude from the extremely local effects pro- 
duced that the phenomenon was due to the excavation and 
removal of matter by the mineral springs and the collapse and 
falling in of the superincumbent ground, It seems difficult to 
satisfy oneself with the theory of my respected teacher and friend 
Prof. Palmieri for the following reasons :— 

1. The collapse of earth in Cheshire in no way produces effects 
at all similar or equivalent to those under consideration, and yet 
the amount of salt in solution removed is equal to much more 
solid matter than is removed by the dilute mineral waters of 
Ischia which are also small in quantity. Landslips like that of 
Lyme Regis are quite incomparable in effects to the present 
case, 

2. The waters that issued immediately after the disaster were 
as usual clear, and flowed at the same rate. If this explanation 
was tenable, then the collapse of the earth should have forced 
out a large body of water and vapour and have rendered the 
former turbid and muddy. Such however was not the case. 

3. The disturbance in Ischia was coincident with the seismic 
movements that were felt in various parts of Europe from the 
2nd to the 5th of March, and which was severe throughout 
Northern Italy. 

We know from the following facts that Ischia cannot be 
‘eckoned amongst extinct volcanoes, The great number of 
fumaroles and thermo-springs that exist on its surface ; the sand 

ya the sea-shore in some parts is so hot a few inches from the 
urface that the hand cannot be borne in it; the continual 
eismic disturbances to which it was and is subject—all point to 
the conclusion that there still exists igneous matter not far from 
the surface. 

The seismic waves of the beginning of March causing in- 
creased tension in the igneous matter through which they 
travelled would tend to rupture the superficial crust at its 
weakest peint ; the Island of Ischia presents to us such suitable 
conditions, and the volcanic matter, vapour, or lava may by 
those means have endeavoured to force its way towards the 
surface. 

The formation of a fissure, together with the blow that would 
be produced by the immediate falling of such, would explain the 
phenomena, Much the same results occur from the formation of a 
dyke in an active volcanic mountain ; in fact the conditions may 
be looked upon as analogous. 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


Although lava has failed to reach the surface on the present 
occasion, a repetition may be sufficient to produce an eruption 
such as has often occurred at this spot. We may look for the 
homologues of the present earthquake in that of A.D. 63, pre- 
ceding the outburst of Vesuvius in 79, or those that disturbed 
Pozzuoli and its neighbourhood immediately before the forma- 
tion of Monte Nuovo, but which were not felt at Naples. 

The fact that the undulations produced little effect on the 
southern side of the island shows the extreme thinness of the 
earth-crust at this spot; the weight and bulk of the superficial 
configuration acting as deterrent agents to the propagation of 
the seismic undulations to any great distance. The earthquakes 
in Ischia have at times been very disastrous, compelling various 
Greek colonies to forsake the island. There is generally a 
slight shock about once a year, nearly always accompanied by 
subterranean thunder. These have sometimes caused injuries, 
as on February 2, 1828, when three or four houses fell and 
some thirty people were killed. The details of the observa- 
tions being made will be published as soon as they can be 
formulated, 

It is an interesting fact that since writing the above, on 
comparing notes with Signor P. Franco, my colleague, although 
our observations were quite independent and unknown to each 
other, yet we have arrived at exactly the same conclusion in 
almost every detail. 

H, J. JoHNsTON-LAVIs 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


OxForp.—The following notice respecting scholarships in 
Natural Science has been published by Merton College :— 

There will be an election in June next to one (or two) Physical 
Science Postmasterships. 

The examination will begin on Tuesday, June 28; it will be 
held in common with Magdalen College, and at the same time 
and place. Candidates may give in their names at either College, 
but all will be regarded as standing at both, unless special notice 
is given to the contrary. In the event of election a candidate 
will be requested to state which College he would prefer. The 
Postmasterships are of the annual value of 80/., and are tenable 
for five years from election, provided that the holder does not 
accept or retain any appointment incompatible with the pursu- 
ance of the full course of University studies. After two years’ 
residence the College may raise, by a sum not exceeding 20/ per 
annum, the Postmastership of such Postmasters as shall be 
recommended by the Tutors for their character, industry, and 
ability. Candidates for the Postmasterships, if members of 
the University, must not have exceeded six terms of University 
standing, but there is no limit of age. The subjects of examina- 
tion will be Chemistry and Physics. There will be a practical 
examination in Chemistry. Candidates will have an opportunity 
of giving evidence of a knowledge of Biology ; but it must be 
borne in mind that in such cases the examiners will look for 
evidence of an acquaintance with the principles of Chemistry 
and Physics at least equal in extent to that which is required in 
the Preliminary Honour Examination in the Physical Science 
School. A paper will be set in Algebra and Elementary 
Geometry (Books I.-VI.), and a Classical paper of thesstandard 
required by the University for Responsions. 

Magdalen College has published the following notice respect- 
ing Natural Science Scholarships (Demyships) :—There will be 
an election at this College in June next to not less than seven 
Demyships, of which one at least will be Mathematical, one at 
least in Natural Science, and the rest Classical. No person will 
be eligible for the Demyships who will have attained the age of 
twenty years on October 10 next. The stipend of the Demy- 
ships is 952. per annum, inclusive of all allowances : and they 
are tenable for five years, provided that the holder does not 
accept or retain any appointment which in the judgment of the 
electors will interfere with the completion of his University 
studies. 


THE Oldham Lyceum and Science and Art Schools, opened by 
Lord Derby last Thursday, seems to be a handsome and useful 
building, and under Mr. Phythian’s superintendence we have no 
doubt much good work will be done in the future as in the past. 
Chemical and physical laboratories and other arrangements of 
scientific work have been provided for. 


March 24, 1881 | 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


THE American Naturalist, March, 1881.—D. S. Jordan and 
Chas. H. Gilbert, observations on the salmon of the Pacific.—J. 
Walter Fewkes, the anatomy and development of Agalma, part 
2.—A. J. Cook, on the relation of agriculture to science. —Wm. 
H. Holmes, glacial phenomena in the Yellowstone Pack.—E. 
Holterhoff, jun., a collector’s notes on the breeding of some 
Western birds. 


Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere.  Rendiconti, 
vol. xiv. fasc. iii.—Results of observations on the amplitude of 
diurnal oscillations of the magnetic needle, made in 1880, at the 
Brera Royal Observatory, Milan, by S. Schiaparelli.—On Prof. 
Cantor’s new History of Mathematics, by the same.—Some 
observations on werg/as and its theory, by Prof. Serpieri.—On 
some post-glacial fissures in the southern Alps, by Prof. Tara- 
melli.—A physiological sign of true death, by Doctors Verga‘and 
Biffi.—On sanguineous effusion in the bottom of the eye and in 
the cavity of the tympanum through death by hanging, by Prof. 
Tamassia. 


Berichte tiber die Verhandlungen der naturf. Gesells, 2u Freiburg 
7, B., Band vii. Heft iv., 1880.—On the optical structure of ice, 
by Fr. Klocke.—On the behaviour of crystals in solution that 
are but a little short of saturation, by the same.—On torsion, by 
E. Warburg.—The forms of vibration of plucked and rubbed 
strings, by F. Lindemann.—Contribution to a knowledge of 
protozoa, by A. Gruber. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 


Royal Society, March 17.—A paper by C. Greyille Williams, 
F.R.S., was read “ On the Action of Sodium upon Chinoline.” 

The author, after giving a historical sketch of what he had 
previously done upon the subject, calls attention to the fact that 
for a yellow oil-like dichinoline to give a red crystalline hydro- 
chlorate is probably a unique reaction. He also states further on 
that the colour of this hydrochlorate is so brilliant that the finest 
vermillion looks brown by comparison. His most successful 
preparations were made from chinoline purified by conversion 
into a crystallised chromate. The base so prepared is almost 
colourless, and becomes yellow with extreme slowness as com- 
pared with a product obtained without that precaution. On 
treating chinoline with sodium, converting the resulting purplish 
fluid into hydrochlorate, separating the scarlet crystals by filtra- 
tion, and fractionally precipitating with platinic chloride, he 
obtains several products, the most conspicuous being a salt of 
the formula 2(C18H4N*)HC1. PtCl*. Sodium amalgam reacts 
in a similar manner, and this appears to be the best way of 
obtaining the scarlet hydrochlorate of dichinoline in its greatest 
beauty. 

On recovering the chinoline unacted on from the mother 
liquors it had the same boiling-point as before the treatment with 
sodium, but on treating the recovered base again with sodium 
amalgam it yields a solid yellow resinous base, instead of the 
fluid one previously obtained. The author studies all the basic 
products by conversion into hydrochlorates, and fractionally pre- 
cipitating with platinic chloride, and points out the remarkable 
similarity in the percentages of platinum obtained from the 
mother liquors of the scarlet hydrochlorate of dichinoline, from 
the scarlet salt itself, and from the hydrochlorate of the yellow 
solid base, 


Zoological Society, March 15.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
LL.D., F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Secretary read a 
report on the additions that had been made to the Society’s 
Menagerie during the month of February, and called special 
attention to a female Bactrian Camel (Camels Bactrianus), 
formerly belonging to Ayoub Khan, which Col. O. H. St. John, 
F.Z.S., has purchased from its captors at Candahar and pre- 
sented to the Society, and toa male Wild Sheep (Quis cycloceros), 
obtained from Afghanistan, and presented to the Society by 
Capt. W. Cotton, F.Z.S.—Mr. A. G. More exhibited some eggs 
of the Red-necked Phalarope, believed to have been taken in 
England ; and an egg of the Tree-Pipit, taken near Dublin, this 
bird having been considered only doubtfully Irish. Mr. More 
also exhibited a specimen of the Red-crested Pochard, obtained 
near Tralee, being the first record of the occurrence of this 
species in Ireland.—Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe exhibited a speci- 
men’of the so-called Sabine’s Snipe Galinago Sabinii), This 


NATURE 


499 


bird had been shot in July last by the Hon. W. W. Palmer at 


Woolmer Pond, near Selborne, Hants.—Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell, 
F.Z.S., read the fourth of his series of observations on the 
characters of the Echinoidea, The present paper dealt with 
most of the genera of the Echinometiadz ; their systematic 
affinities were discussed and their relations to the Echinidz 
shown to be so intimate as not to justify their separation 
into two distinct families.—A second paper by Prof. Bell gave 
the description of a new species of the genus AZesfilia, obtained 
at Samoa by the Rev. S. J. Whitmee, which the author pro- 
posed to name after its discoverer, AZ. Whitmei.—Mr. W. A. 
Forbes read the fourth of his series of papers on the anatomy of 
Passerine birds. The present communication was devoted to 
the consideration of some points in the anatomy of the genus 
Conopophaga and of its systematic position.—A communication 
was read from Prof, Newton, F.R.S., in which he proposed to 
substitute the name /yfositta for Hypherpes, which he had 
formerly proposed for a genus of Passerine birds found in Mada- 
gascar.—A communication was read from Mr. M. Jacoby con- 
taining descriptions of new genera and species of phytophagous 
coleptera. 


Physical Society, March 12—Sir W. Thomson in the 
chair—New Members: Mr. Colville Brown, Dr. J. P. Joule. 
—Col. Festin read a paper by Capt. Abney and himself, on the 
absorption spectra of organic bodies. The method of photo- 
graphing the infra-red region of the spectrum gave better results 
for absorption than thermopile. Organic compounds were 
chosen as giving the larger molecules. The apparatus employed 
consisted of a small Gramme machine driven by a Brotherhood 
engine, and an electric lamp with a plevice for shifting the 
negative pole so as to get the crater on one side of the other 
carbon point. The image of the positive pole was allowed to 
fall on the slit of the spectroscope: the light of the arc not 
being used. Three prisms were used, and a camera with a 
back-swing to it so as to get a considerable length of spectrum 
in focus. Maps of the various spectra were made with six 
inches of the substance examined inclosed in a glass tube. Alco- 
hols, acids, oils, and water were examined, and gave spectra of 
bands and lines, When hydrogen was absent in the compound 


‘there were no lines, and the authors conclude the lines to be due 


to hydrogen. Oxygen appeared to obliterate the space between 
the lines and make ita band. The authors hope by this method 
to detect the radicles present in a substance. They found corre- 
spondences between some lines and lines in the solar map. Dr. 
Coffin said that two kinds of chloroform, apparently the same, 
produced different physiological results: the method might 
distinguish between these. Sir William Thomson thought it 
might throw light on the ultimate constitution of matter.—Mr. 
Brown read a paper on the definition of work in text-books, 
and gave reasons for preferring that in Rankine’s books. 


Anthropological Institute, March 8.—F. W. Rudler, 
F.G.S., vice-president, in the chair.—The election of Dr. G. D. 
Thane was announced.—A collection of rubbings taken from 
door-posts and window-frames in New Zealand was exhibited, 
They were chiefly interesting from the proof which they 
afforded of the clear influence of matted and woven materials 
on the ornamentation of stone architecture, a parallel to the 
influence of wood architecture on stone architecture pointed out 
by Fellowes in Lycia and by Lepsius in Evypt ; also from the 
remarkable coincidence between some of these ornamentations 
and the outlines on the tombstones of Mykenze, a near approach 
to the triglyph in New Zealand,—A short note by Mr. S. E. 
Peal, on Assam pile-dwellings, was read, and was illustrated by 
a series of sketches by the author.—Lieut.-Col. R. G. Wood- 
thorpe, R.E., read a paper on the wild tribes inhabiting the 
so-called Naga Hills on our North-Eastern frontier of India. 
The paper dealt only with the Angami Nagas, who, it was 
stated, differ from all the other hill tribes of Assam in many 
important particulars, such as appearance, architecture, mode of 
cultivation, language, and dress. In appearance they are a 
finer, cleaner, and better-looking race than their neighbours ; 
they build their houses resting on the ground, and not raised on 
piles as all the other hill tribes of Assam (except the Khasias) 
do, and after a pattern not seen elsewhere. Differences in phy- 
sical or topographical conditions do not account for this differ- 
ence in the style of architecture, as the Angami villages are 
found on the same ridges as, and often not a mile from, villages 
constructed on the other principle. In dress the Angami differs 
most strikingly from all the other tribes in the kilt or short 
petticoat of dark cloth ornamented with rows of white cowrie 


500 


NATURE 


[March 24, 1881 


shells, the waistcloth of all other Nagas consisting only of a 
flap of cloth in front and behind, and often only in front. The 
Angamis erect tall monoliths in commemoration of the dead 
or of some social event. These monoliths, often of great size, 
are dragged up hill on sledges running on rollers. The paper 
was illustrated by a large collection of specimens and drawings, 
and also by some fine diagrams, in the preparation of which the 
author had been much assisted by Mr, C. Holroyd. 


Royal Microscopical Society, March 9.—The president, 
Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., in the chair.—Swift and Sons’ 
new ‘‘working” microscope and fine adjustment and the “Griffith 
Club Portable Microscope” were exhibited.— Mr, Powell showed 
Amphipleura pellicida with the vertical illuminator, and Mr. 
Stephenson pointed out that the illumination was not * opaque,” 
as supposed, but that the diatom was illuminated by transmitted 
light reflected back by its own under-surface.—Mr. Crisp 
exhibited Prof. Abbes’ radiation apparatus for showing the 
increased amount of light emitted by a radiant in glass or bal:am 
compared to one in air.—Mr, A. D. Michael read a paper on a 
supposed new species of Acarus, Dermaleichus heteropus, and 
Dr. E. Cutter’s paper on a supposed Infusorian in the nasal 
passage in cases of catarrh was explained by Mr. Stewart and 
commented on by the president.—Discussions also took place on 
carbolic acid for mounting, and on the ‘‘ Society” standard 
screw. 


Meteorological Society, March 16,—Mr. G. J. Symons, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Rev. A. J. C. Allen, E. 
Chapman, Rev. E, W. Ford, G. T. Gwilliam, H. B, Jupp, A. 
Ramsay, and J. Stokes were elected Fellows.—The President 
gave a historical sketch of various classes of hygrometers, and 
described about 120 different patterns ; after which an exhibition 
of instruments was held, showing various kinds of hygrometers, 
and also some new instruments which have been brought out 
since January I, 1880. 


Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, March 21.—Mr. J. F, 
Bateman, F.R.S., read a paper on meteorology, in which he 
analysed the causes of a variation of rainfall in the United 
Kingdom. In the discussion special remarks were made as to 
the causes and effects of the almost tropical rainfall that once 
obtained in these islands; after which a paper on Indian rain- 
fall, by W. P. Andrew, was read. At the close of the pro- 
ceedings it was announced that Prof. Balfour, F.R.S., would 
read a paper on the visible universe at the next meeting. 


EDINBURGH 


Royal Society, March 7.—Lord Moncrieff, president, in 
the chair.—The President read the second part of his paper on 
the rise of the constitutional idea. In the half-century that 
elapsed after the publication of Buchanan’s ‘‘De Jure Regni 
apud Scotos,” important political changes were taking place and 
were shaping themselves, under the skilful rhand of James VI. 
of Scotland, especially after his accession to the English throne, 
towards a despotism that would place the king alongside the 
arbitrary monarchs of the Continent. Charles I. however lacked 
the kingcraft to-carry on successfully this policy of diminishing 
the power of the Parliament; and in 1644, in the heat of the 
contest between King and Commons, Samuel Rutherford pub- 
lished his ‘‘ Lex Rex,” which contains the first enunciation in 
the English language of the true rationale of the British Consti- 
tution. Passing on to the time of the Commonwealth, his lord- 
ship touched on the famous controversy on the divine right of 
kingship between Salmazius and Milton, a controversy which 
was continued by Hobbes and Harrington, Lastly, the paper 
discussed Algernon Sidney’srwork on Government, which was 
characterised as out of sight the best and ablest of the list.—Dr. 
D. J. Cunningham, ina paper on the intrinsic muscles of the 
mammalian foot, gave an interesting account of several of the 
most striking modifications that occur in. the arrangement of 
these muscles in different animals. The typical arrangement of 
three layers of four muscles each was found in certain marsupials, 
and the deviations from this typical arrangement could be 
grouped in two classes—those that resulted from division, and 
those that resulted from fusion, The peculiar modifications in 
the ox, horse, ape, baboon, gorilla, and man were specially 
referred to, many of these deviations being of the nature of 
degeneration or retrograde development.—Mr. A, H. Anglin 
communicated a paper on the expansion of rational fractions,— 
Dr. A. Maefarlane, in his third paper on the algebra of relation- 
ship, showed the nature of the problems that came under the 


scope of his symbolic method.—Prof. Tait communicated a note 
on a problem in kinetics of peculiar difficulty. One of two 
equal masses, originally balanced on an Atwood’s machine, is 
set oscillating through a small arc. What is the subsequent 
motion? The equations of motion are peculiarly intractable, 
but may by suitable transformation be thrown into a form from 
which may be derived by simple inspection the general result 
that the oscillating mass moves under the action of a downward 
acceleration, so that the mixed potential and kinetic energies 
tend to become altogether kinetic. When both masses are set 
oscillating, a further complication is of course introduced ; and 
it is found that the mass that is oscillating through the greater 
angle is subject to a downward acceleration. 


VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, March 17.—V. Burg 
in the chair.—C, Ludwig, studies made at the Physiological 
Institute at Leipsic during the time of 1879-80.—Dr. L. Boltz- 
mann, enunciation of formulz useful for determining the number 
of diamagnetism.—Dr. Synas Klemencic, relating to the deter- 
mination of the proportion of the magnetical to the dynamical 
unit of the intensity of circuit.—Dr. F. Streintz, on decomposi- 
tion of water on platinum-electrodes caused by the discharges of 
Leyden-jars,—E. Ratkay, on Lxoascus Wvesneri.—Prof. Dr. 
Edm. Reitlinger and Dr. F, Woechter, on the “‘disgregation” of 
electrodes by positive electricity and explanation of the figures 
of Lichtenberg.—Dr. P. Weselsky and R. Benedikt, a sealed 
packet containing the description of some new dyeing materials. 
—Josef Wentze, on the flora of the Tertiary diatomez-slate at 
Sulloditz (Bohemia), central chain of mountains.—H. Schroetter, 
on the oxidation of Borneolacetate.—E. Stefan, on the equili- 
brium of a solid elastic body at a different or variable temper- 
ature. —Dr. Ernst. v. Fleischl, physiologico-optic notes. —Dr. T. 
Puluj, on radiant electrode-matter (third paper). 


CONTENTS 


Macquorn RaNKINE’sS SCIENTIFIC PapERrs. 
IREYNOEDS. (WIR GS.ic 0) Sb apace) ey tal ue (ee i ee 
Tue Ferns oF NortH America. By J.G. Baker ......, 
K6LitikER ON ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT . . . «© » 1. + « © @ « 
Our Book SHELF :— 
Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey 
of the Lerritoxies, 870-80) «.\ vst il = ley se) Bel nis er 
Ruchonnet’s “ Exposition Géométrique des Propriétes générales 
des Courbes”; “ Bléments de Calcul approximatif*” . . . . 
Liwenberg’s ‘* Geschichte der geographischen Entdeckungsreisen 
im Alterthum und Mittelalter’”*®. . . . . . 1... ss 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
The Tide Predicter.—Sir Witt1AM THomson, F.R.S.. . . . . 
The Magnetic Storm of 1880, August.—WILtIAM ELtis*. . . 
Prehistoric Europe.—Prof. W. Bovp Dawkins, F.R.S. . . . . 482 
Oceanic Phenomenon.—Dr.'R. W, CoprinGEr (With Jilustration) 482 
Feeding a Gull with Corn.—W. A. Forbes. . . . . . + « «© 483 


Pacer 
By Prof. Oszorne 
477 
479 


480 
48x 
48x 
481 


482 
482 


Dynamics of ‘‘ Radiant Matter.."—Wm. Murr . . . .. . » 483 
The Oldest Fossil Insects.—Dr. H. A. HaGEN Te 483 
Ice-Casts of Tracks.—J. T. BROWNELL. . « - « » « © « © 484 
Migration of Birds. —G. A> ©. 5 > ss) je) jes) eo 
Sound of the Aurora.—Epwp. ALLoway PaukuursT; J. SHAW. 484 
Dacitus on'the Aurora.—R. OFS) 2) Se 
Aberration of Instinct.—Rev. T. H. WALLER. . . . ~ - « - 484 
Squirrels Crossing Water.—FREDERICK Hupparp; C.; CEciL 
DuNcOMBE . . +. . DECOMCEED MOR Gat Ss 5 ol Ltr: 
Tue Lares Mr. E. R. AtsTron ME eon 3 Sg PEE, 
RecENT MaTuematico-Locicat Memoirs. By Prof. W. STANLEY 
JEVONS, PSROS Ss eh Pe. toy ie al) inf Win rik=)) st PT od 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEw or RarE ANIMALS IN THR ZOOLOGICAL 
Society's Lrvinc CottecTion, III. (With [ilustrations). . . . 487 
METEOROLOGY INMeExICO. . « - 6 © 6 ee ee ew wt ee 489 
On THE IpENTITY OF somME ANCIENT Diamond Mines IN INDIA, 
ESPECIALLY THOSE MENTIONED BY TAVERNIER, By V. Batt 490 
IN (yy an Cee OM MEMEESECNONIONG Coc co Jet 
Our ASTRONOMICAL CoLUMN :— 
The Solar Parallax . . . » fos a fo lel hel ca aos 
Variable\starsis le. a) ms «= © es . Pa) op ne Yo 
Ancient Astronomy . . . + + » © © » « « © « = « « « 493 
The Academy of Sciences, Paris . . . . «el wo salaey ke RO 
BroLocicat NotEs:— 
Algz of the Gulfof Finland. . . . . « «- « « «= «+ « « « 404 
The Blake Cruise. 2°.) sp hence. ecm fu, ts) en 404 
Food of Birds, Fishes, and Beetles . . - ... - ei ep fella 
Physiological Significance of Transpiration of Plants . ye Gd 
Signsof Death .... . Gat eo cig tuo - + 404 
Classification of Statures . . 2 «© + «© © © + «© «© © © «© = 404 
Equus Prjevalski. . . . » © « « Peet CECEMEIMI ICY 0 ec 0) 
Sir John Dalzell’s Anemone . « 2 ss © + + + + “ 495 
GEOGRAPHICAL NOPES - . «© «= «5 © 3 * + © + 8 2 = se > 405 
ON THE CoNVERSION OF RADIANT ENERGY INTO SonoRous VIPRA- 
vions. By Writ1AM Henry PREECE . PE MS LK Gin 
Tue EartHQuake in Iscuta. By H. J. Jonnston-Lavis, . . -_ 407 
UNiversiry AND EpucaTIONAL INTELLIGENCER . . - ero ane 
SCtANTIPFIC SERIALS : ss "ee ot en! ete heel is GUS eae 
SocreTigs AND ACADEMIES . + 6 + + © + + © © © «© + « «© 499 


a 


NATURE 


THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1881 


. 


MIND IN ANIMALS 
Mind in Animals. By Prof. Ludwig Biichner, author of 

“Force and Matter,” &c. Translated, by the author’s 

permission, from the German of the Third Revised 

Edition, by Annie Besant. (London: Free-thought 

Publishing Company, 1880.) 

HE translation into English of Biichner’s work on 
“Mind in Animals” (which was originally published 
in 1876) cannot but be welcome to persons of all shades 
of opinion, however greatly opinions may differ as to the 
auspices of the Company which has undertaken and 
published the translation. The Company, among other 
things, undertakes the translation of works from’ foreign 
languages in the form of a series entitled ““The Inter- 
national Library of Science and Free-thought,” and of 
this series Biichner’s work on “ Mind in Animals” con- 
stitutes the first member. It is to be hoped that the 
subsequent efforts of the Company in this direction: will 
prove as useful and beneficial as the one we are’about 
to consider. The translation has here, on the whole, 
been well done, although occasionally we meet with an 
awkwardness of construction which a little more care 
in’ re-casting the sentences might easily have obviated. 
The work itself is without question a highly valuable 
compilation of facts relating to Comparative Psychology, 
and therefore its translation into English supplies a 
fitting occasion for our endeavouring to recommend it to 
the notice of English readers. 

Although the work is called ‘Mind in Animals,” and 
fills between three and four hundred closely-printedipages, 
it only deals with the psychology of articulata, and even 
of this comparatively limited group it treats only of four 
orders, viz. the Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, Arachnidé, and 
Coleoptera. No one, however, can read the’ work and 
feel that this limitation of its subject-matter is a’ defect, al- 
though in view of it the title might perhaps have been 
appropriately changed to “ Mind in Insects.” As: he 
says in his preface, “ the author has not thought it neces- 
sary to widen the circle of his observations over the 
whole of the comparatively narrow and yet infinitely wide 
and rich sphere of intelligent insect life ; he considers it 
better . . . totreata single species thoroughly, rather than 
many species cursorily and superficially,” &c.. Such being 
the author’s aim, he appears to have read most! of the 
existing literature upon the subject that is worth reading, 
and then made a compilation, tolerably well sifted, of all the 
more important facts. These he has presented ina form 
at once highly entertaining to a general reader of' the 
lowest intelligence, and most useful alike to the working 
naturalist and the evolutionary psychologist. The labour 
represented by the result is very considerable, and Biich- 
ner deserves all thanks and praise, both from the scientific 
and non-scientific public, for the patient industry with 
which, like the ant or the bee that he is so fond of up- 
holding as a model, he has collected and arranged his 
materials. 

More than three-fourths of the book is devoted to ants 
and bees, and this portion constitutes a compendium of 
facts regarding the psychology of these interesting animals 


* The Arachnida are called by Biichner insects, in accordance with popular 
usage. 
Vou. xx111.—No, 5096 


501 


which we do not hesitate to regard as the most instructive 
that has hitherto been made. There are however no 
original observations in the book—or rather no original 
observations recorded as made by Biichner himself, for 
there are several highly interesting observations recorded 
as made by friends and correspondents. Some of the 
more important of these we may here present. 

Herr Lehr, a ‘‘bee-keeping friend of the author,” 
noticed that when his bees were attacked by dysentery, 
and “‘no longer able to retain their excrements, one hive 
suffered less than the others.” Investigation showed that 
the bees of this hive had made a drain from the upper 
part of the hive, “where they were accustomed to sit 
together during the winter,” to the exterior. 

The same (?) friend observed that when the wind blew 
down one of his hives and he replaced it, a few days later 
“the bees had left their old home in the lurch, and tried 
to enter other hives, clearly because they could no longer 
trust the weather, and feared that the terrible accident 
might again befall them.” 

Another friend, Herr Schliiter, saw a hornet catch a 
cicada, sting it, and try to fly off with the bulky prey. 
The hornet’s strength not being sufficient to enable it to 
fly with the cicada from the ground, it dragged its burden 
up the stump of a mulberry-tree that stood close by. 
Arrived at the top of the stump—twelve feet from the 
ground—‘ it rested for a moment, grasped its victim firmly, 
and flew off with it to the prairies. That which it was un- 
able to raise off the ground it could now carry easily once 
high in the air.” 

Again, Herr Merkel communicates the following. He 
saw a little grey wasp dragging a long caterpillar to. its 
hole. Arrived there, it put one end of the caterpillar over 
the hole, “and went to the other end and lifted it up so high 
that the caterpillar fell in. But a piece of it stuck out” ; 
so the wasp pulled it out, and, laying it down near the hole, 
“went in again and brought out several little stones of the 
size of small peas, It then again let the caterpillar fall 
into the hole in the way described.” ‘This time it was 
quite absorbed by the hole, and was buried by the wasp. 

More interesting is an observation due to Herr Notte- 
bohm, Inspector of Buildings at Karlsruhe, who carefully 
syringed off all the aphides from a weeping-ash in March, 
to the great benefit of the tree. But in June he was 
astonished to see multitudes of ants running up and down 
the trunk of the tree, busied in carrying up aphides all 
over the tree in order to re-stock it, and “after some 
weeks the evil was as great as ever.” 

Again Herr Theuerkauf showed Biichner a maple tree, 
round which he had “ smeared’ about a foot-width of the 
ground with tar,’ in order to check the mischief caused 
by ants cultivating aphides. But the ants on the tre 
turned back on finding the tar, and “ carried down aphides, 
which they stuck down on the tar one after another, until 
they had made a bridge over which they could cross the 
tar-ring without danger.” 

Highly interesting also isan observation communicated 
to the author by Herr Kreplin concerning the Ecitons 
crossing streams, which is even more wonderful than any- 
thing that has been related of these wonderful insects by 
Bates or Belt. “If no natural bridge is available for the 
passage, they travel along the bank of the river until they 
arrive at a flat sandy shore. Each ant now seizes a bit of 

Z 


502 


NATURE 


[March 31, 1881 


dry wood, pulls it into the water, and mounts thereon. 
The hinder rows push the front ones even further out, 
holding on to the wood with their feet and to their com- 
rades with their jaws. In ashort time the water is covered 


with ants, and when the raft has grown too large to be | 


held together by the small creatures’ strength, a part 
breaks off and begins its journey across, while the ants left 


watched for about a minute before they flew away’”’—no 
doubt, of course, performing some appropriate funeral 
service. And this is the evidence on which the earlier 
statement rests, “z¢ zs beyond doubt that ants and bees 
have been seen . . . burying their dead’’! Such cases 


| of careless judgment, however, in admitting alleged facts 


on the bank busily pull their bits of wood into the water | 


and work at enlarging the ferry-boat until it again breaks. | 


This is repeated as long as an ant remains on the shore.” 


Similarly, Dr. Ellendorf informs the author that he has | 


witnessed ants using a straw for a bridge across a saucer 


ants and his provisions. He then pushed the straw about 
an inch from one of its two landing-places. 
confusion and crossing of atennz, the ants “soon found 
out where the fault lay, and with united forces they quickly 


tact with the wood, when the communication was again 
restored.” 

The same observer communicates another very interest- 
ing observation on the leaf-cutting ants. He interrupted 
a marching column by placing a withered branch across 
their road. The loads were laid aside by more than a 
foot’s length of the column, and the ants began on both 
sides of the branch to tunnel beneath it, and when the 
tunnel was completed ‘‘ each ant took up its burden again, 
and the march was resumed in the most perfect order.” 

These being the most important additions which Prof. 


Biichner’s work has made to our previous knowledge of | 


insect psychology, we shall now proceed to make a few 
criticisms upon the work asa whole. In the first place, 
the author is not quite free from the failing common to less 


| . ° : 
| as to the authority on which the statements rest. 
of water which he had placed as a barrier between the | 


critical writers on animal intelligence, of admitting dubious | 


cases without sufficient reserve. Thus, for instance, on 


no better authority than Plutarch, he gives (p. 57) a case | 


“related by a certain Cleanthes,” of ants going from one 
ant-heap to the entrance of another, carrying a dead ant. 
Other ants came out of the visited heap, consulted with the 
bearers of the body, went back again and brought a worm 
“out of the depths of the nest, which was evidently in- 
tended to serve as a ransom for the dead body. Then 
the ants which had brought the corpse left it lying there, 
and carried away the worm instead.” He then adds, 
“* However incredible this may sound, it is beyond doubt 
that ants and bees have been seen carrying away and even 
burying their dead, and of this further details will be given 
later.”’ As the fact of “ burying” is highly dubious, we 
looked forward from this statement to afterwards meeting 
with some new evidence upon the subject ; but in the 
case of ants only found the unsupported assertion of 
Dupont, followed by a confusion of the well-ascertained 
fact that ants carry their dead away from their nests, with 
the inference that they bury them (p. 167), while in the 
case of bees we only met with (p. 249) a very flimsy 
anecdote, which we had previously read in Watson’s 
“Reasoning Powers of Animals,’ quoted from the 
Glasgow Herald on the authority of an anonymous corre- 
spondent ; it presents a pathetic account of two bees 
flying out of a hive “ carrying between them the corpse of 
a dead comrade,’ till, after searching for a suitable hole, 
they “carefully pushed in the dead body, head foremost, 
and finally placed above it two small stones. They then 


on wholly inadequate evidence, are fortunately in this 
work exceptional. 

Another point on which criticism has to be offered is 
the frequent failure of references. Important facts are 
constantly stated without any information being supplied 
Again, 
even when the authority is stated, after the first time of 


| quoting the reference is always to Joc. c7t., so that unless 
After much | 


the name of the work is carried in the reader’s memory, 
he has to hunt back through an indefinite number of 


| pages of letterpress till he finds it. 
pulled and pushed the straw until it again came into con- | 


Anotker feature of the work which must be considered 
a blemish upon it as a work of science, is a perpetual 
breaking out of allusions to matters religious and political. 
The strong bias which the author displays in these digres- 
sions, apart from being singularly out of place in a treatise 
which aims at scientific method, constantly leads him 
into obvious fallacies. For instance, when speaking of 
ants, he asks, “‘ Why should we take it for granted that in 
a perfectly free community men would only work if com- 
pelled, when these animals give proof that such a free 
commonwealth is very possible, and is compatible with 
the voluntary work of all?” Certainly any one who is 
disposed to take such a supposition for granted, would 
scarcely be convinced by such a false analogy as that 
between an ant and a man; and he might very easily 
show up the nonsense by replying, “ Why should we take 
it for granted that men in a perfectly free community 


| would work without compulsion, when the grasshoppers 


give proof that such a free commonwealth is very possible, 
and is compatible with no work at all?” Such is the 
logic of many of these passages, and we do not think 
that in others of the same kind the sentiments are much 
more fortunate. It is, for instance, to be doubted whether 
the following picture of “the widest Socialism and Com- 
munism”’ as revealed in bees, and held out as an example 
for humanity to imitate, will prove as attractive to the 
eyes of all his readers as it evidently appears to the eyes 
of the writer. ‘‘They have no private property, no 
family, no private dwelling, but hang in thick clumps 
within the common-room in the narrow space between 
the combs, taking turns for brief nightly repose”’ (p. 266). 
On all such matters opinions may legitimately vary ; but 
allusions to them are, as we have said, out of place in a 
treatise on Comparative Psychology. 

Coming next to criticisms of a more purely scientific 
character, we have first to notice a meagreness with 
which the whole subject of instinct is treated. In his 
anxiety to combat the supernaturalists, Buchner errs on 
the side of too closely assimilating the psychological] 
faculties of insects with those of men. That is to say, he 
endeavours to explain most, if not all, instinctive action 
as being one with “reason”? and “reflection.” But it is 
an enormous and damaging mistake in the cause of 
evolution to disparage the distinction which unquestion- 
ably exists between mind in animals and mind in man, 
The function of an historical psychologist is to explain 


March 31, 1881 | NATURE 503 
the origin of instincts and the development of rational AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 
thought—not to slur the two together as presenting but j s ; 

little difference to be explained. Yet in two chapters Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages. By J. 


devoted to instincts we have in this treatise scarcely a 
word to explain their probable mode of origin, and 
nothing to show how they may be supposed to have deve- 
loped into reason. This ‘inverted anthropomorphism’”’ 
constantly leads the author into statements which are 
little less than absurd—as, for instance, when speaking of 
the wedding-flights of bees he observes that their leaving 
the hive to copulate in the air ‘‘seems as though a feeling 
of modesty prevented the queen from performing this act 
before the eyes of the crowd.” 

Again, even in the few places where he does touch 
upon the origin of instincts, his treatment of the subject 
is most unsatisfactory. Taking, for example, his remarks 
on the difficulty presented by the case of neuter insects 
being derived from parents which display totally different 
instincts from their progeny, he adopts the view that 
fertile females were originally workers, lost their working 
instincts by degrees, but now leave them as_ perpetual 
legacies to their barren offspring. Now, although this 
view may be taken as a mitigation of the difficulty, it 
certainly cannot be taken as a full “answer” to it. 
Biichner very lightly passes round a mountain of trouble 
where he says, “that this opinion, if correct, would also 
apply to the other social insects, and especially to ants, 
scarcely requires special argument.” This is a most 
astonishingly complacent way of eluding what Darwin 
calls “the climax of difficulty’? which is presented by 
several castes of workers having instincts differing, not 
only from their fertile parents, but from one another. 
The truth is that the theory advanced by Biichner is 
alone clearly inadequate to meet the facts ; and he does 
not appear even to have read, or else to have entirely 
forgotten, the gem of condensed and candid reasoning 
upon this subject by which the beautiful theory concerning 
it is rendered in the ‘‘ Origin of Species.” 

Lastly, even as to matters of fact there are some 
criticisms to be made. A serious sin of omission is to be 
complained of in the description of the habits of the leaf- 
cutting ants, in that no allusion is made to the theory of 
Bates—which having been since supported both by Belt 
and Miiller, deserves to be regarded as highly probable, if 
not virtually established—concerning the object with 
which the leaves are cut and garnered, namely, to grow 
fungi upon. Again, in dealing with the so-called agricul- 
tural] ant the author is, we think, somewhat too definite in 
his statements as to these insects planting seed. So far 
the remarkable story on this head rests on the unsupported 
authority of Dr. Lincecum (not Linecum,as repeatedly mis- 
printed), and although it may prove true, ought not, until 
amply corroborated, to be thus unreservedly accepted. 

Other criticisms of the same kind might be passed, and 
we cannot help feeling it would have been well to have 
added a short chapter to the translation bringing the 
literature of the subject up to date, and likewise an index; 
but enough has been said to signify our general estimate 
of the work. In all matters of fact it is, as a rule, most 
accurate and comprehensive. In its philosophy it is not 
strong. But as a whole it is a decidedly valuable addition 
to the literature of Comparative Psychology. 

GEORGE J. ROMANES 


W. Powell. Second Edition. 
ment Printing Office, 1880.) 


(Washington ; Govern- 


HIS is one of the most useful of the many useful 
works issued under Mr. Powell’s able management 
by the ethnological bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. 
It was originally published in 1877, and it is satisfactory 
to find that another edition has so soon been called for. 
At the same time one cannot but regret that this oppor- 
tunity was not taken to somewhat modify the title, which, 
as it stands, is apt to deceive the unwary. The book is 
in no sense an abstract treatise on the nature, structure, 
or classification of the American languages, either regarded 
independently or in relation to other forms of speech. It 
has nothing to do with the philosophy, or even with the 
grammar of these idioms taken collectively or individually. 
Its object, if less ambitious, is perhaps far more useful in 
the present state of these studies. American philologists 
have confessedly shown a disposition to dogmatise on the 
morphology of the native idioms, and have indulged in 
some very wild speculation on utterly insufficient data 
regarding their origin, development, and affinities. The 
old school of etymologists, who held that Eliot's Massa- 
chusetts Bible was merely a thinly disguised form of 
Welsh, that Delaware and Lapp were first cousins, and 
that Basque sailors stranded on the Brazilian seaboard 
could hold converse with the Tupinambas and other 
Guarani peoples of that region, has had its day. But it 
has been succeeded by another, which, if slightly more 
cautious, is scarcely less extravagant, and which, not- 
withstanding the warning voice of science, still flourishes 
in both hemispheres. It will suffice here to refer to the 
astonishing theories seriously advocated by the late Abbé 
Brasseur de Bourbourg on the relations of the Maya- 
Quiché and Aryan families, by the Abbé Petitot on the 
Athabascan and Chinese, and ‘quite recently by Mr. John 
Campbell of Montreal on “The Hittites in America.’ 
“The Aleutans and Barabra,’’ writes the last-mentioned 
authority, “agree in being worshippers of the sun like 
other Hittites, in the manufacture of red waterproof 
leather, and in their manner of adorning the head... . 
Physical ethnology would never have dreamt of uniting 
white Basques and Circassians, black Nubians, yellow 
Japanese, and red American Indians; but philology, 
which knows no colour but that of words and construc- 
tions, makes them one. It may be that in the Barabra 
we shall yet find the purest surviving form of the ancient 
Hittite language. Some of its numerals help to connect 
those of the Peruvian dialects with other Hittite forms.” 
One thing more surprising perhaps than such insanities 
is their appearance in the pages of a professedly scientific 
journal (Zhe Canadian Naturalist and Quarterly Journal 
of Science for August, 1880, p. 359). 

A wholesome check to writers inclined to indulge in 
tendencies of this sort is afforded by the modest and 
unpretending character of the work under consideration. 
It is put forward simply as a guide and aid to students in 
the collection of linguistic materials in a very wide field, 
where the labourers are still too few for the urgent and 
extensive character of the work to be performed. It 
thus brings us back to the domain of hard facts, wisely 


504 


NATURE 


| March 31, 1881 


reserving all speculation for a time when these facts will 
have been accumulated in sufficient number to afford a 
sound basis for more general inductions. “The book is 
a body of directions for collectors” (Preface vi.). It is 
divided into three chapters, one “On the Alphabet,”’ 
another containing “Hints and Explanations,’ and a 
third supplying a large number of forms or “ Schedules ” 
to be filled up by the collector. The chapter on the 
Alphabet aims at establishing some uniform system of 
spelling for all the native tongues, and puts forth a com- 
prehensive scheme embodying many useful suggestions 
well deserving the attention of our “spelling reformers.” 
These are summed up in a few fundamental rules, the 
chief of which are the exclusion of all characters and 


diacritical marks except those found in ordinary English | 


printing offices, and the restriction of each sign to a single 
sound. The difficulty of adapting the Roman system to 
the Indian tongues will be understood when it is stated 
that “there are probably sounds in each which do not 
appear in the English or any other civilised tongue; and 
perhaps sounds in each which do not appear in any of the 
others, and further, that there are perhaps sounds in each 
of such a character, or made with so much uncertainty, 
‘that the ear is unable to clearly determine what these 
sounds are, even after many years of effort” (p. 2). 
Nevertheless the difficulty is manfully faced and largely 
overcome by the scheme here adopted, which is founded 


on one originally proposed by Prof. J. D. Whitney, and | 


which is consequently at once scholarly, simple, and 
comprehensive. A few improvements might here and 
there be suggested, but on the whole there is little to 
complain of, except perhaps the use of the circumflex (4), 
to mark both a long @ sound, as in aé/, and a short # 
sound as in éu¢. Some confusion is caused by an 
awkward misprint at p. 5, where this # appears instead of 
the German #7. It might also perhaps be better to indicate 
excessive vowel length by doubling the vowel as in Dutch, 
than by the clumsy addition of the sign +. Thus maan 
rather than ma + 7. 

Chapter II. contains a number of well-digested and 
tersely-expressed remarks on dress, ornaments, dwellings, 
implements, food, colours, plants, animals, medicine, 
social organisation, kinship, government, and many other 
topics, which at first sight seem to have little connection 
with the subject of American philology. But the author 
has wisely endeavoured thus “to connect the study of 


language with the study of other branches of anthro- | 


pology ; for a language is best understood when the 
habits, customs, institutions, philosophy—the subject- 
matter of thought embodied in a language are best 
known. The student of language should be a student of 
the people who speak the language ; and to this end the 
book has been prepared, with many hints and suggestions 
relating to other branches of anthropology” (Preface vi.). 
But besides these matters the chapter contains what will 
be welcomed as a boon by all linguists, a reprint of J. H. 
Trumbull’s masterly paper “On the Best Method of 
Studying the North American Languages,”’ originally 
published in the 7ramsactions of the American Philological 
Association, 1869-70, but strangely neglected by many 
subsequent writers on the subject. No other treatise 
perhaps of equal length contains so clear and philosophic 
an account of the peculiar genius and morphology of 


these polysynthetic tongues. A great deal of space is 
devoted to the question of kinship, the true basis of Indian 
tribal society, and this intricate subject is fully illustrated 
by a series of four “kinship charts’’ or genealogical 
diagrams, which the original investigator will find of the 
greatest service in collecting and arranging his materials. 
| Lhe general student will also find them extremely useful 
in comparing the American systems of family relationship 
with those prevalent especially amongst the Dravidians 
| of the Deccan and the Australian aborigines. Too much 
| importance has perhaps been attached ‘to resemblances ‘of 
| this sort in tracing racial affinities ; but their significance 
in the history of the evolution of human culture is 
undeniable. Connubial society develops into kinship 
society, or the clan, in which all the members are ‘blood 
relations, whence the tribe and nation. It is remarkable 
that the connubial, or lowest form, still so prevalent in 
many parts of the eastern hemisphere, seems to have 
| long disappeared, at least from the northern half of the 
| New World, although some of its customs, especially 
those associated with kinship, still survive in the more 
advanced tribal state. This explains the barbaric wealth 
of family nomenclature with which the Indian languages 
are still encumbered. In the printed forms, or schedules, 
of which Chapter III. exclusively consists, the terms of 
relationship occupy about forty pages, and include 
hundreds of complicate affinities such as, “my father’s 
elder brother’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter,” 
“my father’s mother’s brother’s son’s son’s son’s son,” 
“my mother's father’s brother’s son’s daughter's daughter’s 
daughter,’ “my mother’s mother's sister's daughter’s 
son’s daughter’s daughter,” “my mother’s elder sister's 
daughter's daughter's daughter’s husband.’’ For these, 
and even more intricate degrees of parentage, many native 
tongues supply ‘equivalents, which the collectors are 
accordingly required to discover ‘and insert in the blank 
columns prepared for the purpose in the schedules. The 
arrangement of the other matter contained im these 
schedules seems to be somewhat needlessly involved. At 
least the advantages are scarcely so obvious as the incon- 
venience of breaking up the strictly lexical part into 
upwards of twenty sub-headings, instead of lumping the 
whole in one general vocabulary arranged alphabetically. 
Experience has abundantly shown how troublesome is 
the use of such minutely-classified lists of words even for 
the compiler. This remark does not of course apply to 
the lists of sentences (Schedules 26-9), which appear ‘to 
have been carefully prepared, and are well calculated 
to bring out the structure and varied grammatical forms 
of the Indian languages. A. H. KEANE 


eee ————— eee 


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, No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters.as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space ts so great that it 
is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


Hot Ice 


Tue letter of Mr. Perry (NATURE, vol. xxiii, p, 288) in 
answer to mine on the subject of Dr. Carnelley’s experiment 
(p..264) has remained a long time unanswered, partly because I 


March 31, 188 | 


NATURE 


595 


was led by the letter to suppose that Prof, Ayrton himself might 
have something further to say regarding his views as soon as he 
returned to England, but mainly because I did not see any point 
in it specially requiring an immediate reply. I find however that 
a considerable amount of cautious scepticism and suspense of 
judgment still prevail on the subject—a scepticism which Prof. 
Herschel’s enthusiastic letter of a month ago (p. 383) has not 
gone far to remove, because, though there can be no doubt of his 
confirmation of the fact that ice in a hot vacuum is zfusible 
and disappears slowly, there is nothing in his letter confirming 
the hypothesis that it is 4o/, which is the only point under 
discussion, 

Now for my own part I fully and unreservedly accept this as 
a fact, not only on account of Dr. Carnelley’s experimental 
evidence, but also because I imagine myself to perceive exactly 
why it occurs, and indeed that it might conceivably have been 
conjectured as probable beforehand. 

My present communication therefore is merely to remove as 
far as possible any sense of mystification which Prof. Perry’s 
letter may have tended to produce, and to indicate the ground of 
his error, 

Professors Ayrton and Perry, with their stiff paper models, 
start, if I am not mistaken, on the assumption that the ordinary 
equations deduced from the two laws of thermodynamics will 
apply to the case: and this is exactly how I started myself. I 
considered that it was necessary to investigate the behaviour of 
a substance whose properties were defined, not by two inde- 
pendent variables, as is usual, but by three; the pressure, 
quantity of solid, and temperature, being all three arbitrary and 
independent of each other in the Carnelley experiment ; and I 
extended Clausius’s general equations to suit this case. But it 
was very soon evident that they did not apply at all, and for this 
reason, that the second law is only true for processes that are 
reversible, and the sublimation of hot ice is essentially an zrvever- 
sible process. This is indeed the whole gist of the matter, and it is 
entirely due to this that the ice gets hot. Ordinary evaporation 
of a liquid below its boiling-point against a pressure less than 
its ‘‘ vapour-tension ” is an irreversible process, and accordingly 
the temperature is perfectly indefinite, and depends on the rate 
of supply of heat and on the rate of evaporation. So also with 
ice above the boiling-point, that is, ice subliming under a less 
pressure than the vapour-tension; its temperature depends 
simply on the rate of supply of heat and on the rate of evapo- 
ration. So far everything is perfectly simple and absolutely 
certain. 

The only possible question that can arise is whether internal 
disintegration of the solid will not set in and prevent its rising 
above the boiling-point : whether in fact a solid cannot boil as a 
liquid does. I have given reasons for believing that in a solid 
formed 77 vacuo, or without air-bubbles, and constantly rising 
in temperature, this will not occur ; and I deny that under these 
circumstances it is in a particularly unstable condition analogous 
to that of superheated water on the point of ‘‘ boiling by 
bumping.” 

This however I fully admit is a point distinctly open to dis- 
cussion, and I imagine that without an experiment one could not 
feel at all certain about it. But personally I feel that the evi- 
dence already given us by Dr. Carnelley, together with the 
theoretical probability dicated in my former lctter (p. 264), is 
sufficient and conclusive. 

It was no doubt somewhat staggering to learn (NATURE, vol. 
xxiii, p. 341) that Prof. McLeod, with his well-known experi- 
mental skill, should have hitherto failed to repeat the experiment, 
or to get the ice at all above zero; but I take this as an 
instructive example of those rare cases where refined experi- 
mental appliances are obstructions rather than aids, for I believe 
the failure to he simply due to the fact that Prof. McLeod’s 
vacuum was far too perfect, and the evaporation therefore so 
rapid that the ice did not have a fair chance of showing its 
willingness to rise in temperature ; it could not in fact get even 
as high as o° C. But if Prof. McLeod will discreetly spoil 
his vacuum until the pressure is only just below the vapour- 
tension corresponding to the. temperature shown by his thermo- 
meter, I have no doubt that he will see the ice rise to any 

7 Since this was in type I have received, by the kindness of M. Boutleraw, 
a copy of a paper read by him before the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 
in which he summarises the views which have appeared on the subject, relates 
his failure to repeat the experiment, and confesses himself a sceptic. It 
would.not be doing justice to M. Boutlerow’s carefully-wrought memoir to 
discuss it in a foot-note, but it is my impression that his failure is due to the 


same cause as that which I have ventured to suggest above as accounting for 
Prof. McLeod’s, viz: too perfect apparatus and too great experimental skill. 


temperature he likes, and he will find that when it. is. crossing 
zero it will be utterly regardless.of the fact. 

The same kind of statement applies to solid carbonic acid, on’ 
which I have made a few experiments with a view to raising its 
temperature, I squeezed it into the ice form in a hydraulic 
press (to diminish the evaporating surface), put a thermometer in 
it, and held it over a fire. The evaporation is so excessively 
rapid, however, that it remains apparently just as cold as 
before. 

I have not time to follow it up just now, but the obvious 
thing is to put it under pressure, so as. to diminish the rate of 
evaporation, and then heat it. Prof. McLeod informs me that 
the boiling-point of CO, continues below its melting-; oint 
(which is given by Frankland as —57° C.), until the pressure is 
four atmospheres ; so that anything just under four atmo: pheres 
may be applied to this substance with impunity, and it will then 
be exactly in the most favourable condition for the Carnelley 
experiment ; and I have not the slightest doubt that it can then 
be warmed, and if at the same time the pressure be judiciously 
and gradually increased, that it can be made as warm as one 
pleases until it has all disappeared. 

Experiment with substances other than water however are 
likely to be more difficult, simply because few substances have 
such a Jarge latent heat both in the liquid and gaseous condition, 
and therefore few substances will be anything like so permanent 
and outlive the evaporation so long, OLIVER J. LODGE 

17, Parkhurst Road, N. 


THE announcement made some time since by Dr. Carnelley 
that ice iz vacuo could be raised to a temperature far above its 
ordinary melting-point, seemed so thoroughly in opposition to 
the experience derived from the great work of Regnault on 
the tensions of vapours; and as it called for a complete 
change of ideas in a field in which I am much interested, and as 
Dr. Carnelley asked others to repeat his experiments, I was 
induced to examine for myself the experiments on which so 
curious a statement was founded. 

I used two different methods: the Torricellian vacuum and 
the Sprengel vacuum, As the experiment, as conducted by the 
Torricellian method, can easily be repeated by any one, and is 
much simpler in form than Dr. Carnelley’s, I shall detail it, In 
the first place I wished to obtain a clear continuous piece of ice 
round the thermometer, as Dr. Carnelley’s method gave flaky 
ice, which I found might lead to errors, owing to its discon- 
tinuity leaving the thermometer bare in parts. To obtain clear 
ice the following method was used :—Some distilled water was 
boiled in a test-tabe A fitted with a two-holed stopper, with a ther- 
mometer through one hole dipping into the water ; when all the air 
was expelled, a glass plug was pressed into the other hole against 
the issuing steam, and the whole allowed to cool, and then frozen 
in a freezing-mixture. A long-necked ‘‘German Florence 
flask’? was then rinsed with distilled water and filled with mer- 
cury, and also placed in a freezing-mixture. The tube A was 
then gently warmed with the hand, and the plug of ice adhering 
to the thermometer withdrawn. The glass plug in the second’ 
hole in the stopper was then replaced by a marine barometer- 
tube of about forty inches in length, having been drawn out 
about four inches from the top to facilitate sealing, The plug 
of ice round the thermometer was then inserted into the neck of 
the flask full of mercury, and the stopper pressed home, This 
caused the mercury to rise in the barometer-tube, and the whole 
was then inverted as at B; and when the mercury had all 
tun out, the fall tube was melted through at the constric- 
tion’ B, leaving a Torricellian vacuum above. The fla-k was 
now laid on its side in a freezing-mixture and well covered over 
with ice and salt as at c. After a few minutes, to allow the 
receiver to cool, heat was applied to the neck of the flask with 
a Bunsen lamp, and even with a blowpipe, tul the glass softened, 
but the temperature of the thermometer did not rise until some 
part of it became denuded of ice, or until air had been admitted. 
The experiment was repeated again and again, but in no case 
while the vacuum was intact could the temperature of the ice be 
raised materially above that of the receiver. If the temperature 
oftthe receiver was — 12°, then the ice was a little over — 12°, 
say about — 11°, but never more than two degrees above the 
receiver, although the glass almost in contact with the ice was at 
its softening point. This is exactly what we would expect from 
Regnault’s experiments ; the temperature of the receiver deter- 
mines the vapour-tension, and therefore the ‘‘ boiling point” of 
the ice. The ice was certainly never hot, and was not even 


506 


NATURE 


[March 31, 1881 


infusible, because when pressed against the hot glass; it at once 
splashed out, freezing again in long thin flakes when it obtained 
free space for evaporation. All the heat passing to the ice is 
used up in volatilising it, and increase of the source of heat merely 
increases the rate of evaporation, as in the case of water boiling 
under atmospheric or other constant pressure; provided the 
condenser be efficient. These experiments were repeated with 


different thermometers and thicknesses of ice, varying from 
Linch to the thinnest film, ;, inch, or thereby, and the tempe- 
rature of the ice was always dependent upon the temperature of 
the receiver (when vacuous) and quite independent of the tem- 
perature surrounding it ; the latter merely determining the rate 
Whenever a hole appeared in the ice covering 


of evaporation. 


the thermometer the latter rose, and if close to the hot glass rose 
rapidly, When the ice wore away, as shown at D, the temper- 
ature registered by the thermometer could be made either over or 
under zero, If the source of heat was made to play upon the top 
of the tube, then the temperature would read over zero say 6°, and 
if made to play on the bottom it would read — 8°, the receiver being 
—12°. When however the ice was made to lie on the upper side 
of the thermometer by turning the latter round, the temperature 
could not be raised over zero, and sometimes not over — 4°. 
These experiments were repeated by exhausting with a Sprengel 
pump, and it was invariably found that the pressure of the gas 
or vapour in the receiver determined the temperature of vola- 
tilisation of the ice, and when the ‘‘ vacuum” contained only 


water vapour the temperatures of the receiver and of the ice round 
the thermometer (however far apart they were placed) were prac- 
tically the same. For instance, let the receiver be — 5°, then 
the thermometer in the ice is also — 5° or — 4°; now let the 
receiver be suddenly cooled to — 14° while the flame round the 
ice is urged to a higher temperature ; the ice will nevertheless 
fall to — 13° or thereby ; in short, the éemperature of the “ boil- 
ing” ice is determined by that of the receiver, while the a/c of 
its “‘boiling” is determined by the temperature of the tube 
surrounding it. The ice remains perfectly dry, but if air be 
admitted or the receiver be raised above 0°, melting takes place. 
As it has been objected that the thermometer might yield 
anomalous readings under such conditions (though why I cannot 
see), another method was tried, as shown at E, A small bulb 


blown on the end of a tube open at the other end, and containing 
a little water, had ice frozen round it, as in the case of the ther- 
mometer, and was then placed in the flask as before, so that 
there was a piece of ice under ordinary atmospheric conditions in- 
closed in the ice zz vacuo. The tube round the outer ice was now 
raised to the softening point, but the ice in the bulb did not melt, 
and continued solid till the bulb was denuded of external ice b' 
evaporation, showing that the ice 7 vacuo was never over 0. 
It appears then that ice cannot be raised above o° under any 
circumstances, and that the pressure determines the volatilising ~ 
or ‘‘ boiling” points of both solids and liquids, as Regnault’s 
work would lead us to suppose. 

J. B. HANNAY 

Private Laboratory, Sword Street, Glasgow 


_ BEING a reader of NaTure, I have become quite interested 
in Mr. Thos, Carnelley’s experiments with hot ice. Although 
Mr, Carnelley’s experiments would seem to be sufficiently accu- 
rate to prove that the ice was in a heated condition, I would 
still like to offer an additional method to heat the ice, and als» 
a method to test for heat in the ice. To heat the ice I would 
Suggest a small coil of fine platinum wire placed in position in th = 
tube where the water is to be frozen, and the two ends of the 
coil passed through the sides of the tube and hermetically 
sealed. 

If now the water be frozen around the coil, and a current 
of electricity passed through the wire of sufficient amount to 
heat the wire as much as might be determined upon, and the 


ice yet remain frozen, there would seem to be no doubt about 
the ice having become heated by contact with the hot platinum 
wire. 

The method I would suggest to test for heat in the ice would 
be to take a couple of pieces of heavy platinum wire and pass 
through the sides of the tube and hermetically sealed as before, 
except to have a small space between the two ends of the wire 
on the inside of the tube, of one-eighth or one-quarter inch, or 
as much space as might be thought best. 

If now the water be frozen between the ends or all round the 
ends of the wire, and a small battery and galvanometer be put 
in circuit with the terminals of the platinum wire, and a gas 
jet be applied to heat the ice, if the ice becomes heated the 


March 31, 1881 | 


NATURE 


507 


galvanometer should show a stronger current of electricity pass- 

ing, on the principle that most, if not all, non-metallic sub- 

stances that are conductors of electricity become better conduc- 

tors on the application of heat. I judge that the galvanometer 

test would be a very perfect one. GEORGE B, RICHMOND 
Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A., March 5 


The Oldest Fossil Insects 


I sHALL be glad if you will afford me an opportunity of 
explaining one or two personal matters referred to in p. 11 of 
Mr. Scudder’s memoir on the Devonian Insects of New Bruns- 
wick, which was mentioned in your last number (pp. 483, 4). 
He very justly takes exception to some bibliographical and 
orthographical errors committed by me in 7vans, Entom. Soc. 
Lond, 1871, pp. 38-40, in a notice of fossil insects named and 
described by him, and naturally regards them as evidence of 
insufficient study of the literature relating to them, It is difficult 
to say precisely what happened upwards of ten years ago, but I 
am satisfied that the mistakes must have arisen in one or the 
other of these two ways. Either I attributed the authorship of 
the names to the person who first published figures of the fossils, 
on the ground that names bestowed upon insect-fossils by the 
publication of descriptions, without accompanying figures, rank 
as mere ‘‘ Catalogue” or MS. names devoid of priority ; or else 
they are due to circumstances under which the citations were 
collated. Closely pressed for time, and without much experience 
in the art of citation, it is as likely as not that, after forming an 
opinion upon the plates and consulting the letterpress to see what 
the author had to say about them, I referred from force of habit 
to the title-page of the volume for the date of publication and 
the author’s name, instead of turning to the heading of the article 
for this last. 

In the same page of his memoir Mr. Scudder alludes to the 
following passages in p. 39 of my work, over which we had 
some fun when he was last in England, though the strictures 
were not aimed at him more than at the others. ‘* Palzon- 
tologists have adopted a ridiculous course with regard to some 
insect fossils, Whenever an obscure fragment of a well-reticu- 
late insect’s wing is found in a rock, a genus is straightway cet 
up, and the fossil named as a new sfecies. The species is then 
referred to the Zphemeride, and is immediately pronounced to 
be a synthetic type uf insects at present distantly related to one 
another in organisation. This enunciation of synthetic types is 
often nothing less than a resort to random conjecture respecting 
the affinities of animals which the writer is at a loss to classify. 
An insect allied to the Zphemeride which chirped like a locust 
(such as Xenoneura is imagined to have been), is a tolerable 
sample of these synthetic types. When a fossil comprises only 
a fragment, or even a complete wing of an Ephemerid, it is 
hardly possible to determine the ges, and impossible to assert 
the sfeczes. The utmost that can be learned from such a speci- 
men is the approximate relations of the insect. Neuration by 
itself is not sufficient to define the species or even the genera of 
recent Zphemeride.”’ What I meant to be deduced from this 
was thar, where in the nature of things actual precision is un- 
attainable, palzeontologists should be content to learn and state 
the ‘‘approximate relations” of fossil insects, and not presume 
upon the ignorance of scientific men in the matter of genera and 
species. And I further thought that the Zphemerid@ had served 
quite long enough as an asylum for fossil cripples; I wished to 
intimate gently that refuse of other groups of insects should 
be henceforth ‘‘ shot” elsewhere, 

Mr. Scudder does not know by whom the Devonian insects 
“fhave all been regarded as allies of the Ephemeride.” My 
authority for stating such to have been the case is Sir John Lub- 
bock’s Presidential Address in Zrans. Ent. Soc. London, v. ; 
Proc, cxxviii. (1868), where ‘‘ Haplophiebium Barnesii . . . is 
referred to the Ephemerina,” and likewise ‘‘ Platephemera 
antigua, Homothetus fossilis, Lithentomon Hartii, and Xenoneura 
antiquorum” are said to be ‘‘all Neuropterous and allied to the 
Ephemeridz.’’ As members of this family they are quoted by 
Marschall. Dyscritus vetustus was not cited by Sir John; but 
since Mr. Scudder now states it (p. 22) to be ‘‘most closely 
allied” to Homothetus, there was no harm dore in classing it 
with the rest. 

The reason why I thought, prior to the publication of Dr, 
Hagen’s letter in NATURE, that Platephemera might have been 
an Ephemeron, was that in some respects Mr. Scudder’s figure 
presents an appreciable likeness to the neuration of the fore-wing 


in species of Palingenia, of which I possess unpublished 
drawings; but these certainly are not quite so odonatous in 
detail as Platephemera. Without inspecting actual specimens, 
it is hazardous to pronounce an opinion about fossils. 
A. E, EATON 
Chepstow Road, Croydon, S.W., March 28 


Oceanic Phenomenon 

From the description given by Dr. Coppinger of the ‘‘con- 
fervoid alga’’ observed on board H.M.S Alert some 200 miles 
to the scuthward of Tongatabu (NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 482), the 
conferva in question would appear to be of a species similar to 
that from which the Red Sea is said to obtain its name. Whilst 
proceeding up the Red Sea in H.M.S. Hornet during the month 
of June of last year, I had many opportunities of observing 
the dirty-reddish scum on its surface—a phenomenon which must 
be familiar to all navigators of this sea. Each of the little 
bundles composing it measured about 3/;th of an inch in length and 
ztsth in breadth, and contained from twenty to fifty filaments, 
each filament being composed of a linear series of short cells, 
and measuring z/55th of an inch in breadth. I did not observe 
the discoid bodies referred to by Dr. Coppinger, but their absence 
may be explained by assigning to this conferva a particular 
season for the production of these bodies. Scattered among the 
bundles were tiny spherical bodies possessing a bristly appear- 
ance, which proved to be formed of a confused network of the 
filaments that composed the bundles. 

This conferva would appear to have a very wide distribution. 
It was observed by Mr. Darwin near the Abrothos Islets which 
lie off the east coast of South America ; and it is with regard to 
this phenomenon that the author of the ‘Journal of the Beagle” 
thus writes:—‘‘ Mr. Berkeley informs me that they are the 
same species (7 ichodesmium erythreum) with that found over 
large spaces in the Red Sea, and whence its name of Red Sea 
is derived. In almost every long voyage some account is given 
of these conferve. They appear especially common in the sea 
near Australia; and off Cape Leeuwin I found an allied but 
smaller and apparently different species. Capt. Cook in his 
third voyage remarks that the sailors gave to this appearance the 
name of sea sawdust.” H. B. Guppy 

17, Woodlane, Falmouth, March 28 


The Banks of the Yang-tse at Hankow 


AT the end of January, 1878, when the waters of the Yang-tse 
occupied their lowest level, I had the opportunity of examining 
the left bank of the river immediately below the foreign settle- 
ment. The bank, which varied from thirty to thirty-five feet in 
height, did not present a single perpendicular face, but was cut 
up into two or more terraces formed by the lingering of the 
waters at those levels for some extent of time. A calcareous 
leam, homogeneous in appearance and dark in colour, composed 
the entire bank with the exception of the upper portion, where 
a layer of sand a few inches in thickness separated two layers of 
laminated loam, each of them of similar thickness, After a 
little trouble I was enabled to observe that the apparently homo- 
geneous loam was made up of fine horizontal layers varying from 
one-thirtieth to one-tenth of an inch in thickness ; but the lamin- 
ation was often concealed ; and it was only where the loam had 
been freshly broken away that the layers were sufficiently distinct 
to be counted. Shells were embedded in the loam, but mostly 
in the lower half of the bank ; those of the genus ‘‘ Paludina” 
were the most abundant, whilst bivalves of the genus ‘‘ Cor- 
bicula” occurred, but not in any numbers. The upper three 
feet of the river-bank were riddled with the burrows of annelids, 
and these burrows were often filled with little rounded masses of 
loam, evidently the excrementitious droppings of the worms. 

If, as in the case of the alluvial valley of the Nile, it be con- 
sidered that each of the fine layers which compose the bank of 
the Yang-tse was deposited during the periodic annual inunda- 
tion of the river, then every layer will represent a year’s deposit 
and taking the average thickness of each layer to Le one-twentieth 
of an inch, it would require twenty years to form an inch and a 
century to form five inches ; whilst the whole thickness as ex- 
posed in the river-bank would require for its formation a period 
of between 7000 and 8000 years.* 

I The borings and excavations round the pedestal of the statue of Rameses 
at Memphis enabled Mr. Horner to estimate the rate of deposition of the 
alluvium of the Nile at 3} inches in a century. (Vide Lyell’s ‘‘ Principles 
of Geology.’’) 


508 


NATURE 


[Warch 31, 1881 


It may be pertinent to the subject of this paper to remark on | 


the general appearance of the region around Hankow. A vast 
alluvial plain extends to the horizon in all directions; whilst 
dotted over its surface are several shallow lakes, which are lost 
in the general flood of waters when the Yang-tse overflows its 
banks in the summer months. Rising abruptly out of this 
alluvial formation are a few isolated groups of low hills, which 
in the time of flood stand out like islands from the surrounding 
waste of waters. 

It would be interesting to asertain whether the banks of the 
Yang tse possess this lamination whenever the river winds its 
way through an alluvial plain. I noticed the same appearance 
in the low banks of the estuary near the village of Wusung ; the 
shorizontal layers varying in this instance from one-tenth to one- 
fourteenth of an inch in thickness. Shells of both fresh-water 
and salt-water genera—‘‘ Paludina” and ‘‘ Mactra”—were em- 
bedded in the bank, H. B, Guepy 


An Experiment on Inherited Memory 


WHEN I was a boy I had an electrical machine and Leyden 
jar ; there was also a dog in the family. As a matter of course 
I ‘‘electrified” the dog, and ever afterwards during ‘the ‘re- 
mainder of his natural lite he ran away in extreme terror when a 
bottle was presented to him. 

The recollection of this has recently suggested an experiment 
that may be made by some of the readers of NATURE. By 
means of a small Leyden jar moderately charged startle doth the 
father and the mother of an intended forthcoming generation of 
puppies. When these are full grown and away from their 
parents observe whether they are at all disturbed by the sight 
of a bottle or a Leyden jar, care being taken that the bottle is 
never shown to the parents in the presence of the offspring. 

A single experiment will not be sufficient. It should be tried 
by several; for which reason I suggest it here. There is no 
more cruelty involved than in an ordinary practical joke. It is 
not the pain of the shock, but its startling mystery that frightens 
the animal, especially if the shock is given by placing the jar on 
a piece of tinfoil or sheet metal, and allowing the dog sponta- 
neously to investigate by smelling the knob of the jar while his 
fore-feet are in communication with the outer coating. Under 
ordinary circumstances the dog obtains through his nose much 
information concerning the properties of things before he actually 
touches them, but in this case his whole life experience is con- 
tradicted by the mysterious, inodorous, diabolical vitality of the 
vitreous fiend. A bottle thenceforth makes upon the intellect 
of the dog a similar impression to that which a sheeted broom- 
stick in a churchyard makes upon the similar intellect of a 
superstitious rustic, W. Matriev WILLIAMS 

Stonebridge Park, Willesden j 


Meteors 


THREE very bright meteors were observed here during the 
month of December, 1880, and are, I think, worthy of record. 

1. December 2, th. 14m. 50s. a.m. A meteor brighter than 
Jupiter descended towards the west point of the horizon, passing 
about 1° N. of Saturn, and somewhat farther from Jupiter, and 
in a line therefore nearly parallel to that joining those two 
planets. The train was visible about three seconds. 

2. December 8, toh, 55m. 30s. p.m. A meteor as bright as 
Jupiter descended towards the north point of the horizon, about 
I° below 7 Ursz Majoris, its path being inclined at an angle of 
about 35° to the horizon. The train was brilliant, but vanished 
speedily. 

3. December 24, toh. 4m. p.m. A very bright meteor, seen 
through (or below) the clouds in the south-south-east, shot down 
towards the south-south-west point of the horizon, at an angle of 
about 30. No-stars were visible in that part of the heavens at 
the time, J. PARNELL 

Upper Clapton, March 17 


Classification of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races 


IN your issue of December 20 (p. 499), just to hand (February 
12), I notice a contribution by Mr. A. H. Keane on the classi- 
fication of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic races. 

As the Orang Semang of the Malay Peninsula is only just 
referred to, I conclude that the author has not seen Maclay’s 


papers on the wild tribes of the Malayan Peninsula in the 
second number of the Yournal of the Straits Branch of the Royai 
Asiatic Societyand.a. memoir by the same writer in the Yournal 
of Eastern Asia, of which unfortunately only one number 
appeared. On the Jakuns, Maclay, who has probably seen more 
of their inner life and habits than any other ethnologist, writes 
as follows of the Semang and Lakai tribes :—“ Logan” (Yournal 
of the Indian Archipelago, vol. vii. p. 31, 32); “ though differing 
from some others, says that the Orang Semang are certainly 
LVegritos, but he calls them a mixed race. According to my 
experience I must declare this also to be incorrect. 

‘“Frommy own experience and observations I have come to the 
conclusion ‘that the Orang Lakai and the Orang Semang are 
tribes of the same stock, that further, in their physical adztus 
and in respect of language they are closely connected with each 
other, and represent a pure unmixed branch of the Melanesian 
race; anthropologically therefore they absolutely differ from the 
Malays. The Melanesian tribes of the Malay Peninsula, chiefly 
because of the form of: their skull, which has a tendency to be 
brachycephalic, approach the Megritos of the Philippines, and, 
like the ilatter, they do not differ very widely from the Papuan 
tribes of New Guinea.” 

In the fifth number of the Yournal of the Straits Branch of 
the R.A.S.,-Mr. Swettenham, the Assistant Colonial Secretary 
oN the Native States S.S., thus describes the Semangs of 

Jon :— 

‘« These people are short in stature, dark in colour, and their 
hair is close and woolly like that of negroes, with this differ- 
ence, that all the men wear four or five short tufts or corkscrews 
of hair growing on the back of their heads, called jaméi.” 

During my botanical excursion through Perak in 1877 I 
had two Semanes as guides, answering to Mr. Swettenham’s 
description. 

The Straits Branch of the R.A.S. is as yet in its infancy, 
having been established only in 1877, and its Fournal has pro- 
bably not yet secured a very wide circulation, although the five 
numbers that have been published contain probably more 
authentic information about the Malayan Peninsula than can be 
found elsewhere. 

The characters Mr. Keane has employed to indicate the word 
‘* papitwah” are certainly not Malayan; at any rate it would be 
a matter of impossibility to secure the services of a Malay in 
Singapore who would be capable of deciphering them. The 
word, which is a corruption of the Malayan or Javanese adjec- 


tive puwah-puwah, is usually spelt thus— w 


Writing about New Guinea, Crawfurd (‘‘A Descriptive Dic- 
tionary of the Indian Islands,” p. 300) thus expresses himself 
about the word Papua:—‘‘Some recent geographers have 
thought proper to give the great island the name of Papua, ‘but 
an innovation which is correct neither in sound, sense nor ortho- 
graphy seems to possess no advantage over one which it has 
borne now for nearly three centuries and a half.” 

It may not be out of place here to remark that Messrs. 
Triibner and Co. are the London azents of the Straits R.A.S. 

Singapore S.S., February 12 H. J. MuRTON 


Fascination 


IN the interior of the province Valdivia, South Chili, a species 
of wood-snipe (Paipayen inc.) is often caught by the natives in 
the following manner :—When the bird flies into one of the low 
bushes, which in spots of about three to six metres diameter are 
found frequently in the wood-meadows there, two men on horse- 
back go round it in the same direction, swinging their lazos over 
the bush. After ten or more rounds one man slips down from 
his horse, whilst the other continues, leading his companion’s 
horse behind. Carefully then the first man creeps on to the point, 
where the paipayen is sitting nearly motionless or stupefied with 
the rider’s circular movements, and kills it by a quick blow of a 
stick. 

When I first was told so I would not believe it; but in 1853 
or 1854 I took part myself inthis kind of capture in the hacienda 
San Juan, in Valdivia, belonging to my chief, Dr. Philippi, 
now professor in the University and director of the museum in 
Santiago. I had left the house without gun, accompanied by a 
native servant, when, in a part of the wood called Quemas, I 
observed a paipayen falling into a dense but low bush of the 


March 3\, 1881 | 


NATURE 


509 


above-mentioned kind. Desiring ‘to obtain a good specimen of 
this not very common bird for our collection, I expressed my 
regret at not having the gun, but the servant replied: ‘‘ Never 
mind, if you wish, we will get the bird.” And he caught it 
with my assistance in the above way without injuring it. 
Marburg, March 16 CARL OCHSENIUS 


Flying-Fish 
JUNE 11, 1873, at sea 300 miles south of Panama, I sawa 
man-of-war hawk and a school of bonitos in pursuit of a school 
of flying-fish. As one of the latter came out of the water, 
closely pursued by his enemy, the hawk swooped down, not fifty 
yards from ‘the ship, but missed his prey, the fish apparently 
turning from its course to avoid him, A second attempt was 
more successful, and the hawk flew off with the flying-fish in his 
talons. The whole affair was plainly seen, as also was the 
continued chase of the flying-fish by the bonitos. 
ALLAN D. BROUN, 
Commander U.S. Navy 
U.S. Torpedo Station, Newport, R.I., U.S.A., March 10 


THE OXFORD COMMISSIONERS ON 
PROFESSORS 


\ E are not disposed to agree with the outcry which 

has been raised in some quarters in reference 
to the proposition of the Oxford University Commis- 
sioners to enact certain regulations with the view of 
compelling Oxford Professors to reside in the University 
and to give lectures. 

Some of the Commissioners’ regulations relating to 
this subject appear to many to be ill-advised, but they 
have been improved by the recent modifications, and the 
general intention seems not only a right one, but also 
one which must be carried out whenever public opinion 
is brought to bear on the matter. 

A very simple view of the matter may be suggested. The 
professors in the English Universities might be put on 
the same footing as are the professors in German Uni- 
versities. In those Universities the professors carry on 
abundant research; they also give very numerous lec- 
tures, usually what may be called “ representative 
courses,” that is, courses in which an attempt is made 
to present to the student the main outlines and much 
of the detail of the subject professed. Even in the 
Collége de France at Paris, which is zo¢ (strictiy speaking) 
an educational institution, each professor is required to 
give an annual course of lectures (to the number of forty, 
we believe). 

Research and the advancement of learning are, we do 
not fora moment doubt, the highest, and therefore in a 
certain sense the first business of University professors. 
It is perhaps because this is so generally admitted that 
the Commissioners did not at first insist upon it. But it is 
in order that he may teach—not huge popular audiences 
nor cram-classes, but devoted thoroughgoing students— 
that the professor creates new knowledge. His best 
result is not new knowledge itself, but new youthful inves- 
tigators ready and able to carry on the researches which 
he has commenced, and through which they have learnt 
method and gained enthusiasm. There is no stimulus to 
research so healthy and so sure as that afforded by the 
opportunity of converting a class of generous-minded 
young men into ardent disciples and loving fellow-workers, 

Hence, it may be maintained, there is no neces- 
sary antagonism between true professorial teaching (Z.e. 
definite courses of lectures) and the profoundest study 
and research. 

That the Commissioners have introduced no binding 
regulations with the object of forcing a professor to carry 
on research, is, we believe, a proof of wisdom and a 
just tribute to the dignity of such work. No regulations 
can make an investigator: the question as to whether a 
given professorship will be used for the advancement of 


science and learning is decided before any regulations 
can have effect, viz., when the choice of a person to fill 
the post is made. If he is a ‘‘searcher” already, he will 
remain so; if he is not, a bad choice will have been 
made, and no regulations as to research can ‘ever 
amend it. It is, however, well that the Commissioners 
have seen fit to improve their first set of regulations in so 
far as to state that an Oxford professor is expected to 
advance the study of the subject to which his chair is 
assigned. 

The measures which the Commissioners propose for 
insuring the delivery of lectures by Oxford professors 
are objectionable on the ground that they are purely 
penal. They should be persuasive. The German ‘pro- 
fessor is only too glad to give a thorough and attractive 
course of lectures if he has it in him to do so, because ‘he 
thereby doubles or trebles the income which he derives 
from endowment. The Oxford Commissioners have made 
a great mistake in prohibiting the professors from charging 
fees for the compulsory course of two or three lectures a 
week. All students, whether belonging to the professor’s 
own college or not, should be liable to pay fees ‘to the 
professors for attendance on their courses of instruction, 
whether lectures or laboratorial. It is only by so arranging 
the position and endowment of a professor that he is both 
able and willing to increase his income by the fees paid 
by his class, that a really firm and satisfactory basis for 
the regulation of a professor’s duties can be obtained. 

It has been maintained that where an income derived 
from an endowment of 600/. can be increased to rooo/. a 
year by the receipts from lecture-fees, the professor will be 
anxious to give such lectures as will attract students—and 
in spite of objections ready to hand, it is held that those 
are the lectures which should begiven. It is not true that 
a professor so circumstanced will necessarily degenerate 
into a mere examination coach. If he should be tempted 
to do so the fault lies with the examination. The pro- 
fessor should himself have a voice in the arrangement ‘of 
the examination, and care should be taken by the Uni- 
versity that it is so organised and defined in all its parts 
that students who have carefully followed a high class of 
professorial teaching, such as would be offered by a 
Huxley, a Ludwig, a Bunsen, or a Fischer, should come 
to the front in it rather than those who have crammed 
with some newly-fledged classman, or with an -expe- 
rienced “coach’’ versed in all the artifices of sham 
knowledge. 

It appears to be an excellent and necessary provision to 
which it is to be hoped that the Commissioners will adhere 
in spite of all opposition, that the professors in each 
faculty should with other University teachers in the same 
faculty constitute a council having the power of con- 
trolling to some extent the lectures of each individual 
professor. There is no degradation in this; it is the 
almost universal custom in existing Universities. The 
faculty has to provide for the teaching of its proper 
studies, and naturally must exercise a friendly control 
over the extent and scope of the courses of instruction 
offered by its members. 

It is owing to the absence of any such control at the 
present moment that even by those Oxford professors 
who do lecture, no representative course on amy subject is 
ever given. A student in Oxford cannot by any possibility 
attend a thorough cowsse of lectures or laboratory instruc- 
tion in physiology, nor in zoology, nor in botany, nor in 
physics, nor in chemistry. And yet in the smallest as 
well as the largest of the often despised ‘‘medical schools ” 
of London, a student has provided for him courses of 
from thirty to a hundred lectures every year in all these 
subjects, as well as in others, to be attended, of course, in 
successive sessions. The same absence of complete or 
representative courses of instruction is to be noted at 
Oxford in other departments, such as philology, archzo- 
logy, various departments of history, &c. 


510 

The sole cause of the existence of such complete 
courses in other institutions than Oxford—over and 
above the primary one connected with the income from 
fees—is that the professor has to submit his scheme of 
lectures for the ensuing session or year in a general way 
to his colleagues, who would suggest to him a more 
complete or more representative program, were his 
proposals considered insufficient, and might take steps to 
supplement his teaching by the appointment of a supple- 
mentary professor (thus diminishing the original pro- 
fessor’s income from fees), were he to prove intractable. 

The keystone of the professorial system, on which all 
such control and persuasion, co-operation and reciprocal 
criticism, must rest, is the income from class-fees. In 
having not only not insisted upon this, but in having 
actually prohibited the free levying of fees, the Oxford 
Commissioners have made their scheme for professors 
absolutely unworkable. They have simply played into 
the hands of those who have at present a most injurious 
monopoly of the fees paid by students, and who give in 
return as little and as inadequate teaching as they please, 
namely, the confederacy of boarding-house keepers 
known as ‘‘ college tutors and lecturers.’ 

The proposal that professors should examine their 
classes and report to the Heads of Colleges as to the per- 
formance of each student was characterised by a spirit of 
petty interference quite unworthy of the large objects 
placed before the Commissioners, and has very properly 
been withdrawn. Such details, together with some other 
points, might well have been left by the Commissioners 
to the Councils of Faculties, which they so wisely intend 
to bring into existence. 

It may be urged that if the Commissioners were to con- 
fine themselves in these and similar matters to creating 
the organisation which is terribly needed at Oxford, and 
of which these Councils of Faculties promise to be the 
most powerful and important part, they might with very 
great advantage leave the question of terminal examina- 
tions, and the scale of fees to be charged for lectures, 
&c., to be worked out by the reorganised University itself. 
But instead of prohibiting class-fees they should have 
strengthened the hands of the professoriate in the com- 
petition with the powerful band who are interested in 
maintaining the disastrous and absurd system of college 
tuition and tuition-fees. So long as the undergraduate is 
forced to pay to college tutors a lump sum of 25/. a year, 
he will seek his instruction (whether he finds it or not) 
from those whom he has been compelled to pay, and not 
from the professors whom he is not allowed to pay. 

It is clear that with the present body of free-holders it 
was necessary for the Commissioners to insist on the 
new principle that a professor is not to be free froin 
responsibility (Lehv/retheit, we may observe, does not 
mean “freedom /yom teaching,” as some writers who 
in the daily papers have recently appealed to German 
precedents almost seem to fancy), but is, on the contrary, 
to be charged with certain duties and to be responsible 
in a measure to his brother professors for performing 
those duties in a satisfactory manner. 


ACADEMICUS 


THE INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL 
CONGRESS 


Tis Congress is to hold its second session at Bologna, 
commencing on September 29, 1881, under the presi- 
dency of Signor Q. Sella, president of the Accademia 
dei Lincei of Rome, and under the patronage of His 
Majesty the King of Italy, who has liberally placed the 
necessary funds at the disposal of the Italian Committee 
of Organisation, of which Prof. J. Capellini of the 
Bologna Museum is the president, and General Taran- 
nelli of the University of Pavia the secretary. 
The movement sprang out of a suggestion made at a 


NATURE 


[Murch 31, 188% 


meeting of the American Association of Science held at 
Buffalo, New York, August 25, 1876, that an Interna- 
tional Geological Congress was advisable, to insure 
uniformity of methods of representing geological pheno- 
mena, and the value of terms. Towards this end a com- 
mittee of organisation was formed, of which Prof. 
James Hall was president and Dr. Sterry Hunt secre- 
tary, in which England was represented by Prof. Huxley, 
and Sweden by Dr. Otto Torell. The result of their 
deliberations was the first session of the Congress held 
at Paris, in the Palace of the Trocadéro, under the presi- 
dency of Prof. Hébert and the patronage of the Minister 
of Public Instruction. At the Congress, which lasted six 
days, two International Commissions were appointed, the 
one to consider geological cartography, with a view of 
adopting a common system of signs and colours, the 
other to investigate the possibility of effecting the unifi- 
cation of geological nomenclature and to consider all 
matters relating to stratigraphical classification and 
nomenclature, to a certain extent involving an inquiry 
into the value and significance of petrological and 
paleontological characters. A third Commission, entirely 
French, was «lso appointed to report on Bologna, on the 
rules to be followed in establishing the nomenclature of 
species in mineralogy and palzontology. 

M. Renevier, general secretary of the first Commission, 
has just published his second report of progress, and 
states that advantage was taken of the presence of several 
members of the Commission during the fiftieth anni- 
versary meeting of the Geological Society of France on 
April 2, 1880, to hold a meeting of the Commission at 
which five European countries were represented, under 
the presidency of M. Daubrée; since then, more or less 
detailed reports from nearly all the committees represent- 
ing different countries have been received, except from 
Canada, presided over by Mr. Selwyn, and Great Britam 
by Prof. Ramsay. In some of these schemes there is a 
considerable amount of agreement. Quaternary deposits. 
being represented by a pale green, Pliocene by pale 
yellow, Miocene dark yellow or orange, Eocene by bistre, 
Cretaceous by green, Jurassic by blue, Lias by violet, 
Trias by burnt sienna, Permian and Carboniferous by 
dark grey, Devonian by brown, or brown stripes on pink, 
Crystalline schists by rose carmine, Granite by dark 
carmine, divisions in the various rocks being expressed 
by tints of the same colour, or by shading or dotting. _ 

The General Secretary of the Commission for the Um- 
fication of Nomenclature is M. Devalque, who reports 
that this Commission also met at the Paris Geological 
Society’s anniversary, France being represented by M- 
Hébert, Switzerland by Prof. A. Favre, and Great Britain 
by Prof. Hughes. The latter Commissioner, aided by 
Prof. Prestwich, has now succeeded in organising a 
British sub-Commission, who have appointed six com- 
mittees to inquire into groups of formations, and (1) to 
draw up a list of the names now in use; (2) to ascertain 
the true significance of such names or terms, giving refer- 
ence to the authors by whom they were used in the first 
instance, or subsequently with a modified meaning ; (3) 
to investigate into the synonomy of such names and terms 
in the first place as regards the British Isles, and after- 
wards to inquire into their correlation with them in use in 
other areas ; and (4) to offer suggestions for the unifica- 
tion of the nomenclature. As the committees can seldom 
sit, as their members are scattered, they have been 
modelled on the principle of the Inquiry Committees of 
the British Association, and have attached to them one 
or two “reporters,’’ charged with assimilating the views 
and facts collected by the Committee. The reporters for 
the British Isles, are for Recent and Tertiary rocks, Messrs. 
Starkie Gardner and H. B. Woodward ; for Cretaceous 
rocks Messrs. Topley and Jukes-Browne; for Jurassic 
rocks Messrs. Huddlestone and Blake; for Trias and 


Permian, Mr. De Rance and the Rey. A. Irving; for 


March 31, 1881] 


Carboniferous, Devonian, and Old Red, Messrs. Morton 
and Strahan; for Silurian, Cambrian, and Pre-Cambrian, 
Messrs. Lapworth and Marr. For chemical, dynamical 
geology, petrology,and mineral veins Messrs. Bauerman 
and T. Davies. 

The last-mentioned committee is specially to consider 
the question of nomenclature under the following general 
heads: (1) Terms founded on physical characters; (2) 
founded on mineral composition ; (3) founded on names 
of places ; (4) founded on local peculiarities and common 
usage; (5) founded on theories of origin and other hypo- 
theses; (6) synonyms; (7) suggestions for systematising 
and for unification of nomenclature. 

The Sub-commission or General Committee has Prof. 
Hughes for its chairman, and Mr. E. B. Tawney for its 
secretary ; its duty is to receive the reports of the Com- 
mittees and to consider the value of terms. The list of 
names forming the Sub-Commission includes those of 
Mr. Etheridge, P.G.S., Professors Bonney, Boyd Dawkins, 
Haughton, Hull, Judd, Lebour, Morris, Prestwich, Rupert 
Jones, and Seeley ; Doctors Clement Le Neve Fos er, 
Evans, Geikie, J. Geixie, Hicks, Nicholson, and Sorby, 
and the names already mentioned, of members acting 
as Reporters, Secretary, and the Chairman. The Sub- 
Commission consider that the word sys¢evz should be used 
as the term indicating the largest sub-division, applied to 
a group which stands by itself, easily and clearly distin- 
guishable from the rocks above and the rocks below, 
bounded above and below by triads in stratigraphical 
regions, and characterised by special forms of life. 
Formation expresses a smaller group, with some litho- 
logical and paleontological characters in common, but 
which may be in continuous sequence with the rocks 
above and below. Defoszt implies similarity of litho- 
logical character. Layers, lamina, bed, group, series, and 
rock are still under discussion. Zoze and horizon were 
defined ; but cycle and data were left open questions. 

Through the liberality of His Majesty the King of 
Italy, the committee of organisation are able to offer 
a prize of 5000 francs for the best suggestion for an 
international scale of colours and conventional signs 
practically applicable to geological maps and sections, 
including those of small scale. The index of colours 
and signs should be accompanied by maps representing 
regions of varied geological structure, and by an explana- 
tory memoir in the French language. The documents 
should be marked with a motto, which should be placed 
on the outside of an envelope containing the name of the 
author, which will not be opened until the Congress, when 
the name of the successful competitor will be made known 
The index and accompanying papers should be sent in to 
Prof. J. Capellini, director of the Museum at Bologna, by 
the end of May. The award will be made by a jury of 
five chosen from the presidents of sub-commissions. 
Should no index be thought worthy of the grand prize, 
the best will receive a gold medal of the value of 1000 
francs, while to the two next will be given medals of 
silver and bronze of similar shape. C. E. DE RANCE 


THE FALLS OF NIAGARA IN WINTER 


[IN the first week of last February it fell to my lot to 

make very hurriedly the transcontinental journey of 
3500 miles from San Francisco to New York. Before 
starting I resolved that the one stoppage which I could 
allow myself e vowfe should be made at Niagara. I had 
visited the Falls in the early summer of 1879, and was so 
profoundly impressed by them that I could not resist the 
opportunity of seeing them again under their wintry 
aspect ; and I was confirmed in my resolve by seeing 
statements in various American papers to the effect that, 
owing to the long-continued and exceptionally severe cold 
of the present winter, the Ice-mountains at the Falls were 


NATURE 


511 


higher than had ever been previously known. These 
statements were confirmed to me on the spot by several 
persons long resident in the village. 

Two or three preliminary notes on the journey across 
the Rocky Mountains in midwinter may not be without 
interest for the readers of NATURE. I left San Francisco 
on February 2nd in the midst of most serious floods, and 
on that particular day they attained their maximum, which 
was one inch higher than any previously recorded. It 
was estimated that 3500 square miles of the most fertile 
land of California was under water, and in many parts 
steamboats of light draught were plying over the country. 
Any assessment of damage would have to be made by 
millions of dollars. I heard many and grievous com- 
plaints of the damage done to the agricultural interests of 
the country by the “hydraulic mining,’’ which washed 
the hillsides down into the river beds, filling them up, and 
thus prevented much flood-water from being carried off. 
In some places the railroad track had been apparently 
washed away, for it could not be found, and from this 
cause our journey to Sacramento was lengthened about 
fifty miles, as the gigantic ferry-boat So/ano could not be 
used for the short route. This boat has four tracks upon 
it, and will carry twenty-four cars. As each car seats 
fifty people, this is equal to carrying a train that will 
accommodate 1200 people. It has four side-wheels, each 
with its engine and set of boilers. In crossing the 
Sierras we encountered little snow, but a great deal of 
rain. The greatest amount of snow on the journey was 
in the upper part of the Weber Cafion, 100 miles east of 
Ogden and Salt Lake. Here there had been consider- 
able difficulty in keeping the line open during January, 
but the train-service had not been interrupted fora single 
day, although the snow-sheds and snow-ploughs were 
censtantly required. That the weather had been un- 
usually severe was shown by the very large number of 
dead cattle along the line, from Ogden across the 
Laramie plains, and also, I was informed, in Colorado. 
In the four days between San Francisco and Omaha 
(where we arrived punctually), the terminus of the Pacific 
Railroad, the temperature was never below 26° F., and 
the air so still that I frequently saw smoke rings from 
the locomotive funnel expand to 6 or even 8 feet diameter, 
rising perhaps 30 or 4o feet in doing so. All the cars 
were warmed, usually to too great an extent, from 70° to 
75° F., being the normal temperature for the interior of 
railway cars, hotels, private houses, and schools, as far 
as my experience went. 

East of the Missouri (which, like all the rivers I 
crossed, was frozen over) trains were everywhere very 
much delayed, owing to snowstorms, or to the slippery 
state of the rails, which were coated with ice. The utmost 
caution was used by those in charge of trains, and a 
strong impression was left on my mind that safety, and 
not speed or punctuality, was the primary consideration 
in such American railway management as I came 
across. 

On leaving Chicago a phenomenon presented itself 
which is common enough in America, though but rarely 
seen in this country, and never on so gigantic a scale. 
For several days the temperature had been very low, and 
every object was exceedingly cold. On the night of 
February 6th, the air-temperature rose to 33 F., and fine 
rain fell. This froze upon everything and encased it with 
transparent ice, from which in many instances delicate 
icicles depended. Sad havoc was played with the over- 
head telegraph wires in Chicago itself (which were broken 
by the weight) ; but on leaving the city in the early 
morning the exceeding beauty of the whole country, 
usually so uninteresting from its flatness, became appa- 
rent. A light coating of snow lay on the ground, but every- 
thing, every twig, every dead leaf, every blade of grass, 
had its own transparent covering, which in the occasional 
gleams of the sun shone with the most gorgeous colours. 


512 NATURE [ March 31, 1881 


and simultaneous appearances over larger tracts of 
country. 


For seven or eight hours we travelled through this, 
a distance of some 250 miles, and I heard of similar 


Gigantic icicle under Table Rock, photographed in January, 1881. The upper right-hand corner is rock, and a porticn of t.e Canadian (or Horse-Shoe) Fall 
2 Sen: a fie lee ‘Lhe whole of the apparent ground is a mass of frozen spray which has accumulated many {cet .n thickness cn the shingle, &c-, at 
€ loot of the rock, 


Probably the most wonderful exhibition ever seen, of, | Falls of Niagara. A large number of readers of NATURE 
not frozen rain, but frozen spray, was to be found at the | have visited them, and possibly all are sufficiently familiar 


March 31, 1881 | 


NATURE 


513 


with their topography, through the medium of books and 
photographs, to render any general description unneces- 
sary. I will therefore confine myself to the special features 
produced by this winter’s cold. 

The whole district lay under a thin coating of snow, 
and all the roads were in good condition for sleighing, 
indeed those near the Falls were so completely ice-covered 
with frozen spray, as to render no other mode of loco- 
motion possible. Those who have seen both places have 
probably been struck, as I was, with the strong resem- 
blance between the gorge of the Niagara river below the 
Falls, and the gorge of the Avon at Clifton, Bristol. The 
latter is the finer of the two, being narrower, and having 
higher sides, but both are limestone gorges, and similar 
in character. In the Niagara gorge numerous springs 
discharge themselves into the chasm at various points in 
the precipitous rocky sides, and at these points numerous 
collections of huge and massive icicles appeared as 
though adherent to the rock, measuring perhaps seventy 
or eighty feet in length, and eight to ten feet in irre- 
gular diameter. In the exquisite purity of their colour 
and general appearance, they reminded me strongly 
of the pillars of ice in the upper part of the Rhone 
glacier. 

The width of the river itself was not a little lessened, 
both in the rapids above and the comparatively still water 
below the Falls, by the ice at the banks, and it was a 
matter of surprise to notice how much ice accumulated at 
the edges of water that was running very rapidly. At the 
top of the American Fall itself there were so many accu- 
mulations of ice that the Fall was actually divided into five 
separate and distinct Falls, in the same way as, even in 
summer, that portion of the Fall which is in front of the 
“Cave of the Winds” is cut off by rocks on the upper 
edge, from the main body of the Fall. 

The mention of the “ Cave of the Winds” recalls also 
that huge boulder, the “Rock of Ages,” in front of this 
portion of the Fall. That however is only one of many 
others in front of the American Fall, and these boulders 
are, as it were, gigantic nuclei, round which the frozen 
spray accumulates, and produces the Ice-mountain of 
which we hear so much, and the remains of which are 
not unfrequently to be seen even by summer visitors. 
The average height of this is about half the total height 
of the Fall, but this winter it has attained to the unpre- 
cedented height of within twenty feet of the top of the 
Fall! This highest point is at about one-third of the 
total width of the Fall, measuring from Goat Island. 
Between the foot of the incline from Prospect Park and 
the edge of the Fall is another very high mass. The ice 
approaches very close to the front of the Fall, and the 
whole basin into which the water descends is thus closely 
surrounded, and partially covered, with an enormous and 
irregular mass of pure semi-transparent ice, of (on the 
day of my visit) the most beautiful emerald green hue ! 
Later in the day I had the good fortune to fall in with 
Mr. Bradford, the artist who is so well known for his 
pictures of Greenland scenery, and in discussing the ice 
cones formed at waterfalls, he mentioned that, having 
passed a winter in the Yo Semité valley in California, he 
had seen an ice-cone close to one of the celebrated Falls 
there, which was at least 600 feet in height. 

Within the last few years a considerable portion of 
“Table Rock’’ has fallen away. In its present condition 
a stream of water about one foot in thickness falls over it 
in summer, and, owing to the amount of its overhanging, 
it is easy to get between this Fall and the rock, and thus to 
be “behind Niagara.” At the time of my visit (February 
8th), however, the whole of this portion of the Fall was com- 
pletely Jrost-bound, ‘Ynormous icicles, of the most sur- 
passing beauty, depended from the rock above, while at 
my feet were masses of the frozen spray from the Horse- 
shoe Fall. The intense emerald green of the water of that 
Fall, seen through and between these magnificent ice- 


pendants, could be reproduced by no artist, but will never 
be effaced from my memory. The accompanying woodcut, 
photographed on to the wood block from a photographic 
picture taken a few days prior to my visit, will, to those 
who know the place, give some faint idea of the beauty of 
the scene, and of the gigantic scale of the icicles. It isi 
scarcely necessary to say, perhaps, that the circular 
wooden staircase by which the descent under Table Rock 
is effected, was covered with many feet thickness of ice 
on the side next the Fall. As the air-temperature was 
slightly above 32° F. and the icicles were occasionally 
falling around us, my guide was unwilling that I should 
remain long, or make any attempt to measure any of the 
ice-masses. 

The fourth, and to the casual visitor perhaps the most 
remarkable effect of the cold in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of the Falls, is the manner in which every surrounding 
object is coated with an immense thickness of frozen 
spray. The trees on Goat Island and in Prospect Park 
are thus covered to a slight extent, and present a very 
beautiful appearance. The strangest examples, however, 
occur on the Canadian side, close to the Horseshoe: Fall, 
where huge irregularly-shaped masses of ice: are seen, 
some of which resemble, in general form, merely a colossal 
bunch of grapes standing erect on its stalk. A little 
investigation shows that these are trees, staggering under 
the weight of tons of ice. Not unnaturally they have 
many broken branches, and have almost invariably lost 
their tips. In one instance which I saw,.and. of which I 
obtained a photograph, the spray had so accumulated in 
front of the trunk of a tree about nine inches in diameter, 
that it had formed a wall of ice five feet in width, and of 
the same thickness as the diameter of the tree-trunk. A 
flagstaff planted on Table Rock had four or five projec- 
tions from its top, varying from three to five feet long, 
and looking like ‘ frozen streamers,’’ or as though watery 
flags had been flying, and had suddenly been frozen. 
These were so inaccessible and so dangerous to the 
passer-by, that they were daily shot down with rifle- 
bullets! The museum with its pagoda and the adjoin- 
ing houses close to the Horseshoe Fall were cased with 
sheet-ice and pendant icicles to such an extent that 
much of the frozen spray had to be removed daily with 
an axe. 

I mounted to the pagoda (well remembered, I have no 
doubt, by summer tourists) and there I listened to the 
“Music of Niagara,” of which Mr. Eugene Schuyler has 
given in the February number of Scrddner’s Magazine an 
account so interesting, that I venture to conclude this 
article with a short abstract of it. 

Mr. Schuyler starts with the statement that “ the tone 
of Niagara was like that of the full tone of a great organ. 
So literally is this true that I cannot make my meanings 
clear without a brief outline of the construction. of that 
great instrument.” He then explains the mutual relation: 
of the various pipes, the “ground-tone, over-tones: or 
harmonics, and under-tones or sub-harmonics,’’ and 
relates his experiences in the Cave of the Winds, on 
Luna Island above the Central Fall, at the Horseshoe 
Fall among the rapids, and at the Three Sister Islands. 
“In fact, wherever I was, I cowdd not hear anything else! 
There was no voar at all, but the same great diapason— 
the noblest and completest one on earth!’’ Further 
details of visits to various points are given, and it is 
interesting to notice that although previously unacquainted 
with the difference in height of the two Falls, Mr. Schuyler 
unhesitatingly pronounced the Horseshoe Fall to be 
several feet lower than the other, guided solely by his 
musical ear. He then proceeds thus;:— 

“Now, what is this wonderful tone of Niagara? or 
rather, what are all these complex tones, which make up 
the music of Niagara? With more or less variation of 
pitch at various points (to be accounted for), here are the: 
notes which I heard everywhere :— 


NATURE 


| March 31, 1881 


514 
eg 
: = Z 6 Le 
a= : 
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 fe) 
2. F 
D: ———_————e ‘ 
——-9 
= 


Just these tones, but four octaves lower / 

“At once it will be incredulously replied, ‘No human 
ear ever has heard, or ever can hear, tones at such a 
depth.’ I arrived at my conclusions both theoretically 
and practically, and the two results coincided exactly.” 
For the explanation of this, those interested will do well 
to consult the article itself. It may be noted here, how- 
ever, that notes 3 and 4 were heard everywhere ; that the 
5th and 6th were perfectly distinct, but of far less power ; 
that the 7th (the interval of the tenth) was of a power 
and clearness entirely out of proportion to the harmonics 
as usually heard in the organ, &c. ; and that the 8th, 9th, 
and roth notes were only heard occasionally and with a 
transient impression. Mr. Schuyler then points out that, 
allowing for the fact that the diameter of Niagara is the 
Sreatest possible compared with its height, the length of 
an organ-pipe necessary to give the key-note of Niagara 
(four octaves below note 1 in the diagram) would be just 
the average height of the Falls! The figures given are 
170°66 feet — 10°24 feet = 160°42 feet, where the 10°24 
feet is the allowance for the extra diameter of Niagara 
treated as an organ-pipe. 

It appears, then, that the tone of Niagara is, zole for 
note, the dominant chord of our natural scale in music. 
Its rhythm is one note per second, with three notes in 
each measure, the first note being the accented one, and 
the single beats are represented by groups of three semi- 
quavers, where M.M. 60 = a or three times three, three 
times repeated. 

Mr. Schuyler thus concludes in words with which I 
heartily sympathise. “I have spoken only of the pitch 
and rhythm of Niagara. What is the gzadity of its tone? 
Divine! There is no other word for a tone made and 
fashioned by the Infinite God. I repeat, there is no 7o0ar 
at all—it is the sublimest music on earth!” 

WILLIAM LANT CARPENTER 


ZOOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE VISIT OF 
PROF, K. MOEBIUS TO MAURITIUS* 
le work, which is illustrated by a map and twenty- 
two plates, contains the results of the investigations 
of Prof. Mobius on the marine fauna of Mauritius and 
the Seychelle Islands, embodying the account of obser- 
vations made by him on the spot, and of work done on 
the collections which he brought home with him on his 
return from his visit to the islands. It commences with 
an account of the journey to Mauritius in 1874-75; an 
account of the Suez Canal is given, and of the voyage 
through the Red Sea, where Trichodesinium, the yellow- 
ish-red floating algze supposed by some to have given the 
name to the sea, was met with in abundance. After the 
well-known tanks of Aden and the Somali divers who 
surround every ship that comes into the port have been 
described, Réunion is touched at, and at last Mauritius. 
A concise account is given of the geographical, geo- 
logical, and climatic peculiarities of this island, which 
is about one-third the size of Holstein. The centre 
of the island is occupied by a plateau elevated over 1700 
feet above sea-level, the highest point being 2711 feet in 
height. The plateau is surrounded on nearly all sides by 
mountains, and from these on all sides but the northern, 


1 Beitrage zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius und der Seychellen, bear- 
beitet von K. Mobius, F. Richter und E. voa Martens, u.s.w. (Berlin: 
Otto Enslin. 1880.) 


where there is a gradual inclination, rivers and streams 


| fall down very steep slopes with frequent waterfalls 


into the sea. Rains are very heavy, and the mountain 
torrents swell with remarkable rapidity. The geological 
structure of the island is entirely volcanic, with the excep- 
tion of beds of coral rock. The mean temperature of the 
year is about 25°85 C. Rain is most abundant from 
December to May. The prevailing wind is the south- 
east trade. Cyclones are sometimes experienced in the 
period, December to April, but do not occur every year. 

Mauritius had originally no mammalian inhabitants 
excepting bats. The great fruit-bat (Preropus vulgaris) 
is abundant in the woods. These fruit-bats are easily 
tamed. One of them was a great pet of Mr. G. Clark, 
now dead, who was the author of “A Brief Notice of 
the Fauna of the Mauritius,” published in the Mauritius 
Almanac for 1859, and containing some very good obser- 
vations. This tame bat was taken when young from its 
mother’s breast and brought up by hand. It could not 
fly, because its wing membranes had been cut through to 
prevent its doing so. It usually passed its time hanging 
on to the back ofa chair. Directly Mr. Clark came into 
the room it cried out loudly to be nursed. If it were not 
taken up at once it climbed up to him, rubbed its head 
against him, and licked his hands. If Mr. Clark sat down 
the bat hung on at once to the back of the chair, and 
followed all the movements of its master with its bright 
eyes. If its master caught hold of a fruit it climbed forth- 
with down his arm to his hand to get its share, and it 
always got two teaspoonsful out of every cup of tea or 
coffee. If Mr. Clark took any kind of object in his hand 
the bat climbed to it, examined it withits eyes and nose, 
and only returned to its chair-back after completely satis- 
fying its curiosity. It followed its master even into the 
open air if the door was not shut to prevent its getting out. 

A good many mammals have been introduced into the 
island, and are nowabundant. A monkey from the East 
Indies (JZacacus cynomolgus) inhabits the woods, and 
makes excursions from thence to plunder the sugar-cane 
fields. One of the species of the curious hedgehog-like 
insectivora of Madagascar (Centetes ecaudatus) was 
introduced in the island at the end of the last century. 
The animals live in damp places and lie in a state of 
sleep (= hybernation) in the dry season, sleeping then so 
soundly that they do not awake even when dug up. As 
soon as the rainy season begins in November they wake 
up and breed, producing three litters of fifteen or sixteen 
young every year. The young follow the mother, who 
calls them with a grunting noise, in a row behind, and 
protects them when molested with her teeth and spines. 
A full-grown male weighs as much as four pounds. The 
animals are so abundant that on a moonlight night with 
trained dogs twenty or thirty may be caught by one 
hunter. They are eaten by the working classes. 

Besides these there is a shrew mouse, also introduced 
from the East Indies, a small hare, and the ubiquitous 
common rat, both of which latter gnaw and destroy the 
sugar-cane. A stag (Cervus hippelaphas) introduced by 
the Poituguese inhabits the woods. It breeds in July and 
August, and casts its horns in December or January. 

We cannot follow the author in his short reference to 
the birds and account of the fish. The coral-reefs of the 
island appear to abound with animal life of all kinds. 
Several of the corals composing them are laid dry con- 
stantly at low tide, and remain exposed to the air without 
injury. Goniastrea retiformis and Leptoria gracilis are 


| cited as examples of such. Whilst these corals are in this 


condition, the polyps remain entirely withdrawn, and the 
whole surface of the coral laid bare is covered with slime, 
which prevents its drving up. ani 

In the Seychelles, of which a short account is given, 
the giant turtle (Che/one virgata) is kept in ponds as at 
Ascension, and is caught with a rope round the flipper, 
and dragged out to be slaughtered when convenient. The 


March 31, 1881 | 


NATURE 


515 


author here dug up a Ceacilian (Cecilia virgata), and 
amused himself with the curious leaf insect (Phydlium 
siccifolium). 

The Introduction to the book is followed by a long 
paper by’ Prof. Mobius on the Foraminifera of the 
Mauritius, illustrated by many finely-executed plates. 
Amongst other Rhizopods a Haliphysema occurs, the 
animal which, by a most extraordinary blunder, was made 
out by Hackel to have a multicellular structure, and 
supposed to represent a Gastraea of modern times. Prof. 
Mobius confirms the observations of Carter, Savile Kent, 
and Ray Lankester, to the effect that the animal is in 
reality simply a Rhizopod. He has examined the struc- 
ture of the Foraminiferous shells which he describes, very 
carefully by means of sections. He does not, however, 
add anything of importance to our knowledge of the 
structure of the soft tissues of the group. 

An account of the Decapod Crustacea by Dr. F. 
Richter follows that of the Foraminifera. Two crabs of 
most extraordinary habits are described in this portion 
of the work. Both belong to the family Polydectine. 
The crabs of this family have their front claws armed 
with large teeth. Latreille, who first named the crab 
Polydectes cupulifer, remarked that a gummy substance 
was always to be found at the ends of the claws of this 
species, and Dana described the animal as having always 
something spongy inits hands. Dr. Mébius has discovered 
the remarkable fact that these things held in the two 
claws of the crab are in reality living sea-anemonies. 
These sea-anemonies are attached to the immovable joint 
of each claw, whilst the teeth of the movable joint of 
the claw are kept buried deep into the flesh of the sea- 
anemonies, and thus hold them fast, although each 
anemony can easily be pulled away from its position with 
the forceps in specimens preserved in spirits. The mouth 
of the sea-anemony is always turned away from the crab. 
The same curious combination exists in the case of 
another species of the same family but of a different 
genus, Melia tesseliata, which also inhabits Mauritius. 
A figure is given of this crab with its pair of Actinias, 
named by Mobius A. frehensa, with fully expanded 
tentacles, held out one in each hand. Mobius gives the 
following account of the matter. “I collected about fifty 
male and female specimens of Melia fessellata; all of 
these held in each claw an Actinia prehensa. The re- 
curved hooks of the inner margins of the claw joints of 
the crab are particularly well adapted to hold the Actinias 
fast. I never succeeded in dragging the living Actinias 
out without injuring them. If I left the fragments of 

. them when pulled out lying in the vessel in which the 
Melia was, the crab collected them again into its clutch 
ina short time. If I cut the Actinias in pieces with the 
scissors, I found them all again in the claws of the crab 
after a few hours. It is very probable that the Actinias 
aid the crab in catching its prey by means of their thread- 
cells, and that the Actinias, on the other hand, gain by 
being carried from place to place by the crab, and thus 
brought into contact with more animals which can serve 
as food to them, than they would if stationary. This is 
a very interesting case of commensalism.” 

The work closes with a lorg account of the Mollusca 
of Mauritius and the Seychelles by Prof. E. von Martens, 

H. N. MOSELEY 


NOTES 


THE centenary of the birth of George Stephenson is not to be 
allowed to pass by in a fruitless way in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
Dinners, speeches, trade-processions, enthusiasm and bunting— 
all this was to be expected in a place so intimately connected 
with the birth of railways. But more than this will probably be 
done, aud we are glad to hear that a scheme is on foot for com- 
memorating the 9th of June in a more useful and more lasting 
manner, viz. by providing a ‘‘Stephenson College” for the use 


of the houseless but hard-working College of Physical Science of 
the University of Durham in Newcastle, 


THE French Association for the Advancement of Science has 
been in existence only ten years, but in that short time it has 
met with astonisking success, and has done some excellent work. 
To the fifteen sections already existing it proposes to add a 
sixteenth, under the name of the Section of Pedagogy, and a 
committee of members will discuss its formation at the forth- 
coming meeting at Algiers. The subjects of which the Asso- 
ciation takes cognisance are divided into four groups, viz., 
Mathematical Sciences, Physical and Chemical Sciences, Natural 
Sciences, and Economic Sciences. A goodly list of papers has 
been already announced, among the authors of which we notice 
some of the most prominent savazs in France. We trust, 
however, that the Association will not degenerate into a great 
excursion organisation, as to some extent it appears to have 
done this year. Thus the meeting lasts for six days, while the 
return tickets, issued in connection with the Association under 
very liberal terms, are good for six weeks, and no less than 
fifteen excursions in the neighbourhood of Algiers have been 
arranged. Five of these each occupy a week, and one of them 
a fortnight. The great number of applications for tickets both 
from France and Spain compel us to imagine that in many cases 
the membership of the Society has been sought this year rather 
for the sake cf the tempting excursfons than for the love of 
science. April is one of the most lovely months in the year at 
Algiers: the mean temperature is 16°5° C., with a possible 
minimum of 8°, and a possible maximum of 30°. In May the 
mean temperature is 19°5° C,, and there may be eight days of 
rain; while at Biskra the maximum may be as high as 40° C, 
(104° F.), and not more than one day of rain may be expected 
in May. A proclamation has been issued by the local committee 
asking the inhabitants to place rooms at the disposal of the 
visitors. Among those who will cross the Mediterranean will 
be Admiral Mouchez, MM. Quatrefages, Wurtz, Saporta, the 
naturalist, M. Cartaillac, the geologist, and many others, who 
will give interesting papers on a variety of subjects. 


Mr. AsHtTon.DILKE tried in vain on Tuesday to get the 
House of Commons: seriouslyf to consider the advisability of 
adopting the decimal system of coinage in this country. It is hope- 
less in the present state ‘of public affairs to induce Parliament to 
attend to a matter of this kind. On the widely beneficial results 
of the adoption of the metric system in whole or in part we 
have often insisted. That there would be some inconvenience 
in making the transition, of course every one will admit ; but as 
compared to the ultimate benefits from the adoption of the 
metric system, they are not worthy of consideration, Mr, Dilke 
does well not to let the matter drop out entirely of public notice. 


Tue Thore prize of the Académie des Sciences of Paris has 
been awarded to M. A. Vayssiére, préparateur des cours de 
Zoologie 4 la Faculté des Sciences de Marseille, for an anatomical 
memoir of Prosopistoma punctifrons, Lat. Some of our readers 
interested in comparative anatomy may remember haying seen 
the original drawings in London last summer, and will be glad 
to know that it will soon be forthcoming. M. Vayssiére is a careful 
expert. 

Tue French Minister of Public Instruction intends to do a 
great service to science by publishing monthly a résumé of the 
scientific work being done over France, under the title of Aevwe 
des Sciences, The review will be under the direction of the 
venerable M, H. Milne-Edwards, and will consist exclusively of 
analyses and summaries, but of sufficient detail to give a fair 
idea of the nature of the work being done. It will embrace the 
work of individuals and of societies all over the country, and 
each number will contain about 100 pages. 


5:16 


‘M. DELESSE, a member of the Institute, vice-president of the 
Geographical Society of Paris, and author of a:‘number of works 
and papers on geology, died in Paris at the age of sixty-three 
years. 


THE death is announced on the 25th inst. of Sir Charles 
Reed, M.P,, the much-respected chairman of the London School 
Board, 


‘A METEOROLOGICAL observatory has been erected at Port-au- 
Prince, Haiti, under the care of the Rev. Father Wiek, on 
ground granted by the State. It is an octagon of two stories 
and a platform. Besides the indispensable instruments it has 
‘electric clocks (for communicating the time to clocks outside), 
telephones, microphones, phonographs, radiometers, &c. 


THE inaugural meeting of a Society of Chemical Industry will 
cbe held in the rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington 
House, Piccadilly, on ‘April 4, at 4 p.m. This Society 
is not intended to represent any one particular branch of 
chemical industry. It is hoped that it will be representative 
of many manufactures—alkali-making, manure-making, the 
textile.colour industries, the glass and pottery manufactures, tar 
distilling, soap-making, sugar-making, brewing, metallurgy, the 
manufacture of fine chemicals, and all other industries which 
show any comnection with chemical science. 


THE newly-issued part of the AZedical Reports which are from 
time'to'time issued by order of the Inspector-General of Chinese 
Maritime Customs, contains an elaborate monograph by Dr, 
Duane B. Simmons on 'the subject of Beriberi, or the Kakké of 
Japan, which includes some interesting notes on the history and 
geographical distribution of the disease, and is illustrated by a 
skétch-map. 


Mr. BOWDLER SHARPE, F.L.S., delivered on Thursday last 
‘the concluding lecture of a'series on the ‘‘ Birds of the World,” 
which he has been giving at Tonbridge School. Throughout 
the winter lectures have been given on various literary and scien- 
tific subjects. by Prof. Henry Morley, Rev. A. Lucas, and others, 
and large and attentive audiences have shown great interest in 
allthe series. The school already possesses a small museum, 
which is increasing under the auspices of the present head-master, 
the Rev. T. B. Rowe, who is evidently doing his best to encourage 
a taste ‘for science and literature in ‘the institution under his 
charge. 


Every ornithologist should read a little pamphlet recently 
sent to us by the Dundee Naturalists’ Society, entitled “The 
Grallatores and Natatores of the Estuary of the Tay ; the great 
decrease in their numbers of late years; the causes; with 
suggestions for its mitigation, A paper read by Col. Drummond 
Hay.” The author, whose long residence in the district alluded 
to renders his experiences doubly interesting, makes out a good 
case for his friends the birds inregard to their alleged destruction 
of ‘fish and spawn, and no doubt some notice will be taken of his 
statements at the approaching Fisheries’ Exhibition at Norwich. 
The principal cause in the decrease of the birds on the Tay he 
attributes chiefly to the increased number of gunners on the river, 
who disregard the close-season, while the wilful destruction of 
the sea-birds’ eggs also plays sad havoc amongst their numbers. 
Drainage and cultivation of the land has also altered the 
conditions under which certain species nested, and has driven 
them further afield. 


A Conference on the reform of the Educational Code is to 
meet in London inthe third week in April, and to sit for two 
days, for the purpose of drawing up a series of recommen- 
dations, to be submitted in the form of a memorial to the 
Wice-President of the Committee of Council. The gentlemen 
invited to attend are persons conversant with the practical 


NATURE 


| March 31, 1881 


working of the public elementary school system, head-masters of 
secondary schools, persons experienced in education, and others 
interested. Invitations have been accepted by the chairmen of 
the Education and School Management Committees of the 
School Boards for London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, 
Sheffield, Bristol, Bradford, Leicester, and Nottingham ; also by 
Dr. Abbott, Dr. Caldicott, Mr. Eve, Professors Max Miiller, 
Carey Foster, Henrici, Gladstone, and Meiklejohn; Sir U. 
Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir. John Lubbock, the Rev. Mark Pattison, 
and numerous others. 


Mr, STEPHEN BREYVTON, F.M.S., writes from Eastbourne to 
the Zimes, under date March 28, that he saw a meteor of great 
splendour that morning (1.15 a.m. Greenwich mean time), the 
finest he ever observed. Its size was apparently rather larger 
than Venus at her brightest, and for two or three seconds illu- 
minated the heavens very brilliantly. Its colour was of an intense 
purple white, and moved somewhat slowly. He first noticed it 
a little south of Regulus, and going in direction of Castor. When 
immediately below Proesepe it burst into about five or six frag. 
ments, each about the sizeof a star of the third or fourth magni- 
tude, these assuming a deep fiery red. It then immediately 
disappeared. The night was especially clear; temperature in 
air about 30°; barometer about 29°850. 


THE Committee of the ‘‘ Frank Buckland Memorial Fund” 
have decided that the memorial shall take the form of a bust to 
be placed in the Fish Museum at South Kensington ; the purchase 
of an annuity to be presented to Mrs. Buckland ; and, if there 
be any surplus, it will be applied in some way to promote the 
welfare of the fishermen of ‘this country. The hoaorary'secre- 
taries are Col. Bridges and Mr. T. Douglas Murray, to whom 
subscriptions may be sent at 34, Portland Place. 

Smart shocks of earthquake occurred at Agram on March 21 
at 3h. 4om. a.m., duration three seconds, and on March 24 at 
6h. 45m. a.m., both accompanied by loud subterranean noises. 

THERE was another earthquake shock at Casamicciola on 
Sunday morning at 6.45. 


M. VAN MALDEREN, who was the electrical engineer of the 
Alliance, and constructed the so long unrivalled magneto-electric 
machine belonging to this Company, died at Brussels at the age 
of seventy a few days ago. 


ALL the obstacles which have prevented the reconstruction of 
the Sorbonne being accomplished, have been removed by M. 
Jules Ferry, and the work will begin immediately. The same 
may be said of the isolation of the Public Library of Paris, all 
the required expropriations having been decreed. 


THE date for admission of exhibits to the International Exhi- 
bition of Electricity at Paris has been prolonged to April 15. 


THE Geologists’ Association Easter Excursion will, be on 
Monday and Tuesday, April 18 and 19, to Salisbury, Stone- 
henge, and Vale of Wardour. 


CoLoNEL Paris, the head of the Paris fire brigade, has con- 
cluded his report on the destruction of the Printemps Establish- 
ment by proposing that large warehouses be compelled to light 
by electricity. ‘The burning of the Nice Theatre, which was 
occasioned by a gas explosion, has given a new importance to 
that movement. 


M. DE MERITENS has completed the construction of one of 
his magneto-electric engines intended for lighthouse illumination. 
An experimental trial took place on March 25 before MM. 
Becquerel, Cornu, Mascart, and other members of the Technical 
Commission of the International Exhibition. It was proved 
that with fifteen horse-power his machine illuminates at once 
more than thirty Jablochkoff lights, and that it could, at a 
moment’s notice, be used in a regulator for marine purposes. 


March 31, 1881 | 


NATURE 


517 


Mr. THomAs EDWARD, the Banff naturalist, has reprinted in 
a separate form some useful and interesting papers on the Pro- 
tection of Wild Birds. The pamphlet is to be had at the 
Banffshire Fournal Office. 


“THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include an Egyptian Gazelle (Gazella dorcas) from 
‘Egypt, presented by the Earl of March, F.Z.S.; a Common 
Genet (Genetta vulgaris), South European, presented by the Rev. 
F. P, Voules ; a Giant Toad (Bufo agua) from Brazil, presented 
by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck; a Long-snouted Snake (Passerita 
mycterizans) from India, presented by Mr, H. H, Black; an 
Amherst’s Pheasant (Zhaumalea amherstic) from Szechuen, 
China, a Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) from Australia, pur- 
chased; a Tiger (Ze/is tigris), a Bactrian Camel (Camelus 
bactrianus), a Sambur Deer (Cervus aristotelis), born in the 
Gardens. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


A New VARIABLE STAR.—On July 26, 27, and 29, 1783, 
D’Agelet observed a star which he twice estimated 6m., and on 
‘the last night 6°5m. ; it is No. 5057-9 in Gould’s reduced cata- 
logue, the mean of the three observations giving for 1800, R.A. 
19h. 23m. 47°57s. and Decl. + 17°19! 42"°8. The only sub- 
sequent observation we have yet found of this star is in the 
Durchmusterung, where it is rated as low as 9"4m. ; there is 
consequently a ‘high probability that it will prove to be a 
remarkable variable. “The position brought up to the beginning 
of 1880 will be R.A. 19h. 27m. 22'Is., Decl. + 17° 29’ 28”, 
D’Agelet’s original observations will be found at pp. 542, 544, 
and 546 of the Histoire Céleste of Lalande. 


MINIMA OF ALGOL, ETC., IN 1880.—Prof. Julius Schmidt 
thas published his observations, or rather the results of his obser- 
vations, of Algol and other variable stars, made at Athens during 
the past year. On comparing his epochs of minima with the 
formula in Prof, Schonfeld’s last catalogue, it will be found that 
‘according to the most completely determined minima the calcu- 
lation is too late by nearly half an hour, But the differences 
between calculation and observation are very irregular, so that 
if we take a mean of the whole, the true minimum would appear 
ito be earlier than that computed by only nineteen minutes. 
The minima between August 28 and December 21 are here 
compared. 

According to the observations of the same indefatigable 
astronomer A/ira Ceti was at a maximum between July 20 and 
25, but in 1880 it only attained about 4°2m. A maximum of 
R Leporis occurred about November 9; the determination is 
mot very certain, The intervals between maximum and 
ht cei and wice versé of a Herculis were as irregular as 
usual, 


THE RED Spor UPON JUPITER’s Disk.—Dr. Jedrzejewicz 
has published some inferences from observations for ascertaining 
‘fhe time of rotation of the eastern extremity of the large red spot 
upon the disk of Jupiter, made at his private observatory at 
Plonsk during the winter of 1880-81, The instrument employed 
is a refractor six-inches aperture, with powers 225 to 300. In 
December he measured the length of the spot 9’*8, and considers 
‘that his own observations compared with those of Prof. Schmidt 
at Athens, indicate that the length of the spot remained un- 
changed during the winter. On this assumption he finds for the 
time of rotation gh. 55m. 34°414s.  0'13s, by 174 rotations 
between November 25, 1880, and February 5, 1881. Prof. 
‘Schmidt from to21 rotations between July 23, 1879, and Sep- 
tember 17, 1880, obtained the value gh. 55m. 34°422s. + o’o5s. 
for the middle of the spot. In 1862, by observations upon a 
spot which he says was much darker and a more favourable 
object for the purpose than the spots observed by Airy and 
‘Madler in 1834-35, and which was not much larger than the 
shadow of the third satellite he had found for the time of rotation 
gh. 55m. 25°634s. agreeing with the previously-determined values, 
‘While the period from observations of the red spot is gs. greater, 
Prof. Schmidt remarks that it agrees very nearly with that already 
obtained by Mr. Pratt. 


THE Minor PLANETS.—It appears that the object detected 
by Herr Palisa at the new Observatory of Vienna on the 23rd of 


last month, and which was announced as No. 220 of ithe small- 
planet group, may prove to be ‘No. 139 ¥zzewa, which had not 
been observed since 1874. It was discovered by the late Prof, 
Watson at Pekin on October To in that year, while he was.engazed 
upon one of the United States expeditions for the abservation-of 
the transit of Venus, and as was reported at the time, without the 
aid of achart of telescopic-stars, but from ‘his memory of ‘their 
configuration about the particular spot occupied by the planet. 
It was observed on November 8 by Riimker at Hamburg, but ithe 
length of observation was ‘not sufficient to determine the mean 
motion with any degree of accuracy: hence although the -ele- 
ments had been several times brought up to more recent dates ‘by 
Watson, the planet had not been recovered up to last month. 

By the last Berlin circular it would seem that Zsmene will fall 
little short of /7/da in the length of its revolution, and these 
two minors will thus stand out as exceptional members of the 
group. By the latest elements the period of Wi/da is 2860 days 
or 7°832 years, and that of Zsmene 2854 days or 7°814 years. 

Calculation has assigned the shortest period to No. 149 
Medusa, but this awaits confirmation, perhaps in the next sum- 
mer, when the planet should-again come into opposition accord- 
ing to the imperfect elements at present available. 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


M. PLANTAMOUR continues to study with his sensitive levels 
the phenomena of periodic rise and fatliof the ground which he 
has observed in Switzerland. He believes he has-established a 
connection between these periods and those of the changes of 
temperature of the earth’s surface, there being an annual change 
of level in an east-west direction corresponding with the mean 
temperatures of the surface during the year. 


M. RosENSTIEHL concludes from his researches on the sensa- 
tions of colour recently noticed that the three fundamental colour 
sensations of the Young-Helmholtz-Maxwell theory correspond 
to the following tints of the pure spectram. Ovange-red, three- 
fourths of the distance from C to D amongst the Fraunhofer 
lines, a yellow-green three-quarters of the distance from D to E, 
and a é/ue situated at one-third from F towards-G. The ‘prin- 
ciple upon which this selection is made ‘is that the selected tint 
fulfils the following conditions: (a) it is equidistant between two 
tints which are complementary to one another ; (4) it produces 
with either of the other selected tints another colour having a 
minimum of white admixed with it. Thus the yellow-green 
chosen is midway between that yellow and that blue which 
produce the best white with one another, and it gives with ‘the 
selected orange-red a yellow more intense than any known yellow 
pigment under equal illumination, and with the selected blue 
gives a green more intense than the richest green pigment. 


M. HENRI BECQUEREL observes that the specific magnetism 
of ozone exceeds that of oxygen, and is much greater than could 
be accounted for by the difference in density of these two allo- 
tropic forms of the gas. 

In view of recent terrible colliery explosions in Belgium, M, 
Cornet has called-attention (in the Belgian Academy) to.a possible 
interference of winds, blowing in an inclined direction, with the 
proper ventilation of mines. Most of the ‘fiery’ Belgian 
mines have two shafts, one for raising the coal and for descent 
of air, which, passing along the galleries, is drawn up the other 
shaft by a ventilating engine. The orifice of the latter shaft is 
generally (unlike that of the other) unsheltered by buildings ; it 
debouches directly in the air a little above the ground. Obviously, 
then, a strong wind, blowing with downward inclination towards 
this orifice, might seriously affect the ventilating action. It is 
noted that one explosion in Hainaut on November 19, 1880, 
followed a night of vecy high wind, which M, Cornet shows to 
have been capable of depressing ventilation considerably. Mines 
with large sections are more dangerous than others in atmospheric 
perturbations. The true remedy, however (in the author’s 
Opinion), is not increasing the resistance to the air-currents, but 
sheltering the orifices of the ventilating shafts against descending 
winds. 

In a recent pzper on the optical structure of ice (to the 
Freiburg Society of Naturalists) Prof. Klocke finds that while in 
the ice mdividuals the plane of the secondary axes is fixed by the 
position of the principal axis, they are subject to no law as to 
direction in that plane. 


THE phenomenon of verg/as occurred at Urbino in Italy twice 
in January ; and from his observations of it Prof. Serpieri con- 


518 


NATURE 


[March 31, 1881 


cludes (Real. Zst. Lomb. Rend.) that surfusion of the rain- 
drops is not indispensable to its production. Surfusion indeed 
accelerates it, as do also violence of wind and intense cold ; but 
a rain with temperature not so low as zero falling into an air- 
current in rapid motion and below zero gives the phenomenon. 
It is pointed out, however, that the mist which usually accompanies 
verglas being driven against objects by the wind, and its par- 
ticles being in a state of surfusion (the temperature being below 
zero), probably contributes to the general result, helping to make 
, the ice-layer regular and uniform. If the verglas be such that 
the drop freezes wholly at once, the latter has probably con- 
tained many small crystals of ice. 


M. MERCADIER sums up his researches on Radiophony by 
saying that he believes that the phenomena are due to a vibratory 
movement set up by the alternate heating and cooling, due to the 
intermittent beams of heat-rays, of the gaseous layer adjacent to 
the solid surface at which the radiations are absorbed ; being an 
anterior layer in the case of solid bodies, a posterior layer in the 
case of transparent bodies, 


M. JANSSEN has succeeded in photographing the /usidre 
cendrée, or ‘‘ earth-shine’’ on the moon when three days old: in 
the photograph the “‘ continents”’ were to be distinguished clearly 
from the “seas.” This disposes of the view sometimes advanced, 
and held, we believe, by some most eminent astronomers, that the 
“‘new moon in the arms of the old” was an optical illusion. 


ProF. D. W. BEeETzZ, of the Technical High School of 
Munich, wishes us to say that in the note (vol. xxiii. p. 442) on 
the modulus of elasticity of rods of carbon, he, and not Herr 
Holtz, should have been mentioned as the author of the paper on 
the subject in Wied, Ann. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


AT the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday Mr. 
J. B. Minchin, who has spent some seven years in the country, 
read an excellent paper on Eastern Bolivia, which also included 
some observations on the Gran Chaco. After some preliminary 
remarks Mr. Minchin dwelt at length on the water-system of the 
country, and, speaking first of the lakes, he mentioned that 
between the Rivers Pilcomayo and Paraguay, in the unexplored 
Chaco, the Indians report the existence of a lake which no 
white man has ever yet seen, but which is perhaps near 22°S, 
lat. The rivers belong to Amazon and Plate systems, and with 
the exception of the Paraguay and the Itenez, they mostly 
have their sources among the highest summits of the Andes, 
The Parapite, Mr. Minchin added, is the most southerly affluent 
of the Amazons, which in some maps has been made to flow 
across the Chaco into the Paraguay. The Pilcomayo also does 
not, as has been thought, receive any tributaries on its course 
through the Chaco, so far as can be learned from the Indians, 
Mr. Minchin afterwards alluded to his expedition over the Matto 
Grossi Mountains, which he succeeded in crossing for the first 
time. ‘The Jatter part of the paper was largely devoted to the 
animal and vegetable productions of Eastern Bolivia and to the 
commercial condition of the country. The discussion which 
followed turned chiefly on the route of the future into Bolivia, 
whether it would be most advantageous to follow the Paraguay 
route or develop a new one by the Madera. 


Mr. E, G. RAVENSTEIN has nearly completed for the Council 
of the Geographical Society the large map of Eastern Equatorial 
Africa, on which he has been engaged for nearly three years 
under the direction of their Scientific Purposes Committee. 
The original drawings will be reduced before they are engraved, 
and the map when published will be in twenty-four sheets, and 
on a scale of 1: 1,000,000, It will take in the lake region, the 
Upper Congo, and the Upper Nile, and on the east coast will 
extend from Somali Land to a little south of the Zambesi, the 
precise limits of the map being from 10° N, to 20° S. lat., aud 
from 25° to 52° E. long. A very complete bibliography of 
authorities, compiled favz fasse with the map, will be published 
afterwards. 


Mr. BROUMTON, an agent of the China Inland Mission at 
Kweiyang-fu, in the province of Kweichow, has lately sent 
home an account of a visit which he had paid by invitation to the 
Miao-tsze tribes a short distance off. He had been told by one of 
them, from whom he had been learning something of the lan- 
guage, that in the third moon of the year} his people had large 
gatherings in the hills, and was asked to be present at these 


festivities. He accordingly went and had an excellent opportu- 
nity for observing the manners and customs of this section of 
this comparatively unknown people. He describes their dress, 
the character of the festivities witnessed, the singular musical 
instruments used, &c, The particular tribes visited by Mr. 
Broumton are known as the Black (from the colour of their 
clothes) and the Ka-teo tribes, and live near Hwangping-chow. 


Mr. CARL Bock is leaving for Siam next week, where he 
intends to make an excursion into the interior. His book, 
‘“‘The Headhunters of Borneo,” will be published shortly by 
Messrs, Sampson Low and Co, 


WE hear that Mr. Edward Whymper, who has already given 
an account of scme phases of his South American journey to 
the Alpe Club and the Society of Arts, will read a paper on 
aie Andes of Ecuador before the Geographical Society on 

ay 9. 


PRIZES OF THE PARIS ACADEMY OF 
SCIENCES 
At 


the public séazce of the Academy on March 14 the 

annual distribution of prizes took place. While many of 
these prizes are offered for particular subjects, others are devoted 
to rewarding the most important advances made during the year 
in special departments of science. 

The Grand Prize of the Mathematical Sciences was awarded 
to M. Halphen for work on the theory of linear differential 
equations, 

In astronomy Mr, Stone receives tne Lalande prize for his 
stellar researches, following those of Abbé de Lacaille, at the 
Cape of Good Hope; and the Valz prize goes to M. Tempel 
for his observations on comets, M. Vinot’s labours in starting 
and editing Ze Cze/ are recognised by the award of the Tremont 
prize, 

The Montyon prize of the mechanical arts is given to M. 
Cornut for his study of the faults of iron plates; the Poncelet 
prize to M, Leauté for various works; while a recompense of 
1500 francs on the Bordin foundation is given to M. Lan for 
improved modes of combustion, diminishing the trouble and 
harm from smoke, &c. (in steel heating), The extraordinary 
prize of 6000 francs (for improving the efficacy of naval forces), 
and the Plumey prize, are not awarded, 

In physics we find a recompense of 3000 francs given to M. 
Ader, on the Vaillant foundation, for improvements in phonetie 
telegraphy. The grand prize for researches on elasticity of 
crystalline bodies is not awarded. 

The Jecker prize goes to M. Demargay for important work in 

organic chemistry; the Gegner prize to M. Jacquelain for 
skill in preparing a large number of substances in a pure state, 
&e. 
Two prizes on the Bordin foundation are awarded in geology, 
one to M. Gosselet for a geological sketch of the North of 
France, the other to MM. Falsan and Chantre for their geologi- 
cal monography of ancient glaciers and erratic deposits in the 
middle of the Rhone Valley. Recompenses on the Gay foun- 
dation are awarded to MM. Delage and Chevremont for obser- 
vations on movements of the coast-line in France. 

In medicine and surgery three Montyon prizes are awarded : 
oneto Dr. Charcot for his work on localisation of disorders of 
the brain ; another to Dr. Sappery for researches on the lymph- 
atic apparatus of fishes; the third to Dr. Jullien for important 
medical researches. On the Bréant foundation M. Colin is awarded 
5c0o francs for physiological researches. Dr. Segond receives 
the Godard prize for an important work in surgery; Dr. 
Quinand the Barbier prize for researches on the quantity of 
oxygen in human blood in health and in disease. The Dusgate 
prize (having regard to prevention of premature burial) is not 
given, but MM. Onimus, Peyrand, and Le Bon are recompensed 
for their researches. The Boudet prize is awarded to Prof. 
Lister. 

In experimental physiology the Montyon prize is given to 
M. Bonnier for researches on the nectaries and colours of plants. 

The Fons-Melicocq prize for botanical research in the north of 
France is gained by M. de Vicq ; and M. de Ja Chapelle receives 
1000 francs on the Desmaziéres foundation for studies on French 
cryptogams, : A pe 

In anatomy and zoology the Grand Prize with ‘reference to 
distribution of marine animals on the French coast is withheld, 


March 31, 1881} 


M. Grandidier gains the Savigny prize for researches on the 
fauna of Zanzibar and Madagascar; while the Thorel prize is 
awarded both to M. Vayssiéres and M. Joly, for observations 
proving a small animal found in streams to be the larva of an 
insect of the family of Ephemerans. 

The Montyon prize for statistics goes to Dr. Ricoux for his 
*‘Figured Demography of Algeria.” 

We further note that M. Birckel receives 1500 francs on the 
Montyon foundation, for an improvement in the Davy lamp, 
and that M, Dupuis receives the Delaland-Guerineau prize for 
his explorations in Tonkin. 

The published list of subjects for prize competition in 1881, 
1882, 1883, and 1885 comprises the followinz subjects (briefly 
stated) among others:—Motor for tramways; physiology of 
champignons ; influence of environment on plant-organs ; struc- 
ture and development of cork ; internal organisation of European 
edriophthalmate crustaceans; cure of Asiatic cholera; genito- 
urinary organs ; revision of the theory of Jupiter’s satellites ; 
elasticity of crystalline bodies ; origin of atmospheric electricity, 
and causes of electric phenomena in thunderstorms ; inoculation 
as a prophylactic for domestic animals ; coloured parts of the 
tegumentary system of animals, and fecundating matter of 
animated beings ; marine, lacustrine, and terrestrial deposits on 
the French coast since the Roman epoch; botany of the North 
of Eanes diagnostic signs of death and prevention of premature 
burial. 


MEASURING THE INDEX OF REFRACTION 
OF EBONITE 1 


ROF. BELL found that when an intermittent beam of light 
fell on a sensitive selenium cell the sound produced in a 
telephone (which with a battery was attached to the selenium) 
was notrentirely destroyed by interposing a thin sheet of ebonite 
in the path of the intermittent rays of light, or, in other words, 
that ebonite was slightly transparent for invisible rays that 
affected selenium. It occurred to us some months ago that if 
such invisible rays were at all of the nature of light, they probably 
suffered retardation in passing through the ebonite, or that 
refraction would take place if the sheet of ebonite were replaced 
by an ebonite prism or lens, a result we have been able experi- 
mentally to confirm, and at the same time to measure the index 
of refraction. 
AB is a glass lens concentrating a parallel beam coming from 
a lime-light on to one hole H in a rapidly revolving brass disk 
cp. This disk we have constructed many times as thick as the 


one employed by Prof. Bell, and have thus succeeded in eliminat- 
ing all the sound produced by the syren action of the disk, so 

disturbing in delicate experiments. VF is a stationary zinc 

ae with a hole in it smaller than the holes in the rotating 
isk. 

I. We first tried to focus these intermittent rays on a selenium 
cell by means of an edonite lens, and so determine the focal 
length of the lens; but as our lens was then not mounted on an 
optical bench, so as to be moved parallel to itself, or rotated 
through known angles, and as the rays were invisible, so that our 
eyes could not of course guide us as to the proper position in 
which to put the lens, we failed to succeed ia this very delicate 
experiment, which however our subsequent experiments, now to 
be described, show must ultimately succeed with the lens 
properly mounted. 

2. A small portion of the intermittent light which passed 
through the hole in the rotatory disk was allowed to fall on 
an ebonite prism K L, by passing through a slit in a zine screen 


5 * Note communicated to the Royal Society by Professors Ayrton and 
erry, 


NATURE 


519 


GJ, the slit being arranged parallel to the edge of the ebonite 
prism. The prism employed had an angle of 27°°5. MN is 
another zine screen with a slit in it also parallel to the edge of 
the prism, and placed in front of asensitive selenium cell s (the cell 
described by us in the account of our experiments on ‘‘ Seeing by 
Electricity”’). This screen M N was moved parallel to itself, while 
an experimenter listened with a telephone to each ear, and who 
was placed in another room, so as not to be influenced by seeing 
what changes were being made in the position of the screen or 
in the position of the ebonite prism. The telephones had each 
a resistance of 74 ohms, and the battery 2n electromotive force 
of about 40 volts. No direct light falling on the selenium, the 
listener at the telephones heard nothing for the majority of posi- 
tions of the screen MN, but in one position represented in the 
figure a faint distant sound was distinctly heard, which was 
entirely cut off by interposing the hand in front of the selenium, 
or by moving away the prism. 

The invisible rays that affect selenium after passing through 
ebonite are consequently refracted, and some preliminary experi- 
ments, when the ebonite prism was arranged for minimum devia- 
tion, gave 1°7 as a first rough approximation for the index of 
refraction of these rays by ebonite, It is interesting to notice 
that the square, 2°89, of this index ‘of refraction is between the 
highest and lowest limits obtained by different experimenters for 
the specific inductive capacity of ebonite, so far agreeing with 
Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light. 

We are now having prisms of ebonite and of other opaque 
substances of different angles mounted on a goniometer stand, 
to enable us to measure the indices of refraction accurately. 


MOLECULAR ELECTROMAGNETIC 
INDUCTION} 


HE induetion-currents balance which I had the honour of 
bringing before the notice of the Royal Society (Proc. 
Roy. Soc. vol. xxix. p. 56) showed how extremely sensitive it 
was to the slightest molecular change in the composition of any 
metal or alloy, and it gave strong evidence of a pezuliarity in 
iron and steel which its magnetic properties alone failed to 
account for. We could with all non-magnetic metals easily 
obtain a perfect balance of force by an equivalent piece of the 
same metal, but in the case of iron, steel, and nickel it was 
with extreme difficulty that I could obtain a near approach to 
a perfect zero. Two pieces of iron cut off the same bar or wire, 
possessing the same magnetic moment, never gave identical 
results; the difficulty consisted, that notwithstanding each bar or 
wire could be easily made to produce the same inductive reaction, 
the time during which this reaction took place varied in each 
bar ; and although I could easily change its balancing power as 
regards inductive force by a change in the mass of the metal, by 
heat or magnetism, the zero obtained was never equal to that 
obtained from copper or silver. 

This led me to suppose the existence of a peculiarity in mag- 
netic metals which could not be accounted for except upon the 
hypothesis that there was a cause, then unknown, to produce 
the invariable effect. 

Finding that it would be impossible to arrive at the true 
cause without some new method of investigation, which should 
allow me to observe the effects from an electrical circuit, whose 
active portion should be the iron wire itself, I constructed an appa- 
ratus or electro-magnetic induction balance, consisting of a single 
coil reacting upon an iron wire in its axis, and perpendicular to 
the coil itself ; by this means the iron or other wire itself became 
a primary or secondary, according as the current passed through 
the coil or wire. Now with this apparatus we could induce 
secondary currents upon the wire or coil, if the coil was at any 
angle, except when the wire was absolutely perpendicular ; in 
this state we could only obtain a current from some disturbing 
cause, and the current so obtained was no longer secondary but 
tertiary. 

The whole apparatus however is more complicated than the 
general idea given above, as it was requisite not only to produce 
effects, but to be able to app-eciate the direction of the electrical 
current obtained, and have comparative measures of their value. 
In order to fully understand the mode of experiments, as well 
as the results obtained, I will first describe the apparatus 
employed. 

The electro-magnetic induction balance consists—(I) of an 
ag Paper read at the Royal Society, March 17, by Prof. D. E. Hughes, 

/R.S. 


520 


NATURE 


| March 31, 1881 


instrument for producing the new induction-current; (2) sono- 
meter or balancing coils; (3) rheotome and battery; (4) 
telephone. 

The essential portion of this new balance is that wherein 
a coil is so arranged that a wire of iron or copper can 
pass freely through and forming its axis, the iron or copper 
wire rests upon two supports 20 centims. apart; at one of these 
the wire is firmly clamped by two binding screws; the opposite 
end of the wire turns freely on its support, the wire beiny 22 
centims. long, having 2 centims. projection beyond its support, 
in order to fasten upon it a key or arm which shall serve as a 
pointer upon a circle giving the degrees of torsion which the 
wire receives from turning this pointer. A binding screw allows 
us to fasten the pointer at any degree, and thus preserve the 
required stress the time required. 

The exterior diameter of the coil is 54 centims., having an 
interior vacant circular space of 3% centims., its width is 2 
centims. ; upon this is wound 200 metres of No. 32 silk-covered 
copper wire, This coil is fastened to a small board so arranged 
that it can be turned through any desired angle in relation to the 
iron wire which passes through its centre, and it can also be 
moved to any portion of the 20 centims. of wire, in order that 
different portions of the same wire may be tested for a similar 
stress, 

The whole of this instrument, as far as possible, should be 
constructed of wood, in order to avoid ali disturbing inductive 
influences of the coil. 

The iron wire at its fixed end is joined or makes contact with 
a copper wire, which returns to the front part of the dial under 
its board and parallel to its coil, thus forming a loop, the free 
end of the iron wire is joined to one pole of the battery, the 
copper wire under the board is joined to the rheotome and 
thence to the battery. 

The coil is joined to the: telephone ; but, as in every instance 
we can either pass the battery through the wire, listening to its 
inductive effects upon the wire, or the reverse of this, I prefer, 
generally, in order to. have no voltaic current passing through 
the wire, to join the iron wire and its loop direct to the tele- 
phone, passing the voltaic current through the coil. 

order to balance, measure, and know the direction 
of the new induction currents by means of a switching key, 
the sonometer (Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xxix. p. 65) 1 described 
to the Royal Society is brought into the circuit. The two 
exterior coils of the sonometer are then in the circuit of the 
cattery, and of the coil upon the board containing the iron wire 
or stress bridge. The interior or movable coil of the sonometer 
is then in the circuit of the iron wire and telephone. Instead of 
the sonometer constructed as described in my paper to the Royal 
Society, I prefer to use one formed upon a principle I described 
in Comptes rendus, December 30, 1878. This consists of two 
coils only, one of which is smaller and turns freely in the centre 
of the outside coil. The exterior coil being stationary, the centre 
coil turns upon an axle by means of a long (20 centims,) arm or 
pointer, the point of which moyes over a graduated arc or circle, 
Whenever the axis of the interior coil is perpendicular to the 
exterior coil no induction takes place, and we have a perfect 
zero ; by turning the interior coil through any degree we have a 
current proportional to this angle, and in the direction in which 
it is turned, As this instrument obeys all the well-known laws 
cee neon ter the readings and evaluations are easy and 
rapid. 

If the coil upon the stress bridge is perpendicular to the iron 
wire, and if the sonometer coil is at zero, no currents or sounds 
in the telephone will be perceived, but the slightest current in 
the iron wire produced by torsion will at once be heard ; and by 
moving the sonometer coil in a direction corresponding to the 
current, a new zero will be obtained, which will not only balance 
the force of the new current, but indicate its value. A perfect 
zero however will not be obtained with the powerful currents 
obtained by the torsion of 2 millims. diameter iron wire ; we then 
require special arrangements of the sonometer, which are too 
complicated to describe here. 

The rheotome is a clockwork having a rapid revolving wheel 
which gives interruptions of currents in fixed cadences in order 
to have equal intervals of sound and silence. I employ four 
bichromate cells or eight Daniell’s elements, and they are joined 
through this rheotome to the coil on the stress bridge, as I have 
already described. 

The magnetic properties of iron, steel, nickel, and cabalt 
have been so searchingly investigated by ancient as well as by. 


modern scientific authors, that there seems little left to be known 
as regards its molar magnetism. I use the word molar here 
simply to distinguish or separate the idea of a magnetic bar of 
iron or steel magnetised longitudinally or transversely from the 
polarised molecules which are supposed to produce its external 
magnetic effects. 

Molar magnetism, whilst having the power of inducing an 
electric current in an adjacent wire, provided that either has 
motion or a change in its magnetic force, as shown by Faraday 
in 1832, has no power of inducing an electric current upon 
itself or its own molar constituent, either by motion or change 
of its magnetic moment. Molecular magnetism (the results of 
which I believe I have been the first to obtain) has no, or a very 
feeble, power of inducing either magnetism or an electric current 
in an adjacent wire, but it possesses the remarkable power of 
strongly reacting upon its own molar wire, inducing (compara- 
tively with its length) powerful electric currents, in a circuit of 
which this forms a part. 

We may have also both cases existing in the same wire; this 
occurs when the wire is under the influence of stress, either 
external or internal ; it would have been most difficult to separate 
these two, as it was in my experiments with the induction balance 
without the aid of my new method. 

Ampére’s theory supposes a molecular magnetism or polarity, 
and that molar magnetism would be produced when the molecu- 
lar magnetism became symmetrical ; and his theory I believe is 
fully capable of explaining the effects I have obtained, if we 
admit that we can rotate the paths of the polarised molecules. by 
an elastic torsion. 

Matteucci made use of an inducing and secondary coil in the 
year 1847 (Compt. rend. t. xxiv. p. 301, 1847), by means: of 
which he observed that mechanical strains increased. or decreased 
the magnetism of a bar inside this coil. 

Wertheim published in the Comptes rendus, 1852'(Compt. vend. 
t. xxv, p. 702, 1852), some results similar to Matteucci ; but im 
the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 1857 (Ann: de Chim. et de 
Phys. (3) t. 1. p. 385, 3857), he published a long series of most 
remarkable experiments, in which he clearly proves the influ 
ence of torsion upon the inerement or decrement: of a magnetical: 
wire, 

Vilari showed (Poggendorff’s Annalen, 1868) increase: or 
diminution of magnetism by longitudinal pull according as: 
the magnetising force is less or greater than a certain critical 
value. 

Wiedermann (Wiedermann’s ‘‘ Galvanismus,” p. 447), in his 
remarkable work, ‘‘Galvanismus,” says that an iron wire 
through which an electric current is flowing becomes magnetised 
by twisting the wire. This I have repeated, but found the effects 
very weak, no doubt due to the weak battery I use, viz. four 
quart bichromate cells. 

Sir W. Thomson shows clearly in his remarkable contribution 
to the Prt. Trans. Roy. Soc., entitled ‘‘ Effects of Stress on 
the Magnetisation of Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt” (Phz/. Trans. 
May 6, 1878), the critical value of the magnetisation of these 
metals under varying stress, and also explains the longitudinal 
magnetism produced by Wiedermann as due to the outside molar 
twist of the wire, making the current pass as in a spiral round a 
fixed centre. Sir William Thomson also shows clearly the effects 
of longitudinal as well as transversal strains, both as regards its 
molar magnetism and its electric conductivity. 

My own researches convince me that we have in molecular 
magnetism a distinct and separate form of magnetism from that 
when we develop, or render evident, longitudinal or transversal 
magnetism, which I have before defined as molar. : 

Molecular magnetism is developed by anyslight strain or twist 
other than longitudinal, and it is only developed by an elastic 
twist ; for however much we may twist a wire, provided that its 
fibres are not separated, we shall only have the result due to the 
reaction of its remaining elasticity. 4 ‘ 

If we place an iron wire, say 20 centims. long, 1 millim, dia- 
meter, in the axis of the coil of the electro-magnetic balance, 
and if this wire is joined, as described, to the telephone, we find 
that on passing an electric current through the: inducing coil no 
current is perceptible upon the iron wire ;, but if we give a very. 
slight twist to this wire at its free end—one-eighteenth of a turn, 
or 20°—we at once hear, clear and comparatively loud, the cur- 
rents passing the coil ; and although we only gave a slight elastic 
twist of 20° of a whole turn, and this spread. over 20 centims. in 
length, making an extremely slight molar spiral; yet the effects 
are more powerful than if, using a wire free from stress, we 


March 31, 1881 | 


turned the whole coil 40°, The current obtained when we turn 
the coil, as just mentioned, is secondary, and with the coil at 
any angle any current produced by its action, either on a copper, 
silver, iron, or steel wire ; in fact it is simply Faraday’s discovery, 
but the current from an elastic twist is no longer secondary under 
the same conditions, but tertiary, as I shall demonstrate later on. 
The current passing through the coil cannot induce a current 
upon a wire perpendicular to itself, but the molecules of the 
outside of the wire, being under a greater elastic stress than the 
wire itself, they are no longer perpendicular to the centre of the 
wire, and consequently they react upon this wire as separate 
magnets would upon an adjacent wire, It might here be readily 
supposed that:a wire having several twists, so a fixed molar twist 
of a given amount would produce similar effects. It however 
does not, for in most cases the current obtained from the molar 
twists are in a contrary direction to that of the elastic torsion. 
Thus, if I place an iron wire under a right-handed elastic twist 
of 20° I find :a positive current.of 50° sonometer; but if I 
continue this twist so that the index makes one or several entire 
revolutions, thus giving a permanent molar twist of several 
turns, I find upon leaving the index free from any elastic 
torsion, that I have a permanent current of 10°, but it is no 
longer positive but negative, requiring that we should give an 
elastic torsion in the previous direction, in order to produce a 
positive current. Here a permanent elastic torsion of the mole- 
cules is set up in the contrary direction to its molar twist, and we 
have a negative current, overpowering any positive current which 
should have been due to the twisted wire. 

The following table shows the influence of a permanent twist, 
and that the current obtained when the wire was freed from its 
elastic torsion was in opposition to that which should have been 
produced by the permanent twist. Thus a well-softened iron 
wire I millim. in diameter, givivg 60° positive current for a 
right handed elastic torsion of 20°, gave after 1°*8o permanent 
torsion a negative current of 10°. 


I complete permanent torsion (right-handed) negative ... 10 
2 ” ” ” eee! Lop 
3 ” ” ” ae 15 
4 ” ” ” aie 16 
5 ” ” ” cop 12 
6 ” ” ” ON, 10 
7 ” ” ” abe 5 
8 » » ” 4 
9 ” ” ” rt 3 
10 ” ” ” — 3 


At this point the fibres of a soft wire commence to separate, 
and we have no longer a complete single wire, but a helix of 
separate wires upon a central structure. 

If now, instead of passing the current through the coil, I pass 
it through the wire, and place the telephone upon the coil 
circuit, I find ‘that I obtain equally as strong tertiary currents 
upon thecoil as in the previous case, although in the first case 
there was produced longitudinal electro-magnetism in the per- 
pendicular wire by the action of the coil, but in the latter case 
none or the most-feeble electro-magnetism was produced, yet in 
these two distinct cases we have a powerful current produced 
not only upon its own wire, but»upon the coil, ‘thus proving that 
the effects are equally produced both on the wire and coil. 

If we desire, however, in these reversible effects to produce in 
both ‘cases ithe same electromotive force, we must remember that 
the tertiary current when reacting upon its own short wire 
produces a current of great quantity, the coil one of comparative 
higher intensity. We can, however, easily convert the great 
quantity of the wire into one of higher tension by passing it 
through the primary of a small imduction coil whose resistance 
is not greater than one ohm. We can join our telephone, 
which may be then one of a high resistance, to the secondary of 
this induction coil, and by this means, and without changing the 
resistance of the telephone, receive the same amount of force, 
either from the iron wire or the coil. 

Finding that iron, stee], and all magnetic metals produce a 
current by a slight twist, if now we replace this wire by one of 
copper or non-magnetic metals we have no current whatever by 
an elastic twist, and no effects, except when the wire itself is 
twisted spirally in helix ; and whatever current we may obtain 
from copper, &c., no matter if from its being in spiral or from 
not being perpendicular to the axis of the coils, the currents 
obtained will beinvariably secondary and not tertiary. If we 
replace the copper by an iron wire, and give it a certain fixed 
torsion, not passing its limit of elasticity, we find that no in- 


NATURE 


521 


crease or decrease takes place by long action or time of being 
under strain. Thus a wire which gave a sonometric force of 
50° at the first observation remained perfectly constant for seve- 
ral days until it was again brought to zero by taking off the 
strain it had received. Thus we may consider that as long as 
the wire pr-serves its elasticity, exactly in the same ratio will it 
preserve the molecular character of its magnetism. 

It is not necessary to use a wire to produce these effects ; still 
more powerful currents are generated in bars, ribbons, or sheets 
of iron; thus no matter what external form it may possess, it 
still produces all the effects I have described. 

It requires a great many permanent twists in a wire to be 
able to see any effect from the-e twists, but if we give to a wire, 
I millim, diameter, forty whole turns (or until its fibres become 
separated) we find some new effects ; we find a small current of 
10° in the same direction as its molar twist, and on giving a 
slight twist (20°) the sonometric value of the sound obtained is 
80° instead of 50°, the real value of a similar untwisted wire ; 
but its explanation will be found by twisting the wire in a con- 
trary direction to its molar twist. We can now approach the 
zero but never produce a current in the contrary direction, owing 
to the fact that by the spiral direction, due to the fibrous molar 
turns, the neutral position of its molecule is no longer parallel 
with its wire, but parallel with its molar twist, consequently an 
elastic strain in the latter case can only bring the molecules 
parallel with its wire, producing no current, and in the first case 
the angle at which the reaction takes place is greater than before, 
consequently the increased value of its current. 

The measurements of electric force mentioned in'this paper are 
all sonometric on an arbitrary scale. Their absolute value has 
not yet been obtained, as we do not, at our present stage, require 
any except comparative measures.! Thus, if each wire is of 1 
millim, diameter and 20 centims, long, all render the same stress 
in the axis ofits coil. I find that the following are the sonometric 
degrees of value :— 


Soft iron ... PES ace 60 Tertiary current. 
Hard drawniiron... ... ... =... %0 ) : 
Rok steel 22.) 1Ia) Uses) eee eee gy =a = 
Hard ‘tempered:steel ... ... ... 40 ae sh 
Copper, silver, cc. ... 2. ses =O Py = 
Copper helix, £ centim, diameter, 

20 turns in 20.centims, .... .... 45 Secondary currents. 


Fron, spiral,iditto ... ... -.. W5 ao 5 
Steel .... 28 Pies ese) Meremarr 7 ro 


The tertiary current increases with the diameter of the wire, 
the ratio of which has not yet been determined ; thus an ordinary 
hard iron wire of 1 millim, diameter giving 50°, one of 2 millims. 
diameter gave roo° ; and the maximum of force obtained by any 
degree of torsion is at or near its limit of elasticity, as if in the 
same time we also pass this point, producing a permanent twi-t, 
the current decreases, as I have already shown in the case of a 
permanent twist. Thus, the critical point of 1 millim, hard iron 
wire was 20° of torsion, but in hard steel it was 45°. 

Longitudinal strains do not produce any current whatever, but 
a very slight twist to a wire, under a longitudinal strain, pro- 
duce; its maximum effects : thus, 20° of torsion being the critical 
point of iron wire, the same wire, under longitudinal strain, 
required but from 10° to 15°. It is very difficult however to 
produce a perfect longitudinal strain alone. I have theref»re 
only been able to try the effect of longitudinal strain on fie 
wires, not larger than 1 millim in diameter, but as in all cases no 
effect whatever was produced by longitudinal strain alone, | 
believe none will be found if absolutely free from torsion. ‘The 
molecules in a longitudinal strain are equally under an elastic 
strain as in torsion, but the path of their motion is now parallel 
with its wire, or the zero of electric inductive effect, but the 
compound strain composed of longitudinal and transverse, rea t 
upon each other, producing the increased effect due to the 
compound strain. 

The sonometer is not only useful for showing the direction of 
the current and measuring ‘it by the zero method, but it as» 
shows at once if the current measured is secondary or tertia-y 
If the current is secondary its period of action coincides with 
that of the sonometer, and a perfect balance, or zero of sou d, 
is at once obtained, and its value in sonometric degrees given, 
but if the current is tertiary, no zero is possible, and if the valu- 
of the tertiary is. 60°, we find 60° the nearest approach to zer 


< 50° sonometer ‘has the same electromotive force as 0°'10 of a Daniel! 
battery. 


522 


NATORE 


| March 31, 1881 


possible. But by the aid of separate induction coils to convert 
the secondary into a tertiary, a perfect zero can be obtained if 
the time of action and its force correspond to that which we 
wish to measure. 

If I place a copper wire in the balance and turn the coils at an 
angle of 45°, I obtain a current which can be perfectly balanced by 
the sonoweter at 50°, proving, as already said, that it is secondary. 
Tf I now replace the copper by an iron wire, the coil remaining 
at 45°, | have again exactly the same value fer the iron as copper, 
viz., 50°, and in both cases secondary. Now, it is evident that 
in the case of the iron wire there was produced at each passage 
of the current a strong electro-magnet, but this longitudinal 
magnetism did not either change the character of the current or 
its value in force. 

A most beautiful demonstration of the fact that longitudinal 
magnetism produces no current, but that molecular magnetism 
can act equally as well, no matter the direction of the longi- 
tudinal magnetism, consists in formirg an iron wire in a loop, 
or taking two parallel but separate wires, joined electrically at 
their fixed ends, the free ends being each connected with the 
circuit, so that the current generated must pass up one wire and 
down the adjacent one. On testing this loop, and if there are 
no internal strains, complete silence or absence of current will 
be found. Now, giving a slight torsion to one of these wires in 
a given direction, we find, say 50 positive; twisting the parallel 
wire ina similar direction produces a perfect zero, thus, the 
current of the second must have balanced the positive of the 
first. If, instead of twisting it in similar directions, we twist it 
in the contrary direction, the sounds are increased in value from 
50° positive to 100" positive, showing, in this latter case, not only 
a twofold increase of force, but that the currents in the iron 
wires travelled up one wire and down the other, notwithstanding 
that both were strongly magnetic by the influence of the coil in 
one direction, and this experiment also proves that its molar 
magnetism had no effect, as the currents are equally strong in 
both directions, and both wires can double or efface the currents 
produced in each, If instead of two wires we take four, we 
can produce a zero, or a current of 200°, and with twenty wires 
we have a force of 1000”, or an electromotive force of two volts. 
We have here a means of multiplying the effects by giving an 
elastic torsion to each separate wire, and joining them electri- 
cally in tension. If loops are formed of one iron and one 
copper wire, we can obtain both currents from the iron wire, 
positive and negative, but none from the copper, its 7é/e is 
simply that of a conductor upon which torsion has no effect. 

I have already mentioned that internal strains will give out 
tertiary currents without any external elastic strain being put on. 
In the case of iron wire these disappear by a few twists in both 
directions, but in flat bars or forged iron they are more per- 
manent; evidently portions of these bars have an elastic strain, 
whilst other portions are free, for I find a difference at every 
inch tested : the instrument however is so admirably sensitive 
and able to point out not only the strain but its direction, that I 
have no doubt its application to large forged pieces, such as 
shafts or cannon, would bring out most interesting results, 
besides its practical utility ; great care is therefore necessary in 
these experiments that we have a wire free from internal strains, 
or that we know their value. 

Magnetising the iron wire by a large steel permanent magnet 
has no effect whatever. A hard steel wire thus placed becomes 
strongly magnetic, but no current is generated, nor has it any 
influence upon the results obtained from molecular movement, 
as in elastic torsion. A flat wide iron or steel bar shows this 
better than iron wire, as we can here produce transversal instead 
of longitudinal, but neither shows any trace of the currents pro- 
duced by molecular magnetism. I have made many experi- 
ments with wires and bars thus magnetised, but as the effect in 
every case was negative when freed from experimental errors, I 
will not mention them; but there is one very interesting proof 
which the instrument gives, that longitudinal magnetism first 
passes through its molecular condition before and during the 
discharge or recomposition of its magnetism. For this purpose, 
using no battery, I join the rheotome and telephone to the coil, 
the wire having no exterior circuit. If I strongly magnetise the 
two ends of the wire, I find by rapidly moving the coil that 
there is a Faradaic induction of 50° at both poles, but very little 
or none at the centre of the wire; now fixing the coil at the 
central or neutral point of the wire and listening intently, no 
sounds are heard, but the instant I give a slight elastic torsion 
to the free pole, a rush of electric tertiary induction is heard, 


whose value is 40°. Again, testing this wire by moving the 
coil, I find only a remaining magnetism of 10, and upon repeat- 
ing the experiment of elastic torsion I find a tertiary of 5 ; thus 
we can go on gradually discharging the wire, but its discharge 
will be found to be a recomposition, and that it first passed 
through the stage I have mentioned. 

Heat has a very great effect upon molecular magnetic effects. 
On iron it increases the current, but in steel the current is dimin- 
ished. For experimenting on iron wire, which gave a tertiary cur- 
rent of 50° positive (with a torsion of 20°), upon the application of 
the flame of a spirit-lamp the force rapidly increases (care being 
taken nct to approach red-heat) until the force is doubled, or 
100 positive. ‘The same effects were obtained in either direc- 
tion, and were not due to a molar twist or therme-current, as if 
care had been taken to put on not more than 10° of torsion, the 
wire came back to zero at once.on removal of the torson. Hard 
tempered steel, whose value was 10° whilst cold, with a torsion 
of 45°, become cnly 1° when heated, but returned (if not too 
much heated) to 8° when cold. I very much doubted this ex- 
periment at first, but on repeating the experiment with steel 
several times I found that on heating it I had softened_ the ex- 
treme hard (yellow) temper to that of the well-known blue 
temper. Now at blue temper, hot, the value of steel was but 1° 
to 2°, whilst soft iron of a similar size gave 50° of force cold, 
and roo’ at red heat. Now as I have already shown that the 
effects I have described depend on molecular elasticity, it proves 
at least, as far as iron and steel are concerned, that a compara- 
tively perfect elastic body, such as tempered steel, has but slight 
molecular elasticity, and that heat reduces it, but that soft iron, 
having but little molar elasticity, has a molecular elasticity of a 
very high degree, which is increased by heat. 

The objects of the present paper being to bring the experi- 
mental facts before the notice of the Royal Society, and not to 
give a theoretical solution of the phenomena, I will simply add 
that if we assume with Poisson that the paths of the molecules 
of iron are circles, and that they become ellipses by compression 
or strain, and also that they are capable of being polarised, it 
would sufficiently explain the new effects, 

Joule has shown that an iron bar is longer and narrower during 
magnetisation than before, and in the case of the transverse 
strain the exterior portions of the wire are under a far greater 
strain than those near the centre, and as the polarised ellipses are 
at an angle with the molecules of the central portions of the 
wire, its polarisation reacts upon them, producing the compara- 
tively strong electric currents I have described. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edin- 
burgh, vol. xiv., part 1, 1881, contains—Address by the presi- 
dent, Dr. T. A. G. Balfour (this address gave brief obituary 
of J. M‘Nab, Sir W. C. Trevelyan, Dr. M. Bain, Prof. Grise- 
bach, A. Forbes, A. J. Adie, Dr..J. Cumming, Karl Koch, Dr. 
J. Murchison, Dr. D. Moore, P. S. Robertson, Wm. Mudd, 
Dr. J. F. Th. Iumisch, S. Hay, Dr, M. A. E. Wilkinson, Rev. 
W. B. Cunningham, E. V. Sandilands, and A, Graham).—Dr. 
W. Traill, on the growth of Phormium tenax in the Orkney 
Islands.—Wm. Gorrie, on the hardiness of New Zealand plants 
(1878-79).—Prof. G. Lawson, on British-American species of 
Viola.—S. Grieve, flora of Colonsay and Oransay.—Jas. Blaikie, 
botanical tour in Engadine.—Sir R. Christison, on the measure- 
ment of trees.—Prot. J. H. Balfour, on Rheum nodile.—P. M. 
Thomson, the flowering plants of New Zealand, and their rela- 
tion to the insect fauna.—J. Sadler, on the flowering of Yucca 
gloriosa.—Prof. Dickson, on the septa across the ducts in 
Bougainvillea glabra and Testudinaria elephantipes. 


Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 
v., parts 1 and 2 (1880).—F. M, Bailey, medicinal plants of 
Queensland ; on Queensland ferns, with descriptions of two new 
species; on a new species of Nepenthes.—M. A. Haswell, on 
some Queensland Polyzoa, plates I to 3; on some new Amphi- 
pods, plates 5 to 7.—Wm. Macleay, on a new species of 
Galaxias, with remarks on the distribution of the species ; on a 
new species of Otolithus and of Synaptura.—Rev. E. T. Woods 
and F. M. Bailey, on the fungi of New South Wales and 
Queensland.—Rev. E. T. Woods, on the littoral marine fauna 
of North-East Australia; on a fossiliferous bed at the mouth of 
the Endeavour River; on the habits of some Australian Echini. 
—E. P, Ramsay, on a new species of Oligorus ; note on Galeo- 


March 31, 1881 | 


NATURE 


523 


cerdo Rayneri.—Yrof. Ralph Tate, rectification of the nomen- 
clature of Purpura anomala, Angas.—E, Meyrick, descriptions 

of Australian Microlepidoptera ; parts 3 and 4, Tineina,—J- 
Brazier, on anew variety of Bzdimus Caledonicus. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 


LONDON 

Chemical Society, March 17.—Prof. Roscoe, president, in 
the chair.—The following papers were read :—On the volume 
of mixed liquids, by F. D. Brown, The author has determined 
with very great care the alteration in volume which takes place 
when various liquids are mixed. The liquids experimented with 
were carbon disulphide and benzene, carb n disulphide and car- 
bon tetrachloride, carbon tetrachloride and benzene, dichlorethane 
and benzene, dibromethane and benzene, and carbon tetra- 
chloride and toluene. The experiments were made at 20° C, 
The author concludes that these changes of volume are depen- 
dent on the chemical character of the molecules, and not on 
such physical properties as vapour tension, molecular volume, 
&c.—On the action of alcohol on mercuric nitrate, by R. 
Cowper. When mercury is dissolved in twelve times its weight 
of nitric acid (1°3), the solution allowed to stand until all nitrous 
fumes have escaped, and twelve parts by weight of pure alcohol 
added, a crystalline precipitate is formed, with or without heat- 
ing, which the author has investigated ; it has the constitution 
(CsH,Hg,0,)(NOs).; he has also prepared the hydrate and 
oxalate of the dyad radical (C,H,Hg30,).—On boron hydride, 
by F. Jones and R. L, Taylor. Magnesium boride is first pre- 
pared by heating a mixture of recently-ignited boric anhydride, 
with twice its weight of magnesium dust, in a covered crucible. 
On treating the magnesium boride with hydrochloric acid, boron 
hydride is obtained, always however mixed with a large excess 
of hydrogen. Its composition is probably BH, ; it resembles 
in many of its properties arsine (ASH) and stibine (SbH3).— 
‘On the action of aldehydes on phenanthraquinone in presence 
of ammonia, by F. R. Japp and E, Wilcock.—On the action of 
benzoic acid on napihthaquinone, by F. R. Japp and N. H. J. 
Miller.—Note on the appearance of nitrous acid during the 
evaporation of water, by R. Warington. The author proves 
that the nitrous acid is always derived from the atmosphere or 
from the products of combustion from the source of heat used 
for evaporating ; he also gave some account of the marvellously 
delicate test proposed by Griess for nitrous acid. The solution 
is acidified, and some sulphanilic acid with some hydrochlorate 
of naphthylamin added ; if nitrous acid be present, equal to one 
part of nitrogen in 1000 millions of water ; a rose-red tint is 
developed.—On the sweet principle of Smz/ax glycophylla, by 
Dr. Wright and Mr. Rennie.—Note on usnic acid and some 
products of its decomposition, by the late J. Stenhouse and C, 
E. Groves.—On the absorption of solar rays by atmospheric 
ozone, and on the blue tint of the atmosphere, by W. N. 
Hartley. The author concludes that the higher regions of the 
atmosphere contain much more ozone than the layers near the 
earth’s surface, and that the blue tint of the atmosphere is 
largely due to ozone.—On the nature of certain volatile products 
contained in crude coal-tar benzenes, by Watson Smith.—On 
New Zealand Kauri gum, by E. H. Rennie. On distillation 
this gum yields a terpene, boiling at 157°-158°. 

Geological Society, March 9.—Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Robert Thompson Burnett, William 
Erasmus Darwin, Charles James Fox, and the Rev. T. Granger 
Hutt were elected Fellows of the Society.—The following com- 
munications were read:—Description of parts of the skeleton 
of an Anomodont reptile (Platypodosaurus robustus, Ow.) ; 
Part II. The Pelvis, by Prof. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. In this 
paper the author described the remains of the pelvis of Platypo- 
dosarus robustus, which have now been relieved from the matrix, 
including the sacrum, the right ‘fos innominatum,” and a great 
part of the left ilium. There are five sacral vertebrae, which 
the author believes to be the total number in P/azyfodosaurus. 
The neural canal of the last lumbar vertebra is 8 lines in 
diameter, and of the first sacral 9 lines, diminishing to 6 lines 
in the fifth, and indicating an expansion of the myelon in the 
sacral region, which is in accordance with the great development 
of the hind limbs. The sacral vertebrze increase in width to the 
third ; the fourth has the widest centrum. This coalescence of 
the vertebree justifies the consideration of the mass, as in Mam- 
malia, as one bone or ‘‘sacrum,” which may be regarded as 
approaching in shape that of the Megatherioid mammals, 


although including fewer vertebrae. Its length is 7% inches ; its 
greatest breadth at the third vertebra, 54 inches. The ilium 
forms the anterior and dorsal walls of the acetabulum, the pos- 
terior and postero-ventral walls of which are formed by the 
ischium and pubis. The diameter of its outlet is 3 inches, the 
depth of the cavity 1} inch; at its bottom is a fossa 13 inch 
broad. The foramen is subcircular, 1 inch in diameter. The 
ventral wall of the pelvic outlet is chiefly formed by the pubis ; 
it is a plate of bone 6 inches broad, concave externally, convex 
towards the pelvic cavity. The subacetabular border is 7-8 lines 
thick ; it shows no indication of a pectineal process, or of a 
prominence for the support of a marsupial bone. The author 
remarks that of all examples of pelvic structure in extinct Rep- 
tilia this departs furthest from any modification known in exist- 
ing types, and makes the nearest approach to the Mammalian 
pelvis. This is shown especially by the number of sacral verte- 
bre and their breadth, by the breadth of the iliac bones, and by 
the extent of confluence of the expanded ischia and pubes.— 
On the order Theriodontia, with a description of a new genus 
and species (2/urosaurus felinus, Ow.), by Prof. Owen, C.B., 
F.R.S. The new form of Theriodont reptile described by the 
author in this paper under the name of 4£lurosaurus felinus is 
represented by a skull with the lower jaw, obtained by Mr. 
Thomas Bain from the Trias of Gough, in the Karoo district 
of South Africa. The post-orbital part is broken away. The 
animal is mononarial ; the alveolar border of the upper jaw is 
slightly sinuous, concave above the incisors, convex above the 
canines and molars, and then straight to beneath the orbits. 
The alveolar border of the mandible is concealed by the over- 
lapping teeth of the upper jaw ; its symphysis is deep, slanting 
backward, and destitute of any trace of suture; the length of 
the mandible is 3} inches, which was probably the length of the 


5 


skull, The incisors are = and the molars probably = 


6—6 
serted crown of the upper canine is 12 millims. ; the oot of the 
left upper canine was found to be twice this length, extending 
upwards and backwards, slightly expanded, and then a little 
narrowed to the open end of the pulp-cavity. There is no 
trace of a successional canine; but the condition of the 
pulp-cavity and petrified pulp would seem to indicate re- 
newal of the working part of the canine by continuous 
growth. The author infers that the animal was mono- 
phyodont. #lurosaurus was said to be most nearly 
allied to Zycosawrus, but its incisor formula is Dasyurine, 
With regard to the characters of the Theriodontia the author 
remarked that we may now add to those given in his ‘‘ Catalogue 
of South African Fossil Reptiles” that the humerus is perforated 
by an entepicondylar foramen and the dentition monophyodont. 
—Additional observations on the superficial geology of British 
Columbia and its adjacent regions, by G. M. Dawson, D.Sc. 
This paper is in continuation of two already published in the 
Society’s F¥ournal (vol. xxxi, p. 603, and vol. xxxv. p. 89). In 
subsequent examinations of the southern part of the interior of 
British Columbia the author has been able to find traces of 
glaciation in a north to south direction as far as or even beyond 
the 49th parallel. Iron Mountain, for instance, 3500 feet above 
the neighbouring valleys, 5280 feet above the sea, has its summit 
strongly ice-worn in direction N. 29° W. to S. 29° E. Other 
remarkable instances are given which can hardly be explained by 
local glaciers ; boulder-clay is spread over the entire district ; 
terraces are cut in the rearranged material of this, bordering the 
river-valleys, and at greater elevations expanding over the higher 
parts of the plateau and mountains. At Mount It-ga-chuz they 
are 5270 feet above the sea. The author considers that the 
higher terraces can only be explained by a general flooding of 
the district. Some of the wide trough-like valleys of the plateau 
contain a silty material which the author regards as a glacial 
mud. North of the 54th parallel and west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains similar evidence of glaciation is obtained; erratics are 
found in the Peace and Athabasca basins. The fjords of British 
Columbia are extremely glaciated, the marls -being generally in 
conformity with the local features ; terraces are scarce and at low 
levels. The Strait of Georgia was filled bya glacier which over- 
rode the south-east part of Vancouver's Island ; evidence is given 
to show that this ice came from the neighboaring mountainous 
country. Queen Charlotte’s Island shows evidence of local 
glaciation. Boulder-clays and stratified drifts are found, with 
occasional Arctic shells. The author considers that the most 


or , all more or less laniariform. The length of the ex- 


524 


NATURE 


[| March 31, 1881 


probable explanation of the phenomena of the whole region is to 
suppose the former existence of a great glacier mass resembling 
the inland ice of Greenland, and that the Glacial period was 
closed by a general submergence, during which the drifts were 
deposited and, at its close, the terraces cut. 


Photographic Society, March 8.—J. Glaisher, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Papers were read by Mr. Payne 
Jenuings on art photography. It was asserted that unfavourable 
criticisms, both from artists and the press, had been the result 
from the exhibition of works which deserved such severity, and 
that to raise the status of art in photography moreattention must 
be given to art-rules.—Also by Mr. Edwin Cocking, on notes on 
photography and art. An incisive comparison was drawn between 
the art of the painter and that of the photographer, showing the 
essential difference between the two in the production of a 
pictorial work, both in the modus operandi of production and the 
individuality capable of being infused into each result. Also 
that art in photography required a totally different training to 
that necessary for the painter, and that the time had arrived when 
special, instruction by. a. thoroughly organised school for art 
photography. had become absolutely necessary. 


Institution of Civil Engineers, March 22.—Mr, Aber- 
nethy, F.R.S:E., president, in the chair.—The paper read was 
on the comparative endurance of iron and mild steel) when 
exposed to corrosive influences, by Mr. D. Phillips, M. Inst. C.E, 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, March 21.—M. Wurtz in the chair, 
—The following papers were read:—On determination of the 
masses of mercury, Venus, the Earth, and of solar parallax, by 
M. Tisserand. —Observations of Faye’s comet, at Paris Observa- 
tory, by MM. Tisserand and Bigourdan.—On the possibility of 
making sheep refractory to anthrax through preventive inocula- 
tions, by M. Pasteur, with MM. Chamberland and Roux. M. 
Pasteur controverts M. Toussaint’s views on the subject, and says 
his method is very uncertain.—The vaccine matter of anthrax, 
by the same. A wholly harmless bacterium can be got from the 
most virulent by cultivation in animals different from those apt to 
take the disease. There are as many distinct germs as there-are 
different kinds of virulence.—Researches on formic ethers, by 
M™. Berthelot and Ogier. They are formed with absorption of 
heat. —New navigation-maps, giving both the direction and force 
of the wind in the Indian Ocean, by M: Brault. Meteoro- 
lovically the parts of that ocean above and below the equator are 
distinct (and the author indicates how):—On the operations of 
the Syndical Association of the Beziers Arrondissementito oppose 
phylloxera, by M. Janssan.—Report’ on the work of the Council 
of Public Hygiéne and Salubrity, by: M. Brezancon.—On the 
surface with sixteen singular points and! © functions: with two 
variables, by M. Darboux.—On'the functional determinant of any 
nu uberof binary forms, by M. Le Paige.—On the decomposition 
into primary factors of uniform functions having a line of essential 
singular points, by M. Picard.—On certain simultaneous linear 
differential equations: with partial derivatives, by MM. Picard 
and Appell.—On generator polygons: of a relation between 
several imaginary variables, by M. Lecornu.—Solution of a 
general problem on:series, by M. André.—On linear differential 
equations with: algebraic integrals, by M. Poincaré:—On the: 
di tribution of energy in the normal solar spectrum, by 
Prof. Langley. The total’ heat coming from the sun to 
the earth is much greater than has been believed (even) 
in estimates accused of exaggeration): If the totality of the 
solar radiations reached us we should: have a sensation of blue 
rather than white. (The-author studied the absorption for each 
rav).—On a synthetic apparatus reproducing the phenomenon 
of circular double refraction, by M. Gouy. ‘This consists: of a 
number of thin and narrow rectangular lamellz of: crystal: placed 
side by side like floor-boards, and: cemented: between two glass 
plates. Ina given direction the optic axis of each band forms a 
constant angle with the preceding one, A® half-wave plate is 
plaed above.—On radiophony: with selenium, by M. Mercadier. 
The sounds here result chiefly from:the: luminous rays from the 
limit of blue to extreme red, and even alittle in infra-red, the 
maximum being in the: yellow.—Experiments at’ the» Crensot 
works in optical measurement of high temperatures, by M. 
Crova: The spectropyrometer: is proved practically: useful.— 
On the electromotive force'of the voltaic arc, by M. Le Roux, 
With a galvanometer of great resistance and a single contact 
operated with the hand, one may: prove the difference of 
potential of the carbons. even 35 of a second after cessation of 


the current. The phenomenon is probably thermo-electric.— 
The hissing of the voltaic are, by M. Maudet. The difference 
of potential between the carbons is very great when the are is 
silent, very small when:it hisses. —On magic mirrors of silvered 
glass, by M. Laurent. The magic effect can be had through the 
mode of mounting of the mirror.—On the flow of gases, by M. 
Neyreneuf. The laws of this may be verified by a method like 
that for determining electric resistances—On new combinations 
of hydrobromic and hydriodic acid with ammonia, by M. Troost. 
—Action of hydrochloric acid on chloride of lead, by M, Ditte. 
—Action of sulphuric acid newly heated to 320°, and oils, by. 
M. Maumené.—On a new means of analysis of oils, by the 
same. This con-ists in treating a measured quantity of oil with 
one of a titrated aqueous solution of caustic alkaliimSeparation 
of oxide of nickel and oxide of cobalt, by M. Delvaux.—On a 
process of industrial manufacture of carbonate of potash, by 
M. Engel.—On some complex compounds of sulphur and nitro- 
gen, by M. Demarcay.—On tar from cork, by M. Bordet. It 
contains more hydrocarbons than tar from coal, and less of oxy- 
genated substances than tar from hard woods.— On the ferment- 
ation of urea, by M. Richet. The stomachal mucus of animals 
in general causes ammoniacal fermentation of pure urea.— 
Physiological and therapeutical properties of cedrine and valdi- 
vine, by MM. Dujardin-Beaumetz and Restrepo.—Physiological 
action of Erythrina corallodendron, by MM. Bochefontaine and 
Rey.—On lesions of the bones in locomotor ataxy,, by M. 
Blanchard.—On the presence of trichina in adipose tissue, by 
M. Chatin. —On the virulent state of the foetus in sheep dead from 
symptomatic anthrax, hy MM. A. Arloing, Cornevin, a1d Thomas 
—lIllusion relative to the size and distance of objects from which 
one withdraws, by M, Charpentier. The objects seem to enlarge 
on approach.—On the organs of taste of ossecus fishes, by M. 
Jourdan.—Toxical power of pancreatic microzymas ‘in intra- 
venous injections, -by MM. Béchamp and Balten.—Human bones 
found in the diluvium of Nice—the geological question, by M. 
Desor. The deposit (at Carabacel) belongs to the category of 
strata contemporary with the erosion of tertiary plateaux.—De- 
scription of the bones, by M. Niepce.—Determination of the race, 
by M. de Quatrefages. It seem to be the same as that of the 
men of Cro-Magnon.—On a new genus of primary fish, by M: 
Gaudry. MM. Riche found it inthe Perinian of Igornay. Itis 
remarkable for the great size of its ribs, and is called Megapleuron 
Rochei. It had lozenge scales. —On the existence and characters 
of the Cambrian formation in the Puy:de-Déme and Allier, by 
M. Jullien.—General law of formation of mineral waters ; 
application to Greoux (Basses-Alpes), by M. Dieulafait.—On 
the discovery at Noir-Montiers (Vendée) of the Eocene flora®with 
Sabalites Andegavensis, Sch., by M. Crié.—Observations on® 
variations of temperature of the human body during moyement,. 
by M, Villari. The results agree with M. Bonual’s. 


CONTENTS PAGE 
Mind IN ANIMALS. By GeorGE J..Romangs,.F.R.S. . . .- «+ 59% 
AMERICAN INDIAN LancuaGEs. By A. H. KEANE Se sa ECS 


LETTEKS TO THE EDITOR :— 
Hot Ice.—Dr. Otiver J. Lopce; J: B. Hannay; GeorceE’ B. 


RicumMonp (With Diagrams)... +. 5 eo 8 & 5O4y 
The Oldest Fossil Insects —Rev. As E.. Eaton + 506 
Oceanic Phenomenon.— Surgeon H. B: Gurry SEE Nae cet ok ag 
The Banks of tne Yang-tse at Hankow.—Surge n H B Guppy . 507° 
An Experiment on Inherited Memory.—W. Martrizu WILLIAMS. 508 
Meteors.—J. PARNELL. . . . ». + s .- * ee wine sae e es 
Classification of the Indo-Chinese’ and Oceanic’ Racesi—H: J. 
Wirgente 9 6 4 bo A 6 5 5 fone ouch) aioe sone 
Fascination.—CarLt OCHSENIUS ...-.. eae we 508 
Flying-Fish.—CommanderAttan D. Broun. . . . + « ~ + 509 
‘THE OxFrorD COMMISSIONERS ON PROFESSOKS . . oe St Ye eee 
Tue INTERNATIONAL GroLoGicat Concress. By C E. pk Rance 510 
Tue Fatis oF N1aGaRA IN WINTER. By WiLLiaM LANr CARPENTER 
(With Tllustration). - «+ ~- « =. Pee SS oo She 
ZooLoGicaL RESULTS OF THE VISIT OF Pror. K. Momus To 
Mauritius. By H. N. Mosetzy,F.R.S: ... . itt ed 
INOTEHS) 6 shies = =) cteeefioiate? SehRsansk! @ ew he. ep 10) 555 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 
JAN New Vanriable\Star 52 3 vege i .~ op oyiena eee nan 517 
Minima of Algol; &c' ;in288ol ys) 5) SS eee 
The Red Spot upon Jupiter’s Disk . . iam tae ISG 
The Minor Planets. . . «| - ° . «eee SOF 
IPE YSIGAL IN OLESi ic) yeural ine i cues = AP ys 
GkoGRAPHICAL NOTES - - . - - « «© « = ° Oki skis 
PRIZEs OF THE Parts ACADEMY OF SCIENCES . . . - + + + « « 518 
MEASURING THE INDEX OF REFRACTION.OF EponiTe. By Professors 
Ayrton and Perry (With Diagram) 5 een oe cy ee 
Mo.ecuLtar ER&CTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION. By Prof. D. E. 
Hocus! FURS, ers 5 
SerENTIFIG!SERIALS?<\) + olen ie sed sh ce (+ (Gs uiex” (eeu aa enum eam 
SOGIETIES:AND ACADEMIBS. © . 5 - « ors +: os © 0 eo or 523 


— 


NATURE 


THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1881 


THE ARYAN VILLAGE 


The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon. By Sir John 
B. Phear. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1880.) 


T is now twenty years since a remarkable page in Sir 
Henry Maine’s “Ancient Law’’ drew attention to 

the prevalence in India of the village-community, a system 
of society strange to the modern English mind. Before 
that work appeared, even special students had little idea 
how far the ancient communism, under which the Aryan 
race colonised so much of Asia and Europe, was still to 
be found not as a mere relic of ancient society, but as the 
practical condition of modern life among Hindus and 
Slavs. The historical importance of this early institution 
is now fully recognised, and our archzologists are alive 
to the relics of the old village-communities in England. 
Not only are these seen in the public commons, but here 
and there in certain fields where, after harvest, the 
neighbours still have the right of turning their cattle in 
among the stubbles, while even a few of the great old 
“common fields,” where once each family had its free 
allotted portion, are still to be discerned by the baulks or 
ridges of turf dividing them into the three long strips, 
which again were cut crosswise into the family lots. Thus 
every contribution to the argument on the development of 
modern landholding from the communism of ancient times, 
finds interested readers. The present volume is such a 
contribution, and in several ways new and important. Sir 
John Phear thoroughly knows and carefully describes 
native life in Bengal and Ceylon, and one of his points is 
the remarkable parallelism of the agricultural village, as it 
has shaped itself in these two widely-separated districts. 
Up to a certain stage, the development of the village. 
community has been everywhere on much the same lines, 
and those not hard to trace. It springs naturally out of 
the patriarchal family, which, living together on its 
undivided land, tilling it in common, and subsisting on 
the produce, becomes in a few generations a family- 
community. There are now to be seen in and about 
Calcutta families of 300 to 400 (including servants) living 
in one house, and 50 to 100 is a usual number. The 
property is managed by the farta, who is usually the 
eldest of the eldest branch, and what the members want 
for personal expenses beside the common board and 
lodging, he lets them have in small sums out of the 
common fund. Now and then there is a great quarrel, 
when the community breaks up and the land is divided 
according to law. It is easily seen how such a joint- 
family or group of families settling together in waste 
unoccupied land would expand into a village-community, 
where new households when crowded out of the family 
home would live in huts hard by, but all would work and 
share together as if they still dwelt under one roof. In 
fact this primitive kind of village-settlement, according 
to our author, is still going on at this day in Ceylon. In 
districts where, as in ancient Europe, patches of forest are 
still felled and burnt to give a couple of years’ crop of 
grain, and where in the lowlands rice-cultivation requires 
systematic flooding, we find the whole settlement at work 
in common in a thoroughly socialistic way. The some- 

VOL. XxXIII.—No. 597 


343 


what different communistic system prevails more in India, 
where the land is still the common property of the village, 
and the cultivated plots are apportioned out from time to 
time among the families, but these families labour by and 
for themselves, pay the rent or tax, and live each on the 
crop of their own raising. In Bengal a step toward our 
notion of proprietorship is made, where custom more and 
more confirms each family in permanent ownership of the 
fields which their fathers have long tilled undisturbed. 
Tenant-right, so pertinaciously remembered by the Irish 
peasant, is older in history than the private ownership 
of land. Next, in the Hindu village as it now exists, 
a further stage of social growth appears. Families 
carrying on certain necessary professions have been set 
apart, or have settled in the village. The hereditary 
carpenters and blacksmiths and potters follow their 
trades, the hereditary washerman washes for his fellow- 
villagers, and the hereditary barber shaves them, paid 
partly for their services at fixed customary rates, and partly 
by having their plots of village-land rent free, or nearly so. 
All this is intelligible and practical enough, and indeed 
strongly reminds those of us who got our early politics 
out of ‘Evenings at Home,’ of the boy colonists pro- 
viding for their future wants under the direction of 
discreet Mr. Barlow, by taking with them the carpenter 
and the blacksmith and the rest of the useful members of 
society. But the village-community as it actually exists 
in India, or Servia, or anywhere else, only forms the sub- 
stratum of society, on the top of which appear other 
social elements whose development it is not so easy 
to trace with certainty. The “gentleman,” with his 
claims to live in a better house than the others whose 
business is to drudge for him, seemed absurd to Dr. 
Aikin’s political economy, yet he makes his appearance in 
the Hindu village-community as elsewhere. Sir John 
Phear seems disposed partly to account for what may be 
called the landholding class, as well as the endowed 
priesthood, as having held a privileged position from the 
first settlement of the villages, and it is in favour of this 
view that in such settlements the founder’s kin naturally 
have superior rights over the land to new-comers. But 
he does not the less insist on another and yet stronger 
social process which has tended to give to individuals a 
landlord-right over fields they do not till. When quarrels 
between two villages end in actual war, the conquering 
warriors (whose claims however seem to be here some- 
what confused with the rights of the chief’s family) would 
be rewarded for their prowess by grants of land carved 
out of the common lands of the conquered village, and 
the new lords being absentees would naturally put in 
tenants who would pay in return a share of the crops. 
Such metayage, or farming “‘on shares,’ is as common 
in India as in the south of Europe, and is evidently the 
stage out of which arose our rent-system of landlord and 
tenant. 

One great value of books like the present is in showing 
the analogies and differences of social institutions which 
have much of their history in common with our own, but 
have developed under other conditions. Feudal lordship 
and feudal sovereignty have in the East overridden the 
old village-system in ways curiously like those of the 
West. Thus, as Sir John Phear says, the English manor 
was the feudal form of the Oriental village ; the Bengal 

AA 


526 


NA LORG 


[April 7, 1881 


a arieeareeerseramarenennernnnnnEnEEEEEEEETT GESTTEETEEETTTEEEE TUTTE EEE TEETEI En EERIE EEE 


zamindar collects rents from his ryots and pays to the 
superior holder, or the Crown, living on the difference. 
Singhalese villagers may do suit and service either to a 
feudal chieftain or a Buddhist monastery, much as in 
England the fief might have been held either bya fighting 
baron or a praying abbot. It is interesting to find in 
Ceylon the notion that the existing tenure of land comes 
from the king having granted it subject to service, whereas 
its real history seems just the opposite, that the village- 
community came first, which the sovereign made himself 
paramount over and levied land-tax from. This reminds 
us of the theory of English law, that a cottager pastures 
his donkey on the common by sufferance of the lord of 
the manor, whose waste it is; the fact being that the 
peasant is exercising a relic of his old village-rights which 
has escaped the usurpation of the feudal system, and 
outlived it. 

Though the village-community is much broken down 
in the districts so well described by Sir John Phear, it 
still shows the old framework in the division of the tilled 
land in allotments to each ryot, and the equitable settle- 
ment of rights and duties by the »zanda/ or headman and 
his Zanchayat or village-council, which is one of the most 
admirable features of the ancient patriarchal system. But 
on the whole the village commune here shows practical 
results by no means admirable, and the husbandman’s 
life on the roadless mud-flats of Bengal, minutely drawn 
by the author in all its details of dreary poverty and 
ignorance and hatred of improvement, is about as de- 
pressing a social picture as can be met with. 

EDWARD B, TYLOR 


NILE GLEANINGS 
Nile Gleanings. By Villiers Stuart of Dromana, M.P, 
(London : John Murray, 1879.) 

HE land of Egypt has of late caused the issue of a 
multitude of books, and that in consequence of the 
increased knowledge which half a century of Egyptian 
research has produced. Classical authorities no longer 
avail the traveller; he requires translafions from the 
original hieroglyphic inscriptions, an insight into the 
discovery of a new world of antiquity and an acquaintance 
with the recent excavations which have revealed to the 
eye of the traveller an unveiled city of the dead. Scrip- 
tural texts alone garnished the older voyages. Above all 
the accomplished traveller should be acquainted with the 
various sciences which enable him to detect what is new 
or salient in the country that he visits, and its develop- 
ment, political institutions, progress, or decay should be 
seen at a glance even if it demands pages to describe 
them. The grand Egyptian tour is however a promenade 
of the land of monuments. Mr. Villiers Stuart’s ‘ Nile 
Gleanings” follow the usual track, and offer to the archzo- 
logist, besides the usual discussions on art, hieroglyphs, 
and language, and an occasional notice on the fauna and 
flora of Egypt, several new facts of archzological interest. 
At the description of Meidoum, the period of which is 
now known to be that of Senofrou, the tomb of Nofre 
Maat, with its strange figures inlaid with incrustations of 
red ochre, is new and interesting for its peculiar art and 
its remote age of the third dynasty; nor less important is 
the discovery of the flint flakes, the aér7s of the old chisels 


which sculptured it. Other tombs at the spot were 
remarkable for their gigantic masonry. These belong 
indeed to the more recent discoveries, but the traveller 
paid his respects to the dog mummy pits at Bebe, and the 
sites of Minieh and Dayr-el-Nakel. Considerable interest 
attaches to the heretical worshippers of the sun’s disk, 
who flourished about the close of the eighteenth dynasty, 
and who endeavoured to remove the capital of Egypt from 
Thebes with “its hundred gates,” to Tel-el-Amarna or 
Psinaula. The idea fashionable amongst Egyptologists 
has been that Amenophis III. of that line, the king, one 
of whose statues is the celebrated vocal Memnon, com- 
menced an attempted religious reform and tried to sub- 
stitute the worship of the sun’s disk or orb, the Aten as it 
is called, for that of the god Amen-Ra, or the hidden sun. 
To this it is supposed that he was invited by the undue 
influence of his wife, Tai or Taiti. After his death it is 
conjectured that he was succeeded by his brother, Amen- 
ophis IV., and that this Amenophis IV. was a convert of 
the most pronounced zeal for the worship of the solar orb 
or pure Sabzanism. For this purpose, from the Amen- 
hept, or the Peaceful Amen, he changed his name to 
Khuenaten, the Light or Spirit of the Sun. The chief data 
for this arrangement of the monarchs of the period of the 
eighteenth dynasty were the stones used for the construc- 
tion of the Pylon or gateway of Haremhebi or Horus 
of the same dynasty, which were found to have been 
taken from an edifice of the so-called disk worshippers at 
Thebes, and built with their faces inside the wall, exhibit- 
ing the erasure of the name of Amenophis IV. and the 
substitution of Khuenaten in the cartouches for Ameno- 
phis. Some objections indeed might have been taken 
from the fact that the features of Amenophis and Khuen- 
aten were different, it being of course facile to adopt a 
new faith, impossible to secure fresh features, even such un- 
enviable ones as those of Khuenaten. Mr. Villiers Stuart 
discovered a new tomb at Thebes, with Amenophis IV. and 
his queen on one side of the door and Khuenaten with his 
queen on the other, both dissimilar in features, arrange- 
ment, and condition—one perfect, the other mutilated. 
As both sovereigns could hardly have occupied the same 
sepulchre, evidently one of the two appropriated the con- 
struction of his predecessor. The theory of Mr. Villiers 
Stuart is that Khuenaten was a foreigner, which has been 
always asserted, although it is more difficult to decide to 
which of the races of mankind he belonged; there are 
however some reasons to believe that after all he may 
come from Nubia or the South. The discovery of this 
tomb is in fact the principal new point of the work, and is 
the one new and important contribution to the obscure 
history of the heretical division which took place about 
the thirteenth century B.C. 

The various sites of Esneh, Dendera, Assouan, Phila, 
and the Nubian temples are well known, but are described 
in a light and graceful way, and much old material repro- 
duced in a polished and not pedantic form. Necessarily 
a great deal is already well known to the student, and no 
inconsiderable portion to the general public. As to 
chronology the numerous systems and theories which 
have been started, amounting in all to above 200, allow 
any choice which suits best the proclivities of the inquirer. 
The present work has a new date for Rameses II., and 
throws his reign back to B.C. 1567, but it is difficult if not 


Apvil 7, 1881 | 


NATURE 


527 


impossible to reconcile a period so exalted with the ceiling 
of the so-called Memnonium and the date of the heliacal 
rising of the dog-star on the calendar of Thothmes III. 
at Elephantine. Every fact connected with the Exodus is 
a subject of continual dispute, dates, line of march, names 
of the Pharaohs, place of the House of Bondage whence 
the Jews swarmed out. The only safe view to take is 
that the problem is insoluble, and that its resolution 
should be tied up with the sheaf of paradoxes collected 
by De Morgan. Mr. Villiers Stuart found the cultivation 
of sugar prosperous, by means, though, of that apology for 
slavery “forced labour,’ and he is indignant at the 
sufferings of the unhappy fellaheen, as also at the urgent 
scheme of taxation and the system of baksheesh and 
official bribery which pervades the modern as extensively 
as it did the ancient land of bondage; but corvées, it 
appears, are necessary for the payment of Daira bonds, 
and “the drachm,” as in the Roman times, must be wrung 
out of the hard hands of peasants. While however glancing 
at the modern state of Egypt the interest of the writer is 
concentrated on the Egypt of the past, Pharaohs, their 
queens and their princesses, and a fair popular account is 
given of Thebes. His weakness is a love of dabbling in 
etymology, and venturing out of his depth on general ques- 
tions of comparative philology. Although, for example, an 
occasional word may resemble its Greek or Latin equiva- 
lent, the construction of the hieroglyphic or old Egyptian 
and the Coptic is totally different from those two classical 
tongues, the Egyptian having a closer resemblance to the 
Semitic than the Aryan or Indo-Germanic languages. 
As to the Etruscan, the few known facts about its con- 
struction point to the Turanian or Tartaric family rather 
than the Egyptian. The origin of the Egyptians is still 
involved in obscurity, and belongs to the province of 
conjectural ethnology. More Caucasian in the north 
and at the earliest period, more Nigritic on the south and 
at a later epoch, the Egyptians seem historically a mixed 
race, a fusion of conterminous races of Northern Africa, 
and Eastern foreigners, and Nigritic blood. The oldest 
inhabitants still remain a mystery. One theory is that the 
Egyptian was the primitive man of a vast continent, the 
last representative being the aboriginal Australian, 
Amongst other interesting points are visits to the Der- 
vishes, especially the fortune-tellers, and a description of 
the ride of the Sheikh of the Saidieh over the bodies of 
living men, who must have suggested to the apostle, had 
he seen him, the subject of Death on the Pale Horse. 
Like the car of Juggernaut, the Sheikh of the Saidieh is 
said to have been abolished. The ceremony might have 
been the relic of an old Egyptian one, and Pharaoh riding 
over his prostrate enemies may have anticipated the 
Sheik of the Saidieh. Altogether the work is entertaining 
and amusing: it is not so dry as a guide or handbook, 
nor so learned as an Egyptological history such as that of 
Brugsch-Bey, nor so elaborate as Wilkinson’s Manners 
and Customs, and Topography, or other travels by pro- 
fessed Egyptologists ; but its style is light and sparkling, 
and the principal details of history, mythology, and archzo- 
logy have been fairly mastered. In the minute details of 
philology it is weak, but they do not affect the general 
reader, and are easily set right e fassant by the expert, 
They will do no harm to scientific research, and they will 
amuse and to some extent instruct the public. The plates 


are also fairly done, and their colouring renders them more 
than usually attractive. It is decidedly agreeable to while 
away the monotony of a voyage down the river of the 
desert, as the Nile may be justly styled, and to those 
whose only travels are round their room, it will convey 
some pleasing impressions of what a visit to Egypt might 
show them. 


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. No 
notice 1s taken of anonymous communications. 

[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space ts so great that it 
is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts. | 


Improved Arrangement of Scale for Reflecting 
Instruments 


THE inconyenience resulting from the position of the scale in 
the ordinary well-known form of Thomson’s reflecting galvano- 
meter must have been experienced by all who have had occasion 
to use it much, and especially by myoptic individuals. This I 
have been able to eliminate very easily, as hereafter described, 
so that there is no further craning over to see ‘‘the spot,” or 
getting in one’s “light” in so doing. 

The scale is mounted as shown in the sketch, which gives a 
front view of one end of the scale and a cross-section of the 
same. 

B is a wooden scale-board with longitudinal slot, as shown at 
C; P is the paper scale, cut so that all the division lines reach 
the inferior edge; Aisa slip of plane glass, finely ground as to 
its lower half on the side towards c, from one end of the slip 
to the other ; the scale is so placed that the lower end of the 
division lines just touches the ground part of the glass slip. The 
image of the slit with a fine wire stretched across it is focussed 
in the ordinary manner on the ground part of the glass, and will 
of course be clearly seen by the observer on the opposite side of 
the scale; as the line and printed divisions are in the same 
plane, there is no parallax; and a great increase in accuracy of 


B 


£ 


Z 
rie 35 36 372 38 39 40 


reading the position of the hair line is obtained, owing to the 
greater ease of observing that two lines coincide when end on to 
one another than when superimposed; and further, from the 
circumstance that the room need not be darkened. 

This arrangement has been introduced at the beginning of this 
year by me in the testing-room of Messrs. Siemens Brothers and 
Co, at Woolwich, and has been most readily accepted by all 
my assistants, and I venture to say that any who adopt this 
arrangement will never return to the previous form, 

I may state that I place the lamp and its slit on one side and 
reflect the beam of light on to the galyanometer by a mirror or 
total reflection prism, and further by means of two long plane 
mirrors reduce the actual distance between the galvanometer and 
scale, so as to have everything close to the observer’s hand, The 
scale I have adopted is divided into half millimetres, and it is 
perfectly easy to read to a quarter of a division, and with a 
hand magnifying-glass still further. 

This method is of course applicable to any physical instru- 
ments which are read by a reflected spot, and as there are no 
‘*patent rights ” it is placed at the disposal of all.. 


Charlton F, JACOB 


A Note on Flame-Length 


THREE years ago, whilst endeavouring to make use of flame- 
length as a means of testing the economic values of different 
qualities of coal-gas by the determination of their specific flame- 


528 


lengths, I was led to the discovery of some simple relations, the 
further study of which will perhaps one day help to simplify the 
theory of flames. By specific flame-length I mean the length of flame 
of a combustible gas burning in a normal atmosphere at a standard 
rate through a simple circular orifice under such conditions as to 
produce a symmetrical, vertical, steady flame capable of being 
measured. These conditions are not difficult to obtain in the 
case of coal gas. In fact for a very long time a flame-length 
test has been in use amongst gas-makers, but as the comparison 
has not always been made on the basis of volume the results 
have not always been satisfactory. The system I advocated was 
that of stating the flame-length for some standard rate. It 
occurred to me at that time that the flame-length should be pro- 
portional to the consumption or rate of issue of the gas. On 
submitting this theory to experiment I obtained satisfactory 
evidence that such was the case, as the following table taken at 
chance from a series of experiments will show :— 


Rate of consumption Calculated rate for 


Flame-length. 


per hour. 10” flame. 
Inches. Cubic feet. Cubic feet. 
2 ae oe 75 a wes 3°75 
3 ae ws rns bee cea 7 
4 I'5 or ae 3°75 
5 1°85 be ant 3°70 
6 2°25 a5 52 355 
7 2°6 a ah 3°71 
8 on 2°98 <n 390 3°72 


I have therefore formulated the following laws :— 

1. That the flame-length of a combustible gas is proportional 
to the consumption. 

2, That the flame-length is the distance travelled by a gas in 
obtaining oxygen for its consumption. 

3. That the flame-lengths of different gases are proportional 
to the relative amounts of oxygen required for their combustion. 

The last remains to be proved, and 1 have been led to experi- 
ment upon simple gases such as hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and 
sulphuretted hydrogen, with the object of determining their 
specific flame-lengths ; but these gases give flames offering great 
difficulties in measurement. The flames given by coal-gas under 


suitable and easily-obtained conditions offer no difficulty, but I" 


have not been able at present (owing to the difficulty mentioned 
above) to obtain very satisfactory results with the above-men- 
tioned three simple gases. Other simple gases have suggested 
themselves, but the cost of preparing them in a state of purity 
in sufficient quantity has at present prevented their use. How- 
ever, with regard to sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic oxide, 
I have found their flame-lengths stand in the relation of 32 
to I, 

In view of the difficulty of measuring the flames of these 
simple gases I am about to effect the determination by indirect 
means. By preparing mixtures of known composition that will 
give easily-measurable flames, I hope to be able to throw some 
light upon this subject of flame-lengths. 


March 22 Lewis T. WRIGHT 


Future Development of Electrical Appliances 


As many of your readers have doubtless read Prof. Perry’s 
interesting paper on the future development of electrical appli- 
ances, a remark on one or two points might not be out of place. 
Tn speaking of the application of electricity to railway travelling, 
Prof. Perry says that the weight of the train would be much 
reduced under the proposed conditions, and rail friction would 
be minimised. It strikes us that to have light trains would not 
be altogether an advantage, for several reasons, The lighter the 
train the less profitable would be the vis viva against a strong 
wind (and the latter is an important element in railway locomo- 
tion). Again, the stability of a heavy carriage is much greater 
than that of a hight one, anda heavy engine in front of the train 
must steady the whole system. It would be interesting to ascer- 
tain from a practical engineer whether a train of six coaches with 
self-propelling powers could safely run at a speed of fifty-eight 
miles an hour. GEORGE RAYLEIGH VICARS 

Woodville House, Rugby 


Prehistoric Europe 


T aM sorry to have to ask you again to allow me to correct 
some statements made by Prof. Dawkins in the matter of the 
Victoria Cave explorations (NATURE, vol. xxiii, p- 482). 


NATURE 


[April 7, 1881 


I. He says that ‘‘ the antiquity of man in the Victoria Cave is 
solely due to the perfervidum ingenium of Mr. Tiddeman. It 
was first based on a fragment of fibula which ultimately turned 
out to belong to a bear. Then it was shifted to the cuts on two 
small bones.” It is not, I believe, usual in the arena to hand 
over your own broken disabled weapon to your adversary to 
defend himself with when you take a new one. Yet this 
appears to be one of Prof. Dawkins’s tactics. Who, reading 
the above remark, would believe that Prof. Dawkins ever held 
the following opinion? ‘‘ Although the fragment [of the fibula] 
is very small, its comparison with the abnormal specimen in 
Prof. Busk’s possession removes all doubt from my mind as to 
its having belonged to a man who was contemporary with the 
cave-hyena and the other Pleistocene animals found in the Cave” 
(‘*Cave-Hunting,” p. 120.) 

So far from the evidence having been “shifted” to the two 
small bones, on the breaking down of the fibula evidence, the 
latter event happened in 1878, whereas attention was called to 
the former in the Reports for 1875-6, the respective years of 
their discovery. 

2. “‘The bones are recent,” says Prof. Dawkins. ‘‘ This is 
evidently a very old bone,” said Prof. Busk, after inspecting and 
experimenting on one of them submitted to him ; and the whole 
of the circumstances of its discovery confirm that opinion, 

3. “The cuts have been probably made by a metallic edge.” 
That is a mere opinion, and to show what it is worth I may 
remark that at the discussion at the Anthropological Institute in 
1877, when Prof. Dawkins stated that the marks looked as if 
they had been made with a Sheffield whittle, another member, 
at least equally distinguished, and apparently equally desirous 


to oppose the evidence, said that the marks seemed to have been 


made by a rock slipping across the bones. 

4. Prof. Dawkins states that there were frequent slips of the 
materials after I took charge of the work. He has, I think, been 
misinformed, for his own visits to the Cave during that period 
were not sufficiently frequent to warrant any such statement, 
and our endeavour was to work the Cave in such a method as 
would entirely prevent the possibility of such accidents and the 
mixture of the remains. 

5. Prof. Dawkins goes on to show:—(1) Either that Dr. 
Geikie and I believe that ‘‘there is evidence of inter-glacial or 
pre-glacial man, possessed of domestic animals, and probably 
using edged tools of metals” (which we certainly do not) ; or 
that (2) in his opinion goat has never existed anywhere save as 
a domesticated animal, for his remarks proceed upon one or 
other of these two assumptions. 

6. Bones of goat were far from uncommon in the hyena-bed 
of the Cave, and found under such circumstances as would 
render their slipping down from higher beds quite im- 
possible. The same is the experience of that distinguished 
explorer, M. E. Dupont, Director of the Geological Survey of 
Belgium, in the caves of that country :—‘‘J’en maintiens absolu- 
ment la co-existence avec ces espéces perdues” (Yourn. Anthropol. 
Inst., vol, vii. No. 2, p. 168). Unfortunately the non-existence 
of goats in Pleistocene d-posits in Great Britain has been 
elevated to a dogma, and when the animals are found in such 
association it is immediately assumed that they have slipped 
from above—a confession to a very slipshod method of working 
—or, that the beds have previously been disturbed. All such 
cases should be most carefully inquired into and observed at the 
time without prejudice. 

7. Again, Prof. Dawkins says that I wrote that the fact of the 
finding of reindeer with the earlier Pleistocene animals was 
“noteworthy,” and that it is now too late to recall it. Ido not 
recall my statement, but I should like it quoted correctly. 
“Your reporter had an impression that the reindeer remains 
occurred at some height above the hyena-bed.’ Be that as it 
may, Prof. Dawkins’s opinion® is entitled to great weight, and 
is indeed the view generally held. At the same time, consider- 
ing that hyena and reindeer are not uncommonly found together 
in caves, when, as in this case, we see them mixed together at 
one or both ends of a section, but separated through an interval 
of seventy feet in length by a thickness of deposits, we may 
regard the fact as at least an interesting one, and, when found, 
noteworthy” (Brit. Assoc, Reports, 1876, p. 118). Prof. 
Dawkins shall have the whole of that. I will not recall even 
the middle sentence. R. H. TIpDEMAN 

Hastings, March 26 

4 This was also the opinion of Mr. Jackson, our painstaking superinten- 


dent, who was daily at the Cave. 2 
? 7.e., of the co-existence of these animals. 


— 


a 


April 7, 1881 | 


NATURE 


529 


Induction Current from Leyden-jar Discharge 


I was led to try the following simple experiments with the 
current induced from Leyden jar discharge, from the knowledge 
of what is the case in the Ruhmkorf’s coil induced currents. 

_ I have since found the experiments have often been tried 
before ; but all may not be aware how simply and easily the 
results are shown. 

After trying flat coils I found it more convenient to coil stout 
insulated wire round glass tubes. A few yards of stout wire 

round a tube A one foot long and 1} inches diameter gave me 
my primary coil; a similar tube B of less diameter to put 
inside A formed my secondary ; and a third coil c enabled me to 
examine the current induced in B, with respect to its magnetising 
power, at a distance, away from the influence of the primary A. 
An electrical machine, a Leyden jar or two, a number of un- 
magnetised knitting-needles marked with paper at one end, and 
a compass-needle to test polarity, are also required. 

The experiments are as follows :— 

(1) With coil A alone show that a needle is magnetised accord- 
ing to Ampére’s law; if we regard the direction of current to 
be from the + coat of the jar to the — coat. 


(2) Now arrange the coils as shown, A as primary, B as 
secondary, C in the circuit of B, and a needle inc, Let there be 
no break in the circuit of B and c, 

Then the magnetism induced in knitting-needle shows by (1) an 
action as of a current zzverse to that in A, 

(3) Now interpose a break in circuit of B and c, so that induced 
current gives a spark, We now get the needle oppositely mag- 
netised, showing a direct induced current ; and the magnetisation 
is far stronger than in (2), 

This points to the two opposite induced currents both passing 
when there is no air-break ; and the inverse having the strongest 
magnetising action ; but the result weak. An air-break stops 
the inverse current, and the far greater effect of the direct 
current un-neutralised by the inverse is very marked; it can 
easily be shown to a class, for example. 

I may add that I have been unable to try what results one 
gets with galvanometers from lack of instruments. 

Cheltenham W. LARDEN 


Classification of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races 


Ir is surprising that Mr, Murton should have had any difficulty 
about the characters used by me to indicate the word Papdwak. 
The form in question is identical with his own, the apparent 
difference being due to the two different characters respectively 
employed by us to express the labial #. In the Arabic alphabet 
there is no sign for this letter, because the sound does not occur 
in the Arabic phonetic system. Hence other Muhammadan 
nations using the Arabic alphabet supply the missing letter in 
various ways, the Persians, Afghans, and Indians by the form 


rd , the Malays usually by me 


—— 


Hence the two apparently 


= 


different but really identical forms Zo. and 


which have puzzled Mr. Murton and his Malays of Singapore. 
A. H. KEANE, 


Crabs and Actinia 


THE account of the actinia on the claws of a crab in your 
last number (p. 515) is of interest as raising the point as to what 
benefit the crab cerives from its friends. In the Annals of 
Natural History, many years ago, I wrote that, having fora long 


period kept Adamsta palliata with P. Prideauxii in confinement, 
Thad no doubt but that the white tentacles of the anemone were 
a bait which attracted various small animals within reach of the 
crab’s claws, thongh it did not, as Mébius seems to think, in 
any way aid the crab in capturing its prey. 

In the South Sea Islands I saw a splendid specimen of a crab 
carrying a large actinia. The habit of the crab was to conceal 
itself entirely in the sand, leaving the actinia waving its tentacles 
on the surface. No sooner however did a small crab, annelid, 
or other creature come within reach than the crab, shooting its 
elaw out of its concealment in the sand, struck out, and in most 
cases captured it. Here there was no doubt of the use of the 
actinia as a decoy. H. Stuart Wortley 

Patent Office Museum, South Kensington, W, April 4 


Migration of the Wagtail 


WITH reference to the statement of Herr Adolf Ebeling (apud 
the correspondence from the New York Avening Post, quoted in 
your issue of February 24, vol. xxiii. p. 387), that the fact that 
wagtails in their wintering ‘‘came to Africa, and especially to 
Nubia and Abysssinia, was then unknown to us,” permit the 
remark that as ‘‘¢ez” must refer to a date not earlier than 
1850 (when Heuglin went to Egypt), the appearance of wagtails 
on the west coast of Africa, as far south as Cape Verd, had 
been observed more than half a century before. 

In the Annales de Chimie for July, 1793, M. Prélong, one of 
the lieutenants of Stanislas, Chevalier de Boufflers, and director of 
the hospital at Gorée, records the arrival on September 14, 1788, 
of a flight of dergeronnettes from the north. In connection with 
this M. Prélong remembered that Adanson hed seen swallows 
at Senegal October 9, 1750 (?), while he himself could testify to 
their leaving his native pays (the Hautes-Alpes) towards the 
end of September. Prélong took ship for home in the middle 
of May, 1789, and was accompanied by his feathered friends the 
wagtails, Nowe 

New York, March 15 


Sound of the Aurora 


Upon this subject it may not be out of place to recall the fact 
that the passage of large meteors is not uncommonly described 
as accompanied by a hissing sound. I have met with state- 
ments of this kind in the case of meteors which were proved to 
have been twenty, thirty, or forty miles distant from the observer, 
and the sound of which, therefore, if it had reached him at all, 
must have reached him after such an interval of time that he 
would have been very unlikely to connect the two phenomena. 
Moreover the sound described in these cases is of a totally 
different character from the true sound of meteors, which is 
spoken of by those who have heard it as a heavy roaring or 
rumbling sound, 

The explanation of the alleged ‘‘hissing” is not difficult when 
we remember that the untrained observer of a bright meteor 
(although it may be distant fifty ora hundred miles from him) 
invariably regards it as a near object, falling, it may be, into the 
next field, or behind a neighbouring hill. Regarding it in this 
light, he attributes to it, by a well-known mental process, a 
sound such as a firework at the same distance might be expected 
to produce. vag 

May not the ‘‘rustling”’ of the aurora be equally a subjective 
phenomenon ? GrorGE F’, BURDER 


Earthquake Warnings 


In Comptes vendus, \xxxi. October, 1875, I find it stated, on 
the authority of M. Rivet, Telegraph Superintendent at Fort de 
France, Martinique, that when that island was visited by 
repeated earthquake shocks in September, 1875, each shock was 
preceded by a very marked disturbance of the electric telegraph 
needles. M. Rivet suggested that in this way warnings other- 
wise unattainable of impending shocks might be obtained. 

It would be interesting to learn whether this observation has 
been confirmed by recent experience on the Continent. 

Such warnings might often be the means of averting loss of 
life and property, and in eases like that at Ischia would, by their 
occurrence or non-occurrence, afford some additional clue to the 
real nature of the forces at work. H, M. C. 

Charlton, March 31 


539 


ON THE EARTHQUAKES AT AGRAM IN 
1880-81 


we our request Prof. Szabo, Professor of Geology and 
[ Mineralogy in the University of Budapest, has 
prepared for the pages of NATURE the following account 
of the recent earthquakes at Agram. This account is 
a thoroughly reliable one, as it is drawn up from informa- 
tion obtained from Dr. von Hantken, the Director of the 
Hungarian Geological Survey, and Mr. Schafarrik (Prof. 
Szabo’s assistant), both of whom were officially deputed 
to visit the district and inquire into the whole of the facts.] 

On November 9, 1880, at 7h. 33m. 53s., a very violent 
earthquake passed over the south-western quarter of 
Hungary and also Bosnia and Herzegovina. The limits 
of this large territory are approximately as follows :— 
West, the peninsula of Istria and the town of Trieste ; 
north, Vienna and Goddllé (north-east from Budapest) ; 
east, the flat lands between the Danube and the Theiss ; 
and south it reached far beyond Serajewo, because the 
earthquake was felt in this town also very strongly. It 
is said by some that the earthquake was even observed 
in Budweis (in Bohemia) and in Debreczen (east-north- 
east from Budapest). This territory is approximately 
equal to a circle, the radius of which is forty geographical 
miles long, and therefore its area is nearly 5000 square 
miles. From all information received up to the present 
time it may be asserted that the earthquake was not 
equally felt over the whole territory, but mostly in the 
centre of the circle—in the environs of Agram, where the 
damage occasioned was considerable. 

According to the testimony of trusty witnesses the 
earthquake began on the day mentioned above with a 
strong shock in an upward direction, which was accom- 
panied simultaneously with a perceptible and loud sub- 
terranean noise ; this was followed by a subsidence; then 
came a perpendicular shock from below; and lastly 
came an oscillatory movement of the earth in an east- 
south-east to west-north-west-direction. This movement, 
which lasted nearly ten seconds, was so intense that in 
the town of Agram not only all the larger public build- 
ings, but with few exceptions every dwelling-house, was 
damaged more or less. 

One peculiarity of this first shock is that not only were 
objects of small weight removed out of their original 
positions, and this was especially the case with objects 
standing on a flat surface, but it also produced a certain 
rotatory motion upon them (contrary to the hand of a 
watch) ; even some trustworthy witnesses affirm that the 
first shock had a rotatory effect on them. 

Chimneys are the objects which are the most easily 
damaged by earthquakes, and so in Agram there was 
scarcely a chimney to be seen after the earthquake which 
had not been either cracked or entirely ruined. The 
number of fallen chimneys amounts to nearly a thousand. 
An enormous amount of damage was also done to the 
roofs of houses ; one could see from the roof-tiles placed on 
laths that they had been shaken by the oscillation, and were 
partially broken and fallen down, especially those which 
were situated towards the east or west. All this happened 
in the morning when the streets were mostly crowded 
with people, and one must be astonished indeed that the 
great quantity of falling masonry, parts of walls, stone 
cornices, huge beams of wood, and pieces of broken 
glasses, &c., did not hurt more people ; altogether only 
twelve were severely wounded (broken arms, hands, feet, 
head wounds, &c.), but only in two cases did the injuries 
prove fatal; about twenty suffered slight contusions. In 
the surrounding country three men died, and some suffered 
from various injuries. 

Among the public buildings and the larger dwelling- 
houses in Agram not one has actually fallen to ruin, but 
the number of those houses, whose outward walls were 
obliged to be supported by long beams on every side, is 


NATURE 


| April 7, 1881 


considerable ; much more terrible, however, is the view 
of destruction inside the buildings ; the mortar from the 
walls of the rooms is for the greatest part fallen down, 
and the thinner walls have been shaken so much that 
some of them are totally fallen to ruin. About twelve 
buildings were so ruined by the earthquake that it was 
necessary to forbid their reconstruction, and the Senate 
of the town found itself compelled to order their entire 
demolition. Here is the corner house belonging to Mr. 
Priester, with two storeys facing the Marie-Valerie Street 
and Jellacsics Square, whose western frontal wall has 
separated itself from the other parts of the house, and is 
entirely bent towards the Marie-Valerie Street ; the house 
of Mrs. Zorgdch in the Petrijani Street is ruined and 
must be demolished ; the building of the Military Aca- 
demy in Ujlak has been a real and sad ruin. In the 
upper part of the town the following edifices are desig- 
nated to be demolished :—Br. Ozegovich’s house, the 
Mednyanszka Barracks, a certain part of the military 
“General-Commando”’ building, &c. The number of 
those buildings which have been rendered uninhabitable 
by the earthquake is great, but with great difficulty—by 
using iron braces—they can be renewed. ‘To these build- 
ings belong the cathedral, which is erected in the broad 
square courtyard of the archbishop’s palace. In this 
cathedral the vault of the sanctuary has fallen in and has 
covered the high altar and the space before it with frag- 
ments of wall and rubbish ; further, a part of the vault 
just before the organ and a little to the right of the 
entrance has fallen down in the centre nave; in the side 
nave a very heavy horizontally-placed buttress split, 
fell down, and broke through the tombs where the 
coffin of a canon was; besides these more striking 
damages the main wall was split in several parts. The 
archbishop’s palace itself has been damaged to such an 
extent that the archbishop and the canons were obliged 
to leave their apartments for a long time. In the same 
manner the Franciscan and St. Mark’s Churches were 
also damaged. One can also add among the others St. 
Catharine’s Church, which has been sadly damaged, as 
also the edifices of the University and of the “ Real- 
schule,” and many other private houses. The high 
chimneys of the gas-factory and of Grator’s brick-kiln 
were only partially damaged at the upper part. 

After these come those houses which, though they were 
very greatly damaged, yet the people were not obliged to 
quit them; and lastly follows the great number of those 
buildings which sustained only smaller damages (for 
instance, little rifts near the windows or along the corners 
of the walls, through mortar, &c., falling down). The 
proportion between the number of the edifices which 
became uninhabitable and had to be demolished, in com- 
parison with those which were damaged in a_ greater 
degree and those which were slightly damaged, is about 
1: 1:4. This arithmetical proportion nevertheless can- 
not at all express the damage that happened, because 
among the two first categories are the most valuable 
buildings, viz. the churches, barracks, the largest and 
newest houses, while the mass of the third category con- 
sists of small low buildings ; one must attend to the 
above descriptions because it is impossible to set strict 
bounds between the single categories, for there were 
many houses whose ground-floors were totally free from 
chinks, the first- and second-floors already showed gradu- 
ally more chinks in the walls, while the third-floor pre- 
sented a terrible picture of destruction. The damage to 
edifices caused by earthquakes depends on their solidity, 
on their height, and on their situation. As regards the 
solidity, they found that the weaker the walls were, and 
where iron braces were not applied, the more were the 
buildings damaged ; as regards the height, on the occa- 
sion of this earthquake it was observed that the second- 
floor was more damaged than the first, and the third 
more than the second; and finally as to the situation, 


April 7, 1881 | 


NATURE 


532 


there are some remarkable examples, houses forming 
south-east and north-west corners were exceedingly 
damaged, viz. south-east was the direction where the 
first shock came from. 

In the environs of Agram the earthquake appeared with 
no less strength than in the town itself, but the damage 
to the surrounding country is not so general, because here 
are the peasants’ cottages all built of wood. Here therefore 
only the churches, the parsons’ houses, schools, castles, 
and gentlemen’s private houses were the objects on which 
the earthquake left visible marks. 

All the buildings of any strength in the villages which 
are situated at the south-east slope of the mountain called 
Sleme, north from Agram, were damaged in a more or in 
a less degree; there is for instance the well-known place 
for pilgrimages, Remete (5 km. north of Agram), where 
the walls of the church, which is ornamented inwardly 
with very beautiful frescoes, and of the steeple are strongly 

aped in all directions, while the vaulted roof of the nave 
is totally fallen down ; so is also. the residence of the 
parson ; the damage caused in these two edifices amounts, 
according to an official valuation, to 38,000 florins. In 
Grancsina (7 km. north-east from Agram) the steeple, 
falling down in an easterly direction, broke through the 
roof and the vault of the church, so that now one can see 
only the four very ruptured walls. On the other side of 
the mountain Sleme, in a certain part of Croatia named 
Zagoria, many castles were ruined. 

The circle, where the earthquake caused the heaviest 
losses has approximately the following bounds :—South- 
west, Karlstadt ; west, Landstrass, Gurkfeld ; north-north 
west, Rohitsch; north, Warasdin, Csdktornya ; north- 
east, Kaproncza (Kopreinitz) ; east, Belovdr ; south-east, 
Sziszek, which corresponds to a territory of about 120square 
miles; the centre of this circle was the place where the first 
shock emanated from. The data kept in the surrounding 
parts relative to the direction and the greatest intensity 
of the shock indicate the territory which lies to south-east 
from Agram, and forms the alluvium of the River Save 
as the starting-point of the whole phenomenon. Here 
the crevice in the earth appeared also, caused by the 
strongly-oscillated motion. A little to the east from the 
village of Resnik (east-south-east from Agram) was the cre- 
vice in the alluvium of the Save. It was 5 kilometres long, 
and had several interruptions, and extended in a south- 
east direction, from which here and there some smaller 
crevices radiated. This chief crevice, which continued 
through the Save as faras the village of Scitarjevo, showed 
in some places a few days after the earthquake openings 
one to two feet broad, but for the most part the crevice 
was filled with bluish alluvial sand, which was forced out, 
mixed with water by the opening and closing of the 
crevice being formed by the oscillation of the soil, the 
water forcing its way through this dense pulp, produced 
by its upheaval those small flat craters which many 
people are inclined to declare volcanoes of mud. The 
dimension of these small craters is very variable ; their 
diameters differ between 2 and 75 c.m., their height 1 to 
30¢.m.; and, calculating from these numbers the cubic 
contents of the largest flat cone, we receive nearly 05 
cubic metres; this little quantity of the out-pressed 
material is enough to exclude the hypothesis that these 
cones were the result “of a slow action for some hours.’’ 
If hydro-sulphuric gas was present during this pheno- 
menon, as some believe, it is not known, because we want 
positive and trusty evidence on this point. Moreover it 
is not impossible that there should be an appearance of 
small quantities of hydrosulphuric gas dissolved in the 
water of an alluvial slimy soil, because such water gener- 
ally contains decaying substances and finely-dispersed 
sulphates, but one can in no case suppose that a great 
quantity of hydrosulphuric gas would have produced the 
crevices and ejected the sand mixed with water. 

Beyond this territory of 120 square miles the earthquake 


was felt with a gradually diminishing strength, and in 
many places the motion was so weak that a great many 
of the inhabitants did not remark it. Among these can 
be mentioned Fiume, where they felt only a very slight 
shock ; then Budapest and Vienna, where only one or 
two became attentive to this phenomenon. 

Beyond the territory of 120 square miles, where they 
suffered the strongest shocks, there are yet some environs, 
though far enough from the centre, where destruction also 
happened, for instance in Styria, and in Hungary, in the 
neighbourhood of Pécs (Fiinfkirchen). To explain the 
connection of these cases with the entire phenomenon 
deeper researches must be made. 

It remains to communicate shortly the statics of the 
earthquake. 

1. November 9, at 7h. 33m. 53s. in the morning, the 
first shock enduring 10 seconds with a subterranean 
noise. This one has caused all the damage. 

2. November 9, at 7h. 37m. in the morning: an 
oscillatory motion without a noise. 

3. November 9, at 8h. 27m. 55s. in the morning: slight 
motion. 

4. November 9, at 10h. 50m. in the evening : very 
slight motion. 

5. November 10, at 6h. in the morning : very slight 
motion. 

6. November 11, at 11h. 26m. in the forenoon: a 
strong oscillation, which effected some damage. 

7. November 16, at 12h. 4m. in the morning; a 
sufficiently strong shock accompanied with a dull noise. 

8. November 16, at 12h. 44m. 

9. .. 12h, 49m. 

10. a a ih, gm. 

1. yy a 4h. 24m. 
weak oscillations, of which only the last had a little more 
strength than the others. 

So it lasted continually during December. Even in 
this year (1881) in January and February feeble shocks 
recurred after longer interruptions; the last shock was 
recorded in the newspapers from March 4 

Budapest, March 18 


in the morning : 


THE ST. PETERSBURG DYNAMITE MINE 


a) HE following account of the mine recently discovered 

in St. Petersburg, extracted from Russian sources, 
gives a remarkable picture of the state of society in the 
empire, where able chemists and expert miners can be 
found to engage in such desperate undertakings. 

It appears from a sketch-plan which accompanied the 
translation put into our hands, that the mine extended 
from one side of Malaya Sadobaya Street to the centre of 
the roadway ; the total length.of the mine gallery being 
fifteen paces, the street must be thirty paces, say seventy- 
five feet wide. 

The gallery terminated in a chamber about double its 
diameter, and in this was found the charge contained in 
a case twenty-two inches long and eight inches diameter, 
weighing sixty-five pounds, and beside this a glass Jar 
contained about thirty pounds more of the explosive 
substance, apparently an excess quantity over that re- 
quired for the actual explosion. The explosive consisted 
of a species of dynamite made by mixing nitro-glycerine 
with powdered charcoal. This is more powerful in its 
effects than the ordinary substance, in which an inert 
body, generally a soft infusorial earth, takes the place 
of the charcoal. The description of the fuse, as con- 
tained in the Russian account, is very obscure, but so 
far as can be made out it would appear to have consisted 
of a wide heavy glass tube containing an explosive, 
described some time back in NATURE, and prepared by 
mixing nitro-glycerine with about 10 per cent. of gun- 
cotton, the result being a very explosive substance of a 
partially gelatinous character. In the midst of this, and 


532 


NATURE 


| April 7, 1881 


surrounded by a mixture of potassic chlorate and anti- 
monious sulphide, was a sealed glass tube containing con- 
centrated sulphuric acid and aleaden weight. The whole 
was then apparently connected with the dynamite in the 
case by means of an india-rubber tube also containing 
explosives. If this was the actual construction the szodus 
operandi of the conspirators was very simple, for the 
heavy glass tube had only to be allowed to fall, when the 
lead would have broken the sulphuric acid tube, and 
the chlorate mixture would have at once inflamed, and 
the explosion of the jelly would have communicated by 
means of the rubber tube with the torpedo. At the same 
time it is very difficult to imagine the reasons which could 
have induced the conspirators to adopt so crude a method 
when, as it appears from the account, they had at their 
disposal in the room adjoining that from which the mine 
was driven no less than four galvanic batteries, with which 
the explosion could have easily been instantaneously 
effected by those on the watch for the passage of the 
intended victims, a method of operation much more con- 
sonant with the skilled character of the other parts of 
the work. It is however very difficult to understand 
a description such as this when derived from a non- 
scientific source, as may be imagined when one of our 
daily contemporaries stated that the fuse contained 
“ bartholley salts,” and another “chlorate of potash and 
sulphide of ammonium.” 

Whatever may have been the real mode intended to 
have been used by the conspirators, the results would 
have been sufficiently frightful, as it is probable that the 


charge found would have made a. “‘ crater” of about fifty | 


feet in diameter. 

The jelly contained in the glass tube was, when 
analys-d, found to contain about 4 per cent. of camphor. 
This was added to render the mass less sensitive to any 
accidental shock which it might incur, and is aningenious 
application of principles laid down by Abel (Proc. Roy. 
Soc. xxii. p. 163) in his well-known paper on ‘The 
History of Explosive Compounds,” in which, though not 
actually mentioning the dilution of a liquid or semi-liquid 
explosive by the solution in it of another body, he clearly 
indicates the probable effects of such a treatment. That 
men of education and ability should so apply their 
undoubted powers must be a matter of regret to every 
student of science. 


FISH-CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES 


ie isa common saying that everything in America is 

on a larger scale than in this country. The longest 
rivers, the largest lakes, the highest mountains, the 
broadest plains, the most stupendous waterfalls, and the 
biggest hotels, are all to be found in the New World. 
Fortunes are made with a rapidity which is unparalleled 
in Europe; and men who only lately were penniless 
adventurers are losing or winning millions in New York, 
The latest example of the scale on which everything in 
America is conducted may be found in a volume of more 
than 1000 pages, printed in the Government printing- 
office, bound in the Government “ bindery” of the 
United States, and containing the Annual Report of the 
United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries. The 
volume, it may be added, has been preceded by five 
others of almost equal length ; and gives a remarkable 
idea of the importance which the Americans attach to 
fish-culture, 

It would obviously be impossible to attempt, within the 
compass of a newspaper article, any adequate review of 
a work of this character. But we may perhaps indicate 
its nature by rapidly describing its contents. The volume, 
then, is roughly divisible into two parts. The first 64 
pages contain the Report of the Commission ; the last 988 
Pages are occupied with appendices and an index. Forty- 
four appendices of unequal importance are thus pub- 


lished. The greater portion of them consists of transla- 
tions or reproductions of papers published in other 
countries and having more or less reference to the work 
of the Commission, For instance, there is a report by 
Herr Wallem (the well-known Norwegian Inspector of 
Fisheries) on the American Fsheries ; by Prof. Sars on 
the Norwegian Deep-sea Expedition of 1878; by Mr. 
Stirling of Edinburgh on the Recent Outbreak of 
Salmon Disease; and by other authorities on various 
subjects. In addition the appendices contain original 
papers by Messrs. Livingston Stone, C. G. Atkins, and 
other American fish-culturists on matters more or less 
connected with fish-culture in the United States, Thus 
the volume undoubtedly contains a vast mass of informa- 
tion. Much of it indeed is written in a style which in 
this country would be considered more suitable to a re- 
view than to an official report. But the American system 
of government is so different from our own that an 
Englishman cannot easily form an impartial opinion on 
this point. 

Herr Wallem estimates the yearly profit, by which we 
think he means the gross yield, of the fisheries of the 
United States at 27,300,000 dollars. In this sum is 
“naturally not included what foreign nations capture on 
the banks of America, nor what the fisheries of Canada 
yield. If one should take both these factors into the 
calculation the amount mentioned may perhaps be in- 
creased by one half, because the French fisheries alone 
on the Newfoundland Islands have a yearly profit of 
$1,365,000 to $1,638,000, and the Canadian fisheries 
yield $10,920,000 to $12,285,000 yearly.” Herr Wallem 
adds ina note that ‘‘for comparison it may perhaps be 
instructive to state that the Norwegian Marine Fisheries 
may be estimated at $12,285,000 to $13,650,000 yearly, 
and the French at $15,015,000 to $16,380,000.” If these 
figures may be accepted as correct on the high authority 
of Herr Wallem, the American fisheries must be worth 
about 5,500,000/. a,year; the French fisheries 3,250,000/. ; 
the Norwegian fisheries 2,600,000/,; and the Canadian 
fisheries 2,250,000/7. We have unfortunately no statistics 
at our command which would enable us to compare 
these values with the produce of our own fisheries, 
but we do not believe that any competent authority 
would place their value at less than 6,300,000/.; and 
we believe that most persons would be disposed to 
name a higher sum. Englishmen, therefore, may have 
the satisfaction of reflecting that the fisheries of the 
British Islands are still the most important in the world ; © 
though the fishermen of the United States are fast over- 
taking British fishermen. 

Those persons who are most familiar with the British 
fisheries are aware that for years past complaints have 
been made of the injury done both to fish and fishermen 
by the operations of trawling. It is very singular that 
trawling is also objected to in the United States ; and 
the Commissioners print in their appendices a petition 
from the fishermen of Block Island on the subject. But 
the similarity between the complaints disappears on 
examination. A trawl in England is a large purse- 
net, attached to a heavy beam raised upon trawl heads 
or irons at either end, and dragged along the bottom of 
the sea. A trawl in Scotland is simply a draft or seine- 
net ; a trawl in America is a long line baited with hooks 
and left on the bottom of the sea. It is very odd that 
these three distinct modes of fishing are all objected to 
in the different countries in which they are employed. 
In Scotland the drift-net fishermen object to the trawl or 
seine-nets ; in England the drift-net fishermen and the 
line fishermen object to the beam trawls. In America 
the hand-line fishermen object to the set-line fishermen, 
whom they call trawlers. Among the fishermen of the 
three countries there is a cry against trawling, and the 
fishermen of the three countries are all alluding to dis- 
tinct modes of fishing. These complaints may, centuries 


8S 


April 7, 1881 | 


NATURE 


ove 


hence, puzzle some antiquarians, who may naturally 
assume that these races, speaking the same language, 
mean the same thing by the same word. They all are 
due to the jealousy usually felt by the introduction of new 
machinery in any industry. The set-line fishermen, who 
complain of the beam trawls in this country, form the 
very class which the hand-line fishermen complain of in 
America under the name of trawlers; and the Govern- 
ments of both countries may safely disregard both 
complaints, since one of them is the most effective answer 
to the other. 

We have reserved for the close of this article all refer- 
ence to what the Commissioners would consider the most 
important portion oftheir Report. The Americans are the 
greatest fish-breeders in the world, and fish-breeding is 
conducted in the United States at a cost and to an extent 
of which in this country we can have little idea. According 
to the Report, the Commissioners distributed in 1878 no less 
than 15,700,000 shad and 4,460,000 Californian salmon, 
besides other fish. Such prodigious efforts will excite 
surprise among persons who are acquainted with the diffi- 
culties of obtaining even a few thousand ripe salmon eggs, 
and we naturally turn for information as to the results 
which have ensued from such unprecedented efforts. Here 
however we find, as it seems to us, the least satisfactory 
portion of the Report. The Commissioners claim indeed 
that no less than 500 salmon were taken in the mouth of the 
Connecticut River in 1878, a river which they imply had 
had few or no salmon in it for many years. It is possible 
therefore that the Commissioners’ efforts may have been 
successful in restocking that river with salmon; though we 
own that we should feel more certain of this if the fish 
had been taken in the river itself, and not in the mouth 
of it. But when they go on to infer that they may increase 
the yield of shad, and even of herring and of cod, we 
read with admiration of their energy, but without being 
convinced by their reasoning. In this country, at any 
rate, the best observers are satisfied that cod, herring, and 
other fish are annually bred in numbers compared with 
which the fifteen millions of fry of the United States 
Commission would represent an insignificant fraction, 
and that the destruction which is going on among them 
by natural causes is so vast that even the capture of white 
bait by the ton-load makes no appreciable addition to it. 
The arguments which Malthus, at the commencement of 
the century, used to illustrate the principles of population 
are thought in this country to be strictly applicable to fish. 
Sea-fish, like all other animals, are undoubtedly increasing 
in greater proportion than their food; and it is obvious 
therefore that unless man can increase their food it is 
only lost labour to increase their number. 

We have thus reviewed, at some length, a few of the 
leading facts in this long and interesting Report. With 
many of the conclusions in it we are unable to agree; but 
we cannot part from it without expressing a feeling of 
almost envy at the elaborate pains which the Government 
of the United States is taking to understand the best 
methods of developing the great industries of their seas. 
In this country we do not even take steps to obtain the 
best statistical information on the subject. Might we 
not in such a matter with advantage follow the example 
of our Transatlantic kinsmen ? 


THE PARIS OBSERVATORY}? 


je UT two years ago Rear-Admiral Mouchez, director 

of the Paris Observatory, resolved to bring together 
for exhibition the instruments scattered in various parts, 
and by joining to that collection the portraits of great 
astronomers and methodically grouping all the documents 
relating to the history of astronomy which could be pro- 
cured by bequest or otherwise, to lay the basis of a 


* From an article by M. Gaston Tissandier in La Wat, 
Mouchez’s official Report of 1880. cuehs Be ae a 


special museum of very great interest. This proposal, 
having received the approval of the Minister of Public 
Instruction, is now being realised. One of the large 
rooms on the first floor of the Observatory has already 
been fitted up and occupied, and through the kindness of 
Admiral Mouchez, who himself did us the honour of 
giving full details of his new collection, we are able to 
publish the description. 

The first hall of the Astronomical Museum is very 
artistically decorated. It is circular in form, and well 
lighted by several windows. ‘The ceiling will probably 
be adorned by a painting representing the transit of 
Venus over the Sun. There are nine paintings in the 
room, representing Louis XIV., founder of the Observa- 
tory, and directors and eminent astronomers who have 


AVENUE DE 
L OBSERVATOIRE} 


i. 
RHE A awe 


nf 
4 
0 nn E 


BOULEVARD 


Fig. 1.—Plan of the Observatory, with the proposed extension on the south 
side to the Boulevard Arago. Present state: a, the Observatory; B, 
the ‘‘sidérostat,’’ c, the meridian circle; p, the great telescope; E, 
equatorials; m, ditch to be filled up; tL, ditches. Ground to be 
annexed; F, the Bischoffsheim equatorial; Gc, the great refractor of 
0’74m. aperture; H, Fortin’s circle; «, the astronomers’ dwelling-house. 


succeeded each other to the present day : Cassini, Lalande, 
Delambre, Laplace, Bouvard, Arago, Delaunay, and Le- 
verrier ; the latter painted after death by Giacomotti, is 
the gift of M. Bischoffsheim. In the embrasures of the 
windows are displayed astronomical paintings representing 
groups of nebula, Saturn’s rings, lunar volcanoes, clusters 
of stars, the remarkable drawings of Jupiter and Mars 
executed by MM. Henry, &c. 

On the oak mantelpiece stands a magnificent Louis- 
Quatorze clock made by Coypel and recently restored by 
M. Passerat, a specimen of art so unique that virtuosos 
would certainly attach a great value to it. Round the 
room are observed several globés mounted on marble 
and oak pillars, two being especially worthy of attention : 
the celestial sphere of Gerard Mercator (1551), and the 
terrestrial sphere of the same geographer (1541). On the 
latter globe may be seen figured a certain number of the 
great lakes of Central Africa already known and their 


34 


INA TORE 


| April 7, 1881 


CS ne 


positions well indicated in the middle of the sixteenth 
century. These spheres, which constitute documents of 
great importance historically, were recently discovered at 
the Brussels library through a folio pamphlet bought in 
1868,and have been reproduced with great accuracy, by 
M. Malou. 

The objects exhibited are carefully classified in glass 
cases, so that they can be examined by the visitor with- 
out being touched. In the first case, which is set apart 
for optical instruments, is observed Fresnel’s great lens ; 
also some of the object-glasses made use of by Cassini, 
and other valuable objects presented to the Observatory 
by Mme. Laugier, such as the optical apparatus made 
use of by Arago; the photometer, prismatic mirrors, and 


the polarimeter, by means of which the great astronomer 
enriched science with so many beautiful discoveries. 

The second case contains objects relating to the history 
of the “ metric system,” comprising a standard metre and 
several curious specimens of foreign measures. The 
other glass cases, arranged in a circle round the room, 
contain various astronomical instruments, among which 
we may mention the apparatus made use of by M. Cornu 
to measure the velocity of rays of light, a large theodolite 
of Rigaud, another of Bruner, one of the first sextants 
ever constructed; also several instruments of more 
modern date, the first portable meridian circle of M. 
Mouchez, Gambey’s theodolite, &c. 

The case in the centre of the room is especially 


Fic. 2,—Aérial telescope of the seventeenth century, after Hevelius, from an engraving in the new Astronomical Museum of the Observatory of Paris. 


noticeable: it contains a curious collection of German 
instruments of the sixteenth century, in perfect preser- 
vation. The attention is at once attracted by several 
instruments of gilt brass, most artistically carved, which 
were made at Niiremberg in the sixteenth century. 
Amongst them we observed a curious mechanical ar- 
rangement for casting dice, which was probably used 
for some demonstration of the doctrine of proba- 
bility and chances; a valuable sun-dial of carved brass, 
dated 1578, full of groups of allegorical personages; 
a species of altazimuth; a handsome repeating-circle, 
highly ornamented, and bearing the two-headed eagle of 
Germany’; some astrolabes, quadrants, mariner’s-com- 
Passes, a small ivory sun-dial of the sixteenth century, 


presented by M. Eichens. The history of all these 
instruments except the last is unknown; but it is sup- 
posed that they were either presented to Louis XIV. or 
are what is left from the spoil of the First Empire 
having escaped the notice of the Allies in 1815. 

On the lower part of this case are shown photographs 
of old engravings representing the astronomical instru- 
ments of former ages. One of those curious pictures is 
reproduced above (Fig. 2), showing the astronomical 
telescope with a simple object-glass of long focus which 
was constructed in the seventeenth century, and of which 
an engraving was published by Hevelius. It may serve 
to convey an idea of thesingular and gigantic instruments 
which astronomers of bygone times made use of. 


April 7, 1881 | 


In aroom on the floor above there is a special exhibi- 
tion of a large number of photographs, which is being 
constantly increased by new additions. They consist 
of photographs of all the ancient instruments copied 
from engravings of the period; and all the foreign instru- 
ments in present use, taken from nature. There are also 
drawings representing the principal observatories in the 
world. 

Such is the commencement of the astronomical museum 
of the Paris Observatory. It will be completed by organ- 
ising a second circular room resembling that which we 
have just rapidly passed under review. This new room 
will be adorned with portraits of the most illustrious of 
foreign astronomers :—Newton, Galileo, Tycho-Brahe, 
Kepler, Copernicus, Herschel, Bradley, and others. It 
will also contain a special exhibition of large astronomical 
instruments; notably a quadrant of Lalande’s, a sextant 
of Lacaille’s, a quadrant of Langlois’ which was used by 
the North Pole Committee, and a meridian telescope of 
Delambre. 

It would be useful to bring together in the Paris Ob- 
servatory those instruments which are scattered here and 
there in various other national institutions, so as to com- 
plete a collection already so rich invaluable objects. The 
directors will also gratefully accept of any bequests that 
may be addressed to them from private individuals, as 
was done by Mme. Laugier with reference to the instru- 
ments of Arago and Delambre which she had in her 
possession. 

After our survey of the new Astronomical Museum, it 
now remains to say a few words regarding the extension 
of the observatory, which is about to be made by annexing 
the ground on the Boulevard Arago (Fig. 1). This waste 
land contains a superficies of at least gooo metres, and 
when the ditch which at present divides it from the Ob- 
servatory garden is filled up, it will be united to the rest 
of the institution without any separation. On these 
grounds will be erected the great "75 m. telescope, the 
arrangements for which are already well advanced ; also 
the equatorial presented by M. Bischoffsheim, the circle 
of Fortin, which long rendered excellent service, and was 
dismounted in 1862 to make room for the the great 
meridian-circle, and several instruments for the special 
use of the pupils. 

The plan which we give above (Fig. 1), from official 
documents, shows what the Paris Observatory will be as 
a whole when the projected improvements are completed. 

We regret that the works are being so slowly carried 
on, notwithstanding the praiseworthy energy evinced by 
the directors of the Observatory. A ditch to be filled in, 
a garden to be laid out, a few buildings to be erected, all 
amount to but very little. But before the masons cut a 
stone or the gardeners trace an alley there is a path to be 
traversed which is not exactly the shortest or quickest, 
viz. that of administrative and official routine. 


ACHILLE DELESSE 


WE regret to have to record the death of this eminent 
geologist, which took place, after a long illness, on 
March 24. Delesse was born at Metz, and was educated 
at the lyceum of that town, afterwards proceeding, at 
the-age of twenty, to the Ecole Polytechnique at Paris. 
He was a diligent and successful student, and in 1839 
took his degree as a mining engineer. He then travelled 
for some time through his own country, in Germany, 
Poland, and the British Islands, and in 1845 was ap- 
pointed Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at Besan- 
con, where he also practised as a mining engineer. It 


was during his residence here that he wrote his “ Notice. 


sur les Charactéres de l’Arkose dans les Vosges,’’ and 
his “ Mémoire sur la Constitution minéralogique et chi- 
mique des Roches de Vosges,’’ both of which works 
appeared in 1847. After a stay of five years at Besancon 


NATURE 


935 


Delesse returned to Paris, where he was employed as a 
mining engineer, and was especially engaged in superin- 
tending the quarrying operations about the city for nearly 
eighteen years. In 1855 he prepared the report on 
building materials in connection with the Exposition 
Universelle of that year in Paris. In 1864 he was nomin- 
ated Professor of Agriculture, Drainage, and Irrigation 
in the Ecole des Mines. Delesse’s earliest researches 
were directed to pure mineralogy, and he paid great 
attention to the subjects of pseudomorphs and the asso- 
ciation of minerals, and this led him to study the ques- 
tion of the metamorphism of rocks. The outcome of this 
periec © study was his well-known work, “ Recherches 
sur POrigine des Roches,” published in 1865, in which he 
argued ably and forcibly in favour of the view-that crys- 
talline rocks owe many of their characters to the action 
of superheated water, and are not produced by simple 
dry fusion. This important work of Delesse has exercised 
a marked and very beneficial influence on the progress of 
petrographical science, and its originality and value were 
at once recognised by the most advanced thinlers of 
the time. Already in 1858 Delesse had published two 
of his valuable maps, namely, the ‘Carte géologique 
soutteraine de la Ville de Paris’’ and the ‘ Carte hydro- 
logique de la Ville de Paris,’’ and his subsequent studies 
came to be especially directed into the channels of inquiry 
which were associated with the professorship that he had 
created and so ably filled. In 1868 appeared his work 
on the Rainfall of France, and other memoirs treating of 
the agricultural bearings of geology were produced about 
the same period. 

The war of 1870 caused an interruption in the scientific 
labours of Delesse, and we find him at this period super- 
intending the construction of cartridges in the depart- 
ments. But in 1878 he was appointed an Inspector- 
General of Mines, and the south-east of France was 
assigned to him as his district. During the last twenty 
years Delesse has issued, in conjunction with MM. Langel 
and de Lapparent, a series of annual volumes entitled 
“Revue de Géologie,” a work of such value that we regret 
to hear that it is to be discontinued in the future. Delesse 
received many honours in recognition of his valuable 
labours. He was an officer of the Legion of Honour, 
and filled the post of President of the Geological Society 
of France. As long ago as 1859 he was elected a 
Foreign Member of our own Geological Society. He 
was also for two years President of the French Geological 
Society, and he occupied the chair during the Inter- 
national Congress of that Society in 1875. In 1879 
Delesse was elected a Member of the Academy of 
Sciences. In Delesse France has lost one of her most 
distinguished and widely-known scientific men. 


PROFESSOR HELMHOLTZ’S FARADAY 
LECTURE 


@~ Tuesday evening Prof. Helmholtz gave the Faraday ~ 
Lecture of the Chemical Society at the Royal Insti- 
tution. We have so recently (NATURE, vol. xv. p. 389) 
given a full account of the life and work of the eminent 
German worker in various departments of science, that it 
is unnecessary to go over the ground again. A very fair 
estimate of his position was given in a leading article in 
the Zzmes of Saturday last; and we are glad to notice 
that the leading journal now is glad to draw attention 
to men of science whose work is deserving of public 
notice. The University of Cambridge did itself the 
honour of conferring upon Prof. Helmholtz the degree 
of LL.D. on Thursday last, on which occasion the public 
orator, Mr. Sandys, made the following elegant and appro- 
priate speech :— : 
“Dignissime domine, domine Procancellarie, et tota 
Academia : i ; 
“Singularum quidem scientiarum terminos protulisse, 


530 


plurimis concessum est; uni vero plurimarum fines ex 
tendisse raro contigit. Atqui hodie virum salutamus, qui 
rerum naturae regionem plusquam unam feliciter occu- 
pavit, qui primum physiologiae penetralia perscrutatus, 
deinde physicorum studiorum campo amplissimo potitus, 
ipsam denique mathematicorum arcem fortiter expugnavit, 


NATURE 


ex alia deinceps in aliam provinciam progressus, velut | 


militum Romanorum ille maximus, ‘victrices aquilas 
alium laturus in orbem.’ 

“Militarium medicorum ordini adhuc adscriptus, argu- 
mentum magnum intra unius libelli fines artiores com- 
plexus, ostendit vim illam, quae nonnunquam viva vocatur, 
In universa rerum natura esse conservatam, partes eius 
aliam ex alia posse generari, summam esse immutabilem. 
Quid huius ingenio excogitatas commemorem quaestiones 
illas hydrodynamicas, quid vortices illos qui scientiae 
mathematicae ad interiora pertinent? Illa vero magna 
opera, quorum in uno sensus audiendi clarissime expli- 
catur, in altero videndi sensus pulcherrime illustratur, 
omnes, nisi fallor, aut vidistis ipsi, aut fama certe audi- 
vistis. Pulchrum est (uti hunc ipsum confitentem legimus), 
pulchrum profecto est, e scopulo quodam excelso late 
tumultuantem oceanum prospicere, fluctusque procul 
albescentes, modo breviores, modo longiores, oculis dis- 
cernere : pulchrius autem in physiologiae templo intimo 
versatum, oculorum ipsorum structuram exquisitam intro- 
spicere, et, lucis legibus obscuris ordine lucido evolutis, 
fluctuantes luminis motus metiri variamque colorum 
venustatem explicare: omnium fortasse pulcherrimum, 
in iisdem arcanis morantem, undas illas aeris quas nulla 
nisi mentis acie contemplari possumus, inter sese audiendo 
distinguere ; sonitus cuiusque, dum tremit vibratque, in- 
tervalla numerare ; universam denique musices theoriam 
et mathematicis et physicis et physiologicis probavisse 
argumentis. 

“Tle igitur qui tot provinciarum confinia lustravit, tot 
scientiarum fines propagavit, a nostra praesertim Aca- 
demia, cuius alumni totiens ex eodem studiorum campo 
laureas reportarunt, ea qua par est reverentia hodie ex- 
cipitur. Qui Academiae nostrae nemora, et iuventutis 
Academicae ludos et certamina iampridem admiratus est, 
idem fortasse severiora nostra studia quo melius noverit, 
eo benignius indies aestimabit. Vos certe, qui, talium 
virorum exemplar procul venerati, etiam nostras inter 
silvas verum quaeritis, quanquam hodie nemorailla nostra 
gravis umbra contristat, tamen inter ipsas lacrimas non 
sine gaudio virum magnum vidistis, quaque soletis bene- 
volentia laudatum audivistis. 

“Vobis igitur praesento Academiae Berolinensis Pro- 
fessorem illustrem, HERMANNUM LUDOVICUM FERDIN- 
ANDUM HELMHOLTZ.” 

The Society of Telegraph Engineers are to give a 
conversazione in honour of the distinguished electrician 
at University College, Gower Street, on the evening of 
the 11th inst. The large library and entrance hall will be lit 
up by electric light, and it is hoped there will be a full 
display of all the recent novelties in electrical science. 


As might have been expected, there was a distinguished 
audience on Tuesday evening to listen to Prof, Helmholtz 
at the Royal Institution. Prof. Roscoe, the President of 
the Chemical Society, in introducing the lecturer, made 
the following remarks :-— 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellows of the Chemical So- 
ciety—The cordial welcome which you have just given to 
Prof. Helmholtz shows me that he needs no formal 
introduction at my hands. His name is honoured wher- 
ever science is valued, and both his face and his voice 
are well remembered in this room. It may therefore 
suffice if I say that eminent as an anatomist, as a physio- 
logist, as a physicist, and as a mathematician, we chemists 
are now about to claim him also as our own, 

“ Prof. Helmholtz, in the name of the Chemical Society, 
and on behalf of its Fellows here assembled, I beg to 


welcome you amongst us; I have the honour to present 
you with the Faraday Medal of the Society, and to 
request that you will favour us with your lecture, to 
which we shall all listen with pleasure and profit.” 


The Faraday Lecture} 


THE majority of Faraday’s own researches were con- 
nected, directly or indirectly, with questions regarding 
the nature of electricity, and his most important and 
most renowned discoveries lay in this field. The facts 
which he has found are universally known. Never- 


theless, the fundamental conceptions by which Faraday — 


has been led to these much-admired discoveries have not 
been received with much consideration. His principal 
aim was to express in his new conceptions only facts, 
with the least possible use of hypothetical substances and 
forces. This was really a progress in general scientific 
method, destined to purify science from the last remnants 
of metaphysics. Now that the mathematical interpre- 
tation of Faraday’s conceptions regarding the nature of 
electric and magnetic force has been given by Clerk 
Maxwell, we see how great a degree of exactness and 
precision was really hidden behind his words, which to 
his contemporaries appeared so vague or obscure ; and it 
is astonishing in the highest degree to see what a large 
number of general theories, the methodical deduction of 
which requires the highest powers of mathematical analysis, 
he has found by a kind of intuition, with the security 
of instinct, without the help of a single mathematical 
formula. 

The electrical researches of Faraday, although em- 
bracing a great number of apparently minute and discon- 
nected questions, all of which he has treated with the 
same careful attention and conscientiousness, are really 
always aiming at two fundamental problems of natural 
philosophy, the one more regarding the nature of physical 
forces, or of forces working at a distance; the other, in 
the same way, regarding chemical forces, or those which 
act from molecule to molecule, and the relation between 
these and the first. 

The great fundamental problem which Faraday called 
up anew for discussion was the existence of forces work- 
ing directly at a distance without any intervening medium. 
During the last and the beginning of the present century 
the model after the likeness of which nearly all physical 
theories had been formed was the force of gravitation 
acting between the sun, the planets, and their satellites. 
It is known how, with much caution and even reluctance, 
Sir Isaac Newton himself proposed his grand hypothesis, 
which was destined to become the first great and im- 
posing example, illustrating the power of true scientific 
method. 

But then came Oerstedt’s discovery of the motions of 
magnets under the influence of electric currents. The 
force acting in these phenomena had a new and very 
singular character. It seemed as if it would drive a 
single isolated pole of a magnet in a circle around the 
wire conducting the current, on and on without end, never 
coming to rest. Faraday saw that a motion of this kind 
could not be produced by any force of attraction or 
repulsion, working from point to point. If the current 
is able to increase the velocity of the magnet, the magnet 
must react on the current. So he made the experiment, 
and discovered induced currents; he traced them out 
through all the various conditions under which they 
ought to appear. He concluded that somewhere in a part 
of the space traversed by magnetic force there exists a 
peculiar state of tension, and that every change of this 
tension produces electromotive force. This unknown 
hypothetical state he called provisionally tre electroto- 
nic state, and he was occupied for years and years in 


Abstract prepared by the author. 


[April 7, 1881 


April 7, 1881 | 


finding out what was this electrotonic state. He dis- 
covered at first, in 1838, the dielectric polarisation of 
electric insulators, subject to electric forces. Such bodies 
show, under the- influence of electric forces, phenomena 
perfectly analogous to those exhibited by soft iron under 
the influence of the magnetic force. Eleven years later, 
in 1849, he was able to demonstrate that all ponderable 
matter is magnetised under the influence of sufficiently 
intense magnetic force, and at the same time he disco- 
vered the phenomena of diamagnetism, which indicated 
that even space, devoid of all ponderable matter, is 
magnetisable ; and now with quite a wonderful sagacity 
and intellectual precision Faraday performed in his brain 
the work of a great mathematician without using a single 
mathematical formula. He saw with his mind’s eye that 
by these systems of tensions and pressures produced by 
the dielectric and magnetic polarisation of space which 
surrounds electrified bodies, magnets or wires conducting 
electric currents, all the phenomena of electro-static, 
magnetic, electro-magnetic attraction, repulsion, and 
induction could be explained, without recurring at all to 
forces acting directly at a distance. This was the part 
of his path where so few could follow him; perhaps a 
Clerk Maxwell, a second man of the same power and 
independence of intellect, was necessary to reconstruct 
in the normal methods of science the great building, the 
plan of which Faraday had conceived in his mind and 
attempted to make visible to his contemporaries. 

Nevertheless the adherents of direct action at a distance 
have not yet ceased to search for solutions of the electro- 
magnetic problem. The present development of science, 
however, shows, as I think, a state of things very favour- 
able to the hope that Faraday’s fundamental conceptions 
may in the immediate future receive general assent. His 
theory, indeed, is the only existing one which is at the 
same time in perfect harmony with the facts observed, 
and which at least does not lead into any contradiction 
against the general axioms of dynamics. 

t is not at all necessary to accept any definite opinion 
about the ultimate nature of the agent which we call 
electricity. 

Faraday himself avoided as much as he could giving 
any affirmative assertion regarding this problem, although 
he did not conceal his disinclination to believe in the 
existence of two opposite electric fluids. 

For our own discussion of the electro-chemical pheno- 
mena, to which we shall turn now, I beg permission to 
use the language of the old dualistic theory, because 
we shall have to speak principally on relations of 
quantity. 

I now turn to the second fundamental problem aimed at 
by Faraday, the connection between electric and chemical 
force. Already, before Faraday went to work, an elaborate 
electro-chemical theory had been established by the re- 
nowned Swedish chemist Berzelius, which formed the 
connecting-link of the great work of his life, the systema- 
tisation of the chemical knowledge of his time. His 
starting point was the series into which Volta had 
arranged the metals according to the electric tension 
which they exhibit after contact with each other. A 
fundamental point which Faraday’s experiment contra- 
dicted was the supposition that the quantity of electricity 
collected in each atom was dependent on their mutual 
electro-chemical differences, which he considered as the 
cause of their apparently greater chemical affinity. But 
although the fundamental conceptions of Berzelius’ theory 
have been forsaken, chemists have not ceased to speak 
of positive and negative constituents of a compound body. 
Nobody can overlook that such a contrast of qualities, as 
was expressed in Berzelius’ theory, really exists, well- 
developed at the extremities, less evident in the middle 
terms of the series, playing an important part in all 
chemical actions, although often subordinated to other 
influences. 


NATURE 


537 


When Faraday began to study the phenomena of de- 
composition by the galvanic current, which of course 
were considered by Berzelius as one of the firmest sup- 
ports of his theory, he put a very simple question, the 
first question indeed which every chemist speculating 
about electrolysis ought to have answered. He asked, 
What is the quantity of electrolytic decomposition if the 
same quantity of electricity is sent through several elec- 
trolytic cells? By this investigation he discovered that 
most important law, generally known under his name, but 
called by him the law of definite electrolytic action. 

Faraday concluded from his experiments that a definite 
quantity of electricity cannot pass a voltametric cell 
containing acidulated water between electrodes of plati- 
num without setting free at the negative electrode a 
corresponding definite amount of hydrogen, and at the 
positive electrode the equivalent quantity of oxygen, one 
atom of oxygen for every pair of atoms of hydrogen. If 
instead of hydrogen any other element capable of substi- 
tuting hydrogen is separated from the electrolyte, this is 
done also in a quantity exactly equivalent to the quantity 
of hydrogen which would have been evolved by the same 
electric current. 

Since that time our experimental methods and our 
knowledge of the laws of electrical phenomena have 
made enormous progress, and a great many obstacles 
have now been removed which entangled every one of 
Faraday’s steps and obliged him to fight with the con- 
fused ideas and ill-applied theoretical conceptions of 
some of his contemporaries. We need not hesitate to 
say that the more experimental methods were refined, 
the more the exactness and generality of Faraday’s law 
was confirmed. 

In the beginning Berzelius and the adherents of Volta’s 
original theory of galvanism, based on the effects of 
metallic contact, raised many objections against Faraday’s 
law. By the combination of Nobili’s astatic pairs of 
magnetic needles with Schweigger’s multiplicator, a coil 
of copper wire with numerous circumvolutions, galvano- 
meters became so delicate that the electro-chemical 
equivalent of the smaller currents they indicated was 
imperceptible for all chemical methods. With the 
newest galvanometers you can very well observe currents 
which would want to last a century before decomposing 
one milligram of water, the smallest quantity which is 
usually weighed on chemical balances. You see that if 
such a current lasts only some seconds or some minutes, 
there is not the slightest hope to discover its products of 
decomposition by chemical analysis. And even if it 
should last a long time the feeble quantities of hydrogen 
collected at the negative electrode can vanish, because 
they combine with the traces of atmospheric oxygen 
absorbed by the liquid. Under such conditions a feeble 
current may continue as long as you like without pro- 
ducing any visible trace of electrolysis, even not of 
galvanic polarisation, the appearance of which can be 
used as an indication of previous electrolysis. Galvanic 
polarisation, as you know, is an altered state of the 
metallic plates which have been used as electrodes 
during the decomposition of an electrolyte. Polarised 
electrodes, when connected by a galvanometer, give a 
current which they did not give before being polarised. 
By this current the plates are discharged again and 
returned to their original state of equality. 

This depolarising current is indeed a most delicate 
means of discovering previous decomposition. I have 
really ascertained that under favourable conditions one 
can observe the polarisation produced during some 
seconds by a current which decomposes one milligram 
of water in a century. 

Products of decomposition cannot appear at the elec- 
trodes without motions of the constituent molecules of 
the electrolyte throughout the whole length of the liquid. 
This subject has been studied very carefully and for a 


538 


NATURE 


| April 7, 1881 


great number of liquids, by Prof. Hittorff, of Miinster, 
and Prof. G. Wiedemann, of Leipsic. 

Prof. F. Kohlrausch, of Wiirzburg, has brought to light 
the very important fact that in diluted solutions of salts, 
including hydrates of acids and hydrates of caustic 
alkalis, every atom under the influence of currents of the 
same density moves on with its own peculiar velocity, 
independently of other atoms moving at the same time 
in the same or in opposite directions. The total amount 
of chemical motion in every section of the fluid is repre- 
sented by the sum of the equivalents of the cation gone 
forwards and of the anion gone backwards, in the same way 
as in the dualistic theory of electricity, and the total amount 
of electricity flowing through a section of the conductor 
corresponds to the sum of positive electricity going 
forwards and negative electricity going backwards. 

This established, Faraday’s law tells us that through 
each section of an electrolytic conductor we have always 
equivalent electrical and chemical motion. The same 
definite quantity of either positive or negative electricity 
moves always with each univalent ion, or with every unit 
of affinity of a multivalent ion, and accompanies it during 
all its motions through the interior of the electrolytic 
fluid. This we may call the electric charge of the atom. 

Now the most startling result, perhaps, of Faraday’s 
law is this: If we accept the hypothesis that the ele- 
mentary substances are composed of atoms we cannot 
avoid concluding that electricity also, positive as well 
as negative, is divided into definite elementary por- 
tions, which behave like atoms of electricity. As long as 
it moves about on the electrolytic liquid each atom 
remains united with its electric equivalent or equivalents. 
At the surface of the electrodes decomposition can take 
place if there is sufficient electromotive power, and then 
the atoms give off their electric charges and become 
electrically neutral. 

Now arises the question, Are all these relations between 
electricity and chemical combination limited to that class 
of bodies which we know as electrolytes? In order to 
produce a current of sufficient strength to collect enough 
of the products of decomposition without producing too 
much heat in the electrolyte, the substance which we try 
to decompose ought not to have too much resistance 
against the current. But this resistance may be very 
great, and the motion of the ions may be very slow, so 
slow indeed that we should need to allow it to go on for 
hundreds of years before we should be able to collect 
even traces of the products of decomposition ; neverthe- 
less all the essential attributes of the process of electro- 
lysis could subsist. If you connect an electrified 
conductor with one of the electrodes of a cell filled with 
oil of turpentine, the other with the earth, you will find 
that the electricity of the conductor is discharged unmis- 
takably more rapidly through the oil of turpentine than if 
you take it away and fill the cell only with air. 

Also in this case we may observe polarisation of the 
electrodes as a symptom of previous electrolysis. An- 
other sign of electrolytic conduction is that liquids 
brought between two different metals produce an electro- 
motive force. This is never done by metals of equal 
temperature, or other conductors which, like metals, let 
electricity pass without being decomposed. 

The same effect is also observed even with a great 
many rigid bodies, although we have very few solid bodies 
which allow us to observe this electrolytic conduction with 
the galvanometer, and even these only at temperatures 
near to their melting-point. It is nearly impossible to 
shelter the quadrants of a delicate electrometer against 
being charged by the insulating bodies by which they are 
supported. 

In all the cases which I have quoted one might suspect 
that traces of humidity absorbed by the substance or 
adhering to their surface were the electrolytes. I show 
you therefore this little Daniell’s cell, in which the porous 


septum has been substituted by a thin stratum of glass. 
Externally all is symmetrical at both poles; there is 
nothing in contact with the air but a closed surface of 
glass, through which two wires of platinum penetrate. 
The whole charges the electrometer exactly like a 
Daniell’s cell of very great resistance, and this it would 
not do if the septum of glass did not Behave like an 
electrolyte. All these facts show that electrolytic con- 
duction is not at all limited to solutions of acids or salts. 

Hitherto we have studied the motions of ponderable 
matter as well as of electricity, going on in an electrolyte. 
Let us study now the forces which are able to produce 
these motions. It has always appeared somewhat start- 
ling to everybody who knows the mighty power of che- 
mical forces, the enormous quantity of heat and of 
mechanical work which they are able to produce, and 
who compares with it the exceedingly small electric 
attraction which the poles of a battery of two Daniell’s 
cells show. Nevertheless this little apparatus is able to 
decompose water. 

The quantity of electricity which can be conveyed by a 
very small quantity of hydrogen, when measured by its 
electrostatic forces, is exceedingly great. Faraday saw 
this, and has endeavoured in various ways to give at 
least an approximate determination. The most powerful 
batteries of Leyden jars, discharged through a voltameter, 
give scarcely any visible traces of gases. At present we 
can give definite numbers. The result is that the electri- 
city of 1 mgrm. of water, separated and communicated to 
two balls, 1 kilometre distant, would produce an attraction 
between them, equal to the weight of 25,000 kilos. 

The total force exerted by the attraction of an electrified 
body upon another charged with opposite electricity is 
always proportional to the quantity of electricity con- 
tained in the attracting as on the attracted body, and 
therefore even the feeble electric tension of two Daniell’s 
elements acting through an electrolytic cell upon the 
enormous quantities of electricity with which the con- 
stituent ions of water are charged, is mighty enough to 
separate these elements and to keep them separated. 

We now turn to investigate what motions of the ponder- 
able molecules require the action of these forces. Let us 
begin with the case where the conducting liquid is sur- 
rounded everywhere by insulating bodies. Then no 
electricity can enter, none can go out through its surface, 
but positive electricity can be driven to one side, negative 
to the other, by the attracting and repelling forces of 
external electrified bodies. This process going on as 
well in every metallic conductor is called “ electrostatic 
induction.” Liquid conductors behave quite like metals 
under these conditions. Prof. Willner has proved that even 
our best insulators, exposed to electric forces for a long 
time, are charged at last quite in the same way as metals 
would be charged in an instant. There can be no doubt 
that even electromotive forces going down to less than 
14a Daniell produce perfect electrical equilibrium in the 
interior of an electrolytic liquid. 

Another somewhat modified instance of the same 
effects is afforded by a voltametric cell containing two 
electrodes of platinum, which are connected with a 
Daniell’s cell, the electromotive force of which is insuf- 
ficient to decompose the electrolyte. Under this condi- 
tion the ions carried to the electrodes cannot give off 
their electric charges. The whole apparatus behaves, as 
was first accentuated by Sir W. Thomson, like a con- 
denser of enormous capacity. } 

Observing the polarising and depolarising currents in 
a cell containing two electrodes of platinum, hermetically 
sealed and freed of all air, we can observe these pheno- 
mena with the most feeble electromotive forces of zy59 
Daniell, and I found that down to this limit the capacity 
of the platinum surfaces proved to be constant. By 
taking greater surfaces of platinum I suppose it will be 
possible to reach a limit much lower than that. If any 


April 7, 1881 | 


NATURE 


Beg 


chemical force existed besides that of the electrical charges 
which could bind all the pairs of opposite ions together, 
and required any amount of work to be vanquished, an 
inferior limit to the electromotive forces ought to exist, 
which forces are able to attract the atoms to the elec- 
trodes and to charge these as condensers. No pheno- 
menon indicating such a limit has as yet been discovered, 
and we must conclude therefore that no other force resists 
the motions of the ions through the interior of the liquid 
than the mutual attractions of their electric charges. 

On the contrary, as soon as an ion is to be separated 
from its electrical charge we find that the electrical forces 
of the battery meet with a powerful resistance, the over- 
powering of which requires a good deal of work to be 
done. Usually the ions, losing their electric charges, 
are separated at the same time from the liquid; some of 
them are evolved as gases, others are deposited as 
rigid strata on the surface of the electrodes, like gal- 
vanoplastic copper. But the union of two constituents 
having powerful affinity to form a chemical compound, as 
you know very well, produces always a great amount of 
heat, and heat is equivalent to work. On the contrary, 
decomposition of the compound substances requires work, 
because it restores the energy of the chemical forces, 
which has been spent by the act of combination. 

Metals uniting with oxygen or halogens produce heat 
in the same way, some of them, like potassium, sodium, 
zinc, even more heat than an equivalent quantity of 
hydrogen ; less oxidisable metals, like copper, silver, 
platinum, less. We find therefore that heat is generated 
when zinc drives copper out of its combination with the 
compound halogen of sulphuric acid, as is the case in a 
Daniell’s cell. 

If a galvanic current passes through any conductor, a 
metallic wire, or an electrolytic fluid, it evolves heat. Mr. 
Prescott Joule was the first who proved experimentally 
that if no other work is done by the current the total 
amount of heat evolved in a galvanic circuit during a 
certain time is exactly equal to that which ought to have 
been generated by the chemical actions which have been 
performed during that time. But this heat is not evolved 
at the surface of the electrodes, where these chemical 
actions take place, but is evolved in all the parts of the 
circuit, proportionally to the galvanic resistance of every 
part. Fyrom this it is evident that the heat evolved is an 
immediate effect, not of the chemical action, but of the 
galvanic current, and that the chemical work of the 
battery has been spent in producing only the electric 
action, 

If we apply Faraday’s law, a definite amount of elec- 
tricity passing through the circuit corresponds to a definite 
amount of chemical decomposition going on in every 
electrolytic cell of the same circuit. According to the 
theory of electricity the work done by such a definite 
quantity of electricity which passes, producing a current, 
is proportionate to the electromotive force acting between 
both ends of the conductor. You see therefore that the 
electromotive force of a galvanic circuit must be, and is 
indeed, proportional to the heat generated by the sum of 
all the chemical actions going on in all the electrolytic 
cells during the passage of the same quantitity of 
electricity. In cells of the galvanic battery chemical forces 
are brought into action able to produce work ; in cells 
in which decomposition is occurring work must be done 
against opposing chemical forces; the rest of the work 
done appears as heat evolved by the current, as far as it 
is not used up to produce motions of magnets or other 
equivalents of work. 

Hitherto we have supposed that the ion with its electric 
charge is separated from the fluid. But the ponderable 
atoms can give off their electricity to the electrode, and 
remain in the liquid, being now electrically neutral. This 
makes almost no difference in the value of the electro- 
motive force. For instance, if chlorine is separated at 


the anode, it will remain at first absorbed by the liquid ; 
if the solution becomes saturated, or if we make a vacuum 
over the liquid, the gas will rise in bubbles. The electro- 
motive force remains unaltered. The same may be 
observed with all the other gases. You see in this case 
that the change of electrically negative chlorine into 
neutral chlorine is the process which requires so great an 
amount of work, even if the ponderable matter of the 
atoms remains where it was. 

The more the surface of the positive electrode is 
covered with negative atoms of the anion, and the 
negative with the positive ones of the cation, the more 
the attracting force of the electrodes exerted upon the 
ions of the liquid is diminished by this second stratum of 
opposite electricity covering them. On the contrary, the 
force with which the positive electricity of an atom of 
hydrogen is attracted towards the negatively charged 
metal increases in proportion as more negative electricity 
collects before it on the metal, and the more negative 
electricity collects behind it in the fluid. 

Such is the mechanism by which electric force is con- 
centrated and increased in its intensity to such a degree 
that it becomes able to overpower the mightiest chemical 
affinities we know of. If this can be done by a polarised 
surface, acting like a condenser, charged by a very mode- 
rate electromotive force, can the attractions between the 
enormcus electric charges of anions and cations play an 
unimportant and indifferent part in chemical affinity ? 

You see, therefore, if we use the language of the 
dualistic theory and treat positive and negative electrici- 
ties as two substances, the phenomena are the same as 
if equivalents of positive and negative electricity were 
attracted by different atoms, and perhaps also by the 
different values of affinity belonging to the same atom 
with different force. Potassium, sodium, zinc, must have 
strong attraction to a positive charge ; oxygen, chlorine, 
bromine to a negative charge. 

Faraday very often recurs to this to express his convic- 
tion that the forces termed chemical affinity and electri- 
city are one and the same. I have endeavoured to give 
you a survey of the facts in their mutual connection, 
avoiding, as far as possible, introducing other hypotheses, 
except the atomic theory of modern chemistry. I think 
the facts leave no doubt that the very mightiest among 
the chemical forces are of electric origin. The atoms 
cling to their electric charges and the opposite electric 
charges cling to the atoms. But I don’t suppose that 
other molecular forces are excluded, working directly 
from atom to atom. Several of our leading chemists 
have begun lately to distinguish two classes of com- 
pounds, molecular aggregates and typical compounds. 
The latter are united by atomic affinities, the former not. 
Electrolytes belong to the latter class. 

If we conclude from the facts that every unit of affinity 
of every atomis charged always with one equivalent either 
of positive or of negative electricity, they can form com- 
pounds, being electrically neutral, only if every unit 
charged positively unites under the influence of a mighty 
electric attraction with another unit charged negatively. 
You see that this ought to produce compounds in which 
every unit of affinity of every atom is connected with one 
and only with one other unit of another atom. This is, 


“as you will see immediately, indeed, the modern chemical 


theory of quantivalence, comprising all the saturated 
compounds. The fact that even elementary substances, 
with few exceptions, have molecules composed of two 
atoms, makes it probable that even in these cases electric 
neutralisation is produced by the combination of two 
atoms, each charged with its electric equivalent, not by 
neutralisation of every single unit of affinity. 

But I abstain from entering into mere specialities, as, 
for instance, the question of unsaturated compounds ; 
perhaps I have gone already too far. I would not have 
dared to do it if I did not feel myself sheltered by the 


540 


NATURE 


[ April 7, 1881 


authority of that great man who was guided by a never- 
erring instinct of truth. I thought that the best I could 
do for his memory was to recall to the minds of the men, 
by the energy and intelligence of whom chemistry has 
undergone its modern astonishing development, what im- 
portant treasures of knowledge lie still hidden in the works 
of that wonderful genius. I am not sufficiently acquainted 
with chemistry to be confident that I have given the right 
interpretation, that interpretation which Faraday himself 
would have given perhaps, if he had known the law of 
chemical quantivalence, if he had had the experimental 
means of ascertaining how large the extent, how unexcep- 
tional the accuracy of his law really is; and if he had 
known the precise formulation of the law of energy ap- 
plied to chemical work, and of the laws which determine 
the distribution of electric forces in space as well as in 
ponderable bodies transmitting electric current or forming 
condensers. I shall consider my work of to-day well re- 
warded if I have succeeded in kindling anew the interest 
of chemists for the electro-chemical part of their science. 


At the conclusion of the lecture Prof. Roscoe made the 
following remarks :— 

“The pleasing duty now devolves upon me of proposing 
a vote of thanks to our distinguished friend for his inter- 
esting, suggestive, and most appropriate address. 

“Prof. Helmholtz has shown us that Faraday’s concep- 
tion of electricity is in exact accordance with the most 
modern developments of this science. He has told us that 
although Faraday was unacquainted with the technical 
details of mathematics, all his conclusions are capable of 
the most exact mathematical expression, and that our 
great experimentalist possessed the spirit and thoughts 
characteristic of a truly mathematical mind. But our 
lecturer has gone further, for upon Faraday’s well-known 
law of electrolysis he has founded a new electro-chemical 
theory, which reveals to us chemists, conclusions of the 
utmost importance. He tells us as the results of 
the application of the modern theory of electricity 
to Faraday’s great experimental law, that the atom of 
every chemical element is always united with a definite 
unvarying quantity of electricity. Moreover—and this is 
most important—that this definite amount of electricity 
attached to each atom stands in close connection with the 
combining power of the atom which modern chemistry 
terms quantivalence. For if the amount of electricity 
belonging to the monad atom be taken as the unit, then 
that of the dyad atom is two, of the triad atom three, and 
so on. 

“Hence then, thanks first to Faraday and now to 
Helmholtz, chemists have now a new and unlooked-for 
confirmation of one of their most important doctrines 
from the science of electricity. 

“These, Ladies and Gentlemen, are indeed sufficient 
grounds for our claiming Prof. Helmholtz as a chemist, 
and justify me in requesting that he will allow his name 
to be placed on the list of Honorary Fellows of the Che- 
mical Society. 

“T have much pleasure in proposing a hearty vote of 
thanks to the Faraday Lecturer for the year.” 

This proposal was seconded by Prof. Tyndall. 


NOTES 

Mr. CLARENCE KiNG has resigned his position as Director of 
the Geological Survey of the United States. It has long been 
no secret that he wished to retire from an appointment which 
confined him chiefly to executive functions, left him with practically 
no time for independent scientific work, and hampered him in 
those mining and other financial operations in which he is 
understood to have large investments. In a letter dated the 12th 
ult., addressed to the President of the United States, he says 


that he believes he ‘‘can render more important service to 
science as an investigator than as the head of an executive 
bureau.”” All well-wishers to the cause of geology must hope 
that this belief will be fully justified ; that the relief he obtains 
from official trammels will enable him once more to devote to 
geological research the energy and experience which have already 
borne such good fruit. His tenure of office in the Geological 
Survey has hardly been long enough to enable him fully to de- 
velop the plans he had sketched out for the vigorous prosecution 
of the Survey as a truly national undertaking, alike creditable tc 
the scientific spirit of the Republic and important to the develop- 
ment of its industrial resources. But he will be held in honour- 
able remembrance as the first head of the National Survey, and 
as having taken a leading share in its initial organisation. It is 
reported that Mr. J. W. Powell, so long and well known for his 
work in the Rio Colorado basin, is to be the new director, 


A WISH having been expressed by certain members of the 
Torquay Natural History Society to have a portrait of Mr. 
William Pengelly, F.R.S., &c., and he having kindly consented 
to sit for the same, a committee has been formed for carrying 
the suggestion into effect. The portrait will, at Mr. Pengelly’s 
request, be placed in the museum of the Society, Torquay. It 
was at first proposed to limit the list of subscribers to the 
members of the Torquay Natural History Society, but some 
members of the Devonshire Association, and other gentlemen, 
having expressed a wish to join in the work, it has been decided 
to make the contribution general. Subscriptions will be received 
by the hon. treasurer, Mr. Robert Kitson, Torquay Bank. 


THE Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin gives notice that 
from January 1, 1879, the new term for competition for the third 
Bressa Prize has begun, to which, according to the testator’s will, 
scientific men and inventors of all nations will be admitted. A 
prize will therefore be given to the scientific author or inventor, 
whatever be his nationality, who during the years 1879-1882, 
“according to the judgment of the Royal Academy of Sciences 
of Turin, shall have made the most important and useful dis- 
covery, or published the most valuable work on physical and 
experimental science, natural history, mathematics, chemistry, 
physiology and pathology, as well as geology, history, geography 
and statistics.” The term will be closed at the end of December, 
1882. The value of the prize amounts to 12,000 Italian lire, 
The prize will in no case be given to any of the national members 
of the Academy of Turin, resident or non-resident. 

THE Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester has 
recently completed the first century of its existence, Dr. Angus 
Smith is writing a history of the Society since its foundation, 
which will be read at an early meeting, and no doubt published 
in its Proceedings. 

WE are glad to learn that the appeal on behalf of G. M. 
Smerdon, who has done such good work as foreman of the Kent 
Cavern explorations, has resulted in a sum sufficient to purchase 
him an annuity of 1o/. 

THE results of appointing a totally inexperienced and unknown 
man to the head of the Registrar-General’s department, just 
before the taking of the census, are already beginning to be felt. 
Complaints of mismanagement are rife—whole streets in London 
not served with the census-papers, and in many cases those 
which were delivered have not yet been collected, and run some 
risk of being utilised for fire-lighting purposes. Certainly the 
interests of the country would have been best served by appoint- 
ing Dr. Farr to the post of Registrar-General until at least the 
census work had been completed. Dr. Farr’s long experience 
would have been of immense service, and these useful statistics 
would have been collected in something like scientific method. 

THERE was a desultory talk on the subject of Technical Edu- 
cation in the House of Commons the other night, on the motion 


April 7, 1881] 


NATURE 


541 


of Mr. Anderson to appoint a roving Commission to inspect the 
technical schools of the Continent. The fact is, as Mr. Mundella 
pointed out, we know quite well what is wanted here, and if the 
City Guilds would only spend the amount of money they ought 
to do, there need be no want of technical instruction for all who 
are prepared to take advantage of it. As it is, such institutions 
as Owens College, the Mason College, and others are putting a 
first-rate scientific technical education within the reach of all 
classes, and what is really wanted is the teaching of elementary 
science in all our primary schools. The House was counted out 
over the motion, 

A MEETING for the purpose of forming a society for the 
advancement of chemical industry was held on Monday after- 
noon at the rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, 
Piccadilly, Prof. Roscoe presiding. The chairman explained 
that for some time the want of a Society had been felt, the 
object of which was the advancement of chemical industry in the 
United Kingdom. Its main purpose would be to bring together 
at stated intervals all those who possessed chemical, physical, 
and engineering knowledge, and who used this knowledge in 
the utilisation of chemical action on a manufacturing scale, and 
who had the charge of or an interest in chemical industries. It 
might afterwards prove desirable to found a distinct branch of 
the engineering profession, who might be designated as chemical 
engineers. He drew attention to the advantages which would 
doubtless accrue to the various branches of chemical industry by 
the establishment of such an organisation, Briefly stated, its 
objects would be to enable persons interested in chemical in- 
dustries to meet, to correspond, and to interchange ideas 
respecting improvements in the various processes, to publish 
information relating thereto by means of a journal or otherwise, 
to acquire and dispose of property for such purposes, and to do 
all other things incidental or conducive to the objects aimed at, 
Prof. Roscoe concluded by moving that it was desirable to form 
such a society as that suggested. This was seconded by Mr, 
Perkin and carried, 
the view of carrying out the object thus agreed upon. 

WE take the following significant passage from a paper read 
by Sir George Campbell, K.C.S.I., M.P., late Lieutenant- 
Governor of Bengal, to the Society of Arts on March 25 last :— 
“* Most of us who go to India know very little about agriculture 
of any kind ; and of agriculture under the conditions of Indian 
soil and climate we know nothing whatever. The consequence 
has been that when we have attempted to show the natives how 
to improve their agriculture we have generally egregiously failed, 
and to use a native expression, our faces have been blackened. 
In this respect I am afraid we are not improving. The old- 
fashioned civil servant, if not so literary as the new class, and 
perhaps not much more agricultural, settled down more in the 
country and learned more of native ayricultural habits and ways, 
Present administrators, I am afraid, know very little of any kind 
of agriculture, and it is much the same with the native public 
servant ; formerly they knew nothing of English literature, but 
they knew a great deal of the country ; now they are very highly 
educated, but do not know much more of agriculture than their 
European superiors.” 

THE post of Curator of the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Calcutta, has been filled up by the India Office by the 
appointment, on the nomination of the Director of the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, of Mr. L. J. K. Brace, of New Providence, 
Bahamas. Mr. Brace was educated at Christ’s Hospital, and 
held a subordinate post in the colony. Having turned his atten- 
tion to botany, he was employed by the late Governor, Mr. W. 
Robinson, to make a collection for Kew of the indigenous 
vegetation. 

OF late years the cultivation of Liberian coffee (Coffea Liberica) 
has been energetically pushed in English coffee-growing colonies 


Formal resolutions were then passed with. 


and possessions. This has been due to two causes :—First, the 
cultivation of Arabian coffee (Coffea Arabica) has been severely 
crippled in the New World by the ‘‘ white fly” (Cemdostoma 
caffeellum), and in the Old by the ‘‘leaf disease” (emileta vas- 
tatrix); secondly, Liberian coffee being a more tropical plant, 
grows well at a zone of altitude below that which Arabian coffee 
requires. The produce of the plantations of the new species is 
now coming into commerce. At present it does not find much 
favour apparently in England, but in America it is better appre- 
ciated. Recent sales at New York of Ceylon-grown Liberian 
coffee have realised 93s. per cwt., or 12s, above the current 
quotation for middling plantation coffee (Arabian) in the London 
market. This is a result of great importance for the West Indian 
Islands. Liberian coffee has been found in Dominica to possess 
acomparative immunity from the attacks of the white fly, the 
ravages of which had all but completely extinguished the coffee- 
cultivation of the island. Not merely therefore can West Indian 
coffee cultivation be revived with reasonable prospect of success, 
but there is the additional encouragement of a ready market easy 
of access in the United States. 


THE death is announced, at the age of seventy-five, of Sir 
Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton. Sir Philip was an occasional 
contributor to our pages. 


A srronc shock of earthquake occurred on Sunday after- 
noon at Chio, which has caused terrible destruction. Many 
houses in the principal town and thirty villages in the island 
are said to have been destroyed, and 4000 persons killed. Fresh 
shocks of earthquake occurred on Monday, and the inhabitants 
were taking refuge on board the steamers in the harbour. The 
country around and the town Tsesme, on the mainland, suffered 
considerably, and shocks were also felt on Monday at Zante, Syra, 
Smyrna, Carosto, Eubcea, and Tinos. The island of Chio, Scio, 
or Skio, for the name is thus variously spelt, is situated in the 
Aigean Sea, separated from the coast of Anatolia by a channel 
not more than seven miles wide where narrowest, and about 
fifty-three miles west of Smyrna. 


Some of our readers may be glad to learn that the French 
Association has resolved to curtail the number of scientific 
meetings in order to extend the time left for excursions and 
festivals. The programme includes two receptions by the Mayor 
of Algiers, one by the Governor-General, and a large Arabian 
fite called Bita, dancing and singing by native women, &e, 
Possibly the reported massacre of the Flatters Expedition may 
put a stop to these ultra-scientific festivities. 


WE notice that the names of Drs, Gladstone and Tribe are 
down for a paper in the Physical and Chemical Section of the 
meeting of the French Association at Algiers, as also that of Mr. 
Rodwell. 


Ar the ordinary meeting of the Sanitary Insttiute, to be held 
at 9, Conduit Street, on Wednesday, April 13, at 8 p.m., the 
Chairman of Council, Dr. Richardson, F.R.S., will give a short 
address entitled, ‘‘ Some Brief Suggestions on the Best Mode of 
dealing with Small Pox and other Infectious Diseases in the 
Metropolis and other large Towns,” to be followed by a 
discussion. 

Mr. R. J. FRISWELL writes:—As the following novel 
“facts” have their origin in Zy«¢h there can, I presume, be 
no gainsaying of them, As they are entirely new and are pub- 
lished in a journal not so well known as a scientific paper as it 
ought to be, will you be good enough to give them a wider 
currency for the information of chemists. Their value needs no 
comment :—‘‘The bomb with which the Emperor was killed 
appears to have been filled with nitro-glycerine, and it is un- 
fortunate that this compound, like gun-cotton, is so easy to 
make, A certain amount of glycerine is taken, and to this 


542 


NATURE | | 


[April 7, 1881 


sulphuric and nitric acid are added, Glycerine has an affinity 
for water. A molecule of water is abstracted, and a molecule 
of nitrous acid takes its place. Nitro-glycerine may be put into 
the fire or it may be struck without any dangerous consequence. 
If howeverit be set on fire by a fulminant, there is an explosion, 
If, as stated, the Russian bombs were made of glass, there must 
have been small projections made in the glass shell when manu- 
factured, filled with fulminating powder, The explosive cha- 
racter arises from this: Nitrogen is composed of molecules in 
pairs of atoms. Nitric acid contains only ope atom in its 
molecules. Upon this atom being set free from its unstable 
combination in the glycerine, the two atoms of nitrogen rush 
together, producing a vast amount of energy of combination in 
the shape of heat. The gaseous products are thus heated, and 
an explosion takes place immediately.” 

A ScHOOL of Gardening and Practical Floriculture has been 
established at the Crystal Palace, under the superintendence of 
Mr, Edward Milner. 

M. DaupiGny, electrical engineer in Paris, has sent to 
the Municipal Council a petition asking for authority to esta- 
blish on the top of the Colonne de Juillet a large electric lamp 
fed by a magneto-electric machine of fifty horse-power. This 
enormous light is to be diffused by a large reflector of special 
construction, 

A Mos? successful experiment in theatre illumination was 
tried on March 30 and 31, at the Atheneum of the rue des 
Martyrs, Paris, with the Werdermann incandescent light. The 
peculiarity of it is that it can be graduated at will for scenic 
effects, either by introducing resistance coils or varying the 
velocity of the Gramme machine. These experiments were 
Witnessed by several influential members of the Municipal 
Council, who on the following morning proposed an inquiry 
into the propriety of obliging all the theatrical managers to light 
their halls with electricity. 

Mr. F. W. PurNnam sends us a paper on Pueblo Pottery, 
which he contributed to the February number of the American 
Art Review, There are some well-executed coloured illustrations 


of specimens of the pottery which show some little taste in | 


colour and ornamentation. 

WE have had several replies to our inquiry concerning the late 
Dr. Thomas Dick’s astronomical instruments. They seem to 
have been disposed of after his death, and only one small instru- 
ment can be definitely traced. None of the instruments seem to 
have been of much scientific value. 

Mr. JOHNSTON-LAVIS writes, under date March 29 :— 
“*Vesuvius is to-night again active, lava running down the north- 
western slope of the cone. Only the reflection is visible from 
Naples. On Sunday morning a slight shock, or more correctly 
subterranean thunder, was felt at Casamicciola, although those 
in the ruins at the moment only became aware of it by the palor 
of others present, whose whole attention is arrested by the 
faintest move or noise.” 

A SCIENCE Stadents’ Association has been formed in Liverpool, 
which includes all departments of science in its programme ; the 
president is Mr. A. Norman Tate. 

THE system of compressed-air clocks, of the use and construc- 
tion of which in Paris we gave an account some time ago, is 
likely to havea trial in London. A Bill has been introduced 
into Parliament for this purpose. The number of stations 
proposed for the metro; olis is ten. 

IN the notice of the mceting of the Mathematical Society in 
NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 379, Mr. Wooster Woodruff Beman’s 
name was misspelt Benson. 

LieuT.-Cot. H. CoLiert, of Meean Meer, North-West 
Punjab, has sent us a money-order for 3/. towards the John 
Duncan Fund, We also acknowledgereceipt of 1/. from M. G.S, 


THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Two-S potted Paradoxure (Mandinia binotata) 


from West Africa, presented by Mr. A. Wentworth Forbes ; a_ 


Golden Sparrow (Auripasser euchlorus) from Abyssinia, presented 
by Mr, J. Abrahams ; a Chukar Partridge (Caccabis chukar), a 
Grey Francolin (Arancolinus ponticerianus) from India, presented 
by M. J. M. Cornely, C.M.Z.S. ; two Indian Antelopes (Antelope 
cervicapra 8 &) from India, deposited; two A®thiopian Wart 
Hogs (Phacocherus ethiopicus 2) from South-East Africa, a 
Dusky Parrot (Piones violaceus) from Guiana, three Ceylonese 
Hanging Parrakeets (Loriculus asiaticus 6 8 2) from Ceylon, 
a Yellow Troupial (Xanthosoma flavus) from Buenos Ayres, 
purchased ; a Fork-tailed Jungle Fowl (Gad/us furcatus §) from 
Java, on approval; two Four-horned Antelopes ( Ze¢raceros 
guadricornis $ 2), a Burrhel Wild Sheep (Ovzs burrhel 6) from 
India, a Javan Adjutant (Lef/optilus javanicus) from Java, a 
Rock-hopper Penguin (Zudyptes chrysocome) from the Falkland 
Islands, received in exchange. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE VARIABLE STARS U CEPHEI AND U GEMINORUM.— 
We learn from Mr. Knott that Ceraski’s short-period variable 
in Cepheus was at a minimum on March 29 at about 12h. 45m. 
G.M.T.; clouds prevented observations till 11h, 35m., when 
it had barely fallen to minimum ; for two hours, 11h. 45m. 
—13h. 45m., the star’s light was sensibly constant—about 9°4m. 
On April 3 Mr. Knott again obtained a pretty complete obser- 
vation ; the time of minimum, taking the middle of the phase, 
was 12h, 24m. G.M.T.; for nearly 2h. 30m., or from 11h, tom. 
to 13h. 36m., the star remained about 9°4m. Guided by these 
and previous observations the following approximate times of 
minima are inferred, and it is to be hoped that the series may 
be well observed :— 


h. m. lee fare h. m, 

‘Apnills! ere 4 lenectireat ‘11 2) || May Sat Sieeonae: 
1 emi tc £4 28 ... 10 41 ey cen, 2) 2h) 

13) 2. x22 | May 3\i.-., 10/20 18 ... 9 18 


This variable has been hitherto called T Cephei in this column, 
but Mr, Knott draws attention to the circumstance that Ceraski 
(Astron. Nach., No. 2343) applied that designation last October 
to another variable discovered by him, the position of which by 
meridian observations at Moscow was found to be in R.A. 
2th. 7m. 57°05s., Decl. + 68° 0’ 8’*4 for 1880°0, and we 
accordingly follow his suggestion that the short-period variable 
will be more properly termed U Cephei. 

U Geminorum was observed by Mr. Knott at about the 
maximum, or about 9°3m., on April 2 and 3. Maxima of this 
very irregular variable star are by no means easy to catch. It 
precedes the principal component of = 1158 by Im, 26°5s , and 
is north of it 7’ 31”. Prof. Winnecke gave a series of com- 
parison stars in Astron, Nach., No. 1120, Argelander’s position 
for 1855 is R.A. 7h. 46m, 29°88s. ; Decl. + 22° 22’ 415. 

While writing upon variable stars we may mention that 
B.A.C. 4767 is probably to be included among them. It 
was estimated 4m. by D’Agelet on May 15, 1783; it is called 
6m. by Lacaille, Lalande, and Piazzi, and was so estimated in 
Argelander’s Zone, No. 301; but although rated 5'7 in the 
Uranometria Argentina it is not found in Heis’s Atlas nor in the 
Uranometria of Argelander, Its place for the present year is in 
R.A. 14h. 18m. Is., with south declination, 24° 15/°6. 


THE Comer oF 1812.—Several years since, Mr. W. E. 
Plummer of the University Observatory, Oxford, after a new 
reduction of the observations made at Paris and Viviers, which 
we possess in their original form, found the period of revolution 
about 13 years less than that given by Encke, so that it is quite 
possible that the comet may arrive again at perihelion within the 
present year. We have already mentioned that M. Schulhof of 
Paris is engaged upon a strict investigation of the elements of 
this comet, and has the intention of preparing extended epheme- 
rides, in the same manner that he has done for several of the 
minor planets which had not been observed at several opposi- 
tions, but the sweeping lines for every fourth day throughout 
the year are given in Herr Mahn’s ephemeris computed on the 
suggestion of Prof. Winnecke, which will be found in the 
Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 12 Jabrgang. 


t 


April 7, 1881 | 


NA LORE 


543 


BIOLOGICAL NOTES 


THE SHINING SLAVE-MAKER (POLYERGUS LuUCIDUS).—The 
Rey. H. M‘Cook is as fortunate as he is energetic in his studies 
of the American ants. At the December 1880, meeting of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia he read a paper 
on the discovery at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains, near 
Altoona, of a nest of Polyergus lucidus, the American represen- 
tative of the Legionary Ant of Huber (7. vz/escens), an ant 
associated with that author’s discovery of ant-nests, in which 
certain ants have associated with them, ina sort of slavery, ants 
of another species. The nest had four gates separated a few 
inches from each other ; the chambers were placed one above 
the other, united by tubular galleries. In an inner ovoid cham er 
numbers of the ants, male and female, appeared ; mingled with 
these in large numbers were workers in three forms—major, 
minor, and dwarf of Formica Schauffusi. A portion of the 
excavated nest was broken into, and on the next day but one 
was visited. None of the shining ants were at work, but the 
‘* slaves” were very busy cleaning out the galleries ; a portion of 
the slaves were engaged in an extensive migration; a few were 
carrying their fellows, but for the most part the deportation was 
confined to the males and females of the shining ants. It was 
wonderful to see the large virgin-queens carried up the perpen- 
dicular face of the cutting for eizhteen or twenty inches, and then 
for the distance of six feet over the ground and through the grass, 
and this in a few seconds over a minute. The shining ants are 
able to take a most wonderful grip. One of them had fallen 
under the displeasure of another, who held her firmly grasped 
by the middle thorax. Anxious to preserve the colony from 
unnecessary loss, Mr. M‘Cook lifted the two out on the point of 
a quill toothpick, laid them on his hand, and thrust the fine 
point of the quill between the jaws of the agressor, and so teased 
her that she released her fellow. The rescued ant instantly 
clasped the palm of his hand, threw her abdomen under her, 
and then, with back curved like that of an angry cat, sawed and 
tugged away at the skin until an abrasion was made. The other 
ant still clung fast by her mandibles only to the toothpick’s point, 
her body stretched out into space, her limbs stretched outwards, 
except one hind leg, which was a little bent upward, and thus 
without any perceptible support except that which her jaws gave 
her upon the quill-point, she hung outstretched for several 
minutes. About a month after its discovery the nest was again 
visited ; it was abundantly peopled; the winged forms of the 
shining ant were however gone. Having succeeded in colonising 
these ants Mr. M‘Cook was able to confirm in many particulars 
the statements of Huber, Forel, and others, but he never hap- 
pened to see the slaves feeding their masters. He noticed that 
they seemed to like to move towards both warmth and light, but 
he does not seem to have settled the question whether they would 
not prefer the warmth without the light. They would appear to 
be very clean in th2ir ways and persons. Various experiments 
seemed to establish the fact that these slave-makers always keep 
a guard ready at once for any attack. 


ON THE RED CoLour OF SALT Cop.—During the hot and 
damp weather of summer in the United States the dried codfish 
sometimes exhibit a peculiar redness of colour. These red fish, 
as is well known, putrefy comparatively quickly, and this fact, 
taken ia connection with the disagreeable, and in such fish unusual, 
colour, renders them unfit for market, so that in seasons when 
the redness prevails dealers in codfish suffer often very con- 
siderable losses. Prof. Farlow, M.D., was requested by the 
United States Fish Commission to investigate this subject, and 
his report appears in the Fish Report for 1880. In September, 
1878, he went to Gloucester to examine the fish stores. The 
weather was at that time hot and damp, and the codfish then 
being prepared for the market were largely affected by the red- 
ness. This redness disappears with the return of cool weather. 
In most cases it does not appear until the fish have been landed 
from the vessels, though in a few case; the colour has appeared 
in the stock while still on board. A microscopical examina- 
tion showed that the redness was owing to a very minute plant, 
Clathrocystis roseo-persicina, a species known to be closely related 
to C. eruginosa, so common in fresh-water ponds, and which 
has lately come into public notice in the States in consequence of 
the so-called fig fen odour which it exhales when decaying. 
This red species is known both in America and Europe, and has 
been recently investigated by Cohn and others. It may some- 
times be found tinging the surface of damp ground with a 
purplish tinge, and the anatomist is not unfamiliar with it as 


growing in his macerating tubs. It would appear not to flourish 
or increase very rapidly at a temperature below 65° Fahr. How 
it got to attack the dried fish was the next question. It was 
found that the plants could come from many sources, for it was 
found present in quantities in the wood-work of the wharves and 
packing-stores, but above all Prof. Farlow detected it in the salt 
with which the fish were cured. The salt from Cadiz had even 
a slight rose tinge, It will be a matter of interest, which perhaps 
some of our readers may help to solve, as to whether: this plant 
is known in European fish-stations. In the great Norwegian 
cod-fisheries the temperature may not be high enough to favour 
its growth, As remedies Prof. Farlow suggests care in the 
selection of salt, and the constant cleaning of all wood-work or 
vessels that may come in contact with the fish. In addition to 
the red alga small quantities of cells destitute of colouring- 
matter and arranged in fours were not unfrequently found in the 
infected cod-fish, These suggested the genus Sarcina, but were 
not S. ventricult, They rather, except in the absence of colour- 
ing-matter, resembled Gleocapsa crepidinum, Thuret, which 
species is common enough on the wood-work of the Gloucester 
wharves. While there is this resemblance Prof. Farlow prefers 
for the moment, and pending further investigation, to call it a 
Sarcina, and to describe it as a new species (5S. ? morrhue). 


MARINE Isopops oF NEw ENGLAND.—One of the most 
remarkable papers forming the extensive series of appendices 
to the Report of the United States Commissioners of Fish and 
Fisheries for 1878 is perhaps that by O-car Harger on the 
marine Isopods of New England and adjacent waters. The 
limits chosen commence at Nova Scotia to the north and extend 
southwards to New Jersey. Forty-six species are recorded, and 
figures of these with the requisite details of anatomy are given 
on thirteen plate; ; several new species and one new genus 
(Syscenus) are described. It will be noted that the number of 
species is very considerably less than that known to frequent the 
British coasts, and of the former only eight are identical with 
British forms. This difference is very marked in the genus 
Spberoma, of which genus there is but one species native to 
New England, while Bate and Westwood describe a dozen 
species belonging to this family as natives of Britain. Zzmnoria 
Zignosum, ore of the most destructive of the group, is appa- 
rently as common on the American coasts as on our own 
shores. It does not usually occur much below high-water mark, 
though Prof. Verrill has found it at a depth of ten fathoms in 
Casco Bay, and it was dredged by the U.S. Fish Commission 
at a depth of 74 fathoms in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. 
Of the family of the Cymothoidz, of which we believe as yet no 
species has been found around the British Islands, three species 
belonging to three different genera are in Mr. Harger’s list.—To 
this memoir there is appended a very complete list of authorities 
and an alphabetical index. 


STATISTICS OF DISEASE IN ITALY.—In a recent paper to the 
Lombard Institute, Prof. Sangalli gives statistics of the diseases 
which terminated fatally in the Civic Hospital of Pavia during the 
period 1855 to 1851, The material was 6644 bodies which 
came up for autopsy, and the causes of death were, in de- 
creasing order, genuine inflammation, 4504 deaths ; tuberculosis, 
808 ; pyzmia, 337 ; cancer, 366; hepatic cirrhosis, 252; extra- 
vasation of blood in the brain, 254; chronic ulcer (gastric and 
duodenal), 72, &c. (there being 2140 deaths apart from those by 
true inflammation). The 4504 deaths from inflammation pre- 
sented 7962 separate inflammations. The deaths from tubercu- 
losis are seen to be about 12 per cent. The ages most exposed 
to that disease lie between 20 and 30; next come those between 10 
and 20, and between 30 and 40, about equal. There were twelve 
cases between 70 and 80, and onein an old man of 84. It does not 
appear that one sex suffers more than the other, Cancer occurs 
most between 50 and 60, and most largely in liver, lymphatic 
glands, and stomach. The patients were largely of the peasant 
class, and the author cannot support Niemeyer’s view, that 
people living in marshy districts, liable to malaria, have a 
certain immunity from tuberculosis. Nor do the figures confirm 
the asserted tendency of ulcer in the stomach to favour the 
development of tuberculosis, Pyzemia appeared mostly in the 
lungs (149 cases out of 470), pleura, 99; liver, 73, &c. In 
some years there was a remarkable diminution of this disorder, 


THE EYE AND INTENSITY OF COLOUR.—With an apparatus 
consisting of two Nicols with a gypsum plate between, and a 
spectroscope with a third Nicol attached to the eye-piece, Herr 
Dobrowolsky has examined the sensibility of the eye to spectral 


544 


NATURE 


| April 7, 1881 


colours with different intensities of light (Pfluger’s Archiv, v. 
24, p. 189). From a large number of measurements it was 
found that, on an average, the red-colour sensation first occurred 
with a light-quantity equal to gz's3, while for blue the lowest 
amount of light was 3335. Thus blue gives a sensation with an 
amount of light sixteen times less than that required for red. 
With rise in the degree of brightness, the increase of sensibility 
to red proceeds pretty regularly; but for blue the increase 
becomes gradually greater (with the weakest degrees of bright 
ness this increase was = 0°22, with the strongest 0°82, with the 
mean 0°36). Comparing the two sensibilities together, from 
the maximum of light strength to the minimum, the sensibility to 
blue is always found to exceed that to red (maximum thirteen 
and a half times, minimum sixteen times, mean four times), 


IsOETES LACUSTRIS.—In an interesting paper read before the 
Academy of Sciences of Paris (January 10, 1881), M. E. Mer 
calls attention to the peculiar conditions under which different 
forms of this fresh-water plant seem to originate in the Lake of 
Longemer. The basin of this lake was once occupied by a 
glacier, and now presents several different sorts of bottom, The 
soil to a depth of two to three metres is composed in part of a 
gravel formed of rock déris united by an iron cement, in part 
of ancient moraines, or where near the surface these will be 
mixed with the remains of plants and form a pretty tenacious 
mud. In all these situations Isoetes is to be found, but the 
plants differ most remarkably both as to their form, their struc- 
ture, and their mode of reproduction as they are found in the 
different habitats. Taking the leaf-development as a guide, four 
varieties are easily discerned :—(1) Awmmzlis, growing sparsely in 
the gravel and sterile shallows, the leaves are not only few in 
number, but always of diminutive dimensions ; sporange generally 
wanting or represented by a small cellular mass which rarely 
ever forms a propagule, and then these with puny leaves ; (2) 
stricta, found on the borders of the lake or in the old alluvial, 
therefore in less sterile quarters than the preceding ; leaves more 
numerous, stout, but still of small size ; (3) ztermedia, growing 
“on ground formed of a mixture of mud and clay, either on 
the borders of the lake or at a depth of from one to two metres, 
leaves quite intermediate in character between the previous variety 
and the next ; (4) e/atior, growing on the clayey depths, with 
long leaves. The first form is always found isolated, and as to 
its asexual reproduction there is nothing more to be said ; but 
the other three, according as they are subject to more or less 
heat, present each three varieties characterised by the mode of 
reproduction. I. Sforifera, isolated individuals, mostly furnished 
with well-developed sporangia, stem large, roots numerous, leaves 
large. 2. Gemmifera, few fertile sporangia, but most of the 
leaves are furnished with propagula, and these well furnished 
with leaves, generally dextral, stem fairly developed. 3. Sterilis, 
individuals growing in compact masses, stems and roots slender, 
leaves not numerous, long and narrow, fertile sporangia very 
rare, and more often undeveloped masses of cells or abortive 
propagula. It would seem as if these facts had a practical 
interest to the collector, who may find in them a guide as to 
where to look for fertile specimens. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


ON Friday, April 1, the French Geographical Society held a 
meeting in the large hall of the Sorbonne for the reception of 
Dr. Lenz on his return from Timbuctoo. M., Milne-Edwards 
was in the chair, Dr. Lenz, as our readers know, has been 
very successful, although his conclusions are adverse to the con- 
struction of a railway from the Niger to Algeria throughout 
the Sahara. On the following morning the Society received 
a telegram stating that Col. Flatters had been murdered by 
Touaregs at some distance from the Lebhkha Amagdor. In the 
evening the sad news was confirmed by an official message, stating 
that four starving Arabs from the mission had arrived at Ouargla, 
and that the Khobfa had left with four hundred mehari and 
camel horsemen to rescue the survivors, who were besieged south 
of Messaguer in the Touat region proper. Happily the news of 
the disaster to Col. Flatters’ expedition has not yet been further 
confirmed, and authorities in Paris are inclined to believe that it 
has been much exaggerated, and that the story of the four natives 
has many elements of suspicion about it. 

Dr, LENz, in his lecture at Paris, gave some interesting details 
on the present condition of Timbuctoo. Its houses are built of 
brick, and the population is now only 20,000. It has greatly 


decayed, and the inhabited part of the town is surrounded by 
great spaces covered with ruins. There are numerous schools 
and rich libraries, Dr, Lenz had a cordial reception, and every 
night during his twenty days’ stay he was present at religious 
conferences which the learned men of the city held with his 
interpreter ; the commentaries on the Koran formed the only 
subject of conversation. Timbuctoo is united with the Niger, 
six miles off, by a series of lakes, formerly canals. Dr, Lenz 
has also made some interesting observations on the Sahara, 
tending to confirm the conclusions of Rholfs and other recent 
scientific travellers as to the variety which is to be met with in 
the great desert. It is really a plateau about 300 metres in alti- 
tude, no part of it being below the level of the sea. Granite 
hills, sandy plains, shallow lakes, fertile oases, alternate over 
nearly the whole surface, while beasts of prey are rarely to be 
met with. Dr, Lenz will contribute a full account of his journey 
to the Berlin Africa Society, in whose journal many of his letters 
have already appeared. 


Ir is with sincere regret that we record the death of Lieut, 
Karl Weyprecht, at the age of forty-three, on March 29, of 
consumption, Lieut. Weyprecht will be known to our readers 
as the discoverer, with Lieut. Payr of Franz-Josef Land, in the 
Austro-Hungarian Expedition of 1872-4. His observations on 
the aurora borealis were of especial value, and he has published 
several papers on the subject. He was also the originator of 
the scheme for establishing a series of international observations 
around the Pole, which is likely to be realised next year. 


THE Rev. G. Brown, the well-known representative of the 
church militant in the South Pacific, contributes to the new 
number of the Geographical Society’s Proceedings a paper de- 
scriptive of a recent journey which he has made along the coasts 
of New Ireland and the adjacent islands, the latter including 
Sandwich Island, Portland Islands, and New Hanover. Dr, 
Benjamin Bradshaw, who has spent some years in collecting 
natural history specimens in the Upper Zambesi region, also 
contributes a brief paper on the Chobe River, together with a 
sketch-map of a portion of its course, adding materially to our 
knowledge of the geography of this region. Mr, Crocker’s 


paper on Sarawak and Northern Borneo, lately read before the © 


Society, is also given, and is illustrated with a good map. The 
geographical notes are full of interesting matter, one giving an 
account, by Mr, Sibiriakoff himself, of the voyage of the Oscar 
Dickson to the Yenisei Gulf in 1880, Another furnishes. con- 
clusive proof of the usefulness of the course of scientific instruction 
provided by the Council for intending travellers in foreign 
countries. From the last note we learn that Mr. C. R. Mark- 
ham, the indefatigable secretary, is preparing for the forthcoming 
volume of the Fournal a sketch of the Society’s work in the 
past fifty years. 


In the current number of Zes Missions Catholigques, Pére. 


Richard, a missionary in Algeria, commences an account of his 
journey, in company with Pere Kermaben, among the Tuareg- 
Azguer tribes of the Sahara, The object of their journey was 
to study this almost unknown revion, and to cultivate friendly 
relations with the chiefs and people generally with a view to the 
formation of a missionary station. The more interest attaches 
to Pére Richard’s narrative, as it deals with thé very region 
which Col. Flatters has been now exploring with the object of 
settling the best practicable route for the projected Trans-Sahara 
railway. An entirely new map of this part of Africa, based on 
Pére Richard’s notes, accompanies the number, 


A LATELY-ISSUED batch of Regorts from H.M. ( onsuls (Part 
vi. of last year) contains useful geographical information respect- 
ing portions of South America, that relating to Chili and Peru 
being specially interesting at the present moment. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


CAMBRIDGE.— On the 3Ist inst. the honorary degree of LL.D. 
was conferred on Prof. Helmholtz of Berlin at a special congre- 
gation, 
~ Prof. Humphrey will take his usual May classes for the second 
M.B, and Natural Sciences Tripos next term, and the demon- 
strator will give demonstrations of the organs. 

Prof, Babington will lecture on botany four times a week next 
term, beginning April 26. Mr. Hillhouse will give lectures on 


i 
\ 


‘ 


. 
t 


j April 7, 1881 | 


morphology and systematic botany, with practical work in the 
Botanical Gardens. 

The Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy will take an 
advanced class for instruction in the mammalia during the Easter 
term. 

Prof. Stuart next term opens his new workshops and drawing 
office ; in the latter instruction will be given in mechanical 
drawing and in machine designing, and also in graphical statics 
and its application to the theory of structures. 

Mr. Garnett will commence an elementary course of lectures 
on electricity and magnetism on May 2 in the chemical laboratory 
of St. John’s College. 

The Senate has approved of Lord Rayleigh’s appointment of 
two joint demonstrators of physics instead of one, and of the 
payment of a stipend of 100/. to each, 

Mr. Balfour will lecture on the embryology of aves and mam- 
matlia next term, and have a: practical class in that subject. 


THE Court of Assistants of the Haberdashers’ Company have 
have given to each of the schools under their management a 
cabinet of minerals, purchased from the executors of the late 
Prof. Tennant. The schools of the Company are at Monmouth, 
Newport, Hatcham, and Hoxton. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 3.—Constants of elasti- 
city of fluor-spar, by H. Klang.—On the source of beats and 
beat-tones in harmonic intervals, by R. Koenig.—Description of 
a beat-tone apparatus for lecture experiments, by the same.— 
Contribution to the theory of resonance, by F. Kolacek.— 
Some applications of the law of dispersion to transparent, semi- 
transparent, and opaque media, by E. Ketteler.—Researches on 
the spectra of gaseous bodies, by F. Lippich.—On the electro- 
motive force of galvanic combinations formed of zinc, sulphuric 
acid and platinum, or copper, silver, gold, or carbon, by C. 
Fromme.—On a new form of the Topler mercury pump, and 
some experiments made with it, by E. Bessel-Hagen.—ke- 
searches on the height of the atmosphere and the constitution of 
gaseous heavenly bodies (continued), by A. Ritter.—On absorp- 
tion of solar radiation ty the carbonic acid of our atmosphere, 
by E. Lecher.—On the idea of galvanic polarisation, by W. 
Beetz.—On an artificially-formed body which takes polar direc- 
tions and shows polar attractions, by W. Holtz. 


Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. xxxv. part 2, 
February, 1881.—Dr. H. Adler, on the alternation of generations 
in the oak-gall insects, pp. 150-246, a very exhaustive treatise, 
with two admirably-coloured plates of the galls and one of 
the ovipositors, &c., of the gall-insects.—Hans Virchow, on the 
vessels in the eye and the appendages of the eyes in frogs, with 
two plates. Elias Metschnikoff, researches on the Orthonectide, 
with a plate.—Jos. Th. Cattie, contribution to a knowledge of 
the chorda supra-spinalis of the lepidoptera and of the central, 
peripheral, and sympathetic nerve systems in caterpillars, with a 
plate.—Dr. H. Bolau, on the pairing and propagation of a 
species of the genus Scyllium.—N. Kleinenberg, on the origin of 
the ova in Eudendrium (with a woodcut), 2 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LoNnNDON 


Royal Society, March 24.—‘‘ Observations on the Locomo- 
tive System of Echinodermata.” (The Croonian Lecture.) By 
G, J. Romanes, M.A., F.R.S., and Prof. J, C. Ewart, M.D. 

The principal results had reference to the tube-systems and 
nervous systems of the echinoderms, It was shown by injection 
that the ambulacral system and the so-called blood-vascular sys- 
tem are each closed systems, save at their common origin in the 
madreporic plate. Both systems communicate through this plate 
with the“internal medium, but the one much more freely than 
the other, the ambulacral system being the least patent, so that 
it is only when a pressure of two feet is maintained for a number 
of hours that the injected fluid slowly permeates the stone-canal, 
or sand-tube, to ooze through the madreporic plate. Rezarding 
the nervous system, it was found in Echinus that lateral branches 
arise from the five radial trunks to escape with the pedicels 
through the apertures of the pore plates. Each of these branches 
then courses down the pedicel, with which it escapes to the ter- 
minal sucker. From these lateral branches there also arises an 
intimate nerve-plexus, which covers the whole external surface 


NATURE 


545 


of the shell, lying almost immediately beneath the surface epi- 
thelium, and extending from the shell to all the spines and 
pedicellarize. In stained specimens the nerve-fibres and cells 
were traced to the capsular muscles at the bases of the spines, 
and delicate fibres were detected running up the spines and 
pedicellarice, immediately below their epithelium. In the case 
of the pedicellariz it appeared from several preparations that 
delicate fibres extended as far as the sensitive epithelial pod 
situated on the inner surface of each trident mandible, a short 
distance from the apex. 

Such being the principal morphological results, the paper 
went on to detail a number of physiological experiments. First 
it was pointed out that the natural movements of echinodermata 
exhibit a high degree of co-ordination. Thus, for instance, all 
the echinoderms are able when inverted on a flat floor to right 
themselves. The common starfish does this by twisting the 
ends of two or more of its rays round, so as to bring the 
terminal suckers into action upon the floor of the tank, and then 
by a successive and similar action of the suckers further back in 
the series the whole ray is progressively twisted round, so that 
its ambulacral surface is applied flat against the floor. The rays 
which perform this action twist their spirals in the same direc- 
tion, and by this concerted action drag the disk and the remain- 
ing rays over themselves as a fulcrum, Other species of starfish 
which have not their ambulacral suckers sufficiently developed 
to act in this way execute their righting movements by doubling 
under two or three of their adjacent rays, and turning a somer- 
sault over them, as in the previous case. Echinus rights itself 
when placed on its aboral pole, by the successive action of two 
or three adjacent rows of suckers—so gradually rising from 
aboral pole to equator, and then as gradually falling from 
equator to oral pole. Spatangus executes a similar manceuvre 
entirely by the successive pushing and propping action of its 
longer spines. 

Experiments in stimulation showed that ‘all’the echinoderms 
observed sought to escape from injury in a direct line from the 
source of irritation. If two points of the surface are stimulated 
the direction of escape is the diagonal between them. When 
several points all round the animal are simultaneously stimulated 
the direction of advance becomes uncertain, with a marked 
tendency to rotation upon the vertical axis. If a short interval 
of time be allowed to elapse between the application of two suc- 
cessive stimuli the direction of advance will be in a straight line 
from the stimulus applied latest. If a circular band of injury 
be quickly made all the way round the equator of echinus, the 
animal crawls away from the broadest part of the band, z.e. from 
the oveatest amount of injury. 

The external nerve plexus supplies innervation to three sets of 
organs—the pedicels, the spines, and the pedicellariz ; for when 
any part of the external surface of echinus is touched, all the 
pedicels, spines, and pedicellarize within reach of the point that 
is touched immediately approximate and close in upon the point, 
so holding fast to whatever body may be used as the instrument 
of stimulation. In executing this combined movement the pedi- 
cellarize are the most active, the spines somewhat slower, and the 
pedicels very much slower. If the shape of the stimulating body 
admits of it, the forceps of the pedicellaria seize the body and 
hold it till the spines and pedicels come up to assist. 

And here we have proof of the function of the pedicellariz. 
In climbing perpendicular or inclined surfaces of rock covered 
with waving seaweeds it must be no small advantage to an 
echinus to be provided on all sides with a multitude of forceps 
adapted, as described, to the instantaneous grasping and arresting 
of a passing frond ; for in this way not only is animmediate hold 
obtained, but a moving piece of seaweed is held steady till the 
pedicels have time to establish a further and more permanent 
hold upon it with their sucking disks. That this is the chief 
function of the pedicellarize is indicated by the facts that (1) if a 
piece of seaweed is drawn over the surface of an echinus this 
function may clearly be seen to be performed ; (2) that the won- 
derfully tenacious grasp of the forceps is timed as to its duration 
with an apparent reference to the requirements of the pedicels, 
for after lasting about two minutes (which is about the time 
required for the suckers to bend over and fix themselves to the 
object held by the pedicellarize, if such should be a suitable one) 
this wonderfully tenacious grasp is spontaneously released ; and 
(3) that the most excitable part of the trident pedicellariz is the 
inner surface of the mandibles, about a third of the way down 
their serrated edges, z.e. the part which a moving body cannot 
touch without being well within the grasp of the forceps. 


546 


NATORE 


| April 7, 1881 


When the forceps are closed they may generally be made imme- 
diately to expand by gently stroking the external surface of their 
bases. 

With regard to stimulation of the spines, if severe irritation 
be applied to any part of the external or internal surface of an 
echinus, the spines all over the animal take on an active bristling 
movement. ‘The tubercles at the bases of the spines are the 
most irritable points on the external surface. 

With regard to stimulation of the pedicels, if an irritant be 
applied to any part of a row, all the pedicels in that row retract 
in succession from the seat of stimulation, but the influence does 
not extend to other rows. A contrary effect is produced by 
applying an irritant to any part of the external nerve-plexus, all 
the pedicels being then stimulated into increased activity. Of 
these antagonistic influences, the former, or inhibitory one, is the 
stronger, fur if they are both in operation at the same time the 
pedicels are retracted. 

Starfish (with the exception of brittle-stars) and echini craw] 
towards, and remain in, the light ; but when their eye-spots are 
removed they no longer do so. When their eye-spots are left 
intact they can distinguish light of very feeble intensity. 

Experiments in section showed that single rays detached from 
the organism crawl as fast and in as determinate a direction as 
do entire animals, They also crawl towards light, away from 
Injuries, up perpendicular surfaces, and when inverted, right 
themselves. Dividing the ray-nerve in any part of its length has 
the effect of destroying all physiological continuity between the 
pedicels on either side of the division. Severing the nerve at 
the origin of each ray, or severing the nerve-ring between each 
ray, has the effect of totally destroying all co-ordination among 
the rays; therefore the animal can no longer crawl away from 
njuries, and when inverted it forms no definite plan for righting 
itself. Each ray acting for itself, without reference to the 
others, there is as a result a promiscuous distribution of spirals 
and doublings, which as often as not are acting in antagonism to 
one another, This division of the nerve usually induces, for 
some time after the operation, more or less tetanic-like rigidity 
of the rays. This operation however, although so completely 
destroying physiological continuity in the rows of pedicels and mus- 
cular system of the rays, does not destroy or perceptibly impair 
physiological continuity in the external nerve-plexus ; for however 
much the nerve-ring and nerve-trunks may be injured, stimulation 
on the dorsal surface of the animals throws all the pedicels and 
muscular system of the rays into active movement. This fact 
proves that the pedicels and the muscles are all held in nervous 
connection with one another by the external plexus, without 
reference to the integrity of the main trunks. 

If a cork-borer be rotated against the external surface of an 
echinus till the calcareous substance of the shell is reached, and 
therefore a continuous circular section of the overlying tissues 
eflected, the spines and pedicellarize within the circular area are 
physiologically separated from those without it, as regards their 
local reflex irritability. That is to say, if any part of this circular 

rea is stimulated, all the spines and pedicellariz within that 

area immediately respond to the stimulation in the ordinary way, 
while none of the spines or pedicellariz surrounding the area are 
aifected, and conversely. Therefore it is concluded that the 
function of the spines and pedicellariz of localising and gathering 
round a seat of stimulation is exclusively dependent upon the 
external nervous plexus. If the line of injury is not a closed 
curve, so as not to produce a physiological island, the stimulating 
influence will radiate in straight lines from its source, but will 
not irradiate round the ends of the curve or line of injury. 

Although the nervous connections on which the spines and 

pedicellarize depend for their function of localising and closing 
ound a seat of stimulation are thus shown to be completely 
ie-troyed by injury of the external plexus, other nervous con- 
sections, upon which another function of the spines depends, are 
not m the smallest degree impaired by such injury. This other 
function is that which brings about the general co-ordinated 
action of all the spines for the purposes of locomotion. That 
this function is not impaired by injury of the external plexus is 
pr ved by severely stimulating an area within a closed line of 
injury on the surface of the shell ; all the spines over the whole 
surface of the animal then manifest their bristling movements, 
and by their co-ordinated action move the animal in a straight 
‘ne of escape from the source of irritation. 

We have, therefore, to distinguish between what may be 
called the local reflex function of the spines, which they show 

n common with the pedicellariz, and which is exclusively 


dependent upon the external plexus, and what we may call the 
universal reflex function of the spines, which consists in their 
general co-ordinated action for the purposes of locomotion, and 
which is wholly independent of the external plexus. Evidently, 
therefore, this more universal function must depend upon some 
other set of nervous connections (which, however, the authors 
were not able to detect histologically), and experiment shows 
that these, if present, are distributed over all the 7¢erna/ surface 
of the shell. For if the internal surface be painted with acid, or 
scoured out with emery paper and brick-dust, the spines and 
pedicellarize, after a short period of increased activity or bristling, 
become perfectly quiescent, lie flat, and lose both their spon- 
taneity and irritability. After a few hours, however, the spon- 
taneity and irritability of the spines return, though in a feeble 
degree, and also those cf the pedicellarie in a more marked 
degree. These effects take place over the whole external surface 
of the shell, if the whole of the internal surface be painted with 
acid or scoured with brick-dust ; but if any part of the external 
surface be left unpainted or unscoured, the corresponding part 
of the external surface remains uninjured. From these experi- 
ments it is concluded :—(r) that the general co-ordination of the 
spines is wholly dependent on the integrity of the hypothetical 
internal plexus; (2) that the hypothetical internal plexus is 
everywhere in intimate connection with the external, apparently 
through the calcareous substance of the shell; and (3) that 
complete destruction of the former, while profoundly influencing 
through shock the functions of the latter, nevertheless does not 
wholly destroy them, 

Echini may be divided into pieces, and the pedicels, spines, 
and ; edicellarize upon these pieces will continue to exhibit their 
functions of local reflex irritability, however small the pieces 
may be. If an entire double row of pedicels be divided out as 
a segment and then placed upon its aboral end, it may rear itself 
up on its oral end by the successive action of its pedicels, and 
then proceed to crawl about the floor of the tank. We have 
therefore to meet the question : Is the action of the ambulacral 
fect in executing these righting movements of a merely serial 
kind, a, 4, and c first securing their hold on the tank floor, owing 
to the stimulus supplied by contact, and then by their traction 
tilting over the globe, till ¢, e, and / are able to tc uch the floor, 
and soon ; ov does the righting action depend upon nervous co- 
ordination? Experiments showed that both principles are com- 
bined, the action of the pedicels being serial, but also assisted 
by nervous co ordination. ‘This conclusion is sustained by the 
experiment of shaviny off the spines and pedicels over one-half 
of one hemisphere, z.e. the half from the equator™to the oral 
pole. When then inverted and forced to use their mutilated 
pedicel-rows, the echini reared themselves upon their equators, 
and then, having no more pedicels wherewith to continue the 
manceuvre, came to rest. This rest was permanent, the animal 
remaining, if accidents were excluded, upon its equator till it 
died. The question then here seems to resolve itself simply into 
this: Is the mechanism of the pedicels so constructed as toinsure 
that their serial action shall always take place in the samedirection? 
For if it can be shown that their serial action may take place indif- 
ferently in either direction it would follotw that the persistency with 
which the partly shaved echini continue reared upon their equators, 
is the expression of some stimulus (such as a sense of gravity) con- 
tinuously acting upon some central apparatus, and impelling the 
latter to a continuous, though fruitless, endeavour to co-ordinate 
the absent pedicels. If the pedicels are able to.act serially in 
either direction, there is no more reason why a partly-shaved 
echinus should remain permanently reared upon its equator, 
than that it should remain permanently inverted upon its pole ; 
and therefore the fact that in the latter position the pedicels set 
about an immediate rotation of the animal, while in the former, 
and quite as unnatural position, they hold the animal in 
persistent stasis—this fact tends to show that the righting 
movements of the pedicels are something more than serial. 
Thus the whole question as between the two hypotheses amounts 
to whether the pedicels are able to act serially from oral to 
aboral pole. Observation showed that they are so, for echini 
spontaneously rear themselves from their normal position on the 
oral pole, to the position of resting upon their equators. Further, 
as additional evidence that the righting movements are at least 
assisted by some centralising influence, 1s the fact that when the 
evolution is nearly completed by the pedicel-rows engaged in 
executing it, the lower pedicels in the other rows become 
strongly protruded and curved downwards, in anticipation of 
shortly coming into contact with the floor of the tank. 


| 
| 
| 


—— 


EE 


Lee 


April 7, 1881 | 


Removing the pentagonal nerve-ring has no effect at all upon 
the pedicellarize or on the local reflex action of the spines ; both 
these organs continue to close round an instrument of stimulation. 
But the general co-ordination of the spines is totally and perma- 
nently destroyed—their bristling movements no longer serving to 
convey the animal from a source of irritation, but only causing 
the animal aimlessly to gyrate. This shows that the pentagonal 
nerve-ring has in large measure the function of a nerve-centre. 
The same thing is shown by the effect of its removal upon the 
righting movements. These are gravely impaired, though not 
wholly destroyed—four in twelve specimens so mutilated con- 
tinuing able to right themselves. These facts, together with the 
fact of separate segments of echinoderms behaving in all respects 
like entire animals, prove that the nervous system is in function, 
as in structure, everywhere both central and peripheral ; although 
the impairing influence exerted on the co-ordination both of the 
spines and pedicels by removal of the pentagonal ring, proves 
that this ring hasa more centralising function than any other part 
of the nervous system. 


Chemical Society, March 30.—Anniversary Meeting.—The 
president, Prof. Roscoe, gave his annual address. He con- 
gratulated the Society on {its flourishing condition. At no period 
in its history had the number of Fellows been so large, whilst 
the number of papers read during the past twelve months had 
increased both in number andinimportance. The research fund 
founded by Dr. Longstaff had done much for the progress of 
science. The President touched upon the more important dis- 
coveries of the year. The supposed decomposition of chlorine 
and iodine by Victor Meyer has been found to be capable of 
another explanation. ‘The solar and stellar evidence of the 
decomposition of metals accumulated by Mr. Lockyer has not 
yet found general acceptance by chemists, Capt. Abney and 
Col. Festing have discovered that the organic radicals methyl, 
ethyl, &c., give characteristic absorption spectra in the infra-red 
part of the spectrum. JBaeyer has succeeded in preparing indigo 
artificially, and its manufacture on the commercial scale is rapidly 
progressing. The Society has lost by death ten Fellows, includ- 
ing Sir B. Brodie, Dr. Stenhouse, Prof. W. H. Miller, and 
Mr. Tennant.—The Longstaff medal was presented to Prof. 
Thorpe of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, as the Fellow who 
had done the most to promote chemical science by research.— 
The reports of the President and Treasurer were received and 
adopted, and the Officers and Council elected for the ensuing 
year. President, H. E, Roscoe. Vice-Presidents : F. A. Abel, 
Warren De La Rue, E. Frankland, J. H. Gladstone, A. W. 
Hofmann, W. Odling, Lyon Playfair, A. W. Williamson, A. 
Crum Brown, J. Dewar, J. H. Gilbert, A. V. Harcourt, J. E. 
Reynolds, J. Young. Secretaries: W. H. Perkin, H. E. Arm- 
strong. Foreign Secretary, Hugo Miiller. Treasurer, W. J. 
Russell. Council: F. D. Brown, M. Carteighe, H. McLeod, 
G. H. Makins, E. J. Mills, W. C. Roberts, C. Schorlemmer, 
J. M. Thomson, C. M. Tidy, W. Thorp, T. E. Thorpe, R. 
Warington, 


Physical Society, March 26.—Prof. Fuller in the chair.— 
New member Mr. Lewis Wright, author and editor.—Dr. 
James Moser read a paper on electrostatic induction, especially 
relating to the branching of the induction in the differential 
inductometer and in the electrophorus. The author’s experi- 
ments bore out the hypothesis of induction as enunciated by 
Faraday. Prof. Ayrton suggested the importance of adding 
guard-rings to the small-plates of the five-plate indu:tometer or 
balance, since without these mathematical calculations could not 
be accurately applied, and the experimental determination of 
specific inductive capacity would be doubtful. Dr. Moser 
pointed out that though the theory was not absolutely correct 
it lay with the experimenter to get results very approximately 
correct.—Prof. Keinold, one of the secretaries of the Society, 
read a pa er by himself and Prof, Riickert on the electrical 
resistance of liquid films with a revision of Newton’s scale of 
colours. The experiments were in continuation of those pub- 
lished by the authors in 1877. Their object was to determine 
whether a film thinning under the action of gravity gave any 
evidence, by a change in its specific resistance, of an approach to 
a thickness equal to twice the radius of molecular attraction, 
and also to devise a method of finding the amount of water 
which wight be absorbed by or evaporated from it. The thick- 
ness of the films was determined from their colour by means of 
two beams reflected from different mirrors on them.—Newton’s 
seale of colours was revised by observations on Newton’s rings, 
and partly by more than 2000 observations on the rings them- 


NATURE 


547 


selves. The thicknesses determined by direct observations 
on Newton’s rings and those in the corrected table rarely 
differ by 1 per cent., while Newton’s scale in parts differs 
from both by as much as Io percent. of the thickness, 
The films were formed from a solution of oleate of soda in 
glycerine, with a little nitrate of potash added to increase their 
electric conductivity. They were blown in a glass case from 
which the outer air could be excluded. Precautions were taken 
to keep the air in contact with the films inside the case at a 
proper humidity. These consisted in placing disks containing 
the solution at the bottom of the case and suspending within it 
sheets of blotting-paper, the lower edges of which dipped into 
the liquid. A hair hygrometer indicated changes in the humidity 
of the interior. The resistance of the films was measured by 
piercing them with gold wires, which were connected with the 
electrodes of a quadrant electrometer. The resistance of the film 
between the needles was calculated by comparing the deflection 
caused by the difference of potential of the two wires when a 
current was passing through the film with that produced by the 
difference of potential above and below a known resistance placed 
in the same circuit. The specific resistance of the liquid from 
which the films were formed was measured by a method identical 
in principle with the above, The liquid was contained in a glass 
tube with turned-up ends. Platinum wires were cemented into 
small holes drilled in the straight part of the tube, and their 
difference of potential compared with that of two points in the 
same circuit separated by a known resistance. This method has 
the great advantage of getting rid of any difficulties connected 
with polarisation. Test experiments on sulphuric acid proved 
the method to give results agreeing with those of Kohlrausch, who 
employed alternating currents and Wheatstone’s bridge. The 
results of the experiments may be summed up as follows :—It is 
difficult to form a soap film under conditions precluding a slight 
evaporation or absorption of water, but the more nearly these 
conditions are attained the more closely does the specific resist- 
ance of the film agree with that of the liquid in mass. The films 
observed under the most favourable conditions obeyed Ohm’s 
law with great accuracy, and much better than the others. The 
films indicate no approach to a thickness equal to the diametei 
of molecular attraction. A soap-film may even in an inclosed 
space readily loose 23 out of 57°7 volumes of water contained in 
every 100 volumes of the solution, when special precautions are 
not taken to maintain the surrounding space in a constant hygro- 
metric condition. Prof, Ayrton suggested,that in measuring the 
liquids and film the distance between the electrodes should be 
varied. Prof. Guthrie pointed out that the results of Prof, 
Reinold and Kohlrausch agreed with his own in showing that 
the conductivity of liquids obeyed Ohm’s law. 


Geological Society, March 23.—Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—Rey. Daniel Dutton and Capt. George 
Ernest A. Ross were elected Fellows of the Society.—The fol- 
lowing communications were read :—The Upper Greensands and 
chloritic marl of the Isle of Wight, by C. Parkinson, F.G.S. 
In this paper the author described the Upper Greensand as ex- 
posed at St. Lawrence and along the Undercliff. At the base 
of the St. Lawrence Cliff there are hard bands of blue chert 
from which astaciform Crustacea have been obtained ; and quite 
recently, in a large boulder of the same material lying on the 
beach, there were found the remains of a Chelonian, referred by 
Prof. Owen to the family Paludinosa, and named by him P/a- 
stremys lata. The presence of these freshwater organisms was 
thought to imply a connection with the Wealden continent. The 
chert-bed, 2 feet thick, was regarded by the author as marking 
the boundary between the Gault and the Greensand. Above it 
the author described 56 feet of compact red and yellow sands, 
of which the first 20 feet are unfossiliferous, the upper 32 feet 
show traces of organic remains; between them there is a fossili- 
ferous zone 4 feet in thickness, containing Ammonites inflatus, 
A.auritus, and species of Ponopea, Cucullea,'Arca, and Trigonia, 
and immediately below this a separate band containing an un- 
determined species of Ammonite. These sands are followed by 
38 feet of alternate beds of hard chert and coarse greensands, 
having at the bottom 6 feet of inferior building-stone sur- 
mounted by 5 feet of freestone. The latter contains Ammonites 
vostratus, and the cherts various fossils, chiefly bivalves. - Cla- 
thraria Lyelli also occurs at this level. Above the greensands 
come 6 feet of chloritic marl * the upper 34 feet fossiliferous, 
with a base of hard phosphatic nodules containing crushed spe- 
cimens of Pecten asfer ; the lower 24 feet compact, with darker 
grains and few fossils, The author compared the sections of 


548 


NATURE 


| April 7, 1881 


this series given by Capt. Ibbetson and Dr. Barrois ; his own 
views closely correspond with those of the latter writer.—On 
the flow of an ice-sheet, and its connection with glacial pheno- 
mena, by Clement Reid, F.G.S. The author considers that the 
boulder-clays have been formed beneath an ice-sheet, and conse- 
quently there must have been formerly a huge mass of ice, which 
would have to flow 500 miles on a nearly level surface, and then 
to ascend a gentle slope for nearly another 100 miles. He does 
not think a great piling up of the ice at the North Pole can be 
assumed to account for this motion. This he explains by the 
gradual passage of the earth’s heat through the mass of ice, 
raising the temperature of the whole instead of liquefying the 
surface-layer. As the heat passes upwards it raises the teupera- 
ture of a particular layer, causes it to expand, and so to put 
a strain upon the layer above, and then to rupture it. The 
broken part spreads out, reunites by regelation, and then, 
receiving the heat from the layer below, again expands and 
ruptures the layer next above. Thus the movement is from the 
base upwards rather than from the surface downwards, The 
author estimates that the ice-sheet in Norfolk was only about 
400 feet thick, because boulder-clay does not appear above that 
level, but only coarse boulder-gravel; in North Vorkshire it 
extends up to about goo feet. The author considers that the 
shell-beds of Moel Tryfaen were not deposited under water, but 
thrust up-hill by this advancing ice-sheet.—Soil-cap motion, by 
R. W. Coppinger, communicated by the president. The author 
described numerous cases in Patagonia where the stumps, c., 
of trees are to be seen in the marginal waters of the sea and of 
lakes. These, together with stones and rocks, sometimes simu- 
lating perched blocks, he considers to have been brought down 
by the motion of the soil-cap—a thick spongy mass resting upon 
yock often worn smooth by the action of ice, and <o sliding 
down the more easily under the influence of vegetation. The 
appearances are not unlike those due to subsidence; but he 
points out that all the evidence is in favour of recent upheaval, 
instead of subsidence. 


Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, April 4.—Prof. Balfour 
Stewart, F.R.S., read a paper on the visible universe, which he 
described in general terms, and then sought to trace its history 
back, giving a passing sketch of the views of the theologian on 
the one hand and the materialist on the other, through its many 
forms to its first logical origin. A discussion ensued, which was 
taken part in by several who had been specially invited, the 
question being treated from the scientific and the metaphysical 
point of view. 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, March 28.—M. Wurtz in the chair. 
—On account of the death of M. Delesse, the Academy went 
early into Secret Committee.—The following papers were com- 
municated :—On the heats of formation of diallyl, chloro-com- 
pounds, and aldehyde, by MM. Berthelot and Ogier.—Remark- 
able case of globular lightning ; diffuse flashes near the surface 
of the ground, by M. Trécul. On August 25, 1880, during a 
thunderstorm, and in full daylight, he saw a very brilliant body, 
slightly elongated (say 38 to 40 ctm. long by 25 etm. broad), and 
with conical ends, pass from one part of a dark cloud to 
another; and before disappearing, a small part of its’ substance 
fell, as if having weight, and gave a luminous vertical track with 
reddish globules at the sides. It divided in falling, and disap- 
peared a little above the houses. The other phenomenon M. 
Trécul has often noticed in thunderstorms, viz, a band of feeble 
light, momentarily illuminating a street and reaching right across 
it, or only part of the width. The author adds some reflections 
on the phenomena he described on August 23, 1880.—On the 
representation of numbers by forms,by M. Poincaré.—On a class 
of linear differential equations, by M. Halphen.—On the reduc- 
tion of positive quaternary quadratic forms, by M. Charve.— 
New researches on the winter egg of phylloxera ; its discovery 
at Montpellier, by M Mayet. To find the winter egg in 
Languedoc, he recommends searching on young American 
vines of the species A~aria, and only where galls are ob- 
served on the leaves; further, only raising the bark of 
two or three years (preferably the former),— Attempted 
application of the principle of Carnot to electro-chemi- 
cal actions, by M. Chaperon.—On the construction of photo- 
phonic selenium-receivers, by M. Mercadier. These consist 
of two strips of brass (1 to 4 or 5m. long) separated by 
two strips of parchment paper, the whole wound in a close 
spiral, and held in position by two wooden pieces with screws, 


The arrangement is heated to the melting-point of selenium, 
and a pencil of selenium passed over the surface. ‘These re- 
ceivers are continuous, are easily made and repaired, have the 
same properties as the discontinuous ones, &c. It is possible to 
give them a very variable resistance, from 8000 to 200,000 
ohms., without their ceasing to act well. A large nnmber 
arranged in series or in surface may be placed in the battery 
circuit, and many persons enabled to hear photophonic effects at 
once. In one of M. Mercadier’s arrangements the sounds were 
heard at 2 or 3 m. distance.—On the causes of disturbance of 
telephonic transmission, by M. Gaiffe. He notices the disturb- 
ing effects of triction of wires with each other, and of vibrations 
caused by wind or otherwise —On the preparation and the proper- 
ties of protochluride of chromium, and of sulphate of protoxide 
of chromium, by M. Moissan.—On phosphoplatinic combinations, 
by M. Pomey.—Products of action of hydrochlorate of ammonia 
on glycerine, by M. ttard.—Irian grafts ; pathogeny of cysts and 
epithelial tuwours of the iris, by M. Masse. He has found 
(with rabbits) that small pieces of the conjunctiva or of skin 
introduced into the anterior chamber of the eye, through an 
incision made in the cornea, are pretty easily grafted on the iris. 
After some time the graft takes the form of a fine small pearl, 
very like the cysts or epithelial tumours which sometimes appear 
on the human iris after wounds of the cornea. The grafts with 
skin consist of a thick layer of pavement epithelium, with con- 
nective tissue beneath united to that of the iris. In the centre 
of the grafts of conjunctiva a true cystic cavity is developed. 
Hairs with their follicles may also be grafted on the iris. 
Rothmund’s theory of the cause of cysts and tumours of the iris 
(pieces of s-in, &c., carried through a wound) is apparently 
verified by thse researches.—On the nature and order of 
appearance of old eruptive rocks observed in the region of 
volcanoes with craters of Puy-de-Déme, by M. Julien. 


VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, March 31.—V. Burg 
in the chair.—The following papers were read :—H, Wild, on 
the temperatures of the Russian Empire.—Dr. H. Goldschmidt, 
on the action of molecular silver on carbon chlorides,—Dr, F. 
Hocevar, on some experiments made with a Holtz’s machine.— 
R. Andrasch, synthesis of methylated parabanic acid, of methyl 
thioparabanic acid, and of thiocholestrophane.— Dr. Emil Holub 
and A. y. Pezeln, ornithological results of Holub’s voyages in 
South Africa.—Kachler and Spitzer, on Borneol- and camphor- 
carbonic acid. —Max Gréger, on sulphochromates. —Alb. Cobenzl, 
contribution to the dissociation of tungsten from antimony, arsenic, 
and iron, with an analysis of a so-called pseudo-meteor. 


CONTENTS Pace 
Tue ARYAN VittaceE. By Epwarp B, Tytor, F.R.S. . .- + 525 
iia} GLEANINGS oc, = fev se, 00: xsl) +, os de) ne ee ga 526 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 2 
Improved Arrangement of Scale for Reflecting Instruments.—F. 


Jacos (With Diagram) al, ‘ato lae ke] el letdfoleie cee 527 
A Note on Flame-Length.—Lewis T. WRIGHT . . ._. . « « §97 
Future Development of Electrical Appliances.—GEoORGE RAYLEIGH 
VICARS cigs A 3) is. Sol fa) Voliite® emer ota aera e528 
Prehistoric Europe.—R. H. TrppEMAN. . . - © « + 2 = « 528 
Induction Current from Leyden-jar Discharge—W. LarDEN 
(With Diagram)... - mernee dow eo 6. Oe or cad) EEE) 
Classification of the Indo-Chinese and Oceanic Races —A. H. 
KEANE 5 5 i) ie. S15 oie aie Toe tet yo ee ns ee tre) 
Crabs and Actinia—Col. H. Sruart WorTLEY. . + + ° » 529 
Migration of the Wagtail.—_N. J... .. - a) wikis veh aaa sa®) 
Sound of the Aurora,k—GrorGE F. BurDER .« 5 Hen A 6 vel 
Earthquake Warnings—H.M.C. . .. ..- . 2. « © « «© 529 
ON THE HARTHQUAKES AT AGRAM IN 1880-81. By Prof.SzaBo . . 530 
Tue St. PeTERSBURG DYNAMITE MINE. Pretoe sy 6 Se 
FisH-CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. «. - - 2 © © + + + © 532 
Tue Paris OsSERVATORY (With Illustrations) . 0 etal ee eas 
JACHILLE DELESSE< (26 <0) = +) = Je “as oy, =) “ene oy eee 
Proressor HELMHOLTz’s FARADAY LECTURE ote EG 
NOL. ro erate moe (ment ses or Sc A 
Our AsTRONOMICAL CoLuMN :— 
The Variable Stars U Cephei and U Geminorum]. . . . . + + 542 
The Comet of: 182 .. 2. .c s© ©: «0 ,« <0 he ie) tn eetneoMinel carole ines 
BiovocicaLt NorEs:— 
The Shininfg Slave-Maker (Polyergus luctdus) - - + » + + » 543 
On the Red Colour of Salt Cod. . « - | = TNS Ge hee) Seem 
Marine Isopods of New England . - Wek Sr OTN.. Sei hal Rel Se 
Statistics of Disease in Italy. . - . + Samra Oo) 
The Eye and Intensity of Colour . . + - nie 6) nas 
Isoetes lacustris . . . +» «© e eee Ta is oe 6 ao oS 
GroGkarHicaL NOTES . - + + + + 5 « = = Spey ag 
Universiry anp EpucaTIONAL INTELLIGENCE - + «+ + + + + + 54g 
Scianmmmic SERIAES ce. j6 kucse oe pe) swe cep eee * ge fe) a ae ea 
5 * Gace ae 


SocieTigs AND ACADEMIES + + + = + 


NAFORE 


549 


THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1881 


THE NEW MUSEUM OF NATURAL 
HISTORY 


HE great terra-cotta building facing Cromwell Road, 

South Kensington, and occupying the site of the 

old 1862 Exhibition, about which for the past twelve 

months public curiosity has been raised, is about to draw 

up its blinds, and to offer a part of its extensive galleries 
for inspection on Easter Monday. 

It is no secret that for thirty years past the accommo- 
dation in the British Museum, Great Russell Street, 
Bloomsbury, ‘‘both for man and beast,” had become too 
restricted, and the necessity for a larger building was 
keenly felt. As usually happens in such cases, the most 
adventurous and energetic officer was the first to obtain 
for his department what he required, namely, ore room. 

Sir A. Panizzi (then Keeper of Printed Books) projected, 
shortly after the 1851 Exhibition, his scheme for a great 
central Reading-room and Library, and some five years 
after witnessed its completion. Some years later on, the 
Department of Antiquities, represented by Mr. C. T. 
Newton, C.B., also obtained an addition to its galleries 
on the western side, and still more recently on the 
southern side, next the great Entrance Hall. 

Great praise is due to Mr. Bond, the present Principal 
Librarian, for putting an end to the use made of the fine 
colonnade in front of the British Museum, which for 
twenty-five years was blocked by antiquities covered in 
with a row of extremely unsightly and incongruous wood 
and glass sheds. These are now happily removed. The 
Department of Prints and Drawings lacking a gallery, 
obtained possession of the “King’s Library’’ floor on 
the east side for an exhibition space; and even the 
conservative Coin Department likewise laid out for the 
public a few show-cases here of coins and medals. 

But, like the clothes of the rising son, in the old carica- 
ture, the collections everywhere had outgrown their 
receptacle, and none more so than the departments of 
Natural History. Scientific men were however not 
unanimous, and a fierce controversy was carried on in 
1858-59 as to the relative merits of enlargement on the 
old site, or dismemberment. Finally, after a Committee 
of the House of Commons had taken evidence upon the 
subject, the removal of the Natural History Collections 
was decided upon by Government. 

But the death of the Prince Consort, the delay of the 
House of Commons to vote the necessary funds, the 
retirement of Sir A. Panizzi from the post of Principal 
Librarian, the discussion of rival plans, the inevitable 
delays about the completion of any Government building, 
caused twenty years to pass before the plans of the 
chosen architect, Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, were realised 
in a solid and material form. 

Midsummer, 1880, barely sufficed to enable the Office 
of Works to certify to the fulfilment of the Contractor's 
work and to hand over the building to the Trustees ere 
collections began to be moved in. 

Nine months only have elapsed, and already three 
Departments, viz. Botany, Mineralogy, and Geology, 


have transferred their entire collections from the old to | 


VoL, xxi11.—No. 598 


the new building. But less than half the cases for the 
entire building have yet been supplied, and everywhere 
the labour of completing the structure as well as fixing 
cases and fittings is being busily carried on. Under these 
circumstances it seems not improbable that two years 
may elapse before the Zoological Collections will be 
removed and housed in their new quarters. 

Let us now take a glance at what Mr. Sala styles “ this 
Temple of Nature.” The architectural character of the 
new building may be termed “ Decorated Norman,’’ but 
it is in many respects unique, especially as regards the 
treatment of its details. The first, or ‘‘ ground-floor,” is 
above the road, and the entrance is approached by a 
broad flight of steps and by a sloping carriage-drive. The 
entire structure is of brick cased with terra cotta, the door- 
ways and the windows being ornamented with columns 
designed from natural history objects, chiefly from plants. 
Reproductions of various animals are also introduced. 
The main part of the building has a tower at each end, 
and there are also two central towers rising on either side 
of the entrance. The south front of the building is about 
650 feet in length, running due east and west, and is three 
storeys high, in addition to the basement, which is above 
the level of the garden in which the building stands. 

The Central Hall or “‘ Index Museum ” runs from south 
to north; itis 150 feet long, 97 feet wide, and about 60 
feet high ; along its two sides are twelve arched recesses. 
At the north end is a wide and handsome staircase which 
branches off right and left to the open corridors or side 
aisles on either hand upon the first floor. This Central 
Hall is more richly decorated than any part of the build- 
ing. The floor of mosaic work, where Italian marble is 
employed, has been skilfully laid by Italian workmen. The 
side aisles or corridors look out into the Central Hall by an 
open balustrade surmounted by large arches, each contain- 
ing three smaller ones, the centre one being much higher 
than the others. The pillars supporting these are orna- 
mented with a nearly natural treatment of Lepzdodendron ; 
in some few cases animals, monkeys, birds, &c., are intro- 
duced. The decoration of the ceiling is very effective. 
A double row of panels runs along the central line, and on 
either side of this, between the iron girders and following 
the curve of the roof, are panels in groups of six ; these 
are ornamented with representations of different species 
of trees, shrubs, and flowering-plants treated somewhat 
conventionally. That portion of the ceiling over the main 
body of the hall is decorated with trees, each of which 
occupies six panels, as they can be most easily seen from 
the floor and need bold treatment. At the south end, 
where the ceiling is over a staircase and landing leading 
from the first to the second floor, each panel contains 
but one species : the eye being nearer to the ceiling greater 
detail has been introduced. The effect of the whole is 
very fine, and as the hall is at present without any cases 
or specimens, it has the general appearance of a cathedral. 
This idea is further heightened by the introduction of a 
triforium, though this has been added merely for effect, 
the passages being interrupted. 

Beyond the Index Museum is a smaller and less lofty 
hall quite divided from it, save by two arched entrances, 
97 feet by 70 feet, intended to hold the British Zoological 
Collection. It is surrounded by arched recesses similar 
to those in the Index Museum. In this hall the decora- 

BB 


959 


NATURE 


[April 14, 1881 


tion of the ceiling is also botanical, but all the species 
selected are of British plants. Underneath the staircases 
and in the recesses a plain light colour is introduced, 
relieved with gilding. The decorations of the saloons or 
galleries are much simpler. The columns throughout are 
of terra cotta, ornamented with natural history objects. 
The other parts of the building consist of series of 
galleries running north from the front or main building, 
but only one storey above the basement. The rooms on 
each floor, at the end of the long front galleries and under 
the two end towers, are called pavilions. The main or 
front galleries facing Cromwell Road are lighted by 
windows north and south. The Central Hall or Index 


Museum, the Hallfor British Zoology, and all the other | 


galleries of one storey high running north, are lighted by 
skylights. The Index Museum has however, in addition 
to its roof-lights, windows in the corridors on either side. 

The distribution of the space available is as follows :— 
The long galleries to east of the entrance on the ground- 
floor, and all the galleries from it, running north, are devoted 
to Geology and Paleontology. The first floor above the Geo- 
logical Gallery is devoted to Mineralogy, and the floor above 
this to Botany. The whole of the galleries on the west side 
of the building are givento Zoology. The Index Museum, 
according to Prof. Owen, is designed to present to the 
public, in a series of twelve recesses, typical examples of 
all the collections—in fact, an epitome of the whole 
animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Prof. Owen 
further desires to show the marvels of nature and objects 
of special interest, as exemplifying size, &c., such as 
whales, basking sharks, &c. These are to occupy the centre 
of this great hall. Passing to the right from the Index 
Museum (on the ground floor) we enter the South-East 
Gallery of the Geological Department (233 feet in length 
by 50 feet in width, and lighted by windows on either 
side), at the east end of whichis the Pavilion, a room 
60 feet by 40 feet. These two galleries are. entirely 
devoted to the exhibition of the fossil Mammalia and 
Birds, and are provided with pier-cases and table-cases. 
The larger objects are arranged down the centre of the 
floor. 

The cases on the left hand are nearly all occupied with 
the remains of /voboscidea. Commencing with the 
Deinotherium from Epplesheim, with its tusk-like incisors 
in the lower jaw, we pass to the (/asfodons, in which, as a 
rule, the tusks are developed in the upper jaw and not in 
the lower. But to this there are exceptions ; one American 
Mastodon having immature tusks in the lower jaw, and 
the Mastodon augustidens, from Sansau in France, having 
tusks in both the upper and the lower jaw. 


Nearest the entrance door, in the centre of the gallery, | 


is placed the entire skeleton of the great American 
mastodon from Ohio, which must have been considerably 
larger in bulk than that of any existing elephant; on the 
same stand is placed the head of a young Mastodon from 
New Jersey, and in front of it the skull and lower jaw of 
the South American Mastodon from Chili. It is interest- 
ing to notice that both the mastodon and elephant had 
overspread the North and South American continents in 
Tertiary times, and they were equally widely distributed 
over the European and Asiatic continents ; their modern 
representatives however are confined, the one to the 
continent of Africa, the other to India, Ceylon, &c. The 


tusks of some of the old fossil elephants were of enormous 


| proportions : witness the head of Lvephas ganesa from the 


Siwalik Hills, India, and that of the mammoth (Z/ephas 


| primigenius) from the valley of the Thames, near Ilford. 


Large numbers of elephant remains have been dredged 
up year by year for the past sixty years off the Dogger 
Bank and the Norfolk coast, affording good evidence 
that in comparatively modern times the North Sea 
was a great valley watered by the Rhine, Moselle, &c., 
giving pasturage to vast herds of deer, bison, oxen, and 
elephants ; where also the rhinoceros and the hippo- 
potamus found a pleasant home. A goodly series of the 
remains of these animals from British and Continental 
localities may be seen in this gallery, and also abundant 
evidence of the old Siberian mammoth and rhinoceros, 
both of which have been met with “in the flesh,’’ frozen 
solid in mud and ice. Here are also exhibited an in- 
teresting series of the ‘‘pigmy elephant’’ from Malta, 
brought home by Admiral Spratt, R.N., and Prof. Leith 
Adams. By far the larger collection of elephant remains 
are those from the Siwalik Hills, India, obtained by Col. 
Sir Proby T. Cautley and described by Dr. Hugh Falconer, 
F.R.S. The ‘gigantic Irish deer” (Wegaceros Hibernicus) 
forms a prominent and striking object in the centre of the 
gallery, with its branching antlers ro feet across, a noble 
prey for its contemporary, the “sabre-toothed tiger’’ 
(Machatrodus latidens), remains of both animals having 
been found together in Kent’s Cavern, Torquay. 

Passing by the cases of carnivora, of thick-skinned 
animals, and of ruminants, our attention is next arrested 
by the great bandless armadillo from South America 
(Glyptodon), whose carapace is bigger than a hogshead, 
and which measured nearly 12 feet from its head to the 
tip of its armour-plated tail. 

Another of these extinct Edentates from the La Plata, 
the Megatherium Americanum, stands in the centre of 
the floor of the Pavilion. This colossal “ground-sloth ”’ 
measured 18 feet in length, its bones being more massive 
than those of an elephant. It displays in every part of 
its framework enormous strength and weight combined, 
sufficient to break down or uproot the trees, upon the 
leaves and succulent branches of which it fed, like its 
pigmy modern congener Dradypfus tridactylus, which 
leads an arboreal existence, climbing from bough to 
bough in the Brazilian forests. 

The extinct Marsupial fauna of the great island conti- 
nent of Australia is here well represented by the huge 
Diprotodon, the Nototherium, and the anomalous 7hyla- 
coleo, Of the Wombat family only a small living repre- 
sentative is known, of burrowing habits, found in Tas- 
mania; formerly they were abundant on the continent 
of Australia, varying in size from a marmot to that of a 
tapir. The largest of these are called Phascolomys 
magnus and P. gigas. 

The collection of remains of the great extinct wingless 
birds of New Zealand forms a very interesting feature of 
this gallery. The tallest skeleton measures I2 feet in 
height, and the smallest not more than 3 feet. 

Madagascar had also its extinct wingless birds, similar 
to those of New Zealand. Eggs of both the Dénornis 
and the £fyornis may here be seen, one of the latter 
having a capacity of two gallons. 

The rarest of all avian fossils is still the Arch@opleryx 


| April 14, 1881] 


NATURE 


so! 


_ macrura from the lithographic stone quarries of Solen- 
hofen. Fortunately for the incredulous a second speci- 
men has recently been obtained, and is preserved in the 
Berlin Museum. Its lacertilian affinities are well shown 
in its long and rat-like tail of twenty vertebree and its 
three-clawed digits in each fore-limb (or wing?). The 
head of the Berlin specimen is too obscure to give evi- 
dence of teeth, but its beaked jaws are clearly seen in 
the photograph. The original specimen described by 
Prof. Owen is headless. 
q Running parallel with the south-east gallery is the 
- Reptilian Gallery, 225 feet in length and 21 feet wide, 
the south wall of which is entirely occupied with the 
_ grand series of sea-lizards, the /chthyosauria and Plesio- 
_ Sauvia, once so abundant in the old Liassic seas of 
_ Europe, and the fossil remains of which have even been 
brought home from the Arctic regions and from New 
Zealand. The largest of the long-necked Plesiosaurs 
measures 22 feet in length and 14 feet across its extended 
paddles. The largest Ichthyosaur was probably even 
bigger than this. On the north side are displayed the 
remains of the great land lizards, Diwosauria, of which 
: the /guwanodon is perhaps the most familiar example. A 
more recent discovery is that of the Omosaurus from the 
_ Kimmeridge Clay of Swindon, Wilts, the femur of which 
is more than 4 feet in length, and the humerus nearly 
3 feet long, and enormously broad; they were probably 
_to some extent amphibious in their habits, but their 
_ limbs were well fitted for progression on the land. 
_ Numerous other fine Dinosaurian remains are to be 
seen in these cases. As we do not know the teeth of 
"many of these huge reptiles, we are unable to speak 
‘positively as to their habits; but it is certain that from 
the Trias to the Chalk two groups have existed side by 
side, one having a carnivorous dentition and the other 
being herbivorous. The Zeratosaurus of the Trias of 
Stuttgart and the Lycosaurus and C “ynodraco from the 
Cape, the Megalosaurus of the Stonesfield Slate and 
Wealden were all carnivores, whilst the /ewanodon, 
| Acanthopholis, Scelidosaurus, and the South African 
genera Anthodon and Nythosaurus were all vegetable- 
feeders. But of Polacanthus, Omosaurus, Hyleosaurus, 
and Cetiosaurus we have no direct dental evidence. No 
doubt, as amongst the mammalia at the present day, the 
“Majority were vegetable-feeders and the minority were 
-predacious in habit. 
In this gallery are also exhibited the flying lizards of 
_ the Secondary Rocks, most of which have been found in 
“the lithogiaphic stone of Solenhofen and a few in our 
_ own Lias, Stonesfield Slate Chalk, and Greensand. 
___ If Comparative Anatomy may be trusted, some of the 
_ Pterodactyles from the Chalk of Kent give evidence of a 
flying lizard having probably an expanse of wings of from 
eighteen to twenty feet. 
An Australian novelty is the great horned lizard (Mega. 
lania prisca), 14 feet or more in length, with nine horn- 
like prominences on its skull and an armour-plated tail 
_ similar to that of the Glyptodon. 
ag The Triassic reptiles from South Africa form a singular 
addition to our knowledge of ancient life forms long since 
passed away. They are comprised in Prof. Owen’s groups 
of Anomodontia and Thertodontia. 
__ Among the fossil Chelonians we have representatives of 
ss 
% 
‘. 


both the marine turtles, the fresh-water Trionyx and 
mys, and the gigantic and lesser land-tortoises. Of the 
first of these are the remains of the great Chelone Hof- 
manni from Maestricht, and the Chelone gigas from the 
London Clay of Sheppey, larger by far than the “ logger- 
head” turtle of the present day. Of the last (land- 
tortoises) may be mentioned the Colossochelys atlas from 
the Siwalik Hills, which out-rivals the Glyptodon in bulk. 

Three wide and four narrow galleries built at right 
angles to the Reptile Gallery, each 137 feet in length, the 
former being 4o feet and the latter 20 feet in width, are 
placed alternately, running due north and south, and 
lighted from above. These fine~ rooms afford ample 
accommodation for the fossil fishes, all the classes of the 
Invertebrata (mollusca, brachiopoda, bryozoa, insecta, 
myriopoda, arachnida, crustacea, annelida, echinoder- 
mata, corals, foraminifera, sponges, and plants). These 
long galleries, or annexes, and the ones corresponding 
with them on the western side, are built upon the plan 
recommended by the Royal Commission of 1874. But 
the wall-cases are all constructed to open in front, zo¢ at 
the back of the case, as suggested. They are however 
the best-lighted galleries in the whole building, and best 
suited for museum purposes. Two of these large gal- 
leries are not yet ready for occupation, and the third is 
under arrangement ; the narrow galleries give space for a 
library, special reference collections, a stratigraphical 
series, and working-rooms for students. 

In the basement are twelve workshops, studies, and 
store-rooms devoted to Geology, ten studies, work-rooms, 
and laboratories to Mineralogy, and three to Botany. 

The Mineralogical Gallery, on the first floor, which 
corresponds with the South-East. Gallery and Pavilion 
in extent, is also lighted by windows on either hand ; it 
has seven wall-cases, two at each end of the long gallery 
and three in the Pavilion, the collection being mainly 
contained in forty-eight large table-cases. 

These table-cases forma long row on either hand, com- 
mencing at the entrance of the gallery, the odd numbers 
being on the left hand and the even on the right. Each 
of the first forty cases nearly equals in capacity two of the 
cases in the old mineral gallery ; we have therefore a much 
more magnificent display than could have been attempted 
formerly, when the minerals and fossils were all crowded 
together in the same gallery. 

The collections of naturally and artificially-prepared 
crystals occupy two large cases in the Pavilion, whilst 
two of similar construction are filled with meteorites. 
The great Cranbourne Meteorite and that from Mexico 
occupy special cases on the east side. In the wall-cases 
are arranged the extensive collection of rocks, two cases 
being devoted to polished marbles. 

The general plan pursued in the arrangement remains 
the same as in the old Museum gallery, so that by using 
boxes corresponding to one quarter of a table-case, the 
minerals were transported from the old to the new build- 
ing and re-arranged in an incredibly short space of time, 
and with the exception of the Pavilion and the wall-cases 
have long been ready for exhibition. 

In the Botanical Gallery the glazed cases for the exhi- 
bition of specimens project from the wall into the room 
like square shop-fronts, having three plate-glass sides. 
The whole of the glass is permanently fixed, except one 


552 


NATURE 


[ April 14, 1881 


division forming the door. A 


curtains, gives access to the specimens; by this contriv- 
ance it is hoped that the dust will be excluded to a great 
extent. 

Accommodation for large specimens, as, for example, 
portions of stems and sections of various kinds of wood, 


such as oak, walnut, pine, cedar, and other dicotyledons, | 


and trunks of palms, cycads, tree-ferns, bamboos, and 
other striking examples of the vegetable kingdom, is pro- 
vided for by three tall metal and glass cases 14 feet high, 
occupying the floor-space in the centre of the gallery. 
One-half of the main gallery is partitioned off from the 


public room, and fitted up with cabinets for the reception 


of the Herbarium, the nucleus of which was obtained by 
Sir Joseph Banks and Solander in their voyage round the 
world with Captain Cook. This first series of cabinets is 
entirely occupied with the flowering plants, which are all 
fastened on single sheets of paper. The Pavilion contains 
similar cabinets for the reception of the British-plants and 
Filicina, whilst the room above in the tower is intended 
for the Cryptogamia. Down the centre of the large room 
are cabinets fitted to receive the great collection of fruits 
and seeds, each being placed near its appropriate family 
in the Herbarium on either side. These inner rooms, 
with the valuable library attached to them, are of course 
only available for purposes of study, but are always 
accessible to the botanical student and worker. 

On the south-west side of the Index Museum, the gal- 
lery on the second floor which corresponds with that 
appropriated to Botany is designed to contain the great 
collection of Recent Osteology ; that on the first floor is 


to be devoted to stuffed animals, and the front ground- | 


floor gallery to birds. The eight galleries in rear of the 
main building on the west side will be appropriated to 
the Reptilia, Fishes, and Invertebrata. The collections 
preserved in spirits are to be placed in a special building 
at the north end of these galleries. The basement on 
the west side contains sixteen studies and work-rooms 
and a large open space well fitted for workshops and 
stores. 

The Assistant-Secretary (Mr. J. T. Taylor) is provided 
with offices adjoining the Board Room on the first floor 
above the British Zoological Hall. The Superintendent, 
Prof. Owen, C.B., and the Keepers of Geology (Dr. H. 
Woodward, F.R.S.), of Mineralogy (Mr. L. Fletcher, M.A., 
F.G.S.), and of Botany (Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S.), have 
each a study in the central towers on either side the 
entrance. 

There are a few scientific men who still strongly protest 
against the removal of the Natural History Collections from 
the old to the new building, on the ground that the locality 
is inconveniently far west, and that they are thereby pre- 
cluded from using the Collections so freely as heretofore. 
One of the strong grounds for protesting against the 
removal has been the serious inconvenience arising from 
the separation of the collections from the great National 
Library. This injury will however be gradually removed 
by the formation of a new Natural History Library in the 
present building, a vote for which has been already taken. 

The comparatively small band of scientific men who 
use the Natural History Museum for purposes of special 
work and study, would always do so wherever the collec- 
tions happened to be located. 


aves A 7 | 
“cell” inside, inclosed by | 


| 
| 


So too the holiday-makers, who come to the Museum 
merely to be amused, will as willingly travel to South 
Kensington as to the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens, ~ 
or to the Crystal Palace. ~ 

Undoubtedly the highest aim and use of our great 
National Natural Historical Collections should be to 
impart instruction to the young and rising generation, 
and afford every facility for the advancement of our 
scientific students, and the question whether they are now 
conveniently placed is mainly for them to answer. If in 
the future South Kensington is to become a great centre 
of scientific instruction, then, and not otherwise, the 
Natural History Collections have been placed in their 
most suitable position. 

We cannot conclude this hasty notice without stating 
that the old restrictions as to days of admission have all 
been swept away, and the collections will from and after 
the 18th be open daily to the public, save on Sundays, 
Christmas Day, and Good Friday, and other public fast 
days, &c.; good and cheap guide-books are also to be 
ready for the 18th. 

For this and other concessions the public are mainly 
indebted to the untiring energy and determination of the 
present principal Librarian, Mr. Edward A. Bond, LL.D., 
who has also been the means of introducing many neces- 
sary and useful reforms into the old building ; not the least 
being the electric light, which it may be hoped will ere long — 
cast its beams over the collections in the Natural History 
Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington. 


= oe 


TEXT-BOOK OF MECHANICS 
A Text-Book of Elementary Mechanics, for the Use of 
Colleges and Schools. By Edward S. Dana, Assistant — 
Professor of Natural Philosophy in Yale College. (New 
York: John Wiley and Sons, 1881.) 
HIS is a small-sized book of 290 pages printed in 
fairly clear type, and bound in an unpleasant- 
looking cover, and we learn from the preface that it 
has been prepared to meet the special wants of Yale 
College instruction. An endeavour has been made to 
dwell more fully than usual on the principles of the sub- 
ject, at the same time illustrating these principles in their 
practical bearings by descriptions of various machines 
and appliances, while no mathematical knowledge beyond’ 
the rudiments of algebra and trigonometry is required. 
From this it may be presumed that the book is intended” 
for a very elementary class of students, at a lower aay 
if possible, than “ Poll” men at Cambridge, or else that 
it aims at assisting self-education by supplying the place 
of a tutor. An undoubtedly good feature in the book is 
the collection of examples, some of which are interspersed 
in the text, and others collected in a body at the end, 
where the answers are given. The metrical and ordinary — 
units are both employed. These examples are perhaps 
the only part of the book which would be of any value | 
teachers in this country. With regard to the main 
subject-matter of the book, Dynamics is placed first, and | 
Statics follows, with a chapter on the Pendulum at the 
end. The definitions and the explanation of the prin-_ 
ciples of the subject, though aiming at fulness and clear- 
ness, are not always so satisfactory as might be wished. 
A tendency to looseness of expression sometimes counter- 


a 


ees 


April 14, 1881 | 


NATURE ‘ 


Sere 


balances the value of the fuller explanation. To explain 
solidity we are told that ‘A solid is characterised by a 
greater or less degree of rigidity,’’? which in the absence 
of a separate definition of rigidity leaves us much where 
we were before. Again, the definition of a guid is this, 
*¢ A liquid is characterised by its mobility; the molecules 
are free to move about each other, and the liquid takes 
the shape of any containing vessel,” which is equally true 
of a gas. The proof of the formula S = 3/7? is clenched 
by the proposition that “ when two sets of variable quan- 
tities, which are always equal, simultaneously approach 
their limits, these limits are equal,” which is suddenly 
introduced without any explanation of its meaning. This, 
in a book intended for beginners unacquainted with the 
idea of a “limit,’’ would be likely to cause some 
bewilderment. There is a chapter devoted to Work and 
Energy, as should be the case with all text-books of 
mechanics nowadays. 

In the dynamical section there is an entire omission 
of “Sliding in Chords of a Vertical Circle’’ and the 
pretty problems connected with it. In the statics there 
is no mention of the stability or instability of equilibrium 
of one curved surface rolling on another. The micrometer 
screw surprises us by appearing with the mechanical 
powers alongside of the wheel and axle and differential 
screw. 

As the compiler has not acknowledged his indebtedness 
to other works, it is difficult to say how much of this book 
is original. But we seem to catch echoes of Ganot’s 
“Physics” and of Goodeve’s two text-books on Mechanics 
and Mechanism here and there. For instance, Articles 7, 
8, 107, 111 remind one of Ganot, Articles 197, 207, 209, 
239 of Goodeve. The woodcuts, some of which are good, 
and others (e.g. those in the chapter on Centre of Gravity) 
very indifferent, are 190 in number. Some of them are 
apparently reproductions of woodcuts in English books. 
We instance Figs. 44 and 175, which are strikingly like 
Figs. 365 [Joule’s apparatus] and 19 [block and tackle] in 
the eighth edition of Ganot’s Physics, translated by 
Atkinson, and Figs. 142@, 150, 152, 155 (in Dana), which 
bear a very close resemblance to Figs. 49, 58, 110, 113 re- 
spectively in Goodeve’s “ Principles of Mechanics,” second 
edition, Fig. 117 in the latter having apparently supplied 
Dana’s three figures, 162, 163, 164 [on Pulleys]. Fig. 145 
in Goodeve’s “ Elements of Mechanism,” fifth edition, may 
well have been the original of Dana’s Fig. 156. 

It would have been graceful in the compiler of this 
work to have expressed his acknowledgments to the two 
excellent little text-books of Goodeve. On the whole, with 
the reserve above made in favour of the “examples,” we 
think that neither English teachers nor English students 
will be the losers if they continue to use already existing 
English text-books of Mechanics, and leave this American 
competitor to find an audience on the other side of the 
water, 


CONSCIOUS MATTER 
Conscious Matter; or, The Physical and the Psychical 
Universally in Causal Connection. By Stewart Duncan. 
(London: David Bogue, 1881.) 
ae the title of this little work sufficiently indicates, the 
aim of its writer is to furnish a scientific basis for 
the theory of materialism in the region of mind. It is 


doubtful whether at this time of day anything very original 
can be said upon this topic, but Mr. Duncan has suc- 
ceeded in placing some of the facts in a stronger light 
than previous writers. The facts to which we allude are 
those which he calls the “ analogies’’ between forces and 
feelings. Up toa certain point it is by every one recog- 
nised that there is some quantitative relation between 
neurosis and psychosis ; mental processes are universally 
known to entail wear and tear of cerebral substance. 
Mr. Stewart Duncan traces this quantitative relation 
as much into detail as he can, by setting forth in a 
series of twelve “ analogies’? the resemblances be- 
tween forces and feelings. These “analogies” are far 
from being unopen to criticism severally ; but here we 
shall merely mention what they are, as there is more 
important criticism to apply to them collectively. The 
analogies are that feeling and force are each without 
extension, both related to matter, have “ plurality pre- 
dicable of them as respects their locality,” are diverse, 
have time-extension or duration, also the quality of degree 
and capability of being compounded or combined, are 
respectively transmutable zzfer se, &c. Doubtless, as 
Mr. Duncan observes, such analogies, or, as we should 
prefer to call them, parallelisms, might be largely multi- 
plied ; but what would any number of such parallelisms 
prove? Not, surely, what Mr. Duncan desires them to 
prove, viz. that forces stand to feelings in the relation of 
causes to effects. So far as the tracing of such mere 
parallelisms is concerned, we might almost as reasonably 
conclude the recent earthquake at Chio to have been the 
cause of this review, in that they each possess extension, 
have diverse parts, and so on. In order to establish a 
relation of causality we should require to show that the 
observed parallelism is due to that relation; we cannot 
argue from the observed parallelism as itself sufficient 
proof of such relation. Were this not so, there would be 
no need for Mr. Duncan or any one else to write a book 
on ‘The Physical and Psychical Universally in Causal 
Connection”; for as the fact of a constant parallelism 
between neural processes and mental processes is now no 
longer an open question, were mere parallelism sufficient 
to establish proof of causality, materialism would now be 
a demonstrated theory. 

It is needless here to go into the whole question as to 
the relation of body and mind, or to point out all the 
shortcomings of materialism as a philosophical theory. 
But it is a defect in Mr. Duncan’s work that he does not 
attempt to meet some of the most formidable of the diffi- 
culties with which this theory is beset. Thus he does not 
consider the fact that what we know as matter and force. 
we know only as affections of mind, and therefore that 
in all speculations upon the nature and potentialities of 
the former, we already by implication have necessarily 
assumed priority of the latter. Nor does he seek to 
explain the apparent want of equivalency between sup- 
posed physical antecedents and supposed mental conse- 
quents—why it is that the brain of a Newton required 
less nourishment than that of an elephant. Lastly, the 
greatest of all the difficulties is not adequately treated— 
that, namely, which is connected with the doctrine of the 
conservation of energy. Are we or are we not to suppose 
that thought has a mechanical equivalent? If materialists 
say that we are, then thought itself becomes a mode of 


554 


NATURE 


| Apri 14, 1881 


energy, or rather energy by becoming thought ceases to 
be energy—is destroyed as energy; and so this answer 
would militate against the doctrine in question. If, on 
the other hand, it is said that thought has no mechanical 
equivalent, and yet that energy causes thought, the state- 
ment is still in conflict with the doctrine of conservation, 
because it supposes that energy in the brain differs from 
energy everywhere else in producing more than its equi- 
valent measure of result. How then under any view are 
we to conceive of thought as an effect of energy? By no 
Stretch of imagination can we attain to the idea of a 
motor becoming a motive ; and if we could attain to such 
an idea, it would seem to be at the cost of upsetting the 
most fundamental doctrine of modern physics. And let 
it be observed in this connection that Mr. Duncan is not 
very accurate in the statement of his first “Canalogy,”’ 
where he says that ‘ Feeling and Force are alike in being 
both destitute of space-extension.”” Force in activity is 
only known as motion in space, while Feeling in activity 
cannot be conceived as here or there ; the conception of 
Force without any actual or potential relation to space is 
as impossible as the conception of Feeling in such a 
relation. 

Mr. Duncan’s book, however, is worthy of the attention 
of psychologists, because although we think his attempt 
to prove a causal relation between physics and psychics 
a necessary failure, his work is interesting and suggestive 
if viewed from the standpoint of Clifford’s doctrine of 
“ Mind-stuff.”’ If we suppose that Force and Feeling 
are everywhere one, and so that ‘all the universe is 
made up of Mind-stuff,’ we have a logically possible 
theory which does not labour under any of the logical dis- 
advantages attending the theory of causality proceeding 
from matter in motion to mind, or wice versé. Some 
passages in Mr. Duncan’s work seem to show that he has 
very nearly entered this conception himself; and we 
therefore feel that he would have written a more valuable 
treatise if, going a little further, he ‘had discarded the 
obsolete attempt to explain parallelisms by an impossible 
theory of causality, and undertaken to argue that these 
parallelisms are really due to a fundamental identity, 
which, as Lewes puts it, is phenomenally diverse only in 
relation to our modes of apprehension. 

GEORGE J. ROMANES 


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. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications, 

[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible, The Pressureon his space is so great that it 
%s impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.) 


Study of the Physical Nature of the Sun 

HAVING been engaged for some time past in discussing with 
that able scientist, the Spanish Astronomer-Royal, Signor 
Antonio Aguilar, Director-General of both the Astronomica 
and Meteorological Observatories of Madrid, the best method of 
realising for the requirements of modern science the peculiar 
advantages presented by the Peak of Teneriffe for studying and 
eliminating the interfering effects of the earth’s atmosphere on 
many classes of astronomical, meteorological, and physical 
observations—it has just resulted, not exactly in the general 


facilitation which I had hoped for towards the savants of all 
nations —but in a particular letter to myself of gracious recom- 
mendation by Spanish royal authority to the Captain-General of 
the Canarian Archipelago. 

As however I am totally unable, for reasons well known to our 
own Government both now and for many years past, to undertake 
any such research, however useful or pressing—it may be of 
service to the cause, and to other workers who are more favour- 
ably situated financially, to make known how liberally the 
Spanish Government is inclined at the present moment towards 
any genuine efforts, even of individuals, to improve our know- 
ledge of the great central luminary by making superior observa- 
tions with improved instruments at some considerable leyel above 
the ordinary clouds and winds of the summer season 3 and which 
superiority of site can only be well obtained on this side of the 
world by means of that grand Mountain-island which Spain has 
ruled so long and so well,—vyiz. the Island of Teneriffe. I have 


therefore now the pleasure of appending a close translation of — 


the official letter, or rather Royal Order, from Madrid,—a copy 
of which Don Antonio Aguilar kindly informs me has already 
been communicated by the Spanish Government to the Chief 
Governor of the Canarian Islands. 


“* From the Ministry ‘ de Fomento,’ Madrid, to the Director- 
General of Public Instruction. 

““ILLUSTRIOUS S1R,—In consequence of the Report of the 
Director-General of the Astronomical and Meteorological Obser- 
vatories of this capital, the King has deigned to order that the 
Governor of the Province of the Canaries, and all authorities 
dependent upon him, should give special attention to provide 
whatever assistance he may require to Mr, Piazzi Smyth, Director 
of the Observatory, Edinburgh, in the expedition which is pro- 
posed to the Island of Teneriffe, with the object of trying, on the 
height of the Peak of Teyde, the instruments designed, or im- 
proved by him for the study of the physical constitution of the 
Sun. 

“ By Royal Order I transmit this to you for your information, 
and may God preserve you many years. 

**(Signed) 
“On the 22nd March, 1881” 

A friend well acquainted with both England and Spain informs 
me that we have not in this country any exact analogue to the 
Ministry ‘‘de Fomento.” The literary or theoretical meaning of 
the word is ‘‘supporting, encouraging, cherishing”; and the 
practical result in this case has been, that a poor individual here, 
unrecommended by the Government, or the greater Learned 
Societies, or Universities of his own land, but having an excelsior 
natural object to labour at, has received this very honourable 
testimony and encouraging recommendation. All honour then 
to the Government of Spain therefor; and may they meet at 
last with a more worthy subject for their gracious ‘* Fomento,” 
than Your obedient servant, 

Edinburgh, April 9 PIAzzI SMYTH 


Winter Gnats (Trichocera) 


THE winter ‘gnat (Zrichocera hiemalis, D. G.) is one of the 
subjects of phenological observations undertaken by the Meteo- 
rological Society. Its appearance directly after long-continued 
frost, often whilst the thaw is in progress, has frequently led 
entomologists to inquire whether the insects then seen have been 
hybernating during the cold weather, or have newly emerged 
from the pupa. No evidence has been adduced in support of 
either alternative. Some facts concerning the habits of the fly, 
noted as opportunity occurred during the last two winters, bear 
upon the matter in question, and may therefore be of interest to 
both the above classes of your readers. The name Zyichocera 
/iematis is used here in its meteorological sense, for nobody 
would pretend to distinguish this abundant species at a distance 
from the common 7, regelationis. 


olin 


we 


April 14, 1881 | 


NATURE 


500 


With a view to learning what becomes of the winter gnats 
during inclement weather I frequently jotted down, when the 
flies were upon the wing, the temperature of the air in the places 
of their resort, the time of the day, and any peculiarity notice- 
able in the flight of the insects. Upon other occasions, at cor- 
responding periods of the day, when the weather was colder and 
no gnats could be seen anywhere, I made similar entries of the 
temperature prevailing ia their usual playgrounds, ‘The instru- 
ment employed was a Casella’s pocket-thermometer mounted in 
ebonite, graduated upon the :tem at intervals of every two 
degrees, and duly compared with a standard. 

From the notes thus obtained, which need not be quoted in 
detail, it appears that the flight of Zyichocera varies in style 
with the temperature, and, as a general rule, is altogether dis- 
continued when the cold exceeds 36° F. Once indeed I saw a 
gnat flying when the thermometer stood at 34°°5 F., but there 
was reason for suspecting that it had just been startled out of the 
hedge by a passing carriage. When such low readings as these 
are obtained the insects do not congregate, but fly singly with a 
heavy drowsy flight, as though impelled by business rather than 
pleasure; and very few venture to show themselves upon the 
wing at all. At temperatures of 38° to 42° F. they may be seen 
occasionally flying steadily in places sheltered from wind; and 
when a warmth of 45° F., or more, is attained, they throng 
together and dance for joy. These particulars, by the way, need 
not prompt meteorologists to do something with their phenolo- 
gical tables by entering in them ‘‘ 77ichocera flying” every calm 
winter’s afternoon if the temperature exceeds 40° F., with- 
out troubling themselves to go out of doors and look after the 
gnats. 

It was some time before I succeeded in tracing 77ichocera to 
the places where it seeks repose after its gambols and whiles 
away periods of weather too cold or boisterous for excursions 
abroad. The flies may be seen sometimes at rest upon fences, 
with their legs stretched out flat, and it appeared probable that 
they took refuge in the hedges somewhere. A very favourite 
harbourage of theirs however seems to be the under side of 
boards and stones frequented by woodlice and earthworms 
They stand back downwards on the wood -or stone, not upon 
the earth below; and although the specimens found in such 
situations are mostly females who have gone there to lay eggs, 
I have once or twice noticed males taking shelter in similar 
places. Beneath a single flower-pot saucer standing upon damp 
earth, and eight inches acro:s the bottom, I have counted as 
many as ten females at once; an individual gnat dislodged 
crept back underneath it again; but. the site became dry, and 
they forsook it. The wonder was how they managed to enter 
so shallow a crevice in the first instance. The haunts of the 
isopod, Zrichoniscus pusillus, are not too damp for them; but 
in frosty weather they are apt to take shelter under any dry 
pieces of wood lying loosely upon the ground. It is obvious 
that flies with such habits as these cannot fail to be snowed up 
in great numbers at the first fall; and when the frost is over, 
having been securely protected from extreme cold, they are ready 
to take wing again as soon as the snow has melted sufficiently 
to admit of their creeping forth. Hence, though the temperature 
may be relatively mild directly after a snowstorm, no gnats are 
likely to be seen flying until the snow has largely disappeared, 
when 7Zrichocera will become common. Similarly after frost 
without snow, when the thaw sets in the flies will probably not 
issue from their retirement immediately, but will rest quietly 
until the change of temperature has had time to reach them in 
their lurking-places, whatever may be the warmth of the outer 
air meanwhile. Perhaps this is the cause of so few winter gnats 
being seen in the mornings early in the year; but whether it be 
so or not, the other foregoing surmises harmonise well with my 
observations. 

The maximum of cold to which winter gnats can be exposed 
without fatal consequences has not yet been ascertained. 

Chepstow Road, Croydon, April A. E. EATON 


Australian Plants in India 


In NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 370, some remarks are made (with 
reference to Mr. Wallace’s observations in “Island Life”) 
regarding the apparent inability of Australian plants to become 
naturalised in the northern hemisphere. It may therefore be 
interesting to you and to Mr. Wallace to learn of some striking 
exceptions to this rule in the case of Australian plants which 
have been introduced on the Nilgiri plateau in Southern India, 


at elevations ranging from about 5500 to nearly 80co feet above 
sea-level. Acacias and fucalypti in particular have found a 
congenial home in this region, and visitors from Australia who 
have secn them say that they appear even more vigorous than in 
their native soil. Hundreds of acres of Zucalyplus Globulus and 
of Acacia melanoxylon and A. dealbata have been planted by 
Government as firewood reserves, and the trees have grown up 
splendidly. The only drawback to the success of the experiment 
has been that the Acacia melanoxylon has been greatly injured 
by Loranthaceous parasites. In fact this species will apparently 
in course of time be exterminated by these indigenous pests. 
Besides Zucalyptus Globulus the following species of the genus 
have also been introduced, and thrive well :—Z. sideroxylon, E. 
obliqua, E, fissilis, E. rostrata, E. viminalis, E. amygdalina, 
and £. ferfoliata. In addition to the two species of Acacia 
already menticned, the following have also been added to the list 
of healthy growing exotics on the Nilgiris, viz. 4. pycnantha, 
A. salicina, A. longifolia, A. decurrens, A. cultriformis, A. 
elata, and others, might also be enumerated. As regards other 
Australian plants on these hills we have Hakea, Banksia, 
Myoporum, Kunzea, Tristania, Pittosporum, Beaufortia, &c. 
In short there is a very considerable Australian flora flourishing 
on the ‘‘ Blue Mountains” of Madras, and so extensively have 
the trees been planted out about the principal stations that they 
have given quite a new character to the scenery. Some of the 
acacias have a considerable resemblance iu shape and colour to 
the Scotch fir, and this likeness has, to some visitors, added a 
fresh charm to the beauties of the scenery. G, BIDIE 
Madras, March 15 


The Tide Predicter 


WITH regard to the letter of Sir William Thomson in NATURE, 
vol, xxiii. p. 482, respecting the above instrument, I may say 
that the Tide Predicter which I have planned and designed for 
the prediction of Indian tides owes its development, mt to the 
British Association Tide Predicter, but to a complete two-com- 
ponent working model made by me in the spring of 1873. This 
model was made before the British Association instrument was 
designed. 

It was on the express recommendation of the Surveyor-General 
and Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of 
India that I was invited to plan and undertake the construction 
of the instrument, and I was left absolutely unfeitered in my 
choice of mechanicians to carry out the work. My connecticn 
with the instrument is clearly explained in the official prefaces 
to the Tide Tables for Indian Ports, 1881, published by authority 
of the Secretary of State for India in Council. I may point out 
that my paper upon this instrument (/roceedings Roy. Soc., No. 
197, 1879) was written at the desire of Sir William Thomson, to 
whom it was first submitted, and by whcm it was entirely 
approved and originally communicated. He was also present at 
the meeting of the Royal Society when the paper was read, and 
never expressed the least objection to any of its contents. In 
that paper credit is given to him for the improved slide, which 
he, with Pref. James Thomson’s assistance, had devised for an 
harmonic analyser, and also to Mr. A, Légé for the admirable 
plan of the wheel-gearing. EDWARD ROBERTS 

3, Verulam Buildings, Gray’s Inn, W.C., March 26 


‘““The Oldest Picture in the World” 


In Mr. Loftie’s ‘f Ride in Egypt” is a woodcut (p. 209) of 
what is called ‘‘the oldest picture in the world,” a fresco from a 
tomb at Maydoom, now in the museum at Boolak, wherein are 
represented six ‘‘pasturing geese.” Two of these are un- 
doubtedly Anser albifrons, two, probably A. ferus or A. segetum, 
and the other two seem to be the rare A. rujiccllis, from 
Northern Asia. I should be greatly obliged to any one who 
would let me see a coloured copy of this picture, that I might be 
assured as to my determination of the figures, Mr. Dresser, in 
his excellent ‘‘ Birds of Europe,” mentions his having received 
a specimen of 4. vw/ficollis sent him from Alexandria by the late 
Mr. Stafford Allen. Otherwise its appearance in Egypt seems 
to have been hitherto unrecorded. ALFRED NEWTON 

Magdalene College, Cambridge, April 10 


Probably New Variable Star 


On January 22, 1879, I observed near O? Canis, a very 
remarkable double star, with one component a fiery red 8°5 


556 


NATURE 


[April 14, 1881 


magnitude, and the other a blue 9. The contrast of colours 
was very striking, but there was little difference in size. In a 
letter recently received from the Rev. Mr. Webb, I find that it 
was previously observed by him, and it appears as one of his 
own discoveries in the second edition of ‘‘ Celestial Objects,” 
published in 1868. The red star is there classed as 6°5 mag., 
and the blue as 8. The two stars, therefore, appeared to differ 
very considerably in magnitude when seen by Mr. Webb, while 
to me, eleven years subsequently, they seemed quite nearly equal. 
Hence I conclude that the red is a variable, and I wish to call 
the attention of observers to it while it still remains in view. By 
a rough measurement I make out its position for 1881 = a 
7h. tom. 44s., and 5 — 23° 6''6. JOHN BIRMINGHAM. 
Millbrook, Tuam, April 9 


Concealed Bridging Convolutions in a Human Brain 


In his work on the “Convolutions of the Human Brain” 
Ecker denies explicitly that the first and second external bridging 
convolutions of Gratiolet, as seen in Cercopithecus, Inuus, &c., 
are ever concealed, either in the higher apes or in feetal or adult 
man. I have however in my possession an adult human brain 
in which @ convolution nearly corresponding in position to the 
external bridging one of Gratiolet is concealed, while another 
slightly external to it is nearly so. The brain was hardened in 
nitric acid with the membranes on (a much preferable method, 
by the by, to that of first removing the membranes; as these, 
by absorbing the acid and swelling, serve, like so many wedges, 
to keep the convolutions apart, and prevent the shrinkage that 
otherwise takes place), There was no indication of any con- 
cealed convolution until the membranes, just moistened for the 
purpose with water, were being removed. Then, owing to the 
opening out of the sulcus occipitalis transversus of Ecker, the 
tip of one became visible, and this tip, even now that the edges 
of the sulcus are widely separated, is from one-eighth to one- 
sixth of an inch beneath the general surface. 

Its position relative to the great longitudinal fissure and to the 
posterior border of the gyrus supramarginalis seems to me pretty 
accurately to correspond to that of the external bridging convo- 
lution to those parts in the brain of an Indian pig-tailed baboon 
of undetermined species with which I have compared it ; but in 
the latter the sulcus occipitalis transversus does not exist, while 
in this human brain, as is very common, the lateral or horizontal 
portion of the fissura parieto occipitalis, beneath the bevelled 
edge of which in the baboon the convolution lies concealed, has 
a very short course indeed. 

The only difference then is that in the one specimen (the 
human) the concealed convolution lies in the transverse occipital 
fissure, there being no lateral extension of the parieto-occipital 
fissure, while in the other it lies in the parieto-occipital fissure, 
the transverse fissure not existing WILLIAM CARTER 

Liverpool, March 26 


Sound of the Aurora 


Tr I had consulted Franklin’s account of his Polar researches 
before I sent you my extract from Tacitus, I should not have 
revived the question of sounds being heard with the aurora 
borealis, Franklin and his companions watched the aurora 343 
times in two successive winter seasons ; and never once, he says, 
did they observe a sound. Were, then, the experiences quoted 
by your other correspondent and myself mere illusions? Per- 
haps not. Franklin made his observations at and about the 
southern shore of Bear Lake, in latitudes varying from 67° to 
69° north; might not the greater volume of air through which 
the phenomenon had to pass in reaching our island have caused 
the electric fluid to work up a sound? Surely that is ‘possible 
The attractive force of the aurora is—we learn from Franklin 
himself—increased within a certain limit as its rays proceed 
southwards ; for whereas Parry and his party at Port Bowen in 
latitude 73° 15’ noticed no deflection of the compass-needle under 
the influence of coruscations, Franklin and his party on the 
shores of the Bear Lake, six degrees further south, constantly 
observed this effect. And the attractive force is strongly felt 
here—hindering telegraphic communication at all events. Might 
not the vibratory force not sensible at within so short a distance 
from its origin as the attraction be increased within a greater 
limit ? M. L. Rouse 

Sunnymead, Chislehurst Common 


PERIODIC OSCILLATIONS OF BAROMETRIC 
PRESSURE 


gee MSS. of the accompanying article, which was 
left unfinished by the late Mr. John Allan Broun, 
F.R.S., were handed over to me some time ago by Prof. 
Balfour Stewart, with a request that I would put them 
into shape for publication. 
I have not found it necessary to make many alterations 
in, or additions to the original, and where made they are 
mostly indicated in initialed foot-notes. 


E. DOUGLAS ARCHIBALD 


In an article which appeared in NATURE (vol. xix. p. 6) 
a remarkable relation was shown to exist between the 
annual ranges of the atmospheric pressure and of the 
temperature of the air, as derived from the monthly 
means obtained from several years’ observations of the 
barometer and thermometer at certain stations in India. 
The results and the conclusions from them do not appear 
to have been always understood, and as they bear on 
some of the most interesting questions on meteorology, 
I shall now examine them anew with the aid of. obser- 
vations at some other stations, under different local 
conditions. 

For this end it is desirable to employ some elementary 
considerations. Let us, first of all, consider the action 
of varying temperature on a vertical column of A 
the atmosphere. Let us consider a column of 
air reaching from the soil at B to the upper limit 
of the atmosphere at A; and suppose that the 
pressure shown by a barometer at B is 30 inches, 
while at a higher station, C, it is only 20 inches. 
If, now, the column of air is heated so that the 
temperature of the part BC is increased by 10° F. 
we know from laboratory experiments that the 
air will expand, so that a part of that which was 
below c will be pushed above it, and while the 
barometer at B will continue to show 30 inches, 
that at C will show 20°2 inches, the mercury at C 
will have risen two-tenths of an inch. 

If, now, we suppose that the mass of air re- 
mains constant throughout the year, there will 
be an annual variation of the barometer at C, 
where its height will be greatest in the warmest 
month and lowest in the coldest month. For 
the same reason the difference of the barometric 
heights at B and Cc will be least in the warmest month 
and greatest in the coldest. 

It has been supposed that the mass of the atmosphere 
remains constant throughout the year; if this is not the 
case the variations of pressure at C will not depend on 
temperature alone, but also on the other causes which 
produce variations at B. 

In NATURE, vol. xx..p. 55, Mr. Douglas Archibald has 
given a series of differences of barometric heights at high 
and low stations in India for the months from October to 
April. The month of lowest mean temperature, January, 
shows always, as in the case just supposed, the greatest 
difference of pressures. As the high and low station is 
never in the same vertical, the one being sometimes 300 
miles horizontally distant from the other, it is difficult to 
eliminate the part of the variation due to temperature at 
the higher station, but if we take as an approximation, 
however rude, the mean of the temperatures at the two 
stations as that of the vertical column, we can see that a 
considerable part of the variation at the upper station 
may be due to the expansion of the column with tem- 
perature. : 

Thus for Leh and Lahore the mean temperatures and 
difference of barometric heights are! :— 


—— 5 


™ The numbers are taken from the work cited by Mr. Archibald, “The 
Indian Meteorologist’s Vade Mecum,” by Mr. H. F. Blanford, Pt. ii. pp. 
176, 178. 


Se 


tT =. 


a 


<< 


wah, 


April 14, 1881]: 


NATURE 


557 


Mean temp. Diff. 01 Pressares. 
° in. 
January ... 35°0 Fahr. 9°690 
July. 741 oy 9° 105 


Now as the difference of the mean temperature of these 
two months is nearly 40°, according to what has been 
said before, the expansion of the air from January to 
July should have increased the pressure at the upper 
station by about o’8 inch (eight-tenths of an inch of 
mercury) and have diminished the difference of pressures 
by that amount. The observed diminution is, however, 
less than 0'6 inch, a deficiency of two-tenths, which has 
to be accounted for in some other way. 

In the case of the annual variation of atmospheric 
pressure near the sea-level, we have to-consider only the 
atmosphere above the station; but in that for a high 
station we have a much more complicated problem in 
which the atmosphere below the station plays an im- 
portant part, a part also which may vary greatly, according 
as the upper station is on a mountain top, on a gradually 
ascending height, or on high table land. 

It was for these reasons that in the article (NATURE, 
vol. xix. p. 6) under consideration, nothing was said of 
the annual variation on mountains or at great heights; 
the results were obtained from observations at stations 
little above the sea level, and from them it appeared that 
for every degree Fahrenheit on the range of monthly 
mean temperature, there was a variation of from ‘o2I 
inch at Singapore, to ‘025 inch at Bombay and Madras, 
in the range of the monthly mean barometric height ; 
while at Pekin the amount was diminished to ‘o15 inch. 
The conclusion that this ratio was nearly constant in 
India referred necessarily to stations under similar condi- 
tions. Mr. Archibald’s letter has brought to notice a 
series of Indian observations made at stations farther 
from the sea and in North India, which are given in 
an interesting and useful work by Mr. H. F. Blanford, 
Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India, 
and which merit consideration. The means employed 
by me previously were derived from observations at 
standard observatories during five to twenty-six years; 
and it was mentioned that, as single years gave somewhat 
variable results, the monthly means from several years’ 
observations were necessary for accurate values. In the 
cases to be found in Mr. Blanford’s work, several are of 
observations during only two years (or even less), and we 
have no exact idea of the weight which in any case can 
be accorded to the observations at the stations. As, 
however, the results for different stations in general con- 
firm each other (the exceptional cases will be noticed 
apart), I shall here form a series of groups of stations, 
each group under nearly the same local conditions as 
regards latitude, height above, and distance from, the 
sea. The value of 4, the variation in thousandths of an 
inch, of pressure-range for 1° F. of the temperature- 
range, is the same for all stations in each group, with the 
exceptions referred to below. 

Thus the most northerly group near latitude 30° N. and 
600 miles from the sea, viz., Lahore, Delhi, Dera Ismail 
Khan, Mooltan, and Roorkee, gives the following result :-— 


Meanranges of Mean baro- 
Mean lati- Mean height Mean PemDELALure and ceillats 

tude of above the annual tem- re uss ° Fain 
group (A). sea (4). perature (‘). ——— ead ate 
| | (é —44) 

at ap At 

. feet. 5 5 inch. 
304 660 75°2 39°0 0°620 o’o16 


This group extends about 450 miles from Delhi to Dera 
Ismail Khan, and the heights vary from 440 to 890 feet. 
The value of # is the some for each station. 

The next group comprises Bareilly, Lucknow, Jhansi, 
and Benares, for which the following are the values of 
the different elements :— 


A h t at ap k 
. feet. Z 5 in. 
26 - §20° 77°7 32°4 -0°554 «O07 


The distance of the extreme stations is not 300 miles; 
the heights vary from 270 feet at Benares to 860 feet at 
Jhansi. For each station # = 0017." 

The third group includes Patua and Gya, and the 
values are— 


rN h t At Ap ke 
f feet. 5 “ in. 
254 260 78°5 28°0 0°537 o"o1g 


The distance between the two stations is about 70 miles; 
the heights are 179 and 347 feet respectively, and the 
values of & are within half a thousandth of each other. 


The fourth group includes Berhampore, Burdwan, 
Dacca, Goalpara, Chittagong, Calcutta, and Saugor 
Island, for which the values are— 

rN h t at ap he 
a feet. 4 . in. 
234 100 78°0 18°7 o°471 0°025 


With the exception of Goalpara and Chittagong, these 
stations all lie in the Gangetic delta, at nearly the same 
elevation, and with an extreme variation in the value of 
# amounting to 0'004 inch.* 

The fifth group includes Bombay alone, the values for 
which are— 


nN h t ae ap k 
: feet. : 2 in. 
183 37 78°8 11°6 0°287 0°024 


The sixth, Madras, Negapatam, Trichinopoly, and 
Madura, with the values— 


A Ah t At ap kh 
7 feet. é S in. 
114 190 81°7 1D ED | 0°243 o'021 
The seventh, Colombo, with the values— 
A k t At ap k 
E feet. S é in. 
64 42 81°3 3°6 0°069 o'019 


It will be seen from this table that the value of £is a 
maximum (= 0'025) nearly under the tropic of Cancer, 
that it diminishes thence both north and south. This 
diminution cannot, however, be attributed altogether at 
least to the latitude, since the value is nearly the same at 
Pekin and at Delhi. 

The variation of the value in Northern India from the 
maximum near Calcutta has an apparent relation to the 
height above the sea and the distance from it,3 as well as 
to the amount of the temperature oscillation; the value 
of & diminishing as the others increase. We cannot, 
however, relate the value to any one of the other 
variables. No doubt height above the sea may have 
some influence, as has already been shown, but here 
mountain stations have been avoided; and while in the 
Lahore group the heights vary from 420 feet (Mooltan) 
to 890 feet (Roorkee), the value of £ remains constant. 

It should be observed that the temperature ranges are 
those of the stratum of air a few feet above the soil, while 
the ranges of pressure include the whole atmosphere 
above each station. We see that the value of & dimi- 


r There appears to be some difference in the values of Af as got by Mr. 
Broun and those derived from my edition of the ‘‘Vade Mecum”’ for these 
two groups. Thus from my edition (1877), the value of 4% for Group I. is 
0614, and therefore 4 =o'org; there are also slight differences in the value 
of # at each station. In Group II. & is 0’017 only for Bareilly and Lucknow, 
the value for Jhansi and Benares being o’016.—F D. A. 2 

2 The figures for the fourth group have been supplied, and the fifth, sixth, 
and seventh groups have been added as the text seemed to imply their 
intended formation by the author.—E. D. A. ; 

3 Mr. Archibald has considered height not to be an element, and he cites 
in evidence Lucknow and Sibsagar, very nearly at the same height ; the 
former having £ = o’or7 and the latter 7 = 0028 (NATURE, vol. xx., foot- 
note p. 54- The latter value, however, is a mistake, for at Sib k= 
o’or8, very nearly as at Lucknow. Mr. Archibald’s conclusion is that it is 
not height, but distance from the sea, as the stations are at widely different 
distances from the sea. We should, owing to this error, be obliged to 
reverse the conclusion, and say it is not distance from the sea, but height, 
that is in question; but, in reality. Sibsagar though not so far from the sea, 
is still as far as Patua or Gya, with nearly the same value of £. 

[See my note on this point, NaTune, vol. xxi. p. 131.—E. D. A.J 


558 


NATURE 


[April 14, 1881 


nishes as the range of the surface-temperature increases, 
and it is certain that the ranges of the temperature at all 
the stations as we ascend above ¢he soz/, will approach 
always nearer to each other the higher we go; so that if 
we knew in what way the relation between the oscillations 
is produced, and thence, in all probability, the part of the 


atmosphere which is chiefly in question, we might finda | 


more constant relation between A¢ and Af at all the 
stations. 

I will now proceed to make some remarks which may 
aid in the study of these questions. {[ would first observe 
with relation to the stations in the preceding table that 
the value of £ is only 0024 at Chittagong, while it is nearly 
0'029 at Saugor Island. I have no doubt, however, that 
this difference is due to some local or instrumental cause. 

In the first article I have, as already stated, used only 
observations made in first-class observatories. Every 
one acquainted with the difficulties of obtaining good 


observations in India, especially at out-stations, will | 
understand that the mere printing of their results cannot | 


give them any certain weight. Thus from the tables of 


means given in Mr, Blanford’s work, it appears that the | 


value of £ at Vizagapatam is 0'032, while at Cuttack less 
than 3° to the north, it is o’025. This great difference 
would lead to the conclusion that there must be some 
remarkable local cause, or that there is some error in the 
observations; if the former, then farther research as to 
this cause would be of the highest importance; the latter 
seems to me the most probable explanation. The follow- 
ing example, that of a station so well known as Madras, 
will show some reason for this belief. The results for 
Madras, given in the table, are those employed in the 
first article, and deduced from observations made in the 
Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory from 1841 till 
1855. In Mr. Blanford’s tables, however, means are 
given from observations for nine years. These means 
give results markedly different from the others. The 
following summary for the months of December, January, 
and June, will prove this :— 


Height of Barometer. 


Group of Years. December, January. June. 
1841-45 29°954 29°998 29°691 
1846-50 957 “986 693 
1851-55 "992 “998 "702 
Means ... ‘967 994 695 
1868-71 “978 967 “671 
Do72—7Oe esc uses “055 *926 “802 
Mr. Blanford’s 

means for nine "965 “944 ‘744 

years 


Now the three means for January, each deduced from 
five years’ observations, do not deviate from the mean of 
the whole more than ‘008 inch, while the corresponding 
extreme deviation for June is ‘o 7 inch. Whereas the 
means from nine years, according to Mr. Blanford’s tables, 
differ by o'050 inch from the means of fifteen years, and 
the annual range, which is 0299 by the fifteen years’ 
observations, becomes only o'200 by the last series. 
Judging from the means for four years—given by Mr. 
Blanford in his valuable memoir in the PAz/. Trans. on 
the winds of North India—which I believe to be part of 


the nine years, the means for five years, 1872-76, give a | 


range of only o'r24 inch from January to June ; but even 


the mean pressure for the place and the annual law of | 


variation is altered by the nine-year series, the maximum 
pressure occurring in December instead of January. It is 
essential in such investigations that some confidence can 
be placed in the observations, and if this can be done 
anywhere it is certainly in observations made at sucha 
station as Madras. I have employed previously means 
deduced from fifteen years’ observations in the Magnetic 
and Meteorological Observatory; but these means differ 
in a manner so extraordinary (for a South Indian station) 


from the means given by Mr. Blanford from nine years’ 
observations, that this demands attention and explana- 
tion. 

We see that the annual oscillation of pressure increases 
with that of temperature, and as shown in the article 
already cited, that this relation holds for two places on 
opposite sides of the Ghats, nearly at the same height 
within sixty miles of each other, for which the annual 
oscillations at one are twice those for the other. 

Let us now see what our knowledge from laboratory 
experiments of the laws of expansion and equilibrium of 
gases would induce us to conclude with reference to the 
stations in question, 

In the first place, let us remember that the yearly mean 
temperature at Pallamcottah is about 7° Fahr. greater 
than at Trevandrum, while the yearly mean pressure is 
the same. We conclude at once from this result that the 
mean pressure does not depend on the mean temperature, 

I stated that the mean temperature in January at Pal- 
lamcottah, on the east side of the Ghats, was 4° Fahr. 
greater than at Trevandrum, sixty miles distant on the 
west side of the mountains, and that the mean pressure 
was 0'065 greater at the former than at the latter. Sir 
John Herschel has shown that according to our know- 
ledge of the expansion of gases, there should be a single 
diurnal atmospheric tide due to one side of the earth 
being warmer than the other, and this due to the expan- 
sion of the gases in the warmer half causing the centre of 
gravity of the air to be higher than in the other, should 
produce a sliding motion of the warmer air towards the 
colder in twelve hours. 

If such a result is what may be supposed to occur in 
the period of a day, there cannot be the smallest doubt 
that ifa mass of the atmosphere has a lower pressure and 
a lower temperature than another mass ata short distance, 
the former should flow towards the latter, and produce 
equilibrium within twenty-four hours. Here, however, 
we find that there is a difference of pressure of 0'065 inch, 
which remains during a whole month at a distance of 
sixty miles, and this continued difference of pressures is 
not to be explained by any known property of gases. 

We see, indeed, the remarkable fact that the oscillation 
of the monthly mean pressure at one station proceeds 
quite independently of that at the other, and both in a 
constant ratio with the variation of the temperature of the 
atmosphere in the lowest stratum.” All this is inexpli- 
cable by any heating action alone. 

I have omitted all notice of the aqueous vapour in the 
atmosphere. It is obvious, however, that this cannot 
explain the annual oscillation of pressure, since it is just 
when the tension of vapour is greatest, that the baro- 
metric height is least. The introduction of more vapour 
into the atmosphere does not make the whole lighter, but 
heavier ; and when we adopt the arithmetical operation 
of Dove and subduct the vapour pressure from the baro- 
metric height, we find the oscillation to be greater, not 


| less, than before. 


It is not easy to determine the variation of vapour 
pressure from the indications of the dry- and wet-bulb 
thermometers, and the exact result of the total vapour 
above the barometer cannot as yet be determined, but its 
amount will not explain the annual law, nor will it explain 
the independent oscillations in question. I have, how- 
ever, long ago suggested that the humidity of the air may 
be in question, and as the oscillations of dryness or 
humidity of the lower mass are probably related to the 
temperature, the oscillations of pressure may also be 
related to them. 

Sedgwick has said, in his inaugural discourse on the 


I Mr. Broun asked me if I knew what years made up the nine, but 1 
know of no one except Mr. Blanford himself who can give a satisfactory 
answer to this question, and he is in India. The *‘ Vade Mecum” being an 
official work, ought certainly to be trustworthy.—E. D. A. ‘ 

2 And probably of the mean temperature of a layer of some consideiable 
height. 


April 14, 1881 | 


NATURE 


559 


studies of his University: ‘‘To explain difficulties in 
these questions, the atmospheric strata have been shuffled 
in accordance with Jaboratory experiments.” \ Thus, for 
example, the mean pressure of the atmosphere remains, 
on the average of the whole year, 0°038 inch lower for 
every 100 miles we proceed north in this country, a differ- 
ence which is called a gradient, as if it were a fall ona 
railway line, though it is really the position of equilibrium 
like that of the watery ocean, which has also a gradient 
of nearly thirty miles from the equator to the poles. 

I have previously remarked that at Bombay the maxi- 
mum pressure precedes nearly by a month the minimum 
temperature, while the minimum pressure is a month 
later than the maximum temperature. This is also true 
for all the stations in North India. At Madras, however, 
and Trevandrum, January becomes the month of maxi- 
mum pressure. I do not, therefore, place much weight 


‘on this fact as showing that the two oscillations are not 


cause and effect. The morth of maximum pressure at 
Pekin agrees most nearly with that of minimum tem- 
perature. ; 

I have stated in the first article on this subject that I 
did not admit that the oscillation of pressure was due to 
that of temperature, and therefore could not allow that a 
higher annual mean temperature [would in any case cause 
a lower annual mean pressure] From the fact that the 
annual variation of pressure and temperature in Central 
Asia is greater than in any other portion of the globe, the 
greatest pressure coinciding nearly with the lowest tem- 
perature, and the least pressure with the highest tempera- 
ture, it was concluded by Mr. Chambers that years of 
greatest mean pressure should also be years of least mean 
temperature. Nowif we assume that the pressure depends 
only on the mass of the air and watery vapour in it, as the 
former is constant, and the latter, the only variable part, is 
greatest when the temperature is highest, it would follow 
that years of greatest heat should be years of greatest 
pressure, which is just the reverse of the conclusion 
deduced by the analogy from the annual variations. 

Indeed, it is one of the great difficulties in the hypo- 
theses which have been proposed, to explain the annual 
variation of pressure of the mixed atmosphere, that when 
we subduct the vapour pressure, as far as our means of 
calculating this exist, we have a much larger dry air 
oscillation than before. 

I gave, however, different reasons for concluding that 
the range of temperature was not itself the cause of the 
diminished pressure, although the two go nearly together. 
One was that the observations of Bombay showed the 
greatest pressure to precede the lowest temperature by a 
month, and this is true for all the stations in the groups 
of North India already given. I also pointed out that 
were the two directly related, the mean pressure at Tre- 
vandrum should be greater than at Pallamcottah by nearly 
one-tenth of an inch, which is not the case, the isobars 
and isotherms having no relation to each other. 

If we suppose that we have the same atmosphere over 
each station as over the whole earth, there is no possi- 
bility of explaining the variation of pressure by that of 
temperature. The only known property of heat which 
affects the mass has no doubt been employed to cause 
the hotter air to flow away somewhere, and surely in that 
case it should flow to the nearest colder station, where 
the pressure is less ; but we have seen that this is not so 
in the case of Trevandrum and Pallamcottah, nor is it so 
in the valleys of the Ganges and Indus, where the oscil- 
lation increases as we ascend from the sea. These oscil- 
lations proceed with the greatest regularity, approximately 
in proportion to the temperature variation from month 
to month, and without the slightest regard to the hypo- 
thesis which should cause equilibrium in twenty-four 
hours, by the sliding of the most expanded masses over 
those least so. In what way, then, can we associate 
the two oscillations if one is not the cause of the other? 


I have long ago suggested that the varying humidity of 
the air may be in question; this is only a suggestion. 
I do not mean the mere tension of vapour—as already 
stated when we try to get rid of that from the total 
atmospheric pressure, the subject becomes more difficult, 
the dry air oscillation being greater not less than that of 
the whole—but if we suppose that the attraction of gravity 
is not the only attraction which affects the pressure of the 
atmosphere, but that this pressure varies through some 
other attracting force such as an electric attraction of the 
sun depending upon the varying humidity of the air, and 
this again depending on its temperature ; we should finda 
method of relating the two variations which does not exist 
if gravitation alone is employed. 

It is quite certain that many physicists will not admit 
the idea of an electric attraction on our atmosphere in the 
present state of our knowledge, hence the efforts to make 
expansion, and a shuffling of the atmospheric strata 
suffice. We must not, however, in our ignorance, 
attempt to force conclusions in opposition to facts, and if 
these can be satished more easily and with greater 
probabilities in its favour by the aid of the hypothesis of 
an electric attraction of the sun, that hypothesis will have 
a better claim to acceptation than the other. 

I shall here note a few facts which cannot be explained 
by thermic actions. 

1. I have shown that on the average of many years’ 
observation in our latitudes the mean pressure diminishes 
at the rate of 0'038 inch of mercury for every one hundred 
geographical miles we proceed towards the north. This 
has been called a gradient from the similar term used in 
railway slopes; but it is no slope, it is a level of a surface 
of equilibrium like that of the sea. It is the mean heights 
of the barometer at the sea-level which indicate the form, 
if we may say so, of the equilibrating atmosphere. 

2. In India we have seen that the atmospheric pressure 
oscillates at each station eveu when these are quite near 
to each other, independently of the known laws of equi- 
librium of pressure of gases. 

When we turn to the semi-diurnal oscillation of the 
barometer we are only amused at the attempts made to 
explain it by shuffling the atmospheric strata. Nothing 
can be more certain than that the theories of expansion, or 
resistance to expansion and overflow, are the vain efforts 
to make the laws of nature agree with a theory. Over the 
great ocean within the tropics, where the diurnal varia- 
tions of temperature are small and the air is absolutely 
without perceptible currents for days together, the baro- 
meter rises and falls a tenth of an inch twice in twenty- 
four hours with the regularity of the solar clock. The 
action of the sun on the whole atmosphere which pro- 
duces this movement varies chiefly during the day hours 
at inland stations with the temperature oscillation, so 
that, as in the case of the annual variation, the fall of the 
barometer at 4 P.M. is greater in the same latitude as the 
temperature is higher. This variation occurs during the 
most complete calms; the smoke rises vertically from the 
plains of Tinnevelly ; no current is visible in the motion 
of the clouds; yet the barometer falls at four in the 
afternoon as it did at four in the morning, only it falls 
farther. 


THE ETNA OBSERVATORY 


| ae accompanying illustration of the Observatory on 

Mount Etnais reproduced from the Memozrs of the 
Italian Spectroscopic Society. It shows that the building 
is so far complete, and surmounted by its revolving dome 
for the protection of the large Merz equatorial of thirty- 
five centimetres aperture. In the engraving the volcanic 
cone appears much nearer the Observatory than it really 
is. The work of building was suspended during the 
stormy weather of 1879, but was completed in the 
summer of last year. But it cannot be said that the 


560 


building is yet quite finished and ready for occupation ; a 
good deal of work has yet to be done to the internal 
walls, the doors and windows, flooring, &c., besides the 
scientific equipment of the building. Therefore the 
announcement by the Alpine Club of Catania that the 


NATURE 


[Aprel 14, 1881 


building would be ready for inauguration at the meeting 
of the Alpine Congress in Catania next September 
was premature. The Observatory will not really be ready 
to be opened till 1882. The difficulties that have had to 
be contended with can only be comprehended by those 


who have visited the place ; all the materials have to be 
conveyed 3000 metres above the level of the sea, and that 


during only three months in the year. So that even if 
not ready till 1882, the work may be said to have been 
rapidly accomplished. The mounting of the equatorial 


is finished and the construction of the meteorological 
apparatus is being proceeded with. The Ministers of 
Agriculture and Public Instruction are doing their best to 
provide the Observatory, by 1882, with a director and 
a staff both of astronomers and meteorologists. 


MODE OF MASKING OR CUTTING OFF 
SHARPLY THE LIGHT FROM REVOLV- 
ING APPARATUS ON ANY DESIRED 
COMPASS-BEARING BY MEANS OF A 
RECIPROCATING SCREEN 


OWING to the optical properties of the lens employed 

in revolving lights, a formidable element of difficulty 
comes in the way of effecting a sharp cut-off on a par- 
ticular bearing ; for the direction of the axis of the beam of 
light which is projected by the lens is being continually 
changed in the horizontal plane by the revolution of the 
frame on which it is fixed. So long as the axis of this 
beam of rays points outside of the line of obscuration 
the light will not of course encroach on the danger arc, 
unless to a small extent, when the axis is nearly on the 
line of cut-off due to the ex-focal rays proceeding from 
the outer edges of the flame. The light however will 
begin to be diminished in power from a bearing varying | 
from 12° to 21° outside of the line of cut-off dependent | 
on the size of the lens, the light on the line of cut-off | 


being diminished to the power of one-half. But when 
the axis crosses that line, then as the rays which come 
from that part of the apparatus which is still outside of 
the darkened panes of the lantern is not intercepted by 
them, the light will begin to be seen within the arc of 
danger, and as the apparatus goes on revolving the axis will 
at last point from about 12° to 21° within the danger-arc, 
according to the breadth of the lens which is employed. 
Owing to this peculiarity of a revolving light the difficulty 
of confining the flashes within any required arc of the 
horizon by means of fixed screens is in fact an insur- 
mountable one. 

The mode which I have to suggest is as follows :—In 
front of the revolving apparatus and on the safety side 
of the danger arc, let a light canvas or metallic screen 
be constructed for running on rollers on a slightly inclined 
rail or circular path close to the apparatus. If now a small 
projecting rod or snug be fixed to the side of each lens 
it will in revolving be brought against the edge of the 
screen, and will gradually press the screen before it up 
the inclined plane at the same rate of motion backwards 


— 


ee 


| April 14, 1881 | 


NATURE 


561 


nn nn ne 


as that of the lens forwards. By the time the lens 
reaches the edge of the danger-arc the screen will have 
been pushed to the top of the inclined plane, and the full 
beam of light coming from the now entirely uncovered 
lens will be pointing in the required line of cut-off which 
is the border of the danger-arc. But whenever the 
further revolution of the apparatus causes the snug to 
pass clear of the edge of the screen so as to free it 
from pressure, it will immediately run back again to its 
original position in front of the lens, so as to prevent any 
light being now sent forwards. If that light were not at 
once intercepted part of it would, by the movement of the 
frame, begin to pass across the line of cut-off, so as to be 
seen within the danger-arc. By this continued recipro- 
cative movement of the screen as lens after lens comes 
round, the same effect will be successively produced, and 
the light will always be cut off in the line of obscuration 
as sharply as in the case of a fixed light, so that the 
flashes will never be seen within the danger-arc. 

In cases where the light has to be cut off on both sides 
of a danger-arc a similar reciprocating screen is as 
applicable to the lenses when passing out as when passing 
into the danger-arc. But in this case the lens, on leaving 
the danger-arc, will take the screen round with it up an 
inclined plane until the axis of the lens is parallel to the 
line of cut-off, when the screen will recoil and the light 


- become visible with full power in the line of cut-off. 


A small spherical mask placed inside of the apparatus 
may be made to produce the same effect by reciprocating 
between the lenses and the flame. When the danger-arc 
is of small amplitude the screens, which must always be 
as broad as the lens, might come in the way of the light 
passing over the safety-arcs. To obviate this, cloth curtains 
might be made to wind up on vertical rollers similar in 
construction to those used for ordinary house- blinds. 

THOMAS STEVENSON 


CHLOROPHYLL* 

GAN account was given in NATURE, vol. xxi., p. 85, 

of Prof, Pringsheim’s first publication on this sub- 
ject. He had then found that exposure to intense light 
for a few minutes causes the chlorophyll-corpuscles con- 
tained in the cells of plants to lose their green colour ; he 
also pointed out that this effect is produced not by heat 
but by light, and only in the presence of oxygen, and 
further, that the highly refrangible rays of the spectrum 
are those which are principally concerned init. He also 
announced the discovery in the chlorophyll-corpuscles of 
a substance termed Hypochlorin. 

The paper now under consideration gives a full account 
of all the observations and experiments which he has 
made up to the present time, and he considers that they 
tend to confirm the conclusions at which he had previously 
arrived. It will be well, before entering upon a discus- 
sion of the very difficult questions which are raised, briefly 
to enumerate the principal new facts which he now brings 
forward. 

In the first place, he is able to throw some light upon 
the intimate structure of chlorophyll-corpuscles by means 
of anew method for investigating them. This method 
consists in treating them with a dilute acid (e.g. 1 vol. of 
glacial acetic acid to 2 of water, or 1 vol. of picric acid 
to 3-6 of water, or 1 vol. of sulphuric acid to 20-40 of 
water, or 1 vol. of strong hydrochloric acid to 4 of water), 
or warming them in water, or exposing them to the action 
of steam. The effect of this treatment is to cause the 
escape of the chlorophyll from the corpuscle, together with 
certain fluid or semi-fluid substances which accompany it, 
in the form of viscid drops, leaving the ground-substance 
of the corpuscle as a colourless, apparently protoplasmic, 
hollow sphere, with a much perforated wall. 


*«*Untersuchungen iiber Lichtwirkung und Chlorophyllfunction in der 
Pflanze,” by Prof. N. Pringsheim (fakrlicher fir Wiss. Bot., Bd. XI11., 
Heft 3: Leipzig, 188r). 


These viscid green drops, when produced by the action 
of warm water or of steam, appear to consist of an oil 
which holds the chlorophyll and other substances in 
solution. When they are produced by means of a dilute 
acid, they appear to contain a substance which is not 
present when they are extracted by warm water or by steam. 
Certain dark brown masses make their appearance which 
are of a tolerably firm consistence and of varying form. 
These gradually become harder, and assume a crystal- 
loidal appearance, probably, as Prof. Pringsheim suggests, 
in consequence of a conversion into resin of the oily 
matter which is present ; but it is by no means the whole 
of the substance which thus solidifies, but only a certain 
constituent of it. The colour of the mass is doubtless due 
to the presence of altered chlorophyll, and this may affect 
even the crystalloids, but they may be obtained colourless, 
It is to the substance which assumes the crystalloidal 
form, or rather to some substance pre-existent in the 
chlorophyll-corpuscle from which these crystalloids are 
derived by the action of the acid, that Prof. Pringsheim 
gives the name of Hypochlorin. 

He meets the doubts that may arise as to the chemical 
individuality of this substance, as also the suggestion that 
it may be a product of the alteration of the chlorophyll, 
by pointing out that it cannot usually be obtained at any 
one time from all the corpuscles of a given cell. It is 
therefore a substance which, as it is present in some and 
not in others, cannot be derived from chlorophyll which 
is present in them all, and which probably bears some 
definite relation to the metabolic processes going on in 
the corpuscles. 

Since no hypochlorin can be obtained from cells 
which have been warmed in water or acted upon by steam, 
it appears that this substance is decomposed by heat. 

After giving a detailed description of the arrangement 
of the apparatus used in his observations, Prof. Prings- 
heim goes on to give an account of the effects produced 
by exposure to intense light in the different parts of which 
the cell consists. He again insists that none of the 
following phenomena can be the results of excessive 
heating of the object, for he found that cells not containing 
chlorophyll (¢.g. colourless zoospores) could bear the ex- 
posure for half-an-hour without injury, and further, that the 
phenomena were produced more readily by blue or green 
light than by red light which has a much greater heating 
effect. The principal phenomena observed are as 
follows :— 

1. The colouring-matter. 

The chlorophyll-corpuscles lose their colour in a few 
minutes, but this does not take place when oxygen is not 
present, nor in red light. There is no trace of chlorophyll 
left in the corpuscles. Prof. Pringsheim is therefore of 
opinion that its decolorisation is a phenomenon of oxida- 
tion, and that the products are gases. Further, this dis- 
appearance of the chlorophyll is not prevented by the 
absence of carbonic acid gas. The corpuscles which have 
lost their green colour do not regain it, although the cell 
in which they are contained, still continues to live; on 
this account Prof. Pringsheim regards the decompo- 
sition of chlorophyll as a pathological and not as a 
normal process. : 

Colouring matters, other than chlorophyll, which occur 
in the cells of plants, are likewise decomposed, but not 
all of them. Thus, the blue pigment of the Phycochro- 
macez, the brown of Fucus, the red of the Floridez, the 
orange of the corolla of Calendula, the blue in the cells 
of the staminal hairs of Tradescantia virginica, dis- 
appear, but the blue pigment in various flowers is not 
decomposed by exposure to intense light. 

2. The ground-substance of the chlorophyll-corpuscles 
and their contents. 

If a cell of Nitella or of Spirogyra be killed by the 
action of heat, for instance, the chlorophyll-corpuscles of 
the one and the spiral band of the other will absorb water 


562 


NATURE 


| April 14, 1881 


and swellup. If the cell has been killed by prolonged 
exposure to light, no such absorption of water will take 
place. 

Prof. Pringsheim mentions starch, oil, and tannin as 
commonly occurring in the chlorophyll-corpuscles! ; these 
substances, which contain a considerable proportion of 
oxygen in their molecule, are not affected by the action of 
light. 

3. Hypochlorin. 

No trace of this substance can be detected in cells 
which have been exposed. 

4. The protoplasm of the cell. 

The turgidity of exposed cells is lost ; the protoplasm 
readily allows colouring matters to pass through it, and 
treatment with plasmolytic reagents produces no contrac- 
tion. Ina long cell, part of which has been exposed to 
the action of light, it is only the portion of the proto- 
plasm which has been exposed that exhibits these altera- 
tions in its properties. Moreover, these changes are 
apparently accompanied by a perceptible loss of sub- 
stance. 

A brief exposure causes an arrest of the rotatory move- 
ments of the protoplasm in cells which exhibit it. If the 
exposure has not been prolonged, these movements will 
recommence after a time. If a portion only of sucha 
cell be exposed for not too long a time, the movements 
will be arrested in the exposed portion, whereas it con- 
tinues in the rest of the cell. 

5. The cell-wall. 

The only effect which the exposure produced on cell- 
walls appears to have been that the cells of the more 
delicate filaments of species of Spirogyra and Mesocarpus 
become isolated. 

The following are the general conclusions which Prof. 
Pringsheim draws from the facts which have been stated 
above. He concludes that the injurious effects produced 
by the exposure of a cell to intense light in an atmosphere 
containing oxygen, are due to an increased oxidation of 
certain substances which are essential to its life. The 
rays which are active in this process are not those which 
reach the interior of the cell after having passed through 
the chlorophyll-corpuscles, but those which reach it 
directly. He finds, it is true, the cells which do not con- 
tain chlorophyll are, on the whole, less sensitive to the 
action of light than those which do contain it, but there 
are no grounds for believing that this greater sensi- 
tiveness is due to the absorption of any light-rays by the 
chlorophyll. On the contrary, the presence of chlorophyll 
in a cell seems rather to diminish than to increase the 
oxidising action of light. Facts are adduced to show 
that chlorophyll exercises a protective influence in this 
respect, and it is further pointed out that the death of the 
cell, when exposed to intense light, takes place defore the 
complete decolorisation of the chlorophyll-corpuscles has 
been effected. The greater sensitiveness to the action of 
light of a cell containing chlorophyll is ascribed to the 
presence in it of the readily-oxidisable products of its 
assimilatory activity, and of these hypochlorin is the most 
important. 

Prof. Pringsheim’s theory of the function of chloro- 
phyll is, then, (1) that the respiration of a cell is increased 
by exposure to light; (2) that, in consequence of the 
absorption which takes place when light passes through 
chlorophyll, the presence of chlorophyll in a cell tends to 
counteract the influence of light, so that, when the light 
is not intense, the respiration of the cell is so far 
diminished that processes of reduction can take place 
within it, but when the light is very intense the chloro- | 
phyllitself undergoes decomposition, and the death of the 
cell is brought about by the excessive oxidation of certain 
of its essential constituents. 


* He quotes the observations of Briosi to prove that oil, and not starch, is 
the substance which is formed in the chlorophyll-corpuscles of the Musacez, 
without being aware, apparently, that Briosi’s results have been shown to be | 
incorrect by Holle and Godlewski (“‘ Flora,” 1877). 


After having stated his own views, Prof. Pringsheim 
proceeds to criticise the current hypotheses concerning 
the function of chlorophyll. The first of these is the one 
according to which chlorophyll is itself converted into 
carbohydrate in the assimilatory process. It is not easy 
to understand, from a chemical point of view, how such a 


| conversion can be effected in the plant, and it becomes 


quite impossible when it is shown, as Prof. Pringsheim 
has done, that chlorophyll does not undergo any per- 
ceptible change when it is exposed to light in an atmo- 
sphere containing carbonic acid but no oxygen. The second 
relates to the absorption-spectrum of chlorophyll. The 
question naturally arises as to whether or not the rays 
which chlorophyll absorbs are those which effect the 
reduction of carbonic acid and water in the chlorophyll- 
corpuscle. That it must be answered in the negative is 
clear when it is borne in mind that the maximum, of the 
decomposition of carbonic acid does not coincide with 
the maximum of absorption in the chlorophyll-spectrum. 
From what source, then, is the energy derived which is 
necessary for this reduction? It is derived, according to 
Prof. Pringsheim, from light-rays absorbed, not by the 
chlorophyll, but by the other cell-contents. He is of 
opinion that the chlorophyll takes no direct part in this 
process. 

The next question which is dealt with is the existence 
of an optimum intensity of light for the decomposition of 
carbonic acid. © Prof. Pringsheim does not consider that 
this is the intensity which effects the greatest evolution of 
oxygen, for, from his point of view, the amount of oxygen 
given off at any time is the resultant of the action of two 
distinct processes, respiration and assimilation, both of 
which are affected by the intensity of the light. He 
concludes that, so far as an actual gain of carbon is 
concerned, there is no general optimum intensity. He 
applies this mode of reasoning also to the question of the 
relative activity of the different rays of the spectrum in 
the process of assimilation. The green and yellow rays 
have been found to be more active than the blue, because, 
as he points out, they are not absorbed to the same 
extent by the chlorophyll, and not because they are 
endowed with any special reducing power. Finally, he 
proceeds to the discussion of the fact that the volume 
of an atmosphere in which green plants are exposed to 
light remains constant. This fact has led to the conclu- 
sion that, since the volume of carbonic acid decomposed 
and of oxygen exhaled is the same, the substance formed 
in the process is a carbohydrate. Prof. Pringsheim’s 
inference from this fact is very different. He argues that 
since oxidation and reduction are going on simultaneously, 
the substance formed contains a smaller quantity of 
oxygen than a carbohydrate,—in fact a quantity which 
is smaller by just that amount of oxygen which has been 
used up in respiration. : f 

Stated in the briefest possible manner, Prof. Pringsheim’s 
principal results are as follows :— ty 

1. That the presence of chlorophyll favours the assimi- 
latory activity of the chlorophyll-corpuscle in consequence 
of the absorption, by the chlorophyll, of light, which 
would promote the respiratory activity. San 

2. That hypochlorin is the substance which is the first 
visible product of this assimilatory activity, and that the 
other substances (starch, glucose, oil, tannin) which 
are found in chlorophyll-corpuscles are derived from 
hypochlorin by oxidation. This conclusion is based upon 
the general occurrence of hypochlorin in chlorophyll- 
corpuscles, upon the fact that the amount of hypochlorin 
in a corpuscle varies inversely as the quantity of starch 
which is present, and upon the observation that hypo- 
chlorin cannot be detected in seedlings until they have 
been exposed to light of such an intensity as to enable 
them to assimilate. : 

It is of interest to note that hypochlorin makes its 
appearance at the later stages of germination in seed- 


nee 


Se 


= oP Pe 


April 14, 1881] 


NATURE 


563 


lings of various species of Pinus which have grown in the 
dark, inasmuch as it has long been known that these 
plants become green in darkness. 

This paper cannot be regarded as other than a most 
important contribution to our knowledge of the physio- 
logy of plants, and it will be readily admitted that Prof. 
Pringsheim’s theory of the function of chlorophyll is at 
least as satisfactory as any which are now current. But 
although the number of facts upon which the theory is 
based is large, yet the evidence in favour of it can hardly 
be considered to be complete at present; there are 
certain points whici require further elucidation. For 
instance, Prof. Pringsheim regards the chlorophyll of a 
corpuscle as undergoing no change under ordinary circum- 
stances, but it is difficult to reconcile this view with the 
fact that an alcoholic solution of chlorophyll loses its 
colour under tbe same circumstances. Then again, as 
to the source of the reducing energy in the process of 
assimilation, if the rays absorbed by the chlorophyll are 
not directly concerned in it, it is most desirable that more 
information should be obtained as to the nature of the 
rays which are active, and as to the particular cell-contents 
which absorb them. Further, the correctness of the 
principle that an increase in the intensity of light to 
which a cell is.exposed produces an increase of its respi- 
ratory activity, needs more direct and general experimental 
confirmation than is given here. In his views as to the 
respiratory function, he appears to insist too strongly that 
the chlorophyll-corpuscles are to be regarded not only as 
assimilatory, but also as respiratory organs. It is not 
easy to see that any of the observations which he gives 
in this paper directly suggest such a view; on the con- 
trary, they tend rather to show that exposure to intense 
light increases oxidation in the w/o/e of the protoplasmic 
cell-contents. Prof. Pringsheim evidently desires to bring 
out that hypochlorin is ¢#e substance which undergoes 
oxidation in the cell, and since it is present exclusively 
or nearly exclusively in the chlorophyll-corpuscles, he 
considers that these bodies are the especial seats of the 
respiratory process. His observations, however, do not 
warrant this conclusion; what they prove is that the 
hypochlorin in the chlorophyll-corpuscles is oxidised when 
they are exposed to intense light in an atmosphere con- 
taining oxygen, and that certain changes (including a loss 
of substance) take place in the rest of the protoplasm, in 
consequence, doubtless, of the excessive oxidation of some 
substance or substances which it contains. His view 
may be fairly met with the @ frior¢ objection that it is 
highly improbable that the same organ should be the seat 
of two such opposite functions as respiration and assimi- 
lation. The true physiological significance of the chloro- 
phyll-corpuscles becomes apparent when it is borne in 
mind that assimilation does not take place in cells which 
do not possess them, whereas respiration proceeds actively, 
perhaps most actively, in such cells. 

And, finally, as to hypochlorin, it is to be hoped that a 
method will be devised for the extraction of this substance 
in such quantities as to allow its properties to be studied 
and its chemical composition to be ascertained. The 
curious fact that hypochlorin cannot be detected in plants 
which are not distinctly green (Diatomacee, Fucacez, 
&c.), is worthy of further investigation. 

These desiderata may perhaps be supplied in the future 
publications on this subject which Prof. Pringsheim 
promises. SYDNEY H. VINES 


NOTES 


WE take the following from the Zimes:—At their meeting 
last week the President and Council of the Royal Society selected, 
from the whole number of fifty-two candidates for the fellowship, 
the following fifteen to be recommended to the Society for election 
at the annual meeting on June 2 next :—W. E. Ayrton, H. W. 
Bates, J. S. Bristowe, W. H. M. Christie, G. Dickie, A. B. 


Kempe, A. Macalister, H. McLeod, J. A. Phillips, W. H. 
Preece, B. Samuelson, M.P., B. B. Stoney, R. H. ‘Traquair, 
Rev. H. W. Watson, C. R. A. Wright. 


A conversazione of the Society of Telegraph Engineers was 
held in honour of Prof. Helmholtz in the rooms of Univer- 
sity College on Monday night. Among those who were present to 
meet the guest of the evening were many eminent English men 
of science. Many of the members of the Society and other 
had lent instruments and apparatus showing some of the pur- 
poses to which electricity has recently been applied, and also the 
means by which electrical research is still being carried on. 
On entering the College grounds the visitors saw a very 
preity effect caused by one of Mr. Crompton’s electric 
lights, which had been placed on the top of the portico. 
The reception-room itself was lit up with little incandescefit 
electric lamps on Mr. Swan’s principle. They were arranged 
in bunches of three or four in ground glass globes suspended 
from the ceiling, and in fact at first sight they looked like 
very brilliant gas-burners, no wires being visible. On each 
side and down the centre of the room were placed tables on 
which were arrayed all the newest inventions in electrical science. 
On one it was demonstrated how perfectly easy it was to manage 
Mr. Swan’s lamps; taking one lamp out of the stand and 
putting in a new one occupying only a few seconds, there being 
no binding-screws or switches to attend to. Perhaps the most 
interesting experiment of the evening was the transmission of 
pictures of natural objects by telegraph, the picture of a butter- 
fly being most beautifully transmitted by means of a selenium 
plate. This was shown by Mr. Shelford Bidwell’s telephoto- 
graphic machine. Mr, Latimer Clark exhibited some rare books 
on electricity and magnetism, autographs and portraits of emi- 
nent electricians ; also a portion of the original telegraph line 
which was laid by the late Sir Francis Ronalds in 1816, with 
the original model of Ronalds’ telegraph, the original type cast 
for the Morse telegraph, with autograph of Prof. Morse, and 
a portion of line laid by W. F. Cooke in 1837. Mr. Cotterell 
of the Royal Institution exhibited a very delicate mercury elec- 
trometer on Lippman’s principle, belonging to Prof, Dewar ; 
and Mr. Robert Sabine performed some pretty experiments 
illustrating the cause of the motion of the mercury. Mr, Stroh 
showed the beautiful apparatus made by him to illustrate Prof. 
Helmholtz’s vowel theory, and Mr. Preece performed several 
experiments in explanation of the remarkable sounds pro- 
duced by intermittent light on solid, liquid, and gaseous 
matter. Mr, George Lund, of the firm of Messrs. Lund 
and Blockley, exhibited some synchronous clocks for the Lon- 
don, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company for coupling 
up two ordinary telegraph lines at 10 a.m., in order to 
send the time current. They also applied to the clock a 
novel automatic arrangement of their own invention, by which, 
at two minutes to 10 a.m, daily, the current will ring a warning 
bell, couple up and block against false currents two ordinary 
telegraph wires, then at Io a.m. the clock sends the time- 
current of two seconds’ duration, giving time to the clocks in 
circuit, Immediately upon the termination of the two seconds’ 
current the lines will be automatically re-established as distinct 
lines for their ordinary telegraph purposes. All present were 
pleased to have the opportunity of inspecting Prof, Kennedy’s 
engineering laboratory, where the machine for testing the strength 
of materials up to fifty tons was seen in operation, and various 
pieces of brass and copper were tested. The machine-tools 
were in operation, and a steam-engine of peculiar construction 
driving them. We look forward with interest to the scientific 
results we may expect to be brought to light with the testing- 
machine. The President (Prof. Carey Foster) showed some 
interesting electrical instruments; Mr. Richard Anderson a 
portable galvanometer for testing lightning-conductors ; Profes- 


564 


NATURE 


| April 14 1881, 


sors Ayrton and Perry a variety of apparatus, as also Siemens 
Brothers, Newall and Co., and others. Prof. Helmholtz ended 
on Tuesday his visit to London, and went with Mr. Spottiswoode, 
president of the Royal Society, to his country house at Coombe 
Bank, Sevenoaks. From thence he proceeds to Dublin ‘to 
receive an honorary doctor’s degree from the University of that 
city. 

THE National Fisheries Exhibitioa will be opened at Norwich 
by the Prince of Wales on the 18th inst. The delay in opening 
it has been caused by the necessity for enlarging the space to 
admit of satisfying the numerous applications that have poured 
in, Every point connected with the growth and nurture of fish, 
the modes of capturing them, the condition of the fishermen will 
be illustrated. The aquaticfauna of Norfolk and Suffolk will be 
a special feature, as also fish-eating birds, The Earl of Ducie, 
Viscount Powerscourt, Lord Lovat, Mr. Spencer Walpole, and 
Prof. Huxley, H.M. Inspectors of Fisheries ; and Mr. Calcraft, 
Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, have been appointed 
by the Home Secretary to act as Her Majesty’s Commissioners. 
In addition to a large number of special money prizes, Go- 
vernment gold, silver, and bronze medals, diplomas of honour, 
will be awarded by the jurors. Prof. Huxley will give an 
address on the occasion. 


Museum No. 1 in the Royal Gardens, Kew, will be reopened 
to the public on Easter Monday, after being closed during the 
winter. It has been enlarged by the addition of a new wing, 
terminating in a wide staircase with ascending and descending 
flights. The expense has been borne by the India Office in con- 
sideration of the maintenance at Kew of the botanico-economical 
collections recently forming part of the India Museum, The 
whole collections have been entirely re-arranged by the curator, 
Mr. John Jackson, A.L.S. On the staircase has been placed a 
large painted window, presented to the museum by Alderman 
W. J. R. Cotton, M.P. This window represents the successive 
stages of cotton cultivation and manufacture. Amongst other 
recent additions to the museum may be mentioned a series of 
models of farm and garden vegetables prepared and presented 
ty Messrs. Sutton of Reading; a collection formed by Col, 
Pearson, who has charge of the Indian forest-students at Nancy, 
of the various objects manufactured in France from native-grown 
woods; a further series of vegetable products and manufactured 
articles, collected in Afghanistan by Surgeon-Major Aitchison. 
The collection of portraits of botanists has also been much enlarged 
and re-arranged. An oil portrait of Thomas Andrew Knight, 
F.R.S., well known for his classical researches in vegetable 
physiology, has been presented on behalf of the family by Sir 
Charles Rouse Boughton, Bart. 

Tue President of the United States of America has notified 
to the French Government his intention of appointing a special 
commission to preside over the arrangement of the American 
Section at the Electrical Exhib'tion, A number of commis- 
sioners have been alreaty selected for the purpose. M. 
Philippart has written to M. Perger, placing at his disposal 
a sum of 4000/. for the best system presented of transporting 
electric force at a distance, 


On Sunday week a deputation composed of eminent repre- 
sentatives of French science waited upon the venerable M. 
Milne-Edwards to present him with a medal in commemoration 
of the completion of the great naturalist’s work on Comparative 
Physiology and Anatomy. Warm congratulatory addresses were 
made by MM. Quatrefages, Blanchard, and Dumas, the last 
speaking of himself as the oldest of M. Milne-Edward’s friends. 
In thanking the deputation the recipient of this well-earned 
honour was naturally much moved, 


ON March 26, in presence of the Minister of the Interior, the 
Commission of the Observatory, several State functionaries and 


men of science, there were repeated at the Brussels Observatory _ 


experiments with Van Rysselberghes’ telemeteorograph, which 
prove that the registration of the meteorological elements by 
this instrument may be made automatically at very great dis- 
tances (several hundred kilometres). The author explained to 
the Minister a plan of International Telemeteorography, the 
realisation of which would be of the greatest utility for the 
scientific study of the atmosphere, and which would render 
possible the prevision of the weather. 

THE destruction caused by the Chios earthquake has been 
even greater than we stated last week. The Constantinople 
Correspondent of the Daily News sends some interesting particu- 
lars : The temperature on the 3rd was heavy and oppressive, 
and the horizon was broken by broad flashes of light that seemed 
to denote a coming storm. In all this atmospheric disturbance 
however the inhabitants saw nothing extraordinary, and were far 
from being alarmed by what they fancied would result in a 
thunderstorm. At ten minutes to two in the afternoon a terrific 
shock was felt, bringing three-fourths of the houses in the town 
to the ground like so many packs of cards, and burying a 
thousand persons under the falling ruins. Then commenced a 
fearful scene of horror. The ground rocked and danced, 
kneading the ruin already formed into an unrecognisable mass 
of stone. The survivors ran hither and thither, not knowing 
where to flee to escape the horrible fate that menaced them, and 
were tossed and flung about by the heaving earth, like feathers 
in a breeze. Even those who gained the open country were by 
no means safe. The earthquake attacked not only the towns and 
villages, but worked its ravages in the hills and mountains of 
the island. Enormous masses of rock and earth came rushing 
down the hill-sides, carrying all before them, bounding far into 
the plains, and tearing roads in the solid rocks of the mountain 
such as might have been formed by a torrent a thousand years 
old. ‘The town presented a pitiable spectacle. Great fissures 
and crevices yawned in the streets, walls were falling with a 
crashing report, and entire buildings crumbled in fragments to 
the ground. In many places whole streets had disappeared, andit 
was hard to say where the different well-known buildings had stood. 
The ground still heaved and tossed, bringing fresh buildings to 
the ground at every moment, and hurrying innumerable victims 
to destruction. It is impossible to say what the number of 
victims would have been if a second shock had not displaced 
the ruins formed by the first and thus permitted thousands of 
sufferers to escape or to be rescued by others from the horrible 
imprisonment to which they had been condemned. All the 
fissures and crevices run from east to west. In the country the 
effects of the horrible upheaval have been even more terrible 
than in the town. Theshocksare now, April 8, diminishing. In 
all there were counted 250 since the first three awful upheavals 
which destroyed the greater part of the island. <A telegram of 
the 12th states that earthquake shocks of considerable violence 
have recommenced in Chios, and it is estimated that barely 
twenty houses now remain habitable in the whole island. Forty- 
five villages have been totally destroyed, and in many localities 
the population has absolutely disappeared. 


Some slight shocks of earthquake were felt on the morning of 
the 5th inst. at San Cristobal, Cuba. A violent shock was felt 
at two o'clock on Sunday morning throughout the centre of 
California, Earthquakes were reported from South Hungary on 
Wednesday last week. 


THE Daily News Naples correspondent, telegraphing on the 
6th, states that Mount Vesuvius was displaying greater activity. 
Abundant streams of lava were descending northwards, and 
great numbers of smoke fissures had orened round the crater, 
some at*1oo metres distance from the centre of eruption. 


ee. aon 


OS a ee ee 


A a ae a 


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ee ee ee ee ee ae 


4 


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| April 14, 1881] 


NATURE 565 


Pror. C. V. RILey has just published, in the Second Report 
of the United States Entomological Commission, ‘* Further 
Facts about the Natural Enemies of Locusts,’’ meaning, of 
course, by the latter term, the Rocky Mountain pest in particular, 
His observations entirely concern insect parasites. The most 
interesting are on the habits of two species of Difzera, allied to 
Bombylius, the larvzee of which feed on the eggs of ‘‘ locusts.” 
The plate (xvi. ) illustrating the subject is above praise, not only 
on account of the scientific accuracy shown in the drawings 
(which are by the author), but also as regards the reproduction 
of them by the ‘‘lithocaustic ” process adopted by a Baltimore 
firm. We have seen other plates of entomological subjects 
emanating from the same firm, and the impression formed on our 
mind is that no other process is equally adapted for the purpose. 
Why cannot some of our own enterprising “lithographers” 
produce the same result ? 


THE following are the lecture arrangements after Easter, at 
the Royal Institution :—Prof. Dewar, M,A., F.R.S., six lectures 
on the Non-Metallic Elements, on Tuesdays, April 26 to May 
31; Prof. Tyndall, D.C.L., F.R.S., six lectures on Paramag- 
netism and Diamagnetism, on Thursdays, April 28 to June 2; 
Prof. H. Morley, three lectures on Scotland’s Part in English 
Literature, on Saturdays, April 30, May 7, 14; one lecture on 
Thomas Carlyle, on Tuesday, June 7; Mr. E. C, Turner, 
Lector at the University of St. Petersburg, five lectures on the 
Great Modern Writers of Russia, on Saturdays, May 21, 28, 
June 4, Thursday, June 9, and Saturday, June 11. The Friday 
evening meetings will be resumed on April 29, at 8 p.m. Prof, 
J. S. Blackie, F.R.S.E., will give a discourse on ‘‘ The Lan- 
guage and Literature of the Scottish Highlands,” at 9 p.m. 
Succeeding discourses will probably be given by the Hon. G. 
C. Brodrick, Mr. Francis Galton, Mr. W. H. Pollock, Prof. 
Hi. E. Roscoe, Prof. W. G. Adams, and Prof. Dewar. 


THE usual course of Mayfair Lectures will commence, under 
the auspices of the National Health Society, on Friday, April 22, 
at 23, Hertford Street, Mayfair. The list of lecturers will this 
year include the names of Dr. Siemens, F.R.S., Dr. Robert 
Farquharson, M.P., and Prof. Fleeming Jenkin. 


WE are glad to find from an announcement in the current 
number of the Quarterly Fournal of Microscopical Science that 
Dr. C. T. Hudson, of Manilla Hall, Bristol, is preparing a 
volume for the Ray Society on the ‘‘ British Rotifers.” Dr. 
Hudson is known not only for his numerous contributions to our 
knowledge of this group, but especially for his discovery and 
excellent illustrations of one of the most important members of 
the group (Pedalion). Dr, Hudson will have the advantage of 
the use of Mr. P. H. Gorse’s beautiful drawings of Rotifers, 
which that observer has placed at his disposal. 


A LARGE party of the Members of the Geologists’ Association 
were on Saturday last conducted through the Geological Depart- 
ment of the British Museum (Natural History), South Ken- 
sington, by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., &c., the Keeper of 
that Department, 


Apropos of the meeting of the French Association at Algiers 
the Revue Scientifique for April 9 devotes most of its space to a 
series of articles on Algeria, its colonisation, statistics, botany, 
anthropology, hygiene, and zoclogy. 


THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Macaque Monkey (Aacacus cynomolous) 
from India, presented by Mr. R. J. Short ; a Common Para- 
doxure (Paradoxurus typus), from India, presented by Mr. C. W. 
C. Fletcher ; a Viverrine Cat (Zé/is viverrina) from India, pre. 
sented by Major C. R. Oxley; two Squirrel-like Phalangers 
(Belideus sciureus) from Australia, presented by Mr. D. W. 


Barker ; three Paradise Whydah Birds (Vidua paradisea), a Pin- 
tailed Whydah Bird (Vidua principalis), a Red-shouldered 
Weaver Bird (Urobrachya axillaris), a Red-beaked Weaver Bird 
(Quelea sanguinirostris), a Wiener’s Finch (Pytelia wieneri), two 
Yellow-rumped Seed-Eaters (Crithagra chrysopyga) from Mozam- 
bique, presented by Mr. Maurice C. Angel, F.Z.S. ; two Laughing 
Kingfishers (Dacelo gigantea) from Australia, presented by Mr. 
Edward Trelawny ; an Alexandrine Parrakeet (Paleornis alex- 
andri) from India, presented by Mr. Henry Day ; a Common 
Gannet (Sz/a dassana), British, presented by Mr. G. Randall; a 
Common Marmoset (Hafale jacchus) from South America, 
deposited ; an Indian Chevrotain (Zyagulus meminna) from 
India, six Weeper Capuchins (Cebus capuctnus) from Brazil, four 
Chestnut-eared Finches (Amadina castanotis) from Australia, 
three Common Crowned Pigeons (Gowra coronata) from New 
Guinea, an American Tantalus (Zaz¢alus loculator) from South 
America, purchased; two Sclater’s Curassows (Crax sclateri 
¢¢) from South America, on approval; an Indian Darter 
(Plotus melanogaster) from India, received in exchange. 


GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 


THE Royal Medals of the Geographical Society have this 
week been awarded as follows :—The Founder’s Medal to Major 
Serpa Pinto, ‘‘for his remarkable journey across Africa, from 
Benguela to Natal, during which he explored nearly 500 miles of 
new country, defined the fluvial systems of the southern slopes 
of the Benguelan Highlands, and fixed the position of numerous 
places by a series of astronomical observations ; also for the 
admirable account of his journey, now in course of publication 
in London, containing numerous original maps, tables of 
observations, and a large amount of valuable and exact informa- 
tion regarding the African interior ;” and the Patron’s Medal to 
Mr. Benjamin Leigh Smith, for his discoveries on the south 
coast of Franz-Josef Land during last summer, as well as for his 
previous expeditions along the north-east land of Spitzbergen. 


AT the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday last 
Mr. R. N, Cust read a paper by Col. Tanner on Kafiristan and 
the Siah-posh Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. The paper, which 
was hardly a geographical one in any sense, dealt chiefly with 
the inhabitants of the Valley of Dara Nur and the Chugan 
tribe, and to a less extent with the Kafirs, who are called ‘‘ Siah- 
posh”? from their wearing black clothes, and furnished some 
very interesting information regarding their manners and customs. 
Some philological notes had also been sent by Col, Tanner, but 
these will be communicated to the Asiatic Society. Some of 
the more striking passages in Col. Tanner’s notes, if we re- 
member rightly, were read at the Swansea meeting of the 
British Association. As much interest attaches to Kafiristan and 
the Kafirs, and the results expected from Col. Tanner’s expedi- 
tion were so eagerly looked forward to, it was rather disap- 
pointing to be told by Col. Yule that we have even now learned 
no more than was buried in the record of a Jesuit Missionary’s 
travels some 200 years ago. No doubt had his health not failed 


| at the critical moment, and compelled him to return to India, 


Col. Tanner would have succeeded in penetrating into 
Kafiristan itself, and collected valuable geographical infor- 
mation. 

THE Society formed at Milan for commercial exploration 
in Africa is showing increased activity, and has despatched 
another expedition to Tripoli, under the command of Capt. 
Camperio, who is accompanied by Signor Cingia, an ex-cavalry 
officer. The principal objects of this expedition are the explora- 
tion of the Gulf of Bomba, and it will particularly examine the 
ports of Tobruek and Derna, not far from the Egyptian frontier. 
Capt. Camperio will afterwards make an attempt to penetrate 
into the interior of the oasis of Jazabud, in order to open com- 
mercial relations with its inhabitants. 


WE are glad to learn that there is good hope that Col. 
Flatters and many of his followers, who were reported to have 
been massacred by the Touaregs, are still alive, though probabl 
retained as prisoners. . : 

Doctors SCHWEINFURTH AND RIEBECK, who have been 
travelling in Egypt, left Cairo last month to explore the island 
of Socotra. They do not seem to be aware that quite recently 


566 


NATORE 


‘| April 14, 1881 


Prof. I. B. Balfour visited the island on behalf of our Zoological 
Society. 

THE April number of Petermann’s Mittheilungen has a long 
article, with map, on Mr. A. Forrest’s expedition through 
North-West Australia in 1879; Herr Clemens Denhardt con- 
tinues his paper on Researches in Equatorial East Africa ; 
Herr F. v. Stein gives details on the new French land fortifica- 
tions, with map, and there are several interesting letters from 
Dr. Junker, on his experiences in the Niam-Niam country. 


No. 2, for 1880, of the Bulletin of the American Geographical 
Society contains an unusually interesting paper by Prof. J. B. 
M ‘Master, of Princeton College, on the bad Lands of Wyoming, 
in which he endeavours to trace out their geological history ; 
Mr. B. R. Curtis describes his journey round the world; and 
there is a historical article on Arctic Exploration by the Rey. 
B. F. De Costa. 


THE Bulletin of the Antwerp Geographical Society (tome y. 
fasc. 6) contains a paper of considerable value by the Abbé van 
den Gheyn, on the present state of research with regard to the 
primitive cradle of the Aryan race. M. A. Baquet contributes a 
paper on the fauna and the chace in the countries of South 
America watered by the Paraguay and the Parana. 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


B. HEINDL has recently made investigations into the com- 
pounds of calcium chloride with ethyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, 
and amyl alcohol, an1 has obtained the following formulze :— 
CaCl,. 3(CaH,O); CaCl,.3(CyH)0); and CaCl,. 3(C;H,.0). 

IN continuation of his investigation of the action of hydro- 
chloric acid on metallic chlorides, already referred to in these 
notes, M. Ditté describes several new compounds of this acid 
with mercuric chloride, viz., 

2HgCl, . 4HCl. 7H,O : 3HgCl, . 4HCl. 7,0: 
2HgCl,. HCl. 6H,0:4HgCl,. 2HCl.9H,O: 
3HgCl . HCl. 5H,0. 


MM. Foveuk anp Livy describe (in Compt. rend.) the 
artificial preparation of the basaltic minerals peridote and 
labradorite, by prolonged heating of a homogeneous mixture 
of the constituents of a basalt rich in olivine. 


and 


Dr. A. R. LEEDs has recently examined the action of nitrogen 
tetroxide—N,O,—on various hydrocarbons (¥ourn. of American 
Chem. Soc.). The resulis are interesting, and promise to be 
even 1aore so. Benzene, when acted on by N,O, yields mono- 
nitro-benzene, picric acid and oxalic acid ; two other compounds 
were also obtained, but under conditions which have not been 
successfully realised a secon] time. One of these the author calls 
monoxy-benzene-- C,]1,O0—an isomer or metamer of quinone ; 
the other has not been purified. Naphthalene yields mononitro- 
naphthalene, a and § dinitro-naphthalene, and two compounds 
which, so far as they have been examined, appear to be naptho- 
diquinone, C,,H,O,4, and tetroxy-naphthalene, C;,)H,O,. The 
products of the action of nitrogen tetroxide on cymene are 
chiefly a nitrocymene (probably also a dinitro derivative) and 
paratoluic acid. 


THE American Chem. Soc. Yournal (vol. i. Nos, 11 and 12) 
contains an interesting historical sketch of the lines of discovery 
of ozone, and of peroxide of hydrogen, by Dr. A. R. Leeds; 
to these papers is added a full litt of references to all publica- 
tions on ozone and hydrogen peroxide; the ozone references 
occupy tbirty-two pages, and the hydrogen peroxide, ten pages. 


AN important paper by M. Etard—important both by reason 
of the results obtained ard because of the nature of the problem 
attacked—on the oxidising action of chromyl dichloride, appears 


in Annales Chim. et Phys. for February. M. Etard has studied 
the mechanism, so to speak, of the chemical changes which 
oceur when chromy] dichloride acts as an oxidiser ; he finds that 
in the case of the hydrocarbons containing methyl groups at- 
tached to an ‘‘aromatic”’ nucleus the methyl groups are trans- 
formed into the aldehydic group (COH), and that when the 
aromatic nuclei are themselves attacked, quinones are produced, 
The chromyl dichloride forms compounds with the aromatic 
hydrocarbons, which may be formulated as X . 2CrO.C1, (where 
X = hydrocarbon): these compounds are then decomposed by 
water, and yield the products already mentioned. 


In the same journal there is a lengthy and interesting paper 
by M. W. Spring on the effects of great pressure on solid 
bodies, It is shown in this paper—which is chiefly physical— 
that the particles of crystalline bodies tend to solder themselves 
closely together at high pressures, the effect of pressure being 
analogous to that of fusion ; and that amorphous bodies may be 
divided into two classes, viz. those which behave similarly with 
crystalline bodies, and those which are not thus affected by high 
pressures. 


THE influence of pressure on chemical changes is also con- 
sidered, and it is shown that as a general rule a chemical change 
which results in the production of a system the volume of which is 
less than the volume of the initial system, may be brought about 
by subjecting the initial system to great pressure, but that if the 
change involves an increase of volume, pressure alone does not 
cause the change to proceed. 


M. BrAME describes (in Comt, vend.) experiments on animals 
with pure hydrocyanic acid, the results of which seem to show 
that the bodies of animals killed by this acid (pure) do not 
undergo decomposition even when kept fora month; that the 
acid remains during that time in the animal tissues, and notably 
in the stomach, and that the acid is readily obtained by distilla- 
tion from the tissues of a herbivorous, but much less readily from 
those of a carnivorous animal. 


IN continuing his researches on chemical affinity Herr Ostwald 
(Fourn. fiir pract. Chem.) has made the remarkable observation 
that while the solvent action of polybasic acids on salts is 
diminished by the presence of the normal salts of the acids 
employed, the solvent action of monobasic acids is considerably 
increased by the presence of the normal salts of these acids. In 
his third paper Herr Ostwald gives a large series of measure- 
ments which show that the solvent action of free nitric or hydro- 
chloric acid on calcium or zinc oxalate is increased by addition of 
potassium, sodium, ammonium, or magnesium nitrate or chloride. 
The solvent action increases proportionally to the increase in the 
quantity of normal salt added. Ostwald confesses that he can 
as yet give no thoroughly satisfactory explanation of this pheno- 
menon ; the explanation which appears at present most probable 
involves the assumption that there is a slight chemical action 
between the normal salt (potassium nitrate, &c.) and the salt 
which is being dissolved by the acid (calcium or zine oxalate): 
this small chemical change alters the ‘‘stability” of the whole 
system, and so increases the amount of the primary change, 7.e. 
solution of calcium oxalate, &c., in a given time. 


FroM thermochemical data J. Thomsen regards the generally 
accepted formula for benzene as incorrect. The number obtained 
by him for the heat of combustion of benzene (805,800 thermal 
units) agrees fairly well with that calculated ($00,400), on the 
assumption that all the carbon atoms in benzene are “‘singly- 
lirked.” The heat of combustion of the metamer of benzene, 
viz. dipropargyl, is, according to Berthelot, 853,600 units ; 
Thomsen’s caculations, assuming the formula 

HC=C—CH,—CH,—C=CH 
to be correct, give the number 888,400. The formula above 
given for dipropargyl is therefore probably correct. 


In the last number of the German Chemical Society’s Berichte 
are published some recent observations on dipropargyl by Henry, 
the discoverer of this curious compound. He describes, but not 
yet in any detail, a solid polymer produced by the action of heat 
on dipropargyl. He also describes the tetrioaide C,H,I,, and 
the octobromide C,H Brg. 


THE arguments in favour of the number 240 being adopted as 
the atomic weight of uranium have been strengthened by the 
preparation by C. Zimmermann (Berliner Berichte) of the normal 
uranate of lithium, Li,UO,, analogous with the normal chro- 
mates, tungstates, and molybdates. 


In the Chem. Soc. Feurn. for March .Dr. Ramsay continues 
his investigations on atomic and molecular volumes ; he adduces 
evidence in support of the number 7 as representing the 
atomic volume of nitrogen; the generally-accepted number is 
2°3. He also shows that the molecular volumes of compounds 
of the benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene series are smaller 
than those calculated from the best established atomic volumes 
of the constituent elements, and his numbers suggest that the 
condensation in these compounds may very probably be propor- 
tional to the number of carbon atoms in each molecule, and also 
to the manner of *‘ linking” of these atoms. 


Ht : 


‘+ 


es 


' 


April 14, 1881 | 


NATURE 


567 


ON A METHOD OF MEASURING CONTACT 
BLECTRICIRY } 


[XN my reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism 

(§ 400, of date January, 1862) I described briefly this 
method, in connection with a new physical principle, for exhibit- 
ing contact electricity by means of copper and zine quadrants 
substituted for the uniform brass quadrants of my quadrant 
electrometer. I had used the same method, but with movable 
disks for the contact electricity, after the method of Volta, and 
my own quadrant electrometer substituted for the gold-leaf 
electroscope by which Volta himself obtained his electric indi- 
cations, in an extensive series of experiments which 1 made in 
the years 1859-61. 

I was on the point of transmitting to the Royal Society a paper 
which IJ had written describing these experiments, and which I still 
have in manuscript, when I found a paper by Hankel in Pog- 
gendorff’s Anzalen for January, 1862, in which results altogether 
in accordance with my own were given, and I withheld my paper 
till I might be able not merely to describe a new method, but if 
possible add something to the valuable information regarding 
properties of matter to be found in Hankel’s paper. I have 


made many experiments from time to time since 1861 by the 


same method ; but have obtained results merely confirmatory of 
what had been published by Pfaff in 1820 or 1821, showing the 
phenomena of contact electricity to be independent of the sur- 
rounding gas, and agreeing in the main with the numerical 
values of the contact differences of different metals which Hankel 
had published ; and I have therefore hitherto published nothing 
except the slight statements regarding contact electricity which 
appear in my ‘‘ Electrostatics and Magnetism.’’ As interest has 
been recently revived in the subject of contact electricity, the 
following description of my method may possibly prove useful 
to experimenters, The same method has been used to very good 
effect, but with a Bohnenberger electroscope instead of my 
quadrant electrometer, in researches on contact electricity by Mr. 
H. Pellat, described in the Journal de Physique for May 1880. 
The apparatus used in these experiments was designed to 
secure the following conditions :—To support two circular disks 
of metal about four inches in diameter in such a way that the 
opposing surfaces should be exactly parallel to each other and 
approximately horizontal, and that the distance between them 
might be varied at pleasure from a shortest distance of about 
one-fiftieth of an inch to about a quarter or half an inch. This 
part of the apparatus I have called a ‘‘ Volta-condenser.” The 
lower plate, which was the insulated one, was fixed on a glass 


stem rising from the centre of a cast-iron sole plate. The upper 
plate was suspended by a chain to the lower end of a brass rod 
sliding through a steadying socket in the upper part of the case. 
A stout brass flange fixed to the lower end of this rod bears 
three screws, one of which, S, is shown in the drawing, by which 
the upper plate can be adjusted to parallelism to the lower plate. 
The other apparatus used consisted of a quadrant electrometer, 
and in my original experiments an ordinary Daniell’s cell, in my 
later ones a gravity Daniell’s cell of the form which I described 
in Proc. R.S. 1871 (pp. 253-259) with a divider by which any 
integral number of per cents. from 0 to 100 of the electromotive 
force of the cell could be established between any two mutually 
injulated homogeneous metals in the apparatus. 
_Connections.—The insulated plate was connected by a brass 
wire passing through the case of the Volta-condenser to the 
electrode of the insulated pair of quadrants. 
was connected to the metal case of the Volta-condenser and to 
the metal case of the electrometer, one pair of quadrants of 
which were also connected to the case. 
the divider, which connected the poles of the cell, was connected 


1 By Prof. Sir William Thomson, M.A., F.R.S. ; being a paper read 
before Section A of the Britich Association at Swansea, 1380, with additions. 


The upper plate | 


One of the terminals of | 


to the case of the electrometer, and to the other terminal was 
attached one of the contact wires, which was a length of insu- 
lated copper wire having soldered to its outer end a short piece 
of platinum. The other contact surface was a similar short 
piece of platinum fixed to the insulated electrode of the electro- 
meter. Hence it will be seen that metallic connection between 
the two plates was effected by putting the divider at zero and 
bringing into contact the two pieces of platinum wire, 

Order of Experiment.—The sliding piece of the divider was 
put to zero, and contact made and broken and the upper plate 
raised : then the deflection of the spot of light was observed. 
These operations were repeated with the sliding piece at different 
numbers on the divider scale until one was found at which the 
make-break and separation caused no perceptible deflection. 
The number thus found on the divider scale was the number of 
per cents. which was equal ‘o the contact electric difference of 
the plates in the Volta-condenser. 

[Addendum, November 23, 1880.—Since the commnnicatic™ 
of this paper to the British Association, I have found that a dry 
platinum disk, kept for some time in dry hydrogen gas, and 
then put into its position in dry atmospheric air in the 
Volta-condenser, bec»mes positive to another platinum disk 


5038 


NATURE 


which had not been so treated, but had simply been left undis- 
turbed in the apparatus. The positive quality thus produced by 
the hydrogen diminishes gradually, and becomes insensible after 
two or three days. ] 

P.S.—On December 24, 1880, one of two platinum plates in 
the Volta-condenser was taken out ; placed in dried oxygen gas 
for forty-five minutes ; taken out, carried by hand, and replaced 
in the Volta-condenser at 12.30 on that day. It was then found 


power remaining the same, the dimensions would have been as 
follows :—Length, 260 feet; breadth, 55 feet ; displacement, 
5200 tons ; power, 5000 horses; and coal-supply, 720 tons. 
This example is a very good illustration of the great benefit 


| which naval architects will derive from the use of steel, a benefit, 


to be negative to the platinum plate, which had been left undis- | 


turbed. The amount of the difference was about *33 of a volt. 
The plates were left undisturbed for seventeen minutes in the 
condenser; and were then tested again, and the difference was 
found to haye fallen to ‘29 of a volt. At noon on the 
25th they were again tested, and the difference found to be 
‘t8. The differences had been tested from time to time since 
that day, the plates having been left in the condenser undisturbed 
in the intervals. 
these results :— 


Electric difference between 
surfaces of a platinum plate in 


Time. natural condition, and a platinum 
plate after 45 minutes’ exposure 
to dry oxygen gas. 
Dec. 24, 12.30 p.m. ... *33 ofa volt, 
24, 12.47 p.m. ‘29 9 
25, noon 18 nD 
27, noon “7/16 mee 
28, 11.20 a.m. ‘O97 ies 
31, noon "OA JEy asp 
Jan. 4, 11.0 a.m. ‘OA2 es 


II, If.40 a.m. 7020) 55 


Mr. Rennie, by whom these experiments were made during 
the recent Christmas holidays, had previously experimented on a 
platinum plate which had been made the positive pole in an 
electrolytic cell with an electromotive force of one volt, tending 
to decompose water acidulated with sulphuric acid ; the other 
pole being a piece of platinum wire. After the plate had been 
one hour under this influence in the electrolytic cell he removed 
it, and dried it by lightly rubbing it with a piece of linen cloth. 
He then placed it in the Volta-condenser, and found it to be 
negative to a platinum plate in ordinary condition ; the difference 
observed was °27 of a volt._ This experiment was made on 
October 21 ; and on November 8 it was found that the difference 
had fallen from ‘27 to ‘07. Mr. Rennie also made similar expe- 
riments with the platinum disk made the negative pole in an 
electrolytic cell, and found that this rendered the platinum 
positive to undisturbed platinum to a degree equal to about ‘04 
of a volt. The effect of soaking the platinum plate in dry 
hydrogen gas, alluded to in my first postscript, which also was 
observed by Mr. Rennie, was found to be about ‘11 of a volt. 
Thus in the case of polarisation by hydrogen, as well as in the 
case of polarisation by oxygen, the effect of exposure to the dry 
gas was considerably greater than the effect of electro-plating the 
platinum with the gas by the electromotive force of one volt. 


THE NAVAL ARCHITECTS 


“THE session of the Institution of Naval Architects just con- 

cluded was remarkable for the number of papers on the 
use of steel both for shipbuilding and marine engineering. This 
was perhaps to be expected in consequence of the commotion 
among steel-users caused by the total failure of the steel plates 
supplied for the boilers of the Russian yacht Zivadza. Accord- 
ingly we find four papers on this subject. The first, by Mr. 
Samuda, deals with the effect which the introduction of steel hulls 
and steel-faced armour has had upon the design of ships of war. 
This paper is based upon the results attained by the author with 
a steel corvette which he has recently constructed for the Argen- 
tine Government. The dimensions of this vessel as actually 
constructed, and the corresponding dimensions which must of 
necessity have been adopted, had the material of construction 
been iron instead of steel, should be carefully noted in order 
to appreciate the true benefits to be derived from the use of the 
latter material. 

The vessel as actually constructed is 240 feet long by 50 feet 
wide ; the displacement is 4200 tons, the power 4500 horses, and 
the coal-supply 650 tons, which is sufficient to allow her to steam 
6000 miles at a speed of 8 knots, or 4300 miles at a speed of 10 
knots. The speed which it is expected will be attained on the 
measured mile is 13$ knots. If the vessel had been built of 
iron and cased with iron armour, the speed and shot-resisting 


The following Table shows the whole series of | 


be it remarked, which comes most opportunely in these days of 
powerful ordnance; for not only has the steel-faced armour 
about 25 per cent. more resisting power than an equal thickness 
of iron, but also the weight saved in the hull and machinery by 
the use of steel enables a greater quantity of armour to be 
carried. 

The second paper on steel was by Mr. W. Parker, Chief 
Engineer Surveyor to Lloyd’s Registry, ‘‘ On the Causes of the 
Failure of the Steel Plates supplied for the Boilers of the Zivadia.” 
Steel, as is well known, had formerly a bad reputation for 
treachery and uncertainty of behaviour. Latterly however a 
more intimate knowledge of the methods of manufacture and a 
better acquaintance with the processes of working had apparently 
quite removed this impediment to its general introduction, The 
failure therefore above referred to came as a surprise to ship- 
builders, and the circumstances demanded and received a most 
searching inquiry at the hands of the engineer officers of Lloyd’s. 
It was found that samples cut from the broken plates fulfilled 
every test demanded by Lloyd’s, the Admiralty, and the Board 
of Trade. ‘The tensile strength proved to vary between the very 
narrow limits of 26"1 and 28°3 tons per square inch. The 
elongation after fracture of samples 8 inches in length ranged 
from 27°3 to 34°3 per cent. Nevertheless in spite of the appa- 
rently excellent quality of the plates, it was found that after they 
had been punched and worked into place they had become so 
brittle as to be unable to stand the hydraulic proofs to which it 
is usual to subject boilers, and in some instances even, the plates 
cracked before the hydraulic test was applied, The further 
investigations of Mr. Parker proved that whenever samples of 
the plates were punched, the material became so brittle as to 
break into pieces under the blow of an ordinary sledge-hammer ; 
the tensile strength dropped to 18*4 tons per square inch, and 
the extensibility disappeared altogether. 

Specimens were next subjected to chemical analysis, with the 
result of proving that, the material was from the chemical point 
of view far from homogeneous. A portion of the plates, about 
8 inches long by 4 inches wide, was carefully freed from rust by 
grinding, and successive layers were planed off from one side to 
the other. Each layer was one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, 
and they were numbered in succession as they were planed off, 
The result of analysis showed that the quantities of carbon, 


| manganese, sulphur, and phosphorus varied in an extraordinary 


dgree. These differences in the chemical composition, how- 


| ever, did not satisfactorily account for the behaviour of the metal, 


It was not till the appearance of the fractures suggested, that 
the material had not been properly worked under the hammer 
and rolls, that a really satisfactory solution of the mystery was 
arrived at. ‘A piece cut from the fractured plate was raised to a 
red heat and rolled to half its original thickness. Strips were 
then cut from this £-inch plate, and punched with holes 3 inch 
diameter, being one half the size of those in the ?-inch plate. 
This extra work on the material seemed to raise its ductility 
appreciably, the strips being found to bend well after punching, 
several of them bending to right angles, and only one of them 
breaking short off, while none of them showed such extraordi- 
nary signs of brittleness as were observable in the material when 
of the original thickness. Three pieces tested for tensile strength 
after rolling broke under a stress of 33 tons, 34°25 tons, and 
32°3 tons per square inch respectively, with an elongation in 
S inches of 12 per cent., 11°25 per cent., and 17°5 per cent. 
respectively, the last-mentioned specimen being annealed.” 

Mr. Parker concludes his paper by expressing the hope that 
the facts which he was able to lay before the meeting will tend 
to allay alarm and to strengthen confidence in the use of mild 
steel for constructive purposes. When it is considered what an 
enormous quantity of this material is now being used in the con- 
struction of marine boilers, as well as for the hulls of vessels, 
this wish will be heartily re-echoed. In the spring of 1878 
there were only two marine boilers of the modern form made of 
mild steel in existence. Within twelve months subsequently to 
that date 120 steamers had been fitted with boilers of this 
material, and during the same period in the following year 280 
vessels more. At the present moment there are no less than 
1100 steel boilers in use in steamships, weighing together over 
17,000 tons. 


[April 14, 1881 


Se a 


eo, 


a 


a ee 


se 


Abril 14, 1881 | 


NATURE 


569 


The third paper on steel was by Mr. J. R. Ravenhill, and 
gave an account of the improvements which have recently been 
made in mild steel castings. Many portions of machinery and 
steam-engines which till quite recently were invariably made of 
cast iron can now be formed of cast steel, with the attendant 
advantages of gain in strength and saving in weight. 

Perhaps the most interesting paper of the four was that by 
M. Berrier Fontaine, the eminent French naval architect, ‘On 
the Use of Mild Steel for the Construction of the Hulls of 
Ships in the French Navy.” The French were undoubtedly 
the first to introduce this material into the national navy ; 
but though their experience of it is longer than our own, 
they do not seem to have acquired the same confidence in its use 
which is now felt in this country. For instance, we are in the 
habit of constructing the entire hulls of ships, including the 
below-water plating, of steel; the French, on the other hand, 
continue to use iron for all work which has to be exposed to the 
action of sea water. The reason advanced is that they find that 
steel when immersed in salt water corrodes with far greater 
rapidity than iron. M. Berrier Fontaine quotes as examples 
two gunboats, the Epée and the Tromblon, the hulls of which, 
completely steel-plated, have both given proof of rapid and 
deep corrosion. ‘‘The Zvomé/on was launched at Toulon on 
January 20, 1875, and remained afloat till October 27 of the 
same year, During that period of nine {months it was found 
necessary to dock her three times, that it is to say, about every 
two months to (paint the hull, the plates being rapidly and 
deeply attacked, especially in the neighbourhood of the water- 
line. The progress of this corrosion went on with such unusual 
rapidity, that when the time came to pass the 7yomd/on into the 
reserve it was thought necessary to haul her on toa slip instead 
of keeping her afloat.” The whole subject of the corrosion of 
steel plates is at present involved in great mystery, and no two 
authorities seem able to agree about the cause. In the English 
Admiralty it is commonly believed that it is due to the presence 
on the surface of the plates of portions of black oxide, which 
constitute with the steel so many active galvanic couples, which 
of course rapidly promote corrosion, and hence great care is 
now taken to remove all traces of this oxide before the plates 
are coated. Whatever may be the cause, it is perfectly certain 
that the experience of English builders does not tally with 
that of M. Berrier Fontaine in this particular. Certain cases 
of corrosion have no doubt occurred in this country, and the 
hull of the Zrzs is an example in point ; but as far as present 
experience goes such cases are the exception instead of the rule. 

M. Berrier Fontaine gives an interesting account of the tools 
and other plant used in the French dockyards for the working of 
steel. He describes also the early difficulties which the work- 
men experienced, all of which have been successfully overcome. 
As regards the process of manufacture adopted in France, it 
appears that equally good results are obtained from the Bessemer 
aud the Siemens methods, so much so that when contracts are 
given out it is never specified that the material is to be prepared 
by either of the two processes. In some works the Siemens 
system is employed for the superior sorts of steel, and the 
Bessemer process reseryed for inferior descriptions, such as rails, 
while in other works exactly the opposite takes place. In this 
country, on the contrary, it is almost universally the rule to 
specify the Siemens process for the production of mild steel 
plates for ship-building and for boiler purposes. 


DUNES AND MOVING SANDS 


[X a communication made to the Russian Society of Natu- 
ralists, M. Sokoloff has given a description of the dunes 
which are seen close by Sestroryetsk, at the eastern end of the 
Gulf of Finland. The whole of the isthmus between the Gulf 
and the basin of Sestroryetsk is covered with dunes which have 
a double origin. ‘Fhose which are close by the sea-shore are 
old shore-ridges, mostly covered with vegetation, parallel to one 
another, and having each the form of a straight line, while those 
which are situated more east are true dunes, built up of sand 
driven by the wind. They have the direction north and south, 
and they reach the height of a hundred feet. Several of them 
are quite covered with pine-forests and with moss, while others 
are almost quite naked. The latter are constantly brought into 
motion by the west wind, and south of the Sestra River a high 
dune will shortly cover the houses of the working men of the 
Sestroryetsk manufactory. This dune, about 700 feet broad, 
has already covered several houses, and it is always advancing 


further, forming smaller parallel dunes fifteen feet high ; its 
western side is covered with numerous excavations, from which — 
the wind has taken the sand to move it further east. M. Soko- 
Joff, while agreeing with the well-known classification of dunes 
established by the explorer of Sahara, M. Vatonne, thinks that 
the dunes of the deserts, which owe their origin to the action of 
wind, might be very easily distinguished from the mostly lower 
ridges which appear on the sea-shores under the influence of 
waves, these last usually having the form of straight lines, whilst 
the true dunes always have a semicircular form. M. Severtzoff 
observed after this communication that in the steppe of Kyzyl- 
koum, true dunes often have the same form of parallel, quite 
straight ridges. However, having at their origin a circular form 
which is so characteristic of the darkhans of the steppe, they 
lose by and by this form, and several smaller dunes, uniting 
together at their ends, take the form of a long straight ridge 
perpendicular to the prevailing direction of wind. M. Moush- 
ketoff, who has made a close acquaintance with the sands of 
Central Asia, observed that these sands, which are all sporadic, 
being spread among older formations, are very different as to 
their extent, their stratigraphical and petrographical characters, 
and their origin. They might be subdivided into three different 
classes :—1. Those which have a marine origin and which might 
be observed on the south-eastern shores of Lake Aral, and 
especially in the Kara-koum steppe. They are about 250 yards 
and 70 feet high, and mostly parallel to the shore. They 
are typical marine dunes, but their extension closely depends 
upon the extension of the Aralo-Caspian formation, the fossils of 
which are always found broken in these sands, 2. The fluvial 
dunes, which are very common in the valleys of the Amou, Syr, 
Sourkhan, and others; their height rarely exceeds Io to- fifteen 
feet, and their length is from 100 to 150 feet ; their sand is steel- 
gray, and contains gypsum and clay. 3. The darkhans are sub- 
aérial formations; they prevail in the central part of the steppe 
Kyzyl-koum, but are rather rare in the Kara-koum steppe. They 
have the form of a sickle, and are somewhat conical, their maxt- 
mum height being as much as 20 to 30 feet ; their slopes are 
very different, that which is under the influence of the wind » 
having an inclination from 5 to 13 degrees, whilst the other 
slope is short and steep, the inclination reaching sometimes as 
much as 43 degrees ; they consist of a dirty-yellow or red sand, 
owing to their origin in the Tertiary sandstone, jor sometimes in 
other harder rocks, as for instance, in the valley of the Ili River. 
Sometimes typical darkhans are met with among dunes, being a 
secondary formation arising out of the marinedunes. As to the 
plantations of trees on dunes, M, Moushketoff thinks that it would” 
be far more rational first to determine whence the sand is brought 
by the wind, and to make the plantations of trees or bushes, 
according to the chemical character of the sand on this place, 
instead of making them on the dunes themselves. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


MANCHESTER.—We learn that the Council of the Owens 
College proposes shortly to establish an independent Chair of 
Applied Mathematics. 


EDINBURGH.—The tercentenary of the University of Edin- 
burgh will be celebrated in 1883. The senatus are to invite 
representatives from other universities to be present; they also 
propose to bring out a history of the University during the first 
300 years. 

Tue winter session of the College of Agriculture, Downton, 
Salisbury, was brought to a close on Wednesday, when the prizes 
were presented by Earl Nelson, who dwelt at considerable length 
on the present state and future prospects of British agriculture, 
taking a very hopeful view of the latter, The High Sheriff of 
Wilts warmly advocated such a combination of science with 
practice as was in vogue at the College. The Scholarship 
offered for competition amongst students who have completed 
their first year at the College was awarded to Mr. Louis John- 
stone, son of Sir Harcourt Johnstone, Bart., Hockurss Hall, 
Scarborough, the Hon. Victor A. N. Hood proxime accessit, 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 


Royal Society, March 31.—‘‘ Permanent Molecular Torsion 
of Conducting Wires produced by the Passage of an Electric 
Current,” by Prof. D. E. Hughes, F.R.S. 


570 


NAT ORE. 


[April 14, 1881 


In a paper on ‘‘Molecular Electro-Magnetic Induction,” 
presented to the Royal Society (March 7, 1881, I gave 
a description of the induction currents produced by the 
torsion of an iron wire, and the method by which they are 
rendered evident. The electro-magnetic induction-balance there 
described is so remarkably sensitive to the slightest internal 
strain in anywise submitted to it, that I at once perceived that 
the instrument could not only determine any mechanical strain 
such as torsion or longitudinal stress, but that it might indicate 
the nature and cause of internal strains. Upon putting the 
question to it, Does the passage of electricity through a wire 
produce a change in its structure? the answer came, It does, and 
that to a very considerable extent; for an iron wire adjusted to 
perfect zero, and which would remain free from any strain for 
days, becomes instantaneously changed by the first passage of a 
current from a single cell of a Daniell’s battery ; the wire has now 
a permanent twist in a direction coinciding with that of the 
current, which can be brought again to zero by mechanically 
untwisting the wire, or undoing that which the passage of elec- 
tricity has caused. Before describing the new phenomenon, I 
will state that the only modification required in the apparatus is 
a switch or key by means of which the telephone upon the wire 
circuit is thrown out of this circuit, and the current from a 
separate battery of two bichromate cells passed through the wire 
alone, at the same time, care being taken that no current passes 
through the coil, but that its circuit should remain open during 
the passage of the electric current through the wire under obser- 
vation ; an extra switch on this circuit provides for this. The 
reason for not allowing two currents to react upon each other, 
is to avoid errors of observation which may be due to this cause 
alone. When, however, we take an observation, the battery is 
upon the coil and the telephone upon the wire alone, An experi- 
ment thus consists of two operations. First all external com- 


munications interrupted, and an electric current passed through | 


the wire; and, second, the electric currrent taken off the wire, 
and all ordinary communications restored. As this is done 
rapidly by means of the switches, very quick observations can 
be made, or if desired the effects of both currents can be observed 
at the same instant. : 

Now if I place upon the stress bridge a soft-iron wire 
4 millim. diameter, 25 centims. long, [ find, if no previous strain 
existed in the wire, a perfect zero, and I can make it so either 


by turning it slightly backwards or forwards, or by heating the | 


wire toa red heat. If I now give a torsion of this wire, I find 
that its maximum value is with 40° torsion, and that this torsion 
represents or produces electric currents whose value in sonometric 
degrees is 50 ; each degree of torsion up to 40 produces a regu- 
lar increase, so that once knowing the value of any wire, we can 
predict from any sonometric readings the value in torsion, or the 
amount of torsion in the opposite direction it would require to 
produce a perfect zero. ‘ 
If now I place this wire at zero, and thus knowing that it is 
entirely free from strain I pass an electric current through it, I 
find that this wire is no longer free from strain, that it now gives 
out induction currents of the value of 40, and although there is no 
longer any battery current passing through this wire that the 
strain is permanent, the outside coil neither increasing nor dimin- 
ishing the internal strain it has received by the passage of an 
electric current through the wire; upon giving a‘torsion to the 
wire in one direction, I find the inductive force increase from 40 
to 90, but in the other direction it is brought to zero, and the 
amount of torsion, some 35°, required to bring the wire again to 
zero represents exactly the twist or strain that had been produced 


instantaneously by the passage of an electric current. If I repeat | 


the experiment, but reverse the battery current sent through the 
wire, I find an opposite twist of exactly the same value as 
previously, and that it now requires an opposite torsion to again 
bring the wire to zero. It is not necessary however to put on 
an equal opposite torsion on wire to bring tbe currents to zero, 
for as I have shown in my late paper, the sonometer not only 
allows us to measure the force and indicate its direction, but 
allows us to oppose an equal electric current of opposite name, 
thus producing an electrical zero in place of the mechanical one 
produced by torsion. 

Evidently here there has been a sudden change in the structure 
of the wire, and it is a twist which we can both measure and 
reproduce. The question at once becomes, Has a molar twist 
been given to the wire such as would be detected by the arm or 
free end of the wire, or a molecular change leaving no trace 
upon its external form of what has passed ? 

It will be found that, notwithstanding that it requires some 40° 


| of torsion to annul the effects of a passage of an electric current, 


no visible movement nor any tendency of the free end to turn 
in the direction of the twist it has received can be observed. I 
believe however to have noticed a slight tremor or movement of 
half a degree, but as I could not always reproduce it, and as it is 
so slight compared with the 4c° of internal twist, I have not 
taken it into account, for if the wire is firmly fastened at both 
ends no molar torsion being possible, except an elastic one, 
which would instantly spring back to zero, the current on passing 
produces its full effects of twist and it is permanent. Thus the 
molecules have in some extraordinary way rearranged themselves 
into a permanent twist, without the slightest external indication 
of so great a change having taken place. An equally remarkable 
change takes place in aid of, or against (according to direction of 
current) an elastic permanent strain. Thus, if I first put the wire 
under 40° right-handed permanent torsion, I find its value to be 
50. Now, passing the positive of battery through its free end, 
and negative to fixed end, the induction currents rise at once in 
value to 90; if, now, the negative is momentarily passed through 
the free end and positive to fixed end the induced currents at 
once fall to 10, and these effects remain, for on taking off the 
elastic torsion the wire no longer comes to zero, but has the full 
twist value produced by the current. 

Tempered steel gave only one or two degrees against fifty for 
soft iron, but supposing this might be due to its molecular 
rigidity, I carefully brought the wire to zero, and then observed 
the first contact only. I found then that the first contact gave a 
value of 40, but the second and following only one or two. By 
bringing the wire back to zero by a momentary touch with a 
magnet a continued force of 40, or if constant reversals were 
used instead of a simple contact, there was constant proof of a 
similar great molecular change by the passage of a current in 
steel as well as iron. 

I can find no trace of the reaction of the wire upon the mag- 
netism of the earth, as in all positions the same degree of force 
was obtained, if great care is taken that the wire is absolutely 
free from longitudinal magnetism; there is however a slight 
reaction upon its own return wire if brought within 1 centim. 
distance of the wire, and this reduces the twist some 10°, The 
maximum effects are obtained when the return wire is not nearer 
than 25 centims. ; thus the action is not one produced by a 
reaction, but by direct action upon its internal structure. 

Copper and silver wires so far show no trace of the action. I 
believe, however, that a similar strain takes place in all conductors, 
and I have obtained indirectly indications of this fact; in order, 
however, to verify this, would require a different method of 
observation from the one I have described, and I haye not yet 
perfected the apparatus required. 

It seemed probable that if I approached a strong permanent 
magnet to the wire, I should perceive a twist similar to that pro- 
duced by the passage of a current; but no such effects were 
observed. But it has a most remarkable effect of instantly 
bringing to zero a strain produced by the current, and, no matter 
which pole, the effect was the same. Thus, a strain of 50°, 
which remains a constant, instantly disappears upon the produc- 
tion of longitudinal magnetism, and I have found this method of 
reducing an iron wire to zero of strain far more effective than 
any other method yet tried, such as vibrations, heat, twisting, &c. 

It will be seen from this that the molecular arrangement set 
up by magnetism is very different from that produced by the 
passage of an electric current. It evidently has a structure of 
its own, else it would not have instantly destroyed the spiral 
strain left by the passage of electricity if it had not taken up a 
new form, as rendered evident in the longitudinal magnetism, 
which we could at once perceive on the wire, This question, 
however, belongs to a separate investigation, and I hope the 
apparatus will aid me later in throwing some new light upon 
this subject. 

Another method of reducing the wire to zero, after the passage 
of a current, is to kecp the wire in a constant state of vibration. 
It requires in time about one minute to bring it to zero, but if, 
on the contrary, I set the wire vibrating during the passage of 
the current, the permanent twist becomes greater and more diffi- 
cult to reduce to zero. 

If a wire which has internal strains is heated to redness, these 
strains almost entirely disappear, and I can thus reduce by heat a 
strain which a current had produced, but heat, whilst allowing of 
greater freedom and motion of its molecules, does not prevent 
an internal strain being set up, for whilst heat can reduce the 
wire to zero, after the passage of the current, the effects are 
increased. If, during the time that the wire is at a red heat, the 


April 14, 1881] 


NATURE 


571 


current is passed in the same time, and at the same instant we 
take off the current and the external heat, the wire when cold 


will be found to have a higher degree of strain than previously 


_ possible with the wire when cold. 


fait Tis eare BS ie 


corre fe) eS eee i 


ae. oe ee 


W'S 


We have seen that both mechanical vibrations and heat can 


reduce the wire to a zero, but its action is very slow, several 


minutes being required ; but the action of electricity in producing 
a permanent twist is exceedingly quick. I have found that a 
single contact, whose duration was not more than ovor of a 
second, was equal to that of a prolonged contact of several 
minutes, and magnetism was equally as quick in reducing this 
strain to zero. And it is the more remarkable when we con- 
sider the very great mechanical force required by torsion of the 


_ wire to untwist the strain produced in an instant of time by 


electricity. 

The results I have given are those obtained upon soft iron 
wires of 3 millim., but I have experimented with different sizes 
up to 3 millims. diameter. The resuits with 1 millim. diameter 


- were quite as evident as the 3 millim., but on the 3 millim. wire 


the strain was reduced to 25° instead of 50°, owing to the extreme 
rapidity and low electrical resistance compared with my small 
battery wires. Ona telegraph line, the wire of which is almost 
entirely of iron, there must be a very great strain set up, which 
however would remain a constant, except where reversed currents 
are used, and in this case a constant movement of the molecules 
of the wire must be the result. 

I believe it to be most important that we should determine, as 
far as we can by experimental research, the nature of all mole- 
cular changes produced by electricity and magnetism, and in this 
belief I am happy in being able to bring this paper before the 
Royal Society. 

Chemical Society, April 7.—Dr. Russell in the chair.—The 
following papers were read :—On the organic matter in sea- 
water, by W. Jago. The author concludes that the organic 
matter of sea-water is much more capable of resisting oxidising 
agents than that present in ordinary fresh water, and that it is 
probably organised and alive.—On the action of compounds 
inimical to bacterial life, by W. M. Hamlet. The cultivating 
fluids used comprised Pasteur’s fluid, beef tea, hay infusion, 
urine, brewer’s wort, and extract of meat ; these were sterilised 
by boiling for ten minutes in Pasteur’s flask, cooled with suitable 
precautions, and then seeded with hay solution, and the sub- 
stance under examination added. Many gases, &c., were tried. 
Chlorine and hydric peroxide were fatal to bacteria, while chloro- 
form, creosote, carbolic acid, salicylic acid, &c., hindered their 
development, but did not destroy them. 


Anthropological Institute, March 22.—F. W. Rudler, 
F.G.S., vice-president, in the chair.—The election of George 
B. Waterhouse was announced.—Mr. R. W. Felkin exhibited a 
series of photographs of scenes and natives of Central Africa, 
taken by Herr Buchta.—Prof. Flower, F.R.S., exhibited a col- 
lection of crania from the Island of Mallicollo in the New 
Hebrides, which had been lately presented to the Museum of 
the Royal College of Surgeons by Mr. Luther Holden, The 
peculiar conformation of the heads of the people of this island 
attracted the attention of Capt. Cook and the naturalist Forster, 
who accompanied the great navigator on his second voyage, and 
who writes that ‘‘the depressed and backward inclining forehead 
causes an appearance in the looks and countenances of the 
natives similar to those of monkeys.” Yet Cook bears testi- 
mony to the activity, intelligence, and honesty of this ‘‘ape-like 
nation,” as he calls them. A few years ago Mr. Busk described 
some skulls collected in the island by the late Commodore 
Goodenough, and found that they all showed signs of having 
undergone alterations in form from pressure applied in infancy. 
The present collection corroborates Mr. Busk’s views; some of 
the skulls being deformed to a remarkable degree, and closely 
resembling the well-known Peruvian crania from the neighbour- 
hood of Lake Titicaca. This is the more remarkable, as on no other 
of the numerous islands of the neighbouring ocean is the prac- 
tice known to exist. Besides the deformed crania the collection 
contained several monumental heads, said to be those of chiefs, 
In these the features are modelled in clay upon the skull, appa- 
rently with the intention of preserving a likeness of the dead 
person ; the face is painted over with red ochre, artificial eyes 
introduced, and the hair elaborately dressed and ornamented 
with feathers. In one case the hair had been entirely removed, 
and a very neatly-made wig substituted. The head thus pre- 
pared is stuck upon a rudely-made figure of split bamboo and 
clay, and set up in the village temple, with the weapons and 


small personal effects of the deceased. This is a custom not 
hitherto known to exist among the Mallicollese, and its motive 
is not completely understood, but it is obviously analogous to 
many others which have prevailed throughout all historical times 
and in many nations, manifesting itself, among other forms, in 
the mummified bodies of the Ancient Egyptians and the marble 
busts over the mouldering bones in Westminster Abbey.—Mr. 
Joseph Lucas read a paper on the ethnological bearings of the 
terms Gipsy, Zingaro, Rom, &c. 


Zoological Society, April 5.—Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. Sclater exhibited five 
bird’s skins obtained by the Rev. G. Brown, C.M.Z.S., on the 
Island of Rotumeh, and presented by him to the Challenger 
Expedition. Mr. Sclater also exhibited specimens of two new 
species of birds from New Britain, belonging to the Museum 
Godeffroi, which he proposed to call Zréchoglossus rufigularis 
and Ortygocichla rubiginosa —Mr. H. E. Dresser exhibited and 
made remarks on a specimen of Saxzcola deserti killed in Scot- 
land, and a specimen of Picus pubescens believed to have been 
killed in Normandy.—Mr. W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S., read some 
notes on the external characters and anatomy of the Californian 
Sea Lion (Ovaria gillespii), and exhibited some coloured draw- 
ings of this animal.—Prof. Flower, F.R.S., read a note upon 
the habits of the Manatee, chiefly in reference to the question as 
to whether this animal had the power of voluntarily leaving the 
water for the purpose of feeding on the herbage of the banks, 
as stated by many authors, and as supported by a communication 
from the late Mr. R. B. Dobree, notwithstanding which Prof. 
Flower considered the evidence upon which the statement was 
based to be very unsatisfactory.—A paper was read upon the 
same animal by Miss Agnes Crane, consisting of observations 
upon the Manatees lately living in the Brighton Aquarium.— 
Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., read an account of the Amphisbeenians 
and Ophidians collected by Prof. Bayley Balfour in the Island 
of Socotra. A new form of snakes allied to Zachymenis was 
named Ditypophis vivax, a new species of Zamenis was named 
Z. Socotre, and 2 new form of Amphisbzenian Pachycalamus 
brevis.—Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., gave an account of six 
species of lizards which had been collected by Prof. Bayley 
Balfour in Socotra; of these the three following appeared to be 
undescribed : —Hemidactylus homeolepis, Pristurus insignis, and 
Evemias Balfouri.—Mr. Charles O. Waterhouse read a paper on 
the coleopterous insects which had been collected by Prof. Bayley 
Balfour in Socotra. The number of species of which examples 
were collected was twenty-four, and showed that the fauna of 
Socotra, judging from this collection, was distinctly African. 
Twelve of the species appeared to be new.—A communication 
was read from Prof. J. O. Westwood containing observations 
on two species of Indian butterfles, Papilio castor and P. 
pollux.—A communication was read from Mr, Edgar A. Smith, 
containing some observations on the shells belonging to the 
genus Gouldia of C, B. Adams.—Mr. Sclater read the fifth of 
his series of notes on the birds of the vicinity of Lima, Peru, 
with remarks on their habits by Prof. Nation, C.M.Z.S. A 
new species of Bwarremon, of which an example was in the 
collection, was proposed to be dedicated to its discoverer as 2. 
Nationi.—Mr. G. E. Dobson read some notes on certain points 
in the muscular anatomy cf the Green Monkey, Cercopithecus 
callithrix. 

EDINBURGH 

Royal Society, March 21.—Sir Wyville Thomson, vice- 
president, in the chair.—Prof. Geikie communicated a paper by 
Mr. C, A. Stevenson, B,Sc., on the earthquake of November 
28, 1880, in Scotland and Ireland. The main conclusions at 
which the author arrived were the following :—The centre of 
the disturbance was at a point some thirteen miles south-west of 
Fladda, in the continuation of the line of the fault that lies along 
the great glen which stretches in a south-westerly direction from 
Inverness, The disturbance was felt over an area of 19,000 
square miles, extending as far east as Blair Athole, as far north 
as the Butt of Lewis, and as far south as Armagh in Ireland. 
The undulation was everywhere of an up-and-down character ; 
its breadth was estimated at r1oo feet, and its velocity seemed 
to vary from 3°75 to 7°75 miles per minute, having a mean value 
of 6°75 over the sea and 4°68 over the land. The accompanying 
rumbling was not heard at all the stations, and appeared to have 
been best heard where but little soil covered the hard dense 
substratum of rock. The disturbance was felt better over the older 
rocks, Noises were not heard outside a radius of 38 miles from 
the centre, except in the north of Ireland, where however it was 


572 


“NAT ORE 


[Apric 14, 1881 


suggested that the noise was due to the indirect action of the earth- 


quake in causing a secondary local disturbance.—Mr. P. Geddes | 


read his first communication on the classification of statistics. 
After pointing out the utter confusion that exists in many of the 
national classifications of the present time, the author criticised 
the arrangements suggested by Deloche and Mouat, which were 
equally unsatisfactory, because of their unscientific and artificial 
methods. 
some broad principle common to all kinds of communities or 
societies. g 
to the word society—a definition given to it that will include 
societies of all kinds of organisms. Such a definition must 
obviously take account of the vital functions of organisms in 
relation to the matter and energy of the universe. We have 
thus matter and energy on the one hand, organisms on the other. 
Mr. Geddes, confining himself meanwhile to the first of these 
two great divisions, proceeded to classify the sources of energy, 
adopting the classification given by Prof. Tait in his Thermo- 
dynamics, and showing how naturally such things as food, fuel, 
machines, &e., fell into their places in such an arrangement. 
He then considered the classification of sources of matter used 
for other than energy-properties, taking for this purpose the 
well-known three-fold division into minerals, vegetables, and 
animals. Thedevelopment of ultimate products through their suc- 
cessive phases of raw material, manufacture, exportation, trade, 
&c., and the classification of all products under the three chief 
headings of potential, me.iate, and ultimate, completed the one 
aspect of the statistical method in so far as it related to the 
matter and energy of the universe. It still remained however to 
take account of the loss, or more »properly the degradation or 
dissipation, suffered, The classification must indicate not only 
the kind of loss, e.g. whether in raw material, in manufacture, 
in trade, in ultimate product, or in remedial effort, but also the 
agency that was the direct cause of the loss, whether physical, 
as earthquake, flood, storm, &c.; or biological, as insects, fungi, 
&c. ; or social, as crime, war, or folly.--Mr. T. Muir communi- 
cated three mathematical notes: on Prof. Cayley’s theorem 
regarding a bordered skew determinant ; on the law of extensible 
minors in determinants ; and on a problem of arrangement.— 
Mr. J. Y. Buchanan read a short paper on the oxidation of 
ferrous salts.—Prof. Tait made a brief communication on some 
space loci. 
PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, April 4.—M. Wurtz in the chair.— 
M. de Quatrefages presented an example of the Edwards Medal. 
—The following papers were read :—On micrometric measure- 
ments during the transit of Venus of § December, 1874, by M. 
Puiseux. These measurements (393 in number and in five 
categories) at St. Paul and Pekin fairly agree, though the condi- 
tions were unfavourable, and give for the parallax 9/05.—On 
the same subject, by M. Mouchez. He considers the method is 
to be strongly recommended for 1882.—Note on the methods of 
Wronski, by M. Villarceau.—On photographic photometry and 
its application to study of the comparative radiating powers of 
the sun and of stars, by M. Janssen, A shutter with triangular 
aperture is made to pass with uniform motion of known rate 
before a sensitised plate ; this gives (with light) a series of shades 
on the plate, decreasing from the base side to the apex side. To 
compare the sensibility of two plates, differently prepared, or 
the photogenic intensity of two sources (using two like plates) 
the points of equal shade on the plates are noted. (The photo- 
graphic intensity does not increase as rapidly as the luminous 
intensity.) For the sun he finds the time of action (with gelatine 
bromide of silver plates) must be reduced to z,4;, sec. to give 
the most rapid variation in the opacity. The sides of the slit 
are curved (for a special reason), A series of circular images of 
stars are obtained by putting the plate a little out of focus. —On 
alcoholate of chloral, by M. Berthelot.—On lightning flashes 
without thunder, by M. d’Abbadie. He observed such quite near, 
ina fog, when in Ethiopia.—On the combinations of phtalic anhy- 
dride with hydrocarbons of the benzene series, by MM. Friedel and 
Crafts.—Note on chalcomenite, a new mineral species (selenite of 
copper), by MM. des Cloizeaux and Damour. This is from near 
Mendoza in the Argentine Republic.—Researches on changes of 
state near the critical point of temperature, by MM. Cailletet 
and Hautefeuille. By colouring carbonic acid the liquid is 
rendered always visible. It is found that Andrews’s undulatory 
Strize dissolve blue oil of galbanum, so that they are produced 
by streaks of liquefied carbonic acid. Neither in disappearance 
of a meniscus through compression, nor in change of state at the 


Any classification, to be natural, must be based upon | 


A fundamental meaning must therefore be attached | 


critical temperature does matter pass by insensible degrees from 
the liquid to the gaseous state.—Magnetic anomaly of meteoric 
iron of Santa Catharina, by Prof. Lawrence Smith. Small — 
fragments are very feebly affected by a magnet till they have — 
been flattened on a steel surface with a steel hammer, or heated 
red hot.—Attenuation of effects of virulent inoculations by use — 


| of small quantities of virus, by M. Chauveau.—M. Jordan was — 


elected Member in Geometry in room of the late M. Chasles.— 
On the winter egg of phylloxera, by M. Lichtenstein.—Re- 
searches on the causes which enable the vine to resist phylloxera 
in sandy soils, by M. Saint-André. Weak capillary capacity of fg 
a soil seems to be the direct or indirect cause of the resistance of 
vines.—On the bismuthine produced by coal-mines on fire, by 
M. Mayengon.—On functions proceeding from Gauss’s equation, 
by M. Halphen.—On a new application and some important 
properties of Fuchsian functions, by M. Poincaré.—On the rela- 
tions between solar spots and magnetic variations, by M. Wolf, 
Tables for 1880 are given. The solar curve is also shown to be 
quickly rising again ; a maximum may be expected in 1882 to 1883. 
The increase of magnetic declination for 1879-80 is 1/18 by 
formula, 0''99 by fobservation.—On the viscosity of gases, by 
Mr. Crookes.—Luminous intensity of radiations emitted by 
incandescent platinum, by M. Violle. From observations 
ranging from 775° to 1775 he constructs a formula,—On the 
change of volume accompanying the galvanic deposit of a metal, 
by M. Bouty. It is always possible in electrolysis of the same 
salt to diminish the intensity of current below a certain limit such 
that the compression produced by the deposit is then changed 
into attraction (the metal dilating instead of contracting in 
solidifying).—On the voltaic conductivity of heated gases, by 
M. Blondlot. He describes an experiment made by way of 
putting the conductivity of gases beyond doubt, and in which all 
parts of the apparatus are constantly open to inspection.—On 
the internal discharges of electric condensers, by M. Villari. 
The laws of the phenomenon are enunciated.—On magical 
mirrors, by M. Laurent. A common silvered mirror of any 
thickness may be rendered magical by means of heat; «42. 
applying the end of a heated brass tube to it. The section of 
the tube is imaged.—On hydrosulphite of soda, by M. Schutzen- 
berger.—On some new processes of desulphuration of alkaline 
solutions, by M. Scheurer-Kestner.—On application of the crys- 
tals of lead chambers, by M. Sulliot. For disinfection of rooms 
he places in them porous vessels containing nitrous sulphuric 
acid, and to attenuate the irritating action of the vapours the 
vessel is placed in another containing ethylic alcoho]. In another 
case odorous gases are drawn through a column of coke moist- 
ened with nitrous sulphuric acid.—On secondary and tertiary 
amylamines from the active amylic alcohol of fermentation, by 
Mr. Plimpton.—Action of perchloride of phosphorus on isobu- 
tylic aldehyde, by M. Giconomidés.—Preparation of isobutylic 
acetal, by the same.—On the products of distillation of colo- 
phony, by M. Renard.—Artificial reproduction of diabases, 
dolerites, and meteorites of ophitic structure, by MM. Fouqué 
and Levy.—On the Devonian formation of Diou (Allier) and 
Gilly (Saone-et-Loire), by M. Jullien, 


CONTENTS Pace 
THe New Museum or Naturar{Hisrory. . .... » « 549 
TExT-Book oF Mecmanics’ 2). 32.9.) 92 92 eee 552 
Consctous Matrer. By Greorce J. Romangs, F.R.S.... . 553 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 


Study of the Physical Nature of the Sun.—Prof. Prazzi SMYTH . 554 
Winter Gnats (Trichocera)—Rev A. E. EATON. . . . . . « 554 
Australian Plants in India.—Dr.G. Bipmze. . . . . . . . . 555 
The Tide Predicter.—Epwarp ROBERTS . ... - - + «- « 555 
“The Oldest Picture in the World.’’—Prof. ALFRED NEWTON, 
Rao ae So eoo e\ fe 8 esl lo fo) ade 
Probably New Variable Star—Joun BrrmiINcHAM. ai ie) Jey tee S55 
Concealed Bridging Convolutions in a Human Brain.—WiLLiam 
CARGER  Sipispasi- sy ojos es naly so) cl oh Von ein ROD nO SED 
Sound of the Aurora.—M. L. RouszE. . .... +--+ =. + 550 
Prriopic OsciLLATIONS OF BAROMETRIC PressuRE. By the late Dr 
J. ALEANJBROUN; FURIS.. 2 = 01) 20% DE is es 
Tue Etna OBsERVATORY (With Illustration). . . . . « »« + = 559 
Move oF MaskINnG OR CUTTING OFF SHARPLY THE LIGHT FROM 
REVOLVING APPARATUS ON ANY DeEsIRED COMPASS-BEARING BY 
MEANS OF A RECIPROCATING SCREEN. By THOMAS STEVENSON . 560 
CHROROPHYLL. By SypNEY H. Vines . vhuctanitcere eres 561 
NOPE 5. fo os, cad) et ve) Neo cease noe: ae ae es 563 
GuoGraPHICAL NorES . ...... . 565 
Curmrcar Norges). -.) << 3 ls jm ie ee oe 
On a MeEtTHop or Measurine Contract Evecrricity. By Prof. Sir 
WiLLiaAM THomson, M.A., F.R.S. (With lilustration). .» . « +» 567 
THE NAV Ar ARCHITECDS --) cole ie Sebne ee a. es) ) coc 
DUNES AND IMGVINGISANDS (au yciee nism ney jens) cl a. fo) cn 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE + ane 569 
Socnennrs/AND/ACADEMIES)) pais nib) cc ck. cs -  e RSG 


NATURE 


THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1881 


STR WILLIAM HERSCHEL} 
IIT. 
N the concluding chapter of his Memoir Prof. Holden 
presents a Review of the scientific labours of William 
Herschel designed to enable the general reader to follow 
the course of his work and discoveries, astronomical and 
physical, referring to the Azalyse de la Vie et des Travaux 
de Sir William Herschel, published by Arago in 1842 for 
a more detailed and precise account suited to the pro- 
fessional astronomer; also to ‘‘A Subject-Index and 
a Synopsis of the Scientific Writings of Sir William 
Herschel,’’ prepared by himself and Dr. Hastings, and 
forming one of the publications of the Smithsonian 


__ Institution. 


a 


Prof. Holden naturally commences his review with 
the improvements in optical instruments and apparatus 
effected by Herschel. Up te his time the principal aids 
to observation were the Newtonian telescopes of Short 
and the small achromatics of Dollond, the six-foot New- 
tonians of the former maker, aperture 9°4 inches, and the 
forty-six-inch achromatics of Dollond, aperture 3°6 inches, 
were much esteemed, and one of each class was in use at 
the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in 1765. Herschel 
gives us some account of the progress of his manufacture 
of telescopes in his description of the forty-feet reflector 
presented to the Royal Society in 1795. When he resided 
at Bath, he tells us, he had long been acquainted with the 
theory of optics and mechanics, and wanted only that 
experience so essential in the practice of these sciences. 
This he gradually acquired by way of amusement in his 
leisure hours (we have seen that he was closely occupied 
in his profession as a teacher of music), and thus he made 
“several two-foot, five-foot, seven-foot, ten-foot, and 
twenty-foot Newtonian telescopes, besides others, of the 
Gregorian form of eight, twelve, and eighteen inches, and 
two, three, five, and ten feet focal length,” in all, as 
already stated, he made not less than 200 seven-feet, 100 
ten-feet, and about 80 twenty-feet mirrors, in addition to 
the Gregorian telescopes. The number of stands he 
invented for these instruments he states it would not be 
easy to assign. Proceeding further, as early as 1781 he 
had designed and commenced the construction of what 
he terms “a 30-feet aérial reflector,” and invented and 
executed a stand for it; he cast the mirror, “ which was 
moulded up so as to come out 36 inches in diameter,” but 
“the composition of the metal being a little too brittle, it 
cracked in the cooling.’’ It was cast a second time, but 
here the furnace gave way and the metal ran into the fire. 
These accidents and the discovery of Uranus, which 
introduced Herschel to the patronage of the king, put a 
temporary stop to the construction of a great telescope. 
In 1783 he finished ‘‘a very good twenty-feet reflector 
with a large aperture,” and after two years observation 
with it, became so convinced of the advantages of such 
apertures, that he recurred to his previous intention of 
increasing them still further. Soon afterwards, by the 
representations of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the 
Royal Society, Herschel, as his sister relates, obtained 

* Continued from p..455. 
VoL, xx111.—No. 599 


573 


“the promise that 2000/7. would be granted for enabling 
him to make himself an instrument.” 

The forty-feet reflector, the chef @’@uvre of Herschel’s 
optical and mechanical efforts, was commenced about the 
latter end of 1785, and, as Prof. Holden remarks, the 
history of the instrument extends from this date until the 
year 1811. The work was carried on assiduously with no 
further interruption than was occasioned by the removal 
from Clay Hall to Slough, where, soon after arrival, 
Herschel began to lay the foundation of the whole struc- 
ture, and the highly-polished speculum was put into the 
tube, and the first view through it was obtained on 
February 19, 1787. But he dates the completion of the 
instrument from a much later period, for the first speculum 
came out thinner than was intended, and from its weak- 
ness did not permit of a good figure being given to it; a 
second mirror, cast in January, 1788, cracked in cooling ; 
but in the next month it was re-cast and proved of the 
proper degree of strength. In October following a pretty 
good figure and polish had been assured, and Herschel 
says he observed the planet Saturn with it ; he continued 
to work upon it till August 27, 1789, when upon trial on 
the fixed stars it gave a pretty sharp image, and on the 
following night he records, ‘‘ Having brought the telescope 
to the parallel of Saturn, I discovered a szath satellite of 
that planet, and also saw the spots upon Saturn, better 
than I had ever seen them before, so that I may date the 
finishing of the forty-feet telescope from that time.” The 
diameter of the polished surface of the great mirror was 
48 inches. In proof of the efficiency of the mechanism 
for giving horizontal and vertical motions to so large an 
instrument he mentions that in the year 1789 he had 
many times taken up Saturn two or three hours before 
meridian passage and kept the planet in view with the 
greatest facility till two or three hours after the passage. 
On the 17th of September a seventh satellite of Saturn, 
the minute object now called J/zmas, was discovered with 
the forty-feet telescope, and though the instrument was 
used for various purposes till 1811, these discoveries of 
satellites constitute its most prominent additions to our 
knowledge. Sir John Herschel has stated that the entire 
cost of construction, including the apparatus for casting; 
grinding, and figuring the mirrors, of which two were 
constructed, amounted to 4000/., which sum was provided 
by King George III. His father observed the great 
nebula of Orion with the forty-feet telescope on January 
19, 1811, and this was one of his latest observations. In 
1839 the wood-work had so far decayed as to be 
dangerous, and Sir John Herschel pulled it down, but 
piers were erected upon which the tube was placed. 
Writing in March, 1847, he remarks that it was so well 
preserved that “although not more than one-twentieth of 
an inch thick, when in the horizontal position it sustained 
within it all my family, and continues to sustain inclosed 
within it, to this day, not only the heavier of the two 
reflectors, but also all the more important portions of the 
machinery.” 

As Prof. Holden remarks, and a similar opinion has 
been expressed previously, it is probable that the general 
public expected more from the forty-feet telescope than it 
actually performed ; but Herschel gave valid reasons why 
he did not make more extended use of the instrument : 
the time required to get it into proper working order and 

cc 


574 


NATURE 


| April 21, 1881 


the number of assistants necessary were impediments in 
the way of its being utilised for regular observation, and 
he assures us he “made it a rule never to employ a larger 
telescope when a smaller will answer the purpose.” It is 
certain that the mirror which was in the tube in October, 
1789, the month following that in which Herschel dates 
the completion of the telescope, was of excellent defini- 
tion, On the 16th of that month he followed the sixth 
and seventh satellites (Zzce/adus and Mzimas) up to the 
limb of the planet, and witnessed their occultation. 
Holden writes: ‘I have never seen so good definition, 
telescopic and atmospheric, as he must have had on these 
occasions.” 

Between the years 1796 and 1799 Herschel made an 
elaborate classification of stars visible to the naked eye 
according to their comparative brightness, which he com- 
municated to the Royal Society in four papers published 
in the Phz/. Trans. It formed the first general catalogue 
of the kind, exhibiting the exact state of the sky in his 
time. A reduction of Herschel’s observations was under- 
taken by Mr. C. S. Peirce, and the results appear in vol. 
ix. of the Axna/s of the Observatory of Harvard College. 
So far as we know, their reduction had not been previously 
attempted. Instances of variability in the light of naked- 
eye stars were detected during the progress of the classi- 
fication, the most notable discovery in this direction being 
perhaps that of the periodical fluctuations of a Herculis, 
in about sixty days. Another star in the same constella- 
tion he considered had totally disappeared in 1791, though 
he had seen it distinctly in 1781 and 1782. 

Herschel was led to his numerous discoveries of double 
stars by his expectation of being able to determine the 
parallaxes of stars from measures made at opposite sea- 


sons of the year of the distances of pairs which appeared | 


near together, and in the search for such pairs, his first 
catalogue of upwards of 200 double stars was formed 
and presented tothe Royal Society in 1782. Long had 
previously measured stars upon a similar plan without 
success, but Herschel pointed out that his stars were not 
well chosen. 

For the successful application of the method it is 
necessary that one of the pair of stars should really be 
situated at a much greater distance from us than the 
other, and as the most reasonable test of distance, 
Herschel assumed their difference of brightness, so that 
he sought for pairs where the components differed widely 
in this respect. The view therefore which he adopted at 
this time with respect to two stars seen in close proximity 
to each other was that one was in nearly the same line 
of sight as the other, but might be far more distant, thus 
constituting together what we now term an ofézcal double 
star. From this beginning he was led to the discovery 
of revolving double stars, stars changing their relative 
position from year to year; and in 1803 he communi- 
eated to the Royal Society his memorable paper: “An 
account of the changes which have happened during the 
last twenty-five years in the relative situation of double 
stars, with an investigation of the cause to which they 
are owing.’’ He was then satisfied that there were inthe 
heavens pairs of stars which were physically connected 
with each other. The research for stellar parallax was 
not successful, but in place of it he discovered the exist- 
ence of binary systems. He could not in his day decide 


whether the motions of suns round suns was obedient to 
the laws of gravitation, but five years after his death the 
French astronomer Savary proved that one of these 
revolving double stars, discovered by Herschel, € in 
Ursa Major, really was subservient to that law, and as 
every student of astronomy will be aware, the number of 
physically connected systems where the elements of the 
orbits have been determined, is now a large one, and is 
gradually increasing. 

Following at present the order in which Prof. Holden 
refers to the scientific labours of Herschel, we now arrive 
at his researches on planets and satellites, respecting 
which the improvements he made in the construction of 
telescopes enabled him to advance knowledge so greatly. 
He was not particularly occupied with the inferior planets, 
but he determined the time of axial rotation of Mars with 
greater precision than before, and also the position of his 
axis. The times of the rotation of the satellites of Jupi- 
ter were found from observations on their changeable 
brightness, and Herschel also remarked the as yet im- 
perfectly explained phenomena attending the transits of 
the satellites across the disk of the planet. Saturn, as 
Holden remarks, was the object of his constant attention : 
in addition to the discovery of the interior satellites 
Enceladus and Mimas, he left upon record an extensive 
series of observations of the seven attendants upon 
Saturn at that time known, and determined the time of 
rotation of the outer satellite Fapetws upon its axis, by 
similar observations to those made upon the satellites of 
Jupiter. He ascertained the time of axial rotation of 
Saturn, and was the first who had succeeded in effecting 
this in a reliable manner. He also remarked the curious 
square-shouldered appearance which the globe of the 
planet has been suspected to present, and of which we 
still occasionally hear, though it was long ago proved by 
Bessel to be an illusion. It is remarkable that notwith- 
standing Herschel’s frequent scrutiny of the planet, with 
all his experience of observation and the advantages of 
optical means surpassing by far those of his contempo- 
raries, he does not appear to have at any time suspected 
the existence of the interior obscure ring. He proved 
beyond doubt that Uvanus was attended by two satellites, 
and believed he had observed four others, and for a long 
time on his authority the planet was credited with six 
attendants. 

In 1795 Herschel communicated to the Royal Society 
a memoir upon the nature and construction of the sun 
and fixed stars. As to the former he adopted a modified 
view of the theory which had been advanced by his friend 
Wilson of Glasgow ; he regarded the sun as consisting of 
three essentially different parts : a solid and non-luminous 
nucleus, cool and perhaps capable of habitation, above it 
the atmosphere proper, and still higher the clouds or 
bodies which cause the sun’s intense brilliancy. In this 
paper occurs a remark which, as Prof. Holden observes, 
has often been brought to bear, in consideration of the 
causes which maintain the solar light and heat. “ Per- 
haps,’’ he says, ‘‘the many telescopic comets may restore 
to the sun what is lost by the emission of light.” We 
know that however credible in his day points in his 
theory have given way under our greatly advanced 
knowledge. 

One of the discoveries, or perhaps we should rather say 


April 21, 1881 | 


NATURE 


S29 


demonstrations, which especially mark his powers of 
research and reasoning, was that of the motion of the sun 
and solar system in space and the direction of this 
translation, which, considered generally, has received 
confirmation from more recent and refined investigation. 
Maskelyne had determined the proper motions of a limited 
number of the brighter stars, and Lambert, Mayer, and 
Bradley had thrown out ideas upon the subject, and, fol- 
lowing up their suggestions, he showed that the sun was 
really in motion towards a point in the constellation 
Hercules, and assigned “the apex of solar motion” with 
what Holden considers an astonishing degree of accuracy: 
His second paper on this subject (1805) his biographer 
views as “the best example that can possibly be given of 
his marvellous skill in reaching the heart of a matter, and 
it may be the one in which his philosophical powers 
appear in their highest exercise.”’ 

To gain a knowledge of the ‘Construction of the 
Heavens,” as Herschel termed it, of the laws of distribu- 
tion of the stars generally, the star-clusters and nebulz 
in space, was confessedly a main object of his astronomi- 
cal labours, and the memoirs bearing upon this subject 
extend over the whole period of his scientific career. 
For this purpose he adopted a system of s/ar-gauging, 
which in practice consisted in pointing his 20-feet reflec- 
tor towards various parts of the sky and counting the 
number of stars in a field of view 15’ in diameter. In 
this way, by methodical observation, the great differences 
in number of the stars in certain portions of the sky over 
those in other directions were reliably defined, and in 
extreme cases the difference was very marked, as in one 
mentioned by Holden, where in R.A. 19h. 41m., N.P.D. 
74° 33’, in the constellation Sagitta, the number of stars 
per field was found to be 588, while in R.A. 16h. 1om., 
N.P.D. 113° 4’ in Scorpio it was only 1:1 —“‘ ez Loch im 
Himmel /” Jn this part of his review the author briefly 
touches upon the views entertained by Herschel at various 
periods between 1784 and 1817; he considers that while 
at the commencement of his researches the whole subject 
was in utter confusion, as they progressed data for the 
solution of some of the most important questions were 
accumulated, and the results of Herschel’s whole Jabours 
form the groundwork upon which future investigators 
must build. “He is the founder of a new branch of 
astronomy.” 

The researches for a scale of celestial measures, on 
light and heat, &c., on the dimensions of the stars, on 
the variable emission of light and heat from the sun, are 
briefly referred to, Herschel’s observations on the spectra 
of the fixed stars have been, we believe, very much over- 
looked. In his memoir in the Phzlosophical Transactions 
for 1814 he mentions that in 1798 he made some experi- 
ments on the light of a few of the stars of the first magni- 
tude, by a prism applied to the eye-glasses of his 
reflectors, adjustable to any angle and direction, with the 
following results:—The light of Szzws consists of red, 
orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and violet ; a Ovionis 
contains the same colours, but the red is more intense 
and the orange and yellow are less copious in proportion 
than they are in Szvzws. Procyon contains all the colours, 
but proportionally more blue and purple than S7vzus. 
Arcturus contains more red and orange, and less yellow 
in proportion than Szrzws. Aldebaran contains much 


orange and very little yellow. a Zyr@ contains much 
yellow, green, blue, and purple.” Holden suggests that if 
we were to attempt to classify these stars by Herschel’s 
observations alone we should put Sirius and Procyon into 
one type of stars, which have all the colours in their 
spectra ; Arcturus and Aldebaran would represent another 
group, with a deficiency of yellow and an excess of orange 
and red in the spectrum; a Orionis would form a type of 
those stars, with an excess of red and a deficiency of 
orange ; and a Zyr@ would represent a sub-group of the 
first class, The correspondence with Secchi’s types and 
representatives is almost complete. 

There remains one other great section of Herschel’s 
researches and discoveries, that relating to the nebulze 
and clusters of stars. When he commenced his observa- 
tions in 1774 very few of these objects were known. 
Messier’s catalogue of sixty-eight such objects did not 
appear till 1784, and they were chiefly objects found in 
his long-continued search for comets. Lacaille contri- 
buted twenty-eight from his observations at the Cape of 
Good Hope. Herschel discovered more than 2500, which 
he distributed in classes as follows :—Class I. ‘ Bright 
nebulz ” (288 in all); II. ‘‘ Faint nebule” (gog) ; ITT. 
“Very faint nebula” (984); IV. “Planetary nebulze’’ 
(79); V. ‘‘Very large nebulae” (52); VI. ‘“‘Very com- 
pressed and rich clusters of stars” (42); VII. “ Pretty 
much compressed clusters’? (67); VIII. ‘‘ Coarsely scat- 
tered clusters’’ (88), In addition he pointed out large 
spaces of the sky covered with very diffused and faint 
nebulosity, which do not appeag to have been re-observed. 
Holden advises that they should be sought for with a 
powerful refractor, which would be less open to illusions 
than Herschel’s reflectors, and that the instrument should 
be used in the way he adopted—in sweeping. 

Throughout Prof. Holden’s interesting memoir there is 
evinced the same enthusiastic admiration of Herschel 
and his scientific labours, and he concludes in the same 
strain. “He was born with the faculties which fitted 
him for the gigantic labours which he undertook, and he 
had the firm basis of energy and principle which kept 
him steadily to his work. As a practical astronomer he 
remains without an equal. In profound philosophy he 
has few superiors.” - 

Lists of Herschel’s scientific memoirs and of works 
bearing upon them, are appended to the volume which 
has formed the subject of our notice, and which, if it has 
a fault, is of only too limited extent to do full justice to a 
long life of discovery and research. We will reiterate 
the hope expressed by Prof. Holden in his preface, as 
we understand it, that some member of Sir William 
Herschel’s family may at no distant period “let the 
world know more of the greatest of practical astro- 
nomers”... “of a great and ardent mind whose 
achievements are and will remain the glory of England ;” 
and in this connection, that whatever may be found 
amongst his manuscripts (and as regards the drawings of 
the nebula, no less an authority than the late Prof. 
D’ Arrest has expressed a strong hope of further publica- 
tion) may at the same time be given to the astronomical 
public.' 

J. R. HIND 


® Prof. Holden’s work is published in London by Messrs. W. H. Allen 
and Co. 


576 


NATURE 


[April 21, 1881 


BRITISH FISHES 


Natural History of British Fishes: their Structure, 
Economic Uses, and Capture by Net and Rod. Culti- 
vation of Fish Ponds, Fish suited for Acclimatisation, 
Artificial Breeding of Salmon. By Frank Buckland, 
Inspector of Fisheries. (London: Society for Pro- 
moting Christian Knowledge.) 


Ps would have been difficult for Mr. Buckland to produce 
a dull book on any question connected with the 
economy of our fisheries ; his merit in this respect has 
tended, however, to lead him too much in an opposite 
direction. It is painful, now that we are deprived of the 
living presence of the genial naturalist and industrious 
fishery inspector, to write an unkind word regarding any 
branch of his life’s work; but of this book we are com- 
pelled to say that we would have appreciated it better had 
it been less ‘“‘familiar’? and more scientific. That it 
should be full of interesting information about fishery 
matters was quite to be expected from the richness of the 
stores which its author always had at his command, 
and if Mr. Buckland had taken pains to digest the 
matter so lavishly extracted from Land and Water, and 
had likewise collated the miscellaneous information con- 
tained in the volume with care, he might then have 
enjoyed the satisfaction of presenting to the public a 
natural history of British fishes which probably would 
have compared satisfactorily with other good books of the 
kind. It is not too much to affirm that a carefully 
edited selection from the numerous essays contributed to 
the various blue-books to which the deceased gentleman 
was so voluminous a contributor, would have made a 
more interesting volume than the present work. The fact 
is, Mr. Buckland was nothing if he was not sketchy and 
rapid ; he would not be tied down to severe statements, 
but preferred to give an off-hand opinion in a dashing 
way, no matter that he might find out within the year 
that what he had advanced was very far wrong. In the 
present volume, as a glance at the plethoric title-page will 
show, Mr. Buckland attempted too much, with the result 
that portions of the information conveyed are scrappy, 
while some of it is probably slightly imaginative ; books 
and articles written in railway trains often enough provide 
hard work for the reader. In a preface to his work Mr. 
Buckland takes pains to point out how greatly we are 
deficient in exact knowledge of the habits of our sea-fish, 
of the times and places of their spawning, of the food they 
eat, and of the period at which they are able to repeat the 
story of their birth. Some of the many questions which 
are asked by Mr. Buckland we are under the impres- 
sion he should himself have been well able to answer. 
Whether cods’ eggs “ sink or swim” has been often dis- 
cussed, and the author ought to have been able to tell us 
the truth in that matter; but, on turning to the account 
given of the cod-fish in the present book (p. 50), it seems 
to be singularly’ deficient in its details of the natural 
history of that animal. So far as we can observe, no 
reference whatever is made to the theory of Sars with 
reference to the floating of the eggs, but a few pages 
relative to the personal adventures of the author are not 
wanting, whilst the old story of ‘‘the Logan fish-pond”’ 
is re-told with great circumstantiality. Twenty-five pages 
of the work are devoted to the salmon (Sado salar), 


and the essay, confused as it is, is well worthy of 
perusal, although it contains, as do other portions of 
the book, a good deal about Mr. Buckland, and recapi- 
tulates, as usual from Land and Water, an account of 
some of the big fish in “my museum.” It would be a 
tedious process to anatomise the contents of this “ Natural 
History of British Fishes’’; taking all that is written at 
its true value, we set down the work as an interesting 
collection of miscellanea. The account given of the 
Loch Leven trout (Salmo Levenenses) is exceedingly 
meagre, as is likewise the descriptions of several 
other fresh-water fishes, notably the vendace of Loch 
Maben. The most suggestive part of the present work 
is that which is devoted to “ Pisciculture’’ (pp. 334 
to 375). Under the title of ‘‘The Cultivation of Fish 
Ponds,” much interesting matter is given, and a good deal 
of information that must be new to the uninitiated is set 
forth. But notwithstanding the many pleas for piscicul- 
ture which have at various times been advanced, it is 
questionable if the cultivation of other fresh-water fish 
than the salmon would fay as a food resource. A larger 
supply of trout would no doubt be welcome to the angler, 
because the trout is ¢/e fish of the angler par excellence ; 
moreover in many places angling has now to be paid for, 
and lairds in Scotland who let their moors and lochs can 
always lease them to greater advantage when they are 
well stocked. : 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Proceedings of the Aberdeenshire Agricultural Associa- 
tion. (Fourth Annual Report, 1879-80.) 


WE have here an account of the field and laboratory 
experiments carried out by Mr. Jamieson for the Aber- 
deenshire Association during the year 1879. The crops 
experimented on were turnips and oats. As before, 
the principal object in view was to ascertain the com- 
parative manuring value of various phosphates in 
different states of aggregation. We can glance at 
only a few points in the results. 

Mr. Jamieson claims to have shown that a finely 
powdered mineral phosphate, as, for instance, powdered 
coprolite, is nearly equal as a manure for turnips to the 
same amount of phosphate applied in a soluble form as a 
superphosphate, while the simply powdered phosphate 
is of course much cheaper than the manufactured manure. 
There is probably no doubt that on some soils a finely 
powdered mineral phosphate is sufficiently soluble to 
produce a considerable effect on the crop, if only the 
phosphate is applied in sufficient quantity, so as to 
present a considerable surface for attack; and to Mr. 
Jamieson belongs the credit of giving prominence to this 
fact, though it was by no means unknown before his. 
experiments. There is however no reason for supposing 
that dissolved and undissolved phosphates have the same 
manurial value. When large doses of each are applied 
the manures may appear of equal value, because while 
the undissolved phosphate is sufficient for the wants of 
the crop, the dissolved phosphate is in excess of all 
requirements, and is therefore wastefully employed. Mr. 
Jamieson applies 100 lbs.1 of phosphoric acid per acre 
both as dissolved and undissolved phosphate; that is to 
say, about 3 ewts. of bone ash and 5 cwts. of bone-ash 
superphosphate. Such a comparison is probably quite 
unfair to the soluble phosphate. For the small turnip 
crops obtained in Mr. Jamieson’s experiments 2} cwts. of 


™ On page 15 of the appendix the amount of phosphoric acid applied per 
acre is stated to be 100 lbs., but on page 16 the quantity is givenias.200 lbs. 


OS 


i 


peer t 


\F 


April 21, 1881 | 


NATURE 


377 


superphosphate drilled with the seed would be found 
quite sufficient, and probably fully equal in effect to twice 
the quantity of phosphoric acid applied as powdered 
coprolite. 

Phosphate of iron applied alone was found to have 
practically no effect on the turnip crop, and the effect of 
phosphate of aluminium was but little; this is pretty 
much as we should expect. There is apparently some 
mistake in the printed analysis of the phosphate of 
aluminium used, as it is made to contain 38°28 per cent. 
of lime, and only 4°76 per cent. of ferric oxide and 
alumina. 

The analyses given of the turnip soils cannot pass 
without a word; the reporter is surely unaware of the 
absurdity which these analyses present. The soil of 
the unmanured plot in the five experimental fields was 
analysed in 1876, and again in 1879, after three turnip 
crops had been taken. The analyses show that on an 
average about 20 per cent. of the nitrogen, and about 
48 per cent. of the phosphoric acid in the soil had been 
removed during these three years, and yet the total 
weight of the three turnip crops grown on the five fields 
during this period averaged but 16 tons per acre! The 
only remark made by the reporter on these figures is that 
the soil has evidently become reduced in nitrogen, and 
much reduced in phosphates: the fact that either the soil 
sampling or the analyses must be utterly wrong seems to 
have altogether escaped his attention. 

The experiments with oats do not call for any special 
remark, except to note the patience which shelled 136,000 
grains by hand in order to determine the proportion of 
kernel to husk in the produce of the various plots. 

May we suggest that ina report of field experiments 
the dates of sowing and of harvest should always be 
given, and also a description of the character of the 
weather during the growing period. Without such 
facts before us it is impossible to interpret the results 
of field experiments. 

Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. Vol. 
xi. (November, 1879, to November, 1880). 


THIS is a smaller volume than usual, there being fewer 
papers, and none of them of a great length. The pure 
mathematics prevails somewhat more than usual over the 
mixed. 

Prof. Cayley contributes articles “On the Binomial 
Equation #4 — 1 =0; Trisection and Quartisection,” a 
theorem in spherical trigonometry, on a formula of eli- 
mination. Sir James Cockle writes “On a Binomial 
Biordinal and the Constants of its Complete Solution.” 
Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher, “On a Method of obtaining the 
g-formula for the Sine-amplitude in Elliptic Functions” ; 
Mr. H. W. Lloyd Tanner, ‘‘ Notes on a General Method 
of Solving Partial Differential Equations of the First 
Order with several Dependent Variables,” and a prelimi- 
nary note on a generalisation of Pfaff’s Theorem; Mr. J. J. 
Walker, ‘‘ Theorems in the Calculus of Operations” ; and 
Mr, T. R. Terry, “ Notes on a Class of Definite Integrals.” 
Papers of a geometrical nature are—Mr. J. Griffiths, on 
a geometrical form of Landen’s theorem with regard to 
a hyperbolic arc, and on a class of closed curves whose 
arcs possess the same property as two Fagnanian arcs of 
anellipse; Mr. H. Hart, on the focal curves of a bicircular 
quartic; Mr. H. M. Taylor, on the equation of two planes 
which can be drawn through two given points to touch a 
quartic ; Rev. J. Wolstenholme, a form of the equation 
determining the form and directions of a conic whose 
equation in Cartesian co-ordinates is given. Dr. Klein of 
Leipsic has a short note on the transformation of ellipti- 
cal functions ; Mr. Greenhill applies elliptic co-ordinates 
and Lagrange’s equations of motion to Euler’s problem 
of two centres of force; and Mr. Routh writes on func- 
tions analogous to Laplace’s functions. Lord Rayleigh’s 
Papers are on reflection of vibrations at the confines of 


two media between which the transition is gradual, and 
on the stability or instability of certain fluid motions. 
Mr. Samuel Roberts has two notes: one on a problem 
of Fibonacci’s, and the other on the integral solution of 
xv? — 2 Py 2° or + 22° in certain cases; Mr. R. F. 
Scott writes on cubic determinants and other determi- 
nants of higher class, and on determinants of alternate 
numbers (a treatment which he has adopted in his work 
on “‘ Determinants’). Mr. Hugh McColl contributes a 
fourth paper on the calculus of equivalent statements 
(cf. Prof. Jevons’s remarks, NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 485). 
Other minor articles conclude the volume. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 


[Lhe Laitor 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. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 
short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 
ts impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 
munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 


The New Museum of Natural History 


THE new Natural History Museum, opened on Easter Mon- 
day, was visited by some 16,000 people of a most orderly and 
respectable class. Owing to the great exertions of Dr. Wood- 
ward, whose zeal is beyond praise, the main gallery, the Pavilion, 
and the Gallery of Reptiles were shown ina practically completed 
state. The Mineral Gallery has long been ready, but the arrange- 
ment of the botanical section is still incomplete, and it was 
entirely closed. Some little trouble was caused with the um- 
brellas, and it might be worth while to consider whether, except 
perhaps in wet weather, the umbrellas need be taken away. The 
idea that people poke with sticks at objects in museums has been 
long exploded, and no inconvenience is felt at the Kensington 
Museum, the Louvre, and nearly all foreign galleries and 
exhibitions, where umbrellas are admitted. 

The architecture in the Mammalia Gallery is very obtrusive, 
and its over-ornate character and the variety of tone of the 
terra-cotta, and the similarity of this in colour to the skulls and 
skeletons of the fossil mammalia, are most unfortunate. 

It seems a pity that some style with more repose than “‘ Deco- 
rated Norman” was not selected. Although very beautiful as 
a building, and with many features deserving high praise from an 
architectural point of view, it is evidently not the style best 
adapted to set off natural-history specimens, The cathedral-like 
Index Museum, with its rather dark side-chapels, and the 
Museum of British Zoology are of proportions that will render it 
difficult to make an effective display in them. 

I hope that it is not finally decided to place the recent 
mammalia on the first floor and the birds on the ground floor, 
because the architect’s string courses would bz interfered with 
Otherwise by the cases. The living and extinct mammalia 
should face each other, and the birds go aloft. Convenience 
has already been too much sacrificed to architecture. Every 
time the first floor is visited the length of the Index Museum, 
150 feet, must be traversed to reach the stairs, and the same 
distance back along the corridor to reach the door of the 
Mineral Gallery. ‘This means an immense waste of time. I 
also notice that the crane is close to the main entrance, and that 
there are no proper lifts. 

If it was necessary to fashion all the ornaments from natural- 
history objects, itis a pity that the restorations were not accu- 
rately made. ‘The oft-repeated figure of a Dapedius swal- 
lowing a fish almost its own size, and of spiral shells bent to 
accommodate them to the mouldings of anarch, is not instructive. 
The humour of ornamenting (?) the arch leading into the pavilion 
with a hideously-represented Archzopteryx in high relief, re- 
peated a dozen times, is not obvious, but some joke must 
doubtless be intended. : 

The cost of the small bronze and glass conservatories in the 
botanical department is out of all proportion to the objects they 
are to contain. Dried stems of tree-ferns and palms, though 
very interesting in their way, do very well in other museums 
without lass cases, and can be replenished for next to nothing. 


F..G.S, 


578 


NATURE 


[April 21, 1881 


The Tide-Predicter 


Mr. EpwArD Ropserts’ letter in Nature for April 14 
contains statements giving an erroneous view of the origin of 
the tide-predicter. Any one who feels sufficient interest in the sub- 
ject to derive full information will find it in my paper on ‘‘ The 
Tide-Gauge, Tidal Harmonic Analyser, and Tide-Predicter,” 
read before the Institution of Civil Engineers on March 1 and in 
the abstract of the discussion which followed it, to be published 
in the Adinutes of the Proceedings of the Institution (vol. Ixv. 
sess. 1880-81, part iii.), and he will see that my letter in NATURE 
of March 31 is correct. WILLIAM THOMSON 

The University, Glasgow, April 16 


Geological Relations of Gold in Nova Scotia 


In the notice of the report of Mr. Murray on the gold of 
Newfoundland (NaTuRE, vol. xxiii. p. 472) I observe a reference 
to my own opinion of the age of the gold of Nova Scotia which 
needs some correction. In the second edition of ‘‘ Acadian 

cology” (1868) the gold-bearing series is included in the Lower 
Silurian, but this referred to the larger sense of that term in 
which it was used to include the Cambrian as well. In the 
third edition (1878, Supplement, pp. 81, 85, 92) I have referred 
this formation, on the evidence of fossils and stratigraphical 
position, to the age of the Lower Cambrian or Longmynd series, 
thus placing it on a lower horizon than the fossiliferous Primor- 
dial of Eastern Newfoundland, which I suppose to be of the 
age of the Acadian or Menevian group, There is therefore 
little difference between Mr. Murray’s estimate of the age of the 
gold-bearing rocks of Newfoundland and my own of that of 
the similar rocks in Nova Scotia, except that I presume he 
would classify the Newfoundland series as Upper Huronian 
rather than Lower Cambrian. With reference to this I have 
been disposed to regard Mr. Murray’s Asfidella slates and the 
associated rocks as equivalents of the Kewenian or ‘‘ Upper 
copper-bearing group ” of the West, and probably Upper Huro- 
nian, in which case they might be a little below my Nova Scotia 
Lower Cambrian ; but the precise age of both series is deter- 
mined merely by the fact that they appear to belong to the 
period between the Huronian proper, or Lower Huronian, and 
the Acadian group, or Menevian (Etage C. of Barrande). 

It is proper to add that in the third edition of * Acadian 
Geology” I have shown that the filling of the Nova Scotia 
gold veins is much more recent than the containing rocks, and 
belongs to the time intervening between the Upper Silurian and 
the Lower Carboniferous, the richer deposits als» appearing to be 
related to the occurrence of intrusive granites of Devonian age. 
There is no reason, therefore, other than the mineral character 
of the containing beds, why such veins might not occur in any 
rocks older than the Devonian, and gold discoveries have been 
reported in localities where the rocks are supposed to be 
Huronian and Silurian; but I have had no opportunity of 
personally verifying these statements. Thus far the important 
gold veins are known only in that great series of slates and 
quartzites of the Atlantic coast which I have referred to the 
Lower Cambrian. : J. W. Dawson 

McGill College, Montreal, April 4 


Symbolical Logic 


PRoF. JEVoNs, in his criticism of my method in NATURE, 
vol. xxiii. p. 485, has stated the main points at issue between us 
so fully and clearly, and on the whole so fairly, that I need only 
say a very few words in reply. 

As to the charge that my method is ante-Boolian or anti- 
Boolian, I do not seek to repel it; on the contrary, I maintain 
that my method is different from Boole’s in principle, and very 
different indeed in its practical working. The really important 
questions to be settled are these : 

I, Are the definitions which I give of my symbols clear and 
unambiguous ? 

2. Are the rules and formule which I derive from these 
definitions correct ? 

3. Are the innovations which I 
utility ? 

Now, I do not think that any one who has read my papers in 
the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society and my 
articles in AZind and in the Philosophical Magazine will refuse to 
answer Yes to questions 1 and 2; and with regard to question 


propose of any practical 


3 I can only say that any one who answers Vo is bound in fair- 
ness to prove the inutility of my innovations by solving one or 
two of my hardest problems without their aid, and in an equally 
clear and concise manner. My proposal of an amicable contest 
in the Educational Times meant nothing more serious than this. 

Some of my critics (not including Prof. Jevons however) seem 
anxious to magnify the points of resemblance between my 
method and its predecessors, especially Boole’s, and to minimise 
the points of difference. It may be as well therefore to state 
briefly what characteristics distinguish my method, so far as I 
know, from all the methods which have preceded it, and what 
advantages, in my opinion, accompany these characteristics. 

In the first place, then, every single letter in my notation, as 
well as every combination of letters, denotes a statement. By 
this simble device I gain the important advantages of generality 
of expression and uniformity of interpretation and treatment. It 
enables me to express many important logical laws in simple 
and symmetrical formulz, as, for instance, 


(A:a)(B:4)(C:d :(4+B4+ Crat+s4+o), 


which otherwise could not be so expressed. To secure these 
advantages I sacrifice absolutely nothing. The relations of 
classes, including the ordinary syllozisms, I express by speaking 
throughout of ove zxdividual, just as mathematicians express the 
properties of curves, surfaces, and volumes, by speaking through- 
out of the varying distances of one representative point. 

My claim to priority on this head has been called in question 
on the ground that Boole too, in his equations about ‘‘ secondary 
propositions,” denotes statements by single letters. The plain 
truth however is that Boole takes some pains to prevent his 
readers from imagining that he does anything of the kind. He 
says distinctly, and in perfect consistency with the whole tenor 
of his book, in which he describes his algebra of logic as a mere 
offshoot and part of the ordinary algebra of quantity, that in his 
equations any single letter, such as x, denotes the Jortion of time 
during which some proposition x is true, the whole universe of 
time to which the discourse refers being the unit (see ‘‘ Laws of 
Thought,” from p, 164 to p. 170). Neither will one find any- 
where in Boole’s work the idea (suggested to me by analytical 
geometry) of investigating the relations of different classes, while 
speaking only of ome individual, and thus dispensing entirely 
with the quantitative words a//, some, and none, which are so 
characteristic of the old logic. 

Another peculiarity of my method is that my symbol of denial 
(an accent) is made repeatedly to apply to expressions of varying 
complexity, as, for instance, (x y)’, (x + 7/2)’. (x: 9’), leading to 
rules and formulze of operations, to which I find no parallel in 
any prior symbolic system with which Iam acquainted. 


Boole uses x as an abbreviation for 1 — x, Let those who 
insist that Boole’s horizontal stroke is exactly equivalent to my 
accent express in his notation the complex equation 


(x = y) = (x: py) + (y: 4), 


and explain its meaning clearly without departing from Boole's 
quantitative interpretation of his symbols. 

Lastly, my symbol ; expresses zplication or inference, and does 
not, therefore, exact!y coincide in meaning with Prof, Peirce’s 
symbol of inclusion —<, as defined by him in his ‘‘ Logie of 
Relatives,” published in 1870, This symbol of inclusion, as I 
understand Prof, Peirce’s definition of it, is simply equivalent to 
the words ‘‘is not greater than,” and is therefore restricted to 
number and quantity. It is true that Prof. Peirce in his recent 
memoir on the ‘‘ Algebra of Logic” extends the meaning of 
this symbol of inclusion, so as to make it also convey the same 
meaning as my symbol of implication ; but as this memoir was 
published subsequently to my second and third papers in the 
Proceedings of the Mathematical Society, to which Prof. Peirce 
explicitly refers in his memoir and accompanying circular note, 
this later definition does not bear upon the point in discussion, 

Prof. Jevons objects to my a: as an abbreviation for 
a =af, because he thinks it obscures the real nature of the 
reasoning operation, But one might with equal justice object 
on the same grounds to a} as an abbreviation for aaa, or to the 
left side of the equation in the binomial theorem as an abbre- 
viation for the right side. Thesymbol a: A is the exact equiva- 
lent of a = a, just asa = B is the exact equivalent of (a: B) 
(8: a), and I do not see that I create any obscurity by adopting 
in any investigation, and at any stage of the investigation, what- 
ever form seems most suitable for the immediate purpose in 
view. But whether I am right or wrong in this opinion can only 


April 21, 1881 | 


NATURE 


579 


ee eee 


be decided by actual examination of my published papers on 

symbolical logic, of which Prof. Jevons has very kindly given 

in NATURE a full and complete list. HuGcu MAcCoLu 
73, Rue Siblequin, Boulogne-sur Mer, April 7 


Agricultural Communism in Greece 


THE article in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 525, on Aryan villages 
and other Asiatic communities reminds me of what I saw in 
1843 in the course of a journey through Greece. On St. 
George’s Day, a high festival with the Greek peasants, when 
crossing the range of Mount Cithzron between Thebes and 
Eleusis, I saw my companion, who was about half a mile ahead, 
surrounded by a number of men, and then pulled from his horse. 
The man we had engaged as interpreter, guide, and protector, the 
“‘dragoman,” bolted as a matter of course, thinking we had 
fallen upon a nest of brigands ; but when I reached the scene of 
action I was surprised to find that the yelling and uproar heard 
in the distance were not murderous nor at all malignant, but 
purely hilarious. I was dragged from my horse also, and sur- 
rounded by about twenty young fellows with shaven heads and 
long scalp locks, half stripped, half drunk, and very dirty, but 
perfectly good-humoured. 

We were presently made to join in a wild dance, a survival of 
the Pyrrhic dance of antiquity, which we improved very success- 
fully ; my companion, C. M, Clayton, from Delaware, doing a 
nigger break down and I the sailor’s hornpipe. 

On the final arrival of our dragoman we learned that the 
twenty young men were brothers, and that the old man with 
long white beard who sat gravely looking on and playing a sort 
of tom-tom to tune the dance was their father. On our expressing 
surprise at so large a family of sons being so nearly of the same age 
he explained that ddeA¢és did not always signify a blood relation, 
and that these were merely agricu/tural brethren. They were 
the united proprietors or renters (I do not remember which) of 
the adjoining farmhouse and the surrounding land, which they 
cultivated under the direction of the old man whom they had 
selected as their father, who was entrusted with the custody and 
division of their capital and profits, who arbitrated in cases of 
quarrels, and was otherwise obeyed in most things. 

Here was a patriarchal form of communism that we after- 
wards met with in several other instances, but in this and the cther 
cases it was limited to young unmarried men. There were no 
women in the dance and none visible on this farm, which was 
some miles distant from the nearest village, Plateea. 

At that time the Klephts, or brigands, were united in similar 
communities, who sternly abjured all communication with the 
fair sex. ; 

When we had finished our dance and paid for sufficient 
wine to go round the family circle we found that before going 
we must kiss all the brothers or give mortal and dangerous 
offence. Andrew, our dragoman, with the inventive facility of 
his nation, extricated us from this by solemnly stating that in 
England it was an established custom to show respect for a 
family by embracing the father only, and bowing separately to 
each of the sons. 

I am unable to supply any further particulars concerning the 
internal economy of these communities, cannot say whether 
they prevail chiefly among the Greeks or the Albanians (the 
latter constitute a large proportion of the agricultural population of 
Greece), nor how they dissolve when the brothers become married 
or the father dies. I have met with no account of them in the 
course of my reading, but am not at all surprised at this, seeing 
how profound is our general ignorance of everything pertaining 
to Greece, an ignorance which is most glaringly displayed by 
political writers and others, who speak of Athens as though it 
were Greece, and of Athenian proceedings as though they were 
the action of the Greeks. 

But for the accident of this rather startling festive encounter 
with these brethren on this particular holiday, we might have 
travelled for weeks without meeting any visible indications of 
such fraternities. We should have passed the brothers if they 
were working in the fields, and the patriarch had he been sitting 
alone at the farmhouse door, without special notice. It was only 
after our curiosity had been excited that we discovered otber 
patriarchs and other brethren by special inquiry where their 
existence was vaguely indicated. 

Among the readers of NATURE there may be some who have 
sufficient acquaintance with the Greek people, outside of Athens, 
to be able to supply interesting particulars concerning these 


curious communities. They may be survivals of our ancient 
communism, or a modern device for mutual protection forced 
upon the rural population by the absence of any enforcement of 
law and social order by those who consume the taxes in Athens, 
W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS 


Heat of Stellar Masses 

I SEND you a working hypothesis which’ I think will well pay 
for its place in the world. It is as to the heat of large stellar 
masses ; that the imperfect conduction of the kinetic force pro- 
ducing gravitation through large stellar masses causes heat in 
them. 

The quantity of heat stored ‘up may ‘depend partly on the 
proportion of mass to radiating power, and partly, perhaps, on 
the condition of the mass for such conduction, 

Washington, D. C., March 25 SAML, J. WALLACE 


Shadows Cast by Venus 


ON March 21 last, about 8 p.m., I was walking among some 
trees by a river’s bank. The ground was covered with recently- 
fallen snow, and the shadows of the trees were unmistakably, 
though faintly, traceable on the white surface, The night was 
dark and the shadows were thrown by Venus, which was shining 
with unusual brilliancy. I believe this obvious form of the 
phenomenon is not a common one in our latitude. 

Cuas. T. WHITMELL 

31, Havelock Street, Sheffield, April 18 


The Sparrow and Division of Labour 


THE following curious fact may possibly interest your 
ornithological readers :—Last year and the year previous two 
pairs of swallows made their nests and successfully reared their 
broods under the eaves of my house. Within the past fortnight 
a brace of astute London sparrows have apparently recognised 
the principle of division of labour as applicable to their require- 
ments in the art of nest-building. They have selected the largest 
and most substantial of the swallows’ nests referred to; and, 
after devoting a day or two, on starting on their enterprise, to the 
enlargement of the entrance hole, which was probably too narrow 
for them, have constructed their bed within of bits of grass and 
feathers in the usual fashion. They are now enjoying their 
honeymoon in their new quarters. G. C. WALLICH 

3, Christchurch Road, Roupell Park, April 11 


SIR PHILIP DE MALPAS GREY EGERTON 
MP., F.RS. 


iy Sir Philip Egerton geologists have lost one of that 

band of workers who placed their science upon the 
footing which it now occupies in this country. Unfor- 
tunately that band has been of late years greatly diminished 
by death. Born in 1807, Sir Philip Egerton with his old 
friend and fellow-worker, Lord Cole (now the Earl of 
Enniskillen), while still at Oxford commenced the collec- 
tion of fossils, and very soon their attention was especially 
directed to fossil fish, of which but very little was at that 
time known. As specimens of this group of organisms 
often occur in duplicate, the individuals breaking across 
so that two opposite slabs each contain one-half, the two 
friends agreed to share their spoils, and thus both collec- 
tions were enriched. When in 1840 Agassiz visited this 
country, intent upon his great ichthyological memoirs, 
he found in the museums of Sir Philip Egerton and Lord 
Cole an abundance of materials ready to his hand. The 
specimens were carefully figured, and descriptions of them 
included in the several great works which Agassiz succes- 
sively issued. The original drawings by Dinkel are now 
among the archives of the Geological Society. But Sir 
Philip Egerton was by no means merely a collector of 
fossils, he was a very diligent and successful student 
of ichthyology. Many valuable papers on fossil fishes 
were written by him at different times, and a series 


580 


NATURE 


of papers published in the decades of the Geological 
Survey of the United Kingdom are among the most 
valuable of the works issued by that body. An ex- 
cellent man of business, Sir Philip took an active part 
in the administration of the British Museum, the London 
University, the Geological Society, and other institutions 
for the promotion of science. All who knew him will miss 
the kindly face and cheerful manners which distinguished 
him. Only two days before his death he was in his place 
in Parliament, but a chill caught during the lately preva- 
lent east winds proved rapidly fatal. At the last meeting 
of the Geological Society the vice-president, Mr. J. 
Whitaker Hulke, F.R.S., made announcement of his 
death, and the suiden and unexpected tidings concerning 
one who was so widely known and so universally 
respected cast a sad gloom over the proceedings of the 
evening. 

A correspondent sends us the following additional note 
on the late Sir Philip Egerton ;— 

The knowledge of the extinct species of fishes is one of 
the latest additions to paleontology, and the creator of 
this department of the science, Louis Agassiz, found the 
richest materials for his great work in the British Isles. 
In their acquisition he was greatly aided by Lord Cole, 
now Earl of Enniskillen, and by Sir Philip de Malpas 
Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P. Their gatherings resulted in 
most complete collections of fossil fishes, and science is 
much indebted to the catalogues drawn up and published 
by Sir P. Egerton of that preserved at Oulton Park. 
Besides the species named by Agassiz this collection 
includes many which have been subsequently determined 
and described by Sir P. Egerton, whose name will be 
ever associated with that of Agassiz in palichthyology. 
In his public career Sir Philip Egerton has been distin- 
guished by his unremitting attention to his parliamentary 
duties in the long period since his election in 1830. The 
British Museum sustains a’ severe loss in a Trustee, 
elected in 1851, whose scientific knowledge, sound judg- 
ment, and administrative ability were of the greatest 
value, especially to the Natural History Departments. 
Sir Philip’s last attendance at the Board was but a few 
days—apparently in his usual good health—before his 
lamented death. 


THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN 
ELECTRIC LIGHTING 


| EES Cantor Lectures on this interesting subject have 
just been delivered at the Society of Arts by Prof. 
W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S.; the lectures will be published 
in full in the Journal of the Society of Arts, but we are 
able to give an abstract of them by Prof. Adams, In the 
first lecture, the discoveries of Girsted, Ampere, Arago, 
and the early discoveries of Faraday on magnetic and 
current induction were considered in their relation to the 
principles of conservation and transformation of energy. 

Lecture I—Prof. Adams began by stating and illustrating 
the fact that important discoveries, after they are made, 
often pass through a stage of neglect or a stage of quiet 
development, then enter on the practical stage, when new 
facts and new inventions follow with great rapidity. 
The potential energy of the discoverer is transformed 
into energy of action in many directions with more or 
less efficiency, according to the retarding state of the 
medium through which that action takes place. 

Electrical science has passed through these stages, 
whether we regard telegraphy from the work of Sir 
Francis Ronalds in 1816, who said, “Let us have 
electrical conversazione offices communicating with each 
other all over the kingdom,” down to the establishment of 
telephonic exchanges, or whether we consider electric 
lighting from the grand experiment of Sir Humphry 
Davy in 1813 with a battery of 2000 cells, down to the 


[April 21, 1881 


latest results obtained by means of the most recent 
magneto- or dynamo-electric machines. 

In the year 1819 CErsted observed the action of a 
current of electricity on a suspended magnetic needle, 
and in the year 1820 Ampére studied the laws of their 
mutual actions, and propounded his celebrated theory of 
magnets and of terrestrial magnetism, making magnetism 
the resultant action of electric currents. In the same 
year Arago discovered the magnetisation produced by 
electric currents, laying the foundation of the subject of 
electro-magnetism. 

The discoveries of GErsted, Ampére, and Arago were 
fully illustrated by experiments, and their connection 
with one another explained. In the same year, 1820, 
Schweigger invented the galvanometer, and in 1827 Ohm 
deduced his simple theory of the action of batteries from 
the principle of Volta. 

The relation of the experiments of Girsted, Ampére, 
and Arago to the principle of conservation of energy was 
then fully considered. Considering Ampére’s experi- 
ment of the motion of wires towards one another 
when like parallel currents are flowing in them, it was 
shown that the currents must be diminished whilst they 
are actually approaching, and increased whilst they are 
separating, and so by supposing one of the original cur- 
rents very small, the relation between Ampére’s results 
and the induction of a current by moving a wire in the 
neighbourhood of another current was deduced. 

The laws of induced currents were then explained and 
illustrated by some of the early experiments of Faraday, 
who discovered the induction of electric currents by 
magnets in 1831. 

“In his first series of papers to the Royal Society 
entitled—(1) On the Induction of Electric Currents, (2) 
On the Evolution of Electricity from Magnetism, (3) On 
a New Electrical Condition of Matter, (4) On Arago’s 
Magnetic Phenomena, Faraday unfolds step by step the 
laws of the induced current in a helix of wire B, placed 
near to another helix A, carrying a voltaic current, 

“That as long as a steady current was maintained in 
A there was no current induced in B; that on making 
contact in A or on approaching the wires there was a 
momentary inverse current in B, and on breaking contact 
in A or on separating the wires, there was a direct 
induced current in B. That as this current was of the 
nature of an electric wave like the shock of a Leyden jar, 
it might magnetise a steel needle, although it produced 
slight effect on a galvanometer, and how this expectation 
was confirmed, and that the needle was magnetised 
opposite ways on making and on breaking contact.” 
Then in his evolution of electricity from magnetism he 
gives an account of the greatly increased effects on intro- 
ducing soft iron cores into his helices of wire, and 
shows that similar effects are obtained by using ordi- 
nary magnets in place of a helix carrying a battery 
current round an iron core, z.2., in place of an electro- 
magnet. He then describes the experiment of introducing 
a magnet into a coil of wire, and shows that the same 
current is obtained whether the marked end of the mag- 
net be introduced at one end of the coil or the unmarked 
end introduced at the other, and that a current is pro- 
duced in the opposite direction to the former on with- 
drawing the magnet from eitherend. Then after describ- 
ing the method of producing his induction spark and also 
muscular contractions of a frog by means of a loadstone 
and coil, and remarking that the intensity of the effect 
produced depends upon the rate of separation of the coil 
from the poles of the loadstone, he concludes this section 
thus ; An agent which is conducted along metallic wires 
in the manner described; which, whilst so passing, 
possesses the peculiar magnetic action and force of a 
current of electricity; which can agitate and convulse 
the limbs of a frog, and which finally can produce a 
spark, can only be electricity. 


April 21, 1881 | 


NAPOURE 


581 


Faraday also observed the difference of time between 
induction by a battery current in a coil, which is instan- 
taneous, and induction by a magnet, which requires an 
interval of time to get up to its full value ; and accounted 
for this retardation by supposing that there is a redistri- 
bution of the Amperian currents in the iron itself, so that 
the magnet requires time to rise to its full power. 

Little did Faraday dream of the rapid development and 
the marvellous results which were to flow from his experi- 
ments when, fifty years ago, he established the laws of 
magnetic and current induction, being stimulated (as he 
says) to investigate experimentally the inductive effects 
of electric currents with the view of elucidating Ampére’s 
beautiful theory of magnetism, and in the hope of obtain- 
ing electricity from ordinary magnetism. 

Lecture [7.—It was shown in the last lecture that a circu- 
lar current ora current ina coil of wire acted as a magnet, 
one face of the coil, in which, as we look at it, the current 
appears to go contrary to the hands of a watch, corre- 
sponding to the marked pole or the pole of a magnet 
which points to the north, and the opposite face of the 
coil corresponding to that pole of the magnet which 
points to the south. Each of the Amperian circular 
currents in the separate molecules of a magnet is equiva- 
lent to a fine magnet with poles of the same magnetic 
strength as the current, and occupying the same position, 
and the collection of Amperian currents will have the 
same magnetic effect as the bundle of small magnets, 
each of which gives the direction of the magnetic force 
at the point. These separate fine magnets may be re- 
garded as Faraday’s lines of force, and the number of 
them issuing from a magnetic pole will be a measure of 
the strength of the magnet. The magnetic field of the 
magnet is any portion of space to which the influence of 
the magnet extends. The current which will be produced 
by the motion of a conducting wire in the magnetic field 
will be proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, 
z.e. proportional to the number of lines of force cut by 
the conductor ; so that the current produced in each half 
turn of a coil of wire revolving on an axis is proportional 
to the number of lines of force cut by the coil during its 
rotation, so that the total current from the coil will be 
proportional to the number of lines of force multiplied 
by the number of times the wire is repeated in the coil. 
In the case of a coil of wire rotating in the field of a 
magnet, if the axis of rotation is parallel to the lines of 
force no current is produced, but as the axis of rotation 
is turned more and more nearly at right angles to the 
lines of force the current in the coil is increased. Taking 
the earth for our magnet, when the axis of rotation is 
perpendicular to the lines of force and still in the mag- 
netic meridian, the current in that half of the coil which 
is moving from west to east will be from north to south, 
and the current in the other half of the coil which is 
moving from east to west will be from south to north, so 
that in the whole coil we get during every half turn an 
all-round current in one direction in the coil. The direc- 
tion of the current in the coil, as we look at it from the 
east, is the same as the direction of rotation of the coil 
as we look at it from the north. The direction of the 
current in the coil is alternately in opposite directions for 
every half turn, but a continuous current may be obtained 
from it by reversing the connections with the ends of the 
coil by a commutator at the same instant as the currents 
are reversed in the coil. 

These are the principles of all magneto-electric ma- 
chines. The distribution of lines of force in the magnetic 
field of currents and of magnets is well shown by pro- 
jecting some of Prof. S. P. Thompson’s transparencies, 
which show the magnetic effects resulting from the mutual 
action of currents and magnets on one another. 

After the discovery by Faraday, in 1831, of the method 
of producing a current of electricity by the sudden 
removal of a coil of wire from the pole of a magnet, the 


laws of these currents were being developed, but for 
twenty years no attempt was made to apply them for the 
purposes of electric lighting. Voltaic batteries were 
being improved, and the more constant batteries of 
Daniell, of Grove, and of Bunsen were discovered, and 
these were the sources of electricity employed to produce 
the more powerful currents of electricity. In this country 
forty or fifty cells of Grove have given us the electric 
light for optical experiments in our laboratories, and the 
light was kept steadily in the same position by the 
elaborate arrangements of wheel-work and electromagnets 
devised by Staite in 1847 and by Foucault, which 
have reached very great perfection in the hands of 
Duboscq. In the Duboscq lamp the current passes 
always in the same direction, and the positive carbon 
becomes hollowed out, and burns away about twice as 
fast as the negative carbon, which becomes pointed. The 
carbons are moved towards one another by means of a 
drum carrying two wheels, whose diameters are as 2 to 1, 
which move two racks which bring the carbons together 
This lamp is especially adapted for projection on a screen, 
and we may study the forms of the carbons by projecting 
them, and also study the kind of light given out by the 
vapours of metals burning in the arc ; if we burn silver in 
the are we shall see that it is rich in the violet or chemical 
rays, which points to the reason why the salts of silver 
are so much used in photography. 

Even with constant batteries there is great variation in 
the steadiness of the electric light, but much more is this 
the case when the current of electricity is obtained by 
the motion of a coil of wire in a magnetic field, for every 
alteration in the resistance in the circuit reacts on the 
machine producing the current so as to increase the dis- 
turbance. Hence regulators are necessary in order to 
control the current, so as to keep the light constant. 
In electric lighting regulators may act on the electric 
lamps themselves so as to give a steady current between 
the carbons by keeping them the same distance apart, or 
regulators may be used in another part of the circuit to 
control the current automatically by causing it to intro- 
duce extra resistance when the current increases, and to 
diminish the resistance when the current diminishes. 

Various methods of regulating the current, including 
those employed by Siemens, Lane Fox, and Edison, were 
then described. In order to find the yield or effective 
work of batteries or magneto-electric machines and their 
efficiency, measurements of the current and of the work 
done by the current must be made. 

There are four principal methods of measuring electric 
currents :— 

1. The galvanometer method, by which with a galvano- 
meter of small resistance a very small fraction of the 
current is measured, and any error of observation is 
multiplied in estimating the total current flowing. 

2. The heat method, in which the current is measured 
by the heat developed by the current in a given resist- 
ance in the circuit according to Joule’s law, that the heat 
is proportional to the square of the strength of current. 

3. The electrometer or potentiometer method, in which 
the difference of potential between two points in the 
circuit with a given resistance between them is directly 
measured and the current deduced from Ohm’s law. 

In using Thomson’s quadrant electrometer for strong 
currents, the needle and one pair of quadrants should be 
connected together, so that the deviation is then propor- 
tional to the square of the difference of potential, and 
this method is applicable for continuous currents and also 
for alternate currents. By means of two electrometers 
in different parts of the circuit the current and also the 
work done by it may be at once measured. If, for instance, 
one of the electrometers be connected with the two 
carbons, the difference of potential and work done 
between the carbons may be determined. By such 
measurements it has been found that there is an electro- 


582 


NATURE 


| April 21, 1881 


motive force of 30 or even 40 volts between the carbons 
in the electric arc, but that the actual resistance of the 
are is small. 

4. The electro-dynamometer method, the best method 
fitted for ready measurement, in which the current in one 
coil is attracted by the same current flowing in another 
coil, and the attraction is balanced by a spring as in 
Siemens’s electro-dynamometer, or by weights as in 
Trowbridge’s electro-dynamometer. A beautifully-made 
instrument by Elliott and Co. was exhibited, in which the 
coils are thick copper bands, fixed coils being placed on 
each side like the coils of a tangent galvanometer, 
the suspended coil being placed between them in place 
of the magnet of the galvanometer. This instrument is 
especially useful for the measurement of very large 
currents in absolute measure. 

The remainder of the second lecture was devoted to 
the consideration of the efficiency of batteries or of mag- 
neto-electric machines when employed as motors to do 
work by means of electricity, and it was shown that the 
greatest amount of effective work is produced when one- 
half the energy of the battery or current-generating 
machine is converted into useful work in the electric 
circuit. Numerous experiments were made with Clarke’s 
and other magneto-electric machines to show that by the 
same machine work may be produced by sending a bat- 
tery current through it, causing motion of the armature 
carrying the current in accordance with Ampére’s laws, or 
a current of electricity may be generated by turning the 
armature, z.e. by doing work upon the machine, so that 
a magneto-machine is a reversible engine. A small mag- 
neto-machine with a Siemens armature was made to work 
a pump, or when turned by hand produced a current of 
electricity. Also a battery current in a Gramme ring in 
front of the poles of a Jamin magnet caused rotation of 
the ring and turned the heavy driving-wheel of the 
machine, and on removing the battery and turning the 
driving-wheel by hand, a current of electricity was pro- 
duced which caused a piece of platinum wire to glow. 
Also a Tisley’s hand dynamo-machine was employed 
either to heat a long piece of platinum wire or to drive 
another magneto-electric machine, so producing a second- 
ary current capable of heating a considerable length of 
platinum wire. 

(Lo be continued.) 


THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT ALGIERS 
Algiers, April 14 

ate: number of members enrolled for the present 

Congress is much larger than might have been 
expected when we consider the length of the journey, 
To a Parisian member this is such as would be ex- 
perienced by a Londoner if our British Association 
met in Gibraltar. Yet more than 1500 names are on the 
list. Few of these are familiar to us. There appear to 
be an unusual number of doctors and professors of 
anatomy and physiology, and of civil engineers. We fear 
we must also confess that a great many people possessing 
little or no interest in science, who will not be present at 
a single sectional meeting, have joined the Association 
for the sake of seeing Algiers. The general character of 
the meeting appears to be that of a great excursion, 
There are only five days partially devoted to work ; while 
the banquets, balls, fétes, courses, and “ fantasias’’ are 
rapidly multiplying. 

On arriving in Paris we were told that the steamer 
which was to have conveyed us to Algiers had been re- 
quisitioned by the Government for the transport of troops 
to Tunis; but the Company determined at last to take 
both soldiers and savants, and the result was of course 
an overcrowded boat and excessive discomfort. With 
accommodation for fifty first-class passengers no less than 


one hundred and twenty-nine were crowded into the 
vessel, and had the voyage been anything but of the 
smoothest, it would have been most wretched. As it was 
it was bad enough ; the food was insufficient in quantity 
and detestable in quality, and passengers were glad to 
find six feet of floor to sleep upon. In Algiers itself the 
hotels are quite full, and the salons will be used as 
dormitories. 

The Congress will be opened to-day by the inaugural 
address of M. Chauveau, which is to be given in the 
theatre at three o’clock, after which the members will 
remain and resolve themselves into a general com- 
mittee to discuss the creation of a sixteenth section relat- 
ing to pedagogy ; afterwards the secretaries of sections 
will meet to arrange their proceedings, and at 9 p.m. the 
members will be received by the Municipality at the Hotel 
de Ville. The general programme for the rest of the 
week is as follows :— 

friday, April 15.—Sectional meetings in the forenoon; 
general meeting at 2 p.m.; conference at half-past 8. 

Saturday.—Sectional meetings in the morning; visit 
to the Algerian Exhibition in the afternoon; Arab /é¢e, 
and a sozrée given by the Municipality. 

Sunday.—* Courses et fantasia.” 

Monday.—Sectional meetings in the morning; a pro- 
cession through the town in the afternoon, and an Arab 
féte in the evening. 

Tuesday.—Sectional meetings; general concluding 
meeting ; in the evening a ball given by the Governor. 

On Wednesday the excursions commence; they are 
Loth general and sectional, and the longest lasts for a 
fortnight. 

A complete list of the papers to be read has not yet 
appeared, but in the list already published we do not note 
anything of special interest. 

English science is represented by Dr. G. H. Gladstone 
and Mr. Siemens, who will both read papers. 

The Association has presented to each member a work 
in two volumes entitled “ Notices scientifiques, histor- 
iques, et economiques sur lAlger et Algérie.” 

April 15 

The theatre was well filled yesterday afternoon to hear 
the address of the president, M. Chauveau, who is Pro- 
fessor of Physiology in the Lyons Veterinary College. 
His discourse was of a far too technical character to be 
of interest to the majority of his audience, and dealt 
principally with the germ theory and Pasteur’s theory of 
fermentation. It was read throughout without the least 
attempt at oratory, and it contained various political 
allusions which were much applauded. In the evening 
the members were entertained by the Municipality, and 
the town was illuminated. The real work of the Asso- 
ciation commenced this morning, when the sections met 
at hours varying from eight to ten o’clock. We fear that 
the number of papers is small, and that the Association 
does not represent French science at all completely. In 
the Physical Section, for example, the names of only two 
authors of papers appear to-day—MM. Brillouin and 
Crova. At 9 a.m., when the section was announced to 
meet, no one was present. Shortly afterwards the secre- 
tary arrived, but an hour later the section had not met. 
The average number of the audience at the sections 
which had already met did not at this time exceed /ex, 

Among the more interesting papers announced for to- 
day are the following :—M. Marcheray, on Telephonic 
Communication in large towns; M. Tacchini, on the 
Observatories of Etna and of Chimona; M. Thoulet, on 
the Employment of the Microscope in Chemical and 
Physical Researches connected with Mineralogy; M. 
Prungrueber, on 300 Anthropological Observations on the 
Kabyles of the Djurdjura Mountains. 

The Medical and Agronomical Sections have plenty ot 
communications. The new section of Pedagogy has 
been established under the honorary presidency of M. 


ee eee 


Wiles 2. - 


oe 


April 21, 1881] 


NATURE 


583 


Godard, Director of the Ecole Monge in Paris, who has 
brought twenty of the pupils with him. M. Fau, 
Attorney-General of Algiers, is the President, and two 
papers are announced for to-day :—One by M. Robert, 
on the Humanitarian and Pedagogic Ideas of Jean 
Comimiae (1572-1670) ; the other by M. Berdellé, on the 
Employment of Colours as a Means of Retaining in the 
Mind certain given Numbers. 

An excellent geological map of Algiers to the scale of 
I in 800,000 has recently been completed, and the forma- 
tion of it bas led to the simultaneous observation of 
various facts connected with the physical geography of 
the Central Sahara. A map of the’proposed interior sea of 
the Sahara has also been prepared, and the Trans-Sahara 
Railway is spoken of as more than a probability. But 
we very much doubt if this can ever be a success. If it 
connected flourishing towns or portions of territory in 
which great cities are ever likely to be established, as in 
the case of the new American railways, there would be 
some hope for it. As it is, however over-populated the 
world may become, there is no likelihood of the forma- 
tion of settlements in the heart of an unhealthy tropical 
region. G. F. RODWELL 


MR. DARWIN ON VIVISECTION 


ROM the Zzmes we reproduce the following letter 
addressed by Mr. Darwin to Prof. Holmgren of 
Upsala, in answer to a request for an expression of his 
opinion on the question of the right to make experiments 
on living animals for scientific purposes—a question 
which is now being much discussed in Sweden :— 


“Down, Beckenham, April 14, 1881 


“Dear Sir,—In answer to your courteous letter of 
April 7 I have no objection to express my opinion with 
respect to the right of experimenting on living animals. 
I use this latter expression as more correct and compre- 
hensive than that of vivisection. You are at liberty to 
make any use of this letter which you may think fit, but 
if published I should wish the whole to appear. I have 
all my life been a strong advocate for humanity to animals, 
and have done what I could in my writings to enforce this 
duty. Several years ago, when the agitation against 
physiologists commenced in England, it was asserted 
that inhumanity was here practised and useless suffering 
caused to animals; and I was led to think that it might be 
advisable to have an Act of Parliament on the subject. I 
then took an active part in trying to get a Bill passed, 
such as would have removed all just cause of complaint, 
and at the same time have left physiologists free to pursue 
their researches—a Bill very different from the Act which 
has since been passed. It is right to add that the inves- 
tigation of the matter by a Royal Commission proved 
that the accusations made against our English physio- 
logists were false. From all that I have heard however 
I fear that in some parts of Europe little regard is paid 
to the sufferings of animals, and if this be the case I 
should be glad to hear of legislation against inhumanity 
in any such country. On the other hand I know that 
physiology cannot possibly progress except by means of 
experiments on living animals, and I feel the deepest 
conviction that he who retards the progress of physiology 
commits a crime against mankind. Any one who 
remembers, as I can, the state of this science half a 
century ago must admit that it has made immense 
progress, and it is now progressing at an ever-increasing 
rate. 

“What improvements in medical practice may be 
directly attributed to physiological research is a question 
which can be properly discussed only by those physio- 
logists and medical practitioners who have studied the 
history of their subjects ; but, as far as I can learn, the 
benefits are already great. However this may be, no one, 


unless he is grossly ignorant of what science has done 
for mankind, can entertain any doubt of the incalculable 
benefits which will hereafter be derived from physiology, 
not only by man, but by the lower animals. Look, for 
instance, at Pasteur’s results in modifying the germs of 
the most malignant diseases, from which, as it so happens, 
animals will in the first place receive more relief than 
man. Let it be remembered how many lives and what a 
fearful amount of suffering have been saved by the know- 
ledge gained of parasitic worms through the experiments 
of Virchow and others on living animals. In the future 
every one will be astonished at the ingratitude shown, at 
least in England, to these benefactors of mankind. As 
for myself, permit me to assure you that I honour, and 
shall always honour, every one who advances the noble 
science of physiology. 
“ Dear sir, yours faithfully, 
“ CHARLES DARWIN 
“To Prof. Holmgren”’ 


THE MAGNETIC SURVEY OF MISSOURI 


a the summer of 1878 the writer began a magnetic 

survey of the State of Missouri. The work of the 
first summer was confined to the north-east part of the 
State, and no points of interest were brought out. During 
the summer of 1879 the work was extended over the 
western half of the State, and it was made apparent that 
diversity of surface exerted a much more important 
influence than had been suspected. The lines of equal 
declination were found to bend very sharply upon entering 
the large valleys, and the needle showed a ¢exdency to set 
at right angles to the valleys. This tendency seemed to 
be greatest when the general direction of the valley made 
an angle of 45° with the orma/ position of the needle, or 
roughly, when the valley runs north-east and south-west, 
or north-west and south-east. This tendency seems to 
be inappreciable when the valleys run north and south, 
or east and west. 

In the report of 1878 (Zvans. St. Louis Acad. of Sc., 
vol. iv. No. 1, p. 143) it was suggested that this might 
result from the bending of the stream-lines of the earth- 
current sheet, due to the greater conducting power of the 
moist valleys. In order to settle this point, further 
examination is necessary, and it is proposed to determine 
the earth-currents at a number of properly selected 
stations. 

During the summer of 1880 the work extended over 
the south-eastern part of the State, where stili more im- 
portant flexures of the isogonic lines were discovered. 
Here, however, the position of the needle is probably 
affected by the iron deposits, and the effect of contour is 
studied to less advantage. At the close of 1880 observa- 
tions had been made at forty-five stations. In order to 
bring out the effect of contour, a relief map of the State 
was constructed in wax, and was finally reproduced in 
plaster. In this work use was made of the profiles of all 
the railroads in the State, together with a list of over 300 
elevations in the State, collected by Gannett. The iso- 
gonic lines, which were first drawn upon an ordinary 
map, in the usual manner, to represent the observations 
thus far made, were then copied upon the relief map. In 
doing this it became apparent at once that the forty-five 
stations were wholly inadequate, and that the isogonic 
lines thus drawn are probably deserving of about the 
same weight that a topographical map would deserve if 
constructed from elevations at these stations. 

The Chart is made after an artotype, which will 
accompany the third annual report in No. 2, vol. iv. 
Trans. St. Louis Academy of Science. In the original 
‘map the horizontal scale is twenty miles to the inch, the 
elevations being exaggerated 200 times. This exaggera- 
tion was necessary in order to bring out the form in the 
photograph, since on a relief map, 150 feet square, the 


584 


NATURE 


[April 21, 1881 


greatest difference in elevation in the State would be 
represented by a vertical height of one inch. The hori- 
zontal scale of the cut is sixty-two miles to the inch. 

The map represents only the grand outlines of surface 
as obtained from railroad profiles, and barometrical 
measurements. The dotted lines on the map are lines of 
equal variation of the magnetic needle: thus, on every 
part of the line marked 8°, the needle points 8° east of 
north, &c. These lines are drawn to represent the obser- 
vations already made, and show in a general way the 
variation of the needle in the State. The map also shows 
that there is a marked relation between the direction of 
these lines and the contour of the surface. It cannot be 
said that it shows what this relation is, but it is probably 
due largely to the deflection of the stream lines of the 
earth current sheet, caused by unequal conducting 
power. This explanation necessitates the existence of 


looped areas in certain regions in the State, the existence 
of which is already indicated by the determinations. The 
loop in the 7° 30’ line, with its inclosed minimum, is 
probably complicated with the iron deposits in that region 
of the State. 

Three stations in the Missouri valley have been inad- 
vertently omitted in the cut. One of these (Corrollton) 
lies on the 8° 30’ line, a few miles north of the river. 
Another (Glasgow) lies on the rivera little south of east 
from Corrollton. The third (Columbia) lies just east of 
the 8° line, and about south-east from Corrollton. A 
fourth station omitted, is nearly due east of the southern 
terminus of the 8° line, and just outside the 7° 30’ loop. 
The other stations, represented by the small circles, are 
shown on the cut, and an inspection of the map will show 
the weight to be given to different parts of these lines. 
At stations situated at points of abrupt curvature of the 


lines, the observations have been repeated at various 
localities in the region, until it was clear that no minute 
local effects existed. 

The value in the Iron Mountain region is the mean of 
many hundreds of determinations made with a solar 
compass by Pumpelly and Moore in 1872. This region 
is in the east part of the 7° 30’ loop. In the western 
iron-field, which is nearly coincident with the 7° oval, our 
observations were repeated at various points (the aim 
being to avoid iron deposits) without finding any local 
action. 

In conducting the survey, a magnetometer belonging 
to Washington University was used, but the dip circle 
and declinometer were kindly furnished by Prof. J. E, 
Hilgard of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Thus 
far the survey has been conducted wholly on private 
means, in which we have been aided by the railroad 


companies, and by citizens of St. Louis. A Bill providing 
for the completion of the survey is now before the Legis- 
lature of the State. FRANCIS E. NIPHER 


PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS * 


See chief object of Mr. Fison’s recently published 
memoir on Kamilaroi marriage, descent, and relation- 
ship, is “to trace the formation of the exogamous inter- 
marrying divisions which have been found among so many 
savage and barbaric tribes of the present day,” and to 
show that what Mr. Morgan calls the punaluan family, with 
the “ Turanian” system of kinship, logically results from 

t “ Kamilaroi and Kurnai: Group Marriage, and Relationship, and 
Marriage by Elopement; also the Kurnai Tribe, their Customs in Peace and 
War.’ By Lorimer Fison, M.A., and A. W. Howitt, F.G.S. With an 


agedueticg by Lewis H. Morgan, LL.D. (George Robertson: Melbourne, 
1600. 


Apri 21, 1881 | 


them. His coadjutor, Mr. Howitt, though he has had 
some interesting information to give about the Kurnai 
tribes of Gippsland, has had the same chief object ; so 
that the work the two have produced is much more a 
polemic on behalf of Mr. Morgan than a record of new 
Australian facts. We must begin, then, by stating what 
Mr. Morgan's theories are (so far as the work before us 
is concerned with them), and indicating, and estimating 
the value of, the evidence on which they rest. 

Mr. Morgan, having collected a great mass of facts 
concerning the terms in use between relations and con- 
nections throughout the world, and having found that 
those terms were, broadly speaking, divided into three 
orders, proceeded to spell out of the two earlier orders 
(the third consists of the modern terms of consanguinity 
and affinity) the whole of the early history of marriage 
and of the family. In what he has called the Malayan 
system of relationships, parent and child, grand-parent 
and grandchild, and brother and sister (or rather elder 
brother, younger brother, elder sister, younger sister, for 
there are no words for brother and sister) are the only 
terms in use; and one or other of these terms is used in 
addressing a person, according as the person addressed 
is of the speaker's generation or of the generation above, 
or of that below it. They are the terms always used 
when persons address one another, there being among 
those who use the system an invincible objection to the 
mention of their personal names. Mr. Morgan assumed 
that those terms were expressive of consanguinity and 
affinity ; and conjectured that when first used they accu- 
rately described the relationships at the time existing, 
“as near as the parentage of children could be known.” 
And it appeared to him that if there were a body of men 
and a body of women in the same tribe who all regarded 
each other as brothers and sisters, and all the men 
married all the women in a group, there would exist a 
marriage and family system which would explain the 
Malayan terms—the relationships arising out of which, 
so far as they were ascertainable, “as near as the 
parentage of children could be known,” those terms 
would accurately express. 

Accordingly, he framed the hypothesis that the first 
stage of marriage was the marriage in a group of men 
and women of the same blood calling themselves brothers 
and sisters. The family founded upon this kind of 
marriage he has named the consanguine family, and he 
regards it as the earliest form of the family. He does 
not say that such a system of marriage, or such a family 
system as he has supposed, has been found at any time 
anywhere ; what he says is that this supposition of his 
explains the origin of the Malayan terms, and that 
nothing else can explain them. But does it explain 
them? It is at once obvious that there is one term, and 
that the most important of all, the use of which Mr. 
Morgan’s hypothesis does not account for. Paternity 
may be doubtful—and if it were thought of at all ina 
group such as Mr. Morgan has conceived of, any man of 
the group might have as gooda right as any other to be 
called father of any child born within it. But there can 
be no doubt about a man’s relationship to his mother, 
In the case of mother and child the parentage is known 
with certainty, and therefore, on Mr. Morgan’s hypothesis, 
aman should in the Malayan system have had only one 
mother. Now that system applies the term for mother 
to many women besides the actual mother—mother’s 
sisters, father’s sisters, uncle’s wives, and so on, if not 
indeed to all women of the mother’s generation. Here 
then the hypothesis breaks down; and the point at 
which we find it breaking down is really the only point 
at which it can be tested. The relationship between 
mother and child, too, which is confused or ignored in 
the Malayan system, is the one relationship of which it 
can be said with confidence that no system really founded 
on relationship could fail to recognise it. The explana- 


NATURE 


585 


tion Mr. Morgan offers is that in the Malayan system the 
relationship of stepmother ‘“‘is not discriminated,” and 
there being no name for stepmother, stepmothers had to be 
called mothers, because “ otherwise they would fall with- 
out the system.” And he has what may be called a 
subsidiary hypothesis to account for there having been 
no discrimination between stepmother and mother. It is 
that the affiliation of children to the groups of men and 
of women to which they belonged would be so strong 
“that the distinction between relationships by blood 
and by affinity would not be recognised in every case.” 
The fact of motherhood would be made little of, that is 
—there would be no discrimination between stepmother 
and mother—because the whole group would be, by a 
child, regarded as its mother. But this is equivalent to 
saying that, from the nature of the case, it was not to be 
expected that note should be taken of the relationships that 
could be known; and that is to abandon the hypothesis— 
as well as to deny us all chance of judging whether it is 
a good or a bad one. Possibly explanations of the 
failure of his hypothesis, such as Mr. Morgan suggests, 
might have some weight were he accounting for the 
Malayan terms as terms of address; but he takes them 
to denote actual relationships ‘‘as near as the parentage 
of children could be known.” And no explanations can 
get over the fact that the Malayan terms are equally 
extensive in their application where, in the consanguine 
family, parentage would be’ known with certainty, and 
where it would not be known at all. The consanguine 
family is clearly a bad hypothesis. It might be thought 
it would hardly seem to anybody a plausible one; but 
Mr. Morgan always speaks of it as if it were among the 
best vouched of historical facts; and we are bound to 
say that Mr. Howitt believes in it as implicitly as Mr. 
Morgan. 

To show the hypothesis of the consanguine family to 
be unstateable is to undermine Mr. Morgan’s whole 
history of marriage and of the family. But Mr. Morgan 
has propounded a hypothesis as to the second form of 
marriage and the second form of the family, and as it is 
at this point that Mr. Fison (who does not quite believe 
in the consanguine family) lends him his advocacy, it is 
indispensable that we should give some account of it. 
Punaluan marriage, upon which was founded the punaluan 
family, was introduced by some reformatory movement, 
according to Mr. Morgan, to put a stop to the evils 
attendant upon brother and sister marriages. It existed 
in two forms. In one form of it a group of men, brothers 
or reputed brothers, had in common their wives who 
were not their sisters and : ot the sisters of each other ; 
in the other form, a group of women, sisters or reputed 
sisters, lived in common with husbands who were not 
their brothers and not the brothers of each other. 
Punaluan marriage has not been observed at any time 
anywhere any more than the consanguine family ; but 
Mr. Morgan believes that, in both its forms, it has 
existed everywhere, and probably during many ages. 
A correspondent wrote to Mr. Morgan stating that in 
the Sandwich Islands men whose wives were sisters and 
women whose husbands were brothers called each other 
punalua, which meant dear friend or intimate companion. 
And possibly drawing his bow at a venture, “the rela- 
tionship,”’ he said, “is rather amphibious. It arose from 
the fact that two or more brothers with their wives, or 
two or more sisters with their husbands, were inclined to 
possess each other in common.” Whether conjecture or 
fact, this amounts to very little; but it was this which 
gave Mr. Morgan the suggestion of punaluan marriage. 
For proof of his hypothesis he again relied upon the terms 
he had collected—and at first upon its fitness to explain 
those same Malayan terms which, as we have seen, have 
more than enough to do to bear the weight of the con- 
sanguine family. In his latest work (“ Ancien; Society”) 
he holds it to be proved by a nomenclature considerably 


586 


NATURE 


[April 21, 1881 


different from the Malayan—his second order of terms 
which he has named the Turanian system of relationships. 
He regards the terms in this system also as accurately 
describing, “as near as the parentage of children could be 
known,” the relationships existing at the time when they 
came into use. It differs from the Malayan in including 
words for cousin, uncle and aunt, and nephew and niece—or 
words which Mr. Morgan has so translated. It will be found, 
however, that Mr. Morgan does not use the punaluan family 
in accounting for any one of the Turanian terms. Those of 
them which coincide, or partly coincide, with the Malayan 
terms he had already accounted for by the hypothesis of the 
consanguine family, and he does this over again; the cthers 
he accounts for, or tries to account for (“Ancient Society,” 
Pp. 442-445), by means of exogamy alone. His reasoning 
is exactly what it would have been had the punaluan 
family never occurred to him. Indeed it has been an 
embarrassment to him ; he has had to keep it out of his 
reasonings. For the punaluan family is, ex hypothes?, in 
two forms, and neither form could, “as near as the parent- 
age of children could be known,’ yield both the Turanian 
sense of father andthe Turanian sense of mother. Where 
the husbands were punalua, Mr. Morgan’s reasoning 
would make them all, though not brothers, fathers of 
children born within the group, and it would exclude 
their brothers from being considered fathers. But, in 
the Turanian system, a father’s brothers are called 
fathers. Similarly where the wives were punalua, Mr. 
Morgan’s reasoning would make them, though not sis- 
ters, all mothers of the children of each of them, and 
would exclude their sisters from being considered as 
mothers. But, in the Turanian system, a mother’s sisters 
are called mothers. Mr. Morgan has not failed to see 
this, and he has actually again framed a subsidiary 
hypothesis to give his hypothesis of the punaluan 
family a chance of living. This is (see “Ancient 
Society,” p. 445) that where a group of sisters married 
men who were not brothers, they also became the wives 
of all the brothers “own and collateral’—that is, all 
the brothers and one-half of the cousins, however far 
removed—of each of their husbands; and, similarly, 
that when a group of brothers married women who were 
not their sisters, they also became the husbands of all the 
sisters and one-half of the cousins of each of their wives. 
All that need be said of this subsidiary hypothesis 1s that 
it gives quite a new look to the punaluan family—and 
that the effect of it, like that of the secondary hypothesis 
formerly noticed, is to deny us all chance of judging 
whether the principal hypothesis is a good or a bad one. 
The justification offered for it is that “the system (the 
Turanian) treats all brothers as the husbands of each 
other’s wives, and all sisters as the wives of each other’s 
husbands, and as intermarried in a group’’—but that is 
equivalent to saying that the system has taken no impres- 
sion of the punaluan family, and gives no countenance to 
Mr. Morgan’s hypothesis. As, apart from “the system,” 
he finds nothing to say for it, it is difficult to see how 
any one can resist the conclusion that that hypothesis 
must be dismissed, and that it must be ranked among the 
wildest chimeras that have ever possessed the brain of a 
man of science. 

Now, do Mr. Fison and Mr. Howitt give in any degree 
to Mr. Morgan’s hypotheses the support of which they 
are in need? The answer must be no—and must be no 
even if we receive as facts the assumptions as to fact 
from which they set out. Mr. Howitt accepts both the 
consanguine family and the punaluan family, while Mr. 
Fison offers himself as the advocate of the latter only. 
But Mr. Howitt has nothing new to say for the con- 
sanguine family ; he believes in it, and argues from it as 
if it were known historical fact—that is all; and so of it 
no more need be said. What then do his colleague and 
he find to say for the punaluan family ? Literally, not a 
word. Mr. Howitt simply takes it for granted as he does 


the consanguine family. Mr. Fison, in beginning, under- 
takes to show that it results logically fro n his hypothesis 
—for it is no more than that—of “exogamous inter- 
marrying divisions,’ but he does not attempt to do so. 
And, in fact, his “‘intermarrying divisions’’ are quite 
different from the punaluan family, and leave no need for 
it, and no room for it ; that is, his hypothesis is different 
from and exclusive of Mr. Morgan’s. In Mr. Fison’s 
hypothesis, a group of men who are considered brothers 
and a group of women who are considered sisters—being 
the men and women of the same generation in two 
divisions which intermarry with each other, and only 
with each other—are by birth husbands and wives to 
each other; whereas, in the punaluan family, when the 
husbands are brothers the wives are not sisters—they are 
punalua ; and when the wives are sisters the husbands 
are not brothers—they are punalua. Men who are 
brothers are restricted to women who are each other's 
sisters, on Mr. Fison’s hypothesis ; but, on Mr. Morgan’s, 
men who are brothers marry women who, as a rule, are 
not each other’s sisters. The marriage law shown in 
Mr. Fison’s hypothesis would have to be given up before 
the punaluan family could have a chance of issuing out 
of the intermarrying divisions. Then, as Mr. Fison 
justly observes, his intermarrying divisions “would have 
precisely the reformatory effect’? which Mr. Morgan 
attributes to the punaluan family—so that, given the 
divisions, the punaluan family would not be needed for 
reformatory purposes ; and as Mr. Fison’s view is that 
the totem clan grew up within his divisions, while their 
marriage law still subsisted, the punaluan family would 
not be needed to give birth to the clan (which Mr. Morgan 
says ithas done). And, clearly, there would be no more 
room than need for it. It thus appears that, instead of 
supporting the hypothesis of the punaluan family, Mr, 
Fison has put it aside, and offers an improved hypothesis 
(suggested, no doubt, by Mr. Morgan’s) in place of it. 
We have seen that he does not accept the consanguine 
family either. He does not, indeed, repudiate it. But 
to connect it with his intermarrying divisions seems to 
him so difficult that he thinks the one could have been 
changed into the other only through the intervention of 
“a higher power.” He is not afraid of the ridicule to 
which he might be exposed were he to account for the 
first formation of the divisions by such a hypothesis ; but 
he thinks it unnecessary to go behind them. We have 
now shown in what manner Mr. Fison supports Mr. 
Morgan—and we have shown that Mr. Morgan is in no 
position to give any support or countenance to him. | 

To show that the Turanian terms would result logically 
from his own hypothesis is what Mr. Fison has attempted. 
There are ina tribe two divisions which do not permit 
marriage within the division, and are restricted to inter- 
marrying with one another. All the men in one division 
are the husbands of all the women of the same generation 
in the other ; the wife does not come into the husband’s 
division ; and descent is reckoned through the mother. 
The group of men marries the group of women ; and it is 
the group that is husband, the group that is wife, the 
group that is father, mother, son, or nephew; every 
person in it taking, however, all the relationships that 
arise to it. Such is the hypothesis. Seeing that the 
relationships are called group relationships, it might be 
thought that Mr. Fison considered the Turanian terms 
to have been, in the first instance, something other than 
terms of blood-relationship, say terms of address; but he 
denies that they are terms of address, and regards them 
as having been real relationships from the first. In what 
natural sense of relationship, however, a group—or the 
women in it other than the actual mother—can be mother 
of a child he does not tell us ; and till he can make this 
plain, his theory must be held to be as untenable as the 
hypothesis of the consanguine family. As for his demon- 
strations (Q.E.D. at the end of each) of the Turanian 


ee ee ys ae 


April 21, 1881] 


terms, we can scarcely pretend to follow them. The 
~ terms which are specially Turanian are laid down by him 
in definitions, and these definitions are used in the 
demonstrations—so that, so far as these terms are con- 
cerned, he seems to assume what he is going to prove. 
On p. 87 (Prop. 12) he proves that certain groups are 
cousins by the mere statement of three definitions. What 
is also odd is that, immediately after, he proves, by a 
process of reasoning, that the same groups are not 
cousins, but brothers and sisters-in-law. Similarly, he 
proves first that a group is another group’s nephew, and 
then that it is its son-in-law. This brings us to say that 
the terms which Mr. Morgan has translated uncle, aunt, 
nephew, niece, and cousin, and which he regards as de- 
noting relationships, according to Mr. Fison really mean 
father and mother-in-law, and brother and sister-in-law 
only, and express nothing except that a person is called 
father or mother, brother or sister, as the case may be, by 
a man or woman whom one is free to marry. How these 
could, with group marriage, be more than terms of 
address it puzzles us to see. What it is necessary to 
notice in these demonstrations, however—and nothing 
else is really necessary—is that while by hypothesis 
descent is reckoned through the mother—which must 
show that relationship had to some extent been the sub- 
ject of thought—and ‘‘so far as descent is concerned, the 
father is a mere nonentity,’’ they all proceed on the view 
that the father, who on the hypothesis would be in each 
particular case unknown, is as much a relative as the 
mother. Having said this, no more need be said of Mr. 
Fison’s demonstrations. It should be added, however, 
that the terms in use among relatives in Australia are, so 
far as Mr. Fison can learn, in the main Malayan—and he 
has no theory to account for the Malayan terms. He 
knows nothing at all of the terms in use among the 
Kamilaroi. He has himself found the native terms 
“ exasperatingly puzzling.” Several terms may be used 
by the same people for one relationship, and, as he says, 
matters other than relationship appear to be taken into 
account. The ceremony of initiation, for example, affects 
the words by which a man will designate another, though, 
as Mr. Fison says, it “does not touch their relationship.” 

As to the hypothesis itself, an essential part of it (and 
indeed of Mr. Morgan’s hypotheses too) is that, as regards 
the intercourse of the sexes, there should have been no 
mixing of generations—that only men and women of the 
same generation should have been husbands and wives. 
A generation, apart from particular families, can be 
defined only loosely, but for Mr. Fison’s purposes it 
should be definable with some precision. At any rate, 
his theory requires that the elderly men should have been 
kept separate from the young women, and the young men 
from the old women. But what an assumption this is— 
especially to make primarily of Australian natives, of 
whom nothing is better known than that the elderly men 
monopolise the women, and especially the young ones, 
and that a young man (though much license is allowed) 
hardly ever gets a wife, unless it be an old one, except 
by running away with her, This assumption, experience 
being dead against it, is of itself enough to put out of the 
field the hypothesis of which it forms a part. The idea 
of intermarrying divisions with groups of husbands all 
brothers, and groups of wives all sisters, no doubt sprang 
out of the hypotheses of Mr. Morgan, but apart from Mr. 
Morgan, it has a history which must be told. Briefly, it 
was suggested by a traveller’s mistake. 

In 1853 the Rev. William Ridley, a Presbyterian 
clergyman of Sydney, published a statement as to the 
marriage rules of the Kamilaroi, which statement is now 
known, on Mr. Ridley’s own authority, to have been 
essentially erroneous. Mr. Fison still treats it as entirely 
true, and treats all later and more correct information as 
if it gave facts of a later order. Mr. Ridley said that the 
Kamilaroi were divided into four castes of men and 


NATURE 


587 


four of women, and that (with one exception) the men 
of a caste could marry only women of one other caste, 
Murri, feminine mata ; kubbi, feminine kubbitha ; kumbo, 
feminine butha; and ipai, feminine ipata, were the 
castes; and he said that a murri could marry a butha 
and no other woman, and that his children were not 
murri and butha, but ipai and ipata; and_ that, simi- 
larly, a kubbi could marry only an ipata, his children 
being kumbo and butha; and a kumbo only a mata, his 
children being kubbi and kubbitha; while an ipai, besides 
being free to marry any kubbitha, could marry any ipata 
not of his own family—his children, when he married a 
kubbitha, being murri and mata, and when he married an 
ipata, kumbo and butha. Mr. Ridley repeated this 
statement without change in 1855, and he told it in 1871 
to Mr. Fison with this amount of change, that instead of 
castes he now spoke of classes (in unhappy imitation of 
Mr. Morgan), and of four classes, with men and women 
in each, instead of four classes of men and four of women ; 
and that he described the marriage of ipai with ipata 
(that is with a woman of his own class) as an infringe- 
ment of rule—changes that may fairly be ascribed to the 
initiative of Mr. Fison. Mr. Fison, putting aside the 
marriage of ipai with a woman of his own class as an 
irregularity, and idealising Mr. Ridley’s statement, at 
once formed the hypothesis that all the men of one class 
originally were by birth the husbands of all the women of 
the same generation in the class with which they might 
intermarry. This, although he knew from Mr. Ridley 
that polygamy was largely practised among the Kamilaroi. 
Much licence was allowed ; and the only word for spouse 
signified a person whom one is free to marry ; and these 
two facts seemed to him to override Kamilaroi practice, and 
to prove that marriage had been communal, to begin. 
In the same year (1871), however, Mr. Ridley was again 
among the Kamilaroi, and sent to Mr. Fison a statement 
which should have shaken his faith in his hypothesis— 
both because of the new matter it contained, and because 
there were in it what he himself perceived to be errors of 
observation. Mr. Ridley has published several state- 
ments since, all containing obvious errors of observation 
or slips of memory, and it is impossible to receive even 
his latest statement as final. But observe what his latest 
statement is, and compare it with Mr. Fison’s hypothesis. 
It is that the Kamilaroi are divided into totem clans 
(iguanas, paddy-melons, opossums, emus, blacksnakes, 
bandicoots) ; that every native has three names—a per- 
sonal name (carefully concealed), a “class” name, and a 
totem name; that children take both the class name and 
the totem name through the mother; that the men and 
women of every class are free to marry one another, 
provided they are not of the same totem—and that, 
besides, murri may marry any butha, kubbi any ipata, 
kumbo any mata, and ipai any kubbitha. If his 
statements can be trusted, murri and butha, kubbi and 
ipata, kumbo and mata, and ipai and kubbitha, who 
are free to marry one another, are never of the same 
totem—so that all the marriages which certainly are 
permitted are marriages between persons of different 
totems. Mr. Ridley still leaves each class restricted from 
intermarrying with two others. So much of his original 
statement he has not yet found to be wrong. But the class 
name does not prevent marriage within the class. The 
notion that the Kamilaroi were in intermarrying or husband 
and wife “castes” was certainly erroneous, Is it likely 
then that the class-name is any bar to marriage outside the 
class? Is it not far more likely that there is still some- 
thing for Mr. Ridley or some other inquirer to find out, 
and that, in the main, identity of totem is the only bar to 
marriage? We say in the main, because it is very likely 
that there are also regulations to prevent marriage 
between persons near in blood who are of different totems. 
Mr. Lance, who is a great authority with Mr. Fison, and 
who was Mr, Ridley’s first informant, had got into his 


588 


NATURE 


| April 21, 1881 


head that the-Kamilaroi were divided by their names into 
castes with the’ marriage law which Mr. Ridley first 
described, and, meeting with an ipai whose wife was an 
ipata, he regarded him as a daring transgressor of the 
customary rule: The man told him that he and his wife 


were free to marry because they were not of the same | 


mudji (totem) ; and, thereupon, Mr. Lance (who evidently 


lad never before heard of totems) told Mr. Ridley that | 


the ipai were privileged above their neighbours in being 
free to marry women of their own class who were not of 
the same family with them; and Mr. Ridley told the 
world that they were the aristocratic caste among the 
Kamilaroi. (He has since stated that the murri are the 
aristocratic class.) This is the sort of observation we 
are questioning. Had Mr. Lance seen in operation a 
rule intended to prevent, say a man from marrying his 
own daughter, he might easily have magnified it into a 
rule prohibiting two whole “castes” from marrying. 
And in all probability it was something like this he 
did. 
before he met the ipai aforesaid that Mr. Fison has 
taken for the basis of his hypothesis—but from even that 
to the hypothesis is a tremendous jump. And, after all, 
even if we overlook the inadmissible assumption which 
forms an essential part of the hypothesis, it appears not 
to be good for anything. 

What have been called caste or class names appear, so 
far as the evidence goes at present, to be names merely, 
and to have no effect on the right of intermarriage. The 
system of naming is certainly very peculiar. The names 
alternate in successive generations. That is not in itself 
peculiar ; but the same name is taken by all the-sons, the 
same name by all the daughters. Thus ipata’s children 


are the sons all kumbo, and the daughters all butha ; and, | 


again, butha’s children are ipai and ipata. It is a 
pretty widely spread system. Mr. Howitt says that, as 
far as he knows, it prevails among all Australian tribes; 
but this is going a vast deal too far; and is calculated to 
undermine faith in Mr. Howitt’s judgment, for it plainly 
does not prevail among the Kurnai whom he himself has 
described. His report shows nothing like castes or 
classes among them; the men, he says, are all called 
yeerung (emu-wren) by the women, and the women all 
djeetgun (superb-warbler) by the men, but this (whatever 
it may mean, and it may mean very little) does not divide 
the Kurnai into anything other than men and women. Mr. 
Fison has had from a number of correspondents state- 
ments which he takes to mean that among tribes other 
than the Kamilaroi which have this system of naming, 
there is no marriage between persons of the same name; 
but his correspondents are neither, as regards opportunity 
or observing power, above Mr. Lance; and Mr. Ridley’s 
study of the Kamilaroi, imperfect as it has been, gives 
the only evidence that can be regarded as trustworthy. 
Mr. Fison has amended the list of marriages allowed 
among the Kamilaroi, given by Mr. Ridley, as he says, 
on later information ; but anonymous information cannot 
be thought of much value on this matter as against the 
authority of Mr. Ridley. Mr. Fison is too easily satisfied 
with anything that seems to make for his view to be 

ind]y trusted in such a matter. We find him inferring 
from here being no marriage between blood-relations— 
which may mean totem clans—among people who have 
the class names that there is no marriage within the class. 
We find totem clans, too, reported to him as classes and 
ranked by himas classes ; and “divisions,” which probably 
mean totem clans, are also ranked by him as classes. On 
the other hand he candidly gives at least one case in which 
the class-names are said not to restrict marriage. He gives 
atthe very beginning of his book a native legend of brothers 
and sisters having marned at the first—a legend which both 
Mr. Morgan and he make much of. We are surprised, 
however, at his missing the true point of it. What it 
exhibits is not a movement to “ intermarrying divisions ” 


| 


or classes, but to the establishment of totem clans. 
These are all the natives seem to have thought in need of 
explanation. 

We should have been glad to notice Mr. Howitt’s 
account of the Kurnai at some length, but we must be 
brief. The Kurnai have kinship through males and exo- 
gamy—that is, prohibition of nsarriage within the kindred; 
and as was to be expected in such a case, the kindreds 
form local tribes. 
or not these clans or local tribes are distinguished by 
totems (which shows that he meant to be careful, and that 


his information was very far from being complete), but’ 
incidentally he lets out that they are. When a Kurnai 


young woman meets a young fellow who, being a stranger, 
looks as if he might make a husband for her, Do you 
eat kangaroo, opossum, blacksnake? is her first question 
after saluting him. Presumably the animal she names is 
her own totem. Ifthe stranger may eat it he can marry 


| her. As for his discovery of marriage by elopement, we 
It is the ludicrously wrong impression he had | 


have no doubt that it is (as a missionary friend of his, Mr. 
Bulmer, hinted to him it must be) a mere product of 
misconception. Young men among the Kurnai, he says, 
could get wives only by eloping with them on the proposal 
of the women. This may be; an Australian young man 
could scarcely ever get a wife except by running away 
with her. But how did the elderly men get their wives ? 
He appears never to have asked that. But he is aware 
that there was a system of exchanges. The Kurnai are 
polygamous, and no doubt among them, as among other 


| Australians, the elderly men had, by means of exchanges, 


nearly all the young women for wives. Mr. Howitt 
writes so candidly, and his account of the Kurnai is in 
many respects so interesting, that we should gladly have 
brought ourselves to think better of this discovery of his. 
But after reading Mr. Fison’s most amazing account of the 
origin of marriage by elopement, we find ourselves shut up 
to holding that it is simply a big blunder. Nothing else 
could have elicited so preposterous an explanation. But 
such words as preposterous fall harshly on the ear, and 
we would part from our authors without unkindness. 
Their exertions to advance a growing science are truly 
commendable. If the result has been rather to mystify 
than to elucidate, there is but one more illustration of the 
way in which good intentions, industry, and ingenuity 
are wasted when men have started in the wrong track. 
D. MACLENNAN 


NOTES 
THE evening discourses at the meeting of the British Associa- 
tion at York will be delivered by Prof. Huxley and Mr. Spottis- 
woode, Mr. Huxley will speak of the ‘‘ Rise and Progress of 
Paleontology” on Friday, September 2, and Mr. Spottiswoode 
‘On the Electric Discharge, its Forms and its Functions,” on 
Monday, September 5. 


THE Honorary-Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons 
in Ireland was on Wednesday last week conferred on Prof. 
Helmholtz, and the Honorary Degree of LL.D. by the University 
of Dublin. On Monday night, at an ordinary meeting of the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh, Sir William Thomson in the chair, 


Prof, Helmholtz read a paper on ‘‘ Electrolytic Conduction.” - 


There was a crowded attendance, and Prof. Helmholtz was 
warmly received. 


ON Monday the National Fisheries Exhibition, which has 
been organised at Norwich under the care of numerous public 
bodies, from the Board of Trade downwards, was opened by the 
Prince and Princess of Wales. The exhibition is divided into 
six classes, as follows :—1. Pisciculture and shell-fish culture ; 
2. Models, trawling gear, drifting gear, canvas and ropes, and 
inland fishing tackle; 3. Life-saving apparatus, lamps, fog-horns, 
signalling, &c., architectural plans for fish markets, fish-curing 


He does not expressly tell us whether’ 


April 21, 1881 | 


NATURE 


589 


establishments, fish vans, and fishermen’s. clothing ; 4. Pictures, 
utilisation of condemned fish and fish refuse as a manure, and 
the cleansing of sewage-polluted streams; 5. Dried, salted, 


smoked, and tinned fish, shell fish, fish oils, manure, and disin- | 


fectants, aquatic flora and fauna, and birds which prey upon 
fish; 6. Loans. There is in the last class a fine collection 
of casts made by the late Frank Buckland, which has been 
lent by the authorities of South Kensington Museum, The 
exhibits of preserved specimens of aquatic, or rather fish-eating, 
birds is also highly interesting and instructive. 
devoted to the culture of fish there are a large number of tanks, 
troughs, and the various appliances for hatching the ova of fish, 
for rearing the young fry, &c. There are also shown live fish in 
a series of aquaria, amongst which are specimens of nearly every 
variety of fresh-water fish indigenous to this country, the local 
fauna being especially complete. Next week we hope to give the 
address which Prof. Huxley, who is now one of the Inspectors of 
Fisheries, delivered in connection with the Exhibition. 

From the Sydney Morning Herald we are glad to learn that a 
zoological station is at last to be established at Watson's Bay, 
under the direction of Baron N, de Miklouho-Maclay, on a 
small grant of land obtained from the Government. After a 
lengthy absence at the Melanesian Islands and in Queensland he 
has returned with the intention of remaining in Sydney until he 
can complete what he began in 1878, and see the zoological 
station firmly established. The land granted by the Government 
at Watson’s Bay is-situated near Camp Cove, and is about half 
an acre in extent. Upon this a cottage of five work-rooms 
will be erected, and this building will be for the use of naturalists 
who visit New South Wales for the purpose of studying the 
zoology and botany of Australia. The Government, understand- 
ing its scientific value, have given what assistance they can, and 
have promised that if 300/. be collected by private subscription 
a similar sum will be contributed towards the expense of erecting 
the building from the public revenue. Zhe subscriptions up to 
the present amount to about 200/., and it is hoped there will be 
no difficulty in obtaining the balance which will be necessary 
for forming the zoological station on the small scale contem- 
plated for a beginning. This station will be the first of the 
kind in the southern hemisphere, and will supply a serious 
want, 


THE death is announced, at the end of February last, of Mr, 
Gerard Krefft, the Australian naturalist. Mr. Krefft was born 
in Brunswick, Germany, in 1830, and early conceived a taste for 
natural history. After spending some time in the United States 
he went to Melbourne in November, 1852. Mr. Krefft was 
selected to accompany the collecting expedition fitted out by the 
Victorian Government, 1858. Having succeeded the leader in 
command of the party he returned to Melbourne with a large 
collection of specimens and a well-filled portfolio, and was 
engaged by Prof. M‘Coy as assistant in the Museum, He gave 
a report in full about the animals obtained and an account of the 
manners and habits of the aboriginals, illustrated by numerous 
sketches. He then resigned his position and returned to Ger- 
many. In 1859 he again left home for foreign lands, having 
obtained from the Hamburg firm, Messrs. Godeffroy and Son, 
a free passage for a trip round the world, and after a two 
months’ sojourn in South Africa he took up his quarters in 
Sydney, being appointed secretary to the Australian Museum 
and assistant to the late Dr, Pittard, its curator. On the death 
of that gentleman Mr. Krefft succeeded to the vacant curatorship 
in 1861. During the latter years of his appointment he had a 
series of disagreements with the trustees of the Museum, which 
resulted in his leaving that institution, September, 1874. Mr. 
Krefft was probably the first man who thoroughly studied the 
reptiles of Australia, Mr. Krefft was a F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., and 
Member of various other learned societies. 


In the class | 


AmonG Mr. Murray’s forthcoming works are the following :— 
“The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of 
Worms, with Observations on their Habits,” by Charles Darwin, 
F.R.S.; ‘‘ The Life and Letters of the late Sir Charles Lyell, 
Bart.,” edited by his sister-in-law, Mrs. Lyell; ‘‘The Land of 
the Midnight Sun,” being a narrative of summer and winter 
journeys through Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Northern 
Finland, by Paul B, du Chaillu, of gorilla fame; also a second 
and revised edition of Mr. W. H. White’s ‘‘ Manual of Naval 
Architecture.” 


AT the meeting of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain on 
April 13, Dr. Richardson read a paper of suggestions for the 
management of cases of small-pox and of other infectious 
diseases in the metropolis and large towns. Dr. Richardson 


| maintains the thesis that there should be no aggregation of in- 


fectious cases in large central institutions, and describes the 
objections to such aggregation. He suggests further that the 
sanitary committee or authority in every parish should have al 

the special centres of infection in each of its districts thoroughly 
mapped out, and that it should know, ona calculation of cases 
occurring in quinquennial periods, what is the permanent accom- 
modation required for its infectious sick. He urges that the 
required accommodation being known, the local authorities 
should keep ready at all times within the parish such necessary 
accommodation in small hospitals situated in different parts of 
the parish or locality. Dr. Richardson described what he thought 
should be the size, mode of construction, and position of such 
hospitals :—(«) That each hospital should not be larger than is 
sufficient to receive twenty-four persons at one time. (4) That 
each should be constructed on the ‘separate system for the 
patients. (c) That each should be constructed of iron, so that 
it may at any time be absolutely purified by fire throughout all 
its structure. (d@) That each should be placed on the upper 
storey of a building, forming in fact the top storey of one or 
more houses, so that it may be lighted and ventilated directly 
from its roof. (e) That all the air that passes out of the hos- 
pital when it is occupied by infectious persons should pass 
through fire. (/) That each patient should be carried into 
the hospital by a valved lift, which lift should pass through a 
shaft, so as to draw up air during its ascent, and which should, 
when required, be effective for flushing the hospital with air. 
Dr. Richardson entered into the subject of the organisation of 
these hospitals in respect to general supervision and nursing: 
Under this head he recommends—(a) That the general super- 
vision should be in the hands of the Medical Officer of Health. 
(6) That the nursing, also under the supervision of the Medica] 
Officer of Health, should be carried out by trained nurses, who 
might be educated to their work in the Union infirmaries. Lastly 
he suggested that the medical attendance should be conducted by 
a special staff of duly qualified medical men acting under the 
Medical Officer of Health and responsible to the local authority, 
by whom they should be approved and remunerated, An inte- 
resting discussion followed, which was adjourned to the 27th inst, 


Unper the auspices of the National Health Society the fol- 
lowing Drawing-Room Lectures will be delivered at 23, Hertford 
Street, Mayfair (by kind permission of Mr. Charles Matthews), 
to commence at 4 o’clock p.m.:—Friday, April 22: Prof. 
Fleeming Jenkin, F.R.S., ‘‘Sanitary House Inspection 2g 
Friday, April 29: Dr. Robert Farquharson, M.P. (formerly 
Medical Officer of Rugby School), ‘‘ Health in Public Schools ” ; 
Friday, May 6: Mr. C. N. Cresswell, ‘‘ Sanitary Relations of 
Local Self-Government” ; Friday, May 13: Mr. Henry Power, 
M.B., F.R.C.S., ‘‘ Care and Education of the Eye” ; Friday, 
May 20: Dr. Siemens, F.R.S., LL.D., “Stoves and Grates” ; 
Friday, May 27: Mr. Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S., ‘* Recent Progress 
in Health Knowledge.” Tickets may be obtained from the 


59° 


secretary at the offices of the Society, 44, Berners Street, on | the next twelve hours, 


Mondays and Fridays from 2 to 5, or will be forwarded by post 
on application, Patronesses: H.R.H. Princess Christian; 
H.R.H. Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne; H.R.H. 
Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck. The president of 
the Society is His Grace the Duke of Westminster, and the 
Chairman of Council, Mr. Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S. The objects 
of the Society are to diffuse sanitary knowledge in every possible 
way, by the delivery of simple practical lectures on air, ventila- 
tion, food, and cookery, the prevention of the spread of infectious 
disease, and kindred subjects, at working men’s clubs, mothers’ 
meetings, and elsewhere, in all parts of London and the suburbs ; 
by the circulation of sanitary tracts and papers ; by encouraging 
the teaching of the laws of health in high schools and Board 
schools, by cffering prizes, &c., to both teachers and pupils ; and 
to secure open spaces for the healthy recreation of the people. 
Membership is constituted by the payment of 1/. Is. annually ; 
life membership by the single payment of 10/7, 10s. Communi- 
cations to be addressed to Miss Lankester, the Secretary, at the 
offices of the Society, 44, Berners Street, Oxford Street, It is 
evident that this Society has adopted effectual means to do a 
good and highly necessary work; it deserves the heartiest 
support from all who can in any way lend a helping hand, 


Two Art Exhibitions were opened under the auspices of the 
Sunday Society on Easter Sunday, one at Whitechapel, the 
other in New Bond Street. That at the East-end consisted of a 
Loan Collection of Paintings, &c., organised by the Rey. S. A. 
Barnett, to which the Council on Education contributed largely 
from the National Collection at South Kensington. More than 
2500 persons visited the Exhibition during the day, it being open 
from 2 till 9 p.m, The West-end Exhibition was the first 
Exhibition of the new Society of Painter-Etchers at the Hanover 
Gallery, and this was visited by about 578 members of the 
Sunday Society between the hours of 4 and 6.30 p.m. On 
Sunday, April 24, this Exhibition will be open to ticket-holders, 
Free tickets may be had by all who make a written application, 
inclosing a stamped and addressed envelope to Mr. Mark H. 
Judge, Hon. Sec. of the Sunday Society, 8, Park Place 
Villas, W. 


THE second series of meetings organised by the Sunday 
Evening Association at the Neumeyer Hall was brought to a 
successful close on Easter Sunday by a lecture on ‘‘ Lessing,” 
by Mr. Moncure D, Conway. The hall was crowded, and at 
the close it was announced that the first annual meeting of the 
Association would be held in May, and that in the autumn the 
Committee intended to organise a series of meetings in the 
different Metropolitan suburbs, in order if possible to start local 
branches. The object of the Sunday Evening Association is to 
bring together all persons who, estimating highly the elevating 
influence of music and the sister arts, literature and science, 
desire by means of meetings on Sunday evenings to see them 
more fully identified with the religious life of the people. The 
subscription is 2s. 6d, per annum, which may be paid to the 
treasurer, Mr. Godfrey Shaen, 15, Upper Phillimore Gardens, W. 


WE take the following from the Zlectrician :—The following 
correspondence over the telephone wires yesterday, says the 
Kansas City 7zmes, is a further proof of the fact that no one 
but a bald-headed man covld do without one :—‘‘ Hello, 
central!” ‘*Hello!” ‘Connect me with the signal bureau.” 
‘All right—go ahead.” ‘‘Hello, signal!” ‘ Hello!” ‘Is 
it going to thaw to-day?” ‘* Yes, there are indications.” 
“‘How’s the wind?” ‘‘Getting round to the south,” ‘Do 
you think I can safely have my hair cut?” ‘‘ Wait a minute 
until I consult the barometer, thermometer, and wind gauge.” 
(Silence for half a minute.) ‘‘Hello!” ‘‘Hello!” ‘Yes, 
you can go ahead. There won’t be any change to speak of for 


NATURE 


[ April 21, 1881 


There is a cold wave moving up the 
Ohio River, and a snow-storm is reported at Cheyenne, but if I 
were you I’d take my chances on the hair-cutting.” ‘‘ All right 
—uuch obliged.” ‘* Good bye.” 


Mr. Prounpgs has reprinted, in a separate form, his short 
but interesting paper at the Anthropological Institute, on the 
‘Japanese People: their Origin and the Race as it now 
exists.” 


THE usual meeting of delegates of the Sociétés Savantes takes 
place this week at the Sorbonne on a somewhat enlarged scale. 
It is the first time that members of Parisian societies will meet 
in combination with their provincial brethren. 


A NEW fortnightly journal, Z’Zlectricien, has appeared in 
Paris. 


THE 7Zimes’ Swiss correspondent states that the acclimatisation 
of the ibex in Switzerland would appear to be so far a success, 
The herd which was turned out some time ago in the Grisons is 
reported to have got through the winter without damage and as 
being at present in an excellent state of health. 


A CORRESPONDENT of the Daz/y News points out that the 
exact time of the great Chios earthquake on the 3rd inst. was 
1.50 p.m, 


No. 2 of vol. iii. of the American Antiquarian and Oriental 
Journal (Chicago, Jameson and Morse) contains several contri- 
butions relating to American archeology, especially on the 
mound-builders. The editor, the Rey. S. D. Peet, has an article 
on the military architecture of the emblematic mound-builders, 
and there are various other contributions from various parts of 
the States bearing on the life and works of the prehistoric 
peoples of America. In the Oriental department various inte- 
resting points connected with Eastern antiquities are discussed. 


Pror. CORNELIUS DOELTER of Gritz has safely returned 
from his journey to West Africa. He has brought home 
mineralogical and ethnographical collections, 


THE Report of the West Kent Natural History Society 
speaks of its continued prosperity. It contains an interesting 
address by the President, in which he points out certain im- 
portant bearings of recent researches on light. Speaking of the 
Blackheath holes, the President is inclined to think they are 
over the sites of pockets or pipes in the chalk, and that 
the cause of the subsidence is the drawing away of the 
subsoil by the action of water, the subterranean drainage pro- 
duced by the pumping up of the water by the Kent Water Works 
at Deptford, drawing away sand and chalk in ‘mechanical 
suspension. 


THE following are among the papers in the Zyansactions 
of the Cumberland Association, part v. :—‘‘ Distribution of 
Boulders in West Cumberland,” by J. D. Kendall, F.G.S.; 
* Soul-Cells and Cell-Souls,” from the German of Haeckel, by 
the Rey. C. H. Parez; ‘‘ The Influence of Geological Structure 
on Scenery,” by Mr. Kendall ; ‘‘‘The Local Museum and its 
Relation to the Natural History of the District,” by Mr. James 
Arlosh ; ‘* The Moths of the District,” by Mr. George Dawson ; 
“«The Character and Distribution of the Diatomacez,” by Mr. 
B. Taylor; ‘‘Notes on Inglewood Forest,” by Mr, John 
Jackson. 


An Electric Railway is being laid down in the grounds of the 
Crystal Palace. 


Tue Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia are giving 
Spring courses of instruction in Inyertebrate Palzeontology and 
Mineralogy. 


April 21, 1881 | 


NATURE 


591 


TuE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a}Common Rhea (2/ea americana) from South 
America, presented by Mr. A. D, M. Stewart; a Mountain 
Ka Ka (Nestor notabilis) from New Zealand, presented by Dr. 
A. de Lantour, M.R.C.S.; an Undulated Grass Parrakeet 
(Melopsittacus undulatus) from Australia, two Californian Quails 
(Callip~epla californica) from California, two Common Quails 
(Coturnix communis), a Greenfinch (Ligurinus chloris), a Gold- 
finch (Carduelis elegans), two Chaffinches (/rizgilla celebs), two 
Common Crossbills (Zoxta curvirostra), 2 Common Lapwing 
(Vanellus cristatus), British, a Barred Dove (Geofelia striata), a 
Nutmeg Bird (AZunia undulata) from India, two Rufous-necked 
Weaver Birds (Hyphantornis textor) from West Africa, two 
Mecca Pigeons (Columéa enas, var.), from Tunis, presented by 
Mr. H. H. Johnston; a Green Turtle (Chelone viridis) from 
West Indies, presented by Mr. J. C. Robinson, R.M.S. Dun- 
robin Castle; a Common Viper (Viger berus), two Common 
Snakes (Zvopidonotus natrix), British, presented by Mr. J. Poyer 
Poyer; a Red-faced Saki (Brachyurus rubicundus), a Horrid 
Rattlesnake (Cvotalus horridus) from South America, a Brown 
Bear (Ursus arctos) from Spain, a Great Kangaroo (Macropus 
giganteus), two Ursine Dasyures (Dasyurus ursinus), three 
Vulpine Phalangers (Phalangista vulpina) from Australia, de- 
posited ; a Beisa Antelope (Oryx deisa), a Banded Ichneumon 
(Herpestes fasciatus), a Squirrel-like Phalanger (Phalangista 
sciureus), born in the Gardens. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 


THE SOLAR PARALLAX.—M. Puiseux, in a’communicatioa to 
the Academy of Sciences of Paris, discusses the numerous 
micrometrical measures made during the last transit of Venus 
by MM. Mouchez and Turquet at St. Paul’s, and MM, Fleuriais 
and Bellanger at Pekin. If these observations had possessed a 
high degree of precision he considers that they would have fur- 
nished a very exact value of the solar parallax, but unfortunately, 
so far at least as regards the measures at St. Paul’s Island, the 
conditions were extremely unfavourable ; indeed in a note which 
follows M. Puiseux’s communication Admiral Mouchez remarks 
that the equatorials provided for that station had no special 
appliances for this class of observation, and worse still, ‘les 
observations ont été faites exactement au moment du passage du 
centre d’un violent cyclone, pendant la courte éclaircie qui 
accompagne la plus grande dépression barométrique.” The in- 
struments in fact were more particularly adapted to proposed 
observations of contacts, and were very weakly mounted ; oscil- 
lations were occasioned by the violent wind, so that the prac- 
tised observers had no confidence in their results. Notwithstand 
ing these circumstances M. Puiseux has discussed the measures, 
and from the combination which he regards as the most favour- 
able, where 81 observations that appear affected with consider- 
able errors are rejected, leaving 312 measures for calculation, he 
deduces for the value of solar parallax 9’‘05: the mean value of 
the corresponding residuals is 0”*78, and the extreme residuals 
—1"98 and +2'"15. Considering that under such disadvanta- 
geous conditions the observations accord passably, M. Puiseux 
thinks there are reasonable grounds to expect that with firmly- 
mounted instruments micrometrical measures may be obtained at 
the approaching transit in 1882, which will furnish a pretty 
exact value of the sun’s parallax, 


THE DouBLe-STAR HERSCHEL 3945.—The double-star to 
which Mr, Birmingham drew attention in NATURE last week on 
the score of contrasted colours of the components and variability 
of the principal star has a longer history than is noted in his 
letter. It is found as a single star of sixth magnitude in Bode’s 
Catalogue, from his own observation, and is Canis Majoris 164, 
Lalande observed both components on March 2, 1798, magni- 
ude 5 and 7. On January 23, 1835, Sir John Herschel, 
observing at the Cape, calls them 7 and 8, ‘large star orange: 
small, pale blue” ; and on January 31, 1837, he estimated the 
magnitudes the same: “‘large star, very high yellow; small, 
contrasted blue” ; these observations occur in Sweeps 532 and 
768. Amongst his micrometrical measures we find for the epoch 
1837°153 magnitudes 64 and 7, and for 1$37°301 magnitudes 64 


and 8, with the note ‘‘Orange and green, fine contrast of 
colours.” Next we have three meridian observations of the 
principal star by Argelander in vol. vi. uf the ‘‘ Bonn Observa» 
tions,” on January 26 and March 13 and 14, 1854, magnitudes 
noted, 5°5, 4°5, and 5’0, and one observation of the companion 
on March 23 in the preceding year, when it was estimated 7°5. 
In Heis and Argelander the naked-eye estimate is 5m. The 
components are separately noted in Gould’s Uvanometria 
Argentina A. 5} red, B. 7, The star does not occur in D’Agelet, 
Taylor, or in Argelander’s Southern Zones. The mean place 
for the beginning of the present yearis in R.A. 7h. 11m, 31°80s., 
N.P.D. 113° 6’ 19°4, 


THE ToTaAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1878.—In one of the hand- 
somely-executed volumes which issue from the Government 
Printing Office at Washington, the U.S. Naval Observatory has 
published the detailed reports of the various expeditions organised 
for the observation of the total eclipse of the sun on July 29, 
1878, which possess a high degree of interest. A large number 
of wood-engravings and lithographic plates accompany the 
reports. There is also appended a brief account of the observa- 
tions made in California during the total solar eclipse of January 
II, 1880, 


THE EARTHQUAKE OF NOVEMBER 28, 1880, 
IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND! 


THE data on which the paper has been founded have been 

collected from upwards of fifty stations, and special 
reliance may be placed on the results, as a large proportion of 
these stations were lighthouses, in each of which at the time of 
the occurrence there was a keeper ov watch, the earthquake 
having occurred after sunset at a time when ‘the lamps were 
lighted. 

The paper at the outset gave the effects and nature of the 
shock experienced by various observers at those lighthouse stations 
where the disturbance was felt. 

The data acquired were then discussed, and the following are 
the general conclusions arrived at :— 

1. That the earthquake occurred in November, a month in 
which many of the British earthquakes are recorded as having 
happened. 

2, That it occurred after a wet and stormy period, which had 
been preceded by an unusually dry summer and spzing; that 
there was a widespread thunderstorm at the time, and that the 
barometer was rising slowly over the greater part of the west of 
Scotland ; the average height of the barometer at the lighthouse 
stations at which the earthquake was felt being at 9 a.m. 29°4 
inclies, and at 9 p.m, 29°5 inches. The thermometer at 9 a.m. 
averaged 50° F., and at 9 p.m. 48° F. 

3. That the seismal area was about 19,000 square geographical 
miles, the shock having been felt as far north as the Butt of 
Lewis, as far south as Armagh in Ireland, as far east as Blair 
Athole, and as far west as Barra Head Lighthouse, though how 
much farther it was propagated into the Atlantic it is impossible 
to say. 

4. That the range of the earthquake or distance to which the 
wave was propagated was greater over the sea than over the 
land. 

5. That the earthquake was not a simultaneous shake over the 
disturbed area, but was produced by a wave propagated from a 
centre. 

6. That the undulation seems to have been chiefly of an ‘up 
and down” character like a wave of the sea, and that calculating 
the ‘* breadth” from the mean velocity of transit and the mini- 
mum duration of the shock, the wave appears to have been fully 
1100 feet ‘‘ broad.” 

7. That the observations warrant the assumption that a spot 
near Phladda Lighthouse (north-east of Colonsay) was the 
source, and calculating the velocities of transit with a point 
13 miles south-south-west of Phladda Lighthouse as a centre, 
it appears that the wave travelled with a greater velocity 
over the sea-basin than over the land, probably due to the fact 
that over the sea there was a thinner and lighter crust to throw 
into vibration ; the average velocity on sea journeys being 6°74 
geographical miles per minute, and the average velocity on land 
journeys 4°65 miles per minute, the mean of the whole being 
about 5} miles per minute. 

8. That the source of the earthquake lay at or near the great 

By Charles Alex. Stevenson, B.Sc., Edinburgh, communicated to the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh by Prof. Geikie, F.R.S., March 21, 1881. 


392 


fracture of the earth’s crust which runs in a south-westerly 
direction from Inverness. 

g. That all the observers who heard the noise agree in stating 
that it was a ‘‘rumbling” sound, 

10. That of the fourteen observers within 33 miles of the 
source who felt the shock, thirteen of them mention having 
heard the ruinmbling noise, and none of the other observers in 
Scotland mention noise as an accompaniment of the earthquake, 


and hence that the noise was confined chiefly, if not entirely, to | 


places situated near the source. 

11. That the stations where the noise was heard were for the 
most part situated on hard dense rocks, with little or no soil near 
them. 

12. That the average duation of the disturbance was 4°4 
seconds for observers situated within the sound area, 

13. That of twenty-two lighthouse observers between Cape 
Wrath and the Mull of Galloway who were situated on the older 
formations (Laurentian, Cambrian, and metamorphosed Lower 
Silurian) eleven felt the shock, whilst of thirteen observers 
situated on newer rocks it made itself known only to two of 


them, and that the earthquake was therefore more generally felt | 


on the older rocks of Scotland. 

14. That stations situated near one another and on the same 
formation did not necessarily both receive the shock, and that 
faults and trap dykes did not seem to affect the passage or 
intensity of the wave in any way. 

15. That the observations of time at Armagh, Belfast, and 
Omagh show that the shocks at these places were most probably 


propagated direct from Phladda in Scotland, and that the | 


severity of the shock and the ‘‘rumbling” noises heard in and 


NATURE 


| April 21, 1881 


| 


around Leterkenny were probably due to a second and local 


source of disturbance generated by the arrival of the shock from 
Phladda. 


MAGNETIC DECLINATION * 


T is well known that Prof. Rudolph Wolf has endeavoured 
to render observations of sun-spots made at different times, 
and by different observers, comparable with each other, and has 
thus formed a list exhibiting approximately the relative sun-spot ” 
activity for each year. This list extends back into the seven- 
teeth century, and is unquestionably of much value. Neverthe- 
less it must be borne in mind that we possess no sun-spot data 
sufficiently accurate for a discussion in a complete manner.of 
questions relating to solar periodicity before the time when 
Schwabe had finally matured his system of solar observations, 

which was not until the year 1832. 

We have however 2 much longer series of the diurnal ranges 
of magnetic declination. Now these are already well known to 
follow very closely all the variations of sun-spot frequency, being 
greatest when there are most, and least when there are fewest 
spots ; and it may even be imagined that such ranges give us a 
better estimate of trne solar activity than that which can be 
derived from the direct measurement of spotted areas. 

The long-period inequalities of the diurnal range of magnetic 
declination are thus, we may imagine, precisely those of solar 
activity, so that to analyse the former is probably equivalent to 
analysing the latter. 

2. Our method of analysis is not new. The system pursued 
by us is in fact that which has been pursued by Baxendell, and 


I. 


probably other astronomers, with observations of variable stars, 
and it has already been applied by one of us in a preliminary 
manner to magnetic declination ranges (Proc. Lit. and Phil, 
Society, Manchester, February 24, 1880). 

3. The observations at our disposal are those which have been 
used by Prof. Elias Loomis in his comparison of the mean daily 
range of the magnetic declination with the extent of the black 


spots on the surface of the sun (Amerizan Fournal of Science | 


and Arts, vol.1,, No. cxlix.). These observations are recorded as 
monthly means of diurnal declination range, and we found it 
necessary to multiply each by a certain factor, firstly, on account 
of the well-known annual inequality of declination range, and 
secondly, to bring them all to the standard of the Prague obser- 
vations. 
same corrections as those made by Prof. Loomis. 

_ 4. The result of an analysis of these observations has been to 
indicate the exictence of three inequalities : two dominant ones 
with periods of about 104 and 12 years, and a subsidiary one 
with a period of about 16} years. By these means we have 
beeen enabled to reproduce the observed annual values’ of de- 
clination range with an average difference of 39”. The amount 
of agreement between the observed and calculated values will be 
seen from a diagram which accompanies this note. 
however of opinion that the series of observed values at present 
obtainable is too short to render this analysis a very accurate 
one, It will certainly not bear carrying back forty or fifty years 
beyond its starting-point, which was in 1784, and it would be 
very hazardous to carry it forward any considerable length into 
the future. We may however mention that our calculations 


We are | 


| with a depression of the same. 
We have applied for this latter purpose precisely the | 


indicate a maximum of declination range about 1884, but not so 
pronounced a maximum as that of 1871. i 
5. During our analysis an observation was made by us which 
we think worthy of record. / 
It is a well-known fact that the so-called eleven-yearly oscil- 
lations of declination range are at certain times large, and at 
other times small. Thus, for instance, they have been large for 
the last forty years, but they were small about the earlier part of 
the present century. It is clear to us from an inspection of the 
observations that a series of large oscillations is accompanied — 
with an exaltation of the base line, or line denoting average 
efficiency, while a series of small oscillations is accompanied 
The result is a long-period curve 
of the base line, the beat period, so to speak, of the eleyen- 
yearly inequality. ; 
Now a phenomenon precisely similar occurs in connection 
with shorter periods. If we take inequalities having a period 
of three or four months we find that such are alternately well 
developed or of large range, and badly developed, or of small 
range ; and that a large range of sucli is accompanied with an 
exaltation of the base line or line of average efficiency, while a 
small range is accompanied with a depression of the same, The 
result is a curve of the base line, of which the period is, roughly 
speaking, eleven years. May we not therefore imagine that the 
so-called eleven-yearly period, or, to speak more correctly, the 


x Note on an Attempt to Analyse the Recorded Diurnal Ranges of 
Magnetic Declination.”” By Balfour Stewart, M.A., LL.D., F.R-S., Pro- 
fessor of Natural Philosophy at the Owens College, and William Dodgson. 
Read at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, March.8. 


“ 


April 21, 1881] 


NATURE 


323 


ten and a half and twelve-yearly periods into which the eleven- 
yearly period may perhaps be analysed, may be in reality beat 
periods for shorter disturbances? Is it not therefor= possible 
that a study of these shorter periods may give us information 
regarding the nature of the eleven-yearly period, whether for 
sun-spots or declination ranges, which the small series of actual 
observations is incompetent to afford ? 

We beg to take this opportunity of thanking Mr. William 
Stroud for the help he has given us in this investigation. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


CAMBRIDGE.—At Trinity College the following distinguished 
graduates of the College have been elected Honorary Fellows :— 
Lord Rayleigh, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Experimental 
Physics; Mr. Henry Sidgwick, M.A., Praelector in Moral and 
Political Philosophy, the author of ‘‘ The Method of Ethics” ; 
Mr. Edward Herbert Bunbury, M.A., author of “ A History of 
Ancient Geography,” &c. ; and Mr. William Henry Waddington, 
B.A., Member of the French Institute, late President of the 
Council, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in France. 

The Adams Prize is to be given in 1883 for a general investi- 
gation of the action upon each other of two closed vortices in a 
perfect incompressible fluid. In particular it is suggested that 
the case of two linked vortices should be fully discussed, with 
the view of determining (1) whether any steady motion is 
possible, and (2) whether any motion can occur in which there 
are periodical changes in the forms and dimensions of the 
vortices. Each essay should be accompanied by a full and 
eareful abstract pointing out the parts which the author con- 
siders to be new, and indicating the parts which are to be 
regarded as of more importance than the rest. 
is open to all graduates of Cambridge; essays must be sent in 
on or before December 16, 1882. Essays must not be written 
in the candidate’s own hand. The successful candidate will 
receive about 1707. He must print the essay at his own expense. 
The examiners are the Vice-Chancellor, and Messrs. A. Free- 
man, W. H. Besant, and E. J. Routh. 


VicrorIa UNIVERSITY.—The following summary of draft 
regulations on degrees, examinations, and courses of study has 
been issued :—1. These regulations are, with the exception of 
certain general proposals with reference to University Matricu- 
lation, confined to the subjects of Degrees, Examinations, and 
Courses of Study in the Faculties of Arts and Science. 2. 
According to the proposals in the Report any certified student 
of a College incorporated in the University may matriculate at 
certain times in the year, the definition of College studentship 
being left to the College or Colleges, subject in each case to the 
approval of the University. No Universiry examinations leading 
to a degree will be open to any persons who are not matriculated 
students. 3. According to the proposals in the Report there 
are to be two distinct Faculties of Arts and of Science. The 
degrees in these faculties are to be those of B.A. and M.A., 
B.Sc. and M.Sc., and a Doctorate common to the two Faculties 
and varying as a Doctorate of Literature, of Philosophy, and of 
Science. 4. In consonance with a main principle of the Univer- 
sity Charter, the degrees of B.A. or of B.Sc. are to be conferred 
upon students who have passed certain prescribed University 
examinations, and who have attended certain prescribed Univer- 
sity courses of study in a College of the University. 5. In the 
examinations for the degrees of B.A. and B.Sc., and in the 
privileges:conferred by these degrees, a distinction is to be 
drawn between the Ordinary B.A. or B.Sc. degree, and the 
B.A. or B.Sc. degree with Honours. 6, The regular period of 
study required of candidates for the degrees of B.A. and B.Sc. 
is to be three years, of which two shall be after the date of their 
passing the Preliminary Examination (see § 7 of this summary) ; 
but students who have passed the Preliminary Examination (see 
§ 7 of this summary) next in date after their matriculation, and 
have been placed in the first division of the list of successful 
candidates, shall be allowed to proceed to their degree in two 
years. 7. All candidates for the degrees of B.A. or B.Sc. are 


' required to pass a general examination called the Preliminary 


Examination, and to present themselves for this examination not 
later than two years from the date of their matriculation. 
Regular first year courses of study are arranged as preparatory 
for this Examination, to be taken by all students except those 
who pass it immediately after matriculation (see § 6 above), or 
who go through the first year’s course of one of the Honours 


The competition | 


Schools approved by the University. 8, The subjects of the 
Preliminary Examination are arranged in two groups (A and B), 
in one of which every candidate must pass. ‘The essential 
difference between the two groups is that in A, Latin and Greek 
are compulsory, but that a choice is given between four subjects,” 
including two modern languages and two elementary sciences ; 
while in B a choice is given between the alternatives of two 
languages (ancient or modern) and one elementary science, or 
two sciences and one language (ancient or modern). In B the 
requirements in modern languages and mathematics are rather 
greater than in A. 9. The other examinations for the 
degrees of B.A. and B.Sc. will be open to such students 
only as have passed the Preliminary Examination, and as 
have attended the prescribed University courses of study 
in a College of the University. These further examina- 
tions will differ for students intending to present themselves 
for an Ordinary B.A. degree and for those desirous of a B.A, 
degree with Honours. 10, The degree of B.A. with Honours 
is to imply that a student has attended, during three years, pre- 
scribed courses of study (approved by the University) in a 
distinct branch of learning or science forming the subject of one 
of the Honours Schools of the Faculties of Arts and Science, 
and that he has passed a prescribed examination in such Honours 
School after attending its third year’s course. The Honours 
Schools recommended in the Report for immediate establish- 
ment in the University are those of (1) Classics, (2) English, 
(3) History, (4) Philosophy, (5) Mathematics, (6) Engineering, 
(7) Chemistry, (8) Zoology, (9) Physiology, and (10) Geology, 
Mineralogy, and Palaeontology. For all of these Honours Schools 
the Owens College is prepared to supply classes meeting the 
proposed requirements of the several Schools. 11. The Ordi- 
nary degree of B.A. or B.Sc. is to imply that a student has 
attended, during at least two years, prescribed courses of study 
(approved of by the University) forming a connected whole, and 
that he has passed an examination ‘corresponding to the earlier 
year’s course, to be called the Intermediate Examination, and an 
examination corresponding to the later year’s course, to be called 
the Final Examination. 12. The courses of study, and the 
corresponding examinations, prescribed for the Ordinary degrees 
of B.A. and B.Sc:, and open to the choice. of candidates who 
have passed either group of the Preliminary Examination, vary 
according to the predominance in each course (with its examin- 
ations) of one branch of learning or science. This predomin- 
ance is not however such as to warrant the maintenance of the 
designations given (for convenience’ sake) in the Draft Regula- 
tions of ‘‘mainly Classical, Historical, English, Philosophical, 
Mathematical, Engineering, Experimental Science, and Biologi- 
cal.” Candidates for an Ordinary B.A. or B.Sc. degree may 
choose any of these groups, but must go through the whole two 
years’ course, and pass both the examinations of the group 
chosen. The examinations and classes however largely coincide 
in particular portions of the several groups. 13. With a view 
to encourage more advanced study in special branches of learning 
or science in students whose bent has been determined, or whose 
capabilities have been developed, at a later stage of their Uni- 
versity career, students who have passed the Final Examination 
for an Ordinary B.A. or B.Sc. degree, are to be allowed to 
present themselves for examination for a B.A. or B.Sc. degree 
with Honours, after attending the third, or second and third, 
year’s Honours Course, only in one of the Honours Schools, 
14. The degree of Master of Arts or of Science is to be con- 
ferred upon Bachelors of Arts of three years’ standing, after 
not less than six years from the date of their matriculation. 
B.A.s who have graduated with Honours are not to be required 
to pass any further examination for the M.A. degree ; those who 
have taken she Ordinary B.A. or B.Sc. degree are to be required 
to pass an examination in some portion of one of the Honours 
Schools Examinations. 15. The Doctor’s degree in the Facul- 
ties of Arts or Science is to be conferred upon M.A,s or M.Sce.s 
who have furnished evidence of special research or learning, to 
be supplemented when desirable by an examination test. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 


Bulletin de l Académie Imperiale des Sciences de St, Petersbourg, 
t. xxvii., No. 1, February, 1881. —On the results of experiments on 
the resistance of the air and their application to the solution of pro- 
blems of firing, by M. Mayevski.—On variations of the fur and on 
the geographical distribution of the sea-otter (Zxhydris marina), 
by M. Brandt.—On the integration of partial equations of the 
first order with several variables whose co-efficients are constant, 


594 


NATURE 


[April 21, 1881 


by M. Alexéeff.—On the rotation of Jupiter, by M. Kortazzi.— 
Crystals of beryl from a part of the Southern Oural, by M. 
Kokscharow.—On the formation of some nitrated derivatives of | 
some hydrocarbons of the fatty series by direct action of nitric 
acid, by M. Konowalof.—On the variability of forms of Zudo- | 
mirskia Baicalensis, and on the distribution of sponges of Lake 
Baikal, by M. Dybowski.—On universal time, and on the choice 
for this purpose of a prime meridian, by M. Struve.—Anatomy 
of the lactiferous glands during the period of lactation, by M. 
Saefftizen.—On the spectroscopy of hydrogen, by M. Hasselberg. 

Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienzee Lettere.  Rendiconti, 
vol. xiv. fase. 4 (February 24).—On a method of finding with 
the microscope the adulterations of the more common varieties 
of farina, by Dr. Cattared.—Experimental researches with the 
Crookes’ apparatus, by Prof. Ferrini—On a quadratic Cre- 
monian correspondence between the elements of two fundamental 
forms of the fourth species, or ruled spaces, by S. Aschieri.— 
Considerations on new species of partial blindness in Arachnida, 
by Prof, Pavesi. 

Fasc. 5.—Materials to serve for the study of Peronospora 
viticola, by Count Trevisan.—On primary and secondary psoitis, 
by Prof, Sangallii—The sanitary administration in Spain, by 
Dr. Quechi.—Determination of the maximum moments due to 
weights linked on a supported beam, by Prof. Clericetti.—On 
an abnormal case of fructification in Florideze, by S. Ardissone. 


Revue Internationale des Sciences, February, 1881.—Prof. 
Vulpian, physiological study of poisons, vii. Curare .(end).— 
Prof. R. Lankester, embryology and classification of animals.— 
Fernand Lataste, a few more words on the fecundation of the 
urodele batrachians.—Notices of learned societies.—Belgian 
Academy (abstract of Van Bambeke’s paper on the formation of 
the embryonic lamellze and the notochord in the urodela).—Paris 
Academy: on the appointment of M. Bouley to the Chair of 
Comparative Pathology at the Natural History Museum, Paris. 


Journal de Physique, March.—On the division of instanta- 
neous currents (continued), by M. Brillouin.—On the psychro- 
meter, by M. Angot.—New tourmaline pincer, by M. Bertin.— 


Constitution of the flame of the Bunsen lamp, and some modifi- 
cations in the construction of this lamp, by M. Terquem.— 
On some experiments in acoustics, by M. Neyreneuf. 


Aiti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, vol. v. fasc. 7 (March 6). 
—On solar observations at the Royal Observatory of the Roman 
College in 1880, by P. Tacchini.—Observations of comets and 
planets at the same college with the Merz equatorial, during 
1880, by the same.—M. Janssen’s solar photographs taken at 
Meudon Observatory, by the same.—Thermal laws of the 
exciting spark of condensers, by E. Villari.—On sodio-ammo- 
niacal trimolybdate, by F. Mauro,—Studies on rotatory power, 
by R. Inasinio.—On some compounds of the pyrolic series, 
by L. G. Ciamician.—On the electrophorus, by G. Govi. 
—On pathological bases, by F. Selmi.—On the causes of 
distinctness in solar photographs, by S. Respighi.—On experi- 
ments made at the Observatory of Campidoglio for determina- 
tion of gravity, by the same. 


Sitzunesberichte der naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Isis in 
Dresden (1880).—A modern investigation of the flora of Saxony, 
by Prof. Drude.—On the Pycnodontidz, especially the genus 
Gyrodus, by Prof. Vetter.—The Nudibranchia of the sea, by 
Herr Blaschka.—On the determination of fixed points of normal 
mercury thermometers and the measurement of temperatures, by 
Prof. Neubert.—On various finds in the neighbourhood of 
Dresden, by Dr. Caro.—Hydroid medusz or Craspedotes, by 
Herr Blaschka.—Progress of geological researches in North 
America, by Dr. Geinitz.—On plant-remains from the Tertiary 
formations of Liebolitz and Putschein, by Herr Engelhardt. 
—Observations on the growth of the leaf of Victoria regia, 
Lindl., in the Dresden Botanical Gardens in 1880, by Prof. 
Drude.—The Slav and German immigration into Saxony, by 
Prof. Meitzen.—The urn-field of Persia, by Herr Wiechel. 


Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, No. 3, March 15. 
Swiss geological review for 1880 (continued) by M. Favre..— 
Considerations on the study of phyllotaxy, by M. de Candolle. 
—Notice of researches by Drs. Tenchini and Staurenghi, on the 
anatomy of the human cerebellum. 


Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, No. 5, March 15.—On Reese’s 
fusing disk, by Prof. Bombicci.—Volta’s pile rendered constant 
and depolarised, by Count Mocenigo. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LoNnDON 


Royal Society, March 31.—On the coefficients of expansion 
of the iodide of lead, and of an alloy of iodide of lead with 
iodide of silver, by G. F. Rodwell, Science Master in Marl- 
borough College. 

The iodide of lead was examined by the special means 
described by the author in former communications to the 
Society, and was found to possess three coefficients of expansion, 
Between 0° and 205° C. the coefficient of cubical expansion for 
ta ee 00007614, increasing to ‘00008307 between 205° and 
253° C. 

Between 253° and 265° C. the mass expanded very rapidly, 
with a coefficient nearly eight times greater than the preceding, 
viz. ‘0006378. After the subsidence of this rapid expansion the 
coefficient became ‘ooo180. The volumes of the iodide between 
o° and the fusing point (383° C.) are given, and are shown in a 
curve-table, 

Iodide of lead was fused with iodide of silver in such 
proportions as to form an alloy containing one molecule 
of each constituent, viz. PbI,, AgI. This contains 66*20 
per cent. of iodide of lead, and 33°80 per cent. of iodide 
of silver. The melting-point of the alloy was found to be 350° 
C., the specific gravity 5*912. On heating it was found to 
expand under a very low coefficient between o° and 118° C. ; 
then it neither expanded nor contracted while heated through 6° 
C.; at 124° C. it commenced to contract, and underwent 
between 124° and 139° C.as much contraction as iodide of silver 
itself ; again it was stationary for 5° C., and at 144° C, it began 
to expand again, with a much higher coefficient than it possessed 
between o° and 118° C, 

The following are some noticeable points about the alloy :— 

1. It possesses similar densities at three different temperatures, 

2. Although it contains only 33°8 per cent. of iodide of silver 
it contracts as much during heating as the iodide of silver itself. 

3. While the iodide of silver commences to contract at 142° 
C., and terminates at 145°°5 C., the alloy commences to contract 
18° C, lower, and terminates its contraction 6°°5 C. lower. 

4. The harsh sounds emitted during the cooling of the alloy, 
and the tremors simultaneously propagated through its mass, 
prove that violent molecular agitation is taking place while the 
iodide of silver is passing from the amorphous plastic condition, 
into the brittle crystalline condition within the mass of, or 
surrounded by the molecules of, the iodide of lead. 

5. The fusing-point of the alloy is 33° lower than that of the 
iodide of lead, which constitutes two-thirds of its weight, and 
177° lower than that of the iodide of silver, which constitutes 
one-third of its weight. 

6. And if this is due to the fact that similar particles of 
matter attract each other more powerfully than dissim lar, and 
hence that when the particles of two bodies are mutually diffused 
the attraction becomes Jess than that of the molecules of either 
one of them singly, and the molecular motion is hence more 
easily assimilated, the same cause may explain the commence- 
ment of the phase of contraction on heating the alloy at a tem- 
perature 18° C. lower than that of the iodide of silver to which 
it owes this property. 

7. If we compare one of the chlorobromiodides of silver, 
before described by the author (Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xxv. 
p- 295) with the lead-silver iodide alloy, some curious anomalies 
present themselves. The alloy, AgI, AgBr, AgCl (lately also 
discovered as a mineral), contains 41°484 per ceut. of iodide of 
silver, and 58°516 per cent. of the chloride and bromide of 
silver (which from an expansion point of view may be regarded 
as the same substance, because their co-efficients are practically 
the same). But although the mean coefficients of expansion of 
the chloride and bromide scarcely exceed those of the iodide of 
lead, and although the chlorobromiodide contains § per cent. more 
iodide of silver than the lead-silver iodide alloy, the amount of 
contraction by heat of the latter is more than twenty times greater 
than that of the former, although we must believe this effect to 
be solely due in each case to the presence of the iodide of silver. 


Mathematical Society, April 14.—S. Roberts, F.R.S., 
president, in the chair.—The chairman briefly, but feelingly, 
alluded to the loss the Society had sustained by the recent death 
of Mr. T. Cotterill, M.A., formerly Fellow of St. John’s Col- 
lege, Cambridge, who was for many years a uiember of the 
Council, and had always taken a warm interest in the Society. 


April 21, 1881 | 


NATURE 


4 


\ 
595 


—The following communications were made :—On the geodesic 
curvature of a curve on a surface, Prof. Cayley, F.R.S.—On 
operative symbols in the differential calculus, Prof. Crofton, 
F,R.S.—Note on the resolution in factors of numbers differing 
but slightly from 7, Mr. J, W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S.—On the 
nature of the quadric represented by the general equation of the 
second degree in tetrahedral co-ordinates, and on the five focal 
quadrics of a cyclide, Mr. H. Hart, M.A.—‘the discrimination 
of the maximum or minimum path of a ray of light reflected at 
a given curve, Mr. H. M. Taylor, M.A.—On certain tetrahedra 
specially related to four spheres meeting in a point, and his- 
torical note on Dr. Graves’s theorem on confocal conics, the 
President. 


Physical Society, April 9.—Prof. W. G. Adams in the 
chair.—Prof. Helmholtz was elected an honorary member of the 
Society, and Dr. James Moser an ordinary member.—Dr. 
J. H. Gladstone read a note on thermal electrolysis, by himself 
and Mr. Alfred Tribe. The authors found that when sheet- 
silver was plunged into fused silver chloride or iodide of silver 
crystals of silver formed on the sheet. When copper was im- 
mersed in fused cuprous chloride copper erystals deposited on it, 
and when zinc was placed in melted zinc chloride or iron in melted 
ferrous chloride, these two metals crystallised on the plates. They 
found this to be due not to a difference in the physical condition of 
the rolled metals, but to the unequal heating of the different parts 
of the immersed metals. By the contact theory of voltaism 
there will be a difference of potential between the metal and the 
liquid chloride in contact with it, and this difference of potential 
will fvary with temperature. Since all parts of the immersed 
metal cannot be supposed at the same temperature always, there is 
the possibility of a current being set up and consequent electrolysis 
of the salt. This view was corroborated by heating the metal un- 
equally, when a crop of crystals appeared in the cooler part of 
the liquid. Again, two silver rods connected together were 
plunged, the one in a hotter, the other in a cooler part of fused 
silver chloride, and at the end of fifteen minutes the latter was 
studded with crystals of silver, whilst the former was clean. A 
galvanometer showed a stronger current between the rods, the 
greater the difference of temperature between the parts of the 
fluid in which they were placed, and transposing the rods reversed 
this current. These experiments bear on the nature of voltaic 
action, and form a lecture-illustration of the conversion of heat 
into electricity and chemical force. Mr. W. H, Walenn stated that 
he had found when zinc is immersed in an electro-brassing solution, 
crystals of brass (7.¢., zinc and copper) were deposited on it,— 
Capt. Abney exhibited a number of photographic negatives 
taken by himself and Col. Festing, by radiation through thin 
sheets of ebonite. The light from the positive pole of an electric 
lamp was sent through a thin sheet of ebonite ;4 inch thick, 
and photographs taken showed the radiation to havea low wave-~ 
length, from 8000 to 14,000. The carbon points of the lamp 
could be photographed through the sheet, and Col. Festing 
observed the sun’s disk through it. The ebonite showed a grained 
structure, and different samples of ebonite gave different results, 
but all gave some result in course of time at least ; old ebonite, 
like that used in some of Mr. Preece’s experiments, scattering the 
light more than new ebonite.—Dr. Moser exhibited the passage 
of the rays through the ebonite to the audience by means of a 
galvanometer. Prof. Guthrie observed that Capt. Abney had 
proved that light as well as heat traversed the ebonite, and 
Dr. Coffin stated that the composition of ebonite apparently the 
same might vary considerably, and hence its radiant transparency 
might vary too.—Prof. Helmholtz addressed the meeting on 
the localisation of objects by the eyes. We estimate distance 
with one eye by the outlines of the more distant objects being 
covered by the nearer ones where they meet, and by the shadows 
thrown by the anterior objects. These conditions are very rarely 
overpowered by others, as, for instance, binocular vision. This 
is shown by Dove’s pseudoscope and the fact that closing or 
blinding one eye makes little difference to the power of judging 
distance, e-pecially when not very close to the eye. The relative 
shifting of objects, as the eye is moved from side to side, or to 
and fro, or up and down, which may be called the parallax of 
motion of the head, is also a strong factor in estimating distance. 
The author had concluded from a study of the stereoscope that the 
perception of the absolute convergence of our eyes is very indistinct, 
and that only differences of convergence related to apparently 
near or disjant objects produce the stereoscopic effect. Recent 
observations of his show that the incongruity between the degree 
of convergence and the parallax of motion is perceived with great 


~ 

accuracy. Dr. Stone remarked that a person suddenly blinded 
in one eye acquires a vew judgment of distance by moving the 
head (a habit seen in nocturnal birds), and in taking certain 
French stereoscopic pictures the camera is shifted to another 
point, so that the combined images produce an impression of 
smallness in the object. These facts corroborated Prof. Helm- 
holtz’s view ; and Mr. Lewis Wright pointed out that santonin, 
which changes the sense of colour, also appears to change the 
sense of distance, perhaps by relaxing the muscular sense. 


Geological Society, April 6.—J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., vice- 
president, in the chair.—Edward F. Boyd, Lieut. Herbert de 
Haga Haig, R.E. ; J. C. Margetson, Edward David Price, and 
James Tonge were elected Fellows of the Society.—The fol- 
lowing communications were read :—The microscopic characters 
of the vitreous rocks of Montana, U.S., by F. Rutley, F.G.S., 
with an appendix by James Eccles, F.G.S.—On the microscopic 
structure of devitrifed rocks from Beddgelert, Snowdon, and 
Skomer Island, by F. Rutley, F.G.S.—The date of the last 
change of level in Lancashire, by T. Mellard Reade, C.E., 
F.G.S. The author described some observations made by him 
at Blundellsands, on the coast of Lancashire, near Liverpool, 
according to which, judging from the position of high-water 
mark, the land had gained considerably upon the sea between 
1866 and 1874. The author adduced evidence in support of his 
view, and concluded that if the last change of level in South- 
West Lancashire was a downward one it could not have taken 
place within 2500 years. 


Institution of Civil Engineers, April 5.—Mr. Brunlees, 
F.R.S.E., vice-president, in the chair.—The paper read was on 
the actual lateral pressure of earthwork, by Mr. B. Baker, 
M. Inst. C.E. 


EDINBURGH 


Royal Society, April 4.—Prof. Balfour in the chair.—Prof. 
Tait communicated the results of his experiments on the pressure 
errors of the Challenger thermometers, the correction for which, 
as originally furnished to the expedition, was 0°°5 F. per mile of 
depth. The mode of experimenting was to subject the thermo- 
meters to considerable pressure in a hydraulic press, which was 
essentially a strong steel cylinder that was warranted to stand 
a pressure of 25 tons weight on the square inch. It was 
supported in an upright position upon a strong tripod stand. 
Water was filled in from above ; and into the upper end of the 
cylinder there was lowered a tight-fitting plug which was fixed 
in position by a transverse steel bolt. The lower end of the 
cylinder was connected through a narrow copper tube to a 
hydraulic pump, which, by pumping in water to the cylinder, 
raised the pressure to the required amount. At three tons pres- 
sure an average effect of 1°°5 F. was produced upon the inclosed 
thermometers. Before drawing any conclusions as to the cor- 
rection to be applied in deep-sea sounding, it was necessary to 
consider how far this effect could be explained as resulting 
from the peculiar conditions under which the experiments were 
made. From the known compressibility of glass it was calcu- 
lated that the volume of the bore of a thermometer tube, closed 
at both ends, would be diminished by only one-thousandth part 


for an increase of pressure of one ton weight on the square 
inch ; and from a direct experiment made with a metre-long 
tube this was proved to represent very approximately the real 
effect. Hence it was quite out of the question that this could 
have any appreciable effect on such comparatively short thermo- 
meters as those of the Challenger, which were besides subject 
to much graver errors, such as those arising from the shifting of 
the indices during the ascent from the depths, or even from the 
effect of parallax when taking the reading. The direct action of 
pressure may then be disregarded, and the effect produced upon 
the thermometers in the compression apparatus must be due to 
secondary effects of pressure, such as evolution of heat, The 
various sources of heat were four: 1. Heating of the water by 
compression. This depends greatly on the original temperature 
of the water, being z7/ at the point of maximum density (40° F.), 
and larger for higher temperatures. One-fourth of the total 
effect is due to this. 2. Heating of the water due to pumping 
in through the narrow tube. This accounts for three-twentieths 
of the effect. 3. Heating of the vulcanite frame by compression, 
This explains another fifth. 4. Heating due to the effect upon 
the protecting bulb. This probably explains the remaining two- 
fifths of the effect. In this last case however there is not only 
compression, but distortion ; and of the thermal effects of such a 
strain no one yet knows anything. These four sources of error 


596 


NA TORE 


| April 21, 1881 


cannot be supposed to exist under the conditions in which deep- 
sea temperatures are taken; and the only other possible source, 
that namely due to the direct effect of pressure, gives rise to an 
error which requires a correction of only 0°04 F. per mile of 
depth. In the course of the description of experiments Prof. 
Tait had occasion to describe the various kinds of pressure- 
gauges which he had found it necessary to device, the ordinary 
forms of gauge being altogether useless for scientific work.— 
Mr. W. W. J. Nicol read a paper on the action of heat on 
thioformanilide, being an account of experiments he had made 
in Prof. Hoffman’s laboratory at Berlin during the preceding 
winter.—Mr. Patrick Geddes read the second instalment of bis 
scheme for the classification of statistics. In it he discussed the 
arrangement of statistics relating directly to the organi-ms of the 
society. Three great parallel classes, A, B, C, were formed : 
A being concerned with the sowrce of the organisms forming a 
community as arising from survival], immigration, and birth ; C 
with the oss, from emigration and death ; while B contained the 
biological and social characteristics of the individuals forming a 
community at any given instant of time. Classes A and B 
formed the one side and C the other side of the social balance 
sheet. In treating of occupations the same three classes appeared 
again: A dealing with operations on matter and energy, B with 
services rendered to society (including education, government, 
&c.), and C forming the class of the essentially unproductive, 
eg. the unemployed, the disabled, the destructive, &c. The 
question of partition, both mediate and ultimate, amongst the 
organisms of matter and energy fell ngxt for discussion; and 
this led on to the final classification of uses made after partition, 
in all of which it was shown that the classification fitted natur- 
ally into the three original classes, A, B, and C, indicated above. 
In a future paper Mr. Geddes hoped to demonstrate the practical 
value of his system. 


VIENNA 


Imperial Academy of Sciences, April 7.—L. Fitzinger in 
the chair.—The ‘following papers were read :—Dr, G. Becka, 
on the orbit of the ‘“‘Ino” planet (No. 173).—Dr. E. Ludwig, 
on a new method for the quantitative determination of uric acid, 
—Dr. D. Dublier, on the influence of continual use of carbonate 
of soda on the composition of the blood.—Dr. James Moser, 
electrostatic investigations especially into the ramification of 
induction on the differential inductometer and electgophorus. — 
Dr. Moritz Holl, on the blood-vessels of the placenta of man.— 
L. Haitinger, on nitro-olefines. 


Imperial Institute of Geology, March 15,—E. Kittl, on a 
recent find of Listriodon (found at Nussdorf, near Vienna, in 
1879).—Dr. E. Mojssisowics, on the cephalopod-fauna of the 
Triassic formations at Mora d’Ebro, in Spain.—K. M. Paul, 
on the occurrence of ozokerite and petroleum at Boryslaw 
(Gallicia). 

April 5.—E. Kittl, on Bohemian spas.—Baron H, Fullon, 
observations on crystallisation.—Dr. V. Hilber, on the terminal 
stratifications of gypsum in Eastern Gallicia. 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, April 11.—M. Wurtz in the chair.— 
The following papers were read :—On peroxide of ethyl, by M. 
Berthelot. This may be prepared by sending through anhydrous 
ether, for several hours, a slow current of quite dry and strongly 
ozonised oxygen. The formation of oxygenated water by action 
of ozone on ether is not immediate, but by destruction of a first 
compound, viz. peroxide of ethyl. This substance is a sesqui- 
oxide C,,H)0,.—On the Eulerian integral of the second 
species, by M, Gyldén.—Researches on the liquefaction of 
gaseous mixtures, by MM. Cailletet and Hautefeuille. Operating 
with a gas easily liquefiable and a so-called permanent gas, in 
capillary tubes, total liquefaction (yielding a homogeneous liquid) 
is obtained by first compressing the mixture at a temperature so 
high that the strongest pressures prove powerless to abolish the 
gaseous state, then lowering the temperature regularly, so that 
all points of the tube pass at the same time through the tempera- 
ture at which is produced a change of state. The authors thus 
obtained condensed carbonic acid, holding a large proportion of 
oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen, these latter substances concurring 
to form the liquid, though the temperature was too high for 
them to exist separately in that state. The results of experiment 
with cyanogen and carbonic acid are analysed. The assimilation 
(generally very imperfect) of solution of a gas to its liquefaction 
probably here applies. The mixture retains its characters at 


temperatures considerably above that corresponding to the critical 
point of its less easily liquefied element.—On the lines of iron in 
the sun, by Mr. N. Lockyer. He shows reason for believing that 
iron does not exist in the heart of the sun, but only its consti- 
tuents, and these exist at different levels in the sun’s atmosphere 
and produce more complex forms by condensation.—On pucerons 
attacked by a champignon, by MM. Cornu and Brongniart, 
The insect belongs to the cycle of development of 7exaneura 
rubra, which produzes the red galls of elm. The fungus is a 
Pleospora ; it attacks the dead puceron, It is probably incapable 
of affecting much the multiplication of phylloxera.—On the 
integration of linear equations by means of Abelian functions, 
by M. Poincaré.—On formule of representation of functions, 
by M. du Bois-Reymond.—Stndy of the vapour of bisulphy- 
drate of ammonia, by M. Isambert. The substance is less 
volatile in presence of its elements than 27 vacuo, or in an inert 
gas such as hydrogen.—On chlorides, bromides, and iodides of 
sulphur, by M. Ogier. A thermo-chemical study.—On the 
development of 7Z7icuspidaria nodulosa or Trienophorus nodu- 
osus of Rudolph, and on its cysticercus, by M. Megnin. The 
perches of the Seine are greatly affected by this parasite at 
present,—Studies on some points of the anatomy of Sternaspis 
scutata, by M. Rietsch.—On the different species of bears 
whose remains are buried in the cavern of Lherm (Ariege), by 
M. Filhol. Remains of an enormous Ursus arctos (appa- 
rently) have been found among about 100 bones of Ursus 
speleus. M. Filhol doubts the descent of the former bear 
from the latter. |'e supposes that Uysas arctos, appearing in 
distant regions (perhaps North America), gradually advanced and 
was substituted in our countries for Ursus speleus. Bone frag- 
ments of a new type of bear have been found in this cave. The 
author names it Ursus Gaudryi. ‘The fossil femur of an enor- 
rrous lion has also been found,—Preduction of a hydrated 
silicate of baryta in crystals, by M. Le Chatelier. This appears 
on the inner surface of vessels of baryta water left standing 
uncleaned a long time.—On the production of a crystalline 
phosphide of iron and of anorthite felspar in the fires of the 
Commentry coal-pits, by M. Mallard.—On the swelling of the 
Seine during the winter of 1881, by M. Lemoine. The Seine 
at Paris has been pretty high from the middle of January to the 
middle of March. Usually (as M. Belgrand has shown) the 
maximum of flood at Paris is due to the waters of small torrential 
rivers mostly in the upper part of the valley and issuing from 
impermeable strata. But last winter, it is chiefly the rivers 
nearest Paris, those of Brie, that, by their quite unusual swelling, 
have brought on the maximum (which has therefore come with 
great rapidity). The subsoil of La Brie is like a sponge, and 
when it is gorged with water the least rain causes important 
floods. 


CONTENTS PaGE 
Srr Witi1aM Herscuet, II]. By J. R. Hinp, F.R.S. . . » - - 573 
BRITISHOFISHES; @ 40) «oe se ele eo pee 


Our Book SHELF :— 
“* Proceedings of the Aberdeenshire Agricultural Association” . . 
“« Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society”” . . - . + 577 
LreTTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 


The New Museum of Natural History.—F.G. S. . . 577 
The Tide Predicter.—Sir Wrtt1am THOMSON, F.R.S.. . + - .« 578 
Geological Relations of Gold in Nova Scotia—Principal J. W. 
DAWSON, EUR.S. 05. eins un ot age Biens sel cn ne 
Symbolical Logic.—Hucu McCorr . . . . . »« « « = « 578 
Agricultural Communism in Greece. —W. Marrtreu WILLIAMS 579 
Heat of Stellar Masses.—Sami. J. WALLACE . . . «© « « 579 
Shadows Cast by Venus.—Cuas. T. WHITMELL. . - . = - 579 
The Sparrow and Division of Labour.—G,. C. WALLICH . 579 
Sir Puivip p—E Mapas Grey Ecerron, M.P., F.R.S. . . . - . 579 
Tur Screntiric PrincrPpLes INVOLVED IN WuKcrric Licntinc. By 
Prof. W. Grytis ADAMS, F.R.S.  . 2. 2s + 2 6 © «+ = 580 
Tue FRENCH AssOcIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT 
Atcrurs. By Gi. RODWECL 2°. “. (Ofe Sr crepe) ees ee 
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(With, Chard) rane x00 2) 0 day oe (wie mot fu a) Teh eevee nel - 583 
Primitive MarriaGE Customs. By D.MacLennan . . . - 584 
NOTES 2.) fe che eo ne vel alia nal le) ete: ore) a tata aE SE 
Our AsTRONOMICAL COLUMN :— 


‘Ghe/Solar Parallax s-.ermis woud + oe nee BY & oe) 0 eben 
The Double-Star Herschel 3945+ - » - +.+ + + + = + + + SOX 


The Total Solar’Eclipse of 1878. . . » «© «© «- + « © + = ~ 5OX 
THE EARTHQUAKE OF NOVEMBER 28, 1880, IN SCOTLAND AND 
IrELAND. By CHARLES ALEX. STEVENSON, B.Sc. . . « - « - 59% 
Macneric DECLINATION. By Prof. BaLFour Stewart, M.A., LL.D., 
F.R.S. (With Diagram) . ee es) So 8. ta) 0 aa 
Universiry AND EpuCATIONAL INTELLIGENCR . - « « + + + + 593 
Scimnririe Sears): % 6 see Be ae. +e 22S 5) P| 
SocreTigs:-AND:ACADEMIES . «© ¢ «© “¢ (8 os "eis #6 te me os OW 


“which the double cyanides form with ammonia. 


THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1881 


SCIENTIFIC WORTHIES- 


XVII.—ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN 


mls value of a life devoted to original scientific work 

is measured by the new paths and new fields 
which such work opens out. In this respect the labours 
of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen stand second to those of no 
chemist of his time. Outwardly the existence of such a 
man, attached, as Bunsen has been from the first, exclu- 
sively to his science, seems to glide silently on without 
causes for excitement or stirring incident. His inward 
life however is on the contrary full of interests and of 
incidents of even a striking and exciting kind. The dis- 
covery of a fact which overthrows or remodels our ideas 
on a whole branch of science ; the experimental proof of 
a general law hitherto unrecognised ; the employment of 
a new and happy combination of known facts to effect an 
invention of general applicability and utility; these are 
the peaceful victories of the man of science which may 
well be thought to outweigh the high-sounding achieve- 
ments of the more public professions. 

Prof. Bunsen is eminently a soldier of science, his 
devotion to his flag has been unwavering and life-long, 
and his whole existence has been a noble struggle for the 
mastery of nature’s secrets. Born on March 31, 1811, at 
Gottingen, where his father was Professor of Theology, 
Bunsen graduated in that ancient University before he 
had passed through his teens, and published an inaugural 
dissertation, ‘‘Enumeratio ac descriptio hygrometorum.” 
Soon afterwards, at the age of twenty-two, he became a 
privat-docent at the university of his’ native town, thus 


“entering the career of a teacher, which he has consistently 
‘followed with conspicuous suecess for close on half a 


century. In 1836 Bunsen became Professor’ of Che- 
mistry at the Polytechnic School in Cassel; in 1838 
he was appointed to the Chair of Chemistry in the 
University of Marburg, where he remained for thirteen 
years; afterwards he was for a short time at Breslau, 
whence he removed to Heidelberg, of which renowned 
University he has been one of the chief ornaments and 
attractions for the last thirty years. 

Bunsen’s first scientific investigation was fone which 
attracted general attention, and the results of which are 
of permanent importance. In conjunction with Berthold, 
a colleague at Gottingen, he showed that moist freshly 
precipitated ferric hydroxide acts as a certain antidote in 
cases of poisoning by arsenic, provided that it is exhibited 
in sufficient quantity and early enough in the history of 
the case. The explanation of this action is the for- 
mation of an insoluble ferrous arsenite; 100 parts of 
the dry hydroxide carry down from five to six parts 
of arsenic. So well known and valued is this anti- 
dote in Germany, that it is kept by apothecaries ready 
for use. 

‘In 1835 Bunsen described some singular compounds 
He 
contradicted the general statement that ammonium 


“ferrocyanide is formed by boiling ~prussian’ blue ‘with 


‘ammonia; but showed that it is formed by“ digesting 
VoL, xx11I1.—No,. 600 


NATURE 


LF, 


lead ferrocyanide with ammonium carbonate. He also 
measured the angles of crystals of many of the double 
cyanides. : 

In 1837 he struck the first note of one of his most 
important and fruitful investigations in a memoir on 
the existence of arsenic as a constituent of organic bodies. 
In the year 1760 the French chemist Cadet had observed 
that a mixture of acetate of potash and white arsenic 
yields, when heated, a heavy brownish-red liquid, which 
has a frightful smell and fumes strongly in the air, and 
this liquid was termed Cadet’s fuming arsenical liquid. 
Little more than the fact of its existence was ascertained 
concerning this body until Bunsen undertook its examina- 
tion, and in a series of memoirs which have now become 
classical, and which extended over many years, placed its 
composition in a true light, thus giving to the world the 
first member of the now well-known family of the organo- 
metallic bodies. 

Bunsen showed that Cadet's liquid, as well as its 
numerous derivatives, contains a radical having the 
formula C,H,As, and that this substance in its chemical 
relations exhibited striking analogies with a metal, being 
indeed, as he terms it, “a true organic metal.”” He suc- 
ceeded in isolating this body, and this discovery formed 
not only the starting-point for the preparation of hundreds 
of other similar bodies, but also contributed largely to the 
development of one of the most important of our chemical 
theories, that of compound radicals. This body, like 
most of its compounds, possesses a most offensive odour, 
so much so that the air of a room containing a trace of 
the vapour is rendered absolutely unbearable. Hence to 
this substance Bunsen gave the name of Cacody]l (kaxdéns, 
a bad smell). Not only however are these compounds 
unpleasant, but they are highly poisonous, very volatile, 
dangerously explosive, and spontaneously inflammable. 
It is difficult enough nowadays for a chemist to work with 
such substances armedias he is with a knowledge of the 
danger which he has to encounter, as also with improved 
appliances of every kind to assist him in overcoming his 
difficulties. But Bunsen forty years ago was a traveller 
in an unknown and treacherous land, without sign-posts to 
guide him, or more assistance on his journey than was 
furnished by his own scientific acumen and his unfaltering 
determination. Nor did he escape scot-free from such a 
labour, for in analysing the cyanide of cacodyl the com- 
bustion tube exploded, Bunsen lost the sight of an eye, 
and for ‘weeks lay between life and death owing to the 
combined effects of the explosion and the poisonous nature 
of the vapour. “This substance,” he writes, “is extra- 
ordinarily poisonous, and for this reason its preparation 
and purification can only be carried on in the open air ; 
indeed, under these circumstances it is necessary for the 
operator to breathe through a long open tube so as to 
ensure the inspiration of air free from impregnation with 
any trace of the vapour of this very volatile compound. 
If only a few grains of this substance be allowed to 
evaporate in a room at the ordinary temperature, the 
effect upon any one inspiring the air is that of sudden 
giddiness and insensibility, amounting to complete un- 
consciousness.” 

Taking a totally different direction, Bunsen’s next im- 
portant investigations were concerned with the examina- 
tion of the chemical changes which occur in the blast- 

DD 


598 


NATURE 


| April 28, 1881 


furnace. In 1838 he proved, by accurate analyses of the 
gases escaping, “that at least 42 per cent. of the heat 
evolved from the fuel employed is lost, and that in view 
of the ease with which such combustible gases can be 
collected and led off to a distance for subsequent use, a 
new and important source of economy in the iron manu- 
facture is rendered possible.’’ This research is however 
not only noteworthy as pointing the way to a method of 
economical working without which probably but few iron- 
masters at the present day could exist, but also as being 
the first experiment in which an accurate method of gas- 
analysis was employed. This important branch of ana- 
lytical chemistry has been created and brought to its 
present wonderful degree of precision solely by the head 
and hands of the Heidelberg experimental philosopher. 
Simplicity and accuracy constitute the rare merits of 
Bunsen’s system of gaseous analysis. To have gone 
completely through his course of gas analytical manipu- 
lations from the sealing-in of the platinum wires in the 
eudiometer to the absorption- and explosion-analyses of 
the Heidelberg coal-gas, under the eye and with the 
guilding help of the hand of the master, is in itself an 
experimental education of no mean order. But it is only 
on reference to his “ Gasometric Methods” that we learn 
the general adaptability of this marvellously accurate 
system to all those numerous problems in which the 
analysis of a mixture of gases is required. 

Next in order (1841) comes the invention of the Bun- 
sen battery, an invention which has proved of the greatest 
practical value to mankind, inasmuch as this form of 
battery is now very largely used all over the world, not 
only as a Scientific instrument, but also for ordinary tele- 
graphic purposes. The chief point in this invention con- 
sists in the employment of carbon as the negative pole 
in place of copper or platinum. In his first communica- 
tion on this subject, Bunsen accurately measures the 
absolute intensity of the current from his zinc-carbon 
battery, and compares it with that of a Grove (zinc- 
platinum) battery, invented a short time before by Sir 
William Grove. 

Bunsen’s next great achievement consists in the in- 
vestigation from both the chemical and the physical 
point of view of the volcanic phenomena of Iceland. 
The several memoirs on this subject are the result of a 
visit to Iceland in 1847. They consist, in the first place, 
of a careful and extended series of analyses giving the 
average composition of the volcanic rocks of different 
ages occurring in the island, upon which he founded a 
most important and very general theory of volcanic action, 
a theory which he has since proved is applicable to the 
formation of other volcanic rocks of widely different origin, 
both as regards time and locality. This theory consists, 
to begin with, in a proof that all the Islandic rocks, of 
whatever age, may be considered as mixtures in varying 
proportions of two normal silicates, the trachytic and 
pyroxenic. In the first of these (an acid silicate) the rela- 
tion of the oxygen of the acid to that of the bases is as 
3 :0°596, whilst in the latter (a basic silicate) the relation 
is as 3:1°998. This result, accompanied by an experi- 
mental proof that the melting-point of different bodies is 
differently raised under increase of pressure, led Bunsen to 
assume that a crystallisation of these two normal silicates 
occurs in the earth’s interior, and that all the eruptive 


rocks which reach the surface consist either of one or 
other of these or of mixtures of the same. In the next 
place they contain a full and successful research on the 
so-called pseudo-volcanic phenomena of Iceland, in which 
he investigates the formation of zeolites and other crystal- 
line minerals by the joint action of heat, acid gases, and 
moisture on the volcanic rocks. He also examines the 
composition of the fumerolle gases as well as those 
issuing from the crater of Hecla, and explains the nature 
of the changes effected by these gases on the surround- 
ing rocks. Lastly, he investigates the far-famed Great 
Geyser, and places the cause of the periodic eruption of 
boiling water on its true physical basis. His accurate 
observations on the spot, first as to the construction of 
the geyser-tube, then as to its mode of formation, and 
finally, his thermometric measurements of the tempera- 
ture of the water-column taken a few moments before 
the eruption and at different depths, disposed once for all 
of what may be called the old tea-kettle theory, and 
showed indisputably that in no part of the tube did the 
water reach the temperature of ebullition under the pres- 
sure of the superincumbent column, whilst the column is 
quiescent, but that when the geyser column is elevated by 
the rush of steam from the volcanic vents at the bottom, 
the boiling-point of the water at each point of the column 
thus raised is reached, and “the whole mass from the 
middle downward suddenly bursts into ebullition, the 
water above mixed with steam-clouds is projected into the 
atmosphere, and we have the Geyser eruption in all its 
grandeur. By its contact with the air the water is 
cooled, falls back into the basin, partially refills the tube 
in which it gradually rises, and finally fills the basin as 
before. Detonations are heard at intervals, and risings 
of the water in the basin. These are so many futile 
attempts at an eruption, for not until the water in the 
tube comes sufficiently near its boiling-point to make the 
lifting of the column effective can we have a true 
eruption ” (Tyndall). 

To do justice to all the contributions with which Bunsen 
has enriched our science would fill several numbers of 
NATURE, and to many of them the writer must content 
himself with a mere cursory reference. One of his 
favourite and fruitful themes was the preparation by 
electrolysis of the rarer or more difficultly procurable 
metals. This is one of the purposes for which he 
employed his battery. Metallic magnesium was one of 
the first of his preparations of this kind, and in the 
description of this preparation his fertility of resource is 
clearly seen. Metallic magnesium in the molten state is 
specifically lighter than the fused mixture of salts from 
which it is obtained. Hence as soon as a globule of the 
metal is formed, it rises to the surface, and there takes 
fire and burns. To obviate this difficulty the carbon pole on 
which the metal was formed was serrated, and the metal 
on rising was caught, below the surface of the fused salt, 
in one of aseries of small pockets, and thus prevented from 
burning. 

Then followed the reduction of chromium, aluminium, 
and, in conjunction with the late Dr. Matthiessen, that 
of the alkaline-earth metals, and more recently with 
Hillebrand and Norton, of the metals of the cerium, 
group. These electrolytic researches are marked with 
the thoroughness and completeness which is characteristic 


April 28, 1881 | 


NATURE 


599 


of all Bunsen’s work. He seeks for the explanation of 
the fact that hitherto the reduction of these metals 
by the electric current had proved a failure, and he 
finds it in what he terms the density of the current, 
z.e. the electromotive force divided by the area of the 
pole, the power of the current to overcome chemical 
affinity increasing with its density. Thus if a constant 
current be led through an aqueous solution of chromic 
chloride, the result as to whether hydrogen is evolved, and 
oxide of chromium, or whether metallic chromium is 
deposited, depends upon the area of the pole through 
which the current passes into the liquid. 

Nor were these experiments made merely for the 
purpose of preparing the metals in question. Thus the 
metallic magnesium was pressed into wire and used in 
one of the series of photo-chemical researches, to which 
reference will hereatter be made, for the purpose of 
drawing an interesting conclusion respecting its light- 
giving power on combustion, and comparing this with 
the visual and chemical brightness of the sun, a compari- 
son which led to the commercial manufacture of this 
metal by the Magnesium Metal Company, and to the 
wide distribution and general use of this metal as an 
illuminating agent of great brilliancy. Thus again the 
electrolytic preparation in the Heidelberg laboratory of 
coherent masses of cerium, lanthanum, and didymium, 
had the further object of the determination of the specific 
heat of these metals by help of the now well-known 
method with Bunsen’s ice-calorimeter, by means of which 
determination the true atomic weights of these metals 
and the proper formule of their oxides and compounds 
have been definitely ascertained. 

The Bunsen battery has however not only been of 
service in inorganic chemistry, but has thrown clear 
light upon the constitution of organic bodies. The clas- 
sical researches of Kolbe on the electrolysis of acetic 
acid and the other fatty acids were carried out in the 
Marburg laboratory, and owe their inspiration to Bunsen. 
The subsequent equally important labours of Kolbe 
and Frankland, and those of the latter chemist alone, 
on the isolation of the organic radicals, have a like 
origin. 

Amongst the numerous physico-chemical investigations 
which Bunsen has carried out, none perhaps show more 
clearly the fertility of his experimental ability than the 
one in which he describes the ice calorimeter, and another 
devoted to an explanation of anew method of determining 
vapour densities. Translations of these memoirs are 


‘found in the Philosophical Magazine for 1867 and 1871, 


and may be taken as typical of his calorimetric re- 
searches. 

Another group of researches is formed by those which 
are closely related to his gasometric methods. One of the 
most interesting and important of these refers to the law 
of absorption of gases in water. This subject was first 
examined by Dalton and Henry at the beginning of the 
century, and the well-known law which gases follow in 
absorption is known by the names of these two Manchester 
philosophers. But although generally admitted, its limits 
of error had not been ascertained, and the crude experi- 
mental methods of the year 1803 required to be replaced 
by the refined ones of the latter half of the century. 
These researches, carried on by Bunsen and by several of 


his pupils, proved that Henry’s law of direct—as well as 
that of Dalton of partial—pressures is exactly true within 
certain limits; but ceases to be so beyond a given increase 
of pressure, whilst some gases which obey the law at one 
temperature do not do so at others, and some again whilst 
obeying it in the pure state, do not do so when mixed with 
other gases, 2 

The mere mention of his other researches in the wide 
field of gaseous chemistry is sufficient to indicate his 
devotion to this branch of experimental inquiry. We find 
experiments on laws of gaseous diffusion, on applications 
of gaseous diffusion in gasometric dnalysis, on the phe- 
nomena of the combustion of gases, on the temperature 
of ignition of gases, and all these, be it remembered, 
involving exact measurement, and in many cases elaborate 
calculations. 

Brief reference must next be made to a series of investi- 
gations in a totally different direction, viz. on the measure- 
ment of the chemical action of light, with the carrying 
out of which the writer of this article had the great good 
fortune and pleasure to be connected, and in which he 
had full opportunity of admiring Bunsen’s untiring energy 
and wonderful manipulative power. In all the difficulties 
and perplexities by which the experimental investigation 
of such a subject is beset, the writer never knew Bunsen 
discouraged or at a loss for an expedient by which an 
obstacle could be overcome. Cheerful and self-reliant 
under the most depressing circumstances, he never gave 
up hope, and thus it was that these somewhat intricate 
and difficult investigations were brought to a successful 
close. 

Again, in the department of Analytical Chemistry how 
numerous and valuable have been his contributions! There 
is scarcely one important problem in this subject which 
has not benefited from his extensive experience and keen 
insight. Bunsen’s methods of silicate analysis, of mineral 
water analysis, and a dozen of other complicated laboratory 
processes, are simply perfect. Then his original. method 
for the estimation of nitrogen in organic bodies will 
always be remembered as one of the most accurate of its 
kind when employed by an experimentalist as expert as 
Bunsen himself, but as most difficult and even dangerous 
in less able hands. Again, all chemists use and appreciate 
the much simpler methods for the estimation of nitrogen 
and sulphur admirably worked out by his pupils—Maxwell 
Simpson and Russell. 

We all employ his beautiful general method of 
volumetric analysis, but chemists do not always re- 
member that in this research Bunsen first determined 
the exact percentage composition of the higher oxide 
of cerium, a determination of the greatest scientific 
importance as regards the chemistry of the. metals 
of the rare earths. Moreover they may be apt to 
forget that Bunsen was the first to introduce a general 
method of the separation of these rare earths, by which 
he for the first time prepared pure yttria and erbia, and 
by which subsequently, in the hands of other chemists, 
many new metals have been discovered. His well-known 
method of flame-reactions is a standard example worked 
out by every student. Again, modern chemists can now 
scarcely carry on the simplest experiment without using 
the “Bunsen gas-lamp,” a burner which is also now 
employed in every household, and in many manufactories, 


600 


NATURE 


[April 28, 1881 


and has become so necessary that it is difficult to conceive 
how we worked before its invention. To him we are also 
indebted for the apparatus for accelerating filtration, the 
“Bunsen-pump,’’ together with all its appliances, now 
employed in every laboratory. 

Of all the contributions to the advancement of our 
science, that by which the name of Bunsen has, however, 
become best known, and by virtue of which future 
generations will place him on the highest pinnacle of 
experimental fame, is the foundation, with his no less 
celebrated colleague Kirchhoff, of the science of Spectrum 
Analysis, and the discovery by its means of the two new 
alkali metals, ceesium and rubidium. It is true, of course, 
that many facts were ascertained and many observations 
made relating to the power possessed by matter in the 
state of incandescent gas emitting rays of a peculiar and 
characteristic kind. Few great discoveries are made at 
one step. But the glory of having established a new 
branch of science, of having placed “ Analysis by Spec- 
trum Observations” on a sound and firm experimental 
basis, belongs to the Heidelberg philosophers, and to them 
alone. 

The history of the establishment of spectrum analy- 
sis, as that of its enormous recent developments, is 
too well known to the readers of NATURE to require 
repetition. All that is necessary here is to recall the 
masterly way in which Bunsen worked out the properties 
and showed the relationships of the new metals and their 
compounds. He first saw the cesium lines in a few 
milligrams of the alkaline residue obtained in an analysis 
of the Dirkheim mineral waters, and the discovery of a 
second new metal (rubidium) soon followed that of the 
first. So certain was he of the truth of his spectroscopic 
test that he at once set to work to evaporate forty tons 
(44,000 kilos) of the water, and with 16*5 grammes of the 
mixed chlorides of the two new metals which he thus 
obtained, he separated the one metal from the other (no 
easy task) and worked out completely their chemical 
relationship and analogies, so much so that the labours 
of subsequent experimenters have done little more than 
confirm and extend his observations; such a result is 
truly a marvel of manipulative skill ! 

Another less widely known, but no less interesting and 
important research, is that on the spark-spectra of the 
metals contained in cerite and other rare minerals. In 
this he shows his power both as physicist and chemist. 
He first describes a new chromic-acid battery suited to 
the performance of the special experiments which he 
afterwards details. He determines with great care all 
the physical constants of this battery, and then proceeds 
to investigate the spectra of the earths which give no 
colour to the non-luminous flame. The spark-spectra of 
these earths he carefully maps, so completely, indeed, that 
the separation and identification of these metals now for 
the first time became possible. 

The many hundreds of pupils who during the last half- 
century have been benefited by personal contact with 
Bunsen will all agree that as a teacher he is without an 
equal. Those who enjoy his private friendship regard 
him with still warmer feelings of affectionate reverence. 
All feel that to have known Bunsen is to have known one 
of the truest and noblest-hearted of men. 

H. E. ROSCOE 


JAPAN 

Fapan, nach Reisen und Studien in Auftrage der k. 
Preuss. Regierung dargestellt. Von J. J. Rein, Pro- 
fessor der Geographie in Marburg. Erster Band. 
Natur und Volk des Mikadoreiches. (Leipzig: Engel- 
mann, 1881.) 

Notes and Sketches from the Wild Coasts of Nipon. 
Capt. H. C. St. John, R.N. 
1880.) 

"Re present year has already brought two new con- 

tributions to the rapidly increasing stock of Japanese 
literature in “Japan, nach Reisen und Studien,” by Prof. 

Rein of Marburg, and ‘‘ The Wild Coasts of Nipon,’’ by 

Capt. St. John. The two works thus thrown into associa- 

tion by subject and time of publication have however 

nothing else in common. 

Had Capt. St. John’s book been written a few gene- 
rations ago, or had it related to a country previously 
unexplored, it would have possessed a greater claim 
upon popular interest ; but Japan has in late years been 
so far the object of careful study by residents, and of 
descriptions by tourists, that the vazson a’étre of ‘ The 
Wild Coasts of Nipon” is not easy to perceive. 

In the preface the reader is assured that everything 
stated in the text, with a few exceptions, came 
under the observation of the author, and there is no 
doubt that he has scrupulously confined himself to his 
own personal experience, without seeking to correct or 
augment it by reference to othersources. The advantage 
of such a limitation of matter must however depend 
altogether upon the extent of the experience and the 
special qualifications of the observer, and we are of 
opinion that had the author taken the trouble to ascertain 
what. his predecessors have already made known, he 
would have largely altered his notes. 

The author as.a sportsman and naturalist displays him- 
self in a more favourable light than as a logician and 
observer. His sporting memoranda are amusing, and 
give a character to the volume, while as an amateur 
naturalist he shows more than average knowledge, and 
contributes some interesting facts on the subject of the 
animal kingdom. In the flora he is on less secure ground, 
and.on one occasion, at page 137, confuses, in name at 
least, two such well known trees as the Hinoki (Refzzo- 
spora obtusa) and the Cryptomeria Faponica. 

In his remarks upon: the people he bears good witness 
to the simplicity and kindness of the peasantry, of whom he 
must have seen a good deal. Unfortunately, for a traveller 
unlearned in the language, and chiefly dependent for his 
entertainment upon ordinary tea-houses, he has rather 
rashly ventured into generalisations requiring information 
that very few foreigners possess, At page 182 the 
Japanese men, as a race, are said to be “well made; 
muscular, active, and strong, and averaging about five 
feet five inches! in height,” a description applying 
fairly well to the northern fishermen, but certainly flat- 
tering to the nation in general. Again, in several places 
the author follows a common fashion in deploring the 
evils brought upon the people by European ‘“‘ civilisation,” 
but makes no allusion to the greater evils it is now 


By 
(Edinburgh : Douglas, 


Dr. Rein’s estimate of the average height of the men is 150 centimetres. 
This is nearly as much below the mark as. Capt. St. John’s c®Iculation is. 
above it. 


oe 


oe ee 


April 28, 1881 | 


expelling, and ignores the fact that any deterioration 
which has followed the recent change of circumstances 
is not the work of “civilisation,” but of the vile or foolish 
camp-followers that may cling to the skirts of even the 
noblest army. : 

Upon the religion of the country he says little more 
than is to.be found in a footnote at page 127; but students 
may be interested to learn from this that “ Shinto is never 
represented by any figure, but worshipped as the Unseen 
Spirit which pervades everything. Buddha, as is well 
known, is.always represented bya male figure ; Shinto, 
the unrepresented, is supposed to be a female.” 

Criticism of the volume is to some extent disarmed by 
the modesty of its preface, and it no doubt contains much 
that will amuse the general reader. 


In Dr. Rein’s “ Japan’’ we have the work not only of a 
savant thoroughly versed in his subject, but of a practised 
literary architect. The present volume deals with the 
‘geographical conformation, climate, flora, and fauna of 
the Japanese group, and the history, ethnography, and re- 
ligion of the people, concluding with a useful chapter on 
‘topography. A future volume is to comprise an account 
of the industries and commerce, and will be welcomed by 
all who read the part now before us. 

The geographical summary is far more complete and ac- 
curate than any to which the public has yet had access, and 
at every page shows the hand of an expert who has brought 
original knowledge and personal observation to bear upon 
his task. The climatic peculiarities are for the first time 
i(save by the author himself in 1876) systematically de- 
scribed, and all the more important meteorological details 
accumulated in the past eighteen years in different parts 
of the country are reproduced in tabular form. 

In the study of the flora and fauna the accumulation of 
facts is already too large to allow the author'to go’ far 
beyond the limits of enumeration. Since Dr. Rein’s ac- 
count: has been written a new addition has been made to 
‘the fauna ina catalogue of the birds of Japan by Capt, 
Blakiston and Mr. Pryer, and the number of known 
species raised from about 250 to 325, of which about 180 
occur also in China, and about 100 are represented in 
Great Britain. 

It is to be regretted that space:could not have been 
‘spared fora little supplementary information upon some 
‘of those members of the animal kingdom which ' possess 
a more popular interest. For example, a few details 
‘respecting the dangerous and unpleasantly common 
‘Mamushi (Trigonocephalus Blomhoffii) and the wrongly 
maligned little Hibakari ( Tropidonotus Martensii) would 
have been useful. The poisonous properties of certain 
“species of the Fuzgw or genus Teérodon are pointed out, 
-and the symptoms produced by their use as food described ; 
but in'the reference to the “‘hungerige, blutgierige Mos- 
guitos,” though feeling tribute is paid to the vexatious side 
of their character, the grave charges to which they are 
‘open are omitted, their probable agency, long recognised 
by native physicians, in the conveyance of malignant pus- 
tule, and the suspicion raised by Dr. Patrick Manson’s 
investigations in Amoy, that the spread of Elephantiasis 
‘Arabum in the south of Japan is due to the same pest. 

The second and less technical part of the book em- 
-braces:subjects upon which the author is less able'to speak 


NATURE 


601 


in verbd magistyi than on geographical science. The 
section, ‘‘ Das Japanische Volk,” opens with an historical 
abstract of about 200 pages, compiled from Klaproth, 
Keempfer, Siebold, Satow, Aston, and other authorities- 
The purely mythical stories of the age of the gods are 
passed over rapidly, and the commencement of the history 
of the country is fixed at the reign of Jimmu Tenno (660 ~ 
to 585 B.c.). Dr. Rein is generous enough to acknow- 
ledge without question the reputed founder of the imperial 
lore, of whose existence there is little more proof than-of 
that of the Uwabami and Kamaittachi, which the Professor 
does not consider entitled to a place in the fauna. Asiis 
mentioned in a footnote, the earliest written records extant 
originated in the first part of the eighth century of our era, 
and admitting the possibility that these were compiled 
from lost manuscripts of older date, they still offer satis- 
factory internal evidence that the historical being of Japan 
is at least a thousand years younger than is indicated by 
the list of the ancient emperors from whom the reigning 
Mikado traces his descent. The fact will perhaps be suffi- 
ciently demonstrated by a citation of the ages attributed 
to certain of the primitive rulers. The inaugurative myth, 
Jimmu Tenno, is said to have lived 127 years; Koan, the 
sixth Mikado, 137 years; Nintoku, the ‘seventeenth 
Mikado (D. 399 A.D.), 122 years ; and it is not until the 
fifth century A.D. that the viability of the rulers appears 
to have become permanently limited to a reasonable de- 
gree. Itis true that the birth and death of Jimmu are 
solemnised as national festivals, and that writers on such 
sober topics as the industrial arts do not hesitate to refer 
for their landmarks to periods long antedating the true 
historical period; but all allowance must be made for 
inherited credulity in ancient traditions, which here form 
part of a state religion and establish the very sanctity ‘of 
the throne. 

We are glad to see that Dr. Rein does not altogether 
reject the romantic episodes of Japanese history. Awaiting 
the advent of a native Walpole to bruise the simple faith of 
his countrymen with historic doubts, it is a grateful relief 
to the tedium of the long series of wars and court intrigues 
that form the burden of the rather monotonous recitative 
of the Oriental Clio, to dwell for a moment on such stories 
as those of the gentle wife of Yamato Dake, who cast 
herself into the sea to propitiate the angry gods that 
threatened the safety of her husband’s ship ; of Kesa, who 
sacrificed her life to preserve her wifely fidelity ; and 
many others of the number that have lent inspiration 
to the pencils of Hokusai, Yosai, and a hundred lesser 
artists. They are probably no more apocryphal ‘than 
many of the wearisome details through which the student 
of history must plod. 

The title “Geschichte des Japanischen Volkes” adopted 
by the author is somewhat misplaced. The history isnot 
that of the people but of their rulers, and it would have 
been well had the author given the section a better claim 
to the heading by interspersing the story of battle and 
murder by some account of the development of laws, 
literature, painting, the various industrial arts, and such 
important social ceremonies as those of the Cha-mo-ju, 


which lose much of their significance when divorced from 


the general history of the empire. 
The most valuable portion of the sketch to the foreign 


world is that relating to the pregnant events of the last 


602 


NATURE 


| April 28, 1881 


twenty years. In the narration of occurrences which 
have compelled the foreign powers, and especially Great 
Britain, to join issue with the Japanese Government Dr. 
Rein displays an absence of partisanship quite novel to 
those experienced in the discussion of Anglo-Japanese 
politics. His review of the present position and future 
prospects of the nation is thoughtfully cautious, and while 
drawing attention to the recent educational studies and 
the many wise acts of the present Government, shows a 
dark reverse to the picture in the financial difficulties now 
threatening serious obstruction to the path of improve- 
ment, The question of the opening of new ports or of 
the entire country to foreign enterprise and capital is also 
considered, and the writer points out the deadlock 
created on the one side by the great disadvantages which 
the Japanese foresee in admitting to competition an 
infinitely stronger commercial race, over whose actions 
they can have no judicial contrcl, and on the other by 
the inexpediency, from the foreigners’ point of view, of a 
surrender of the treaty rights while the laws and means 
of administration in Japan are in so unsatisfactory a 
condition as at the present time. 

In an interesting chapter upon the Ethnography of the 
Japanese the author takes up the vexed problem of the 
origin of the now dominant race, who displaced the 
aboriginal Ainos. He believes, from considerations of 
speech, physiognomy, and traditions that they are a 
branch of the old Altaic family, which spread from its 
birthplace in all directions over the continent of Asia, 
some reaching Japan vz@ Tsushima, Iki, and Oki, others 
settling at various parts of the mainland to form the 
Korean, Mandschurian, and other kindred people. In 
this view he is supported to some extent by the 
physiognomical identity with the Japanese of the yet 
pure descendants of the Korean potters brought over as 
trophies of Taiko’s victorious arms at the end of the 
sixteenth century, and established in the province of 
Satsuma. Mr. Aston’s researches into the comparative 
philology of the Japanese and Korean languages (7vavs. 
Royal Asiatic Society, 1879) tend toa similar conclusion, 
but leave the question still open. 

The analyses of literature, language, and religion are 
necessarily incomplete, but awaiting the further progress 
of the labours of the scholars now engaged in the study 
of these special branches, Dr. Rein’s summary of the 
present knowledge will be of great service. 

The author’s views as to the character of the Japanese 
as a race are neither romantically favourable, like those 
of the great majority of travellers, nor unjustly contemp- 
tuous, like the convictions cherished by nearly all settlers. 
The national defects Dr. Rein considers to be a greed 
for novelty and a lack of stability and perseverance ; but 
although this verdict would appear to be sanctioned by 
recent experience, the history of the country really points 
to nothing less than instability. A blind admiration for 
antiquity and a persevering if not energetic industry has 
characterised nearly the whole of their older manufactures 
and artistic productions, and the many centuries of per- 
sistence in the path opened by their forefathers were 
terminated only by a sudden change of circumstances, 
and an entirely forced and unsought relationship with the 
outer world. They are now learning an entirely new 
exercise of their powers, and some clumsiness at the 


outset is inevitable, while the very impetuosity of their 
progression necessarily brings their faults more easily 
within the scope of a passing glance. They have now 
bought experience, and until the world sees how they 
can -utilise their expensive purchase any judgment is 
premature. They have indeed two serious drawbacks, 
poverty of material resources, and a written language 
that isolates them from the European world, and imposes 
serious limitations upon the interchange of the higher 
order of ideas amongst themselves; but the present 
generation can scarcely be blamed for either evil. If 
there be a charge in the past and present to which they 
are fairly open it is defect of invention, for as their recent 
knowledge is taken from Europe, so in former times were 
they indebted to the Asiatic continent for literature, arts, 
religion, and laws, as well as for a thousand smaller 
traits of civilisation, some of which they have preserved 
longer or better than their teachers. 

Whatever dispraise is laid upon the people, nearly all 
writers agree to credit them with remarkable cleanliness. 
Miss Bird, however, who has studied Japan under a 
new aspect, gives a different testimony as to the 
interior, and the few travellers who have caught a 
glimpse of the unbeaten tracks of the great cities might 
make strange revelations. As the better class European 
generally knows little or nothing of the secrets of his own 
metropolitan slums, it is conceivable that a foreigner 
living in Tokio may not be aware that it contains other 
habitations than those he passes in the public thorough- 
fares ; but were curiosity or chance to lead him to thread 
some of the little, hardly noticeable, inlets which here and 
there break the line of the street dwellings he would be 
startled by the new world revealed to him—one where the 
hundreds of thousands of poor of the great city live, 
densely packed in filth and disease, in dilapidated dens 
with crumbling walls and roofs that would render needless 
the spell of Asmodeus to the Don Cleofas who cares to 
peer at the miseries only half concealed by the long lines 
of sheds, moated with foul stagnant drains, flanked by 
reeking accumulations of sewage and garbage, and cut off 
from ventilating breezes by the dwellings of the more 
fortunate but less numerous citizens. Had Dr. Rein 
extended his pilgrimage to the U7adana he would have 
written a new and curious chapter. 

As regards bathing, it is certainly a common custom, 
but with the poorer classes it is far less frequent than 
travellers would lead us to believe. It is moreover not 
so much dictated by any unconquerable intolerance of 
dirt as by the combined attractions of warm water and 
neighbourly gossip. Whatever purification may be de- 
rived from the common use of a limited quantity of water 
by several dozens of people, it is doubtful whether we 
may not take as a set-off the odoriferous condition of the 


unwashed winter garments which often do unrelieved 


duty day and night for the whole season, and the very 
scant attention that the native feels impelled to bestow 
upon his hands and face in the intervals of his visits to 
the bathing-house. These remarks however do not imply 
that the working orders in Japan compare unfavourably 
in respect to physical purity with their European brethren. 

The maps and illustrations are excellent in choice and 
execution. One error must however be indicated in the 
woodcut described as a “ Rin-kiu-Insulander,” which is 


| 
| 


April 28, 1881 | 


really an accurate portrait of the Korean envoy who 
visited Japan in 1877. 

It is impossible to do justice to Dr. Rein’s important 
book in the space at our command. Its construction is 
eminently scientific, and its thoroughness will excite the 
admiration of all who know the difficulty of obtaining, 
and especially of selecting, information upon many of the 
matters so exhaustively treated. The errors are few and 
seldom important, and will probably disappear in the next 
edition. One powerful recommendation is the absence of 
the ego from its pages ; the author everywhere studiously 
keeps his own individuality concealed, and in the dis- 
cussion of most points he is nearly always contented with 
such a statement and grouping of the principal facts as 
will leave the inference well within the grasp of the reader’s 
mind. In conclusion, it is the best of the many publi- 
cations upon the subject of Japan that have appeared in 
the last ten years, and, unlike most of the number, sup- 
plies a real want, and will be received gratefully by all 
who seek for solid, trustworthy information. We trust 
that the completion of the work will soon be issued. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 


Etudes géométrigues et cinématigues. Note sur guelgues 
Questions de Géométrie et de Cinématique, et Réponse 
aux Réclamations de M. 0 Abbé Aoust. Par E. J. Habich. 
80 pp. (Lima, 1880.) 

M. L’ ABBE Aoust, author of the “ Analyse infinitésimale 

des Courbes planes,” and our author put forward con- 

flicting claims as to priority of discovery. 

The polemics have fired off their powder in Les Mondes 
(tome iv., 1880, Aoust : tome 1, 1879, Habich; see also 
the Comptes rendus, \xxxv., 1877, and Ixxxix., 1879), and 
the object of the present pamphlet is “de réduire a leur 
juste valeur les assertions” of the Abbé. The matters in 
dispute can be inferred from the three divisions of the 
present work :— 

“1, Développoides—considérations historiques, étude 
des enveloppes des droites par la considération du centre 
instantané de rotation, développoides des divers ordres 
et devellopoides inverses. 

“2, Coordonnées tangentielles-polaires. 

“3. Mouvement géométrique d’une figure plane dans 
son plan—considérations générales, mouvement géo- 
métrique déterminé par deux systémes d’enveloppées et 
d@enveloppes, mouvement d’une droit sur un plan.” 

We have, of course, but one side of the quarrel pre- 
sented to us, but leaving polemics on one side there is a 
great deal of interesting matter put before us. Time will, 
no doubt, settle the question of priority. 


A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied 
Mathematics. By G. S. Carr, BA, Vol. i. part viii. 
(C, F. Hodgson and Son, 1880.) 


WE recently noticed with approval the volume con- 
taining the first seven parts. This eighth part carries on 
the articles from 1400 to 1868, and is concerned with the 
differential calculus. It contains an abstract of the usual 
processes, and besides gives a succinct account of the 
theory of operations, and an analysis of matters which 
are treated of in the higher algebra, as Jacobians and 
quantics, and closes with maxima and minima, the 
geometrical applications being reserved for the parts on 
Co-ordinate Geometry. 

These fifty-six pages are very correctly printed, at least 
we have not detected more than three or four trivial typo- 
graphical errors. 

This part maintains the handy character for reference 
of its forerunners. 


NATURE 


603 


The Practical Fisherman. By T. H. Keene. 
The Bazaar Office.) 


THIS book deals with the natural history, the legendary 
lore, and the capture of British freshwater fish, together 
with the art of tackle-making. The author has bestowed 
great care on his work, and seems to have studied every 
book written or published on the charming subject from 
Oppian to the present time. Mr. Keene is besides an 
enthusiastic fisherman, and has thus produced a treatise 
of great interest to the practical angler. We may add 
that this work is almost the only one on angling which 
pos of the natural as well as the traditional history of 
shes, 


(London : 


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. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep thetr letters 
as short as possible. The pressure on his space ts so great 
that it ts impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 
of communications containing interesting and novel facts. | 


The Movements of Leaves 


FRITZ MUELLER has sent me some additional observations on 
the movements of leaves, when exposed to a bright light. Such 
movements seem to be as well developed and as diversified under 
the bright sun of Brazil, as are the well-known sleep or nycti- 
tropic movements of plants in all parts of the world. This 
result has interested me much, as I long doubted whether para- 
heliotropic movements were common enough to deserve to be 
separately designated. It is a ren-arkable fact that in certain 
species these movements closely resemble the sleep movements 
of allied forms, Thus the leaflets of one of the Brazilian Cassize 
assume when exposed to sunshine nearly the same position as 
those of the not distantly allied Hzematoxylon when asleep, as 
shown in Fig, 153 of ‘‘The Movements of Plants.” Whereas 
the leaflets of this Cassia sleep by moving down and rotating on 
their axes, in the same peculiar manner as in so many other 
species of the genus, Again, with an unnamed species of 
Phyllanthus, the leaves move forwards at night, so that their 
midribs then stand nearly parallel to the horizontal branches 
from which they spring; but when they are exposed to bright 
sunshine they rise up vertically, ard their upper surfaces 
come into contact, as they are opposite. Now this is the posi- 
tion which the leaves of another species, namely Phy//anthus 
compressus, assume when they go to sleep at night, Fritz 
Miiller states that the paraheliotropic movements of the leaves 
of a Mucuna, a large twining Papilionaceous plant, are strange 
and inexplicable; the leaflets sleep by hanging vertically down, 
but under bright sunshine the petiole rises vertically up, and the 
terminal leaflet rotates by means of its pulvinus th-ough an angle 
of 180°, and thus its upper surface stands on the same side with 
the lower surfaces of the lateral leaflets. Fritz Miiller adds, ‘‘I 
do not understand the meaning of this rotation of the terminal 
leaflet, as even without such a movement it would be apparently 
equally well protected against the rays of the sun. The leaflets, 
also, on many of the leaves on the same plant assume yarious 
other strange positions.” With one species of Desmodium, 
presently to be mentioned as sleeping in a remarkable manner, 
the leaflets rise up vertically when exposed to bright sunshine, 
and the upper surfaces of the lateral leaflets are thus brought 
into contact. The leaves of Bauhinia grandiflora go to sleep 
at an unusually early hour in the evening, and in the manner 
described at p. 373 of ‘‘The Movements of Plants,” namely, 
by the two halves of the same leaf ri:ing up and coming into 
close contact : now the leaves of Bauhinia Brasiliensis do not 
sleep, as far as Fritz Miiller has seen, but they are very sensitive 
to a bright light, and when thus exposed the two halves rise up 
and stand at 45° or upwards above the horizon. 

Fritz Miiller has sent me some cases, in addition to those given 
in my former letter of March 3, of the leaves of closely-allied 
plants which assume a vertical position at night by widely dif- 
ferent movements; ard these cases are of interest as indicating 
that sleep-movements have been acquired for a special purpose. 
We have just seen that of two species of Bauhinia the leaves of 
one sleep conspicuously, while those of a second species appa- 


604 


NATURE 


[ April 28, 1881 


rently do not sleep at all. 
flora depend vertically at night, whereas those of a dwarfish 
Brazilian species rise vertically up at night. ‘Lhe leaves of this 
Euphorbia stand opposite one another—a position which is 
rather rare in the genus; and the rising movement may be 
of service to the plant, as the upper surfaces of the opposite 
leaves mutually protect one another by coming into contact. In 
the genus Sida the leaves of two species rise, while those of a 
third Brazilian species sink vertically down at night. Two 
species of Desmodium are common plants near Fritz Miiller’s 
house ; in one the leaflets move simply downwards at night ; but 
in the other not only do the three leaflets move vertically down, 
while the main petiole rises vertically up, as is likewise the case 
with D. gyvans, but in addition the lateral leaflets rotate so as to 
stand parallel with the terminal leaflet, behind which they are 
more or less completely hidden. This, as far as I have seen, is 
a new kind of nyctitropic movement; but it leads to a result 
common to several species, namely, that of packing the three 
leaflets closely together and placing the in a vertical position. 
Down, Beckenham, Kent, April 14 CHARLES DARWIN 


Spectrum of the Star Ll. 13412 


THE spectrum of the star Ll. 13412 appears to be in some 
respects unique. It consists mainly of three bright lines having 


wave-lengths of 545, 486, and 466 millionths of a millimetre. 


Four other stars have hitherto been found whose spectra are of 
this character. Three of them are in Cygnus, and have lines 
whose wave-lengths are 580, 568, 536, and 467. The fourth 
star, Oeltzen 17681, has lines at about 582 and 470 (NATURE, 
vol. xxii. p. 483). The line or band at 467 appears to be com- 
mon to all, and that at 580 to the last four. The line at 486 in 
Ll. 13412 coincides with the F line of hydrogen, but is not 
visible in the other stars. The line at 545 is also absent in 
them, This star therefore appears to resemble the others in 
kind, but not in the material of which it is composed. It is 
also much brighter than the others, so that it is not a difficult 
object with a small telescope. Its position for 1880 is in R.A. 
6h. 49°3m. and Dec. —23° 47’. It is easily found as a seventh 
magnitude star about 15’ north of o’ Canis Majoris. 
Cambridge, U.S., April 14 EDWARD C, PICKERING 


The Indian Winter Rains 


In Nature, vol. xxiii. p. 400, Mr. F. Chambers very 
properly points out that the winter rains of Northern India, 


the average, are yet coincident with short periods of low rather 
than of high pressure. The way in which Mr, Chambers accounts 
for the low pressure seems, however, rather far-fetched. It is 
true that on one or two of the American weather charts storm 


tracks are shown extending from the Mediterranean to Northern | 


India or the Bay of Bengal, but these paths are drawn with 
dotted lines indicating that they are doubtful, and, considering 
the absence of meteorological stations in the greater part of the 
area between the Mediterranean and India, and the nature of the 
intervening country—especially Afzhanistan with its high moun- 
tains—I should say the evidence upon the strength of which the 
American chartographer laid down these storm tracks, was of 
the slightest possible description. The winter rains are however 
accompanied by a cyclonic movement of the air over Northern 
India, and I wish to point out that, whether the cyclonic disturb- 
ance be a European or Transatlantic visitor, as Mr. Chambers 
supposes, or a native of the Indian region, generated by the 
rainfall, as Mr, Eliot has taught in his report for 1877, the ‘‘old 
notion” of the connection of the rains with the upper anti- 
monsoon current is by no means exploded. The progress of the 
disturbance and of the rainfall is usually from north-west to 
south-east, and the rainfall is heaviest, as a rule, on the eastern 
side of the disturbance. The winds which bring the rainfall 
therefore come from some southerly quarter, and as northerly 
winds generally continue blowing in the extreme south of India 
at the time when these disturbances occur in the north, the 
southerly “rainy winds must be derived from an upper current 
which descends in the anti-cyclone or region of high pressure in 
the centre and south of India, or in the zone between the south 
of India and the equator. Mr. Blinford’s modification of his 
former views regarding the origin of these rains appears from his 
remarks and the accompanying charts in the Meteorological 
Report for 1878 to be merely that the indraught towards the 


The leaves of Euphorbia jacquinic- | 


region of precipitation is not confined to Northern India, but is 
occasionally, though rarely, felt as far south as Ceylon. 

Ina letter of mine that appeared in NATuRE for the following 
week (p. 409), there was a mistaken inference from Mr, Blan- 
ford’s investigation regarding the ‘‘ Barometric See-saw ” between 
India and West Siberia that I beg your permission to correct. 
The mean pressure at sea-level in the Indo-Malayan and West 
Siberian regions appears from Mr. Buchan’s charts to be nearly 
the same both on the average of the year and in January and July. 
Also no wind blows directly from the one region to the other. We 
cannot therefore infer anything regarding the strength of the winds 
from Mr, Blanford’s results, but we may regarding temperature. 
The proper inferences of this kind from the results arrived at by Mr. 
Blanford and Mr. Archibald appear to be these :—(1) The range 
of temperature in the 11-year period is greater in Siberia than in 
surrounding countries; (2) Siberia is coldest, compared with 
neighbouring countries, at times of maximum sun-spot ; (3) This 
relation is most marked in winter; and (4) near the coasts of 
the Pacific (Nertchinsk, Pekin, Zi-ka-wei), the Indian (all the 
Indo-Malayan stations, especially those nearest the sea), and the 
Atlantic (London) oceans, where presumably the range of tem- 
perature is less than in the heart of the continent, the variation 
of the barometer in the 11-year period is opposite to that observed 
in Siberia. S. A. BIL 

Allahabad, March 29 


Paleolithic Man 


Ir is desirable that further search should be made for imple- 
ments made by man in the deposits of this country assumed to 
be older than the well-known and accepted implementiferous 
river-gravels. 

In the gravels belonging to the Thames, in and near London, 
palzolithic implements are of not infrequent occurrence, In 
my own collection I have more than 120 examples--with few 
exceptions found’ by myself—and I know of at least another 
hundred specimens found chiefly by London friends who have 
availed themselves of hints given by me. 

My object now is to direct attention to the fact that the imple- 
ments are not only found in and near*London in the lower and: 
middle terraces of. gravel some 25 to 70 feet above the ordnance 
datum, but at far greater, heights. Some of these heights near 
London may, and others no doubt do, belong to the Thames or to its 
tributaries, but they all (in different degrees) appear to point to a 


| more remote time than the period when the lower terraces of the 


Thames and its tributaries were formed. Some of the imple- 


_ Ura, 1 | ments now found in the lower gravels are clearly ‘‘ derived Md 
though usually heaviest in years when the »eaz pressure is above | 


from more ancient deposits. For instance, I have one example 
white in colour and highly porcellaneous :—the white colour has. 
been brought about by the decomposition of the flint in some 
ancient loam or clay, and not from the gravel in which the im- 
plement was found: this is proved by several more or less 
highly-polished accidental fractures at the edges of a different 
colour from the general white surface: these coloured fractures 
are more recent than the white facets, and date from the last 
deposition of the implement in the lower terrace: the white 
abraded flakings belong to a highly remote time. Dr. John Evans 
records the finding of an implement in the Thames gravel at 
Highbury, at 102 feet, whilst I have found: one (also near 
Highbury), at an elevation of 144 feet. Last summer I found 
an implement on the eminence at the nort of, and overlooking 
Ealing Dean, at a height of 164 feet. This is 72 feet higher 
than the implementiferous beds of Ealing Dean described by 
General Pitt Rivers, and between So and roo feet higher (in one 
instance 104 feet higher) than the implement-bearing gravels at 
Acton described by the same gentleman. The gravel at the 164- 
feet elevation forms an isolated patch on the extreme top of a 
hill. I watched the excavations here (which were shallow) for 
road:naking, wi'h great care, and with the implement I found 
several flakes. These heights agree well with the heights of some 
of the implementiferous gravels found capping the cliffs in the: 
South of England, also with theJErith position at Northumber- 
land Heath, where Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell found an implement at_ 
an elevation of 175 feet. } 

Most geologists know the high gravels overlooking Hertford, 
Ware, and Amwell ; their altitude is from 130 to over 180 feet 
above the ordnance datum, Gravel from the two first of these. 
places fis brought to London for {ballast in thousands of tons. 
A year or two. ago great quantities of gravel from Hertford” 
were brought to Finsbury Park by the Great Northern Rail- 
way, and in the gravel thrown dowa near Finsbury Park I 


April 28, 1881 | 


NATURE 


605 


picked up a good sub-triangular wedge-shaped implement. 
Further search produced a second implement, a good trimmed 
flake, and afew simple flakes. The worked flints in the Hert- 
ford gravel are however so rare that the search for them is: the 
most hopeless task conceivable. There isnot more than one 
flake in 500 tons, not one implement in 5000 tons of. gravel. 
The gravel from Ware is also brought to the east of London for 
ballast, and I happened last year to mention the fact of my dis- 
coyeries to Mr, J. E. Greenhill, the Principal of a school near 
Hackney Downs. Mr. Greenhill at once not only searched him- 
self, but set his pupils to look over the Ware gravel, then laid 
down in large quantities near Clapton, with the result that a 
large broken ovate implement was found and several flakes. I also 
found a large and heavy ‘‘slice” flake with numerous facets on its 
worked side in the same gravel. Mr. Greenhill’s success caused me 
to look carefully over a similar lot of gravel from Ware, laid down 
near Victoria Park. In this I found a sub-triangular implement 
and three flakes. Ihave also found a large greatly abraded 
flake im the Amwell gravel at Amwell. Elsewhere in east and 
north-east London I have looked over thousands of tons of Hert- 
ford and Ware gravel without decisive result. A week or two 
ago, however, as my younger son was returning home through 
Finsbury Park, he picked up a good scraper-like implement in the 
gravel (presumably from Hertford), just thrown on to the road 
inside the park. On hearing of the discovery I at once went to 
Finsbury Park and looked carefully over all the recently thrown 
down material, but with no further result. I have visited the 
different pits at Hertford, Ware, and Amwell several times, but 
there is never enough gravel exposed (considering the extreme 
comparative rarity of the implements and flakes) to give one a 
chance, of finding an implement. I have found in the pits 
several simple flakes, with the cone of: percussion, and that is 
all. At what depth the implements occur in the gravel I do not 
know, but that implements really do come out of the high 
gravels overlooking Hertford and Ware I think there can 
be no doubt. Reference was made by me to these imple- 
ments at the Anthropological Institute three years ago, when 
two or three:specimens were exhibited by me. 
WORTHINGTON G. SMITH 
125, Grosvenor Road, Highbury, N. 


Sound of the Aurora 


WITH every respect fr the ability and acuteness of’ the late 
Sir John Franklin and his companions, I do not think it con- 
clusive, as Mr. Rouse seems to do, that because they heard no 
sounds»‘‘ with the aurora borealis” (NATURE, vol. xxiii. _p. 556), 
no sounds are produced by it. 

Al Indians, both on the shores of Hudson’s Bay and near 
Bear;Lake, and the Eskimos on many parts of the coast, assert 
positively that the bright, varying, flickering,! and rapidly- 
moving auroree do produce sound. The senses of hearing and 
smelling in the Indian and Eskimo are far more acute than in 
the civilised man; and both sounds and smells which to the 
latter are not perceptible are perfectly so to the more sensitive 
auditory and olfactory organs of the savage. 

The theory that ‘‘ the attractive force of the aurora is increased 
within‘a certain limit as its rays proceed southward” is scarcely 
borne out by my experience. 

When wintering at Fort Hope, Repulse Bay, in 1846-47 and 
1853-54, lat. 66° 32’ N., the result of my observations was, as 
fax as I cam discover, exactly similar to that of Parry in 1824-25 
at Port Bowen in lat. 73° 15’ N., 400 miles further north and fifty 
miles west of Fort Hope : at both no effect was produced on the 
magnetic needle. 

At Kepulse Bay, and it may have been the same at Port 
Bowen, the character of the aurora was perfectly different from 
that generally seen at Great Bear Lake, which acted so power- 
fully on the needle, the former being almost always of a uniform 
pale yellow or straw colour, with littlerapid motioa, whereas the 
latter was: generally flashing, flickering, rapidly moving, and of 
diverse hues. 

One peculiarity of the aurorz observed at Repulse Bay may 
be worthy of notice: they were chiefly seen to the magnetic 
sonth—that is south 62° east trae—usually in the form of an arch 
rather low down—and I may add that in that direction at a 
distance of thirty or forty miles from our head-quarters a large 


extent of sea is kept open all winter by strong currents. The | 


1 I borrow this most appropriate term from Prof. Stokes, F.R.S., &c., of 
Cambridge, 


Eskimos of Repulse Bay do not say much about the aurora 
beyond expressing a belief that it is the spirits of their dead 
visiting each other in the heavens. 

It is probably a matter of little or no importance in a question 
of this kind, but Mr, Rouse has given the latitudes of the 
southern shores of Great Bear Lake from go to 200 miles too 
far north, 

Fort Franklin, where Franklin made his chief observations, 
is situated in latitude 65° 12’ N. at the extreme south-west of 
Greit Bear Lake, whereas Fort Confidence, where’ Sir J.- 
Richard-on and I made ours with like results, is at the extreme 
north-east of the lake in lat. 66° 54’ N., the stations being 150 
miles distant from each other. 

It is perhaps not beinz too sanguine to hope that in this 
periol of marvellous discoveries, some instrument may be—if 
not already—invented, with the aid of which one may be able 
to decide the question satisfactorily as to whether the aurora in 
any form does or does not produce sound. JoHN RAE 

4, Addison Gardens, April 16 


THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN 
ELECTRIC LIGHTING * 


Il. 
Lectures Ill, and IV. 


LL machines for the conversion of mechanical work 
into electricity are founded on Faraday’s great dis- 
covery of the induced current derived from the relative 
motion of a magnet and a coil of wire. They are either 
continuous-current or alternate-current machines. From 
the continuous-current machines of Pixii in 1832 and 
Saxton and Clarke in 1835 and 1836, we pass to Wheat- 
stone’s introduction in 1845 of electromagnets in place. of 
permanent magnets to produce the magnetic field. In 
1854 Werner Siemens and Halske introduced the Sie- 
mens armature, in which the coil is wound longitudinally 
in a groove. In 1854 Hjorth patented an improved 
magneto-electric battery, in which the currents induced in 
the revolving armature pass round the electromagnets 
and produce the magnetic field. This is the principle of 
the dynamo-electric machine, which was afterwards; re- 
discovered by Siemens and by Wheatstone simultaneously 
in 1867, when on the same evening their two papers-were 
presented to the Royal Society, 

Then followed the Gramme armature, in which coils of 
wire are wound in sections all.in the same direction round 
aring; each section, when a current is flowing through 
it, may be regarded as an electro-magnet, and its principle 
of action is clear at once from the principles of Arago 
and from Lenz’s laws for induced currents. 

In dynamo-electric machines the external work in the 
electric arc is: proportional to the square of the current, 
and is also proportional to the number of. turns of the 
armature per minute. 

Any disturbance in the resistance of the arc reacts on 
the electro-magnet, altering the strength of the magnetic 
field, thereby increasing the disturbance ; this is the great 
disadvantage of dynamo-electric machines as compared 
with magneto-electric machines, where the magnet is 
either a permanent magnet or is excited by means, of a 
separate current. Wilde, in 1863, employed a: separate 
continuous current machine to give a permanent magnetic 
field, and made the armature of the second machine to 
revolve in this magnetic field. In alternate-current 
machines there is no commutator for making the current 
continuous, but the currents from the coil are collected 
and sent through the external resistance in opposite 
directions for every half-turn of the armature. The 
Alliance magneto-electric machine was the first of these, 
which was converted by Holmes into a continuous-current 
machine, and was by him first used in 1858 to produce 
the electric light for lighthouse illumination. He after- 
wards again converted his machine into an alternate- 


t By Prof. W. Grylls Adams. Con‘inued from’p. 582. ~ 


606 


NATURE 


[April 28, 1881 


current machine by removing the commutator, thereby 
producing a very effective machine. 

All theoretical determinations of the efficiency of 
machines are complicated by the retardation of mag- 
netisation of the magnets, which necessitates a change 
of position of the commutator or brushes in the direction 
of the rotation of the armature. The practical deter- 
minations of efficiency which have been made show that 
from 86 to 88 per cent. of the energy communicated to a 
dynamo-machine is converted into electrical energy, and 
that from 44 to about 50 per cent. of the total work may 
be converted into useful work in the external circuit. 
Among the more recent continuous current machines are 
the Brush and the Birgin machines, which promise to 
give good results. 

At intervals during the lecture the room was lighted by 
various electric lamps, the peculiarities of each of which 
were explained. The Brockie lamp, lent by the British 
Electric Light Company, and served by one of their 
Gramme machines; the Siemens pendulum-lamp lent by 
Dr. Siemens, and the Crompton lamp lent by Mr. 
Crompton, were each tried in turn, and attention was 
drawn to the Siemens’ differential amp, the Brush lamp, 
and other lamps and eleciric candles which were also 
exhibited. 

The subject of the fourth Cantor lecture was the sub- 
division of the electric current and lighting by incan- 
descence. Prof. Adams showed that objections raised to 
the electric light were similar to those which had been 
urged with regard to gas when it was first introduced. He 
then compared the energy of Grove’s cells with the energy 
derived from a small Gramme machine, and showed how 
impracticable it was to attempt todo by means of batteries 
the work which can be done by such machines. He then 
explained how the same amount of energy might be 
spent in two classes of machines, those of low internal 
resistance and low electromotive force which send a 
strong current through small external resistance, or 
quantity machines, and those of high internal resistance 
and high electromotive force sending a smaller current 
through large external resistance, or tension-machines. 
For very high resistances the discharge of an induction- 
coil is taken, the action of which was compared to the 
action of the hydraulic ram. Prof. Adams proceeded to 
describe the Werdermann and the Joel lamps, and ex- 
plained the kind of machine specially suited for such 
lamps, and regretted that it would not be possible to 
show them to the best advantage, or to give them a fair 
trial, because the machine actually in use at the speed at 
which it was running was not adapted for them. An 
electromotive force of 130 volts will send 50 webers 
through 10 lamps in series, and give an illumination of 
320 candles in each lamp for an expenditure about 10 
h.p. Taking Mr. A. Siemens’ facts as to the cost, it 
appears that the electric light from the Joel lamp would 
be as cheap as gas at the rate of 2s. per 1000 cubic feet. 
The laws of the subdivision of the electric current were 
discussed, and their application to the system of incan- 
descent lighting adopted by Swan, and by Lane-Fox and 
Edison was clearly shown. With the Biirgin machine, 
then in use, giving at 1620 revolutions a minute an 
electromotive force of 160 volts, and a current of 24 
webers through an external resistance of about 7 ohms, it 
was shown that 24 rows of two Swan lamps in series or 
48 lamps could be lit up: each lamp being of 80 ohms 
resistance, and giving a 48 candle-power light. If the 
resistance of each lamp be 40 instead of 80 ohms, then 
double the number of lamps might be taken in series, 
giving about-100 lamps from the machine. 

With the Brush machine at least 140 lamps might be 
lit up in 10 parallel rows of 14 lamps in series. The 
early attempts of King, and Staite, and Konn to light by 
incandescence were then explained, and experiments 
made to illustrate the phenomena seen in high vacua, 


such as are necessary to enable Mr. Swan and Mr. Lane 
Fox to preserve their carbons from wasting when ren- 
dered incandescent by means of the electric current. 

The room was well lighted by means of 20 Swan 
lamps, each giving a pleasant and steady light of about 
40 or 50 candle-power, the lamps being arranged in 10 
rows of two in series. Two table-lamps were placed on 
the lecture-table, which could be put out separately or 
made to glow at pleasure, and these lamps could be 
lifted off their stands and others put in their places with- 
out disturbing other lights which were arranged in mul- 
tiple arc and worked from the same dynamo-machine. 


THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT ALGIERS? 
II. 

Algiers, April 17 

@Ox Friday afternoon various papers on local subjects 

were read to a general audience in the foyer of 
the theatre. hey related to the geology, geography, and 
demography of Algeria, but the most interesting paper 
was by our Consul-General, Col. Playfair, on a visit to 
the country of the Kroumirs—interesting not only be- 
cause the aggressions of this tribe have led to the present 
complications in Tunis, which will probably end in war, 
but also because Col. Playfair and Lord Kingston are the 
only Europeans who have visited their country. They 
inhabit the district near Le Calle, that is to say, the 
northern portion of the boundary between Algeria and 
Tunis, and they only nominally acknowledge the suzerainty 
of the Bey of Tunis. 

On Friday evening a discourse was delivered in the 
theatre “ On Paludisme from a Surgical Point of View.’’ 
It was of such a very technical character that many 
members of the Association did not attend. In fact the 
Congress is to a great extent medical. While the Physical 
and Botanical Sections are positively languishing for 
want of papers, and will probably come to a premature 
ending on Monday, the papers waiting to be read before 
the Medical Section fill two pages of yesterday's pro- 
gramme. 

More activity was manifested in the sectional work on 
the second day of the Congress ; the papers in most of the 
sections were more numerous and the audiences larger. 
The physical section is the most neglected of all. Long 
after the proper time of commencement the president had 
not made his appearance, and at length Mr. Siemens, 
the only honorary vice-president, was requested to take 
the chair. Of the four papers read three were by 
Englishmen, and on the first day of meeting one paper 
alone was read by a Dutchman. Pure physics in France 
is unfortunately quite unrepresented at the Congress. 
In the Chemical Section M. Baunhauer read a paper 
“Cn the Crystallisation of the Diamond,” and M. de 
Foreland “On a New Apparatus for Gas Analysis.” 
There were several good papers on meteorological sub- 
jects. Cnly three papers were read in the Geological 
Section, the most important of these by M. Villanova, 
“On the Unification of Geological Nomenclature.” The 
Anthropological Section was well attended, and papers 
of considerable local interest were read. The Sections 
of Geography and Political Economy mainly discus:ed the 
Sahara—on the one hand its physical geography, and on 
the other its colonisation. ; 

In the Agricultural Exhibition one of the most in- 
teresting machines is the solar engine, the boiler of 
which is placed in the axis of a mirror 14 feet in diameter, 
and formed of three portions of hollow truncated cones, 
so as to get a close approximation to the parabola. When 
the sun shines a pressure of from three to four atmo- 
spheres is produced in the boiler, and a force of one- 
horse power is produced through the intervention of an 


+ Continued from p. 583. 


; 


_— = 


April 28, 1881 | 


NAGRORE 


607 


ordinary steam-engine, The mirror is of silvered copper ; 
the boiler is blackened and is surrounded by a glass 
cylinder, which of course permits the passage of the sun’s 
heat through it, but obstructs its escape after absorption. 
The whole thing costs 4000 francs, and it could be used 
in many countries for at least 200 days in the year. 

G. F. RODWELL 


THE HERRING} 


{- is now nineteen years since my attention was first 
specially directed to the natural history of the her- 
ring, and to the many important economical and legal 
questions connected with the herring fisheries. As a 
member of two successive Royal Commissions, it fell to 
my lot to take part in inquiries held at every important 
fishing station in the United Kingdom between the years 
1862 and 1865, and to hear all that practical fishermen 
had to tell about the matter ; while I had free access to 
the official records of the Fishery Boards. Nor did I neg- 
lect such opportunities as presented themselves of study- 
ing the fish itself, and of determining the scientific value 
of the terms by which, in the language of fishermen, the 
various conditions of the herring are distinguished. 

Diligent sifting of the body of evidence thus collected 
and passed under review, led to the satisfactory clearing 
away in my own mind of some of the obscurities which, at 
that time, surrounded the natural history of the fish. But 
many problems remained, the solution of which was not 
practicable by investigations which, after all, were only 
incidents in the course of a large inquiry, embracing a 
vast number of topics beside herrings and herring 
fisheries ; and it is only within the last few years that the 
labours of the German West Baltic Fishery Commission 
have made such large additions to the state of our 
knowledge in 1865, that the history of the herring is 
brought within measurable distance of completeness. 

Considering the vast importance of the herring fisheries 
of the Eastern Counties, it occurred to me when the 
President of the National Fishery Exhibition did me the 
honour to ask me to address you, that nothing could be 
more likely to interest my audience than a summary 
statement of what is now really known about a fish 
which, from a fisherman's point of view, is probably 
the chief of fishes. 

I am aware that I may lay myself open to the applica- 
tion of the proverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, 
if I commence my observations with a description of the 
most important distinctive characters of a fish which is 
so familiar to the majority of my hearers. And perhaps 
it is as well that I should at once express my belief that 
most of you are as little likely to mistake a herring for 
anything else asIam. Nay,I will go further. I have 
reason to believe that any herring-merchant, in a large 
way of business, who may be here, knows these fish so 
much better than I do, that he is able to discriminate a 
Yarmouth herring from a Scotch herring and both from 
a Norway herring ; a feat which I could not undertake to 
perform. But then it is possible that I may know some 
things that he does not. He is very unlike other fishermen 
and fish-merchants with whom I have met, if he has any 
but the vaguest notions of the way of life of the fish ; or 
if he has heard anything about those singularities of its 
organisation which perplex biologists ; or if he can say ex- 
actly how and why he knows that a herring is not a sprat, 
a shad, ora pilchard. And all kinds of real knowledge 
and insight into the facts of nature do so bear upon one 
another and turn out in strange ways practically helpful, 
that I propose to pour out my scientific budget, in the 
hope that something more may come of it than the grati- 
fication of intelligent curiosity. 

If any one wants to exemplify the meaning of the word 


1 A lecture delivered by Prof. Huxley at the National Fishery Exhibition, 
Norwich, April 21, 1881. 


“fish” he cannot choose a better animal than a her- 
ring. The body, tapering to each end, is covered with 
thin, flexible scales, which are very easily rubbed off. 
The taper head, with its underhung jaw, is smooth and 
scaleless on the top; the large eye is partly covered by 
two folds of transparent skin, like eyelids—only immov- , 
able and with the slit between them vertical instead of 
horizontal; the cleft behind the gill cover is very wide, 
and, when the cover is raised, the large red gills which 
lie beneath it are freely exposed. The rounded back 
bears the single moderately long dorsal fin about its 
middle. The tail fin is deeply cleft, and on careful in- 
spection small scales are seen to be continued from the 
body, on to both its upper and its lower lobes, but there is 
no longitudinal scaly fold on either of these. The belly 
comes to an edge, covered by a series of sharply-keeled 
bony shields between the throat and the vent; and 
behind the last is the anal fin, which is of the same 
length as the dorsal fin. There is a pair of fore-limbs, or 
pectoral fins, just behind the head; and a pair of hind- 
limbs, or ventral fins, are situated beneath the dorsal fin, 
a little behind a vertical line drawn from its front edge, 
anda long way in front of the vent. These fins have 
bony supports or rays, all of which are soft and jointed. 

Like most fishes, the herring is propelled chiefly by the | 
sculling action of the tail-fin, the rest serving chiefly to 
preserve the balance of the body, and to keep it from turn- 
ing over, as it would do if left to itself, the back being 
the heaviest part of the fish. 

The mouth of the herring is not very large, the gape 
extending back only to beneath the middle of the eye, and 
the teeth on the upper and lower jaws are so small as to 
be hardly visible. Moreover, when a live herring opens 
its mouth, or when the lower jaw of a dead herring is 
depressed artificially, the upper jaw, instead of remaining 
fixed and stationary, travels dowawards and forwards in 
such a manner as to guard the sides of the gape. This 
movement is the result of a curious mechanical arrange- 
ment by which the lower jaw pulls upon the upper, and I 
suspect that it is useful in guarding the sides of the 
gape when the fish gulps the small living prey upon which 
it feeds. 

The only conspicuous teeth, and they are very small, 
are disposed in an elongated patch upon the tongue, | 
and in another such patch, opposite to these, on the fore | 
part of the roof of the mouth. The latter are attached to 
a bone called the vomer, and are hence termed vomerine | 
teeth. But, if the mouth of a herring is opened widely, — 
there will be seen, on each side, a great number of fine, 
long, bristle-like processes, the pointed ends of which 
project forwards. These are what are termed the gill 
rakers, inasmuch as they are fixed, like the teeth of a rake, 
to the inner sides of those arches of bone on the outer 
sides of which the gills are fixed. The sides of the 
throat of a herring, in fact, are as it were cut by four deep 
and wide clefts which are separated by these gill arches, 
and the water which the fish constantly gulps in by the 
mouth flows through these clefts, over the gills and out 
beneath the gill covers, aérating the blood, and thus 
effecting respiration, as it goes. But since it would be 
highly inconvenient, and indeed injurious, were the food 
to slip out in the same way, these gill rakers play the 
part of a fine sieve, which lets the water strain off, 
while it keeps the food in. The gill rakers of the front 
arches are much longer than those of the hinder arches, 
and as each is stiffened by a thread of bone developed in 
its interior, while, at the same time, its sides are beset 
with fine sharp teeth, like thorns on a brier, I suspect 
that they play some part in crushing the life out of the 
small animals on which the herrings prey. A 

Between these arches there is, in the middle line, an 
opening which leads into the gullet. This passes back 
into a curious conical sac which is commonly termed the 
stomach, but which has more the character of a crop. 


608 


NATURE 


[April 28, 1881 


Coming off from the under side of the sac and communi- | 


cating with it by a narrow opening, there is an elongated 
tubular organ, the walls of which are so thick and muscular 
that it might almost be compared to a gizzard. It is 
directed forwards, and opens by a narrow prominent 
aperture into the intestine, which runs straight back to 
the vent. Attached to the commencement of the intes- 
tine, there is a score or more of larger and shorter tubular 
organs which are called the pyloric ceca. These open 
into the intestine, and their apertures may be seen on one 
side of it, occupying an oval space, in the middle of 
which they are arranged three in a row. 

The chief food of the herring consists of minute Crus- 
tacea, some of them allied to the shrimps and prawns, 
but the majority belonging to the same division as the 
common Cyclops of our fresh waters. These tenant 
many parts of the ocean in such prodigious masses that 
the water is discoloured by them for miles together, 
and every sweep of a fine net brings up its tens of 
thousands. 

Everybody must have noticed the silvery air-bladder 
of the herring, which lies immediately under the back- 
bone, and stretches from close to the head to very near 
the'vent, being wide in the middle and ‘tapering off to 
-each end. Inits natural state, it is distended with air ; 
and, if it is pricked, the elastic wall shrinks and drives the 
air out, as if it were an indiarubber ball. When the con- 
nexions of this air-bladder are fully explored it turns out 
to be one of the most curious parts of the organisation of 
the whole animal. 


into which the gullet is continued runs back into a very 
slender duct which turns upwards and eventually opens 
into the middle of the air-bladder. The canal of this 
duct is so very small and irregularly twisted; that, even if 
the air-bladder is squeezed, the air does not escape into 
the sac. But, if air is forced into the sac by means of ‘a 
blowpipe, the air passes without much difficulty the other 
way, and the air-bladder becomes fully distended. When 
the pressure is removed, however, the air-bladder di- 
minishes in size to a certain extent, showing that the air 
escapes somewhere. And if the blowing up of the air- 
bladder is performed while the fish is under water, a fine 
stream of air-bubbles may be seen to escape close to the 
vent. Careful anatomical investigation, in fact, shows 
that the air-bladder does not really end at the point 
where its silvery coat finishes, but that a delicate tube is 
continued thence to the left side of the vent, and there 
ends by an opening of its own. 

Now the air-bladder of all fishes is, to begin with, an 
outgrowth from the front part of the alimentary canal, 
and there are a great many fishes in which, as in the 
herring, it remains throughout life in permanent com- 
munication with the gullet. But it is rare to find the 
duct so far back as in the herring; and, at present, 
Tam not aware that the air-bladder opens externally in 
any fishes except the herring and a few of its allies. 

There is a general agreement among fishermen that 
herrings sometimes make a squeaking noise when they 
are freshly taken out of the water. I have never heard this 
sound myself, but there is so much concurrent testimony 
to the fact that I do not doubt it; and it occurs to me 
that it may be produced when the herrings are quickly 
brought up from some depth by means of this arrange- 
ment. For under these circumstances the air, which the 
air-bladder contains, expands to such a degree, on being 
relieved from the pressure of the water, that deep-sea 
fishes with a closed air-bladder which are brought to the 
surface rapidly are sometimes fairly turned inside out by 
the immense distension, or even bursting, of the air-bladder. 
If the same thing should happen to the herring the like 
misfortune would not befall it, for the air would be forced 
out of the opening in question, and might readily enough 
produce the squeak which is reported. The common 


Loach! is said to produce a’ piping sound by expelling the 
air which this fish takes into its intestine for respiratory 
purposes. 

At the opposite end of the air-bladder there is an even 
more Curious arrangement. ‘Thesilvery coat of the air- 
bladder ends in front just behind the head. But the air- 
bladder itself does not terminate here. Two very fine 
canals, each of which is not more than a two-hundredth 
of an inch in diameter, though it is surrounded by a 
relatively thick wall of cartilage, pass forward, one on each 
side, from: the air-bladder to the back of the skull. “The 
canals enter the walls of the skull, and then each divides 
into two branches. Finally, each of these two dilates into 
a bag which lies in a spheroidal chamber of corresponding 
size and form; and, in consequence of the air which they 
contain, these bags may be seen readily enough shining 
through the side walls of the skull, the bone of which has 
a peculiar structure where it surrounds them. Now 
these two bags, which constitute the termination of the 
air-bladder on each side, are in close relation with the 
organ of hearing. Indeed, a process of that organ pro- 
jects into the front chamber on each side, and is separated 
by only a very delicate partition from the terminal sac of 
the air-bladder. Any vibrations of the air in these sacs, 
or any change in the pressure of the air in them, must 
thus tell upon the hearing apparatus. 

There is no doubt about the existence of these strue- 
tures which, together with the posterior opening of the air- 
bladder, were most accurately described, more than sixty 


| years ago, by the eminent anatomist Weber, but I am 
In the first place, the pointed end of the sac or crop | 


afraid we are not much wiser regarding their meaning 
than we were when they were first made known. In fishes 
in general, there can be little doubt that the chief use of 
the air-bladder is to diminish the specific gravity of the 
fish and, by rendering its body of nearly the same weight 


‘as sO much water, to render the business of swimming 


easier. In those fishes in which the passage of communi- 
cation between the air-bladder and the alimentary canal is 
closed, the air is no doubt secreted into the air-bladder 
by its vessels, which are often very abundant. In the 
herring, the vessels of the air-bladder are very scanty; and 
it seems probable that the air is swallowed and forced 
into the air-bladder just as the loach swallows air and 
drives it into its intestine. And, as I have already 
suggested, it may be that the narrow posterior canal 
which leads from the air-bladder to the exterior is a sort 
of safety-valve allowing the air to escape, when the fish, 
rapidly ascending or descending, alters the pressure-of 
the water upon the contained air. 

This hypothesis may be put forward with some show of 
probability, but I really find it difficult to suggest any- 
thing with respect to the physiological meaning of the 
connection between the ‘air-bladder and the ear. Never- 
theless such an elaborate apparatus must have ~some 
physiological importance ; and, this conclusion is strength- 
ened by the well-known fact that there are a great many 
fishes in which the air-bladder and the ear become 'con- 
nected in one way or another. In the carp tribe, for 
example, the front end of the air-bladder is connected by a 
series of little bones with the organ of hearing, which is, 
as it were, prolonged backwards to meet these bones in 
the hinder end of the skull. But here, the air-bladder, 
which is very large, may act as a resonator; while, in 
the herring, the extreme narrowness of the passages which 
connect the air-bladder with the ear renders it difficult to 
suppose that the organ can have any such function, 

In addition to the singular connection of the ear with 
the exterior by the roundabout way of the air-bladder, 
there are membranous spaces in the walls of ‘the skull 
by which vibrations can more directly reach the herring’s 
ear. And there is no doubt that the fish is very sensitive 

I See Miiller, “‘ Ueber Fische welche Tone von sich geben,” Archiv fiir 


Physiologie, 1857, p. 267. The herring is not mentioned in Miiller’s list of 
vocal fishes. 


April 28, 1881 | 


to suchvibrations. In a dark night, when the water is 
phosphorescent or, as the fishermen say, there is) plenty 
-of “ merefire,” it isa curious spectacle to watch the effect 
of sharply tapping the side of the boat as it passes over 
ashoal. The herrings scatter in all: directions, leaving 
streaks of light! behind them, like shooting stars. 

The herring, like other fishes, breathes by means of the 
gills—the essential part of which consists of the delicate, 
highly-vascular filaments, which are set in a double row 
‘on the outer faces of each of the gill arches. The venous 
blood which returns from all parts of ‘the body to be 
collected in the heart, is pumped thence into the gills, 
and there exchanges its excess of carbonic acid gas 
>for the gaseous oxygen which is dissolved in sea-water. 
The freedom of passage of the water, and the great size 
and delicacy of the gills, facilitate respiration when the 
fish is in:its native element ; but the same peculiarities 
permitting of the rapid drying and coherence of the gills, 
and thus bringing on speedy suffocation, render its tenure 
of life, after removal from the water, as short as that of any 
fish. It may be observed, in passing, that the wide clefts 
behind the gill-covers of the herring have some practical 
importance, as the fish, thrusting its head through the 
-meshes of the drift-net, is caught behind them and cannot 
-extricate itself. In the herring, the upper end of the last 
gill: cleft is not developed into.a sac or pouch, such as we 
shall:find in some of its near neighbours. 

The only other organs of the herring, which need be 
mentioned at present, are the milt and roe, found in the 
male and female herring respectively. 

These are elongated organs attached beneath the air- 
bladder, which lie, one on each side of the abdominal 
cavity, and open behind the vent by an aperture common 
to the two. The spermatic fluid of the male is developed 
in the milt and the eggs of the female inthe roe. These 
eggs, when fully formed, measure from one-sixteenth to 
one-twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter ; and, as, in the 
ripe female, the two roes or ovaries stretch from one end 
of the abdominal cavity to the other, occupying all the 
space left by the other organs, and distending the cavity, 
the number of eggs which they contain must be very 
great. Probably 10,000 is an under-estimate of the 
number of ripe eggs shed in spawning by a moderate-sized 
female herring. But I think it is safer than the 30 000 of 
some estimates, which appear to me to be made in forget- 
‘fulness of the very simple anatomical considerations that 
the roe consists of an extensive vascular framework as 
well as of eggs ; and, moreover, that a vast number of 
the eggs which it contains remain immature, and are not 
shed at the time of spawning. 

In this brief account of the structure of the herring I 
‘have’ touched only on those points which are peculiarly 
interesting, or which bear upon what I shall: have to say 
by and by. An exhaustive study of the fish from this 
point of view alone would require a whole course of 
lectures toiitself. 

The herring is a member of a very large group of fishes 
spread over ail parts of the world, and termed that of the 
Clupeida, after Clupea, the generic name of the herring 
itself. Our herring, the C/ufea harengus, inhabits the White 
‘Sea and perhaps some parts of the Arctic Ocean, the tem- 
perate and colder parts of the Atlantic, the North Sea, 
and the Baltic, and there is a very similar, if not identi- 
ca], species in the North Pacific. But it is not known to 
occur in the seas of southern Europe, nor in any part. of 

‘the intertropical ocean, nor in the southern hemisphere. 

There are four British fishes which so closely resemble 
herrings, externally and internally, that, though prac- 
tical men may not be in any danger of confounding 
them, scientific zoologists have not always succeeded in 
defining their differences. These are the Sprat, the Allice 
and Twaite Shads, and the Pilchard. 

The sprat comes nearest ;. indeed young herrings and 
sprats have often been confounded together, and doubts 


NATURE 


i 


609 


have been thrown on the specific distinctness of the two. 
Yetiif a spratand a young herring of the same size are 
placed side by side, even their external differences leave 
no doubt of their distinctness. ‘The sprat’s lower jaw is 
shorter ; the shields in the middle of the belly have a 
sharper keel, whence the ventral edge is mere like a saw ; 
and the ventral fin lies vertically under the front edge of 
the dorsal fin, or even in front of it ; while in the herring, 
though the position of the ventral fin varies a little, it lies 
more or less behind the front margin of the dorsal fin. 
The anal fin is of the same length as the dorsal, in the 
herring, longer than the dorsal in the sprat. But the best 
marks of distinction are the absence of vomerine teeth 
in the sprat, and the smaller number of pyloric cca, 
which do not exceed nine, their openings being disposed 
in a single longitudinal series. 

Shads and, pilchards have a common character by 
which they are very easily distinguished from both sprat 
and herring. There is a horizontal fold of scaly skin on 
each side of the tail above and below the middle line. 
Moreover they have no teeth in the inside of the mouth, 
and their pyloric ceeca are very numerous—a hundred or 
more—their openings being disposed five or six ina row, 

The shads have a deep narrow notch in the middle line 
of the upper jaw, which is absent in the pilchard. The 
intestine of the shad is short and straight, like that of the 
herring ; while that of the pilchard is long and folded 
several times upon itself. 

Both of these fishes, again, possess a very curious struc- 
ture, termed an accessory branchial organ, which is found 
more highly developed in other fishes of the herring 
family, and attains its greatest development in a fresh- 
water fish, the He¢erotis, which inhabits the Nile. This 
organ is very rudimentary in the shad (in which it was 
discovered by Gegenbaur!), but it is much larger in the 
pilchard, in which, so far as I know, it has not heretofore 
been noticed. In Chawos and several other Clupeoid fishes 
it becomes coiled upon itself, and in Heferotis the coiled 
organ makes many turns. The organ is commonly supposed 
to be respiratory in function ; but this is very doubtful. 

Herrings which have attained maturity and are dis- 
tended by the greatly enlarged milt or roe are ready to 
shed the contents of these organs or, as it is said to spawn. 
In 1862, we found a great diversity of opinion prevailed as 
to the time at which this operation takes) place, and we- 
took a great deal of trouble to settle the question, with 
the result which is thus stated in our Report :-— 

“ We have obtained a very large body of valuable evi- 
dence on this subject, derived partly from the examination 
of fishermen and of others conversant with the herring 
fishery ; partly from the inspection of the accurate records 
kept by the fishery officers at different stations, and partly 
from other sources; and our clear conclusion from all 
this evidence is, that the herring spawns at two seasons 
of the vear, in the spring and in the autumn. We 
have hitherto metiwith no case of full or spawning her- 
rings being found, in any locality, during what may be 
termed the solstitial months, namely June and December ; 
and it would appear that such herrings are never (or very 
rarely) taken in May or the early part. of July, in the latter 
part of November, or the early part of January. But a 
spring spawning certainly occurs in the latter part of 
January, in February, in March, and in April ; and an 
autumn spawning in the latter part of July, in August, 
September, Cctober, and even as late as November. 
Taking all parts of the British coast together, February 
and March are the great months for the spring spawning, 
and August and September for the autumn spawning. It 
is not at all likely that the same fish spawn twice in the 
year; on the contrary, the spring and the autumn shoals 
are probably perfectly distinct ; and if the herring, accord- 
ing to the hypothesis. advanced above, come to maturity 

I «Ueber das Kopfskelet von Alepocephalus rostratus,” Morphologisches 
Yahrbuch, Bd. iv., Suppl..1878. 5; 


610 


NATURE 


[April 28, 1881 


; c 
in a year, the shoals of each spawning season would be | 


the fry of the twelvemonth before. However, no direct 
evidence can be adduced in favour of this supposition, 


and it would be extremely difficult to obtain such | 


evidence.” ! 

I believe that these conclusions, confirmatory of those 
of previous careful observers? are fully supported by 
all the evidence which has been collected, and the fact 
that this species of fish has two spawning seasons, one 
in the hottest and one in the coldest months of the year, 
is very curious. 

Another singular circumstance connected with the 
spawning of the herring is the great variety of the 
conditions, apart from temperature, to which the fish 
adapts itself in performing this function. On our own 
coasts, herrings spawn in water of from ten to twenty 
fathoms, and even at greater depths, and ina sea of full 
oceanic saltness. Nevertheless herrings spawn just as 
freely, not only in the narrows of the Baltic, such as the 
Great Belt, in which the water is not half as salt as it is 
in the North Sea and in the Atlantic, but even in such 
long inlets as the Schlei in Schleswig, the water of which 
is quite drinkable and is inhabited by freshwater fish. 
Here the herrings deposit their eggs in two or three 
feet of water; and they are found, along with the eggs 
of freshwater fish, sticking in abundance to such fresh- 
water plants as Potamogeton. 

~Nature seems thus to offer us a hint as to the way in 
which a fish like the shad, which is so closely allied to 
the herring, has acquired the habit of ascending rivers 
to deposit its eggs in purely fresh water. 

If a full female herring is gently squeezed over a vessel 
of sea-water, the eggs will rapidly pour out and sink to 
the bottom, to which they immediately adhere with so 
much tenacity that, in half an hour, the vessel may be 
inverted without their dropping out. When spawning 
takes places naturally the eggs fall to the bottom and 
attach themselves in a similar fashion. But, at this time, 
the assembled fish dart wildly about, and the water 
becomes cloudy with {the shed fluid of the milt. The 
eggs thus become fecundated as they fall, and the de- 
velopment of the young within the ova sticking to the 
bottom commences at once. 

The first definite and conclusive evidence as to the 
manner in which herring spawn is attached and becomes 
developed that I know of, was obtained by Prof. 
Allman and Dr. MacBain in 1862,3 in the Firth of 
Forth. By dredging in localities in which spent herring 
were observed on the 1st of March, Professor Allman 
brought up spawn in abundance at a depth of fourteen to 
twenty-one fathoms. It was deposited on the surface of 
the stones, shingle, and gravel, and on old shells and 
coarse shell-sand, and even on the shells of small living 
crabs and other crustacea, adhering tenaciously to what- 
ever it had fallen on. No spawn was found in any other 
part of the Forth; but it continued to be abundant on 
both the east and the west sides of the Isle of May 
up to the 13th of March, at which time the incuba- 
tion of the ovum was found to be completed in a great 
portion of the spawa, and the embryos had become free. 
On the 25th scarcely a trace of spawn could be de- 
tected, and nearly the whole of the adult fish had left 
the Forth. 

Prof. Allman draws attention to the fact “that the 
deposit of spawn, as evidenced by the appearance of 
spent herrings, did not take place till about sixty-five 
days after the appearance of the herring in the Firth,” 
and arrives at the conclusion that “the incubation probably 
continues during a period of between twenty-five to thirty 


* © Report of the Royal Commission on the operation of the Acts relating 
to Trawling for Herrings on the Coast of Scotland (1863),"’ p. 28. 

2 Brandt and Ratzeburg, for example, in 1833 strongly asserted that the 
herring has two spawning seasons. 

3 ** Report of the Royal Commission on the Operation of the Acts relating 
to Trawling for Herring on the Coast of Scotland, 1863.” 


” 


days,” adding however that the estimate must for the 
present be regarded as only approximative. It was on 
this and other evidence that we based our conclusion that 
the eggs of the herring ‘‘are hatched in at most from two 
to three weeks after deposition.” 

Within the last few years a clear light has been thrown 
upon this question by the labours of the West Baltic 


| Fishery Commission, to which I have so often had oc- 


casion to refer. It has been found that artificial fecun- 
dation is easily practised, and that the young fish may 
be kept in aquaria for as long as five months. Thus, a 
great body of cccurate information, some of it of a very 
unexpected character, has been obtained respecting the 
development of the eggs, and the early condition of the 
young herring. 

It turns out that, as is the case with other fishes, the 
period of incubation is closely dependent upon warmth. 
When the water has a temperature of 53° Fahrenheit, the 
eggs of the herring hatch in from 6—8 days; the aver- 
age being seven days. And thisis a very interesting fact 
when we bear in mind the conclusion to which the in- 
quiries of the Dutch meteorologists, and, more lately, 
those of the Scottish Meteorological Society appear to 
tend, namely, that the shoals prefer water of about 55°. 
At 50° Fahrenheit, the period of incubation is length- 
ened to eleven days ; at 46° to fifteen days ; and at 38° it 
lasts forty days. As the Forth is usually tolerably cool 
in the month of March, it is probable that Prof. Allman’s 
estimate comes very near the truth for the particular 
case which he investigated. 

The young, when they emerge from the egg, are from 
one-fifth to one-third of an inch in length, and so ex- 
tremely unlike the adult herring that they may properly be 
termed larvee. They have enormous eyes and an exceed- 
ingly slender body, with a yelk bag protruding from its 
forepart. The skeleton is in a very rudimentary condi- 
tion ; there are no ventral fins; and instead of separate 
dorsal, caudal, and anal fins, there is one continuous fin 
extending from the head along the back, round the tail, 
and then forwards to the yelk bag. The intestine is a 
simple tube, ciliated internally ; there is no air-bladder, 
and no branchiz are yet developed. The heart is a mere 
contractile vessel, and the blood is a clear fluid without 
corpuscles. At first the larve do not feed, but merely grow 
at the expense of the yelk, which gradually diminishes, 

Within three or four days after hatching, the length 
has increased by about half the original dimensions, the 
yelk has disappeared, the cartilaginous skeleton appears, 
and the heart becomes divided into its chambers ; but 
the young fish attains nearly double its first length 
before blood corpuscles are visible. 

By the time the larva is two-thirds of an inch long (a 
length which it attains one month after hatching), the 
primitive median fin is separated into dorsal, caudal, 
and anal divisions, but the ventral fins have not ap- 
peared. About this period the young animal begins to 
feed on small crustacea; and it grows so rapidly that, at 
two months, it is 14 inch long, and, at three months, has 
attained a length of about two inches. 

Nearly up to this stage the elongated scaleless little fish 
retains its larval proportions ; but, in the latter part of the 
third month, the body rapidly deepens, the scales begin 


| to appear, and the larva passes into the “imago” state — 
—that is, assumes the form and proportions of the adult, 


though it is not more than two inches long. After this, it 
goes on growing at the same rate (11 millimetres, or nearly 
half an inch) per month, so that, at six months old, it is 
as large as a moderate-sized sprat. 

The well-known “ whitebait’? of the Thames consists, 


I See the four valuable memoirs, Kupffer, ‘‘ Ueber Laichen und Entwick- — 


elung des Herings in der westlichen Ostsee’’; Zdev:, “Die Entwickelung 
des Herings im Ei’’; Meyer, ‘‘Beobachtungen iiber den Wachsthum 
des Herings” ; Heincke, “‘ Die Varietaten des Herings,”’ which are contained 


| in the Yahvesbericht der Commission in Kiel fir 1874-75-76 — 1878. 


Widegren’s essay ‘On the Herring,” 1871, translated {rom the Danish in 
U.S. Commission Reporis, 1873—75, als2 contains important information. 


j 
/ 


April 28, 1881] 


‘ 


NATURE 


61t 


so far as I have seen, almost exclusively of herrings, under 
six months old, and as the average size of whitebait 
increases, from March and April onwards, until they be- 
come suspiciously like sprats in the late summer, it may 
be concluded that they are the progeny of herrings 
which spawned, early in the year, in the neighbourhood 
of the estuary of the Thames, up which these dainty 
little fish have wandered. Whether it is the general habit 
of young herring, even of those which are spawned in 
deep water, to migrate into the shallow parts of the sea, 
or even into completely fresh waters, when such are 
accessible, is unknown. 

In the Report on Trawling (1863) we observe :— 

“Tt is extremely difficult to obtain any satisfactory 
evidence as to the length of time which the herring re- 
quires to pass from the embryonic to the adult or fill 
condition. Cf the fishermen who gave any opinion on 
this subject, some considered that a herring takes three, 
and others that it requires seven, years to attain the full 
or spawning condition ; others frankly admitted that they 
knew nothing about the matter; and it was not difficult, 
by a little cross-examination, to satisfy ourselves that 
they were all really in this condition, however strongly 
they might hold by their triennial or septennial theories. 
Mr. Yarrell and Mr. Mitchell suppose with more reason 
that herring attain to full size and maturity in about 
eighteen months. 

“Tt does not appear, however, that there is any good 
evidence against the supposition that the herring reaches 
its spawning condition in one year. There is much rea- 
son to believe that the eggs are hatched in, at most, from 
two to three weeks after deposition, and that in six to 
seven weeks more (that is at most ten weeks from the 
time of laying the eggs) the young have attained three 
inches in length. Now it has been ascertained that a 
young smolt may leave a river and return to it again ina 
couple of months increased in bulk eight or tenfold, and 
as a herring lives on very much the same food as a smolt, 
it appears possible that it should increase in the same 
rapid ratio, Under these circumstances nine months 
would be ample time for it to enlarge from three to ten or 
eleven inches in length. It may be fairly argued, how- 
ever, that it is not very safe to reason analogically from 
the rate of growth of one species of fish to that of 
another; and it may be weil to leave the question 
whether the herring attains its maturity in twelve, fifteen, 
or sixteen months open, in the tolerably firm assurance 
that the period last named is the maximum.” 

On comparing these conclusions with the results of the 


careful observations of the Baltic Commissioners, it 


} 


appears that we somewhat over-estimated the rate of 
growth of the young herring, and that the view taken 
by Yarrell and Mitchell is more nearly correct. For 
supposing that the rate of growth after six months 
continues the same as before, a herring twelve months 
old will be nearly six inches long, and at eighteen 
months eight or nine inches. But full herrings may be 
met with little more than seven inches long, and they 
are very commonly found not more than nine inches in 
length.! 

Fishermen distinguish four states of the herring. Fry 
or sile, when not larger than sprats; maties, when larger 
than this, with undeveloped roe or milt ; full fish, with 
largely developed roe or milt; and spent or shotten 
fish, which have recently spawned. 

Herring fry of the size of sprats are distinguished from 
full fish not merely by their size, but in addition, by the 
very slight development of the milt or roe, and by 
the accumulation of fat in the abdominal cavity. Bands 
of fat are found in the mesentery alongside the intestine, 


- and filling up the interspaces between the pyloric czca. 


1 Ljungman (“Preliminary Report on Herrings and Herring Fisheries on 
the West Coast of Sweden,’’ translated in U.S. Commision Report, 1873-5) 
speaks of full herrings ready to spawn only 100-110 mm, (4 to 44 in.) long, as 
observed by himself. 


Maties (the name! of which isa corruption of the Dutch 
word for a maiden) resemble the fry in these particulars ; 
but, if they are well fed, the deposit of fatty and other 
nutritive matter takes place, not only about the abdominal 
viscera, but also beneath the skin and in the interstices of 
the flesh. Indeed, when nourishment is abundant, this 
infiltration of the flesh with fat may go so far that the 
fish cannot readily be preserved and must be eaten fresh. 
The singularly delicate Loch Fyne herrings are in this 
condition early in the season. When the small crusta- 
ceans, on which the maties chiefly feed, are extremely 
abundant the fish gorge themselves with them to such 
an extent that the conical crop becomes completely 
distended, and the Scotch fishermen give them the name 
of ‘‘gut-pock herrings,” as much as to say pouch-gutted 
fish, and an absurd notion is current that these herrings 
are diseased. However, the “gut-pock” herrings differ 
from the rest only in having their pouch full instead of 
empty, as it commonly is. 

As the fish passes from the matie to the full condition, 
the milt and roe begin to grow at the expense of the 
nutriment thus stored up ; and, as these organs become 
larger and occupy more and more space in the abdominal 
cavity, the excess of nutritious substance is transferred to 
them. The fatty deposit about the intestine and pyloric 
czeca gradually disappears and the flesh becomes poorer. 
It would appear that by degrees the fish cease to feed 
at all, At any rate, there is usually no food in the stomach 
of a herring which approaches maturity. In all these 
respects there is the closest resemblance between the 
history of the herring and that of other fishes such as the 
salmon—the parr correspnding to the herring fry or sile, 
the grilse and the “clean fish” of larger size to the 
maties. 

At length spawning takes place, the accumulated nutri- 
tion, transformed into eggs or spermatic fluid, is expelled, 
and the fish is left inthat lean and depauperated state 
which makes a ‘‘shotten herring” proverbial. In this 
condition it answers to the salmon “kelt,” and the milt 
or roe are now shrunk and flaccid and can be blown 
up with air like empty bags. If the spent fish escapes its 
myriad enemies, it doubtless begins to feed again and once 
more passes into the matie state in preparation for the 
next breeding season. But the nature of this process of 
recuperation has yet to be investigated. 

When they have reached the matie stage, the her- 
rings, which are at all times gregarious, associate 
together in conspicuous assemblages, which are called 
shoals. These are sometimes of prodigious extent— 
indeed eight or nine miles in length, two or three in 
breadth, with an unknown depth, are dimensions which 
are credibly asserted to be sometimes attained. In these 
shoals the fish are closely packed, like a flock of sheep 
straying slowly along a pasture, and it is probably quite 
safe to assume that there is at least one fish for every 
cubic foot of water occupied by the shoal. If this be so, 
every square mile of such a shoal, supposing it to be 
three fathoms deep, must contain more than 500,000,000 
herrings. And when it is considered that many shoals 
approach the coasts, not only of our own islands, but 
of Scandinavia and the Baltic, and of Eastern North 
America, every spring and autumn, the sum total of the 
herrings which people our seas surpasses imagination. 

If you read any old and some new books on the 
natural history of the herring, you will find a wonderful 
story about the movements of these shoals. How 
they start from their home in the Polar Seas, and 
march south as a great armada which splits into minor 
divisions—one destined to spawn on the Scandi- 

I “}{alecum intestina, non modo multa gaudere obesitate, sed et totum 
corpus eo adeo esse impletum ut aliquando, cum discinditur, pinguedo ex 
cultro defluat, et praesertim eo quidem tempore ubi halecum lactes aut ova 
crescere primum incipiunt, unde nostrates €os Maatgens-Haringen dicere 


solent.’—A. v. Leeuwenhoek, ‘ Arcana Nature,’”” Ep. xcvii. (1696). 


Leeuwenhoek also mentions having heard of “gut pock "’ herrings from 


Scotch fishermen. 


6% 2% 


navian, and one on our own) shores ; and how, having 
achieved this spawning raid, the spent fish make their 
way as fast as they can back to their Arctic refuge, there 
ta repair their exhausted frames in domestic security. 
This story was started in the last century, and was 
unfortunately adopted and disseminated by our country- 
man Pennant. But there is not the least proof that 
anything of the kind takes place, and the probabilities are 
wholly against it.. It is, for example, quite irreconcilable 
with the fact that herring are-found in cods’ stomachs 
all the year round. And the circumstance to which I 
have already adverted, that practised eyes distinguish 
local breeds of herrings, though it does not actually 
negative the migration hypothesis, is very much against 
it. The supposition that the herring spawn in the north 
in the early spring, and in the south in the autumn, fitted 
very well into the notion that the vanguard of the migrat- 
ing body of herrings occupied the first spawning ground 


it reached, and obliged the rest of the horde to pass on. | 
But, as a matter of fact, the northern herrings, like the | 


southern, have two spawning times; or perhaps it would 
be more correct to say that the spawning time extends 
from autumn to spring, and has two maxima—one in 
August-September, and one in February-March. 

Finally, there is no evidence that herrings are to be 
met with in the extreme north of their range, at’ other 
times, or in greater abundance, than they are to be found 
elsewhere. 

In the matter of its migration, as in other respects, the 
herring compares best with the salmon. The ordinary 
habitation of both fishes is no doubt the moderately deep 
portion of the sea. It is only as the breeding time 
draws near that the herrings (not yet advanced beyond 
the matie state) gather together towards the surface 
and approach the land in great shoals for the purpose of 
spawning in relatively or absolutely shallow water. In 
the case of the herring of the Schlei we have almost the 
connecting link between the exclusively marine ordinary 
herring and the river ascending salmon. 

The records of the herring fisheries are, for'the most 
part, neither very ancient nor (with the exception of those 
of the Scotch Fishery Board) very accurately kept ; and, 
from the nature of the case, they can only tell us whether 
the fish in any given year were readily taken or not, and 
that may have very little to do with the actual strength 
of the shoals. 

However, there is historical evidence that, long before 
the time of Henry the First, Yarmouth was frequented by 
herring fishers: This means that, for eight centuries, 
herrings have been fished on the English coast, and I 
cannot make out, taking one year with another, in recent 
times, that there has been any serious fluctuation in their 
numbers. The number captured must have enormously 
increased in the last two centuries, and yet there is no 
sign of diminution of the shoals. 

In 1864, we had to listen to dolorous prophecies of 
the coming exhaustion of the Scotch herring: fisheries. 


The fact that the returns showed no falling off was | 
ascribed to the improvement of the gear and methods | 


of fishing, and to the much greater distances to which 
the fishermen extend their operations: Yet what has 
reallyhappened? The returns of subsequent years prove, 
not only that the average cure of the decade 1869-78 was 


NATURE 


| 


} 


considerably greater than that of the previous decade, but | 


that the years 1874 and 1880 are absolutely without parallel 
in the annals of the Scotch herring fishery, a million barrels 
having been cured in the first of these years, and amillion 
and a half in 1880. In the decade 1859-68, the average 
was 670,000 barrels, and the highest 830,000. 

In dealing with questions of biology, @ Ariové reason- 
ing is somewhat risky, and if any one tells me “it stands 
to reason” that such and such things must happen, I 
generally find reason to doubt the safety of his standing. 

It is said that “it stands to reason” that destruction on 


[ April 28, 883. 


such a prodigious scale as that effected by herring fishers 
must tell on the supply. But again let us look at the facts. 
It is said that 2,500,000,000, or thereabouts, of herrings 
are every year taken out of the North Sea and the At- 
lantic. Suppose we assume the number to be 3,000,000,000 
so as to be quite safe. It is a large number undoubtedly, 
but what does it come to? Not more than that of the 
herrings which may be contained in one shoal, if it covers 
half a dozen square miles—and shoals of much larger 
size are on record. It is safe to say that, scattered 
through the North Sea and the Atlantic, at one and the 
same time, there must be scores of shoals, any one of 
which would go a long way towards supplying the whole 
of man’s consumption of herrings. I do not believe 
that all the herring fleets taken together destroy 5 per: 
cent. of the total number of herrings in the sea in any 
year, and I see no reason to swerve from the conviction 
my colleagues and I expressed in our Report, that’ their 
destructive operations are totally insignificant when com- 
pared with those which, as a simple calculation shows, 
must 'regularly and normally go on. 

Suppose that every mature female herring lays 10,000 
eggs, that the fish are not interfered with by man, and 
that their numbers remain approximately the same 
year after year, it follows that 9998 of the progeny 
of every female must be destroyed before they reach 
maturity. For if more than two out of the 10,000 escape 
destruction, the number of herrings will be proportion- 
ately increased. Or in other words, if the average strength 
of the shoals which visit a given locality is to remain’ 
the same year by year, many thousand times the number 
contained in those shoals must be annually destroyed. 
And how this enormous amount of destruction is effected 
will be obvious to any one who considers the operations 
of the fin-whales, the porpoises, the gannets, the gulls; 
the codfish, and the dogfish, which accompany the 
shoals and perennially feast upon them; to say nothing 
of the flat-fish, which prey upon the newly-deposited spawn 5° 
or of the mackerel, and the innumerable smaller enemies 
which devour the fry in:all stages of their development! 
It isno uncommon thing to find five or six—nay, even” 
ten or twelve—herrings in the stomach of a codfish,! and, 
in 1863, we calculated that the whole take of the great 
Scotch herring fisheries is less than the number of herrings 
which would in all probability have been consumed by 
the codfish captured in the same waters if they had been: 
left in the sea.* 

Man, in fact, is but one of a vast co-operative society of 
herring-catchers, and the larger the share he takes, the less 
there is for the rest of the company. If man took none; 
the other shareholders would have a larger dividend, and 
would thrive and multiply in proportion, but it would 
come to pretty much the same thing to the herrings. — 

As long as the records-of history give us information, 
herrings appear to have abounded on the east coast of the 
British Islands, and there is nothing to show, so far as 1 
am aware, that, taking an average of years, they were 
ever either more or less numerous than they are at present. 
But in remarkable contrast with this constancy, the shoals 
of herrings have elsewhere exhibited a change capri- 
ciousness—visiting a given locality for many years: in 
great numbers, and then suddenly disappearing. Several’ 
well-marked examples of this fickleness are recorded on’ 
the west coast of Scotland; but the most remarkable is that 
furnished by the fisheries of Bohiislan, a province which: 
lies on the south-western shore of the Scandinavian 
peninsulas Here a variety known as the “‘old” or 


¥'In his valuable Report on the Salt Water Fisheries of Norway (1877), 
Prof. Sars expresses the belief tat full-grown codfishes feed chiefly; if not. 
exclusively, on herrings. ' 

? In 1879 rather more than 5,000,000 cod, ling, and hake, were taken by 
the Scottish fishermen. Allowing each only two herrings a day, these fishes 
would have consumed more than three thous«nd five hundred million of her- 
rings in a year. Asto the Norwegian fisheries, 20,000,000 codfishes are 
said to be taken annually by the Lofoden fishermen alone. - 


April 28, 1881] 


| 
' 


NATURE 


61 


as 


o 


“creat” herring, after being so extremely abundant, for 
_ about sixty years, as to give rise to a great industry, dis- 
appeared in the year 1808, as suddenly as they made their 
appearance, and have not since been seen in any number. 
__ The desertion of their ordinary grounds by the herring 
_has been attributed to all imaginable causes, from fishing 
on a Sunday to the offence caused to the fish by the 
_ decomposing carcases of their brethren, dropped upon 
_ the bottom out of the nets. The truth is that absolutely 
_ nothing is known on the subject ; and that little is likely 
-to be known, until careful and long-continued meteoro- 
logical and zoological observations have furnished definite 
_ information respecting the changes which take place in 
the temperature of the sea, and the distribution of the 
pelagic crustacea which constitute the chief food of the 
herring shoals. The institution of systematic observations 
of this kind is an object of international importance, 
towards the attainment of which the British, Scandinavian, 
Dutch, and French Governments might wisely make a 
combined effort. 

A great fuss has been made about trawlers working over 
the spawning grounds of the herring. ‘‘It stands to reason,” 
we were told, that they must,destroy an immense quan- 
tity of the spawn. Indeed this looked so reasonable, 
that we inquired very particularly into a case of the 
alleged malpractice which was complained of on the 
east coast of Scotland, near Pittenweem. Off this place, 
there is a famous spawning ground known as the Traith 
hole, and we were told that the trawlers worked vigor- 
ously over the spot immediately after the herring had 

_ deposited their spawn. Of course our first proceeding was 
to ask the trawlers why they took the trouble of doing 
what looked like wanton mischief. And their answer 

- was reasonable enough. It was to catch the prodigious 

_ abundance of flat-fish which were to be found on the 
Traith at that time. Well, then, why did the flat-fish con- 
gregate there? Simply to: feed on herring eggs, which 
seem to be a sort of flat-fishes’ caviare. The stomachs 

- of the flat-fish brought up by the trawl were, in fact, 
crammed with masses of herring eggs. 

Thus every flat-fish caught by the trawl was an ener- 
getic destroyer of herring arrested in his career. And the 
trawling, instead of injuring the herring, captured and 
removed hosts of their worst enemies. That is how 
“it. stood to reason’’ when one got to the bottom of the 
matter. 

I do not think that any one who looks carefully into the 
subject will arrive at any other conclusion than that 
reached by my colleagues and myself : namely, that the 
best thing for Governments to do in relation to the 
herring fisheries, is to let them alone, except in so far as 
the police of the sea is concerned. With this proviso, let 
people fish how they like, as they like, and when they 
like: At present, I must repeat the conviction we 
expressed so many years ago, that there is not a 
particle of evidence that anything man does has an 
appreciable influence on the stock of herrings. It will 
be time to meddle, when any satisfactory evidence that 
mischief is being done is produced 


} 


NOTES 


THE fifty-first Annual Meeting of the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science will commence at York on Wednes- 


day, August 31, 1881. The President-Elect is Sir John Lubbock,’ 


Bart, M.P., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents Elect : His Grace the Arch- 
bishop of York, D.D., F.R.S. ; the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor 
of York; the Right Hon, Lord Houghton, F.R.S.; the Ven, 
Avchdeacon Creyke, M.A. ; the Hon. Sir'W. R. Grove, F.R.S. ; 
Prof. G. G. Stokes, Sec. R.S.; Sir John Hawkshaw; C.E., 
FYR:S.; Allen Thomson, M:D., F.R.S.L. ard E. ; Prof. All- 
man, M.D., F.R.S. L. and E. General Secretaries: Capt: 
Donglas Galton, C.B., D.C.U., F.R:S. ; Philip Lutley Sclater, 


l 


Ph.D., F.R.S. Acting Secretary: George Griffith, M:A., 
F.C.S., Harrow ; General Treasurer: Prof. A. W. Williamson, 
F.R.S., University College, London, W.C. Local Secretaries : 
Rev. Thomas Adams, M.A.; Tempest Anderson, M.D., B.Sc., 
York. Local Treasurer: W. W. Wilberforce, York. The 
Sections are the following :—A.—Mathematical and Physical 
Science.—President : Prof. Sir William Thomson, F.R.S, L. 
and E. Vice-Presidents.—Prof. J. C. Adams, F.R.S.; T. 
Archer Hirst, Ph.D., V.P.R.S. Secretaries :, Prof. W. E. 
Ayrton ; Oliver J. Lodge, D,Sc.; Donald McAlister, B.A., 
B.Sc. (Recorder). B.—Chemical Science.—President: Prof. 
A. W. Williamson, For. Sec. R.S., V.P.C.S. Vice-Presidents : 
F, A. Abel, C.B., F.R.S. ; Prof. Odling, F.R.S. Secretaries : 
Harold B. Dixon, M.A. ; P. Phillips-Bedson, D.Sc. (Recorder). 
C.—Geology.—President : Andrew Crombie Ramsay, LL.D., 
F.R.S., Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United 
Kingdom and of the Museum of Practical Geology. Vice-Presi- 
dents: Prof. Prestwich, F.R.S.; Prof. W.C. Williamson, F.R.S. ; 
Secretaries: W. Topley, F.G.S. (Recorder); W. Whitaker, F.G.S. 
D.—Biology.—President : Richard Owen, C.B., F:R.S, Vice: 
Presidents: Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S.; Prof. J. S: Burdon 
Sanderson, F.R.S. Secretaries: G. W. Bloxam, M.A., F.L.S. ; 
W.L. Distant; W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S.; Prof. M‘Nab, M.D. ; 
John Priestley; Howard Saunders, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Department 
of Zoology and Botany,—Richard Owen, C.B., F.R.S. (Presi- 
dent), will preside. Secretaries: Prof. M‘Nab, M.D. (Recorder) ; 
Howard Saunders, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Department of Anthro- 
pology.—Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S. (Vice-President), will 
preside. Secretaries: G. W. Bloxam, M.A., F.L.S. (Recorder) ; 
W. L. Distant. Department of Anatomy and Physiology.— 
Prof. J. S. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S. (Vice-President), will 
preside. Secretaries: John Priestley (Recorder) ; W. A. Forbes, 
F.Z.S. E.—Geography.—President : Sir J. D. Hooker, 
KC.S.L, C.B., F.R.S.  Vice-Presidents: Francis Galton, 
F.R.S.; Prof. Sir C. Wyville Thomson, F.R.S. L.. & E. 
Secretaries : H. W. Bates, Assist.-Sec.R.G.S., F.L.S.3 E.C. 
Rye, Librarian R.G.S., F.Z.S. (Recorder). F.—Economic. 
Science and Statistics.—President: The Right Hon. M. E. 
Grant Duff, M.P., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Sir George Camps 
bell, K.C.S.I., M.P.; James. Heywood, F.R.S. Secretaries : 
Constantine Molloy (Recorder) ; J. F. Moss. G.—Mechanical 
Science.—President: Sir W. G. Armstrong, C.B., F.R.S. 
Vice Presidents: W. H. Barlow, F.R.S., Pres.Inst.C.E. ; C. 
W. Siemens, D.C.L., F.R.S. Secretaries: A. T. Atchison; 
M.A. (Recorder); H. Trueman Wood, B.A. Tickets for the 
meeting may be obtained of the Local Secretaries at York, and 
at the Office of the Association, 22, Albemarle Street, London, 
W.,;; or on application by letter, from August 17 to August 24, 
to the General Treasurer, Prof. A. W. Williamson, British 
Association, University College, London, W.C. The First’ 
General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 31, at 
8 p.m. precisely, when A, C. Ramsay, F.R.S., VP IGiSt; 
Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United King- 
dom, and of the Museum of Practical Geology, will resign the 
chair, and Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., President- 
Elect, will assume the presidency, and deliver an address. On 
Thursday evening, September 1, at 8 p.m., a soirée ; on Friday 
evening, September 2, at 8.30 p.m., a discourse by T. H. 
Huxley, LL.D., Sec.R.S., Professor of Natural History in the 
Royal School of Mines; on Monday evening, September 5, at 
8.30 p.m., a discourse by W. Spottiswoode, DIGS Lewy 
President of the Royal Society ; on Tuesday evening, September 
6, at 8 p.m., a soirée ; on Wednesday, September 7, the con- 
cluding general meeting will be held at 2.30 p.m. No report, 
paper, or abstract, can be inserted in the Report of the Associa- 
tion unless it is given in: before: the conclusion of the: meeting. 
Excursions to places of interest in the neighbourhood of York 


614 


NATURE 


[| April 28, 1881 


will be made on the afternoon of Saturday, September 3, and on 
Thursday, September 8, 


THE honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred on the 
following gentlemen by the University of Glasgow :—F. M. 
Balfour, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Dr. 
Angus Smith, F.R.S., Government Inspector of Alkali Works ; 
Prof. Richard Owen, C.B., F.R.S., Superintendent of Natural 
History Collections of the British Museum ; Andrew Buchanan, 
M.D., Emeritus Professor of Physiology in the University of 
Glasgow. 


THE honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred by the 
University of Edinburgh on Prof. A. W. Williamson, of Uni- 
versity College, London. 


Ir is intended to celebrate in Edinburgh the centenary of the 
birthday of Sir David Brewster, on December 9, by a public 
dinner. 


THE annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be 
held in London on May 4, 5, and 6. On May 4 the Bessemer 
Medal for 1881 will be presented to Mr, William Menelaus, and 
the president-elect (Mr. Josiah T. Smith) will deliver his inau- 
gural address. The following is the list of papers to be read :— 
On the Results of Experiments relative to Corrosion in Iron and 
Steel, by Mr. William Parker of Lloyd’s Registry, London ; On 
the Manufacture of Armour Plates, by Mr. Alexander Wilson, 
Sheffield ; On the Manufacture of Steel and Steel Plates in 
Russia, by Mr. Sergius Kern, St. Petersburg; On the Use of 
Steel for Shipbuilding, by Mr. William Denny, Dumbarton ; 
On some Physical Properties of Cast Iron, by Mr. Charles 
Markham, Staveley ; On the Desulphurisation of Iron, by M. 
Rollet, St. Chamond, France; On Iron and Steel Permanent 
Way, by Mr. R. Price Williams, London; On Hydraulic Ap- 
pliances for the Bessemer Process, by Mr. Michael Scott, 
London ; On the Manufacture of Bessemer Steel and Steel Rails 
in America, by Capt. Jones, Edgar Thomson Steel Works, 
Pittsburg, U.S.A. ; On Hydrogen and Carbonic Oxide in Iron 
and Steel, by Mr. John Parry, Ebbw Vale; On the Preservation 
of Iron and Steel Surfaces, by Mr. George Bower, St. Neots; 
On a new method for the determination of Oxygen in Iron and 
Steel, by Mr, Alex. E. Tucker, Rhymney. 


DuRING the Summer Term of the City and Guilds of London 
Institute, commencing May 2, 1881, Prof. Armstrong, Ph.D., 
F.R.S., and Prof. Ayrton, A.M., Inst.C.E., will continue their 
tutorial and laboratory courses of instruction in chemistry and 
physics as applied to the arts and manufactures, at the Cowper 
Street Schools, pending the present erection of the City and 
Guilds of London Technical College, Finsbury, the founda- 
tion stone of which will be laid by Prince Leopold on May 
10. There are both day and evening classes at the institute, 
with means for ample laboratory practice, at fees which place 
the education within reach of all classes. We would specially 
draw attention to the fact that these classes and the laboratory 
practice are open, at an almost nominal fee, to female as well as 
to male students. For every hour of lecture there are two hours 
laboratory work included in this nominal fee, The day classes 
would be of service to girls who have not the means to obtain a 
Girton or a Newnham education, while the evening classes will 
be of great use to thoce women who take more than a mechanical 
interest in their daily work; for from the course of instruction 
and their own work in the laboratory they will gain such a 
thorough knowledge of principles as should distinguish a skilled 
workwoman from a mere machine, 2 


THE Annual Report for the past year of the Jamaica Public Gar- 
dens, by Mr. D. Morris, the new director, is one of great interest. 
As the year has been the first under the new organisation, the 
chief work has naturally been of a departmental character, but 


from the details given, it is evident that important advances have 
been made in developing several industries which must have an 
important influence for good on the future of the island, From 
the variation in altitude of the different gardens under Mr. 
Morris’s charge excellent opportunities are afforded for experi- 
menting on various kinds of cultivation, and these he is evidently 
prepared to take full advantage of. Among the various cultures, 
concerning which interesting information is contained in the 
Report, are Cinchona, Liberian Coffee, Sugar Canes, Teak and 


Mahogany, Pine-Apples, Jalap, Cacao, Tobacco, India-Rubber, . 


various spices, Oranges, Banana Fibre, &c. The best results 
may be looked for from Mr. Morris’s vigorous and intelligent 
directorship. 


WE have also a very satisfactory Report of work for the year 
ending March 31, 1880, from Mr. Duthie, superintendent of the 
Government Botanical Gardens at Saharanpor and Mussooree. 
As in Jamaica, experiments, some of them very successful, have 
been carried on in the rearing of various useful plants, including 
vegetable and medicinal plants. Much difficulty has been 
experienced by Mr. Duthie in training Mad/ies for work in the 
gardens, and he has ‘some trials before him ere he is able to 
turn out a staff of properly-trained natives. 


Mr. M. G. MULHALL sends us the)following curious note, 
which we give without comment :—‘‘ Although Shakespeare is 
supposed to have taken the idea of Hamlet from the Danish 
historian Saxo-Grammaticus, there are such points of resemblance 
with the Arabic chronicle of Nigiaristan, respecting Montasser, 
tenth Caliph of Bagdad, that I venture to call your attention to 
the same. The points of analogy are as follows: 1. That 
Montasser is murdered by putting poison in his ear, 2. The 
ghost scene, in which his father appears to him. 3. The dis- 
playing of tapestry before the Caliph and his court, in which 
the tapestry represents a tragedy identical with the late Caliph’s 
murder.” 


THE Daily News New York correspondent telegraphs that the 
aldermen have passed, over the mayor’s veto, the ordinance 
giving the Edison Electric Lighting Company permission to lay 
tubes in the streets, ‘‘The company will proceed immediately 
to introduce its new electric lamps in the offices in the business 
portion of the city around Wall Street. The construction of 
the lamp is simple, It consists of a small bulbous glass globe, 
four inches long, an inch and a half in diameter, with a carbon 
loop which becomes incandescent when the electric current 
passes through. Each lamp is of sixteen candle-power, with no 
perceptible variation in intensity. The light is tuned on or off 
with a thumbscrew. Wires have already been put into forty 
buildings. The company will compete with the gas companies 
by charging the same rates. If the latter reduce, the Edison 
Company will also reduce, and are prepared to go lower than the 
gas companies can,” 


AT five o’clock on Saturday morning a strong shock of earth- 
quake was felt at Paola in the province of Calabria. On the 
night of April 19 there was another severe shock of earthquake 
at Chios. 


A NEw illustrated work on the Butterflies of Europe is, 
we understand, in active preparation by Dr, Lang, F.L.S. Its 
publication, in monthly parts, will be commenced very shortly 
by Messrs. Lovell, Reeve, and Co. 


Mrs. Burton, the wife of the well-known Capt. R. Burton, 
our Consul at Trieste, is evidently doing a good work in that city 
in teaching the people kindness to animals. The lesson is 
evidently much needed, and judging from Mrs. Burton’s speech 
at her last féte and distribution of prizes, her efforts are meeting 
with decided success. Of course all this costs money ; possibly 
some of our readers may be inclined to help by sending a con- 


April 28, 1881 | 


-- NATURE 


615 


tribution to Mrs. Richard Burton, British Consulate, Trieste, 
Austria. 

Ow1nc to the outcry caused by the sale to a private person of 
the Katoomba Falls, in the Blue Mountains, the New South 
Wales Government, according to the Colonies and India, has set 
apart for public use large tracts of land round Dangar’s Falls, 
near Armidale, the Great Falls in the same district, and Moona 
Falls, near Walcha, in imitation of the reserves or national parks 
in the United States of America. 

A REMARKABLE frost is said to have occurred in Guatemala 
on February 10, doing great damage to the tropical vegetation, 


In the review of Messrs. Fison and Howitt’s ‘‘ Kamilaroi and 
Kurnai” that appeared last week, we should have mentioned 
that the book is published in England by Messrs. Macmillan 
and Co, 

From Glasgow we have received two satisfactory Reports— 
that of the Industrial Museum, presided over by Mr. James 
Paton, and that of the Mitchell Library, under Mr. F. T. 
Barrett. 


Two HUNDRED AND TEN school teachers nominated on purpose 
by the 30,000 public teachers of elementary schools in France, and 
travelling at the expense of the Government, were summoned to 
Paris in order to hold a Pedagogic Congress, which came to a 
close on the 24th. At the same time the Ligue de l’Enseigne- 
ment, founded by M. Jean Macé, held a series of meetings at 
the Trocadéro. The concluding sitting, which took place last 
Thursday, was attended by all the school teachers and an im- 
mense number of political leaders. M. Gambetta delivered g 
speech praising the advantages of education, commending school 
teachers as a body, and advocating the importance of interesting 
ladies in the general diffusion of knowledge. 


Messrs. MARSHALL JAPP, AND Co., have published a useful 
little Half-Holiday Handbook of Geological Rambles around 
London, which will be found to add much interest to a Saturday 
afternoon walk into the country. 


Mr, H. L. JANSSEN VAN Raay writes to us from Batavia, 
March 21, that in the enumeration of the different geographical 
societies of the world in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 299, the Geo- 
graphical Society at Samarang (Java), founded in 1879, was 
omitted. 

FIpELis BurscH Soun of Augsburg has issued a priced 
catalogue of the extensive library of the late Prof. W. P. 
Schimper of Strassburg. 


THE new number of the Proceedings of the Bristol Natural 
History Society contains some good papers:—Some Optical 
Illusions, by Prof. S. P. Thompson; Underground Tempera- 
ture, by Mr. E. Wethered; The Structure and Life-History of 
a Sponge, by Mr. W. G. Sollas ; On some Cases of Prolification 
in Cyclamen Persicum, by Mr. A. Leipner; The Ethnology of 
the Paropamisus, by Dr. J. Beddoe, F.R.S. ; Catalogue of the 
Lepidoptera of the Bristol District, by Mr. A. E. Hudd, and of 
the Fungi, by Mr. C. Bucknall; The Pomarine Skua, by M. 
H. Charbonnier. 

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 
past week include three Short-tailed Wallabys (Halmaturus 
brachyurus) from West Australia, presented by Sir Harry St. 
George Ord, C.B., H.M.Z.S.; three Green Lizards (Lacerta 
viridis) fcom Jersey, presented by Mr. E, H. Bland; a Rufous 
Rat Kangaroo (Hypsiprymnus rufescens) from Australia, pre- 
sented by Mr. A. W. Wyatt; a Lion (Zé/is /eo ¢) from Africa, 
deposited; three Entellus Monkeys (Semmopithecus entellus 
é 6 2) from India, purchased ; a Lion (Fe/is /eo 2 ) from Africa, 
a Common Otter (Zufra vulgaris ?), British, received in ex- 
change; a Collared Fruit Bat (Cynonycteris collars), a Vulpine 
Phalanger (Phalangista vulpina), born in the Gardens. 


CHEMICAL NOTES 


IN Yournal pract. Chemie, Herr Cech, in the course of a 
paper on the decompositions which occur during the rotting of 
eggs, describes experiments which he thinks establish the possi- 
bility of obtaining a good soap free from smell, by saponifying 
with soda the residue obtained by evaporating to dryness rotten 
eggs, freed from their shells. Such a dried residue yields about 


10°5 per cent. of oil, fresh eggs giving about II per cent. 


THE changes undergone by grain when stored in underground 
magazines have been recently studied by M. Miintz (Compi. 
vend.). The magazines of the Paris Omnibus Company are 
partly underground; the grain in the upper parts is, however, 
exposed to the influence of atmospheric changes ; it is found to 
contain much more moisture and to be at a higher temperature 
than that in the lower parts. The relative amounts of deter- 
ioration in grains may be measured by the quantities of carbonic 
anhydride exhaled. When grain is freely exposed to air about 
ten times as much carbonic anhydride is given off as when the 
grain is kept in closed receptacles ; less oxygen is absorbed than 
corresponds with this evolution of carbon dioxide. Normal 
grain contains from 11 to 19 per cent. of moisture: the greater 
the moisture the greater the exhalation of carbon dioxide. 
The amount of the gas evolved also increases with increase of 
temperature until a point is reached at which true chemical 
combustion of the carbon begins, as distinguished from the 
physiological combustion which has preceded it. Grain which 
is to be kept for any time ought to be very dry, the receptacle 
containing it ought to be completely closed, and all parts of this 
receptacle ought to be at approximately the same temperature. 


Mr, V. LEWES, in the same journal, describes barium penta- 
thionate, BaS,O,. 3H,O, and several potassium pentathionates, 
prepared by slow evaporation in a vacuum of ‘* Wackenroder’s 
solution.” These experiments appear to establish beyond doubt 
the existence of pentathionic acid. 


Drs. Dupré AND Hake have applied their method for the 
estimation of carbon (Chem. Soc. Journ,.)—viz. burning in oxygen, 
absorbing carbonic anhydride in baryta water, converting the 
barium carbonate into sulphate, and weighing as such—to the 
estimation of carbon in air; their experiments apparently de- 
monstrate the presence in London air of carbon in forms other 
than carbonic anhydride, and probably in the form of some 
yolatile organic compounds, not as suspended matter. Drs. 
Dupré and Hake claim that their method of analysis enables 
them to estimate carbonic anhydride, carbon in the peculiar 
forms already noticed, and suspended carbonaceous matter in 
air. 


In the same journal there is a contribution to the history of 
ozone by Prof, Hartley of Dublin. The main conclusions drawn 
from experimental data are these : Ozone is a normal constituent 
of the higher atmosphere, and is present therein in larger pro- 
portion than near the surface of the earth. The limitation of 
the solar spectrum in the ultra-violet is readily accounted for by 
the absorptive action of atmospheric ozone, without taking into 
account the possible absorptive power of nitrogen and oxygen. 
The blue tint of the atmosphere is probably due to ozone. It is 
shown in the paper that the wave-length of the extreme ray 
capable of absorption by considerable quantities of ozone is 
about 316. A quantity of 2°5 mgm. of ozone in each square 
centimetre of sectional area of a column of air produces, it is 
said, a full sky-blue tint. Incidentally experiments are described 
in which one volume of ozone was distinctly detected by the 
sense of smell in 2,500,000 volumes of air. 


Mr. G. S. JouHNnson has obtained ammonia (Chem. Soc. 
Yournal) by passing hydrogen and (presumably) pure nitrogen 
over cold or moderately heated spongy platinum: when however 
the mixed gases were passed over hot asbestos before traversing 
the spongy platinum, 70 ammonia was formed, Mr, Johnson 
thinks that nitrogen probably exists in two forms, an active and 
an inactive form, the latter being produced by the action of heat 
on the former. 


Dr. Dupré has introduced (Analyst) a slight modification 
into the ordinary method for observing a colour change in 
titrating with standard solutions, which is said to render the 
perception of the change very sharp and accurate. He views 
the liquid to be titrated through a glass cell containing a solution 
of the same colour as, and about equal in intensity to, the liquid 
itself. 


616 


M. LoNGUININE has recently determined (in Comr, rend.) the 
heats of combustion of various alcohols of the allyl series, and 
compared: the numbers with those expressing the heats of com- 
bustion of metameric aldehydes, He finds very marked differ- 
ences between the two series of numbers, showing once more a 
distinct connection between the energy lost by a carbon compound 
in passing from one state to another standard state, and the struc- 
ture of the molecule of that compound. 


M. BERTHELOT, in continuation of his researches on com- 
pounds of metallic halogen salts with haloid acids, describes in 
Compt, rend. the action of gaseous hydrochloric and hydrobromic 
acids on alkali chlorides and bromides ; he shows that the gaseous 
acids are absorbed by the dry salts with disengagement of heat, 
and that the products of the actions are possessed of properties 
which distinguish them from mere mixtures. 


M. BERTHELOT also considers the reciprocal actions between 
alkali haloid salts and haloid acids; he shows that as a rule 
alkali chlorides are decomposed by hydrobromic acid, but that 
in some cases and under special conditions of temperature, 
bromides are decomposed by hydrochloric acid. The general 
results are shown to be in keeping with the laws of thermo- 
chemistry. That action in which most heat is evolved occurs, 
but the products of the action may be unstable under experi- 
mental conditions, and hence the primary change may be modified, 
or even reversed. 


M. Munrz states that his investigations have shown that 
traces of alcohol exist in all natural waters, whether rain, river, 
‘sea, or snow water. He describes his method of applying the 
iodoform test for alcohol, whereby one part can be detected in 
1,000,000 parts of water. 


PHYSICAL NOTES 


M. LaureENT of Paris has constructed ‘‘magic mirrors ” 
giving similar effects to those brought from Japan, but of glass 
silvered at the back instead of metal. By engraving patterns at 
the back and silvering the front surface, the mirror has a per- 
fectly plane surface only when the air-pressures at the front and 
back are equal. If the air behind be compressed or rarefied the 
thinner parts will have relatively a greater convexity or concavity 
than the rest, and in the disk of light which the mirror reflects 
on to a wall from a luminous point the pattern engraved on the 
back will accordingly appear dark or light. 


FROM experiments on the radiation and conduction of heat in 
rarefied gases (Wied. Ann., No. 13) Herr Graetz finds the results 
in much better agreement with Stefan’s law cf radiation than 
with that of Dulong and Petit, and ‘‘it may be affirmed that in 
the temperature-interval from 0° to 250° C. the radiation is very 
nearly proportional to the fourth power of the temperature,” 
The factor of proportionality o (in Stefan’s formula Q = ¢ T%) is 
then that amount of heat which is radiated from one square 
centimetre of a substance of — 272°C, in a second towards a 
space of the absolute temperature.o” (— 273°). By the method 
of least squares Herr Graetz finds 
= 110846 — gramme centigrade 

centim, seconds 
Certain divergences at low temperatures suggest that while the 
intensity of radiation grows with rising temperature, it perhaps 
grows differently for different heat colours. 


IN a recent communication to the Munich Academy, Herren 
Nies and Winkelmann describe an inquiry into the volume- 
changes of various metals in solidifying. Of eight metals 
examined, six (viz. tin, zinc, bismuth, antimony, iron, and 
copper) were proved to undergo expansion in passing from the 
liquid to the solid state. For three of the metals approximate 
values for the amount of this expansion were obtained (tin 
showed an expansion of 0°7 per cent., zinc 0°2, and bismuth 3). 
Two metals (lead and cadmium) gave doubtful results; but the 
authors find some reason to believe that they also expand in 
polduying. So far then the rule would appear to be general for 
metals, 


o for glass 


M. TriéveE describes in the Comptes rendus some curious 
observations from which it would appear that when light is 
admitted from a natural or artificial source through a slit, more 
light passes if the slit be horizontal than if it be vertical. M. 
Tréve has produced photographs taken behind slits in various 
positions to prove that the effect is not an illusion of the 


NATURE 


eye. The phenomenon appears to us inexplicable, but certainly 


‘requires further proof to substantiate its reality. 


M. MeErcaApiEx still continues to study radiophonic pheno- 
mena. He finds it possible to increase the effects by uniting in 
one tube the vibrations of several receiving disks. He also‘finds 
it possible to construct tubes whose length corresponds to the 
wave-lenuth of the vibrations radiophonically excited, and which 
respond to the note emitted. M. Mercadier hopes by these 


means to re-determine with increased accuracy the velocity of — 


sound in air and other gases, 


WITH regard to the beats and beat-tones of harmonic intervals — 
Dr. Koenig argues (Wied. Ann, No. 3) against Prof. Helmholtz’s 
view, that these are due to harmonic tones of the lower primary 
sounding with the higher (Dr Koenig, in his former experiments, 
having u-ed strongly-excited tuning-forks). He shows how. the 
phenomena may be studied with the aid of a ‘ wave-syren,”.in 
which a blast of air is sent through a slit against the serrated 
border of a rotating disk, or of a ring-section of a thin cylinder, 
He has the border of the disk cut to represent accurately the 
curve produced by combination of the curves of two simple tones, 
givins an air-motion, when blown against, quite like that from the 
two tones sounded together. The beats and beat-tones are then 
heard, With a mere wavy outline for the border and the slit at 


| April 28, 1881 


. 


right angles one hears a quite simple tone, which however is at — 


once changed to a ‘‘ clang” with sirong overtones, when the slit 
is slanted a little. Now, with two simple tones got thus the 
beat-tone heard when the slits are at right angles should (on Helm- 
holtz’s supposition) be less distinct than when, the slits being 
slanted, the overtones are brought out; whereas the reverse is 
the case. E 


Dr. KOENIG, in the same number, describes a simple lecture- 
apparatus for producing beat-tones. It consists of two glass rods 
of different length, clamped in vertical position by the middle.to 
a jointed frame, which, through an elastic contrivance, keeps 
their lower ends pressed against the cloth-covered periphery of a 
wheel which di) s in water in a trough. The friction calls forth 
the longitudinal tones and the beat-tone. 


AN improved form of the Topler air-pump has been devised 
by Herr Bessel-Hagen (Wied. Ann. No. 3), with which ;con- 
siderably hivher vacua can be reached than those Mr. Crookes 
obtains with the more complicated and fragile Sprengel-Giming- 
ham apparatus, The averave limit of rarefaction was found to 
be #s millionths of an atmosphere (,45 in one case), while the 
other pump only gives ,4, millionth. (It is noted that Prof. 
Ozden Rocd has obtained jy, and in one case even 44, with a 
modifed Sprengel.) “With his highest vacua the author found 
electricity to pass (using plate-electrodes and a strong ‘Holtz 
machine, with Leyden jars), He considers mercury-vapour an 
insulator for electricity ; but shows that radiometric movements 
depend greatly on its pressure 7 vacuo. No diffusion of 
hydrogen through the glass could be detected. 


AN artificially-formed body showing polar effects in the way 
of attraction and direction is produced by Herr | Holtz! (Wied. 
Ann., No. 3) thus : ‘To one end of a short glass rod is cemented 
a plane piece of glass, and to this.a short narrow glass tube (in 
a line with the rod). In the tube is placed a sewing-needle 
longer than it, and carrying at its head a thin pasteboard disk 
(22 mm, across), which has attached on one half of its» peri- 
phery, reaching over both above and below, a pasteboard strip 
(10 mw. broad) ; opposite this, on one of the surfaces, is fastened 
a small projecting point of tin-foil. Brought between hollow 
disks fixed to the rods of a Holtz machine, the tin-foil point 
always turned to the positive pole. Next, the glass rod with its 
disk was attached to the end of a light horizontal glass tube, 
huug bifilarly, and so brought between the hollow disks. “The 
disk first turned into position, and was then attracted towards 
the negative ple. The phenomena are thought to illustrate 
unipolar conductivity. 


THE simple tourmalire-pincette, by reason of its small field, 
can be used with only a small number of crystals. To enlarge 
the field M. Bertin has applied to it a part of the lenses of ‘the 
polarising microscope. ‘This, it is known, consists, first, of'a 
polari-er and ficus; second, of a microscope and analyser. The 
polariser and analyser, at the extremities, are pretty. large pieces, 
and if replaced by two tourmalines placed between the focus and 
the microscope (of simplified form) the apparatus is rendered 
much smaller and handier. This is the principle of M. Bertin’s 
new tourmaline-pincette (of which details will be found.in' the 


April 28, 1881] 


Fournal de Physigue for March). It shows very well the fringes 
of a crystal only 2 mm. in diameter and } mm. in thickness, and 
all uniaxial crystals give fringes in it. With the old pincette 
only two biaxial crystals can be observed (nitre and lead crystal), 
the limit for the exterior angle of the axis being about 17° ; but 
in the new instrument, a small calamine plate, with axes 78° 
20' apart, showed the fringes well. 


AccoRDING to M. Angot (Your. de Phys., March) the psy- 
chrometer, of whatever form, may give pretty good indications 
in the hands of careful observers, in these regions (France), so long 
as the atmospheric pressure is not far from 760 mm., the wet 
bulb thermometer is above 1° or 2°, and the difference of the 
two thermometers remains below 12°; but otherwise the ordinary 
formulze become illusory. 


THE influence of atmospheric electricity on the vegetation of 
the vine has been studied near Palermo by M. Macagno (Your. 
de Agr. Prat.) thus: Sixteen stocks were rendered more subject 
to the effects of the electric tension by means of a copper wire 
inserted vertically with platinum point in the upper end of the 


‘fruit branch, while another wire connected the bottom of the 


branch with the ground. This continued from April to Sep- 
tember. An acceleration of vegetation was proved by the wood 
of these stocks containing less mineral matters and potash than 
that of the other stocks, while the contrary occurred in the 
leaves, and in these the potash was mostly in the bitartrate form, 
A much greater quantity of must was got from the grapes of 
those vines, and it had considerably more glucose and less acid. 


A DETERMINATION of the electric phenomena which occur 
on contact of metals and gases has been attempted by Herr 
Schulze-Berge in Berlin (Wired. Ann. No. 2). He worked with 
a condenser having two circuiar plates of a given metal, the 
upper plate being connected with an electrometer and submitted 
to contact with various gases or to vacuum; the lower connected 
to earth. The quantity of electricity from a known source requir- 
ing to be communicated to the upper plate to make its potential 
equal to the lower, was measured. /nler alia, ozone was found 
to make gold, platinum, and brass negative to.a plate of the 
same metal in air. Hydrogen always made platinum strongly 
positive, while its inflitence on gold was hardly perceptible, and 
on brass qualitatively various. Chlorine made platinum nega- 
tive ; ammoniacal gas (from aqueous solution) made br iiss positive. 
The amount of difference of potential with as similar treatment 
as possible of a given pair of plates was very different in the 
several observations of a series. Nor could a certain relation 
be discovered between it and the time of action of the gas. It 
was greatest with two platinuu plates, one in hydrogen: (viz. 
0°214 D). It gradually decreased to a point generally somewhat 
short of that at the beginning. As to the cause of this decrease, 
the author thinks it probable that a gradual neutralisation of the 
electrical double layer takes place. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN 
INTELLIGENCE 


= Department of Education of the American Social 

Science Association has issued the following Cir- 
cular and Register, which we commend to the notice of 
our readers, some of whom may be able to give Mrs. 
Talbot answers to the questions given below :— 


WE have been made familiar with the habits of plants and 
animals from the careful investigations which have from time to 
time been published—the intelligence of animals, even, coming 
in for a due share of attention. One author alone contributes a 
book of one thousand pages upon ‘‘ Mind in the Lower Animals.” 
Recently some educators in this country have been quietly think- 
ing that to study the natural development of a single child is 
worth more than a Noah’s ark full of animals. Little has been 
done in this study, at least little has been recorded. It is certain 
that a great many mothers might contribute observations of their 
own child’s life and development that might be at some future 
time invaluable to the psychologist. In this belief the Education 
Department of the American Social Science Association has 
issued the accompanying Register, and asks the parents of very 
young children to interest themselves in the subject — 

: a By recognising the importance of the study of the youngest 
infants. 

2. By observing the-simplest manifestations of their life and 
movements. 


NATURE 


617 


3. By answering fully and carefully the questions asked ‘in the 
Register. 

4. By a careful record of the signs of development during the 
coming year, each observation to be verified, if possible, by other 
members of the family. 

5. By interesting their friends in the subject and forwarding 
the results to the secretary. 

6. Above all, by ferseverance and exactness in recording these 
observations. 

From the records of many thousand observers in the next few 
years it is believed that important facts will be gathered of great 
value to the educator and to the psychologist. 


First Series—REGISTER OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL 


Development of (Cine BES) «oe csesceoees Suite coe tas eee 
Name and occupation of the father ?. 
Place and time of father’s birth?.... 


mother’s ,, ?.. 


” ” 


e) me Ibaby{Sh | 50) Pisdssscccwssacoteasentecesteseeueeussiiog 
Babyss weight at birth <-.cscce.ccencscveee ate Simonths)? esses. seems 
“A of Gimonths Pio. sccsascenaeens at I year? ne 
Is baby strong and healthy, or otherwise ?.............:0seseeerereenees 


At what age did the baby exhibit consciousness, and in what 
BSPADIVIET Ds oro 0s's ccinas'cenromasapcabive sien sat naeciee amacte(n(enaiaw'd acieptecl esheets 


AT WHAT AGE DID THE Baby 
Recoonise1tSim Otherjr les sisons--jerciescleseesctenscsieesi=ssinne= sheen eeeeene 
notice its hand ?............. 
follow a light with its eyes ?. 
hold up its head? ...... 
sit alone on the floor ? 


Sis GLO AEB SEN fs eoccoode coococono don codiboonod EnaoosndosoSasen condesdeaes 
stand alone? ...........0600+ 
walkgalone?. ....:...ceconssmone sco 
hold a plaything when put in its hand? 
reach out and take a plaything ?.. 
appear to be right or left handed ?. 
notice pain, as the prick of a pin?. 
show a like or dislike in taste? .... 
appear sensibletotSOUNd:?™ oie....,-sssecacceseceowsim senses eseyeesrn=onses 
notice the light of a window or turn towards it ?. 
fear the heat from stove or grate? ............06 ° 

speak, and what did it Say ?.....1...ssseeesneeesertesseenerseene rece 


How MANY WORDS COULD IT SAY 
at 18 months?............ At 2 YEATS?.....0..+006 


Will the mother have the kindness to carefully answer as 
many as possible of these questions and return this cireular, 
before July 15, 1881, to Mrs, Emily Talbot, Secretary of the 
Education Department of the American Social Science Associa- 
tion, 66, Marlborough Street, Boston, Mass. 

Boston, March 1, 1881 


In connection with the inquiry indicated above, the following 
letter from Dr. Preyer of Prussia, addressed to Mrs. Talbot, will 
be found of interest :— 

Sena, November 22, 1880 

DEAR MADAM,—It has given me much pleasure to read your 
letter and the extract of a paper of mine on ‘‘psychogenesis, ” 
or ‘the growth of volition, intellect, &c., in infants,” and I 
readily comply with your wish to have this paper sent off without 
delay. You will find it reprinted in the book accompanying 
this letter, p. 199-237. I am about to publish an extensive 
work on the same subject, which is to contain all my observa- 
tions and a careful analysis of the phenomena which the deve- 
lopment of the faculty of speech presents. This book is to be 
printed next year. Iam sorry to say that a reliable investigator 
of the whole subject is not known to me. Your newspaper 
seems to be right in calling the field ‘‘as yet almost unbroken.” 
Prof, Kussmaul’s ‘‘Seelenleben des neugeborenen Menschen” 
(Leipzig and Heidleberg, 1859), !and Mr. C. Darwin’s bio- 
graphical sketch of an infant, contain some jgood observations, 
but both are very short. Many excellent remarks on infants and 
very young children I find in Mr. C. Darwin’s book, ‘‘On the 
Expression of the Emotions.” The German books on the subject, 
although numerous, are nearly worthless ; many are sentimental, 
giving no facts, or, what is worse, false statements. B. Sigis- 
mund’s ‘‘ Kind und Welt” (1851) is an exception. 

The case you mention of a child of eleven months expressing 


618 


NATURE 


its wishes and inducing the nurse to comply with them cannot 
be definitely looked at as a case of self-consciousness, but only 
of consciousness. This is one of the most intricate questions to 
decide—whex the child distinguishes its own body, head, 
hands, &c., from other objects, as belonging to himself. The 
first time a child says ‘‘I” and ‘‘me,” in the correct sense, it 
may be considered to have passed the limit. The formation of 
ideas by associating impressions, as well as the formation of 
general ideas (Begrife) by uniting similar qualities of different 
objects, is intellectual work done by the child long before it 
knows anything of its own individuality. It seems to me that 
self-consciousness does not arise suddenly, but by degrees, after 
many experiments have shown the difference between touching 
his own body and external objects with his little hand. 

I have been occupied with psychogenetical problems since 
nearly four years, continually collecting facts. Should you be 
able to awaken some interest for these most important investiga- 
tions (I mean the physiology and psychology of infants), I think 
the trouble taken would soon be repaid by the results. 

Tam, sincerely, 
Dr. WM. PREYER, Professor 


P.S.—Perhaps the observations and experiments on the senses 
(sight, hearing, smell, taste) of new-born animals and infants 
which I published in Kosmos (Zeitschrift herausgegeben von E. 
Krause), vol. iii. pp. 22-37, 128-132 (1878, Leipzig), may have 
some little interest. In England Romanes has written very able 


papers on the development of instinct and intelligence. His 
address is 18, Cornwall Terrace, Regent’s Park, London. 
Yours, &c., W.P. 


ABNORMAL BAROMETRIC GRADIENT BE- 
TWEEN LONDON AND ST. PETERSBURG 
IN THE SUN-SPOT CYCLE 


EFORE alluding to the subject which forms the heading of 
the present communication, I must apologise for having 
allowed some rather serious errors to creep into the figures given 
for the barometric abnormals of London in my letter to NATURE, 
vol. xxiii. p. 243. The errors weze caused by a friendly com- 
puter taking the differences from the mean for each year incor- 
rectly in one or two cases. 

I am glad to say however with respect to the relation between 
the barometric abnormals as there given and the sun-spot 
numbers, that far from its being vitiated by the corrections 
which have now been made, they on the contrary considerably 
strengthen it, as is evident when the following corrected values 
for the mean cycles are compared with those given in my former 
letter :— 


LONDON 
Annual Barometric Abnormals, Mean Cycles 


Maximum years in fifth line. Minimum years in seventh line 


Pressure Sun-spots Pressure Sun-spots 

(1811-77) (1811-77). (1816-79). (1816-72). 
{, -+O°OII — 339 — 07006 +23°3 
2. +0°024 — 234 —0°003 +14°5 
3 +0'017 (oko) — 0002 + 48 
4. —0'003 +28°2 — 07004 — 56 
5. —O'OIr +43°L —0'006 -19°0 
6. —o'o12 SREY ay — 010027) S25 
7. —0'008 +16°8 120/003} ire S 71 
8. -Eo-c0o + 0'2 +0'020 —25°4 
9. +0°002 : =14°2 +07°025 i 1°8 
Io. +0°GIO — 24°2 +-0°010 +30°9 
It. +0'008 — 26°3 —0'009 +44'8 


If now we take these corrected figures, and subtract from them 
those given in NATURE, vol. xx. p- 28, for St. Petersburg 
(reduced to inches), which comprise very nearly the same period, 
we get for the abnormal annual baric gradient from London to 
St. Petersburg in each year of the mean cycle, the following 
figures :— 


Abnormal Annual Barometric Gradient between}London and St. 


Petersburg 
-.. \(B) ae : i 
Maximum years in fifth line. Minimum years in seventh line. 
Pressure. Pressure. cz 
London-St. Petersburg Sun-spots London-St. Petersburg Sun-spots 
(2811-77). (1822-71). (2811-77). (1816-79). (1822-71). (1816-72). 
inches. inches. 
I. +0032 - 339 —o'012 +23°3 
2. + '038 SA cee OZ +14°5 
3. + 1036 O%0, 9 62.-) 8 O88 + 4'8 
4. + ‘007 +28°2) .. = "1029 - 5°6 
5. — ‘029 SREB © a -6 — ‘o18 —19'0 
6. — ‘040 +34°2 + ‘O10 — 32°5 
7. — ‘040 +168 + 036 Sc 
8. — ‘02 + o'2 + ‘048 —25°4 
9. — ‘oIz —14'2 +) [O41 Veta aS 
10. + ‘O13 =24°2- ... ~ + O16 +30°9 
It. + ‘043 —26°3, =: — ‘o18 +44'8 


An inspection of these figures at once reveals the existence of a 


BS 
d 
as 
3S 
: 
Ss 
§ 
= & 
~ 
SS 
gy 
be) : [-) 
LS SO owrom oo fo eo 
s 8 Pa222 25 2° ee 
Sq Rite ae a Ses Tore 
x 
Sh § 
& Q 
oS 
& EN 
x 
Q PS. e282 see 98 
oS Wem Maye Secs >> Se 
x Q 
= 5 2 
S22 3 
By 2 
Ss 3° 
ae 
a 
Sane 
5» 
e¢ 
S 
xy 
N 


° 
° 
| 


+ 030 
—.040 
—.050 


Co 
N 
°o 
+ 


+ 040 


+.010 


+ 0,050 


baric gradient oscillation of single period, closely following the 


inverse sun-spot oscillation. 


[April 28, 1881 


eee Sane 


April 28, 1881 | 


NATURE 


619 


In order to exhibit the constancy of the lag in the occurrence 
of the gradient variations behind those of the sun-spots, as well 
as the remarkable similarity in form of the two oscillations, I 
have reproduced the above figures graphically in the accom- 
panying diagram, in which the baric gradient abnormals are 
plotted out simultaneously with the zveréed sun-spot ab- 
normals :— 

It will be observed that there is an almost uniform lag in the 
baric gradient curve behind the inverted sun-spot curve of a 
little more than a year, while a variation of ‘or inches on the 
barometer scale corresponds very nearly throughout (allowance 
being made for the lag) to 10 on the sun-spot scale. 

As the strength of the prevailing west and south-west winds 
of these regions must necessarily depend on the amount of the 
baric gradient between places on the edge of the European 
continent like London, and those inland, and to the north as St. 
Petersburg, there is fair ground for concluding that the west 
and south-west winds must on the whole be stronger in years of 
minimum sun-spot than in those of maximum sun-spot. 

Some direct evidence in favour of this notion has already 
been communicated to NATURE by Mr. S. A. Hill and Mr. 
Ellis of the Greenwich Observatory. 

Moreover the amount of variation in the strength of the wind 
between London and St. Petersburg, following upon the change 
in the barometric gradient between the two during the cycle, 
should be enough to cause a sensible variation in the character of 
the weather; for according to Mr. Blanford the mean _baro- 
metric gradient over the Bay of Bengal during the south-west 
monsoon is about 0025 inches in 100 miles. 

Now as the distance from London to St. Petersburg is about 
1300 miles ; in order to maintain a current of air between them 
throughout the year equal to that of the summer monsoon in the 
Bay of Bengal, there would have to be a total annual barometric 
gradient of 0°0325 inches. As the range of the abnormal gradient 
in the present case amounts to 0°08 inches it should cause a 
variation in the wind equal to one-fourth that of the monsoon. 

For the period 1822-71 the normal mean annual gradient from 
London to St. Petersburg is + 0’098 inches. The variation of 
the abnormal is therefore nearly equal to the normal gradient. 

Taking the results just obtained with those given by Mr. H. 
F. Blanford in his article in NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 477, it may 
be concluded that there is a barometric ‘“‘see-saw”’ between 
Russia and Western Siberia and the Atlantic coasts of Europe, 
similar to that between the former districts and Indo-Malaysia. 

Just as in the latter case the relation will probably be found to 
be more marked in the winter months, and may also be found to 
explain some of the numerous facts already ascertained regarding 
variations in the rainfall, cloud, and temperature of Western 
Europe, at different epochs of the sun-spot cycle. 

E. Doucias ARCHIBALD 


CONGRESS OF THE FRENCH LEARNED 
SOCIETIES 


‘THE session of the Congress of the French Learned Societies 
has {lasted only three days, but has exhibited an unusual 
amount of interest. Many papers were read in the section of 
Science presided over by M. Milne-Edwards, the veteran member 
of the Institute. 
M. Alluard summarised the results of rotation of the wind as 
registered by anemometers at an altitude where it is not to be 
feared that surface-friction should interfere. The number of 
rotations from north to south was 113. Of these 83 were 
in the positive direction, or by east, and only 30 by west; 49 of 
the 83 positive were continued to the west, and 34 stopped at 
the south or vicinity ; consequently when a wind has come from 
north to south by east, the greater probability is that it will con- 
tinue rotating to the west. When it has rotated to the west the 
probability is even greater that it will continue to the north. 
Again, of the 49 three-quarter rotations observed not less 
than 32 were completed, and only 17 stopped at the west and 
vicinity. The same thing cannot be said of the negative rota- 
tions: only 13 were from north to east, and of these only 6 were 
from north to north by west. These results:are a confirmation 
of Dove’s well known law. 

General Nansouty, the director of the Pic-du-Midi Observa- 
tory, announced that the new buildings on the top of the moun- 
tain will soon be ready, and that next winter he will use them 
for taking readings. It is curious that the last winter has been 
one of unusual mildness in this exalted altitude. 


M. Hebert read a long paper on the formation of cyclones, 
which he explains by the influence of mountain ranges on the 
great atmospheric currents loaded with humidity. < 

M. Vidal presented a photometer based on the action of light 
on a selenium element of the ordinary construction. M. Vinot, 
editor of Ze Cze/, presented a refractor mounted equatorially, 
of which the price is less than 10/., with a magnifying 
power of 150. M. Joubert gave details on the working of the 
Trocadéro Popular Observatory, which is now in constant opera- 
tion, and where lectures on astronomical subjects are delivered 
regularly, 

M. Guillemare read a paper on the use of soleine for lighting 
purposes. This product has been obtained by the distillation of 
a number of resinous matters, which have a point of ebullition 
from 150 to 160 Centigrade and a mean density of 0°860. When 
they have been freed from every other matter they can be 
used in a specially-prepared burner. This soleine can be pre- 
pared in immense quantities in all countries where pines are 
abundant. 

A number of interesting communications were made on 
paleontology and zoology, generally advocating Darwinian 
views. 

The final sitting was presided over, as usual, by the Minister 
of Public Instruction, and took place in the large hall of the 
Sorbonne. A number of crosses of honour and medals were 
distributed. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 


Oxrorp.—The lectures of the summer term commence this 
week. At the University Museum Prof. Clifton will conduct a 
class in practical physics and will lecture informally on the use 
of optical instruments. Mr. Stocker will give an experimental 
lecture in mechanics, and Mr. V. Jones will lecture on mechani- 
cal problems, in continuation of their courses last term. Prof. 
Odling will continue his course of lectures on organic chemistry, 
and Mr. Fisher will finish his inorganic course. 

At Christ Church Mr. Harcourt lectures on the metals, and 
Mr. Baynes on the theory of gases. At Balliol Mr. Dixon gives 
an experimental lecture in elementary physics. 

In a Congregation holden on Tuesday, April 27, it was 
resolved that candidates, not being members of the University, 
may present themselves at any of the ordinary examinations for 
Responsions. Last term a statute was passed instituting an ex- 
amination to take place in the Long Vacation. This examina- 
tion, which can be passed by candidates before matriculation 
into the University, is to be passed in lieu of Responsions. The 
effect of the statute will be that all young men may pass Re- 
sponsions before they matriculate, and less of their University 
time will be consumed in getting up school work, 

The proposal to designate the unattached students as stu- 
dents of the University Hall was lost by a large majority, 90 
voting against the proposal and only 9 for it. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 


Chemical Society, April 21.—Dr. Debus in the chair.—It 
was announced that a ballot for the election of Fellows would 
take place at the next meeting, May 5.—The following papers 
were read :—On the distillation of mixtures of carbon disulphide 
and carbon tetrachloride, by F. D. Brown. The objects of the 
research were to find the boiling-point of every possible mixture 
of the two liquids, and the composition of the vapour evolved by 
any mixture when boiling. Tables and curves giving these 
results accompany the paper. The author also finds that the 
composition of the vapour evolved is independent of the pressure 
under which ebullition takes place —On the estimation of 
hydric peroxide by means of potassic permanganate, by W. E. 
Adeney.—On the oxidation of sulphurous acid, by H. P. Dixon, 
The author finds that when sulphur dioxide, steam, and oxygen 
are exposed to a temperature of roo” C. no diminution of 
volume takes place, and therefore no sulphhuric acid is formed. 
If the temperature be allowed to fall so that water condenses, a 
slight contraction in volume is observed.—On the reduction of 
cinnamic alcohol, by F. Hatton and W. R. Hodgkinson, 
When this substance is heated to roo” C. for three or four days 


‘620 


NATURE 


[ April 28, 188 


with sodium amalgam (containing 15 per cent. sodium), and a 
small quantity of water cinnamene and methylic alcoho! are 
produced. 


Entomological Society, April 6.—W. L. Distant, vice- 
president, in the chair—One Ordinary and one Honorary 
Member were elected. —Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited an unde- 
termined MVoctwa, apparently allied to the genera Dicycla, or 
Gortyna, which was found in a nursery garden at Blackheath in 
August last.—Mr. R. McLachlan exhibited three rare species of 
the Neuropterous genus Di/ar, Ramb.—Rey. A. E. Eaton exhi- 
bited a specimen of Haplophthalmus elegans, Schobl., a wood- 
louse new to the British fauna.—Miss E. A. Ormerod exhibited 
two termites’ nests from British Guiana.—Mr. T. R. Billups 
exhibited specimens of two rare British insects—Jchreumon 
erythreus, Gr., and Lastcsomus enervis, Herr. Schaff_—The 
Secretary announced the death of Herr J. H. C. Kawall, a well- 
known entomologist of Courland, at the age of eighty-two.—Mr. 
R. McLachlan read a description of a new species of Cordulina 
(Gomphomacromia fallax) from Ecuador.—Mr, J. B. Bridgman 
communicated a paper entitled “Some Additions to Mr. Marshall’s 
Catalogue of British /¢hnewmonide.” Upwards of sixty species 
(most of which were exhibited to the meeting) were noticed as 
new to the British fauna, including thirteen new to science. 


Meteorological Society, April 20,—Mr. C. Greaves, 
F.G.S., vice-president, in the chair.—W. H. Goss, F.G.S., 
and Admiral. I, L. Massie were elected Fellows of this Society. 
—The fvllowing papers were read:—On the frequency and 
duration of rain, by Dr. Wladimir Koppen of Hamburg.—Re- 
sults of experiments made at the Kew Observatory with Bogen’s 
and George’s barometers, by G. M. Whipple, B.Se., F.R.A.S. 
—On a discussion of Mr. Eaton’s table of the barometric height 
at London with regard to periodicity, by G. M. Whipple, B.Sc., 
F.R.A.S. 


Anthropological Institute, April 12.—F. W. Rudler, 
F.G.S., vice-president, in the chair.—The election of Lieut.- 
Col. R. G. Woodthorpe,'R.E., and of Thomas Vincent Holmes, 
F.G.S., was announced.—Mr, Joseph Lucas read a paper on 
the ethnologi:al relations of the Gypsies. In tracing back the 
past history of the races described under the common name of 
Gypsies we pass through two periods—the first Azstorical, dating 
from A.D. 1414; the second partly historical, partly inferential. 
This older section formed the subject of Mr. Lucas’s paper. The 
author premised that linguistic evidence shows that the various 
tribe. of Gypsies now scattered.over Europe can be referred to 
several Eastern tribes from India to Persia. The investigation 
dates back to archzological times, especially in relation to the 
-working of metals and the presence of ia large number of pure 
Sanscrit words in the language of European Gypsies, many of 
which do not occur in Hindustani. The ‘‘ archeological” sec- 
tion embraces all that was not included under the several sections 
-—‘* The Gypsies in Egypt,” ‘‘ Gypsies among the Romans,” or 
“*The Dark Ages”; but a good deal of the evidence upon 
which the archzeological conclusions rest runs through those 
several sections, as well as through sections specially devoted to 
the names Zingdrvo and Rom. It will thus appear that the term 
“©Gypsy ”’ is used by the author in the widest sense as meaning 
‘an Asiatic tribe which has wandered-into Europe,” though 
strictly it should mean only those who came by way of Egypt. 


PARIS 


Academy of Sciences, April 18.—M. Wurtz in the chair.— 
The following papers were read :—Microscopic inscription of 
movements observed in physiology, by M. Marey. The accu- 
racy of the curves from M. Marey’s instruments has been 
doubted, on the ground that vibrations proper to the light lever 
may be added to the physiological movement. Henow removes 
this objection by greatly diminishing the range and velocity of 
the lever so as to give microscopic curves on smoked glass 
(which is also moved more slowly). The inertia of the lever 
becomes negligible. The curves, when examined in the micro- 
scope or by. projection, are found identical with the others. The 
method greatly extends the field of phenomena that may be 
registered, e,¢. the vibrations of blood in the vessels, which give 
a sound, produce a distinct microscopic trace. The portable 
character of the apparatus is an advantage.—On the Eulerian 
integral of the second species, by M. Gyldén.—On the surface 
of Kummer with sixteen singular points, by M. Brioschi.—On 
the action of heat on ammoniated bases, by M. Hofmann.— 
Report on a memoir of M. Perissé, entitled ‘* Causes which tend 


to warp the Girders of Iron Bridges, and Means of Calculating 
these Girders for Resistance of Warping Forces.”—On the 
secondary battery of M. Faure, by M. Reynier. This is an im- 
provement on M, Plante’s. M. Faure quickly gives his couples.a 
power of almost unlimited accumulation by covering the Jead elec- 
trodes with a layer ofspongy lead formed and retained thus: The. 
two sheets of lead are each covered with minium or other inscluble- 
oxide of lead, then with a felt envelope held by lead rivets, 
They are then placed near each other (in spiral, it may be) i 
acidulated water. The electric current changes the minium to 
peroxide on the positive electrode, and to reduced lead on the 
negative. On discharging, the reduced lead is oxidised and th 
peroxidised lead reduced. A quantity of energy capable o 
giving I-horse power for one hour may be had with a Faur 
battery of 75 kg. The battery, under certain conditions, return: 
80 per cent. of the work expended in charging it.—A letter fre 
Ampere to Lacroix wasread, It was written when he was Pro- 
fessor in the Lyceum of Lyons, and expresses his enthusiasm for 
mathematical studies.—On the earthquake of Chio, by M. de 
Pellissier, Consul-General at Smyma. The amplitude of the 
first oscillation, on the afternoon of April 3, was estimated to be 
between 0°15 m. and o*20m. From then till the 5th 250 shocks - 
were felt, thirty or forty of which were capable of throwing - 
down a solid wall. All the oscillations were in the direction | 
east to west. The Governor’s palace, of very light construction, — 
but chained throughout at the level of each storey, resisted all | 
the shocks, while the wall inclosing the grounds, 0°70 m, thick, 
was everywhere thrown down, Smyrna has become a refuge 
for the wounded.—On Fuchsian functions, by M. Poincaré. —On 
Abelian functions, by the same.—On a class of functions, the 
logarithms of which are sums of Abelian intervals of the 
first and third species, by M. Appell.—On the formule 
of representation of functions (continued), by M. Du Bois 
Reymond.—On stellar photography, by Prof. H. Draper. By 
exposing 140 minutes in the telescope, he has succeeded in 
photographing stars of magnitude 14°1, 14°2, and 14°7 (Poyson’ 
scale) in the nebula of Orion; the weakest is of the sixteent 
magnitude on Herschel’s scale. The minimum of visibility for 
the g-inch telescope used has been thus nearly reached, and Prof. 
Draper hopes soon to be able to go still further. The nebula 
extends over a surface about 15’ in diameter.—Action of electro 
lysis on toluene, by M. Renard.—Structure and comparative 
texture of the ink-bag in cephalopoda of the French coasts (con- 
tinued), by M. Girod. The species observed were Sepia officinalis, 
Loligo vulgaris, Sepiola Rondeleti, and Octopus vulgaris.—On the 
large dunes of sand of the Sahara, by M. Rolland. These dune 
move toward the south-east, and the sum of sand is increased by 
disaggregation of rocks; but the movement and increase are 
almost insensible in a generation. 


CONTENTS 


Screntiric Wortuies, XVII.—Rosert WILHELM Bunsen. By 
Prof. H. E. Roscoz, F.R.S. (With Steel Plate Engraving) . . 
19.) \ i ee eine oom aS 

Our Book SHELF :— 
Habich’s ‘‘Btudes géométriques et cinématiques” . . . + - 
Carr’s ‘Synopsis of Elementary Results: in Pure and Applied 
Mathematicsicais =) fey el ora é 
Keene’s ‘‘ Practical Fisherman” . . . + «+ + + © © 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR :— 
The Movements of Leaves.—CHartes Darwin, FRS.. . 
Spectrum of the Star Ll. 13412.—Prof. Epwarp C. PICKERING 
The Indian Winter Rains.—S. A. Hitt. « «+ » « « © = 
Paleolithic Man.—WorTHINGTON G. SMITH. « + « + « 
Sound of the Aurora.—Dr. JoHN Raz, F.RS. . «2 + 2 es - 
Tue Screntiric PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN Exrcrric LicHTING, II. 
By Prof. W. Grytis Apams, F.R.S. . . . + + + « axes 
Tuer FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT 
Axciers, Il. By G.F.RopWELL . - - -*s = f 
Tue Herrinc. By Prof. Huxtry,F.RS.. .. + += + 
WWOTESi.) ciusuee) =) ceo nope 6 Seite eo 
CHEMICALINOTES = 5) oe 1m) = ne.) fe) en one mole 
IPHYSICAL-NOTES|« © <6 (<j) ic) yeieiet =: ol ee) re 
Tue DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE « + + + + + + 
ApnorMAL BAROMETRIC GRADIENT BETWEEN LONDON AND Sr. 
PETERSBURG IN THE SUN-spotT CyctE. By E. Douctas ARCHIBALD 
CHL EREFD) a a) fo ee ee he eine te. Vette” Yet ro MOST 
ConGRESS OF THE FRENCH LEARNED SOCIETIES. . - + + + = 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTRLEIGENCR . + + + + + + 
SocretTres AND ACADEMIES . + + + 9+ )= . 


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